Dear Parents,
     Happy Thursday!!  I sure missed the kiddos yesterday!  St. Malachy teachers attended the guest speaker that was at the public school.  I am so grateful they asked us to attend. He was a very invigorating speaker.  His name was Joe Sanfelippo and he is the Superintendent of Fall Creek, WI, school district.  He was really motivating and got super excited about everything!  He did a great job reminding us how important the work we do every day, is to the kids.  He also talked about how important it is to commend your coworkers for the things we do.  When people feel appreciated they tend to work harder.  That is true in any job!  It was  a great reminder for all.  Also don't forget those people in your building like custodians, cooks, and paras.  All those people need reminded what they do is important also.  

Language Arts -  This week we are reading a story called Riding Freedom.  The genre of this story is historical fiction.  It is about Charlotte Parkhurst.  Look her up she is a real person who lived in the 1800's.  She pretended to be a boy so she could do a man's job.  She spent her life working with horses.  This lead to her job as a stagecoach driver.  This job was considered very hard and dangerous.  She posed as a man and did the job just as well as a man.  She even has some obstacles to endure but handles them very well.  The grammar lesson this week has been on adjectives.  Figurative language has been our vocabulary strategy.  We talked about similes, idioms, metaphors, and personification.   These are all so hard to keep straight!  Tomorrow we will take our spelling post test and end of week test.

Math - Today the students finish up chapter 3 with their actual test.  I plan on them correcting tests tomorrow and having a discussion over what Chapter 13 will be about.  We move to chapter 13 because I feel like these first 3 chapters are so heavy and hard that I want to through a fun one in.  We won't just be at our desks.  They will get to roam the building and find area and perimeter of items.  We will not disrupt any other classrooms but we will use the gym and places where other classes are not, to find things to measure.  I will teach them the actual formulas for finding area and perimeter.  We will not do all the lessons in the chapter, just the important ones and then we will move on.  I will test them over what they learned.  This will just be a short yet sweet chapter.

Social Studies - We are beginning chapter 7.  Today I gave them maps to begin studying for their map test over the Southeast.  Some of them learned some very good lessons about studying for these tests.  If they actual make an effort and study they do well. Go figure!!   The first map test will be next Friday the 28th.  They have one whole week to study!  Please be sure you student is doing it.  They made their answer key today and have 3 practice maps to help them practice.  If they need more all they have to do is ask for them.  I will happily copy more.  They will be doing vocabulary words on notecards again this chapter and we are still putting states in our interactive notebooks.  I will say I felt like they do better overall on the vocabulary section of test this time around.  Maybe making flashcards in the best way for them to study.

Fat Tuesday -  Next Tuesday is Fat Tuesday!  The day before Ash Wednesday!  On this day it is tradition for the 4th grade students to make and pass our donuts to the entire school.  At least to those students who are here in the morning.  We spend from about 8:30- 10:00 in the gym.  The students will be doing various activities for language Arts and Social Studies while they patiently wait their turn to make and deliver donuts.  

Spirit Day - Tomorrow is a Spirit Day!  Please wear you sweats and pay the $1.00. To me it will be a perfect day to do it.  Thanks for all of you who help our Pay it Forward fund by participating.  Recently we used some money to give some gas cards and a restaurant card to Mrs. Simmons for her and Chad while they were away in Minnesota.  There is a committee of teachers who decide how we use the money.

Thank you for all the donations for the Silent Auction and Live Auction basket.  I think they will both be a great success.  We appreciate all your donations and thank you to Kathy Ralston for making sure both these items are beautifully done.

I hope all of you enjoy your weekend. Sounds like Saturday will be fabulous!  Get out and enjoy the sunshine because it looks like snow next week.

God Bless,
Mrs. Sickels