Dear Parents,
Happy Thursday!! A full week! I am not sure we know how to go to school for a full week! This is the 2nd full week of the year. We have gotten a lot done since we have started. The kids are getting used to a 4th grade routine. They really are doing a great job settling in and doing what they need to do. I was worried in the beginning but they just all of a sudden, "Got it". Things are going much smoother for us now. There are a few behaviors I am still struggling with, but we are trying to work on them. Some forget quicker than others that this is their job. They are here to learn like parents go to work.
I sure hope fall is here to stay! I love this cooler weather! My favorite is shutting the air off and opening the windows. My allergies may not like it all the time but fresh air is so nice. I will say I am not fond of the winter weather happening in the Northwest. Don't get me wrong, you will learn I am a "winter girl". I love winter, the cold and snow, but I am not ready for it yet. I can stay away until December. In December, January, and February bring it on. I saw a post of Facebook yesterday that Christmas was three months away! Have you done any shopping? I did order some things and they arrived on Monday. This might the earliest I have ever done that. Hard to believe it's that close.
Language Arts - This week we are reading a story called "My Librarian is a Camel". It is an interesting story about children who don't have access to books and how they get them. I tried to show how lucky they were to have books at their fingertips. I tried to show how others are very lucky to even see a book, let alone hold and read it. I feel like they didn't really believe me. (LOL) They read about books being delivered through the mail, by camel, by elephant, by wagon, by boat and a minibus. The story as a whole was interesting but then they added in more detailed information about the country which they did not like. I totally understand their feelings. I do not expect great scores on this week's end of the week test. The scores tend to drop on this story. Please know it has to do with their interest in the story. Also, their grammar will be low. We worked on Quotations this week. There is no fun way to teach this. They didn't do very well on Tuesday's worksheet. I talked a lot about it today and we covered the worksheet together to help them get a better of idea of using them. Our vocabulary strategy this week was on Context Clues. I tried to explain to them what I do when I don't know a word. I go back and reread the sentence before, the sentence containing the word, and the sentence behind to try and figure it out. If I am still unsure, I look it up on my phone. I think they were shocked I actually look it up, but I really do. I was looking up kinds of flowers the other night because they were in the book I am reading. I am glad I did because then I could see colors and shapes and get an idea of what the garden looked like. Which I felt was important to understanding my story. I try to share with them my reading experiences daily. Tomorrow is the spelling post test and end of the week test. Be sure they are looking at their spelling words and also the yellow vocabulary packet. That is a given 5 questions if they study those.
Math - We have done a review this week, and taken a basic fact test. You will find the math fact test in today's folder. It was over multiplication. I gave them 15 minutes to complete the test. I hope to help them get better at this throughout the year. We will begin one of the hardest lessons to teach today. It is on renaming numbers. If they understand our base ten blocks and how they work, they will do fine. I use the base ten blocks to teach this lesson. I tend to spend 2 full days on this lesson so they get it, but it still is difficult for them. Next week we will work through the rest of the chapter and will be looking at our first test in that following week. Only 4 lessons to go.
Social Studies - This week we talked about government. We discussed the three levels and three branches. We talked about what each branch's job is and who leads it. They created a chart in their notebooks that covered the three branches. We also are working on Time Zone Maps for our map skill. I gave them a time zone map and they colored in the zones. Then they are to work on a worksheet which gives them a time in one city and asks them what time it is in another. I showed them how the map works. When we move from east to west we subtract an hour per time zone and when we move west to east we add an hour per time zone. They have this for homework tonight. Some came to me and we went over the first one together so they understood. I am super happy with the kids who are finally coming out of their shell and willing to ask me for help. Everyday I push for them to ask me. I want to help them.
Friday, September 27th! This is a Spirit Day! The kids can pay $1.00 to sweats and a hat. The $1.00 gets you both. Please remember the dollar you donate is going towards our very own St. Malachy families. So even if they don't want to wear either maybe we could send a $1.00 anyways.
