Dear Parents,  
     Happy Thursday!!  Finally a normal week of school!!  Well, with exception of Wednesday's early out.  We are struggling getting back into a routine again because of all these interruptions with weather. Let's pray together for better conditions and no more "no school" days!!  

Language Arts - We read a narrative nonfiction story this week called The Right Dog For the Job.  It was an interesting story but one of our longer ones.  The students complained that is was long.  We learned about service dogs and how they are trained.  We learned about "foster" puppy raisers, and how they played an important part of a service dog's career. The focus was on a service dog named Ira who helped a blind man.  It was a nice heartwarming story about the training of the dog, how students were involved, and how the match up to the owners who need their assistance.  Vocabulary was not too difficult this week.  We also spend out time learner about adverbs.  The parts of speech are much more difficult to learn this year than in the last series.  It is not a bad thing, just a lot more in depth.

Math - We finished chapter 4 and took a test.  The students really did a nice job on the test over all.  We corrected them on Wednesday, so look for them to sign today or tomorrow.  We will be moving on to multiplication today.  It starts out nice and easy but we work our way up into more difficult concepts.  These students will do fine as long as they listen, participate in all the activities we do, and complete their homework.  If your child is struggling and afraid to say it,please let me know.  I try to  let them know that I am always here for them, and to ask any questions they may have. Again I will go at the pace of the students with this chapter.  I want them to master and feel comfortable with it.

Social Studies - We chose our new states and projects this week.  They will be due starting the 2nd week in February.  That will have given them about a month.  I hope to get their due dates to them tomorrow.  We are studying the resources of the Southeast right now.  They will learn a lot about what their state has to offer in our discussions in this lesson.  I always tell them pay attention and take some notes when we are talking about their states.  We will be getting ready for another test for them by the end of next week.

I hope all of you have a great weekend!!  Stay warm.  Any questions or concerns for me please call or email.  My door is always open also!!

God Bless,
Mrs. Sickels

Dear Parents,
     Well, welcome back to 2014!!!  What a time we have had all ready.  Illness has struck and so did the arctic air!  I feel like I am having a hard time accomplishing anything due to another short week.  This makes us work very hard.  I had a great Christmas break and hope all of you did also.  It was relaxing, but time was cut short with family due to the snow that hit the weekend before.  All of them traveled and left after our Christmas Saturday to try and beat the storm.  They were traveling back to Iowa City, Omaha, and Chicago.  Now, we are finally back together to work.

Language Arts - Well, we took a unit test last Thursday and Friday.  I really feel over all the kids did quite well on it.  Maybe we are finally in a routine enough that they are getting it.  We started the first story in new unit this week.  It is a short week so we are trying to fit in all the learning we have to do.  The story is called Freedom Ride.  It is about Charlotte Parkhurst.  She is a women that pretended to be a boy to be a stagecoach driver.  She was in an accident and lost an eye.  She had to reteach herself how to drive with one eye then prove herself to her boss she was still a good driver.  It is a great story.  We will finish the week as always with a spelling post test and a weekly assessment.

Math- We are getting a slow start to this subject.  We are learning now about taking a survey, organizing our results, and creating a graph to show our results.  This will be the last of this chapter. We will be taking a test next week over this graphing chapter.  Then the next topic will be Multiplication.  Yes, this is a tough content area.  I will slow down the pace to ensure that every student gets a good grasp on what we are doing.  Please, be patient with your child at home as they will be learning some things that you and I were never taught.  I will do my best to make sure there is not many questions coming home.  Hopefully, they will just want to share with you the new things they are learning.

Social Studies -  We are moving quite well through this area.  We will be picking our new states and projects today.  The students are very excited to get their new assignment.  We have moved into the Southeast Region of the United States.  We have been discussing the land and it's elevation.  We learned about an elevation map and what it shows.  They will need start to practice labeling the Southeast States correctly to prepare for the test.  We begin to move a little faster through the lessons in the 2nd half of the year.  I worked on getting them adjusted to how things work, now I will pick up the pace a little more now they know what is expected from them.

I hope everyone stays warm, and we have good weather the rest of our winter season.  Our "cold" day will be made up the Monday after Easter.  On January 27th, it is a scheduled day off for the public school.  We WILL be having school that day!!  Please remember there will be no buses that day so you will need to make arrangements for your child to get to school.

God Bless,
Mrs. Sickels

Dear Parents,
     Well here we are it's Thursday!!  To be more specific the last Thursday before Christmas break.  YAY!!  I will miss your children over our long break.  I think we are all ready for the time away though.  It will be important for them to spend time with their family.  Some are so excited about family they get to see!!  This to me is what the season is about.  The smiles on their faces and not hearing about presents, but family.  You are all amazing and have taught your children well.  Merry Christmas to all of you!!!

Language Arts-  We will finish the last lesson in Unit 3 this week.  We will take a normal Friday assessment tomorrow.  This week the story was Ecology for Kids.  It was pointing out the ecosystems in the world and how they affect one another and how important they are.  It also talked about what we can do to help protect them.  When we return from break, on the Thursday and Friday we will be taking the Unit 3 test.  

Social Studies - We finished up the Northeast Region this week.  You should have seen the test scores last night.  I was very happy with them.  Some students really need to work on the labeling of the states.  This is highly important.  At the end of the year they will ask to label all 50.  Learning them a region at a time is not so overwhelming.  Please help work with them on this.  When we return from break we will start the Southeast and assign new projects.  I have really enjoyed the kids projects this round!  They all seem to have worked hard and are very proud of their work.  They are improving on presenting also.

Math - We have been focusing on graphs.  They have learned about pictographs, bar graphs, line plots, and a line graph.  We also learned how to use graphs to solve problems.  We did a fun activity last week involving coordinate grids and being able to follow directions on a grid.  They loved it.  I have 5 or 6 pictures to create. Most of them have a goal of doing all of them.  Tomorrow we will spend some time, playing games or doing those pictures.  When we return from break, we will kick it into full gear and begin new content.  Double-digit multiplication will cause us to slow down.  I need to be able to see that each student masters this skill.  I will teach at a pace, which is considered student lead.  I will take all the time we need to understand. 

Reminder:  Make sure you send a sack lunch with your student tomorrow.  Do not send a drink with them, milk will be provided!  We will have a normal morning then will be watching a movie after our caroling in the gym.  We will have a snack and water during the movie.  Both are provided. 

I would like to say to you again, thank you all for sharing your children with me!!  I really enjoy working with all of them.  I hope you all have a very very Merry Christmas!!  My next letter will be next year!!!  Have a safe New Year.  God Bless 2014!!

God Bless,
Mrs. Sickels

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