Thursday, October 31, 2019

Dear Parents,
      Happy Thursday!! What crazy weather we are having.  This does not make for a fun Halloween and Trick or Treating.  I remember several Halloweens taking my own kids out and their costumes were covered by winter coats.   A lot of the time I would have chili at home in the crockpot waiting for us.  If the kids want to find me I will be at my mom's handing out candy.  My neighborhood is not popular at all.  My mom is in a very heavily trafficked area.  The address is 1111 Hillcrest Drive.  Once you have seen me you can go up and down the street and around the block and get lots of good candy.   I hope to get to see all of you.

Conferences!  Let's begin with the most important item at hand.  Here is the link to my conference schedule.  Please be sure you are signed up to meet with me.  I am very anxious to talk to you about your child. I was able to make my conference for my high school daughter on Wednesday night so it didn't take away from my schedule.  

https://www.signupgenius.com/go/20f0544a5a72ca1fe3-fall

Language Arts - This week we are reading a story called "Coming Distractions, Questioning Movies".  This taught us some of the tricks movies use to keep us entertained.  We learned a little about special effects and just some simple tricks to keep us watching.  This story is interesting to read and discuss the first time but I think they get bored with it the next couple of times they read it.  In grammar we are talking about verb tenses.  The three tenses are past, present and future tense.  We are also learning about past and present participle.  The vocabulary skill this week was on Greek and Latin word parts.  We looked at phon (sound), photo ( light), graph (write or recording), auto (self), and tele ( far or distant).   Each word is connected with the word in parenthesis.  I know this is an item that is tested in the next Unit test.  I told the students this as I was teaching it.  I think I pulled a lot of their attention with that statement. Remember to have your child study their spelling words and their vocab packet.

Math -  We are moving along in our chapter.  They have learned this week to estimate products.  I will say they did not do a very good job of following directions.  Several did not show all their work.  In math at our level and because we are just learning, they have to show their work on everything we do.  This shows me what they are thinking in their head.  I can't just guess that they are doing in correctly.  I also assume they may have used a calculator to do the work.  If they do work on a separate piece of paper, which is fine, they need to staple that paper onto the back of their worksheet.  Then I can look over their work and understand what they were thinking.  I stressed they have to show, I even make the work worth points, so if they don't show it they miss points.  I warn them about this all the time.   We re learning the distributive property now.  This is a strategy that you will go, "why are they learning it".  They will need to know this strategy for 5th grade and in high school when they hit algebra.  We get a jump on it in 4th grade.  I would have been a much better math student if I would have learned these things earlier.  If your child is having troubles at home please just bring them to school the next day by 7:45 and I can help them.  I have talked to the kids about this opportunity.  I have all ready had some take advantage of it.  

Social Studies-  We are working on putting some states into our interactive notebooks this week.  They have added Connecticut so far.  Today I will have them work on Massachusetts.  I am trying to stress to them about neatness. This is a lot of coloring and some just want to color very sloppily.  I also have tried to preach about capitalization.  It is very important they write things the correct way including capitalizing things that need it.  They have to find the 2 letter postal abbreviation and those are 2 capital letters.  Some didn't capitalize. I made the erase and redo. I know I have been saying it for week but the song is coming.  Believe me, once I introduce that song they will probably drive you crazy with it.  I apologize now. 

All Saints Day - Tomorrow is All Saints Day, we will be having Mass.  The students need to come dressed up for Mass. We did not have mass on Wednesday due to this.  All Saints is a day of Holy Obligation that is why we changed mass. That means all Catholics are to attend a service that day.  

Book It October Calendars- These calendars with their minutes is due on Monday, November 4th.  They must have a parent signature on the calendars also.  I will accept calendars after the 4th but they will not be awarded a prize. I would like all calendars handed whether they meant the goal or not.  I like to keep track of whatever minutes they read.

Reminder: November 7th is an early out due to Parent-Teacher Conferences.  Friday November 8th there will be No School!  Enjoy the long weekend.

I can't believe it is time for conferences all ready.  The rest of the year will fly by.  Conferences lead to Thanksgiving Break then a very short time until Christmas Break.  It will all go by very quickly.  It just seems crazy that we are almost halfway through the year all ready.  I am enjoying working with your children and learning a lot about each one of them.  Since I am meeting with you next week to discuss your child, I will not be creating a blog for next week.  I may send out some last minute reminders on ClassTag but there will be no blog next week.  


