Dear Parents,
Happy Thursday!!! Well, what will today bring. We have had a nice couple of days, as a matter of fact a little teaser to Spring. Now, I am not sure the meteorologists even know what it's really going to do today. One channel says 1.3 inches another says 1-3 inches, and the radio this morning said 4-5 inches. So take your pick. We will get whatever Mother Nature decides to give us. I am just thankful we are not in school until June!! Ms. Surma has a sister-in-law who is looking at June 9th as last day for students. I am definitely thankful this is not us!! So keep praying for Spring.
Conferences - Well, these are coming quickly. As a parent, I am happy to say my 5th grader, Molly, was chosen to participate in honor choir. As a teacher, I am frustrated because that happens on March 11, which is the Tuesday of conferences. I will need to make some changes in the schedule. I will be calling all those who have conferences on Tuesday evening to see if I can accommodate you. I have some openings on Thursday night, I may be able to do my first few on Tuesday, but I definitely can fill in some Monday or Wednesday. I just wanted you to know this was coming. I will work on making those calls next week.
Language Arts - What a crazy week we had last week for language arts. We finished up week 20 lesson, and took a unit 4 test!! We were busy. This week we are back to normal with week 21 lesson. The story is called The World According to Humphrey. It is cute story from the point of view of a classroom hamster. Humphrey goes home with a student every weekend for a visit. Plus, the student must clean the cage Sunday and bring back Monday. The house Humphrey visits is a family that spends most of their time watching T.V. There is a definite theme to this story. The kids were able to pick it out. Ask them about it. We are talking about comparative and superlative adjectives and adverbs this week for grammar. This is adding -er or -est to the end of words. Students are learning when it is appropriate to use -er or when it should be -est. If those two suffixes don't make sense then they put "more" or "most" in front of the word. Your child can tell you how to tell the difference and which to use. Spelling this week, we worked on a VCV pattern, which is vowel-consonant-vowel. We also looked at decoding these patterns and breaking into syllables.
Math- We are finishing up our chapter on single digit multiplication. We will be taking a test next week, if the weather holds for us. We will be doing the last lesson in the chapter tomorrow. On Monday, we will do review, check the review on Tuesday, and test on Wednesday. Then we will dive right into the double-digit chapter. This one may be a little more difficult!! Work those flash cards.
Social Studies - We are on the last lesson in this chapter also. We will finish it up next week and be taking a test also. This test will not be til maybe Thursday. Then Friday we will choose our new states for the next round of projects. These projects will be due in first week of April. They are all ready asking when they can choose. I love it!! They are very enthusiastic about doing these projects. There may be a few that don't appreciate them!! Keep up the excellent work!!
Auction- Thank you, Thank you, thank you for all the donations towards the scrapbook and the trunk!! I am so happy with our results! We finished our scrapbook pages today and they are ready to be placed in the book when it arrives. Kids did a great job. It took us a lot longer. These kids were very creative.
God Bless,
Mrs. Sickels
Thursday, February 20, 2014
Thursday, February 13, 2014
Dear Parents,
Happy Thursday!! Wow, Valentine's Day all ready. This year is really flying by!! I know it's because I missed the first 5 weeks of school but still can't believe we are here all ready. It has been a challenging couple of weeks for me, trying to catch up and make plans on these short weeks!! I almost dread the short weeks now, when I used to enjoy a good snow day every now and then. We are getting things done and the kids are working hard.
Language Arts - We finally finished up lesson 20 this week and had our post test and end of week test on Wednesday. The students really did pretty well. The story we read was Sacagawea. It was kind of long and had a lot of information that I didn't know in it. I really rather enjoyed it. The kids found it to be a little boring and struggled with the comprehension a little bit. They did a great job with spelling words this week and the decoding section of the test. Today we took the BBT ( according to Sophia, the Big Bad Test) This made me laugh!! It was the Unit 4 test. We completed it this morning. I have not graded this test yet. Some kids really took there time and I predict good news from it.
Math - We completed a diagnostic checkpoint this week which the kids seemed good with. We also had a new lesson on multiplying using money. We had the lesson today, it really was a review for them, just throwing in a decimal point and dollar sign was new. They caught on quickly. I had each go to the board and do problems to show me they understood. We counted a head. We are looking at a test over this chapter during the last week of February. The next chapter will start out easy but then dive into one of our largest topics which I keep pumping the kids up for. They are preparing and will be ready for it.