I wanted to let you know, if you have not seen anything, Sadie Morgan in 5th grade. lost her father on Monday to Cancer. Please keep her and her family in your prayers. Also, the celebration of life services are Saturday morning. They will greet friends from 9:00-10:00 then the memorial service will be at 10:00.
Last weekend was my class reunion. I was busy with old friends all weekend. I had a fabulous time. This weekend I hope to relax and get some things done around the house. I am reading a good book right now so maybe a little time to finish the book would be great too. I hope all of you enjoy doing what you love this weekend.
God Bless,
Mrs. Sickels
Thursday, September 26, 2019
Wednesday, September 18, 2019
Dear Parents,
Happy Thursday! What a short week we are having! I am looking forward to our McKinley Park day, but it makes for a short week when we have no school on Friday! In case you forgot we don't have school on Friday due to teacher in-service. I still have to go to school but the kids don't. We will be discussing our FAST testing scores with our coordinator that day and doing some Religious professional development. It is kinda like a book club. We are reading a book the diocese bought us this year. We had to read the first two chapters by Friday. We have had quite a long time to do it. I am finishing up tonight.
Language Arts - This week, since it was a short week, we have worked on their writing. We talked about topic sentences, and position words. The students were shown how to write a descriptive paragraph. I like the way it progressed showing them what is descriptive. We focused on using prepositional phrases but it called those words positional words showing where something is in relationship to something else. I modeled a paragraph for the students that they wrote on their paper. The first paragraph on Rocky Mountain National Park. Then they were to come up with their own using the same format. Today I went over each person's paragraph with them individually. We talked about sentences that did not make sense and how we could make them better. We also focused on sensory words, for example, what you see, hear, smell, taste or how something feels to the touch or makes us feel. The students were to type their paragraphs on their computers. Tomorrow when we return from the park they will have a small amount of time to finish that up. Showing them how to write in a paragraph is something they are learning also. I hope to do this kind of thing more often with them.
I also assigned their first book report book to them this week. They need to find a book that has at least 120 pages. I told them no graphic novels because I want them to get in the hang of reading chapter books. They have to check the book in with me before they use it. I then want them to begin reading a couple chapters to see if they are going to like the book. They will be creating a cereal box for their report. I have gone over all the directions with them. When they finish their book they need to come to me to get their supplies. I have all the paper items they need plus a rubric which shows them exactly how I will grade their project. They have every opportunity to get 100% if they follow the rubric. Neatness is huge on this project. It is usually the thing that gets them. Be sure to save a cereal box at home! This is not due until the end of the trimester, Friday, November 15th. They have plenty of time to read their book in entirety and do the project well.
Math- We just spent this week talking about rounding numbers. This can be difficult for some students because they have a very large number in the hundred thousands but they may only be rounding to the nearest ten. They have a worksheet that is due on Monday. Please be sure they are getting it completed. I suggested they go home and get it done tonight so they wouldn't forget it or worry about doing it over the weekend. Next week will begin the week with a Mid Chapter Checkpoint. We will spend a day completing that in their books but I will also be working with people who are still struggling with certain areas we have covered.
Social Studies - This week we started talking about our Government. We will talk about the three branches and also the 3 levels of Government. We will talk about the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. The kids will be doing a project on the Bill of Rights. Some of your students may have a worksheet that they need to correct. They are finding out, you can't just guess answers and put it down. You actually have to use your book and look up answers. If it is not done well, I return it and make them do it again. Sure seems easier to me to do it right the first time then have to do it twice. I am not sure I am getting through to some of them. They are allowed to bring their books home any day of the week. I keep telling them that. I have had them make flash cards for their vocabulary words. You can find those flash cards in their expanded file in the social studies pocket. They should be paper clipped together. You can have them study those any time to make sure they know them for the test. It is better if we don't wait til the night before to learn our words. Working with them a little every day can improve their scores a lot!
