Dear Parents,
     Happy Thursday!!  We are finally back to a full week.  The most exciting thing is that construction is happening!!  They are running machines, and the noise is not very loud at all.  We are able to work and only hear a light hum of the machinery.  We are so excited to see what is changing out there.  Now that we can see results it makes all this very real.  I watched them dig up the concrete Wednesday night. I just happened to be here when they started.  It was mesmerizing to watch.  I decided I could watch them all night but I should go home!  Drive by out back and check it out!

Iowa Assessments -  The Iowa Assessments will be taken next week.  It usually takes us 3 full mornings to take the tests.  I plan on doing Monday, Tuesday and Thursday mornings.  If anyone is absent we will use Wednesday and Friday to catch them up. Things you can do to help is make sure they get a good night's sleep, and full breakfast.  Studies show if they are tired or hungry they won't do as well.  Also, do the best you can to have a positive morning with your child.  If things happen at home that upset them it sticks with them all day.  We really want the students to do their very best work.

Language Arts-  This week we read a fun biography about Esther Morris.  The story is called I Could Do That!  This story is how Wyoming was the first state to give women the right to vote in elections.  Wyoming gave women the right to voter in 1870.  The Amendment in the Constitution was not until 1920.  For 50 years Wyoming women voted before  any others were allowed.They kids also picked up on the fact that our school started in 1870, so that was at the same time.  Thinking that the school was here 50 years before women got the right to vote made them all go "WOW!" This is also why it's nickname is the Equality State.  It is a fun story about Esther never giving up and always proving people wrong when they said she couldn't do something.  I think the kids enjoyed the story.  In grammar we talked about Negative words and how not to use 2 negatives in one sentence.  Examples of negative words are: no, no one, nobody, none, nothing, and never.  The students found sentences with negatives and made sure they didn't have two, and it if they did they corrected them to only have one. We also talked about Adages and Proverbs again.  This will be in the vocab section of the test.  Hopefully they will do better on this than they did last time.  End of week testing will be tomorrow.  

Math -  This week we covered dividing tens, hundreds and thousands.  We also started to talk about estimating quotients.  Estimating with division is very different from multiplication.  You can't just round the numbers and get an estimate.  You have to actually use compatible numbers so that you can divide evenly.  This lesson will be challenging for some.  I plan on spending two days on this lesson, today and tomorrow.  The three strategies they have learned should get help them on their Iowa Assessments.  Today's lesson was a bit of a struggle.  It puts lesson 4.1 and 4.4 together, but they lacked confidence.  Mrs. Kendrick and I went around the room making sure they were getting it.  They have a few problems for homework today.  Tomorrow we will review what they are doing, check the problems then do the worksheet.  Most all of them know what they are doing they just question themselves or find it a lot of work and get lazy.

Social Studies -  We have a test tomorrow over Chapter 7.  They have corrected their study guide and are have what they need to study.  There will be a map section on this test that requires them to label the states of the Southeast with capitals.  The next region is the Midwest.  We will begin work in that region next week.  I will give out a state for them to put into their notebooks tomorrow when the test is over.  Most get done with time to spare so I will fill that time with a state.  We will try to move a little faster through this region so we can get to the other two. 

I hope all of you have a great weekend.  There are some activities going on in the downtown for Update downtown.  Maybe you can find an event to be a part of.  I hope to get some spring cleaning done even though it doesn't feel like Spring at all.  Pray for warmer weather.

God Bless,
Mrs. Sickels