Social Studies - Well, this is the subject that is hard to do when we have short weeks and projects due. We have had to rearrange the schedules a little bit to make it work. All projects will be covered. We still have one to share tomorrow morning. We began talking about the Civil War today. We are just skimming the surface of all the issues that are involved. Kids had a good discussion on segregation and slavery. I love that they find it so hard to understand the "why" of segregation. When I think about my grandparents they knew the "why" and lived it. I wish there was more material in the book on the effects of the war, but it is just one piece of the Southeast that we are studying.
Wednesday, February 19th - This is a no school day for the Public School due to State Dual wrestling. St. Malachy has chosen to go ahead and be in session that day so we don't have to tack it onto the end of the year. If your family is planning on attending the State Dual meet your child will be excused from school.
Field Trip Friday, February 14th - I have been able to read a little more than half of the book I am Jack to the students. We are enjoying it. It is sad that the boy is being bullied and the kids are shocked at the situation and how bad the bullying is, but the boy himself and some of the words he uses are humorous. Example would be Grandma buying clearance underpants. They are purple and glow in the dark. She buys them for all of them. They laughed a lot during that scene. We will have our Valentine party in the morning and then get on the bus about 10. We will eat at the Pastoral Center in downtown Des Moines, then walk the 5 blocks to the Temple Theater. We will arrive back home by 2:45.
Have a great weekend!!
God Bless,
Mrs. Sickels
Happy Thursday!! Wow, Valentine's Day all ready. This year is really flying by!! I know it's because I missed the first 5 weeks of school but still can't believe we are here all ready. It has been a challenging couple of weeks for me, trying to catch up and make plans on these short weeks!! I almost dread the short weeks now, when I used to enjoy a good snow day every now and then. We are getting things done and the kids are working hard.
Language Arts - We finally finished up lesson 20 this week and had our post test and end of week test on Wednesday. The students really did pretty well. The story we read was Sacagawea. It was kind of long and had a lot of information that I didn't know in it. I really rather enjoyed it. The kids found it to be a little boring and struggled with the comprehension a little bit. They did a great job with spelling words this week and the decoding section of the test. Today we took the BBT ( according to Sophia, the Big Bad Test) This made me laugh!! It was the Unit 4 test. We completed it this morning. I have not graded this test yet. Some kids really took there time and I predict good news from it.
Math - We completed a diagnostic checkpoint this week which the kids seemed good with. We also had a new lesson on multiplying using money. We had the lesson today, it really was a review for them, just throwing in a decimal point and dollar sign was new. They caught on quickly. I had each go to the board and do problems to show me they understood. We counted a head. We are looking at a test over this chapter during the last week of February. The next chapter will start out easy but then dive into one of our largest topics which I keep pumping the kids up for. They are preparing and will be ready for it.
Social Studies - Well, this is the subject that is hard to do when we have short weeks and projects due. We have had to rearrange the schedules a little bit to make it work. All projects will be covered. We still have one to share tomorrow morning. We began talking about the Civil War today. We are just skimming the surface of all the issues that are involved. Kids had a good discussion on segregation and slavery. I love that they find it so hard to understand the "why" of segregation. When I think about my grandparents they knew the "why" and lived it. I wish there was more material in the book on the effects of the war, but it is just one piece of the Southeast that we are studying.
Wednesday, February 19th - This is a no school day for the Public School due to State Dual wrestling. St. Malachy has chosen to go ahead and be in session that day so we don't have to tack it onto the end of the year. If your family is planning on attending the State Dual meet your child will be excused from school.
Field Trip Friday, February 14th - I have been able to read a little more than half of the book I am Jack to the students. We are enjoying it. It is sad that the boy is being bullied and the kids are shocked at the situation and how bad the bullying is, but the boy himself and some of the words he uses are humorous. Example would be Grandma buying clearance underpants. They are purple and glow in the dark. She buys them for all of them. They laughed a lot during that scene. We will have our Valentine party in the morning and then get on the bus about 10. We will eat at the Pastoral Center in downtown Des Moines, then walk the 5 blocks to the Temple Theater. We will arrive back home by 2:45.
Have a great weekend!!