Mass- Our Mass is next week!! I am working on planning it. I will give the kids their part on Monday to practice for Wednesday. Father Adam is in Europe so the start time for Mass is 9:30. I will plan on breaking the kids into groups of 10. Ten will participate in this first mass and then the next ten will do the next one. We will practice their parts at school once and then another time just before mass with the microphone. Here are the first ten that will participate on Wednesday the 25th: Charlie, Halle, Shaylee, Mark, Whisper, Janessa, Claire, Will, Zoey, and Izzy. Again I will give them what part they are doing on Monday.
I hope all of you have a great weekend! It is Balloon Days Weekend. My class reunion is happening this weekend on Friday and Saturday. I plan on attending the Football game for a while then going to my reunion. Fat Moses is playing since one of the singers graduated with me. Saturday night we are having a dinner catered by Spencer's. We have 46 classmates coming. Might be the biggest one we have had in the last 20 years. I guess I will tell it is my 30th class reunion. Yep I am getting old. Hope to see everyone out and about.
God Bless,
Mrs. Sickels
Happy Thursday! What a short week we are having! I am looking forward to our McKinley Park day, but it makes for a short week when we have no school on Friday! In case you forgot we don't have school on Friday due to teacher in-service. I still have to go to school but the kids don't. We will be discussing our FAST testing scores with our coordinator that day and doing some Religious professional development. It is kinda like a book club. We are reading a book the diocese bought us this year. We had to read the first two chapters by Friday. We have had quite a long time to do it. I am finishing up tonight.
Language Arts - This week, since it was a short week, we have worked on their writing. We talked about topic sentences, and position words. The students were shown how to write a descriptive paragraph. I like the way it progressed showing them what is descriptive. We focused on using prepositional phrases but it called those words positional words showing where something is in relationship to something else. I modeled a paragraph for the students that they wrote on their paper. The first paragraph on Rocky Mountain National Park. Then they were to come up with their own using the same format. Today I went over each person's paragraph with them individually. We talked about sentences that did not make sense and how we could make them better. We also focused on sensory words, for example, what you see, hear, smell, taste or how something feels to the touch or makes us feel. The students were to type their paragraphs on their computers. Tomorrow when we return from the park they will have a small amount of time to finish that up. Showing them how to write in a paragraph is something they are learning also. I hope to do this kind of thing more often with them.
I also assigned their first book report book to them this week. They need to find a book that has at least 120 pages. I told them no graphic novels because I want them to get in the hang of reading chapter books. They have to check the book in with me before they use it. I then want them to begin reading a couple chapters to see if they are going to like the book. They will be creating a cereal box for their report. I have gone over all the directions with them. When they finish their book they need to come to me to get their supplies. I have all the paper items they need plus a rubric which shows them exactly how I will grade their project. They have every opportunity to get 100% if they follow the rubric. Neatness is huge on this project. It is usually the thing that gets them. Be sure to save a cereal box at home! This is not due until the end of the trimester, Friday, November 15th. They have plenty of time to read their book in entirety and do the project well.
Math- We just spent this week talking about rounding numbers. This can be difficult for some students because they have a very large number in the hundred thousands but they may only be rounding to the nearest ten. They have a worksheet that is due on Monday. Please be sure they are getting it completed. I suggested they go home and get it done tonight so they wouldn't forget it or worry about doing it over the weekend. Next week will begin the week with a Mid Chapter Checkpoint. We will spend a day completing that in their books but I will also be working with people who are still struggling with certain areas we have covered.
Social Studies - This week we started talking about our Government. We will talk about the three branches and also the 3 levels of Government. We will talk about the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. The kids will be doing a project on the Bill of Rights. Some of your students may have a worksheet that they need to correct. They are finding out, you can't just guess answers and put it down. You actually have to use your book and look up answers. If it is not done well, I return it and make them do it again. Sure seems easier to me to do it right the first time then have to do it twice. I am not sure I am getting through to some of them. They are allowed to bring their books home any day of the week. I keep telling them that. I have had them make flash cards for their vocabulary words. You can find those flash cards in their expanded file in the social studies pocket. They should be paper clipped together. You can have them study those any time to make sure they know them for the test. It is better if we don't wait til the night before to learn our words. Working with them a little every day can improve their scores a lot!
