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