God Bless,
Mrs. Sickels
Friday, February 7, 2014
Dear Parents,
WOW!! What a week we have had. It started out great with bowling on Monday. It was a very fun day!! I feel that the kids really enjoyed it. Then Tuesday came and brought an early out. Wednesday no school, and Thursday 2 hour delay, when are we to get any work done???? Well, we are back at it ready to roll. Today started with a CRS (Constructed Response Supplement) assessment. It is a another assessment used to assess their ability to read and comprehend. They read a small 8 paragraph story on Wolves, and then answered 8 questions. These were not true/false or multiple choice. They had to write out answers to questions. Students all over the Diocese are taking these tests this week.
Language Arts - Due to our lack of a full week of school, our story that is to happen this week will have to carry over into next week. We will not be taking an end of the week or spelling post test until next Tuesday or Wednesday. This works because this was the last story in Unit 4 and we would be taking a Unit test next week. This test will happen on Friday. The story this week is Sacagawea. Tomorrow we will dig in with this story and spend most of the morning on it. Spelling words are all centered around the pattern VCCV, which is vowel-consonant-consonant-vowel. We will spend a day picking out those patterns. Grammar this week is easy and great to cover. It is over abbreviations. The need to upper case and also end with a period are major rules for abbreviations that we are covering. I will keep you posted on how things are progressing and when for sure the post test and end of week test will be.
Math- We are moving along in math. We had a lesson on Tuesday on problem-solving skill: Try, check, and revise. We practiced this strategy in class and then they were to apply their learning to a worksheet. We will cover "Choosing a Computation Method" tomorrow and then have a diagnostic checkpoint to make sure we are understanding all we have learned in this section. If there were some struggles I may reteach a section. If not we move on. We will be coming to a test over this chapter in next week or so. I hope the weather is on our side to allow it!! Double-digit multiplication is coming!! Practice those facts!
Social Studies - Well, project due dates have arrived. The first two came in today. Kids are very excited about sharing them. I love this time also. Again I hope the weather allows this to go smoothly. We talked a little about explorers this wee. We learned about the founding of St. Augustine, Florida, and how it got it's name. We also learned who first saw the Mississippi River and who first traveled all the way down the Mississippi River.
Just a note: I have two parents, Nicole Adamson and April Evans, who are working on the 4th grade auction item. I think this item is going to be different from a traditional "basket". I will let you know more when I know more. Please send any monetary donations to school to me and I will get to them. Also, I would like a $2 donation from each student to create a scrapbook page of themselves for the book. Also any stickers or things you might have, please send to help us be creative.
Remember there is NO SCHOOL on Monday, Feb. 10th. It is teacher Professional Development Day.
God Bless,
Mrs. Sickels
WOW!! What a week we have had. It started out great with bowling on Monday. It was a very fun day!! I feel that the kids really enjoyed it. Then Tuesday came and brought an early out. Wednesday no school, and Thursday 2 hour delay, when are we to get any work done???? Well, we are back at it ready to roll. Today started with a CRS (Constructed Response Supplement) assessment. It is a another assessment used to assess their ability to read and comprehend. They read a small 8 paragraph story on Wolves, and then answered 8 questions. These were not true/false or multiple choice. They had to write out answers to questions. Students all over the Diocese are taking these tests this week.
Language Arts - Due to our lack of a full week of school, our story that is to happen this week will have to carry over into next week. We will not be taking an end of the week or spelling post test until next Tuesday or Wednesday. This works because this was the last story in Unit 4 and we would be taking a Unit test next week. This test will happen on Friday. The story this week is Sacagawea. Tomorrow we will dig in with this story and spend most of the morning on it. Spelling words are all centered around the pattern VCCV, which is vowel-consonant-consonant-vowel. We will spend a day picking out those patterns. Grammar this week is easy and great to cover. It is over abbreviations. The need to upper case and also end with a period are major rules for abbreviations that we are covering. I will keep you posted on how things are progressing and when for sure the post test and end of week test will be.
Math- We are moving along in math. We had a lesson on Tuesday on problem-solving skill: Try, check, and revise. We practiced this strategy in class and then they were to apply their learning to a worksheet. We will cover "Choosing a Computation Method" tomorrow and then have a diagnostic checkpoint to make sure we are understanding all we have learned in this section. If there were some struggles I may reteach a section. If not we move on. We will be coming to a test over this chapter in next week or so. I hope the weather is on our side to allow it!! Double-digit multiplication is coming!! Practice those facts!