Happy Halloween!

Have a great weekend!

God Bless,
Mrs. Sickels

Thursday, October 24, 2019

Dear Parents,
     Happy Thursday!!  This week has been a very short week for me!  I was gone on Monday and Tuesday for a PLC Conference in Des Moines.  What a great conference.  It was very refreshing and inspiring.  I did a lot of thinking about students I have now, students I have had and what practices I used.  It also made me think about what could I do better and how do I make that happen.  There were 1,200 teachers and administrators there from all over the country. We meant a gal from California and a guy from Oregon. There was a group from Mississippi, New York and South Dakota.  I found that very interesting that it was not just for educators in Iowa but all over the country.  I hate being gone and it was great seeing your children's faces, but it was a very beneficial two days.  I am still playing catch-up from being gone. I spent most of Sunday here trying to prepare for 2 days of substitutes, bu I am still trying to catch up on that work I do during those days.  There may not be much in the folders today, sorry.  Next week's will have a ton!  

Language Arts - This week we are reading a story called "Invasion From Mars".  It is a story adapted from the book War of the Worlds. It is an interesting story. This piece was performed on the radio October 30, 1938, people who did not hear the introduction to this play and starting listening in the middle thought it was true.  There was evidently some chaos due to it.  I think I would have been scared too if I didn't know it was just a play for entertainment.  The students learned about verbs this week: action verbs, helping verbs, main verbs, and linking verbs.  This is a lot to learn in one week.  I plan on helping them with the grammar section during the test. Otherwise it is very difficult.  The vocabulary strategy this week was on suffixes, -y, and -ous.  They will have some  questions over these in the vocabulary section.  I think all the students enjoyed this story. I played the radio version for them and we talked about how it would have made them feel if they would have heard this on the radio not knowing it was a play.  It was a fun conversation.  You will find last weeks Unit test scores in the folders.  I am not surprised by the low scores but some scores  were lower than I thought they would be.  They will improve each unit from here. The first one is always low no matter what class.  It has to do with it being a benchmark test.  They always get better as the year goes on.

Math - We have dug into multiplication this week.  They have learned to multiply thousands, hundreds and tens this week.  We will begin work on some word problems today.  It actually goes along with the comparison problems we learned in lesson 1.  We will focus on this for a couple days.  This is the lesson that is taught at the beginning and then the students forget how to do it by the time the test rolls around. We have to review it big time before the test.  We will get into some great multiplication strategies soon.  They are not what we learned but they are great ones that help the students understand the content so much better.  I know you may not be able to help your child with homework which is fine.  If they don't get homework done they need to come in at 7:45 and I will help them. I also give time during class for them to ask for help or clarification.  

Social Studies - We are learning about some of the things the northeast has to offer.  They learned about the different mountain ranges in the northeast, they learned about Niagara Falls.  It talked about how it was formed and why it is important for hydroelectricity and beautiful.  We talked about the Appalachian Trail which is 2,160 miles long and runs through 14 states on the ridge of the Appalachian Mountains.  We also talked about the differences in coastline from Main to New Jersey.  Maine has very rocky coastlines and as you move south you get more into the beaches.  We have talked about people living in New York City having second homes on the Jersey shore, or Cape Cod or even in the Catskill Mountains.   We will work on a map skill today.  We will soon be doing our first state in the interactive notebook.  They are excited for this.  They loved putting the beginning pieces in about the United States.  We will also learn our states and capitals song soon.  We have lots to do!

NO SCHOOL - Reminder that there is no school tomorrow.  The teachers will be heading to Des Moines to listen to a speaker on PLC.  (yes I just did this for two day!)  We will also do some collaborating with our school when the session is over to talk about what we need to do and what Miss Surma and I learned at our conference.  

Conferences are just around the corner!  Here is the link to sign up.  I was able to get my conference at the high school on Wednesday night so it does not interfere with any of the conferences I will hold here.  I will be doing some early ones on Tuesday night if anyone is interested in coming after school that night.

https://www.signupgenius.com/go/20F0544A5A72CA1FE3-fall

Mass -  Next week Mass will NOT be held on Wednesday.  Friday is All Saints Day so the mass will take place on Friday instead at the same time. 

