Dear Parents,
Hello and happy Thursday!! Thank you for meeting with me last week to talk about what has been going on is school so far this year. I am always happy to talk about where your child is and how they are doing. Just a reminder, everything they do that is considered homework or any test that they take will have results on Power School. I also link all standards and benchmarks to any test or assignment when it applies. You are able to follow the progress of your child on Power School. Any marks I give your student on the report card should not be a surprise to you because you will have seen it all ready on the grade book. You will also find the student's work in their folders each week. After I enter the results in the grade book I put the paper in their mailboxes to come home on Thursday.
Language Arts - This week we have read the story Jose`Born to Dance. This is a biography about Jose` Limon who was a well know Modern Dancer. We watched a short little biography on You Tube about him. It showed pictures and some video clips of him dancing. He died in 1972 but there is still a dance troupe out there with his name on it. I tried to explain a little bit about Modern Dance to the students. Modern dance tells a story. You will watch people dance without words, but it is to tell you a story about people through the emotions of the dance. In grammar this week we are focusing on Pronouns. We talked about subject and object pronouns, reflexive and demonstrative pronouns, and pronouns and their antecedents. An antecedent is what the pronoun stands for. We have talked about similes and metaphors this week also. Another topic we discussed which made kids go "aha" was shades of meaning. If you look at the words: big, large, huge, enormous and gigantic, they are all synonyms. But if you look at each word they all have a little bit different picture of what "big" represents. Which word to you would make you picture the biggest thing? The kids said gigantic would be the biggest. That is true. They had some fun with this. Remember tomorrow is end of the week so they need to study spelling words and vocabulary words tonight.
Math - We are doing very well getting through chapter 2. We are all ready on lesson 10. Today they learned the standard algorithm or regrouping strategy for multiplication. This is the only strategy you were taught as a child. You will know be able to help your child with homework. I am so proud of the way this class has picked up on the strategies I have taught them. They are doing a great job listening to me and really working at learning the strategies. We will get this chapter finished and wrapped up and head into chapter three before Christmas! YAY! That is awesome!!
Social Studies- We are talking about our country being made up of the Free Enterprise System, which says any business can produce any good or service they want, they don't need the government's permission. We learned the economy is based on a supply and demand economy which helped explain why we have price increases and sales on items. We also learned what it means to make a profit. I like this lesson cause most don't take the profit into consideration. We also had a short discussion this week on what it means to be a citizen of the United States. That entailed discussions of our right to vote but also voting being a responsibility of all citizens. We also held a discussion about how if the person we voted for didn't win, it is again our duty to accept the decision of the people and move on. We have to be supportive of whoever won. This is right in the social studies book, last chapter when we learned about government and the rights and responsibilities of citizens. I didn't have much discussion with them the day after the election. This class didn't come with any comments about who won or if that was good or bad. I am very glad. We all know this was a nasty election. I have never seen so much negative as I saw this election. I am thankful it is over.
Book Reports! Book reports are rapidly coming due. They are due Friday, November 18th, the last day of the trimester. Most students seem to be finished reading their books, it is now just making sure there is time to work on the projects. I told the students, color and design is key to this project since cereal is something little kids like to eat. If they can't read the box what are they looking for. A fun package!! I will be having the 1st grade come down and pick their favorites! Please check with your student to see if they have finished ready. If not maybe you could do some together reading over the weekend to boost that along!! I really push that the book be read first before doing the project. There are things they can fill out as they go along but most are taking me literally and not doing anything until they have finished the book.
Have a great weekend! Again, thank you all for coming. I had 100% turnout for conferences! I appreciate that.
Don't forget STEM night tonight in the gym from 5:30 - 7:30!!
Also tomorrow is SPIRIT DAY!! Wear your sweats and pay $1.00.
God Bless,
Mrs. Sickels
Thursday, November 10, 2016
Thursday, October 27, 2016
Dear Parents,
Happy Thursday!!! We are surviving our first full week in a very long time!!! Only to be given a "Crazy" week next week. We have Halloween activities on Monday and then we are out extra early on Thursday so we can hold conferences. I hope all of you have signed up for time slot to meet with me. I am looking forward to discussing your child with you! The rest of this year will move along very quickly. Once conferences are here it pretty much the end. After conferences we have 2 short weeks til Thanksgiving, then Advent starts and Christmas is just around the corner! Then BOOM! it's 2017. So crazy to think half the year would be over.
Conferences - I have sent out a link to your emails to sign up for conferences. There are still about 9 of you who have not signed up. You may just need to check your emails. If your are having trouble with signing up please call the school and let the office help you. I have lots of times on Thursday still open. I appreciate all of you who have all ready singed up. I will see you next week!
Language Arts - This week we have read a story called Me and Uncle Romie. It is realistic fiction. It is a fun story about a boy who goes to stay with his Aunt and Uncle because his parents are having twins. He is from North Carolina and is going to stay in New York City. He learns a lot. It is a very fun loving story. We have worked on visualizing as our skill. The grammar we are focusing on this week was about progressive verbs. These verbs have a helping verb in front of the main verb and the main verb ends in -ing. The helping verb decides the verb tense, whether it is past, present, or future. We also talked about figurative language this week. Idioms was our focus. Phrases that mean something different then what the words really mean. Examples would be "Good as gold, hang in there, safe and sound, chow down, and head over heals". We practiced putting them into sentences. As always tomorrow is our end of the week assessment and spelling test! Please be sure your child studies.