Social Studies - Well, project due dates have arrived. The first two came in today. Kids are very excited about sharing them. I love this time also. Again I hope the weather allows this to go smoothly. We talked a little about explorers this wee. We learned about the founding of St. Augustine, Florida, and how it got it's name. We also learned who first saw the Mississippi River and who first traveled all the way down the Mississippi River.
Just a note: I have two parents, Nicole Adamson and April Evans, who are working on the 4th grade auction item. I think this item is going to be different from a traditional "basket". I will let you know more when I know more. Please send any monetary donations to school to me and I will get to them. Also, I would like a $2 donation from each student to create a scrapbook page of themselves for the book. Also any stickers or things you might have, please send to help us be creative.
Remember there is NO SCHOOL on Monday, Feb. 10th. It is teacher Professional Development Day.
God Bless,
Mrs. Sickels
Thursday, January 30, 2014
Dear Parents,
Happy Thursday!! Well we are at that time of year where we start talking about the St. Malachy Foundation Auction. I am slow to get going this year. I am wondering if anyone is interested in helping to put together a basket for our class. I have some ideas and don't mind helping but would like a parent of two to join in. Let me know if you are willing or able. I always do a scrapbook for out silent auction. That won't change I plan on doing that again. I work with Maple Street Memories on that but will love to have parent helpers the day we are making the pages. I will plan on doing that on Wednesday, February 19th, at 2:00. Let me know if you can help out for either things.
Language Arts - We haven't had a normal week here because of Catholic Schools week activities but we are on target. We will still plan on spelling post test and end of week test tomorrow. Our story this week was Harvesting Hope the story of Cesar Chavez. I tells about his journey in protecting migrant farmers. We also hit a hard topic in grammar discussing independent clauses, dependent clauses, relative pronouns and relative adverbs. Wow, don't those sound heavy!? They are. We will see tomorrow how well we get it. One more week with a story and then we will be taking a unit test.
Math - We needed to go back and review a couple topics this past week. They were estimating products and partial product. We have now moved on. I taught them the standard algorithm to multiplication. This was a 2 digit number by a single digit number. We have now moved to a 3 digit number. We just went over partial product and will practice it again tomorrow. Next week we will move onto the standard algorithm for the 3 digit number. They understand each strategy but have a hard time keeping them straight. When I ask you to use partial product what do you do? If I show them do it this way they totally get it. I am trying to stress what each of them are called as we do them so they know the difference. This can be confusing.
Social Studies - We are getting closer to projects being due. If your child has a person or poster they need to get them poster board to me, so we can trace their state. If you have cake I will try to get these out today or tomorrow. We are talking about the people and events that shaped the Southeast Region. Right now our discussion is on the Cherokee. They are only Native Americans to have a written language. Sequoya was the Native American to create a Cherokee alphabet. This language is still being shared in schools in North Carolina where the Cherokee still live today. We also discussed the government making them leave their lands and taking the "Trail of Tears" to Oklahoma where they were given a reservation to live on. We will be skimming the topic of the Civil War next week.
We are all saddened that the weather didn't cooperate for us to take our trip to Des Moines. We will still get to go, just not today.
God Bless,
Mrs. Sickels
Happy Thursday!! Well we are at that time of year where we start talking about the St. Malachy Foundation Auction. I am slow to get going this year. I am wondering if anyone is interested in helping to put together a basket for our class. I have some ideas and don't mind helping but would like a parent of two to join in. Let me know if you are willing or able. I always do a scrapbook for out silent auction. That won't change I plan on doing that again. I work with Maple Street Memories on that but will love to have parent helpers the day we are making the pages. I will plan on doing that on Wednesday, February 19th, at 2:00. Let me know if you can help out for either things.
Language Arts - We haven't had a normal week here because of Catholic Schools week activities but we are on target. We will still plan on spelling post test and end of week test tomorrow. Our story this week was Harvesting Hope the story of Cesar Chavez. I tells about his journey in protecting migrant farmers. We also hit a hard topic in grammar discussing independent clauses, dependent clauses, relative pronouns and relative adverbs. Wow, don't those sound heavy!? They are. We will see tomorrow how well we get it. One more week with a story and then we will be taking a unit test.