Mass- Our Mass is next week!! I am working on planning it. I will give the kids their part on Monday to practice for Wednesday. Father Adam is in Europe so the start time for Mass is 9:30. I will plan on breaking the kids into groups of 10. Ten will participate in this first mass and then the next ten will do the next one. We will practice their parts at school once and then another time just before mass with the microphone. Here are the first ten that will participate on Wednesday the 25th: Charlie, Halle, Shaylee, Mark, Whisper, Janessa, Claire, Will, Zoey, and Izzy. Again I will give them what part they are doing on Monday.
I hope all of you have a great weekend! It is Balloon Days Weekend. My class reunion is happening this weekend on Friday and Saturday. I plan on attending the Football game for a while then going to my reunion. Fat Moses is playing since one of the singers graduated with me. Saturday night we are having a dinner catered by Spencer's. We have 46 classmates coming. Might be the biggest one we have had in the last 20 years. I guess I will tell it is my 30th class reunion. Yep I am getting old. Hope to see everyone out and about.
God Bless,
Mrs. Sickels
Thursday, September 12, 2019
Dear Parents,
Happy Thursday! I feel like we have come a long ways in a week! I am super happy proud of the 4th graders today. They really have come a long ways in a week. They had all homework complete today and when given some time to work on homework they all went right to work. They didn't stop until I made them and a lot of students finished. I told them how proud I am. I knew they had it in them!! I am hoping the positive feedback I gave them will help them to keep going! I love giving praise! All of you should be excited for them. This is such a hard year to adjust to and some really struggle. They are doing great!
Language Arts - This week we are reading a story called "My Brother Martin". It is a story written by Martin Luther King,Jr.'s sister Christine. It tells about his life growing up and what events happened to him to make him grow up and fight for equal rights. It is a neat story the kids can understand. We have worked on the four kinds of sentences in the English language. Those sentences are declarative, interrogative, imperative, and exclamatory. Ask your student they should be able to tell you what they mean. We worked on more prefixes for the vocabulary strategy and Author's purpose was our main skill. Remember tomorrow is a Friday so it is end of the week testing. They will need to study their spelling words and vocabulary words tonight.
We have extra help this year in language arts. On Tuesday and Thursday I have Mrs. Sorden coming in to lend an extra hand to class. I split the kids up into 10 and 10. I am splitting them up randomly. She takes 10 and I keep 10. On Tuesday we are reading the story with our groups and focusing on the strategy. On Thursday we are reading the short story that goes along with the main story and focusing on how they are connected and the skill it provides. My main purpose in doing this is so the class is smaller and more students have the opportunity to share and participate in a smaller group. In the afternoon I have Mrs. Clayton. This is same thing. We are splitting them into smaller groups and focusing on a skill in language arts. I choose the students at random. I may pay attention to who works well together but otherwise it is just random. I am not sending your student cause they need extra help. The intent is the smaller groups will give all students what they need to help them grow within a smaller setting. So far the couple of days we have done it, I feel it has been quite successful.
Math - We just learned the 3 ways to write a number. These forms are standard, word, and expanded form. Standard is just the regular number like 258,492. The word form of that would be: two hundred fifty-eight thousand, four hundred ninety-two. The expanded form shows the value of every digit: 200,000 + 50,000 + 8,000 + 400 + 90 + 2. The students were asked to take a number and be able to do all three forms. Today we will start talking about comparing and ordering numbers. We use place value to do that. I will walk them through how that works. This is an easy lesson for the students. On Dreambox I learned how to assign certain lessons in our training last night. I assigned these types of lessons to hopefully reinforce what I am teaching. We are getting close to a mid chapter checkpoint where they will review what they have learned so far. I will pull students in groups to try and work with them on things they are struggling with on that day.
