Dear Parents:
     Well, Happy Thursday!!!  Another week has gone by.  This week has been better.  We have had a normal week with a normal schedule.  I think they are thankful for the routine but not for the work! (ha ha)  I have hit panic mode.  I have no shopping done!!!  I will be busy the next couple of weekends! First family Christmas is the 21st and I am not ready.  I usually have presents under the tree by now.  You have to buy some to wrap them.  I have never been so late!  I hope you all are doing better than I am this year.

Language Arts:  This wee our Story is called The Life and Times of the Ant.  It is an informational text on how the life of an ant is.  They discuss jobs for the ant, homes, all the tunneling and what happens in each chamber of the ant hill.  This unit has stories all dealing with nature.  We are learning about present participles, past participles, and participle phrases.  These are words ending in ~ing and ~ed and are used as adjectives.  the last 2 stories spelling lists led us into this lesson because they dealt with words ending in these two suffixes.  We are also discussing suffixes in decoding.  We looked at all sorts of suffixes that are used and discussed spelling rules and also how it helps break words into syllables.  We will be taking a normal Friday test tomorrow.

Math: We have learned about pictographs, line plots, and bar graphs so far.  Today we will talk about coordinate pairs and a coordinate grid.  Tomorrow we will do some fun Christmas pictures based on the same idea as coordinate pairs but using letters and numbers.  We will not be testing over this until after Christmas break.  This is an easy chapter that kids have a lot of fun with.  I am glad it worked out we are doing this chapter now.  After this chapter things will pick up and we will get into the topic of Multiplication. We will be learning double-digit multiplication.  This will be a challenge for all 4th graders because it is new content.

Social Studies:  The projects are going very well.  I am excited about what has been coming in.  Kids seem so proud of their work.  Even the questions they ask each other are great!  They really have an interest in learning each state.  We will begin reviewing for a test.  The test will be about next Tuesday or Wednesday.  They will need to be able to label all 11 states on a blank map.  I gave the maps last week to make an answer key and extras to practice on.  I have others in the room to use to practice for the test.  Please help encourage them to practice on them.

Friday, Dec. 20, 2013:  Here are the events that will be happening.  The morning will be normal and go as planned.  At noon they will eat a sack lunch with their Advent Angels.  At 12:30 we will gather for a Christmas sing-a-long in the gym.  At 1:00 the kids will be dismissed to go back to their rooms to enjoy a movie and a snack.  Please send a water bottle with your student that day.  We will allow them to use them during the movie and snack.  When the movie is finished we will play games together until time to go.  If your child has a favorite game from home that they would like to play they are allowed to bring it with them.  This will be our Christmas party to send the students off for the holiday.

Key reminders:  Sack lunch on Friday the 20th, also may bring game and water bottle.

Just to let you know, we have raised over $1,000 for the Philippines.  This is incredible thinking about each child paying 50 cents to a $1.00 for things.  Way to go St. Malachy!!
Also the extra money raised for TJ and Nate Frey's flowers are being used to donate books to our library, because those boys were very big readers.  The remaining will be used to have something in memorial of the boys here at school for kids to see.  If you have any input on what you would like to suggest that to be, please feel free to email Ms. Surma or myself.  We are open to suggestions.  We have a couple ideas but very willing to hear from you, it is your donation money.

God Bless,
Mrs. Sickels

Dear Parents:

     What a week we have had!!  Kids seem to be coping very well.  Our prayer in the morning has changed.  We sit in a small circle near prayer center and light candle on Advent Wreath.  We go through prayer and then we do any visiting we need to.  Topics are our thoughts, feelings, cares, concerns or fears.  They have really come together as a group and helped one another this week.  I am very proud of these kids!!  They each tug at my heartstrings in many ways.  I have probably had more emotions than the students, and I have openly shed tears.  I feel it's important for them to see.  I would again like to thank all of you for sharing your children with me.

Language Arts - We have been working through a story this week as best we can.  I have tried to not bombard them.  The story is called Antarctic Journal: Four Months at the Bottom of the World.   It is about the author who travels there and stays for four months to study the environment.  It does involve a lot of talk about ice.  So far no big discussions have come up.  I am sure before the week is up we will talk about ice safety.  I do not plan on giving a Friday test this week.  We haven't been able to cover everything from the test this week and it would not be a fair assessment.  Focusing has been hard for all of us, including me.  We are still going through the motions but not sure how much we are absorbing.  I may use text as an partner activity for practice but not as an assessment.