Math- We have begun learning strategies to multiplication. Yesterday we learned the expanded form strategy. I really like this one. It breaks the number down so we can easily get the answer. They actually learned 2 ways to use expanded form, the used an area box which they all really liked because it provided a visual for them. They also learned just a written form. This form is a form of Algebra. Once we learned how to do it I told them they just learned Algebra. They were excited and amazed. I told them that was exactly why I didn't tell them up front they would be learning algebra today. They would have had a little panic in them. When you tell them after it's done they have that sense of "Wow, I can do it!" For a teacher this is the best part. We will also learn partial product before the week is up which is similar to what we are doing, it is just recorded differently. This strategy is the way I prefer to do multiplication. I understand what I am doing better than the standard algorithm which is what you learned in school. The students are doing a great job listening and participating in math and we are moving very smoothly through this chapter which tends to drag on and on. We are coming up to some times that we miss a lot of time to teach math, but I plan to keep our momentum going.
Social Studies - We just finished Chapter 2. The students began chapter 3 today. We completed a vocabulary preview page and began putting vocabulary words into our packets. This is a very important chapter which focuses on the United State's Economy. We will learn a lot of big vocabulary words explaining our country's economic system and how it works. This is the last chapter we have based on the United States as a whole. The chapters to follow will be designated on a certain region. We will study the Northwest Region first. This is also means our social projects will begin. These are fun projects the students do to share information about a state. I will discuss these briefly at conferences next week!
I hope all of you have a great weekend!! I am excited about the football game!!
GO PANTHERS!! In honor of the football game tomorrow is a FREE spirit day!!! You can wear all your PANTHER gear including sweatpants for free tomorrow. Let's rock the red and black so I can take a group photo!!!
God Bless,
Mrs. Sickels
Happy Thursday!!! We are surviving our first full week in a very long time!!! Only to be given a "Crazy" week next week. We have Halloween activities on Monday and then we are out extra early on Thursday so we can hold conferences. I hope all of you have signed up for time slot to meet with me. I am looking forward to discussing your child with you! The rest of this year will move along very quickly. Once conferences are here it pretty much the end. After conferences we have 2 short weeks til Thanksgiving, then Advent starts and Christmas is just around the corner! Then BOOM! it's 2017. So crazy to think half the year would be over.
Conferences - I have sent out a link to your emails to sign up for conferences. There are still about 9 of you who have not signed up. You may just need to check your emails. If your are having trouble with signing up please call the school and let the office help you. I have lots of times on Thursday still open. I appreciate all of you who have all ready singed up. I will see you next week!
Language Arts - This week we have read a story called Me and Uncle Romie. It is realistic fiction. It is a fun story about a boy who goes to stay with his Aunt and Uncle because his parents are having twins. He is from North Carolina and is going to stay in New York City. He learns a lot. It is a very fun loving story. We have worked on visualizing as our skill. The grammar we are focusing on this week was about progressive verbs. These verbs have a helping verb in front of the main verb and the main verb ends in -ing. The helping verb decides the verb tense, whether it is past, present, or future. We also talked about figurative language this week. Idioms was our focus. Phrases that mean something different then what the words really mean. Examples would be "Good as gold, hang in there, safe and sound, chow down, and head over heals". We practiced putting them into sentences. As always tomorrow is our end of the week assessment and spelling test! Please be sure your child studies.
Math- We have begun learning strategies to multiplication. Yesterday we learned the expanded form strategy. I really like this one. It breaks the number down so we can easily get the answer. They actually learned 2 ways to use expanded form, the used an area box which they all really liked because it provided a visual for them. They also learned just a written form. This form is a form of Algebra. Once we learned how to do it I told them they just learned Algebra. They were excited and amazed. I told them that was exactly why I didn't tell them up front they would be learning algebra today. They would have had a little panic in them. When you tell them after it's done they have that sense of "Wow, I can do it!" For a teacher this is the best part. We will also learn partial product before the week is up which is similar to what we are doing, it is just recorded differently. This strategy is the way I prefer to do multiplication. I understand what I am doing better than the standard algorithm which is what you learned in school. The students are doing a great job listening and participating in math and we are moving very smoothly through this chapter which tends to drag on and on. We are coming up to some times that we miss a lot of time to teach math, but I plan to keep our momentum going.
Social Studies - We just finished Chapter 2. The students began chapter 3 today. We completed a vocabulary preview page and began putting vocabulary words into our packets. This is a very important chapter which focuses on the United State's Economy. We will learn a lot of big vocabulary words explaining our country's economic system and how it works. This is the last chapter we have based on the United States as a whole. The chapters to follow will be designated on a certain region. We will study the Northwest Region first. This is also means our social projects will begin. These are fun projects the students do to share information about a state. I will discuss these briefly at conferences next week!
I hope all of you have a great weekend!! I am excited about the football game!!
GO PANTHERS!! In honor of the football game tomorrow is a FREE spirit day!!! You can wear all your PANTHER gear including sweatpants for free tomorrow. Let's rock the red and black so I can take a group photo!!!
God Bless,
Mrs. Sickels
Thursday, October 20, 2016
Dear Parents,
Hello!! Happy Thursday! I am so sorry I blew off writing a parent letter last week. The short week just totally threw me off. This short week is also throwing me off. The kids are actually handling all these short weeks better than I am. I sometimes feel like life is crazy in the classroom!! I know they enjoy my craziness sometimes. The question is can we handle a full couple of weeks??
Conferences - Conferences are coming up quickly. They are Thursday, Nov. 3rd. I have sent out the schedule for sign up to your emails. Please be sure to check it out. I opened up some extra spots on Tuesday and Wednesday. Please only sign up here if you really have a conflict with Thursday. I know I had a parent that will be out of town on business on Thursday and that is why I did this. I am anxious to meet with all of you to discuss how your child is adapting to my classroom.
