Dear Parents, 

     Happy Thursday!  We are winding down getting ready to celebrate Christmas.  The kids are a little crazy!  They are just very talkative and can't sit still as well.  We are counting down the days.  We have 4 school days left.  I like that it is 2 this week and then only 2 next week.  I hope all of you have everything done and ready to go.  I still have to wrap some presents.  I am going to Des Moines Friday night to shop for the first time.  I have been doing most everything online.  Now, I am worried some things won't get here.    Sunday I hope to do a little bit of baking.  I didn't even fully decorate this year.    I am ready to spend some time with my kids.  

Language Arts - This week we are reading a story called The Earth Dragon Awakes.  It is a historical fiction piece about the 1906 San Francisco earthquake.  This is a real event that took place.  A lot of the things in the story are factual but the characters and the specific event that happens to the characters is not.  We read about a father and son that are in their tenement getting ready for the day when it hits.  Their tenement collapses around them.  It is pretty detailed of what is happening.   They are buried under the rubble.  In the end they are rescued but it can be a scary story.  Not in a "horror" way but maybe in an "anxiety" way.  The two natural disasters we have read about so far, have made us all agree we like where we live. NO Hurricanes or earthquakes here.  In grammar we are talking about singular and plural possessive nouns.  Nouns that show ownership and we are learning how to know if singular or plural.  The vocabulary strategy was on synonyms which is a review for us because they work on this skill every week when they do their vocabulary words.  Tomorrow will be their post test and end of the week test.

Math -  In math this week we began chapter 3.  This is on double-digit multiplication.  We have already worked on multiplying by tens and the last couple of days we worked on estimation.  The kids don't know it but tomorrow we are going to do the Christmas Math.  We will do that Friday and Monday.  Tuesday is just meant to be a fun day.  When we get back we will be working more on strategies to help with double-digit multiplication.

Social Studies -  They made it through their first map test.  We will take another map test over the northeast before we move onto the southeast.  We are also trying to get our interactive notebook of the northeast states completed.  There is so much to do before starting the next region!  These kids like this subject and are working hard.  We will have a chapter test over this chapter when we return.  Today we are working on vertical timelines.  The kids will work on creating their own timelines.  They were to come with 10 events in their lives today.  I will work with them on how to create that timeline today.  I allow them today and tomorrow to work in class then they have to be done by Monday because they will present them to the class.  

Tuesday, December 22 -  This is our last day before break.  I am not 100% sure what the day is going to look like.  I will show a movie at some point.  They will have caroling with their Advent Angels.  Your child may bring a favorite game from home.  We spend some time playing games and just enjoying everyone's company.  I have snacks and a drink being provided by the homeroom mom. I will probably do they day as it comes.  It will all depend on the kids and their behavior.  Do I show the movie in the morning then play games in the afternoon?  or vice versa.  That will just depend. It is a fun day though.  Your student must bring a sack lunch that day with a drink.  That is really the only requirement.

Dress up days:    Thursday - Wear Red

                          Friday - Wear Green

                          Monday -  Grinch Day -  You can do anything!  I have a t-shirt I wear.  Kids can wear anything Grinch or just colors that deal with the Grinch!  Whatever you want to do. (Even if you have Grinch PJ's)

                           Tuesday -  Ugly Sweater Day!   I got a new one so I am excited.

Friday IS a spirit day!  Wear your sweats with your GREEN.  Pay the $1.00.  It always goes to a great cause.

I hope all of you have a great last weekend before Christmas preparing.  I will be shopping, wrapping and baking this weekend.  Lots of Christmas music will be played.  If I have forgotten anything please email or text me to ask!  I am very forgetful right now.

Merry Christmas!

God Bless,

Mrs. Sickels

Dear Parents,

     Happy Thursday!   I feel like this week has gone quickly!  I am not sure why but it has. Maybe it was the change in Mass days.  We are all back in the room together!  We are very thankful for this.  The kids have missed each other a lot.  Things can finally go back to normal for all of us.  Next week is our last full week before Christmas break.  Remember in November when I told you the rest of the year goes quickly?  Well, it is happening!  I can't believe only one more full week!  We will spend all those days working very hard.  We will still have all subjects with lessons.  The two days in last week (21st and 22nd) We will still have work but I will also sprinkle in some Christmas activities.  

Language Arts -   This unit is focusing on stories dealing with weather.  This week we are reading a story called Hurricanes: Earth's Mightiest Storms.  It is a little above their heads, I think.  It is a non fiction piece talking about how a hurricane forms and the measurement tools used to measure weather.  It is a story that is okay to hear once but 3 times in a week is too much.  I honestly am not looking for very good scores on the  end of the week test tomorrow. This week in grammar we have covered my favorite topic.  The correct way to use: to, too and two, their, there, and they're, and its and it's.  I see so many people use these words incorrectly on Facebook posts.  The vocabulary strategy this week was on suffixes -ful, -less, - ness, -ment.  Tomorrow is their spelling test and end of week test.  Next week we will cover story 2.  Then we will be done in the book until after Christmas Break.

Math -  We finished up Chapter 2 and took a test this week. You will find the results in your child's take home folder.  They began chapter 3 today.  I plan to work hard on Math all next week.  I hipe to get through the first 2-3 lessons.  Then I have a "Christmas Math" activity for them.  It deals with coordinate pairs and coloring pictures.  Seems weird it is math but that is what it is.  Kind of like Battleship.  That is working with coordinate pairs and is considered Math.

Social Studies -  This week I have introduced the Map test to the students.  This is where I give them a blank map of the Northeast Region and ask them to label all the states and capitals.  They have created an answer key and I have given them 4 practice pages.  That is one for every day.  They will take an official Map test on Monday of the Northeast region.  I do this by region because at the end of the year they will expected to label all 50 states and capitals.  It is easiest to  learn by region.  I am having them sing the States and Capitals song also.  I will have them sing the song before the test then I will have them work on it.  They have also begun to put the Mid-Atlantic states in their interactive notebooks this week.  We started with Delaware.  We are getting close to taking a test.  I plan to get that done before we go to break.  We will spend a lot of time working on finishing the Northeast in our interactive notebooks also.

Christmas Program Filming -   The plan is to film for the Christmas Program next Tuesday the 15th. Please be sure to send your student in their Christmas BEST that day.  Also, yes they still have to dress in Mass clothes on Wednesday the 16th.  We are exciting to be getting something out to you to show their work in Music and our Holiday Spirit!

December 22nd - This is our last day before break.  It is a full day. It will look a little different from what we normally do.  I will give you more details next week on what exactly the day will look like.  Yes, we have a Christmas Party it will involve treats but I am not sure what time of the day it will happen yet.  It is sack lunch day though.

Just in!  We are in a Winter Weather Advisory for Friday night at 6:00PM to Saturday night at 6:00PM.  I will take it!  I love it!   The only thing to make the season better is SNOW!  I love snow.  Reminder that tomorrow is NOT a spirit day.  I repeat NOT a spirit day.  Though I wish it was!

Well, I hope everyone has a great weekend!  I hope you are all getting ready for Christmas.  I even wrapped some packages last night!  I hope to get home in time tonight to put my lights on my porch.  Tis' the season.  

God Bless,

Mrs. Sickels 

 Dear Parents,

      Happy Thursday!  What a whirlwind of a few weeks.  I was gone with COVID and teaching from home and students were here and there.  Whew!  It's just Crazy!  Add Christmas in there and WOW!  We will get through all this together.  I am very grateful for excitement of Christmas to take away from the disappointment from everything else. Thanksgiving was a bummer but we made the best of it.  The students have been great through this whole thing and I so much appreciate it!