Halloween Activities - On Thursday afternoon your child will participate in Halloween Activities.  These are in the middle school and are put on by the Civics Club.  I usually have a small quick snack and drink before we head out for the activities.  At the end of the day we hold a parade in the gym. This parade is loved and happens every year. It will begin at 2:30.  Our parade is very well attended also.  Come early to get a seat!  After the parade you are allowed to take your child home with you. If they are going with a grandparent I will need permission from you. A note or email works.

I think I have covered most everything.  Remember to sign up for conferences! I look forward to visiting with you.

God Bless,

Mrs. Sickels

Thursday, October 17, 2019

Dear Parents,
     Happy Thursday! This means it is almost Friday! YAY!  I want to let you know that I have family back from Florida and Texas so I am planning on taking tomorrow afternoon off to try and get some extra time in.  It has been 2 years since I have seen them.  Also, on Monday and Tuesday next week Miss Surma and I are gone to a PLC conference in Des Moines.  PLC stands for Professional Learning Communities.  We have been learning about them for a year now but this conference is suppose to be one of the best.  It is actually Monday-Wednesday but 3-5 has Mass on Wednesday so we are only attending the first 2 days.  We are both looking forward to it.  I leave very detailed plans for the substitute so she will complete everything I would normally do with them.  Things shouldn't be too different except  a different body in the room.  Please remind your students about respecting the sub.  I will also talk to them.  Thank you

Language Arts-  This week we have been taking a Unit 1 Benchmark test.  This test is very hard.  Their scores are not going to be fabulous.  They never are for any class.  I break it up into 3 parts so they are not bombarded one whole day with 2 hours of testing. I hope that this makes a difference for them.  I required them to go back in the stories and look up their answers and highlight them.  This slowed them down a little bit.  The results for this test will come home next week after I have had the time to gather all the data and fill out the forms for them.  I do want you to know this test does not make me worry about your child academically, if they do not improve their scores on the next Unit test then I might begin to worry.  Most students do much better on the following unit tests.  So take this one with a grain of salt please.  Next week we will be back to a regular week with a spelling test.

Math -  We have begun chapter 2!!!  The first couple of lessons are a little difficult.  I told the students if they didn't pay attention they would be lost.  It was their job to focus and learn.  We are learning about multiplication problems being a comparison.  They learned to convert statements to problems and problems back to statements.  Now they are also learning how to draw a picture to go along with it.  It is important they learn this because lesson 2 is using this skill to work word problems.  I can always have the students understanding this skill and using it but then we have 12 more lessons to do and they forget how to do them when it is time to take the test.   This chapter is about 6 lessons longer than the last one. I spend a lot of time working on this chapter.  Multiplication is very important to learn.  This is the biggest thing I teach until Division in the Spring.  Please help your student by  maybe working on flashcard with them on the basic facts.  The quicker these facts are to them the easier learning the processes will be.

Social Studies -  We learned how to put things in our interactive notebook this week.  If they bring it home to show you they have put in information about the United States.  We will begin putting in actual states soon. They learned how to make a book and another foldable to put in it.  This is exciting.  We will also be learning our states and capitals song soon.  A former student just tagged me in a facebook post about who still sings the states and capitals song from 4th grade.  The number of people that answered was great!  So they will use it forever.  I apologize now because it will drive you crazy.  It can be downloaded and is on youtube.  The song is called "States and Capitals Song" by Macho Nacho.

Spirit Day! Tomorrow is a Spirit Day!  I am having trouble with students wearing sweats and not bringing money on Friday.  Please be sure if your child wears sweats they are bringing a $1.00 with them.  What a great day to wear them.  Tomorrow looks to be a high in the 60"s. Still a good day for sweats!

I hope all you of you have a great weekend.  We have planned a little trip to the Junk Zombie and spending time with family.

God Bless,
Mrs. Sickels

Thursday, October 10, 2019

Dear Parents,
     Happy Rainy Thursday!!! I guess we can't complain at least it is not the white stuff floating to the ground.  I love snow and am a winter person, but it is too early for that stuff. I hope it stays away until December at least.  This has been a crazy week.  I have not given as many late slips but I feel like we have been very busy. They have been extra talkative this week.  I blame Homecoming for that.  We are not really affected as much here, but they are all excited about Friday. I think with Panther Pancakes, a pep rally, and 3 hour early out is making them a little crazy.  I may go crazy.  I hope to see all of you at Panther Pancakes in the morning.  I will be arriving by 6:45 and my job is cooking the pancakes.  I may smell like a pancake the rest of the day! I think it will be a fun event for the whole family.