Language Arts - I am trying something very different this Unit. I am working on figuring out how to use the online assessment tools that are offered to us. The students took last week's end of the week test online. You will not be receiving any test results from last weeks test because I am still learning. This week I will be sure to have the results for you. The story they read this week was called Coming Distractions. It talks about things in movies that don't make sense in real life. Examples would be in Charlie's Angels the women fight in high heels, when a parent loses a job they still drive fancy cars and live in big houses, and when cars crash people walk away from them unscathed. These are just a few things that show how movies can be meant to be realistic yet be so unrealistic. They like talking about movies and certain scenes but reading about this stuff wasn't very interesting to them. Their favorite activity we did this week was I played a theme song to a movie and they had to guess the movie. This was fun. Of course they knew Titanic, Harry Potter, Star Wars, Jaws, and Pretty Little LIars, but didn't know Superman, Hunger Games, and Avengers. They have asked to do more of that every day! In grammar this week we reviewed verb tenses, Past, Present and Future. We made decisions on what tense sentences were in and what verbs should be used. We talked about being consistent with verbs. If one is future tense in a sentence then they all should be. We also learned about helping verbs and past participle. This is a past tense verb that has a helping verb in front of it. Students need to study spelling words and their vocabulary words tonight for end of the week test.
Math - We are working through chapter 2 in math. I feel like it is progressing quite nicely so far. Every day we stress the importance of paying attention in class and doing what is asked of us. Participation is also the key to success. I feel like they are really listening and trying to do this. We have finished 3 lessons in this chapter so far. I feel like they are really catching on. I plan to keep moving at a good pace to keep them learning and understanding. This chapter can drag on forever and I don't want to do that with them. We need to keep moving. I am thinking the ST Math we do 3 times a week is helping this process also. One thing that you could do at home is practice multiplication facts! The quicker they are and the more they know their facts the easier this will be. We will find some days here where we work flash cards with a partner. The more practice at home the better.
Social Studies We have finished up chapter 2 and will be taking a test on Monday. This chapter covered a lot of areas. The most important being the lesson on Government. We learned about the 3 branches and the 3 levels, which is review from 3rd grade but we also talked a little deeper,learning what each branch does. You will find in their notebooks where they took their own notes over what they read. We also talked about theories of how Native Americans got to America, you will find notes in the notebook on these 2 theories. The third thing was explorers. They learned about a few explorers that came to explore. You will also find a chart in their notebooks on this. They did a lot of reading and looking for information this chapter. They really liked to be in charge of what they were to look for. They got more out of the lesson reading with someone finding answers and then sharing in discussion with the whole group. This was all something new for me to try with students and they seemed to thrive on it. I hope this test shows that what we did was useful!
I hope all of you have a great weekend! Remember to sign up for a conference time!!!
God Bless,
Mrs. Sickels
Hello!! Happy Thursday! I am so sorry I blew off writing a parent letter last week. The short week just totally threw me off. This short week is also throwing me off. The kids are actually handling all these short weeks better than I am. I sometimes feel like life is crazy in the classroom!! I know they enjoy my craziness sometimes. The question is can we handle a full couple of weeks??
Conferences - Conferences are coming up quickly. They are Thursday, Nov. 3rd. I have sent out the schedule for sign up to your emails. Please be sure to check it out. I opened up some extra spots on Tuesday and Wednesday. Please only sign up here if you really have a conflict with Thursday. I know I had a parent that will be out of town on business on Thursday and that is why I did this. I am anxious to meet with all of you to discuss how your child is adapting to my classroom.
Language Arts - I am trying something very different this Unit. I am working on figuring out how to use the online assessment tools that are offered to us. The students took last week's end of the week test online. You will not be receiving any test results from last weeks test because I am still learning. This week I will be sure to have the results for you. The story they read this week was called Coming Distractions. It talks about things in movies that don't make sense in real life. Examples would be in Charlie's Angels the women fight in high heels, when a parent loses a job they still drive fancy cars and live in big houses, and when cars crash people walk away from them unscathed. These are just a few things that show how movies can be meant to be realistic yet be so unrealistic. They like talking about movies and certain scenes but reading about this stuff wasn't very interesting to them. Their favorite activity we did this week was I played a theme song to a movie and they had to guess the movie. This was fun. Of course they knew Titanic, Harry Potter, Star Wars, Jaws, and Pretty Little LIars, but didn't know Superman, Hunger Games, and Avengers. They have asked to do more of that every day! In grammar this week we reviewed verb tenses, Past, Present and Future. We made decisions on what tense sentences were in and what verbs should be used. We talked about being consistent with verbs. If one is future tense in a sentence then they all should be. We also learned about helping verbs and past participle. This is a past tense verb that has a helping verb in front of it. Students need to study spelling words and their vocabulary words tonight for end of the week test.
Math - We are working through chapter 2 in math. I feel like it is progressing quite nicely so far. Every day we stress the importance of paying attention in class and doing what is asked of us. Participation is also the key to success. I feel like they are really listening and trying to do this. We have finished 3 lessons in this chapter so far. I feel like they are really catching on. I plan to keep moving at a good pace to keep them learning and understanding. This chapter can drag on forever and I don't want to do that with them. We need to keep moving. I am thinking the ST Math we do 3 times a week is helping this process also. One thing that you could do at home is practice multiplication facts! The quicker they are and the more they know their facts the easier this will be. We will find some days here where we work flash cards with a partner. The more practice at home the better.
