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