Social Studies - We are moving along nicely in this subject. Once we have a better handle on the idea of doing worksheet on our own, I plan to pick up the pace a little bit. The beginning of the year is such a learning process that it takes a while to truly get going at the pace I would like. They all seem to be trying hard to get there now. Today we learned what our Nation's motto is and what it means. E Pluribus, unum, Out of many, one. This means our of many states, one nation. Out of many backgrounds, one people. We spend some time talking about this. I am sure they will be looking at their quarters today to find the motto. I looked at all the coins but a nickel and found it on the quarter and penny. The dime might be too small for my eyes to read it but I didn't see anything close. So if they are staring at money at home you will know why.
Food Pantry - We walk to the Food Pantry and help them unload the truck of food on Fridays. We rotate days with the 3rd and 5th grade. Sometimes we go with the 3rd grade because they only have 6 kids. On the other days 5th grade will go with 3rd grade. You will find a permission form in the take home folder for these days. Our first day is tomorrow. We will walk down and help. Keep in mind this is weather permitting. If it is raining we don't go and if the temperature is below zero we don't go.
Week of Sept 16th! We have a lot going on this week. We technically only have 3 days of school. Well three days in the classroom. Monday - Wednesday we will be working hard in class. On Thursday we will celebrate that hard work with a day in McKinley Park. This is a whole day of being active, getting outside and building relationships. It is a day for us to just have fun and run and play. Your student needs to bring a sack lunch on this day. We will be eating lunch in the park. You will find a permission form to fill out in the take home folder. Please sign and return and there is a $2.00 fee. Please send that money with the permission form. We will be eating in the park. Please be sure they bring it with them in the morning. On Friday the 20th we have NO SCHOOL. It is a professional development day for the teachers. We get to go to school that day but not the students.
I hope all of you have a great weekend!
God Bless,
Mrs. Sickels
Happy Thursday! I feel like we have come a long ways in a week! I am super happy proud of the 4th graders today. They really have come a long ways in a week. They had all homework complete today and when given some time to work on homework they all went right to work. They didn't stop until I made them and a lot of students finished. I told them how proud I am. I knew they had it in them!! I am hoping the positive feedback I gave them will help them to keep going! I love giving praise! All of you should be excited for them. This is such a hard year to adjust to and some really struggle. They are doing great!
Language Arts - This week we are reading a story called "My Brother Martin". It is a story written by Martin Luther King,Jr.'s sister Christine. It tells about his life growing up and what events happened to him to make him grow up and fight for equal rights. It is a neat story the kids can understand. We have worked on the four kinds of sentences in the English language. Those sentences are declarative, interrogative, imperative, and exclamatory. Ask your student they should be able to tell you what they mean. We worked on more prefixes for the vocabulary strategy and Author's purpose was our main skill. Remember tomorrow is a Friday so it is end of the week testing. They will need to study their spelling words and vocabulary words tonight.
We have extra help this year in language arts. On Tuesday and Thursday I have Mrs. Sorden coming in to lend an extra hand to class. I split the kids up into 10 and 10. I am splitting them up randomly. She takes 10 and I keep 10. On Tuesday we are reading the story with our groups and focusing on the strategy. On Thursday we are reading the short story that goes along with the main story and focusing on how they are connected and the skill it provides. My main purpose in doing this is so the class is smaller and more students have the opportunity to share and participate in a smaller group. In the afternoon I have Mrs. Clayton. This is same thing. We are splitting them into smaller groups and focusing on a skill in language arts. I choose the students at random. I may pay attention to who works well together but otherwise it is just random. I am not sending your student cause they need extra help. The intent is the smaller groups will give all students what they need to help them grow within a smaller setting. So far the couple of days we have done it, I feel it has been quite successful.