Social Studies We have finished up chapter 2 and will be taking a test on Monday. This chapter covered a lot of areas. The most important being the lesson on Government. We learned about the 3 branches and the 3 levels, which is review from 3rd grade but we also talked a little deeper,learning what each branch does. You will find in their notebooks where they took their own notes over what they read. We also talked about theories of how Native Americans got to America, you will find notes in the notebook on these 2 theories. The third thing was explorers. They learned about a few explorers that came to explore. You will also find a chart in their notebooks on this. They did a lot of reading and looking for information this chapter. They really liked to be in charge of what they were to look for. They got more out of the lesson reading with someone finding answers and then sharing in discussion with the whole group. This was all something new for me to try with students and they seemed to thrive on it. I hope this test shows that what we did was useful!
I hope all of you have a great weekend! Remember to sign up for a conference time!!!
God Bless,
Mrs. Sickels
Thursday, October 6, 2016
Dear Parents,
Happy Thursday!! Best day about Thursday is tomorrow is Friday!!! Best part about tomorrow is, it is Spirit Day!!! The kids can pay $1.00 and wear sweat pants for the day. Teachers get to pay and wear jeans! The money raised goes into our Pay it Forward Fund. The teachers do different things with this money to help those in need. We may give to a family who is going through a difficult time, or a school who has lost a student or co-worker. Last year we collected a lot of money and unfortunately we sent out a lot of goodie baskets. Our baskets went as far as Waukee and Boone. We let the kids know what we do and where the money goes. It is a really good thing. We know this is a great feeling when other schools are thinking of you. We experienced this ourselves and received a basket from another school. This is when it all began for us. If your child doesn't want to wear sweats a donation is greatly appreciated!
Language Arts - We have spent this week testing. It is our first Unit test. This is a very large test which I spread out over 3 days. We are finished with it. Today we will enter our results online. I have found the tests online where it can generate reports for me. It will show me who is struggling and in what areas they are struggling. We are also going to start a Halloween writing project this week! They will be writing a Halloween story based on a story line of a children's story or fairy tale. Examples would be The Three Little Pigs, Goldilocks and the Three Bears, Jack and the Beanstalk, Cinderella, Three Billy Goat's Gruff, Gingerbread Man, and Little Red Riding Hood. They have also been assigned their first book report. The book needed to more than 100 pages and a chapter book. I don't allow Dairy of Wimpy Kid, Dork Diaries, or any book that is mainly pictures. At the 4th grade level they need to be challenging themselves with more Chapter Books. I asked that they stay away from Magic Tree House and Animal Ark books also. I want them to branch out and discover new books. Next week we are back to the book, reading stories and learning strategies and skills!!
Math - We finished chapter 1, we took pretest for chapter 2 and today we will get started with chapter 2. This is a long drawn out chapter. I talked to the students yesterday about what they can do to help get us through this chapter smoothly. Their suggestions were to pay attention, participate, listen and focus. These are great ideas. I told them I would hold them to that. This chapter is over multiplication. We will learn several strategies to solve a multiplication problem. All the of them are really good!! They really explain what multiplication is doing and how it works. It takes some time to get used to and I know parents will struggle trying to help at home. It will all be fine and we will get through it. I am taking the lessons and teaching them my own way instead of how the book says to teach it. Yes, we will be doing the same thing you just may not see them filling out their books fully. Yesterday we ripped out all of chapter one from their books. That will be coming home in their folders tonight. You can see we use some of the pages but not all of the pages. That will be the same with this next chapter. You are welcome to use the pages in the book for practice at home, ONLY if we have passed that lesson and I didn't use them. I will definitely use the On Your Own section.
Social Studies - We are working on chapter 2. We have discussed 2 theories of how Native Americans came to North America. We talked about explorers who explored the area and why. Now we are talking about our Government. We are learning about the 3 branches and their purpose and Who makes up each branch like President, Congress and Supreme Court. We only skim the surface of government. There is a lot of information in this one lesson. We discuss being a republic, democracy, and representative democracy. We also talk about Congress being made up of the Senate and House of Representatives. I also shared with them how many members are in each, or at least how the figure it. This is a very informative chapter. We will begin working on a map skill next week. We will cover a Time Zone Map. I like this lesson because some kids don't realize we have time zones and why. This tells them why and shows about where they boundaries are. They will color a map in and answer time zone questions using the map.
I hope all of you have a great weekend!! I know I will, I have family back from Texas! I am excited to see them and get to spend some time with them. Now, let's pray the weather cooperates.
God Bless,
Mrs. Sickels
Happy Thursday!! Best day about Thursday is tomorrow is Friday!!! Best part about tomorrow is, it is Spirit Day!!! The kids can pay $1.00 and wear sweat pants for the day. Teachers get to pay and wear jeans! The money raised goes into our Pay it Forward Fund. The teachers do different things with this money to help those in need. We may give to a family who is going through a difficult time, or a school who has lost a student or co-worker. Last year we collected a lot of money and unfortunately we sent out a lot of goodie baskets. Our baskets went as far as Waukee and Boone. We let the kids know what we do and where the money goes. It is a really good thing. We know this is a great feeling when other schools are thinking of you. We experienced this ourselves and received a basket from another school. This is when it all began for us. If your child doesn't want to wear sweats a donation is greatly appreciated!