Language Arts -  This week we have ready the story Stormalong.  It is a tall tale similar to John Henry, Pecos Bill and Paul Bunyan.  It is the story about a sailor.  Tall tales are exaggerated stories that usually have someone that has some sort of super power or something awesome about them.  He is a giant.  He is much bigger and because of his size he feels he does not fit in anywhere. He has no place to call home.  He goes on a quest to find a home.  He thinks the sea is where he belongs.  Ask your student what Stormalong finally figures out.  We have been working on homophones in spelling, capitalization in grammar and reference materials for or vocabulary strategy.  I plan on getting in our normal Friday with post test and end of week test tomorrow.  We are going to have to work hard with many interruptions but I know we can do it.

Next week we will be taking the Unit 1 benchmark test.  It is very hard and the kids scores are not that great but it just shows we have room for improvement and  improve is what they normally do.  It is a long test and I spread it out over 3 days so that they are not sitting and taking a test for 2 hours.  They will have some DEAR time, we will begin working on Handwriting, and a writing activity.  It will still be a busy week, just no spelling words for a week.

Math - We finished up chapter 1 this week. They will be correcting their tests today and finishing up the pretest for chapter 2.  I plan to start chapter 2 on Monday.  It will be a kind of long and drawn out chapter.  There are about 14 lessons which is double what this one has.  We will be lucky if we can finish chapter 2 by Christmas.  It is a very important chapter. This chapter is on Multiplication.  We will learn a couple different strategies for them to use to multiply.  These are strategies that you were not introduced to.  These are great strategies!  I wish I would have learned these in school.  I think I would have been a better math student.  I know you might get frustrated with it, but it truly is good stuff and will make them a better algebra student in High School.  I have had a high school student observe who wished they would have learned these strategies and a grandpa sit through a math class and totally get what we were doing when he saw me teach it. He told me I taught an old dog a new trick.  He thought it made better sense then the standard algorithm we all learned.  So, it really is good stuff. Just be patient and maybe your child will need to come in early on a morning to get extra help.  That is not a big deal. I have done that in the past.

Social Studies - We have finished up chapter 2. We are moving on into chapter 4.  This chapter begins our exploration of the 5 regions of the United States.  I plan to introduce the region. I will introduce the interactive notebook which we will begin next week and talk about map work.  We begin our journey in the Northeast Region of the U.S.  We will spend 2 chapters talking about the Northeast, learning the states and their location on a map, plus their capitals.  It will be a lot of work.  Once we get going they will get the hang of it quickly and we can move smoothly through the process.  We will have map tests over the Northeast to help us get to know the region.  I will cover all of that next week!

Panther Pancakes- Tomorrow is our special family breakfast.  If you are able to have breakfast with your child we will serve pancakes from 7-8:30.  This event is replacing Donuts with Dad and Muffins with Mom.  We are trying something new this year, to get the whole family involved.  We will be serving in the gym and you and your family may eat there or in their classrooms.  We are going to clean desks today so they are ready for anyone who wants to use them.  Enjoy!!!

Homecoming!  The big day is tomorrow.  It begins with Panther Pancakes at 7:00. Then we will have our pep rally with the high school football players, cheerleaders and Peppers at 9:45.  We dismiss at 12:10. Remember we are not feeding lunch.  The parade will take place at 1:30!  The football game is at 7:00 at Panther Field.  Dress warm!! GO PANTHERS

Spirit Day - Tomorrow is is spirit day and will be cold enough students may want to pay$1.00 to wear sweats!  Don't forget your panther gear!

Creston Public School does not have school on Monday the 14th but St. Malachy school WILL BE IN SESSION!

I feel like I am forgetting to tell you something. If I have forgotten anything I will send it out via Class Tag.  I hope you all have a fun and safe Homecoming weekend!  I plan to attend the parade and the game.  

God Bless,
Mrs. Sickels

Thursday, October 3, 2019

Dear Parents,
     Happy Thursday!  What a rainy week!  YUCK! I am ready for it to stop raining for sure.  I had to shut the blinds at school so kids weren't trying to watch it rain, and share how hard it is raining.  Everything is very wet.  Recess outside will not be across the street for a while for sure. If they get to go out it will be on  courtyard only most likely.  I don't mind the Fall temps, just get rid of the damp.  The kids really struggled this week to pay attention and listen to directions. Their work is showing that.  Take a look in the take home folder for papers that will prove this.  

