Dear Parents,
      Happy Thursday!!  Well, the week started out nice and warm and ending on a very chilly note!!  I have been seeing lots of Farmer's Almanac predictions for winter and whether it will be good or bad.  Seems everything I see says LOTS of snow.  I guess time will tell.  I would rather have snow than freezing temps!!  
     Today we were in charge of Mass.  I think the 4th graders did an excellent job!!!! I normally always get them their parts on Monday, but some of them didn't get them til the day before and did a great job learning them.  I was very proud of them and I let them know that!!  

Math- We have been working in chapter 2 this week.  This chapter is focusing on multiplication.  It has started out with us understanding comparison multiplication.  These students will have a good understanding of this because we have spent 2 lessons on it.  I love the model or picture it shows us to draw because it shows an understanding of the problem.  It helps the students to work the problem.  Some of the problems require more work than the others.  This is a great strategy for them to learn and understand.  We are giving our students so much more opportunity to be successful by teaching them more than one strategy.  One strategy may click with a student more than the standard algorithm which is the only way we learned to work a problem.  I understand that a lot of the things your child is doing may be unfamiliar to you.  If you don't understand the strategy we are using and your child is struggling, tell them to come visit me in morning before school.  I want to help them so they are using the strategy we are working on.  I was okay at math in high school because I just did what they told me and never understood why we did it or how it even made sense.  So many things make more sense to me now, because I am being introduced to the nuts and bolts of math.  Math is so much more than the standard algorithm.

Social Studies - We are talking about rights and responsibilities.  The important part of being a citizen of the United States are the rights that the Constitution gives us, but it also includes our responsibilities as citizens.  We have been talking about the basic rights our Constitution protects. Mainly freedom of speech, freedom of press, and freedom of religion.  We also discussed things that we must do as citizens to help our country be successful.  We talked about passports and their importance.  If you have one share it with your child so they see what one looks like.  We also talked a little bit about taxes.  When taxes are paid and what the money is used for.  Most of them had no idea that's how police/firemen were paid and that's how our roads are fixed or maintained.

Language Arts - We have been focusing on testing this week.  We have been testing over Unit 1.  This test is long but I chunk it up so the students are not taking it all in one day.  I will be sending home the results of this test next week.  We doing the last section of the test today.  It is a constructed response section.  The rest of the test was multiple choice.  I also assigned their first book report this week.  It is due on October 31st.  They must read a book with more than 130 pages.  I also count off for pictures.  I am very strict about the students reading chapter books this year and not picture books.  I don't allow Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Bones, or Big Nate books to be read as book report books.  I also don't like them to read them during out DEAR (Drop Everything and Read) time.  There are a lot of chapter books out there to interest the students. We will also be beginning to write Halloween stories tomorrow.  It gives us most of the month to work on it and get is completed.  It is a fun writing project that most of my 4th graders have a lot of fun writing!  Next week we will get back into the book and begin Unit 2!

Homecoming!!  This week is Homecoming week!!  Tomorrow is RED and Black DAY!!  Please come dressed in your best outfit to support the Panthers!!  We will have a pep rally in the morning to get us all pumped up for the football game! St. Malachy will have float in the parade. Your child is welcome to ride on the float if they want.  They are to meet at Prairie and Sycamore to get on the float and students are to be picked up at the Holy Spirit Church parking lot after that parade!  They will get to throw candy to the crowd.

Have a safe and fun filled Homecoming!!!

God Bless, 

Mrs. Sickels

Dear Parents,
     Happy Thursday!!  It's a good week.  Two good things happened this week.  One is our amazing volleyball team!!! They are undefeated in the conference.  Tuesday's game was quite tense.  Going all five games is crazy.  I would just like to say come out and watch them.  They will not disappoint.  The other amazing thing is 7 of the members of the starting team are St. Malachy graduates!!  The second good thing is, I went to Des Moines to see my brain surgeon and everything is great.  Everything looks as it should and I don't need another scan for 2 years now.  YAY ME!!  I am very relieved and really feel like I can put all of that behind me.  Now, with all that said let's talk about school and your kids.