Language Arts - We have spent this week testing. It is our first Unit test. This is a very large test which I spread out over 3 days. We are finished with it. Today we will enter our results online. I have found the tests online where it can generate reports for me. It will show me who is struggling and in what areas they are struggling. We are also going to start a Halloween writing project this week! They will be writing a Halloween story based on a story line of a children's story or fairy tale. Examples would be The Three Little Pigs, Goldilocks and the Three Bears, Jack and the Beanstalk, Cinderella, Three Billy Goat's Gruff, Gingerbread Man, and Little Red Riding Hood. They have also been assigned their first book report. The book needed to more than 100 pages and a chapter book. I don't allow Dairy of Wimpy Kid, Dork Diaries, or any book that is mainly pictures. At the 4th grade level they need to be challenging themselves with more Chapter Books. I asked that they stay away from Magic Tree House and Animal Ark books also. I want them to branch out and discover new books. Next week we are back to the book, reading stories and learning strategies and skills!!
Math - We finished chapter 1, we took pretest for chapter 2 and today we will get started with chapter 2. This is a long drawn out chapter. I talked to the students yesterday about what they can do to help get us through this chapter smoothly. Their suggestions were to pay attention, participate, listen and focus. These are great ideas. I told them I would hold them to that. This chapter is over multiplication. We will learn several strategies to solve a multiplication problem. All the of them are really good!! They really explain what multiplication is doing and how it works. It takes some time to get used to and I know parents will struggle trying to help at home. It will all be fine and we will get through it. I am taking the lessons and teaching them my own way instead of how the book says to teach it. Yes, we will be doing the same thing you just may not see them filling out their books fully. Yesterday we ripped out all of chapter one from their books. That will be coming home in their folders tonight. You can see we use some of the pages but not all of the pages. That will be the same with this next chapter. You are welcome to use the pages in the book for practice at home, ONLY if we have passed that lesson and I didn't use them. I will definitely use the On Your Own section.
Social Studies - We are working on chapter 2. We have discussed 2 theories of how Native Americans came to North America. We talked about explorers who explored the area and why. Now we are talking about our Government. We are learning about the 3 branches and their purpose and Who makes up each branch like President, Congress and Supreme Court. We only skim the surface of government. There is a lot of information in this one lesson. We discuss being a republic, democracy, and representative democracy. We also talk about Congress being made up of the Senate and House of Representatives. I also shared with them how many members are in each, or at least how the figure it. This is a very informative chapter. We will begin working on a map skill next week. We will cover a Time Zone Map. I like this lesson because some kids don't realize we have time zones and why. This tells them why and shows about where they boundaries are. They will color a map in and answer time zone questions using the map.
I hope all of you have a great weekend!! I know I will, I have family back from Texas! I am excited to see them and get to spend some time with them. Now, let's pray the weather cooperates.
God Bless,
Mrs. Sickels
Thursday, September 29, 2016
Dear Parents,
Happy Thursday!!! What a nice week! Fall is finally here! I hope it sticks around a while. It was a little chillier this week and I had several students without jackets or sweatshirts. They need to have these items for when they go outside. All of the teachers agree 50's is not warm enough to not have a jacket or sweatshirt on. Please make sure to check the weather and make sure your child has one of these things. Thank you. Wednesday was coldest day and I had morning duty and many students complained about being cold. Again just be sure they are prepared.
Language Arts - We read our 5th story in Unit 1 this week. The story was called Stormalong. It is a tall tale. Tall tales always have some sort of person with a superhuman ability. Stormalong's was his size. He was a huge man. He was too big to fit on a boat, which was his dream job. He was a seafaring man and belonged to the sea. He leaves and goes to the Midwest to become a farmer because he feels the sea is not for him because of his size. He finds he is very unhappy. He goes back to the sea and his friends make a boat big enough for him because they can see that he is unhappy. The moral of the story is be true to yourself. Don't try to be a different person than what you are meant to be. This is a big moral for kids this age but we did discuss it and I think they get it. This week we studied capitalization rules for names, documents, historical events, Nationalities, languages and titles of essays, stories or books. This was a lot but a few of them they should have known. The spelling list this week was on Homophones, which are words that sound the exact same but have different meanings and are spelled differently. Tomorrow is our assessment day. Please be sure your child looks over the vocabulary packet and spelling words. Thank you.
Math - Students are taking their chapter 1 math test today. We will do the paper/pencil work today. Tomorrow they will enter their answer on the computers. I can't wait to see their improvement! Yes, I am very positive that I shall see improvement for everyone. We worked hard on this chapter. Every one seems to be working really hard on the test also. We will begin chapter 2 next week. This chapter is longer than the first one so we will be working on it for a while. I will do my best to keep us moving and learning. This chapter is over multiplying by a 1-digit number. There are lots of strategies to learn in this chapter. Chapter 1 was 8 lessons long. Chapter 2 is 14. That is a big difference. This chapter takes a while to go through. We will begin with a pretest to see what students all ready know and I can base my instruction on that. This is a very important chapter for the students. We need to work hard!! I also may start having what I plan to call Fraction Friday. I hope to use Fridays to start in learning about fractions. It is a a fun unit where the students will get to use a few more manipulatives to aid in their learning. It is a way for me to cover a couple different things at once, which will help make our year a little more successful.
Social Studies - We took a test this week in social studies. I was very pleased with how well the test was done by all. It shows me they are learning those good study habits. We have started chapter 2. This chapter is about how Native Americans arrived in North America. It will discuss the government and how is it organized. These things are important to understand before we begin talking about each region separately. Please note that I only skim the surface, when talking about government. We just focus on the branches and what their purpose is. This is an election year and there have been some opinions floating around about the candidates by students. I am glad to know these discussions are going on at home.
I hope all of you have a great weekend!! Remember next Friday is our first day to help unload the Food Pantry truck. We will walk down there unload and walk back. This is weather permitting of course, but kids need to be sure to dress appropriately. We will go if it is chilly so they need to be prepared.
