Dear Parents,
     Happy Thursday!  Well we have had a great week so far.  The weather is changing today and I have seen it in the kids also.  Tomorrow will be very different temps.  Please be sure they come prepared to be warm at recess.  Sounds like next week we may have a mixed bag of tricks. I am really not liking it!  We travel to Chicago every year for Thanksgiving.  I do most my Christmas shopping there also.  I am praying I can get there.  It can snow all it wants after I am there but I just want to get there.  If I can't I may be really stressed!  I want to wish anyone else who travels a safe trip!

Mass -  We have mass the Wednesday we return from Thanksgiving Break, December 4th. I have planned it and the kids know what they are doing.  If your child is a reader of any kind they have their parts in their take home folders.  Please be sure to practice these over break so we come back and have a great mass.  It is the first week of Advent so mass that day is kind of special.  We will sing Advent songs and bless the Advent Wreaths we have in our rooms. 

Language Arts -  This week we read a biography about Jose Limon.  He was the pioneer to modern dance.  I wanted to show them a clip of him dancing but have not been able to do it.  I keep previewing clips but feel like there is always something that might be deemed inappropriate in the dancing.  I am not going to share that.  If you want to share some with them feel free.  I am just not comfortable doing so in the classroom.  He had a rough life and he made his dance technique show  the trials and tribulations of life.  His dancing is very expressive.  It reminds me of Lyrical or contemporary dancing today, if you are familiar with these two styles of dance.   We have been learning about pronouns this week.  I talked about my experience learning these in 6th grade and used the same style as my teacher to teach it.  We talked about shades of meaning with words.  This is words that are synonyms but yet one has a little bit more meaning than another. Example would be all the synonyms for  big:  massive, enormous, huge, giant, and large.  Each makes you think a little bit differently.  Tomorrow will be a normal Friday.  We will be taking a spelling test and end of the week test.  Please be sure they are studying their vocabulary words in the yellow packets tonight.

Math -  We have learned about 3 strategies so far to help us multiply.  These strategies show us better, what we are doing when we multiply.  We will be learning the standard algorithm or the way you learned after Thanksgiving break.  If you compare what we have learned so far to that one.  The algorithm does not really show the kids what they are really doing when multiplying. It is just a short cut to multiplying words so we don't have to show very much work.  The other strategies require the kids to show every step of their thinking and that is what you have to do in the more advanced classes in high school.  You are made to show every bit of your work.  The kids, I know, are irritated that they have to show all their work but I keep telling them, they will thank me when they are in middle school and high school.

Social Studies -  We are beginning work on a study guide to day.  They will check it tomorrow and test on Monday.  Due to our crazy music and band schedule from now until the program, our classroom schedule will be a little off but we will get it done. I would like to be sure this test is done by Thanksgiving break so they do not have to worry about it.

Geography Bee- The 4th graders get to participate in the National Geography Bee, along with the 5th-8th graders in our building.  The students 4-8 will be split into 3 rooms.  Each room will have students from all these grades.  The students will be put through 7 rounds of geography related questions.  The 10 students who answered the most questions correctly, will move on to the final competition to be held in December.  There is usually a tie breaker round to determine our top 10.  I have had 4th graders make it to the final round in the past.  It is meant to be a fun activity.  Some find it stressful because they have to answer questions in front of the bigger kids.  Those bigger kids were once in 4th grade and know what it was like.  I will run the 4th grade through a "Mock GeoBee" on Monday during our Social Studies time.  The actual Preliminary Round will be held on Tuesday.  If you have an Echo Dot (Alexa) at home you can say "Alexa play goequiz" and you will answer 6 questions of the day that are the same kinds of questions that will appear in the GeoBee.  We have been doing this everyday in my room for about a week.  Good luck to all students!!

Spirit Day - Tomorrow is another Spirit Day.  You can pay $1.00 to wear sweats tomorrow.  It will be the perfect temperature to wear sweats!  I wish I could wear them. 

Mass Servers -  This is the year students are trained to be servers at Mass.  They are in need of servers.  They are wanting to know who is interested in doing it.  Any 4th grade student who is Catholic should be training to be a server.  It is one way that the students may serve God.  If there is any interest please email myself or Mrs. Simmons and let her know.  Students will be used at school mass and weekend masses also.  They will ask if you prefer Saturday nights or Sundays.  You end up doing it once every 6-8 weeks. I hope some of you will step up and help out.

Christmas Program- Please remember the program is on Wednesday, December 4th at the Creston High School.  

Thanksgiving Break -  This break begins Wednesday, November 27 through Sunday, December 1st. I will see the kids back in school Monday, December 2nd!

I hope all of you have an enjoyable weekend!  Next week is a very short week!  Only 2 days of school!  I will not have a blog next week.  Happy Thanksgiving and I hope all of you enjoy your family and friends of Turkey Day.

God Bless,
Mrs. Sickels