Dear Parents,
     Another good week under our belt!!  This week has kind have been all about testing.  We had a Math test and Social Studies test plus our regular Language Arts end of week testing.  Wow!!! Next week we are moving into a very fun week.  It is our Catholic Schools Week celebration.  We will still complete academics this week as we have some fun along with it!!  We always look forward to this week.  Please be sure to read the section on this, so your student can participate each day.

Catholic Schools Week-  Here is our schedule of the week.  You received a hard copy of this last week in their folders.  We are sending another copy home today in case you missed it.

     Sunday - Opening of Catholic Schools Week  9:00 A.M.
                  Mass at the church and a brunch to follow.

   Monday - Faculty/Staff Appreciation Day
                 Students need to bring a sack lunch today.  Milk will be provided.
                 Hat Day - Wear your favorite hat to school all day!!

   Tuesday - School Appreciation Day
                  Come as You Are  -  Yes this means come still in your pajamas!

   Wednesday - Community Appreciation Day
                       Class Theme Day - Come dressed as a Lumberjack!!

   Thursday - Student Appreciation Day
                    Talent Show in the gym at 9:30
                    Blue and Gold Day -  Come dressed in St. Malachy gear

   Friday - Grandparent/Special Guest Day
               Our special mass begins at 1:30 at the Church.  Invite someone                        special to you to enjoy Mass.
               This is Dress up day!! Let's look our best to show our friends how                      proud we are of our school.

Whew!!! I hope you have it all down.  That's a lot of fun packed into our week!!!

Math - We took our Chapter 3 test in Math today.  I am excited about how well we did.  I feel like students definitely have a grasp on how to do multiplication problems.  They know 3 different strategies to use to solve the problems and can work them successfully.  They struggle when they have to explain themselves.  When asked to explain how they arrived at their answer, they don't want to write anything.  Some thing just showing the computation is enough.  I am trying to teach them it is not enough and how to show what they know.  We will get better as the year goes on.  I am very proud of their scores!!!  

Social Studies - We finished up Chapter 5 today.  I will give them back their tests tomorrow and introduce the next region to them.  We will  pick new states and projects next week.  They are excited!! We will cover the Southeast.  It has 12 states in it.  A fun new region to learn about.  We will be moving at a quicker pace through these lessons.  Due to not having class on Wednesdays we are behind where I like to be.  They are ready to pick up the pace themselves.

Language Arts -  This week we read a story called Riding Freedom.  This could be compared to the Disney movie Mulan in a way because a woman is disguising herself as a man to do a man's job.  The job is driving a team of horses leading a stagecoach.  The stagecoach carries people and mail from place to place.  It is an interesting story to read.  She loses sight in one eye, due to an accident and has to teach herself how to  drive the team with just one eye.  This makes a huge difference and she must rely on other senses to help her.  In grammar we are learning about adjectives.  What they are, what they describe, and that if you have more than one adjective describing the same noun there is a correct order to put them in.  We have also been discussing figurative language.  We talked about similes, metaphors, and idioms.  We also discussed adages and proverbs.  These are always fun.  Especially they idioms.  Kids love these sayings.  I make them think about the literal meanings and we laugh.

I hope everyone has a great weekend!!

God Bless,
Mrs. Sickels