Dear Parents,
     Happy Thursday!  I hope you are all surviving the crazy weather we are having.  Rain, sun, rain, sun, storms, sun and so on.  I don't mind some rain but Mother Nature can keep the storms.  My plants have been outside, then inside, then back out, and back in.  I am ready for them to stay outside for good!!  We have 8 more school days together.  I can't believe how quickly time has flown by.  These last few days can be stressful.  The kids are just plain done and don't want to be here anymore, or they know their time together is ending so they are trying to be as social as they can before the end.  Either was this is not a good mix for the end of the year.  They will still have homework and things that need to be done by the end of the year.  I plan to work them hard through next week.  You will be receiving a note letting you know what the last 2 days look like as a school.  Please look for that in today's folder.

Language Arts -  We are off and running in our Charlie and the Chocolate Factory books!  We have a short period of time to get the book read and do some activities with it.  We have read through chapter 17 so far.  The students are keeping a journal where they can either write a short paragraph describing each chapter or draw a picture that describes the chapter.  We are doing lots of activities that deal with grammar and sentences.  We are working on the parts of speech and plural nouns.  They are completing comprehension questions with each section also.  They seem to be having fun reading.  Today a few told me their favorite part was reading the story.  It is nice to read a fun fiction book instead of informational text all the time.  I am trying to get us through the book and show the movie by the end of next week.  I think I will succeed!  The last Tuesday I plan on doing a venn diagram activity comparing the movie and the book. We will be using hula hoops and post it notes.  Reminder I am showing the 1960's movie, I like it better.  It is not so "dark".

Math -  We have started a chapter on fractions.  We have worked on equivalent fractions this week.  The first two lessons deal with equivalent fractions.  I showed them using my fractions stacks what they look like and we have spent 3 days generating equivalent fractions.  We will also learn how to put fractions into simplest form and find common denominators.  If time allows before the end we will work on comparing and ordering fractions.  Usually I end the year with division.  This class has been great and we are able to do some fraction work before they leave me.  This will help them tremendously in 5th grade. This helps Ms. Surma when she gets to this section with them next year.  

Social Studies -  We are moving along working on our map testing.  Some of the students have not done a very good job studying for their map tests.  We are testing over a section at a time so they learn one section before learning the next one.   Some have not studied and are finding themselves behind.  The scores to these quizzes can be found on Power School.  I gave them maps for the West Region today and we will test over it next Tuesday.  Then Next Friday will be the grand daddy test of them all. They will need to label all 50 states and name their capitals.  I will give them blank maps to practice on and a map with answers to study.  Please help them to study these items for next week!  We are also learning about resources and things that boost the economy in each regions.  We have also quickly talked about climate in each.  I hope to have their interactive notebooks finished up by the end of the year too.  This has been a trial year for these.  I really like them and plan to revamp my social studies class for next year.  I will be making changes to what I cover and what activities we do to better suit our learning.

I will only be writing one more blog this year!  I can't believe we are there all ready.  I have truly enjoyed the year.  I know we have trials and tribulations all year but I really do care for your kids.  I will greatly miss them. Thank goodness I see them in Social Studies still.  

God Bless,
Mrs. Sickels