Language Arts -  We have been working on the Unit 2 test this week.  I am so thankful that this test is online so I can see the online kids results immediately.  We will be finishing that test today.  We have started the upper case letters in handwriting.  We have worked on handwriting every day.  Tomorrow I will have the 3 kids who are here share their  book reports.  The ones online will share when they return.  Thanks to COVID this has been way to long!  I also plan to assign them their next book report.  A few have been asking and we have been trying to find books for them all ready.  Next week we will start Unit 3 and get back to spelling tests and worksheets.

Math - We are working on a Dress Rehearsal for chapter 2.  The students finished those up today.  Tomorrow I plan on going over every problem on the test to help them understand what they are to do and maybe what they did wrong.  On Monday I plan to give them the actual test.  Then we will begin Chapter 3.  This is a shorter chapter and will not take us to awful long to get through it.  There might be a place where I need to slow down to make sure they are all understanding.  This chapter will focus on Double-digit multiplication.  Yes it is harder but because they are very good at single-digit this should be a smooth transition.  I am looking forward to doing some Christmas math things closer to Christmas!

Social Studies - We are working through our chapter.  We have been learning about the Narragansett Native Americans this week.  We also worked on some map skills.  They were looking at Map Keys and deciding if they used symbols or pictures in them.  We worked on vocabulary words today.  

Spirit Day - Tomorrow is a Spirit Day!  It is the perfect day to wear sweats and pay that $1.00.  Any money tomorrow will also go towards our adopt-a-family.

Book It - Remember to have your students turn in their book it calendars.  I need a parent signature.  I will give out the awards tomorrow.  

This week has kind of been exhausting for me!  Coming back after being sick is a lot.  But the only way to do it is to dive right in.  My evenings are spent doing nothing!  I hope to have more energy next week!  The students are really hanging in there and doing such a great job maneuvering around all this COVID business.  I am super proud of them!

God Bless,

Mrs. Sickels

 Dear Parents,

     Happy Thursday!  This will be a short blog this week.  I have been at home all week.  I was just being precautionary with cold symptoms.  Come to find out I am positive for COVID.  I don't have many symptoms but losing taste and smell are the big ones and I have lost those.  My return date would be November 25th. So I will back in the classroom after Thanksgiving.  I have been teaching some classes from home which has been fun.  I feel like I am still there and a part of class if I can do that.  Today I bowed out of Language arts due to getting my test results and having to talk to public health.  This is all so very crazy!!

Language Arts - This week is the last story in Unit 2.  It is called Jose! Born to Dance.  This was a story that we enjoyed the first time but not really anytime after that.  It is about a famous dancer Jose Limon.  He is a real person and it tells his life story about what he went through to finally decide to become a dancer.  In grammar this week we are learning about pronouns.  We learned the subject and object pronouns, and also reflexive and demonstrative pronouns.  The vocabulary strategy this week was shades of meaning.  It is talking about synonyms having different shades of meaning.  If you think of the word big, you have lots of synonyms: huge, large, enormous, gigantic.  They are synonyms but we have a different picture of how big something is based on the word we use.  Students will need to be sure to practice their spelling words and vocabulary words tonight.  The end of the week test will be tomorrow.

Math -  This week they learned the regrouping strategy for multiplication which is the strategy you were all taught growing up.  Yesterday we focused on double-digit numbers times a single digit.  Today we moved up to digits in the hundreds and thousands.  We are almost finished with this chapter which is great!  The next chapter moves into double digits so we get even harder.  They are all doing very well.

Social Studies -  They have completed a test this week.  It has been  a crazy week to test and we went about it very differently but we made it through.  We will be beginning the next chapter today.  They will be putting another state into their interactive notebooks also.  Next week we are doing a Geography Bee.  We usually do this every year.  It is a national event.  The national event was cancelled due to COVID so we are holding our own at St. Malachy.  I will hold a mock geobee on Monday with them that I will be online conducting.  Then on Tuesday we will do the real thing.  It will take place in the morning.  I will run them through 7 rounds of questions.  I will get together with the other teachers 5-8 and we will compare our results and come up with a top ten.  Those top ten students will compete in the Championship round that we usually hold in December.  It is normally done differently but we are adjusting this year to follow our COVID rules. It will be fun!

This had totally been a crazy week for all of us!  I would like to hope this could all come to an end soon.  Pray for a vaccine and pray for those people who are not doing the right thing.  We have to stop the spread and we will only do it if we all just do what is right and asked of us.  Stay safe and everyone feel better!!

God Bless,

Mrs. Sickels 

Dear Parents,

     Happy Thursday!  I hope everyone is having a great week!   Boy the numbers for COVID are sure on the rise. I hope all of you are doing your part in keeping everyone safe.  I am very thankful we are still in school face-to-face.  If for any reason that changes we have made a plan.  We will shorten the hours of the school day.  The students will get the same amount of lessons and instruction but we will just be online a limited amount of time.  We are prepared if the need arises to go online.  It is getting tiring not going places and seeing people.  One of the twins has had it.  She was pretty sick actually for being young.  Definitely not asymptomatic.  The other twin was exposed, has had to quarantine, no symptoms and tested negative but still could not go back to student teaching.  I am wearing a mask in the room all the time. I take small breaks at my desk or remove it if the kids can't understand what I am trying to get across, which depends on what mask I am wearing that day.  Sometimes I even forget to take it off for a break when the kids are not in the room.  Crazy the things we just adjust to.

Language Arts -  This week we are reading a very funny story called Dear Mr. Winston.  It is about a girl who takes a snake into a library cause she wants to know what kind of a snake it is.  The book she needs is a reference book and can not be taken out of the library.  She sneaks the snake in.  The librarian is petrified of snakes. He catches her with the snake and faints and breaks out in a rash.  He taken by ambulance to hospital.  The girls is writing an apology but is sure to point out her parents are making her and she always makes it out to be the librarian's own fault.  It is fun to read.  We are working on compound and complex sentences this week in grammar.  It is kind of hard stuff. I had to teach what a dependent clause is.  The vocabulary strategy is over antonyms which they are pretty good at since we do them weekly with the vocabulary words.  Please be sure they study for their spelling post test and vocabulary packet.

Math -  We have completed half the chapter!  The kids worked on a Mid-Chapter Checkpoint.  This is a long chapter!  We are actually about 10 days ahead of where I normally am, so that is good. The kids do a very good job of listening and really trying to understand the concept.  I try to really pump them up before the lesson starts so I have their attention. I think they think that is fun.  Then we go to work.  The second half of the chapter does not seem so bad but I will teach them the standard algorithm of multiplication. Yes that is what you learned but they will not find it as easy as the strategies we are using now.  I may have to take 3 days to teach this concept, which is normal and just fine.  I hope to be testing over chapter 2 either right before Thanksgiving or right after.

Social Studies - They began learning their States and Capitals song today. I apologize now, they will drive you crazy singing it.  Especially this class because they sing all the time!!  They have a copy of the words so they can practice at home.  Again I am sorry.  You can find the song on Youtube.  It is called the States and Capital song by Macho Nacho.   We will practice it everyday now.  They will also be starting a study guide on Thursday.  I plan to check it on Friday and then the test will be Monday.  They can start practicing their vocabulary words now.  They have notecards in their expanded file they can use to study.  We will soon begin to work on Map tests.  This is where they have to take a test over the Northeast Region.  I will give them a blank map of the region and they have to label it with the states and capitals.  We will learn the geography of the U.S. a region at a time and then at the end of the year they take an end of the year test over all 50 states and capitals.

Christmas Program -  The filming for the Christmas program will be held on Monday, November 23rd.  We would like your child to come dressed in their Christmas best!  Whatever they would have worn to a normal Christmas program. Thanks!  I will remind you next week also!  Just wanted you to have time to find those Christmas dresses!

Spirit Day!-  Tomorrow the 13th is a spirit day.  The weather is just right for wearing sweatpants!  Get out those dollars and participate.