Math - We needed to go back and review a couple topics this past week. They were estimating products and partial product. We have now moved on. I taught them the standard algorithm to multiplication. This was a 2 digit number by a single digit number. We have now moved to a 3 digit number. We just went over partial product and will practice it again tomorrow. Next week we will move onto the standard algorithm for the 3 digit number. They understand each strategy but have a hard time keeping them straight. When I ask you to use partial product what do you do? If I show them do it this way they totally get it. I am trying to stress what each of them are called as we do them so they know the difference. This can be confusing.
Social Studies - We are getting closer to projects being due. If your child has a person or poster they need to get them poster board to me, so we can trace their state. If you have cake I will try to get these out today or tomorrow. We are talking about the people and events that shaped the Southeast Region. Right now our discussion is on the Cherokee. They are only Native Americans to have a written language. Sequoya was the Native American to create a Cherokee alphabet. This language is still being shared in schools in North Carolina where the Cherokee still live today. We also discussed the government making them leave their lands and taking the "Trail of Tears" to Oklahoma where they were given a reservation to live on. We will be skimming the topic of the Civil War next week.
We are all saddened that the weather didn't cooperate for us to take our trip to Des Moines. We will still get to go, just not today.
God Bless,
Mrs. Sickels
Thursday, January 23, 2014
Dear Parents,
Happy Thursday!!! Wow, another cold one today. Let's hope this is one of the last ones. We have had a lot of inside recesses lately due to the cold. Our rule is if it is 0 or below we stay in so we are not putting the children at risk. We consider the wind chill if there is one. As much as we try to get our kids to remember all their winter items (gloves, hat, scarves, and boots) some of them forget. Try to make them double check everything before they leave in the morning to be sure they are prepared.
Language Arts - This week we are reading a fun story called Hercules' Quest. Everyone is enjoying this story because they can relate to the disney movie. The pictures in the book look like the same characters on the movie. I may see about showing the movie sometime next week just as a fun way to end out story. The story has a nice theme to it about using your strengths to do kind things instead of bad. This story is a myth and so a lot of things in it are impossible to happen in real life. We have picked out those things. I am so glad we have a nice "light" story after the two we just had which were nonfiction stories with a lot of information. The spelling list this week was a good one for the students over the prefixes -dis, -re, and -un. They did really well on the pretest. In grammar we are focusing on prepositions and prepositional phrases. This is a hard topic to teach and get them to understand. We just keep practicing!!
Math - We have covered 4 lessons in the multiplication chapter. We have learned to multiply by 10, 100, and 1,000's, we have learned to estimate products using rounding and compatible numbers, we have learned mental math strategies of breaking apart and compatible numbers, and we learned to use arrays to multiply which is called partial product. I know you didn't learn this strategy of multiplication because I didn't, plus the SOS Student in our room also commented that he had no clue what I was doing. I know it can be frustrating to try and help your child when you are unsure of what we are doing. I promise you partial product is one of the best strategies out there that helps them understand what multiplication is actually doing. It leads right into the standard algorithm which is what you and I learned. Let your child teach you what they are doing and explain the process. This will also be great practice for them and help them master the skill. Please continue to work on those flash cards if you have them. They had an opportunity this week to do that here at school with partners. Bigger and better things are yet to come in Math!!!
Social Studies - We are taking a test today!! This is over Chapter 6. We will begin Chapter 7 next week. This will be the last chapter in the Southeast Region and we will talk about people from the area. I hope everyone is working on their projects. They are excited to see the new ones.
Catholic Schools Week: We kick of Catholic Schools Week this Sunday at mass. Some of your students have parts in this mass please check today's folder for those. Don't forget brunch will follow! Monday is hat day. We know I have a million of those to choose from!! I am not sure I even want to wear one since I spend 6-10 weeks in them! Also your child needs to bring a sack lunch that day. They will eat with their advent angel and then they go back to the rooms and watch a movie, while the enjoy a luncheon provided by the PTO. Tuesday is "Come as you are" day or pajama day. Wednesday is class theme day. The 4th and 5th grade wanted go with a "Nate and T.J." day, so we are being auctioneers, cowboys, or cowgirls. Those boys loved the Sale Barn and all the people in it, so we all are going to enjoy our day being who those boys loved. Thursday is "Blue and Gold" day or St. Malachy gear. We have our field trip to Des Moines to go bowling. This will be a fun day for all. Your child will be eating a sack lunch provided by the school that day. We will eat our lunches at Christ the King School. We will get to meet the teaches and student there also. What a great day for meeting new friends!! Friday is our BEST day the Grandparent/special friend day!!! This is held at the church starting at 1:30. We will bus kids over there, you will meet them there and find a seat. What a great way to end our week in celebration with God. I hope all the students enjoy the week and participate in all the fun things planned. Oh, remember, learning will also still take place next week!!!!
