Dear Parents,
     Happy Thursday!!  We are really getting down to the last few days.  I count 15 school days left and one of those will be our field trip!!  That really isn't much time.  I am seeing some things withe behavior now.  I know it mainly deals with it being the end of the year, but please talk to your child about the importance of the last days.  They are just as important as the first few days.  I have been praying for the students and talking to them after prayer about making good choices.  They just get grouchy with each other very easily these days.  I also think that has to do with baseball/softball, soccer and dance still happening and the students being so busy.  Please be sure your child is still getting enough sleep at night.  Days are tough on them when they don't.

Field Trip -  Our field trip is next Tuesday the 15th.  We are excited.  Some kids are wondering what fun is riding a train.  I tried to explain it is an old fashioned train, not a new one like Amtrak.  I also told them about how important trains used to be to our history.  There will be a guide talking in a microphone giving us some Iowa History as we ride to point out things of interest.  We also travel over one of the highest railroad bridges built.  It is called the High Bridge.  If you are scared of heights I will instruct you to move to center of the train and not look.  That is what I have to do.  Some days I can look but most I can't. I sometimes bring a book to read while going over it to try and take my mind away from what is going on.  I have been over it many times and for years and it doesn't get any easier.  They slow down to go over it.  So just a warning to you. We also cross a bridge over the Des Moines River and go through the YMCA camp which is interesting.  We eat our lunches on the train also.  Be sure to pack appropriate lunches for the kids to carry on the train. Also watch weather and dress appropriately.  It will be a fun day!

Language Arts -  This week we have tested over Unit 5.  This is the last Unit test of the year.  We will cover some stories in Unit 6, there will be spelling tests and worksheets still but I plan to do more fun activities with them also.  I am reading Charlie and the Chocolate Factory out loud to them.  I usually do this as a whole book unit where all students have a book but we don't have enough time for that.  I do plan on showing them the old movie towards the end of year. We will then do a compare and contrast activity over the book and the movie.  I look forward to this every year.  You will have week 24 results today in folder, week 25 will appear next week and hopefully Unit 5.  I have had students gone and had to make up tests and I can't pull results until all have taken the test.  Due to the students not doing to well with capitalization and punctuation this last unit I have started doing DOL (Daily Oral Language) with them.  This is where they take sentences that are written incorrectly and they make the changes that make them grammatically correct.  Also, they make capitalization and punctuation corrections in the sentences.  We will do this for the rest of the year.

Math -  We are finishing up chapter 4 in our book.  I have 2 more lessons to go over with them. One working on division with larger numbers and one focusing on word problems.  It looks like we will be taking the test next week!  I am excited to see the improvement in this  one.  On the pretest they had no idea what they were doing and wanted to ask questions.  Now they know what they are doing so it should really show improvement.  I feel this builds confidence in our students to see this.  After this chapter we will move into Chapter 5.  This chapter is on factors, multiples and patterns.  This chapter will be very helpful for them in 5th grade.

Social Studies -  We went over some important lessons in the 2nd chapter of the Midwest Region.  The students have a Midwest Map Test tomorrow.  They are to study their maps tonight.  We started talking about the Southwest States today.  We will cover all of the first chapter on the Southwest but only parts of the 2nd.  We will not test over those chapters but will have map tests over the region to practice for that end of year test.  We will also continue to put states in our interactive notebooks.  I love that they walk away with a notebook full of information about our states.  It is a keeper for graduation for sure.  I know that is a while but still it's a good one.

I hope all of you are enjoying the weather! It has been great!  I love being able to sit and read outside. I have taken the kids outside a couple of times.  I had them do art outside yesterday.  They were to sit and draw something they see outside.  They like to pull up pictures on the internet and draw them, so I thought let's go look at something real and draw it!  Some liked it and some did not.  We will work on it again next week weather permitting.  Have a great weekend!!

God Bless,
Mrs. Sickels