Absent - I will be absent Thursday afternoon.  I am attending a college visit with Molly.  We are visiting Iowa State!  We have had it planned then cancelled and almost cancelled this one.  We are going to get it done and over with.  It is just a half day thing.  There is not much contact and masks are required.  The main thing is the tour of campus.  Let's see I attended there, plus I toured with both the other girls separately and now I am doing it again.  Sometimes I think I could give a better tour!   I will also be absent next Wednesday all day due to Molly competing at State Dance with the Peppers.  I don't like to be gone at all but I also can't miss my lasts with my youngest!  Believe it when people say "Time Flies"!

I hope everyone stays safe and healthy!

God Bless,

Mrs. Sickels

Dear Parents,

     Happy Thursday!  I hope everyone is enjoying the weather this week. Sounds like next week will be chilly again.  We have been lucky to have what we have.  It is hard to believe we are in November all ready.  For me, this year is close to the end.  It is always that way after conferences.  Once conferences are over then it is like 3 weeks before Thanksgiving week.  After that it is only 3-4 full weeks before Christmas week hits.  It all seems to go very fast, especially when we are working so hard.  I plan to get a lot of things accomplished in these weeks.

COVID-19 Rules - FERPA stands for Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act. This is very similar to the hospital's HIPAA laws.  I wanted to make sure you knew that I shared with your students that I am not able to share with them if a student in the room or school test positive for COVID.   It is the job of Public Health to contact trace and make notifications to families who are possibly exposed.  The numbers in Union County are on the rise, there is no doubt about that.  Families in our community are being affected.  We are continuing our mitigation procedures at school. Just know we as teachers can not give out any information.  

Language Arts - This week we are reading a realistic fiction story called Me and Uncle Romie.  It is very good. I really enjoy this story. The story is based on a real character Romare Bearden who was a collage artist.  I am talking about what a collage artist is and what their art looks like.  I hope to have the students do their own collage art at school.  If they are asking for items to bring to school for it, just know it will be glued onto artwork and you won't get it back.  The kids tend to like this story too because it is a "feel good" story. In grammar we have been working on Past, Present, and future Progressive Tenses.  This deals with verbs ending  with -ing and the tense of the verb is based on the helping that is in front of it.  It has been easy stuff for the kids this week.  Our vocabulary strategy was on Idioms.  This is figurative language.  We talked about sayings like "break a leg", "feast or famine", "heart of gold", "good as gold", "head over heals", and "safe and sound".  If we took their literal meanings they would not make sense.  The kids has to rewrite sentences replacing words with these sayings.  Tomorrow is a test day.  Please remind them to study their vocabulary packet (gold) and spelling words.

Math -  We have had some great math lessons this week.  The kids have learned what the Distributive Property is and they have used it to solve problems.  We also finished the week using that same property and expanded form to solve multiplication problems.  They are working problems into the thousands using this strategy.  It is super easy when you are shown what you are doing.  I told the kids their parents would think what they were doing was hard, too long, and makes no sense, but it makes perfect sense them.  This strategy teaches them exactly what multiplication is and what you are doing to find your answer.   Using the standard algorithm is hard for some to learn because they don't understand what exactly they are doing.  They get the process and what to write but they don't know the "why" .  What we are doing now helps them understand the "why" and make them better at math.  They were excited because they all thought it was easy and made sense.  Some people use this strategy as mental math and don't even realize that is what they are doing.  Your kids are dabbling in some Algebra.  They are doing an excellent job too.

Social Studies -  We have been learning this week about Chesapeake Bay in Maryland.  They have learned what the Bay has to offer.  We have talked about Seafood restaurants in Des Moines that may have seafood from this area.  We also talked about fishing being a hobby around here but for the "watermen" in the Chesapeake Bay area it is their job.  If they don't catch anything they don't get paid.  They were amazed by this.  We also talked about how pollution plays a roll in ruining the habitat.  They had great conversations.  We will be gearing up for a test next week.  They will work on a study guide before testing.

Tomorrow is NOT a spirit day!!  

I hope everyone has a great weekend.  I will be cutting back my rose bushes and getting them ready for winter this weekend.  It is not a fun job at all.  I always get compliments on my roses in the summer though.  They are pretty low maintenance.  I water every night and keep the dead buds cut off.  I learned from a neighbor on Montgomery street who always had beautiful roses. He taught me the tricks of the trade.  

God Bless,

Mrs. Sickels

Dear Parents,

     Happy Thursday!!  Well, this is a short week for us.  There will be a few changes in our schedules.  I plan to cover those below.  I am looking forward to conferences next week.  Everyone has signed up for a time. I always like to  visit with parents about their students.  I like to share what I am seeing and hear from you on what you are seeing. I hope the kids enjoy their extra day off.  I sure wish I was getting that extra day off.  Next week will be a crazy week for sure.  Halloween and Conferences in the same week is insane.  I hope to have a fun and successful week.

Halloween- We will be celebrating Halloween on Wednesday, October 28th.  I plan to have a normal morning then spend the afternoon enjoying ourselves.  Our Homeroom Mom, Sam Baird, will be supplying snacks and drinks for the afternoon.  I plan on playing a geography game and then doing some Halloween Art.  There will be a Halloween parade so be sure to send your child's costume to school.  The parade this year will be done virtually. I am not sure on specifics but each class will go to the gym and be filmed parading around the gym in costume and they may even be interviewed about their costume choice. I will get you information about the virtual link next week.

Language Arts - This week we are reading an informational story called Coming Distractions Questioning Movies.  It is interesting the first time you read it, but not the 2nd and 3rd time you read it.  The vocabulary strategy we discussed had to do with Greek and Latin word parts.  Phon, photo, tele, graph, phono are the word parts.  I showed the kids what they mean and how it works in certain words.  I grammar we talked about the 3 verb tenses: past, present, and future, and we learned about helping verbs and past participles.  Fancy words for a helping verb and a past tense main/action verb.  This wee is a short week but I am going to use next Monday as our "Friday".  Since next week is an even shorter week I am extending this week into next.  The spelling Posttest and end of week test will happen on Monday.  Then Tuesday and Wednesday we are going to work on writing Personal Narratives.  This is just a short story or essay about themselves.  I have video clips to watch to help the kids.  A personal Narrative is a Standard that the students must work on in 4th grade.  We will follow the steps on brainstorming, prewriting, editing, revising and publishing to complete the paper.

Math -  This week in math we have focused on multiplication comparisons.  They have done a great job understanding how to write a comparison statement from a multiplication problem.  We then moved onto learning how to use those comparisons to write a word problem with pictures to help us solve.  We finished that lesson today.  If you looked at it you would go, "huh!"  It is not easy stuff.  I am super proud of them for learning it and learning it quickly.  Next week we will begin to move on in the chapter.  Lesson 3 is super easy, I will teach them 2 strategies in one day.  It is multiplying tens and hundreds.  So problems like 100 X 3  or 1,000 X 6.  Then we will learn to estimate products.

Social Studies -  The students have enjoyed putting their first 2 states into their notebooks this last week.  They love to color, cut and paste.  Plus they are learning facts about the state.  We will soon begin learning our States and Capitals song.  I will give them a sheet with the lyrics on it and we will sing along with the song.  It is a great way to memorize all the states and capitals.  The song is found on youtube, it is called States and Capitals Song by Macho Nacho.  You can practice it at home too.  I apologize now because once they learn it, they will sing it all the time.  This class is constantly singing.   The next lesson are over resources in the northeast and harvesting Chesapeake Bay.  

Conferences - Conferences are next week on Thursday.  Everyone has signed up for a time.  Please be sure to read through the rules again.  I will be cleaning thoroughly in between each conference. If you requested a virtual meeting I will just meet you on the classroom link.  It's the same thing your child goes to when getting online for school.