Math -  We finished up a chapter before break.  We have corrected tests, I need to put a score on them and then they will come home to be signed.  This week we are starting a unit on Graphs.  We will cover pictographs and line plots this week.  This is a fun unit too.  Learning all the different kinds of graphs.  I also have a fun Christmas activity planned using coordinate pairs when we get to that.  Math shouldn't be too stressful from now until Christmas.

Social Studies -  We practiced labeling the Northeast Region on maps this week.  They will be required on the next test to be able to label all the states in this region.  I gave them extra maps to continue to practice on.  We have been fitting social studies in off and on all week.  Remember project due dates start next week.  I am excited and students are too.  Some are completely done and have asked several questions to see if completed correctly.  Good for them!!!

Funeral:  I wanted to let you know that Ms. Surma and I plan to be at the visitation the entire time.  We feel for your kids to see a familiar face even if they are with you will be comforting.  We just want to help aid in this process in any way we can.  Your children are our priority.  They are welcome to find us for a hug or just to say "Hi".  I pray for all of you as you help your child pay respects and say good-bye to their classmate.

God Bless,

Mrs. Sickels

Dear Parents,
More information:
Ben and Nicole Adamson would like to collect monetary donations from the 4th grade and 5th grade families. They are going to use the money to purchase flowers, a statue, or a stone (depending on donations) for each of the boys from our separate grades. So, if you would like to donate money, please have your child bring it to school tomorrow (Wednesday). That will give them time to order it before the visitation and funeral.  I appreciate anything you can do to help. Thank you.

Mrs. Sickels

Dear Parents,
     I am writing at the request of your children.  They wanted me to be sure the funeral information for Nathan and T.J. were put on here so their parents would know for sure.  Please refer to powersfh.com for all arrangements and to send condolences.

Funeral service:
     Saturday, Dec. 7, 2013
     10:00 A.M.
     Holy Spirit Catholic Church

Visitation:
     All day Friday
     Family will receive friends 6:00 P.M. - 8:00 P.M.

     I just spoke with Leisa Frey.  It is her request that the 4th and 5th graders at St. Malachy be named as Honorary Pallbearers at the funeral.  Individual names will not be listed.

     Please continue to lift up the family in prayer through this time.  Your kids are great and seem to be doing very well.  My biggest concern is them and being able to share their thoughts and feelings.

     Thank you so very much for sharing your amazing children with me.  I truly enjoy working with them every day. 

God Bless,
Mrs. Sickels

Dear Parents,
     I want to wish all of you a very Happy Thanksgiving!!  Safe travels to all of you who are traveling to be with family.  I am not going to complete a formal letter, but just want to make you aware of some things before the break!!

Thanksgiving - Thanksgiving break is here!!! We get out at 2:10 on Wednesday, and have no school Thursday or Friday.  Enjoy the break and the time with family!

Advent - Remember Advent starts on Monday.  We will be lighting an Advent wreath here at school during prayer.  The student will also have advent angels and do activities together with their partner throughout Advent.

Dress Rehearsal for Christmas Concert: The Christmas concert dress rehearsal is on Friday, December 6th. Please check the take home folder for the permission form.  We will be going to the YMCA for practice.

Lighted Christmas Parade: The Civics Club is helping put together a float for the Lighted Christmas Parade. The parade is on Thursday, December 5th at 7:00 pm. We will be in need of students to walk along with the float and hand out "testamints" and holy cards. 

Art- I am looking at trying to get in an art project in the month of December.  This project requires the student to have a milk jug.  It doesn't matter what size, it can be gallon or half gallon, but MUST be plastic.  No cardboard.  Have your child bring one in whenever you can in the first couple weeks of December.  Please be sure to rinse them out thoroughly so there will be no curdled milk smell.  If you are on Pinterest you can go to my "education" board and see the project I plan to do.  When the students bring it home they are going to want a small strand  of white Christmas lights.  I was hoping to get done and send home and people could find lights on clearance after Christmas to put in it.

Happy Thanksgiving!

God Bless,
Mrs. Sickels

Dear Parents,

     Happy Thursday!! I feel like Thursdays are coming around very quickly.  We are nearing the end of the year.  The end of the year from conferences/Halloween to Christmas break always seems to fly by.  We are coming up to Thanksgiving all ready.  We have really had a great month.  I feel the students have really enjoyed a lot of the things we have been doing in class.  Even though I had an extra month of summer vacation, I am looking forward to Thanksgiving.  We are traveling to Chicago, with my two 16 year old girls sharing in the driving!!  It will be great experience for them.  Honestly, there is no traffic at the time, except on I-80, but once we are off that right inside Illinois, it's smooth sailing.  I hope all of you who may be traveling have a safe trip and a great Thanksgiving.