Language Arts -  First of all their test scores from last week will be coming home today,  Most scores were very poor.  The grammar on Quotations is very hard for 4th graders.  I think it is the way they are tested that  makes it hard.  Too much to look at in 4 sentences.  The first 10 questions were over a story that they had to read.  They had the story in a paper copy that they could look up the answers and they chose not to look them up.  They were just guessing.  Next time I will require them to highlight their answers on the story and turn it in when finished with the test.  That should help increase the scores.  The students want to answer quick and not take the time to look anything up.  I told them that was being a lazy student.  The next 10 (11-20) were on vocabulary words and vocabulary strategy.  I expect perfect scores here.  They can study the vocab.  The next 10 (21-30) was over their comprehension of the story they have read 3 different times that week.  The story was kind of dry so I get the low scores but still they could have done better.  The last 10 (31-40) was the grammar questions and it was hard.  I am not stressing about that.  They will understand better as they get older.

The story we read this week was called The Power of W.O.W.  It is a drama(play),  The story has characters and written like a play would be.  We worked with the story all week. We had to pay attention to the theme of the story.  The vocabulary strategy this week was prefixes: non- and mis-.  We went over what it means and how it changes the meaning of words.  The grammar this week is over run-on sentences.  We first worked on whether a group of words was a sentence or a fragment.  They did pretty well on this page.  Then we worked on whether a sentence was a run-on sentence or if it was okay.  This might be harder for them.  Tomorrow is our normal Friday with a spelling post test and end of week test.  Please be sure they are studying their vocab words!  They are in a yellow packet. 

Math -  We are finishing up the chapter this week.  I am teaching the last lesson to them today.  They will begin a review tomorrow, we will check it on Monday and take the Chapter 1 test Tuesday.  This lesson is on word problems.  They are learning a certain strategy to help them figure out the problem.  They are learning to show the work, draw a picture ( bar model this chapter) and write a complete sentence to state the answer.  This is also to help us with writing in math.  I took a class this summer that talked about writing being a part of every subject and how much students should be writing each day.  I needed to make sure I was doing a better job of incorporating it into math class.  We are looking forward to finishing this chapter and moving on to Chapter 2.  This one was a shorter chapter with 8 lessons.  The next one has like 14 lessons so it will take up longer to do.  It is also a little more difficult.  I try to move through it at a good pace, but I also want them to understand what they are learning.  I don't move on until I know they get it.

Social Studies - The students are working on a study guide right now.  They are struggling to understand that they need to actually look up the answers in the book.  They want to just make wild guesses and move on to get it done.  I talked with them yesterday about proving they are correct. I also tried to share about how to work effectively with a partner, and having trust in your partner.  Also, not to argue over an answer.  If they disagree they may each write their own answer down and then when we check it they will find out who was right or who was wrong.  We will check the study guide tomorrow and take a Chapter 2 test on Monday, so they have the weekend to study.  They have vocabulary flash cards we made for them to study their vocab. They will have the study guide to study for the rest.  They must write complete sentences on their essay questions.  If they have a one word answer the question will be marked wrong, even if that one word is correct.  I am stressing the need to put answers in complete sentences, just like in Math.  I have been talking about this with them and will continue to remind them, even the day they take the test, I will remind them!

Next week is Homecoming! We will be getting out 3 hours early on Friday, so 12:10 dismissal.  The parade was moved up to 1:30 due to an earlier start time for football game.

We are beginning to  forget things and lose things. I have been giving late slips out this week like crazy.  They are forgetting books at school and losing homework papers.  I remind them everyday what they will need in order to do the assignment.  Sometimes, I know, we just plain misplace things, but it seems like we are in a rut.  Also, following directions are an issue. I am giving more and more work back to correct due to not following directions.  Worksheets that have a score and then the word "Correct" written on them need corrected and returned the next day.  I will recheck and change the score for more credit.  I am not sure why we are struggling with these things but maybe we can blame the weather?? I don't know.  Hopefully next week is a better week for some.

Have a great weekend!

God Bless,
Mrs. Sickels