● Conferences will last 12 minutes - this allows for time to clean between each visit. ● 1 Parent/guardian may attend (we recommend the other parents/guardians attend via facetime or speaker phone call) 

● Teachers will take the temperature of the parent/guardian in attendance 

● Masks are required 

● To reduce exposure we ask that parents/guardians use the door nearest your child’s classroom door ● We ask that children to not attend 

● We will have the Book Fair in the gym on Thursday from 1-9:30. We ask parents to social distance and sanitize their hands before shopping.

 I hope everyone has a great weekend.  The student should enjoy their long weekend.  I am preparing for a crazy week next week.  We will survive!  I hope you do as well.  See you next week!

God Bless,

Mrs. Sickels

Dear Parents,

      Happy Thursday!!  I hope everyone is having a great week!  This seems like it has been a crazy week! I have had 2 students online due to not feeling well and one that was gone the end of the week.  Wednesday I only had 2 students in class with me.  That was a weird day.  I hope that next week I have all 5 back with us.  I do understand if your child is really stuffed up and sneezing or blowing their nose a ton and you choose to keep them home.  I am fine with it.  Being online works well! I will have information on Halloween and what we are going to do for it next week in my blog!

Language Arts -This week we are back to reading a story in our textbook and completing spelling.  The story we are reading this week is called Invasion From Mars.  It is a fun "true" story of an event that happened.  On October 30, 1938,  a radio was broadcasting a reading of "The War of the Worlds".  A book written by H.G. Wells.  The section they were reading that day was on an extraterrestrial object landing on earth.  People who did not hear the introduction and turned on the radio in the middle of the broadcast became frantic.  They were thinking the broadcast was really happening.  It caused quite a panic for some.  We have read the story.  Today I plan to have them listen to the live broadcast of this.  They will then see why some Americans thought it was truly happening.  You can search it on Youtube and find it.  My classes really love this story because there is a good story behind it.  In grammar we have started working on verbs.  We talked about action verbs, helping verbs and main verbs, then linking verbs.  The vocabulary strategy was on the suffixes -y, and -ous.  Tomorrow is a normal Friday.  We have a spelling post test and end of the week test.  Be sure they are studying their yellow packets tonight!

Math -  We are beginning our chapter on Multiplication!  This will be a very long chapter.  I will teach the students several different strategies to work multiplication problems.  The exciting part of this is, we know when we grew up we only learned one way to multiply.  Not everyone understood how to do this way.  Kids struggled to learn and be very good at multiplication because they didn't understand.  I understand what I needed to do to manipulate the numbers and get my answers but I never understood exactly how it worked.  I will be teaching your students several strategies to help them understand what they are doing.  I know they are strategies you struggle with and I don't want you to stress over helping them.  I am here before school everyday and usually here after school until at least 4:30 unless Molly has an event.  I will be glad to be the one that helps your student.  I personally like the strategy of "Partial Product" much better than the standard algorithm.  It is so much easier to understand and find mistakes.  This is my favorite chapter to teach in the year.  I will make your children masters of multiplication when we are done.  WOOHOO! 

Social Studies - We are learning about the Northeast this week.  We have learned the location of Niagara Falls.  We talked about it's beauty and its power resource.  They learned that something beautiful can be of great use.  Hydropower plants are generating hydroelectricity to help give energy to the state of New York. We also talked about how glaciers played a huge role in the formation of Niagara Falls.  We also have looked at the different mountain ranges found in the Northeast and how they are important to the skiing industry.  I plan to compare the difference between the Main coastline and the New Jersey coastline.  We will finish up this lesson and then we will put our first state into our interactive notebooks.  They are excited about this!  They think getting to color, cut and paste in Social Studies is super fun!

HELP!!  HELP!!  HELP!!   We are going to run out of wipes next week.  So if anyone could purchase some wipes to send in that would be great.  The students each use 2 wipes a day.  They wipe down at lunch and then at the end of the day.  With only 5 kids 5 bottles didn't go very far.   Thanks for all and any help!

Spirit Day!   Tomorrow is a Spirit Day!   You can wear sweats or a hat for a $1.00.  Perfect day for it   Bring those dollars and be comfy! 

I am headed to Denison today for a Cross Country meet.  It is a long drive to watch someone run 20 minutes.  This could be her last time running though.  She has to run well to get to run in the State Qualifying Meet next Thursday.  If she does not run well, she will be done. Since she is a senior I just can't miss it.  I am listening to a book as I drive.  I am excited because I have not listened since last Thursday.  It is read by a person with a British accent so I am struggling to pick up on everything.  Wish us luck!  Have a great weekend!

God Bless,

Mrs. Sickels

Dear Parents,

    Happy Thursday!  I feel like this week has gone pretty quickly.  The kids think so also.  I am not sure why but it feels like it.  I think the students have finally adjusted to 4th grade.  They understand how important it is to use any time I give them to work on their homework.  I give them things to do every day BUT if they use their time wisely they can get most of it done at school.  There are some days where we have more homework then normal and so some of it may have to come home but it should not take them that long to complete it.  Mainly it would be finishing up some little things.  I try to have them do the things they can complete quickly here, so they are not taking too much home.  When I sign their assignment books, I usually ask them what they have left to take home to complete.  This gives me an idea of what I may need to adjust, or what I can do to help them get more done here at school.  

Language Arts - We have taken the Unit 1 Benchmark test this week.  I break it up into 3 sections. I do not want to overwhelm the students with it all in one day.  We have also done some handwriting during this time and written a Halloween story based off the story  Goldilocks and the Three Bears.  Tomorrow I intend on assigning them their first book report.  This is a cereal box book report.  The students will be asked to read a chapter book that challenges them and then complete the cereal box book report items.  They will need a cereal box and they will need to cover it with paper. You can just wrap it like a package or cut construction paper to cover all sides.  It is up to the student.  I will hand them out pieces of printed papers to help them on the top, and two sides of the box.  These will be filled out, cut out and glued to the proper places.  The front and the back of the box is up to them to create on their own.  It all has to deal with the book.  They need a cereal name that goes along with the book they read.  On the back they will need a game to do.  They also need to include a prize in the box that has to do with their book. Now, they don't really need to have the prize, they just need to talk about it on the box somewhere.  I plan to go over all the directions with the students and give them a print out of directions for them to keep.  I will not give them the items needed until they tell me they are finished reading the book.  This report will not be due until the end of the trimester which is November 13th.  Next week we will go back to a normal language arts week with spelling tests, vocabulary words,and worksheets.

Math - We have finished up chapter 1 in math.  The students have completed a review over the chapter.  They are now working on a "Dress Rehearsal" of the test.  They will do this today and tomorrow.  I will check them over the weekend and on Monday we will go over the test together.  Then on Tuesday they will take the final test.  This one will be online and on paper.  The same test online will be in front of them so they can do all the work on it and then mark their answer on both the paper copy and online.  The online portion helps to sort standards and benchmarks automatically for me.  The paper copy allows me to look at their work and see where they are making mistakes.  It may seem like a lot but it is super easy.  We will begin chapter two at the end of the week.  In this chapter we will begin talking about multiplication.  This is 14 lessons long and really takes us a long time to get through.

Social Studies -  I have introduced the Northeast region to the class.  We have written the 11 states that make up the Northeast in their notebooks along with their capitals.  I am now introducing the interactive notebook to them.  We have put in out front page with all 50 states on it.  Now we are working together through the first set of pages on the United States of America.  They have colored the American Flag, we have created the piece that has the picture of the United States, the abbreviation for it, and the capital.  Today we will work on the fact booklet.  When we have all these things done and cut out, we will glue them in.  They are super excited to get to that part today.  I am always hopeful that this is a book filled with information that the students will want to save for later.  I try to stress for them to so their best handwriting and coloring on these pages.  I will say they don't always listen very well. We will dig into chapter 4 a lot more next week.