Math - We just learned the 3 ways to write a number. These forms are standard, word, and expanded form. Standard is just the regular number like 258,492. The word form of that would be: two hundred fifty-eight thousand, four hundred ninety-two. The expanded form shows the value of every digit: 200,000 + 50,000 + 8,000 + 400 + 90 + 2. The students were asked to take a number and be able to do all three forms. Today we will start talking about comparing and ordering numbers. We use place value to do that. I will walk them through how that works. This is an easy lesson for the students. On Dreambox I learned how to assign certain lessons in our training last night. I assigned these types of lessons to hopefully reinforce what I am teaching. We are getting close to a mid chapter checkpoint where they will review what they have learned so far. I will pull students in groups to try and work with them on things they are struggling with on that day.
Social Studies - We are moving along nicely in this subject. Once we have a better handle on the idea of doing worksheet on our own, I plan to pick up the pace a little bit. The beginning of the year is such a learning process that it takes a while to truly get going at the pace I would like. They all seem to be trying hard to get there now. Today we learned what our Nation's motto is and what it means. E Pluribus, unum, Out of many, one. This means our of many states, one nation. Out of many backgrounds, one people. We spend some time talking about this. I am sure they will be looking at their quarters today to find the motto. I looked at all the coins but a nickel and found it on the quarter and penny. The dime might be too small for my eyes to read it but I didn't see anything close. So if they are staring at money at home you will know why.
Food Pantry - We walk to the Food Pantry and help them unload the truck of food on Fridays. We rotate days with the 3rd and 5th grade. Sometimes we go with the 3rd grade because they only have 6 kids. On the other days 5th grade will go with 3rd grade. You will find a permission form in the take home folder for these days. Our first day is tomorrow. We will walk down and help. Keep in mind this is weather permitting. If it is raining we don't go and if the temperature is below zero we don't go.
Week of Sept 16th! We have a lot going on this week. We technically only have 3 days of school. Well three days in the classroom. Monday - Wednesday we will be working hard in class. On Thursday we will celebrate that hard work with a day in McKinley Park. This is a whole day of being active, getting outside and building relationships. It is a day for us to just have fun and run and play. Your student needs to bring a sack lunch on this day. We will be eating lunch in the park. You will find a permission form to fill out in the take home folder. Please sign and return and there is a $2.00 fee. Please send that money with the permission form. We will be eating in the park. Please be sure they bring it with them in the morning. On Friday the 20th we have NO SCHOOL. It is a professional development day for the teachers. We get to go to school that day but not the students.
I hope all of you have a great weekend!
God Bless,
Mrs. Sickels
Thursday, September 5, 2019
Dear Parents,
Happy Thursday! This has been a short week! We are trying very hard to get used to the routines of 4th grade. Some are really struggling and some are all ready there. The beginning of the year tends to be difficult getting them back in the swing of things. They have begun getting homework this week. I know I will be giving out late slips. It will be fine. They will learn quickly once they see the late slips going out. Please be patient with your students. Sign the slips for them but know that we are working on getting organized. Please be sure everything stays in the expanded file. The only times things are thrown away from them is if we do it at school. IF you think it's too full, have them come to me and I will help them clean it out. Many important items get tossed when parents clean out the folders. I am looking forward to a great year! Thank you for sharing your children with me.
Language Arts - We are finishing up our first story. It is a fun story. I was hoping the movie was still on Netflix so I could show it but it is not. Let's talk about spelling. I do not send a list of spelling words home each week for the students. They have a spot on their assignment book where they can write them. It also appears on the worksheets that come home on Tuesday and Thursday for homework. You are welcome to copy that. Because students all learn at different levels and certain spelling rules are harder for some then others, I change up my spelling for those who struggle. All students will take the pretest of 20 words on Monday. If they miss more than 10 words they will get a shortened list. I will give them a printout of the words and highlight 10 words that they will practice for Friday. Your student may get a shortened list one week but not another. I need for these lists to stay in their expanded file because we will pull them out and use them on Wednesdays. If you have any questions about spelling and how it works let me know. I have them students take their language arts tests online. We will be doing that every Friday.
We worked on prefixes re-, un-, and dis- this week, a little bit with subjects and predicates, and focused on nouns.
