Dear Parents,
     Happy Friday!  I was out of the building yesterday, in Des Moines for work.  I didn't even think on Wednesday to do the blog early, so here it is a day late.  I apologize!  I did have a great day yesterday  catching up with other 4th grade teachers from the Diocese.  I had to end my day freezing at a track meet in Osceola though.  I am happy it is the weekend.  Though not happy about the snowflakes in the forecast!  Thank goodness it is not much!  

Language Arts-  This week we are reading one of my favorite stories of the year.  It is called The World According to Humphrey.  It is about a hamster that is a class pet and each kid get to take it home on a weekend to care for it and clean the cage.  He is in a particular house where everything centers around the TV and it is loud all the time.  Humphrey (the hamster) unplugs the TV and the family thinks something is wrong with it so they find other things to do like play games, cards and go outside.  It is a great story with a definite theme or lesson for the kids.   In grammar we are reviewing comparative and superlative adjectives, which they are good at they may just forget what they are called. Our vocabulary strategy this week was about using the context of a sentence to figure out the correct meaning of multiple meaning words.   Today will be a normal Friday with a spelling post test and end of the week assessment. I expect the scores for today to be pretty high because the students did enjoy the story.

Math- You should have found the results of your student's math test in their folders.  They all did quite well on this test.  We have begun in chapter 13 working on perimeter.  Today I plan to start Area.  We will have one more lesson in this chapter then we will take our post test, so we are looking at doing that at the end of the week next week or beginning of the following week.  I think they thought perimeter was easy but one asked why we have to use the formula and not just add the sides together.  My answer was because we are trying to teach you what a formula is and how to use them.  This will get them ready for the higher grades for sure. This is consider a little bit of algebra.  When I told them that they all sat up a little straighter in their chairs ready to learn.  They love knowing this is "big kid" stuff!!!

Social Studies -  We are to have a map test today, but since i wasn't here to remind them I may move it to Monday. If that is the case we will do a map skill today on Map Scale.  This will take a little teaching and then some partner work to help each other with the skill.  We will be finishing up this chapter the next week and begin working on studying for the test.  The next set of states we cover will be the Midwest.

Food Pantry -  I hope you have seen the flyer that showed the items that we collecting for the Food Pantry. It would have come home in a Thursday folder.  We are collecting, baby items ( diapers, wipes, bathwash), also, toothpaste, tooth brushes, shampoo, conditioner, deodorant, bathwash, and bars of soap.  As you can see it is mainly Health and beauty products.  They give these items out once a month.   Our table is pretty bare so please be thinking about donating an item.

The next couple weeks are busy weeks. Next Thursday we have reconciliation and on Friday we go to the Food Pantry.  April 8-12 is our Iowa Assessment Week.  We will be testing on Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday of that week.  We will still have some other lessons sprinkled in that week also.  I feel April is a month that is going to go by quickly because we have lots of things on the calendar.  Also don't forget, St. Malachy is closed April 22-24 as the teachers will be attending NCEA in Chicago.  

I hope all of you have a great weekend!

God Bless,
Mrs. Sickels

Dear Parents,
     Happy Thursday!!  The snow is falling AGAIN!!  Well we are here at school and going to work!  It was not a fun drive to get her for some.  We have to be happy it is not a snow day though.  Remember that conferences are next week!  Please be sure you have signed up for a time to meet with me. I have 3 of you that have not signed up for a time yet!!  Here is the link:

https://www.signupgenius.com/go/20f0544a5a72ca1fe3-4thgrade6

Language Arts - This week the students are reading a story about Sacagawea.  It is an interesting story because you actually learn about her travels with Lewis and Clark and what she did to help them.  She proved herself invaluable to the Corps of Discovery which was the name of the group.   We are working on Abbreviations in grammar which is great!  They need to learn how to correctly abbreviate words.  Plus, we will soon have a spelling list that is based solely on abbreviations.  So this lesson helps tremendously.  The vocab strategy this week was shades of meaning.  Again, this is showing words that are synonyms but still just paint a little different picture.  Example would be large and enormous.  They are words that have same meaning yet when you hear enormous you get a different picture than if you say large. Tomorrow will be our spelling post test and end of week test.  Make sure your child gets our their yellow packet of vocabulary words and study.

Math - We are finally back and working on multiplication.  We will cover the last lesson in this chapter today and tomorrow.  Looking ahead we will most likely review on Monday, check it on Tuesday and start our test on Wednesday.  After that we will learn about area and perimeter then dig into Division.  We have been working on becoming more fluent in our multiplication facts, which will help us in  division also.  I plan to continue to work on this for the rest of the year.  We are also going to step up our game on our online program, Dreambox.  

Social Studies -  We are working on lesson one in Chapter 7.  They are working on vocabulary words and reading the lesson.  I intend to finish the lesson tomorrow.  I told the kids we would be stepping up our game a little to get moving.  The snow days are killing our progress.  Because our class in first thing in the morning a late start makes us miss it.  We have also talked about them having too much free time in study hall, so them having a little more to do will not hurt them one bit.  They are excited to get moving into the Midwest.

Spirit Day -  Tomorrow is a Spirit Day!  Bring a dollar and wear sweatpants all day!   It all goes to a very good cause.  

Food Pantry -  We are gathering items for the Food Pantry this Lenten Season.  You will find a flyer in their folders on what they are to donate.  They are in need of all baby items (diapers, wipes, body wash) .  They can also use all sorts of health and beauty products, toothpaste, toothbrushes, soap, body wash, shampoo, conditioner, deodorant, ect.  Anything you would like to donate in these areas is very much appreciated.  We will collect the items until April 12th.

Biztown -  I want to thank all those who voluteered or donated money for our 4th and 5th graders to attend a day at Biztown.  It was a great day and everyone really had a lot of fun,  Volunteers can't say enough about the day and what a great learning experience it is for the students.  This is the first year I have been able to walk around and just enjoy the kids in every one of their jobs.  Some tried to take a shortened lunch period because they just wanted to work.  That was fun to see.  Some found their jobs a little overwhelming, which was a good thing.  They now know how hard their parents work every day.  Again thanks for any roles you played in getting us there.

I hope everyone enjoys their weekend.  I am at a Strategic Planning workshop for the Food Pantry all afternoon Saturday.  If it's going to rain I would rather be inside!  Spring Break is just around the corner, let's hope Mother Nature figures it out and gives us some weather that feels like spring.

God Bless,
Mrs. Sickels