CDC Guidelines -  Please refer to Mrs. Simmon's letter she sends out or to our website about the new guidelines about masks from the CDC. It focuses on Gaiters and mask wearing in the classroom, who would quarantine and who would not.  The 4th graders have decided they will wear their mask all the time but will take breaks when needed.  They will take them off for 10 minute periods when they need a break.  I am not mandating this happens, but the kids are making the decision so we can stay in school face-to-face. 

Book It -  We have started keeping track of the minutes we do any free reading in a book of our choice.  We will keep track for the next 6 months.  The kids have an orange calendar where they can keep track.  Please, keep track in minutes only.  So if they read 2 hours please write 120 minutes.  At the end of the month a parent will need to sign the calendar and the students will turn it in.  If they meet the goal at the top of the calendar they will receive a certificate for money off the buffet at Pizza Ranch.  Since we no longer have a Pizza Hut we don't have that as an option.  This month the kids are to read 350 minutes.  This breaks down into 12 minutes a day.  If they do that they will meet the goal easily.  They are also trying to beat Mrs. Sickels.  They are finding that is hard when I have found a good book.  Right now I have found a great book and I am reading most of my evenings.  I have a chart I will keep track of each month for the student.  At the end I total up all their minutes they have read. I give prizes to the top readers.  Happy reading!!

Looks like the weather is going to make for a very nice weekend.  I hope all of you get out and enjoy it.  I keep thinking our nice weekends are going to be few and far between.  I am celebrating a friend's 50th birthday with dinner Saturday night. 

God Bless,

Mrs. Sickels 

Dear Parents,

     Happy Thursday!!!  I hope everyone is having a great week.  For my it is Homecoming week for my Senior.  It is so hard to believe that she is there.  It has been a fun week but busy.  Cross Country in Knoxville on Tuesday and Perry tonight makes for a very busy week for mom!  The weather has been pleasant but sounds like it intends to cool off.  It will be a very chilly football game tomorrow.  We have had a really good week in 4th grade.  I feel they are finally getting the hang of a class routine and also how Mrs. Sickels does things.  We are to the point of really enjoying class and learning.  I love, love, love when we get to this point.  It means I can have some fun with teaching!

Language Arts -  This week we are reading a Tall Tale called "Stormalong".  It is a story about a baby that is giant.  He grows into a very big, strong man.  He is determined to live his life on the sea.  He proved himself a great sailor but it just way too big for a boat.  He travels inland to try his hand at working the land, but he is not happy.  He goes back to the sea.  They build him a giant boat that he can fit on.  He is now happy.  We are paying attention to characters in this story.  Trying to decide what kind of a person Stormalong is by how he interacts with others. We worked on reference materials as our vocabulary strategy.  They focused on dictionary entries and what they tell us.  In grammar we learned or reviewed capitalization.  It focused on historical events and documents, titles of books or stories, and today we are  learning names. languages, and Nationalities.  The spelling list was a bit of a challenge this week.  It was over homophones.  These are words that sound the exact same but the spelling depends upon the meaning of the word.  An example would be wait and weight,  sent, cent, and scent,  and heard and herd.  The students will take their post test tomorrow. They will also do the end of the week test.  Next week we will do our first Unit test.  It will be quite difficult.  They are shocked by what they have to remember from the first 5 stories and lessons. 

Math - We are finishing up chapter one.  We will be completing it next week.  This week we have learned how to rename numbers (hard and some struggled), we have reviewed adding large numbers and now subtracting large numbers.  The subtraction gets hard due to regrouping.  Sometimes there is a lot of zeroes in a problem that have to be regrouped.  We will then move onto problem-solving.  That will be our last lesson before we begin studying for a test.  I will walk them through how math testing works.  We first take what they call a "dress rehearsal".  They will actually be given the test without any practicing(this is the practice).  If anyone gets a perfect paper they are done.   I will then go over the test and every problem with the class to model how the work is done.  They will then take the final test and this test will be scored in the grade book. This gives each student the opportunity to be successful on the test.  Miss Surma does the same thing.  We learned this strategy at a conference we attended last October.  It proved highly successful with our classes last year.  We really collaborated on how to make it work.

Social Studies -  We have taken our first test.  The students all did very well on it.  There were a lot of vocabulary words which some had some trouble matching.  You will see the test today.  Please sign it and have your student return it to me.  They have made corrections and I have based their score off their corrections.  Please look through to see how they did.  They are working on a couple of map skills worksheets before we begin our next chapter.  One of the map skills is focusing on the compass rose.  We will review how to follow one and what the cardinal and intermediate directions are on it.  We will dig into chapter 3 next week.  We are moving along very well in this subject. I hope to keep our pace going.

CDC Guidelines -  Please be sure to read Mrs. Simmons "St. Malachy Minute".  It talks about the new guidelines for quarantine.   Also be sure to fill out the google form on conferences and whether you prefer a face-to-face conference or a video call.

Homecoming!  We dismiss tomorrow 3 hours early.  That means instead of 3:15 you will need to pick up your students at 12:15.  It is a Spirit Day tomorrow!  Bring your dollar to wear your sweats with panther gear!  It will be a good day to do it.  The temperatures are suppose to drop tomorrow.  Remember our dollars go for a great cause.    There will be NO LUNCH served tomorrow due to the very early out.

I hope all of you enjoy your weekend.  The Fall temps are definitely here.  I am going to enjoying my last Homecoming as a parent!  I am really okay with this.  After 3 girls, definitely okay with it.  I will happy to just look at all the pictures next year instead of worrying about taking them!

God Bless,

Mrs. Sickels 

 Dear Parents,

     Happy Thursday!!  It's a short week!  This is our Friday!  I hope everyone enjoys their 3 day weekend!  I will be sitting in the High School auditorium in a class learning about PLC's (Professional Learning Communities).  We have been working on this for a couple years now.  Learning how to make ours better and be sure we are always doing what is in the best interest of our students and curriculum is a long process and hard work.  We are at what some would consider a disadvantage because we do not have other 4th grade teachers to help collaborate and make decisions. Yet, it can be an advantage for that same reason.  We work in grade bands and are able to make sure we are following decisions throughout 3-5th grade.  I sure wish I could do something fun and relaxing outside on Friday but I will be doing something very beneficial for my job and your children!   I will enjoy the other two days of the weekend for sure.

Language Arts -  This week we are reading a play which everyone loves.  They like to be given parts and actually read through the play.  This drama also teaches us a valuable lesson about how kids can help to make a difference.  Their neighborhood has a traveling library because they live in large city (Dallas, Texas) and the real library is just too far away.  The "Bookmobile" comes to their neighborhood and they get to use computers and check out books.  It was a pilot program and they have run out of funds.  The kids find a way to make money to keep it going.  They have a car wash and make flyers.  They are very successful and save the Bookmobile.  It is a great story.  The spelling list this week was on short o and long 0.  The grammar lessons this week were on sentences and whether they were fragments, or run-on sentences.  The vocabulary strategy was on the prefixes non-, and mis-.  We also read a short story on money management for kids.  It walked them through a budget.  I talked to them about the difference between needs and wants.  They had it figured out already which was great!  The discussion went very well. The kids were very serious about it. I love the life lessons.

Math - This week we have worked on a Mid-Chapter review to make sure we are all doing okay before I move on.  The next lesson will be a hard one.  It is on renaming numbers.  Like when we say that 1,800 can also be 18 hundreds, or 180 tens.  It is looking at all the possibilities of saying one number.  The students will struggle with this.  I plan to check the review tomorrow then play a math game of some kind.  I won't begin the lesson until next week so we can get a full two days in a row in to learn it.  They are doing a great job at working hard in Math class.