God Bless,
Mrs. Sickels
Happy Thursday!!! What a nice week! Fall is finally here! I hope it sticks around a while. It was a little chillier this week and I had several students without jackets or sweatshirts. They need to have these items for when they go outside. All of the teachers agree 50's is not warm enough to not have a jacket or sweatshirt on. Please make sure to check the weather and make sure your child has one of these things. Thank you. Wednesday was coldest day and I had morning duty and many students complained about being cold. Again just be sure they are prepared.
Language Arts - We read our 5th story in Unit 1 this week. The story was called Stormalong. It is a tall tale. Tall tales always have some sort of person with a superhuman ability. Stormalong's was his size. He was a huge man. He was too big to fit on a boat, which was his dream job. He was a seafaring man and belonged to the sea. He leaves and goes to the Midwest to become a farmer because he feels the sea is not for him because of his size. He finds he is very unhappy. He goes back to the sea and his friends make a boat big enough for him because they can see that he is unhappy. The moral of the story is be true to yourself. Don't try to be a different person than what you are meant to be. This is a big moral for kids this age but we did discuss it and I think they get it. This week we studied capitalization rules for names, documents, historical events, Nationalities, languages and titles of essays, stories or books. This was a lot but a few of them they should have known. The spelling list this week was on Homophones, which are words that sound the exact same but have different meanings and are spelled differently. Tomorrow is our assessment day. Please be sure your child looks over the vocabulary packet and spelling words. Thank you.
Math - Students are taking their chapter 1 math test today. We will do the paper/pencil work today. Tomorrow they will enter their answer on the computers. I can't wait to see their improvement! Yes, I am very positive that I shall see improvement for everyone. We worked hard on this chapter. Every one seems to be working really hard on the test also. We will begin chapter 2 next week. This chapter is longer than the first one so we will be working on it for a while. I will do my best to keep us moving and learning. This chapter is over multiplying by a 1-digit number. There are lots of strategies to learn in this chapter. Chapter 1 was 8 lessons long. Chapter 2 is 14. That is a big difference. This chapter takes a while to go through. We will begin with a pretest to see what students all ready know and I can base my instruction on that. This is a very important chapter for the students. We need to work hard!! I also may start having what I plan to call Fraction Friday. I hope to use Fridays to start in learning about fractions. It is a a fun unit where the students will get to use a few more manipulatives to aid in their learning. It is a way for me to cover a couple different things at once, which will help make our year a little more successful.
Social Studies - We took a test this week in social studies. I was very pleased with how well the test was done by all. It shows me they are learning those good study habits. We have started chapter 2. This chapter is about how Native Americans arrived in North America. It will discuss the government and how is it organized. These things are important to understand before we begin talking about each region separately. Please note that I only skim the surface, when talking about government. We just focus on the branches and what their purpose is. This is an election year and there have been some opinions floating around about the candidates by students. I am glad to know these discussions are going on at home.
I hope all of you have a great weekend!! Remember next Friday is our first day to help unload the Food Pantry truck. We will walk down there unload and walk back. This is weather permitting of course, but kids need to be sure to dress appropriately. We will go if it is chilly so they need to be prepared.
God Bless,
Mrs. Sickels
Thursday, September 22, 2016
Hello Parents,
Happy Thursday!!! I hope you are all having a good week! It is a very short week at school. We are having quite the learning week. We are getting a little more homework on our plate and learning how important it is to use our time wisely. They are receiving a few more late slips also. The students will really figure out how important any free time or work time can be. Even just 5 minutes. I am trying to push them to use even 3 minutes wisely and that is less time needed at home for the work. Some realize they can even finish something they started in that amount of time. Others still want to talk and be social. We are working on behaviors in the lunch room. We have a total of 64 kids to get through the lunch line, fed, seconds, ala carte and clean plates in 30 minutes. It is very difficult so we are working on getting the kids to understand the importance of time in the lunch room.
Book Orders- There are book orders in the folders today. Please return any orders to me on Monday Sept. 26th. I take care of all of it. I don not do online ordering. Please, if your child wants a book, make the check payable to Melissa Sickels. I write one check to the company or use debit card. They do not want several checks to deal with. I will place the order Monday or Tuesday and it will arrive by the beginning of the next week. If you are looking for gifts, I can be secretive! I love doing that. Let me know if you have any questions. Remember they are due on Monday!
Language Arts - This week being a short week we are working really hard through this story. The week's story is a drama or play. It is called The Power of W.O.W. This story is about a book program called Words on Wheels (W.O.W.) and it is a bus that carries books to kids living out in suburbs far away from the city library. They have ran out of funding and are going to give up the program. The kids who benefit from this program are so upset they hold a car wash to earn money. It tells a little about the hard work they put it and how people coming together can make a difference. They raise enough money for the program to continue. It is a great "feel good" story where kids are the ones to make things happen. Our spelling list this week was over short o long o. The grammar we discussed dealt with sentence fragments and run-on sentences. We also practiced writing titles. They should be going over their spelling words and vocab packets tonight to help review for their tests tomorrow.
Math- This week in math we have reviewed addition with numbers in the hundred thousands, and also subtraction with numbers in the hundred thousands. Today we will begin the last lesson in this chapter. It will be over problem solving. We will focus on subtraction problems and how to draw a picture to show what we are doing or needing to find. Some kids work much better being able to see the problem. This will hopefully help those students to understand what they are doing. Next week we will work on a review and be taking a chapter 1 test. We will take the test on paper in the room, then we will enter our answers into the computer where it will generate some comparisons for me. It should show progress from the pretest to the post test. I will be able to print off some data to show you during conferences using this computer piece. It will show progress and if no progress than it will show which areas need some more work.