Math - We have been working on base ten blocks, and place value charts this week. The students struggle putting a number onto a place value chart. This is the basis for all math so I am not comfortable moving on. I like to be sure students are fulling grasping the concept before we go on. This chapter is meant for review but I am finding I may need to find some time to really review it. That's okay. I want them to learn, understand and feel confident about what they are doing. This may be a slow moving subject for a while.
Social Studies - We are reviewing the 5 regions of the United States. We are only covering the first lesson in chapter 1 because that is the most important. We will then move into chapter 2 and cover the whole chapter and test over it. This is focusing on the Government and other important things about the USA. I try to get us quickly to the regions so we can make sure we are focusing on the regions of the United States and learning those. We learn a lot with each region.
We have practiced our tornado drill and fire drill twice all ready. I walked them to our spots one day and then we have done a school wide practice for each. Today we will be doing a practice of walking to our "safe" place if there was an emergency that would cause us to evacuate the building. You should have received a letter from Mrs. Simmons about this. It could be as small as a train derailment to as big as a school shooter. I hate even saying that but we have to. In the world we live in, we just have to prepared for anything. We found out this summer you as families need to be prepared or thinking just when in Wal-Mart.
God Bless,
Mrs. Sickels
Happy Thursday! This has been a short week! We are trying very hard to get used to the routines of 4th grade. Some are really struggling and some are all ready there. The beginning of the year tends to be difficult getting them back in the swing of things. They have begun getting homework this week. I know I will be giving out late slips. It will be fine. They will learn quickly once they see the late slips going out. Please be patient with your students. Sign the slips for them but know that we are working on getting organized. Please be sure everything stays in the expanded file. The only times things are thrown away from them is if we do it at school. IF you think it's too full, have them come to me and I will help them clean it out. Many important items get tossed when parents clean out the folders. I am looking forward to a great year! Thank you for sharing your children with me.
Language Arts - We are finishing up our first story. It is a fun story. I was hoping the movie was still on Netflix so I could show it but it is not. Let's talk about spelling. I do not send a list of spelling words home each week for the students. They have a spot on their assignment book where they can write them. It also appears on the worksheets that come home on Tuesday and Thursday for homework. You are welcome to copy that. Because students all learn at different levels and certain spelling rules are harder for some then others, I change up my spelling for those who struggle. All students will take the pretest of 20 words on Monday. If they miss more than 10 words they will get a shortened list. I will give them a printout of the words and highlight 10 words that they will practice for Friday. Your student may get a shortened list one week but not another. I need for these lists to stay in their expanded file because we will pull them out and use them on Wednesdays. If you have any questions about spelling and how it works let me know. I have them students take their language arts tests online. We will be doing that every Friday.
We worked on prefixes re-, un-, and dis- this week, a little bit with subjects and predicates, and focused on nouns.
Math - We have been working on base ten blocks, and place value charts this week. The students struggle putting a number onto a place value chart. This is the basis for all math so I am not comfortable moving on. I like to be sure students are fulling grasping the concept before we go on. This chapter is meant for review but I am finding I may need to find some time to really review it. That's okay. I want them to learn, understand and feel confident about what they are doing. This may be a slow moving subject for a while.
Social Studies - We are reviewing the 5 regions of the United States. We are only covering the first lesson in chapter 1 because that is the most important. We will then move into chapter 2 and cover the whole chapter and test over it. This is focusing on the Government and other important things about the USA. I try to get us quickly to the regions so we can make sure we are focusing on the regions of the United States and learning those. We learn a lot with each region.
We have practiced our tornado drill and fire drill twice all ready. I walked them to our spots one day and then we have done a school wide practice for each. Today we will be doing a practice of walking to our "safe" place if there was an emergency that would cause us to evacuate the building. You should have received a letter from Mrs. Simmons about this. It could be as small as a train derailment to as big as a school shooter. I hate even saying that but we have to. In the world we live in, we just have to prepared for anything. We found out this summer you as families need to be prepared or thinking just when in Wal-Mart.
I hope everyone has a great weekend!!
God Bless,
Mrs. Sickels
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