Social Studies -  We have finished up chapter 2. They have begun their first study guide for chapter 2!  They have worked in partners  for 2 days on it.  They will need to have it complete by Monday.  We will check it together on Monday and them take the test on Tuesday!  Most finished their study guide today. Please be sure they study their vocabulary flash cards over the weekend.  Let's not wait until the last minute.

Free Reading -  I just wanted to talk about free time and reading in my room.  Some students can get finished with items before others and have a few minutes to themselves.  In 4th grade the first thing you should do is read a book.  The students must be reading a chapter book in my room.  I do not count graphic novels as chapter books.  If they are given free reading during language arts time you HAVE to read a chapter book.  If you get your homework done early during study hall you may read whatever you want which would then include graphic novels.  Reading is a priority in my room.  I will sometimes allow them to draw and I will specify those days or times to the students.  I really push the students to challenge themselves and read books that contain more than 100 pages.   I share my love for reading and any reading experiences with the students all the time.  I will talk about how I become the characters, how books make me feel, and whether I enjoyed the ending. Some days I come and talk about how my characters made me mad and I had to put the book down, sometimes I will talk about how it made me sad and I cried.  I hope to help them find the joy in reading. I hope to help them find a series that interests them or a genre that interests them.  One of my goals is always getting kids to read more than they used to and finding books that they love.  I am normally pretty successful but it can be a challenge.  I hope you start to see a difference in their wanting to read.

I hope the kids enjoy their 3 day weekend!  I do wish I had one!  I hope they all get outside and enjoy the weather!  I have kids coming home for the weekend which makes my heart very happy. 

God Bless,

Mrs. Sickels

Dear Parents,

    Happy Thursday!  I hope you are all enjoying your week. Check the folders today for test results from weeks 1 & 2 of language arts testing.  I am still trying to get into a routine myself.  Honestly, March was a long time ago!    I send the Friday tests home the next Thursday in the folders to be sure you see them.  I keep the original in the student's binder, and send a copy to you.  Then at conferences we can look at all the results.  Please watch the folder weekly for their math worksheets that they complete also.  This will show you how they are doing with the daily lessons.  We will begin the FAST testing soon.  Like as soon as next week.  We will be doing the normal testing in Language arts plus an extra test.  We will also now do some FAST testing in Math.  This is new to us, so we will take our time getting the testing in and analyzing the results.  It will help us get an even better understanding of where the kids are in Math.  I am again so grateful we are in school and able to hold class normally.  There are extra cleaning measures we have to do, plus the mask wearing but still just small prices to pay for us to be together. Thank you for sharing your child with me!  I am truly enjoying all of them.

Language Arts- This week we are reading a story called My Librarian is a Camel.  This is a non fiction story that talks about remote nomadic places in the world that do not have libraries or access to internet.   The story is about how they solve the problem of getting books to those children so they can learn to read or enjoy reading.  I talk to the kids about how they have access to books all the time and that there are children in the world that do not.  I talked about how we take books for granted and some people are starving for books.  They could not imagine not having access to books.  Many books in the remote areas are delivered by camel, elephant, minibus, through the mail and on a boat.  This story is interesting the first time you hear it but after that the kids are not interested.  Even I know this.  Their test scores this week will most likely show that they did not enjoy this read.  In spelling their words involved short i and long i words.  The vocabulary strategy focused on using context.  We talked about context clues.  The grammar is also very hard.  It is on using quotation marks.  We have done all the worksheets together because I am constantly pointing out all the things they need to look for.  Tomorrow when they test I plan to read the grammar section out loud to them and instead of giving them 4 different options I plan to narrow it down to 2 options.  This will make it easier for them.  The 4 options even confuses me.  I hope to try and make it successful for them.  I am trying to build knowledge and confidence. My goal is not for them to fail.  Again do not be surprised by lower test scores.

Math -  This week we have covered a lot in math.  We have covered 2 lessons.  We have talked about lesson 2 which was on the three forms of reading and writing numbers.  We have reviewed how to compare numbers.  This is when we look at numbers and decide what number is larger.  We use the symbols > (greater than). < (less than) and = (equal).  We also learned to look at numbers and list them greatest to least or least to greatest.  Today we began lesson 3 which is on rounding.  This is  a skill I usually have to start small and review then work our way up to larger numbers.  We got a little further today than I expected.  This can be very hard and confusing.  They have to take large numbers like 458,982 and round to the nearest thousand or maybe even nearest hundred.  They can easily round the the nearest hundred thousand because it is the largest place value but when rounding to lower place values they struggle.  The struggle is remembering that the numbers in front need to go along with it.  If rounding to  the nearest thousand they want to choose between 8,000 and 9,000 when in reality you are really choosing between 458,000 and 459,000.  You have to include the numbers in front of the thousands place.  I spent today trying to train them to remember that.  Next week we will have a Mid-chapter checkpoint to see how they are doing with the first 4 lessons.  Then we will move onto to more content.

Social Studies -  We have learned about our government and the three branches of government.  The student should be able to tell you the "who" of each branch and what their purpose is.  They read a couple pages to find these answers and wrote them in their notebooks. We have spent the last couple of days discussing Time Zones.  They have colored in a Time Zone map, the coloring helps them quickly decipher between time zones.  Today we talked about how it can be one time in New York City and a different time here in Creston.  We talked about why time zones were needed and set up.  They are working on a worksheet on finding the times in different cities based on time zones.  The next topic we cover is rights and responsibilities of a U.S. citizen.  I try to relate things to them as children and what their rights and responsibilities are at a young age.

Corrections -  I want to explain about how corrections work in 4th grade.  When the students turn in a homework assignment, I will check it that day.  If the student misses several problems on the test which would result in a percentage of less that 70%, I return the assignment to them to make corrections.  I will either return it that day or first thing in the morning the following day.  The student will then need to make the corrections and return it immediately if time allows or the next morning.   I do not ask the student for the corrections.  It is up to them to make the changes and turn the paper in.  I will then recheck the paper and change the student's score accordingly in my grade book.  If the student does not return the paper in the time it is allowed, I will still check their corrections I just won't make any changes in the grade book.  This is just another way for the students to learn responsibility and turning returning things in a timely manner.  Some kids will accumulate a folder full of papers to correct.  I find them months later.  But then it is just too late to accept any papers.  

Forgotten Items -  Sometimes students forget to take home a book that is needed for homework or they might forget their expand-a-file.  I know this will happen this year.  It already has for some.  This is not anything to stress about.  Number 1) I am usually at school until 4:15 or 4:30 unless Molly has a sporting event for me to attend.  Number 2)  I am always in the building by 7:45 every morning.  You are welcome to bring your child early and they may use the time from 7:45-8:10 to finish up anything they have forgotten.  This also shows responsibility because they are coming in to complete their work before school begins.  Some kids think this is not a possibility but it is.  I tell them I am not that mean. I am trying to teach them ways to be successful and sometimes you have to come in early or stay later to get the job done.  If your child is a breakfast eater, that is not big deal, we will go down and get their breakfast tray and bring it back to my room so they can eat and finish what is needed.

I hope everyone has a great weekend.  The weather is cooling off to give us a nice one to get things done. I am literally done watering flowers.  I may clean some up and throw some out.  It is not something I think about anymore in the evenings.  I have one daughter coming home for the weekend so that will put an extra in my house. I am very excited about that.  Stay healthy and safe.

God Bless,

Mrs Sickels

Dear Parents,

    Happy Thursday!   It's a short week but a busy one!  The students are learning when it is a short week we have to work a little harder.  I know the farmers really needed this rain but several days with indoor recess is definitely a bummer!  These cool temps have been quite the change also but thank you for sending your child prepared. Most students had jackets and were prepared.  Our classroom is still a little chilly.  I do not want to turn the heat on yet.  Now, at home I did.  I needed to take the chill out of the air.  Please make sure your child is bringing sweatshirts so if they are chilly they may put them on or take them off as they wish.  I had one wear their jacket all day yesterday.  The whole class was sneezing yesterday too, me included but I blame allergies and the change in weather for that.  We would joke or laugh every time someone did it.  Let's hope this weather is not a sign that winter is coming early.  But it's 2020 so it won't surprise me at all.