Social Studies - We have been reviewing for a test this week. They will be taking a test over chapter 1 tomorrow. It will happen first thing in morning at 8:30. This test is very similar to the tests they took last year. It just may have more questions to answer. There will be a section on vocabulary where you match the word to it's definition. There is a section of multiple choice questions and then a section where you will have to answer questions by writing out answers in sentences. Monday we will make corrections and then we move on into the next chapter.
PTO - I want to make you aware of what our PTO is up to for our school. The PTO just recently purchased a 2nd set of chromebooks to be shared in the lower wing. These funds come from all the fundraising efforts of the families here at St. Malachy. As much as we appreciate all your hard efforts, we would also like for you to attend the weekly meetings to help them with coordinating the fundraising and events that benefit our school. One way to hopefully up attendance at meetings is by having a contest. The PTO is keeping track of who shows up at meetings and the class your child is in will receive credit. The class at the end of the year with the most attendance will get a pizza party. The kids are pretty pumped about this, but it is you parents that have to make it happen. I talked to the kids today about this contest, so if they come home pushing for you to attend, that is why. Right now, the first grade is winning! Kudos to them!! We are using the laptops in our classroom 3-4 times a week. They were well worth the investment and we would love for 3-4-5 students to have a one-to-one computers. That is a goal for us to have one day. We hope soon!! Please join in with our PTO to continue to make is a successful organization for our school!
I hope all of you have a great weekend. I hope you enjoy a very fun and safe Homecoming. It was always one of my favorite times when I had kids in High School. I think next week is finally another FULL week!!
God Bless,
Mrs. Sickels
Happy Thursday!!! I hope you are all having a good week! It is a very short week at school. We are having quite the learning week. We are getting a little more homework on our plate and learning how important it is to use our time wisely. They are receiving a few more late slips also. The students will really figure out how important any free time or work time can be. Even just 5 minutes. I am trying to push them to use even 3 minutes wisely and that is less time needed at home for the work. Some realize they can even finish something they started in that amount of time. Others still want to talk and be social. We are working on behaviors in the lunch room. We have a total of 64 kids to get through the lunch line, fed, seconds, ala carte and clean plates in 30 minutes. It is very difficult so we are working on getting the kids to understand the importance of time in the lunch room.
Book Orders- There are book orders in the folders today. Please return any orders to me on Monday Sept. 26th. I take care of all of it. I don not do online ordering. Please, if your child wants a book, make the check payable to Melissa Sickels. I write one check to the company or use debit card. They do not want several checks to deal with. I will place the order Monday or Tuesday and it will arrive by the beginning of the next week. If you are looking for gifts, I can be secretive! I love doing that. Let me know if you have any questions. Remember they are due on Monday!
Language Arts - This week being a short week we are working really hard through this story. The week's story is a drama or play. It is called The Power of W.O.W. This story is about a book program called Words on Wheels (W.O.W.) and it is a bus that carries books to kids living out in suburbs far away from the city library. They have ran out of funding and are going to give up the program. The kids who benefit from this program are so upset they hold a car wash to earn money. It tells a little about the hard work they put it and how people coming together can make a difference. They raise enough money for the program to continue. It is a great "feel good" story where kids are the ones to make things happen. Our spelling list this week was over short o long o. The grammar we discussed dealt with sentence fragments and run-on sentences. We also practiced writing titles. They should be going over their spelling words and vocab packets tonight to help review for their tests tomorrow.
Math- This week in math we have reviewed addition with numbers in the hundred thousands, and also subtraction with numbers in the hundred thousands. Today we will begin the last lesson in this chapter. It will be over problem solving. We will focus on subtraction problems and how to draw a picture to show what we are doing or needing to find. Some kids work much better being able to see the problem. This will hopefully help those students to understand what they are doing. Next week we will work on a review and be taking a chapter 1 test. We will take the test on paper in the room, then we will enter our answers into the computer where it will generate some comparisons for me. It should show progress from the pretest to the post test. I will be able to print off some data to show you during conferences using this computer piece. It will show progress and if no progress than it will show which areas need some more work.
Social Studies - We have been reviewing for a test this week. They will be taking a test over chapter 1 tomorrow. It will happen first thing in morning at 8:30. This test is very similar to the tests they took last year. It just may have more questions to answer. There will be a section on vocabulary where you match the word to it's definition. There is a section of multiple choice questions and then a section where you will have to answer questions by writing out answers in sentences. Monday we will make corrections and then we move on into the next chapter.
PTO - I want to make you aware of what our PTO is up to for our school. The PTO just recently purchased a 2nd set of chromebooks to be shared in the lower wing. These funds come from all the fundraising efforts of the families here at St. Malachy. As much as we appreciate all your hard efforts, we would also like for you to attend the weekly meetings to help them with coordinating the fundraising and events that benefit our school. One way to hopefully up attendance at meetings is by having a contest. The PTO is keeping track of who shows up at meetings and the class your child is in will receive credit. The class at the end of the year with the most attendance will get a pizza party. The kids are pretty pumped about this, but it is you parents that have to make it happen. I talked to the kids today about this contest, so if they come home pushing for you to attend, that is why. Right now, the first grade is winning! Kudos to them!! We are using the laptops in our classroom 3-4 times a week. They were well worth the investment and we would love for 3-4-5 students to have a one-to-one computers. That is a goal for us to have one day. We hope soon!! Please join in with our PTO to continue to make is a successful organization for our school!
I hope all of you have a great weekend. I hope you enjoy a very fun and safe Homecoming. It was always one of my favorite times when I had kids in High School. I think next week is finally another FULL week!!