Math - We only have about one more lesson in Math that is required in the Iowa Core.  I will preparing them for a test.  We will take it before Thanksgiving, so we are able to start something new when we return.  We will move into reading and interpreting graphs and data.  It will be a chapter that the kids will enjoy.  After that we will really hit the hard stuff, meaning multiplication.  We will learn to multiply double digits.  I really enjoy teaching this section because it is a "new" topic and the kids really feel "big" when they learn it.  I see the smiles, and I see them working hard to understand because they want to be like the big kids.  You can help by starting to work on their multiplication facts at home.

Language Arts - We finished up the Unit 2 test last week.  We are in the 2nd story in Unit 3 now.  Last week we read a story on hurricanes, this week it is on Earthquakes.  The difference in the stories is that last week was informational text or a non-fiction selection that was chock full of information.  This story on earthquakes is historical fiction, so while trying to give us information on earthquakes it is also telling a story.  It is an interesting story line about a father and son in the San Francisco earthquake of 1906.  They were in a tenement building at the time and end of trapped.  It brings up fears of natural disasters with kids.  We have talked about our fears in class.  This is also a story that makes us look a little deeper into the thoughts of the characters.

Social Studies - I hope everyone is working on their projects for the Northeast.  Some students need to bring in their poster board so I can get it ready for them.  I want to remind you these are meant to be fun and only a few require adult supervision.  These are not meant to be stressful.  I know students are very busy outside of school, which is why I try to give them an ample amount of time to work on them.  Please check out the dates they are due.  I wrote down some wrong dates.  The day is correct but the date is wrong. If I said the 8th, 9th, 10th, or 11th, the dates are a day off.  Not sure what I did wrong but maybe was looking at wrong calendar.  We are moving through this chapter quite quickly.  We just finished a lesson on the Narragansett Tribe of Rhode Island.  We learned how they lived, what they lived in, how society worked, and what they used for government.

I hope you all have a great weekend!!

God Bless,

Mrs. Sickels

 

Dear Parents,
     Happy Thursday!!  I was out of the classroom for a test that was run in Des Moines.  I really hate being out of the classroom and away from the kids.  My time off at the beginning was more than enough for me.  I am hoping that was the last of my appointments until next fall.  We all need to put that in our prayers.

Language Arts -  We have accomplished a lot this week.  We have taken the Unit 2 test this week and covered a story!!  This has made it busy but it does work.  I usually begin the class with one section of the test, then finish out with the activities we do over the story.  This story this week is very hard.  It is an informative piece on Hurricanes.  It is interesting yet very descriptive and I am finding it challenging to follow.  I will do my best to help the students understand, but I am going to insist the students bring their book home today and read the story to / with a parent.  I am hoping this will help you see how much this series steps it up and makes the students accountable for some challenging reading and show you that we are trying to get students to do some deeper thinking when reading different genres.  I will share results of the  Unit test with students next week, and send a copy of results home to you in next weeks folder.

Math - I am finding this chapter fun to teach.  We have tons of vocabulary words we are learning about.  I am finding it successful to have them put vocab into their notebooks before we begin going over the lesson.  This makes the lesson very easy to teach or help them to understand.  I feel they are showing a little more enthusiasm about this content also.  I do know Mrs. Burg covered this stuff last year quite well.  We are taking this chapter slowly.  I will pick up the pace when I am not trying to teach too much in one day, or the vocabulary amount slows down.  I am sure we will be testing over this chapter in December.

Social Studies - We took a test this week.  Students did pretty well over all.  There were a lot of vocabulary on this test.  Some really struggled in this area.  I hope to send the test home today or tomorrow for you to look at and sign.  We will begin moving onto the next chapter today.  We are still covering the Northeast region.  I will be working with them now on locating or labeling a map with those states.  I will give them a blank sheet with just that region on it, and have them practice labeling the states.  On the next test they will be expected to label all 11 correctly.  This is a difficult region because there are so many small states that are easily confused.  This is something that you could help them work on at home.  They can bring a blank sheet to have at home also.

I hope all of you have a great weekend!!

God Bless,
Mrs. Sickels