Language Arts - This week we have read the story My Brother Martin.  It is a biography of Martin Luther King, Jr.  His sister Christine is the author.  Many were very interested in this story.  It shares what life was like growing up for Martin Luther King, Jr.  It also shows you what he experienced to make him want to fight for Civil Rights.  In spelling their spelling list was over short e and long e words.  The grammar this week is an easy one.  It was reviewing the four kinds of sentences.  The kinds of sentences are Declarative(telling statement), Interrogative ( a question), Imperative ( a command) and exclamatory ( strong feeling).  They had to read sentences and decide what kind they were, add the appropriate ending punctuation and tell what kind of a sentence it was.  It was not very difficult for them.  The vocabulary strategy was talking again about prefixes. This week they learned in-, im-, il-, and ir-.  These will show up on the end of the week test tomorrow.  We also read a short story about Langston Hughes who was an African American poet who lived in Harlem. His poetry focused on the feelings of those African Americans living in Harlem.  There will be a spelling post test tomorrow so be sure to study your words.  Also we will be taking the end of the week test.  Students need to be sure to study their vocabulary words.  They are the first 5 questions on the test and I do expect him to get those correct.  The students are doing a great job adjusting to our schedule and routine of Language arts.  This short week threw them off but next week we will be back to the way it should be.

Math -  We have finally finished lesson 1 in math.  I take a long time because I don't feel like you can rush place value.  It is very important we understand our number system before we move on to bigger and better things.  Number sense is the basis of math.  I do not plan on spending so much time on the rest of the lessons in this chapter.  I will if I feel they need more time but otherwise we will keep moving.  We have focused on the place value chart, finding values of numbers and comparing numbers.  The next lesson is on reading and writing numbers.  We will learn 3 ways to write numbers: standard form, expanded form and word form.  The hardest one is probably word form just because they have to write the words.  It can take up a little bit of time and 4th graders want to do things a quickly as they can.  It is very typical of 4th graders to want to rush on everything they do.  We really need to work on slowing them down and taking their time.  Doing things correctly is more important than being the first one done.  This is a very hard lesson for them.  Lesson 3 will be on comparing and ordering numbers.  This lesson will be fun for them because it is not a hard one.  We can usually do this one pretty quickly.    That will come close to covering next week's math.  

Social Studies - We will be moving into talking about our 3 branches of government.  I plan to just get the students familiar with what those branches are, what their purpose is, and who is a part of each branch.  These are just the basics but the they are important to understand.    We will then move onto to Time Zones.  They will color a time zone map, they will do a worksheet comparing times in certain cities, to show how they are different.  Then we end the chapter with the rights and responsibilities of being an American citizen.  It is good for the students to see what those are for all of us and how they as children fall into some of those.  I am sure with these kids there will be some interesting discussions.

Spirit Day - Tomorrow is a Spirit day.  The students may pay a $1.00 to wear sweats or a hat.  Also we are calling tomorrow Cy-Hawk day.  If the game were being played it would normally be around this weekend. So wear your favorite team tomorrow.  The kids know what I will be wearing!  I graduated ISU along with 2 out of my 3 kids and my 3rd one will be going there next year.  So I will forever celebrate the Clones. 

Expand-a-files:  I just wanted to talk a minute about their expand-a files.  It is very important that you not try to clean the files out for them. You may throw something away that should not be thrown away.  This has happened in the past. If you think their file is too heavy or has too much in it, please have them ask me to help them clear it out.  That way nothing gets thrown away that should not be.  Sometimes there are things they can get rid of and they forget or don't do it and so the file becomes messy and heavy.  I will gladly help them clean it out.  I have talked to the students about this also.  I am just trying to save them some tears and a late slip.

It was wonderful to have a long weekend to spend with family.  I had all my kids under one roof for at least two nights.  Friday we celebrated Molly and her Senior Night for cross country and her first appearance as a Senior Pepper.  What a year this will be.  Monday was a lazy day of TV, reading and laundry.  Just what I needed before heading back to school.  This weekend the goal is getting a Homecoming dress.  I hope all of you have another great weekend.  Get out and enjoy the weather since we have had such a yucky week or rain and cold. It reminded me what I wimp I am about the cold.

God Bless,

Mrs. Sickels

Dear Parents,

     Happy Thursday!  Our 2nd week is almost complete!  This week we are learning routines's in the subjects.  They are learning how things work and getting used to transitions.  It is frustrating that we are trying to get them used to routines and then they throw Labor Day at us.  This messes our routines up a little early. I am doing a lot of their homework on Google Classroom.  This is easiest if we have to transition online for a period of time for any reason.  Your child is doing a fabulous job wearing their masks.  I have them 6 feet apart at their desks so they can remove their masks at their desks.  Anytime they get up and move around they need to wear their masks.  They do a better job of remembering than I do.  They have to all remind me to put it back on.  Thank goodness it is hanging from my neck on a lanyard.

Language Arts - We are working on the week one story in our books.  The story is called Because of Winn-Dixie.  This story is realistic fiction.  It is just an excerpt from the book.  The section we read is a silly one about a bear entering a library.  In grammar we are talking about subjects and predicates.  We have learned how to find the simple subject and simple predicate and also complete subject and predicates.  Today we will focus on Compound subjects and predicates.  Our vocabulary strategy this week had us working with the prefixes re-, un-, and dis-.  The spelling list was on the short a and long a vowel sounds.  I do not give the students a list to study for the week.  They take the pretest on Mondays, at this time they may write down their spelling list in their assignment books in the spot provided.  On Tuesdays the students will have a worksheet to complete over the words and the worksheet will have the spelling list on it.  On Wednesdays the students will be practicing their missed words in their notebooks.  These notebooks can come home but they need to be returned the next day.  On Thursday they will have another worksheet to do and the list will be on that sheet also.  Friday is Post test day.  If the students miss more than 10 on the pretest I will give them a list of 10 words to study for Friday.  Spelling is a subject you are either good at or your not.  I do not want to stress those that do not find spelling easy.  Each week is a different list so the students may do well one week and then not so well the next week.  That is why I use the pretest each week to decide whether to shorten the list for a student.   Tomorrow the students will take their spelling post test and their end of the week test.  On the end of  the week test they are tested over the 5 vocabulary you did this week, 5 vocab strategy questions, 10 comprehension questions over the story and 10 grammar questions over subjects and predicates.  This test is completed online.  The routine is the same for  each week. 

Math - We have started to talk about chapter 1.  We have not covered too much so far.  We have had some need for flexibility in our schedule yet this week.  In the beginning getting used to routines can be lengthy to learn.  So I will say I have not had a full 45 minutes of Math  some days so I do not do much.  Next week we will for sure be able to focus on getting Math completed.  The first chapter is over Place Value.  We will be focusing on place value positions up through the millions.  We will work on knowing the value of each digit in a number.  We will learn to write numbers in standard, expanded and written form.  It is important for us to start with place value before we get into anything else.  

Social Studies-  We only covered lesson 1 in chapter 1.  This was to review the 5 regions of the United States.  We are now moving on to Chapter 2.  We will be doing all of chapter 2.  This chapter is all about living in the United States.  The students have worked on a vocabulary preview worksheet.  This is to make them familiar with the words they will be seeing throughout the chapter.  As we go through the chapter we will focus on certain vocabulary words.  The chapter is made up of 3 lesson.  After each lesson we will complete a worksheet that summarizing the important facts from the lesson.  This subject is routine but not based on days of the week like language arts.  We just work through the lessons.  Some lessons are longer than others.  