God Bless,
Mrs. Sickels
Thursday, September 15, 2016
Dear Parents,
Happy Thursday!! A full week this week! We are surviving. But next week we have another short one. No School on Monday, teacher inservice, and Friday we are out early for Homecoming! The kids will not know how to handle a full week when we get going and back into that routine. I may not either! I am pleased with how this class has matured over the summer and come in and adjusted to 4th grade. I have not given out a ton of late slips and that is a good thing. The students have been having a study hall each day, but that is changing due to computer time. We have finally gotten to where we can fluently get on the computers and work. So that will now take place of the study hall. You may begin to see a little more homework floating home with your student. Please be sure to set aside time for them to complete the homework. I have included a copy of our schedule for you to see how our day works.
Service Work - The 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade students will be participating once a month in some community service. They will be walking down to The Food Bank of Iowa and helping to unload the truck that comes in on Fridays. It usually arrives around 1:15 or 1:30 and may take about 20-30 minutes to unload. The Food Bank provides supplemental food to those in need. The students will providing a great service to those who volunteer their time to unload the truck, shelve the products and help the day it is distributed to families. We are excited that they are being given this opportunity to help others in the community. I have provided a permission form in today's folder for you to sign regarding this opportunity. It lists the dates the student will walk down to the food pantry, which is on Wyoming Street. It is on the corner of Division and Wyoming. Of course this will always be weather permitting. We will not walk in the rain or when the weather is too cold. The teacher in charge will make the decision. The 4th grade will be going the 1st Friday of every month . Please return the permission form as soon as possible.
Language Arts - This week we are reading a nonfiction story in our book called My Librarian is a Camel. It is an interesting story that talks about very remote places that don't have the means of a Public Library building so they improvise. It shares several ways in which books are transported to children. Some of the ways are by mail, camel, elephant, bus, and boat. I tried to discuss we are lucky to have access to books all the time. We have access in our schools, a public library and via the internet. I tried to get them to understand how lucky they are and that others are not. They studied using quotation marks in grammar and their spelling list was short i long i. Tomorrow is assessment day so they will take a spelling post test and end of the week assessment. They have a vocabulary packet to study and their spelling words.
Social Studies - This week in social studies we have discussed resources in a region. There are many resources that different regions provide. We have talked about the most important ones to the five different regions. We have discussed industries, capital resources, human resources, natural resources, raw materials, and the difference between renewable and nonrenewable resources. The students have done a great job participating in the group discussion, choral reading, partner reading, and group work. Today they have an individual homework assignment deciphering if something is a nonrenewable or renewable resource. We are nearing the end of this chapter ad will be getting ready for a test by the end of next week.
I hope all of you have a great weekend. Sounds the weather will be great. Rainy all week but beautiful weekend. Get out and enjoy the balloons. Remember NO SCHOOL MONDAY!!!
God Bless,
Mrs. Sickels
Happy Thursday!! A full week this week! We are surviving. But next week we have another short one. No School on Monday, teacher inservice, and Friday we are out early for Homecoming! The kids will not know how to handle a full week when we get going and back into that routine. I may not either! I am pleased with how this class has matured over the summer and come in and adjusted to 4th grade. I have not given out a ton of late slips and that is a good thing. The students have been having a study hall each day, but that is changing due to computer time. We have finally gotten to where we can fluently get on the computers and work. So that will now take place of the study hall. You may begin to see a little more homework floating home with your student. Please be sure to set aside time for them to complete the homework. I have included a copy of our schedule for you to see how our day works.
Service Work - The 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade students will be participating once a month in some community service. They will be walking down to The Food Bank of Iowa and helping to unload the truck that comes in on Fridays. It usually arrives around 1:15 or 1:30 and may take about 20-30 minutes to unload. The Food Bank provides supplemental food to those in need. The students will providing a great service to those who volunteer their time to unload the truck, shelve the products and help the day it is distributed to families. We are excited that they are being given this opportunity to help others in the community. I have provided a permission form in today's folder for you to sign regarding this opportunity. It lists the dates the student will walk down to the food pantry, which is on Wyoming Street. It is on the corner of Division and Wyoming. Of course this will always be weather permitting. We will not walk in the rain or when the weather is too cold. The teacher in charge will make the decision. The 4th grade will be going the 1st Friday of every month . Please return the permission form as soon as possible.
Language Arts - This week we are reading a nonfiction story in our book called My Librarian is a Camel. It is an interesting story that talks about very remote places that don't have the means of a Public Library building so they improvise. It shares several ways in which books are transported to children. Some of the ways are by mail, camel, elephant, bus, and boat. I tried to discuss we are lucky to have access to books all the time. We have access in our schools, a public library and via the internet. I tried to get them to understand how lucky they are and that others are not. They studied using quotation marks in grammar and their spelling list was short i long i. Tomorrow is assessment day so they will take a spelling post test and end of the week assessment. They have a vocabulary packet to study and their spelling words.
Social Studies - This week in social studies we have discussed resources in a region. There are many resources that different regions provide. We have talked about the most important ones to the five different regions. We have discussed industries, capital resources, human resources, natural resources, raw materials, and the difference between renewable and nonrenewable resources. The students have done a great job participating in the group discussion, choral reading, partner reading, and group work. Today they have an individual homework assignment deciphering if something is a nonrenewable or renewable resource. We are nearing the end of this chapter ad will be getting ready for a test by the end of next week.
I hope all of you have a great weekend. Sounds the weather will be great. Rainy all week but beautiful weekend. Get out and enjoy the balloons. Remember NO SCHOOL MONDAY!!!
God Bless,
Mrs. Sickels
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