Have a great weekend!!!
God Bless,
Mrs. Sickels
Happy Thursday!!! Wow, another cold one today. Let's hope this is one of the last ones. We have had a lot of inside recesses lately due to the cold. Our rule is if it is 0 or below we stay in so we are not putting the children at risk. We consider the wind chill if there is one. As much as we try to get our kids to remember all their winter items (gloves, hat, scarves, and boots) some of them forget. Try to make them double check everything before they leave in the morning to be sure they are prepared.
Language Arts - This week we are reading a fun story called Hercules' Quest. Everyone is enjoying this story because they can relate to the disney movie. The pictures in the book look like the same characters on the movie. I may see about showing the movie sometime next week just as a fun way to end out story. The story has a nice theme to it about using your strengths to do kind things instead of bad. This story is a myth and so a lot of things in it are impossible to happen in real life. We have picked out those things. I am so glad we have a nice "light" story after the two we just had which were nonfiction stories with a lot of information. The spelling list this week was a good one for the students over the prefixes -dis, -re, and -un. They did really well on the pretest. In grammar we are focusing on prepositions and prepositional phrases. This is a hard topic to teach and get them to understand. We just keep practicing!!
Math - We have covered 4 lessons in the multiplication chapter. We have learned to multiply by 10, 100, and 1,000's, we have learned to estimate products using rounding and compatible numbers, we have learned mental math strategies of breaking apart and compatible numbers, and we learned to use arrays to multiply which is called partial product. I know you didn't learn this strategy of multiplication because I didn't, plus the SOS Student in our room also commented that he had no clue what I was doing. I know it can be frustrating to try and help your child when you are unsure of what we are doing. I promise you partial product is one of the best strategies out there that helps them understand what multiplication is actually doing. It leads right into the standard algorithm which is what you and I learned. Let your child teach you what they are doing and explain the process. This will also be great practice for them and help them master the skill. Please continue to work on those flash cards if you have them. They had an opportunity this week to do that here at school with partners. Bigger and better things are yet to come in Math!!!
Social Studies - We are taking a test today!! This is over Chapter 6. We will begin Chapter 7 next week. This will be the last chapter in the Southeast Region and we will talk about people from the area. I hope everyone is working on their projects. They are excited to see the new ones.
Catholic Schools Week: We kick of Catholic Schools Week this Sunday at mass. Some of your students have parts in this mass please check today's folder for those. Don't forget brunch will follow! Monday is hat day. We know I have a million of those to choose from!! I am not sure I even want to wear one since I spend 6-10 weeks in them! Also your child needs to bring a sack lunch that day. They will eat with their advent angel and then they go back to the rooms and watch a movie, while the enjoy a luncheon provided by the PTO. Tuesday is "Come as you are" day or pajama day. Wednesday is class theme day. The 4th and 5th grade wanted go with a "Nate and T.J." day, so we are being auctioneers, cowboys, or cowgirls. Those boys loved the Sale Barn and all the people in it, so we all are going to enjoy our day being who those boys loved. Thursday is "Blue and Gold" day or St. Malachy gear. We have our field trip to Des Moines to go bowling. This will be a fun day for all. Your child will be eating a sack lunch provided by the school that day. We will eat our lunches at Christ the King School. We will get to meet the teaches and student there also. What a great day for meeting new friends!! Friday is our BEST day the Grandparent/special friend day!!! This is held at the church starting at 1:30. We will bus kids over there, you will meet them there and find a seat. What a great way to end our week in celebration with God. I hope all the students enjoy the week and participate in all the fun things planned. Oh, remember, learning will also still take place next week!!!!
Have a great weekend!!!
God Bless,
Mrs. Sickels
Thursday, January 16, 2014
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
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
Thursday, January 9, 2014
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
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
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