Online learning -  I just want to let all of you know about online learning.  In the world we live in right now, I know it is hard to even want to send your child to school if they are sniffling, coughing or sneezing at all, even if it is due to allergies.  When you decide to keep your child home sick, you have the online option.  Your child will get online when we have specific classes and will not be counted absent from school.  Now if your child is so sick they need to just sleep, we get it.  They will not want to be online.  I just want you to know that if you are uncomfortable due to a cough then keep them home and have them get online. They will not be missing a thing.  So far two students have used this  option.  It went very well.  This is why most of my things have been online.  I can't give out paper copies to people when they are not here so I am getting into the habit of doing most of homework online.  If you know the night before that you may go with the online option the next day due to sniffles or allergies, shoot me a test so that I can be better prepared that day.  Again, if your child so really very sick do NOT think they have to be online.  

REMINDER:  NO SCHOOL MONDAY, SEPT. 7th   LABOR DAY

I have really enjoyed getting to know your students this last two weeks!  I look forward to a great year with them.  I feel like sometimes we never know what the next day will bring in this world.  I think as adults we know that but the kids just love being here and don't have a worry in the world.  They are still living life to the fullest with a little adjustment of a mask on their face.   I really do feel they are doing better with this than the adults.  I have to keep telling myself it is a small price to pay to get to see these kids everyday.  I will happily wear my mask/shield to get to do that.  

I hope all of you have a great extended weekend! My kids are coming home. I will have a full house again which makes my heart so happy.  We have a wedding to attend in Clarinda on Saturday then Sunday will be spent outside with my family.  I look forward to it.  I may have to fit some laundry and work in there at some point also.

God Bless,

Mrs. Sickels

Dear Parents,

     Happy Thursday!!! Welcome to 4th grade!   We have an exciting year ahead of us with lots of learning sprinkled with a lot of fun!  I am looking forward to working with your kids this year.  I appreciate you sharing them with me.    I am doing everything I can to ensure their safety and mine so we can stay in school face-to-face.  It is so nice to be back with kids in my room. I am the one the kids remind to wear my mask.  I will go to desk to take it off to get a breather and when I get up I forget to put it on.  The kids are very good and telling me to put it on.  Thank goodness it is attached to me!  Here is the first blog of the year.  Sometimes I have a ton of things to share and sometimes not much.  Please be sure to subscribe to the blog so it is automatically sent to your email.  If you subscribe the blog will arrive between 4:00 and 5:00 PM each Thursday.  

Language Arts:  So far this week we have taken a spelling inventory just to see where the students are when it comes to spelling. Plus it just allows me to show them my spelling routine on pretest days.  We successfully completed that yesterday.  Today and maybe tomorrow we will be taking a beginning of the year language arts assessment.  This is again to see where the kids are at in terms of reading and comprehension.  They have been asking when are we going to start working and today is the day!  We will begin our first story in our books next week.  This week will be a lot of learning routine in this subject.  I plan on teaching them a model I use to do the vocabulary words.  We will dive into that tomorrow.  I will have them do the 5 vocab for next weeks story so we are ahead of the game. We have a lot of new things to get them used to this year.

Math - I am having them do a chapter 1 pretest today and we will finish tomorrow if necessary.  This is all over chapter 1 and shows me what the kids all ready know and what I will really need to focus on.  The hardest part for them is knowing they have to show their work. 

Social Studies -  Today we started talking about Unit 1 and Chapter 1.  This will be about the 5 regions of the United States.  The students learned them last year but we spend the first little bit reviewing.  In Unit 1 we will cover Chapter 1 and 3.  We skip Chapter 2.  This is so we are sure to get finished with everything at the end of the year.  The kids seemed excited to get the books out and start talking about it.  This whole year focuses on the regions of the U.S and learning the states and capitals.

Responsibility-  This year I spend the whole year really focusing on these students taking responsibility for themselves.  This includes keeping track of their work, getting things signed and making sure all their bags are packed.  These are things they need to be doing on their own.  Setting routines for kids can be very helpful.  Next week when they start to bring homework and assignment books home will be a true test of responsibility.  I would recommend finding a spot in your house where the kids can do their work daily.  I also recommend having a spot in the house where they place their assignment book for the adult sign.  It is the child's responsiblity to be sure that it is all signed and back in the bag to bring to school.  It is less stress on you and again we are working on them being better students.  Taking care of your own things is an area they need to work on.  ALL 4th graders do. 

Climate -  Our room is always super cold in the morning.  They are welcome to bring sweatshirts to wear when it is chilly.  But with COVID they have to take them home and they either need washed every night or a new one brought the next day. They can not leave them here at school. It is the same rules with the water bottles.  They need to go home every night and be cleaned or a new one brought in the next day.

I have a Facebook page for this class.  Search St. Malachy Fantastic 4th Grade and request to join.  It is a private group for families only.  I will accept you and then you will see all the things I post about 4th grade. I will have pictures of things your students are doing.

I feel we have had a good week.  It is hard to get back into a routine since being out since March 13th.  I am even struggling.  I am dead tired.  The kids are learning the hard way that they have to listen.  I give directions out loud for everything. There are some that are having problems listening to directions then they are not doing things correctly. This is something we will be working on also.

I hope all of you have a great weekend!  This is my birthday weekend.  I turn 50 on Saturday.  My kids are coming home to help me celebrate.  I am super excited.  I have not had all 3 under the same roof since the beginning of June.  

God Bless,

Mrs. Sickels

Dear Parents,
     Happy Thursday!  I am kind of sad to be writing my last blog of the year!  I can't believe it is here. I know it seems like this online learning has been going on for an eternity but I just can't get rid of this feeling of unfinished business.  This year will always feel so incomplete.  I knew this class would be memorable, but not in this way!  My heart aches for all the time we have missed.  I really enjoyed every minute I had with your children in the classroom.  It is so sad when I go to my room.  It is still like March 16 in the room.  I am not looking forward to going in and cleaning up the room for the year.  

Language Arts - We are ending the year doing some writing.  The first day this week they were just to write about fun things they like to do with their families.  I t didn't mean just in quarantine.  I just wanted to hear about things they really enjoy doing with their family.  Wednesday and Thursday they were to work on Opinion writing.  Friday they will also have another writing for me to do.  It is one for me.  They might consider it another opinion paper.  I will ask them to write about favorite things about 4th grade.  

Math -  The kids have done a great job learning math through all this.  They have covered quite a few standards that I really don't always get to.  Thank you for all the hard work. I know it has not been easy.  Today is the last math assignment.  I feel like this is a good stopping place.  On Friday, I want them to use their math time to do Social Studies.  I am just trying to help them be done!  I know they are ready and so are you.  

Social Studies -  I hope they have enjoyed some of the last few lessons.  I am a huge fan of the Rocky Mountains so learning about the West is always very interesting.  I tried to pick chapters that I felt gave them the most information.   They have 3 lessons today because I just could't cut it off at 2.  This is the main reason I am giving them Friday to work.  I hope they continue to sing their states and capitals song and work on locating their states.

Thursday, May 28th -  This is our drop-off and pick-up day.  Mrs. Simmons has sent you a sign-up genius to choose a time to bring things back to school and pick up their items from their desks and lockers.  I will have all of it packed up all ready.  Here are the things students need to return, followed by the link to sign up for a time.

  * Computer and cord
  *  Library books
  *  Charlie and Chocolate Factory Books
  *  Any book borrowed from my book shelf. My name or 
      St. Malachy School will appear in the front.

Sign-Up Genius for May 28

We have had a great year!  Your kids have come a long way from the beginning of 4th grade.  Be proud of what they have accomplished!  I am super proud of them for the work they did in the classroom to the work they have done online.  We still had a few behaviors to work on, but again they have come a long way from the beginning of 4th grade.  This class will ALWAYS have a special place in my heart.  

God Bless, 
Mrs. Sickels