Book Orders - I aksed that the book orders be due today.  I received one order.  The Scholastic website was not up and working today so I didn't place the order.  The good news is you still have another day to place an order.  Please, send any order in tomorrow.  Whenever you purchase books for your kids I receive bonus points towards the classroom.  I order books for the shelf in my room through these bonus points.  I have a great shelf with great titles but new books are always being published!  I would love to have some newer titles.

Language Arts - We have read the story Stormalong this week.  This story is a Tall Tale.  It is a story that is exaggerated and is meant to be humorous.  Tall tales normally tell a story about how something came about or why something is.  This story is about a boy named Alfred Bulltop Stormalong.  He is boy that is huge as a baby and stays huge all his life.  Very very tall and muscular.  He loves the sea and works on ship.  He is an outcast due to his size.  He goes away to try to fit in somewhere else but ends up coming back to the sea.  He dies and is buried near the sea with many sailors in attendance.  Every since then seamen first class put "A.B.S." safter their names.  Most people believe this means "Able-Bodied Seaman" but the Old New England seafaring men know different they believe it is for Alfred Bulltop Stormalong.  Fun story to read.  We are working on homophones for spelling words.  We have been working on Capitalization with Historical Events, Historical Documents, and writing titles.  Remember tomorrow is Friday so study those vocabulary words and spelling words.

Math - We finished chapter 1 this week!! I think the students all did a great job!!  We will begin chapter 2 tomorrow.  This chapter is on multiplication.  We will really be dissecting multiplication and really understanding the meaning of what we are doing and why we can work problems this way.  I am excited because I feel like I am getting a better understanding myself.  I intend for this chapter to move along just like the first one.  We may just need to stop and take our time on certain lessons if we are struggling.  This chapter has more lessons in it.  The first chapter consisted of 8 chapters and this one has 12 chapters.  At home you could begin practicing the multiplication facts.  If they know their facts this will be easier on the students.

Social Studies -  We have begun talking about Government.  We will talk about the 3 levels of Government and the three branches.  The levels are Local, State, and National.  The branches are Legislative, Executive, and Judicial.  We also talk about the Constitution.  We will also discuss each branch and what it does.

Next week we will have a testing week for Language Arts.  We have covered the whole first unit of 5 stories so now we check what the students learned and retained.  We will also have a writing activity we will work on.

I hope everyone has a great weekend. I am off to spend the weekend watching Josie play softball.  She plays in Norwalk and Bondurant.  We have had fun meeting families from other teams in our conference and becoming friends. Conference teams represented on her softball team are Clarinda, Shenandoah, Lewis Central, and Council Bluffs Abraham Lincoln. The last one isn't in the Hawkeye 10 but we meet up with them periodically in sports.  We played them in Volleyball last weekend at Red Oak tournament.  Fun experience.

God Bless,
Mrs. Sickels

Dear Parents,
     Happy Thursday!!  I am glad it warmed back up for us.  Hopefully it will carry through the weekend!!  Things are going well in 4th grade.  We are busy all day working hard.  Our group work is becoming more and more routine. I think working is smaller groups on skills is very helpful for our students.  They have more opportunity to ask questions and share their ideas.  

Book Orders - I sent two book orders home today with your child.  Please look them over.  Your child must have a chapter book to read at all times.  I don't accept picture type books like Dairy of Wimpy Kid or Bones.  If you are interested in ordering a book, fill out the form, send it back with payment.  If you write a check please make it out to Melissa Sickels.  The company requests one check.  I place order online and books are usually here within a week.  The book orders are due Sept. 25.  You have one week to look it over.  I told the kids Oct. 1, but I was looking at the calendar wrong!  So the actual due date is Sept. 25.  Any books you purchase earns the classroom points and that is how I supply the books on the bookshelves in my room.  Thank you in advance for anyone who orders.

Language Arts -  We are reading the story The Power of W.O.W this week. The W.O.W. stands for Words On Wheels which is a van that brings books from the public library to a neighborhood that is too far away. Kids are unable to get to the real library so this van brings the library to them.  The program is a pilot program and the funds have been exhausted, so the kids come up with ways to raise money to donate to the program.  It's theme is that when a community pulls together they can make good things happen.  The smaller books we read in groups also had stories based on similar story lines.  They were focused on communities coming together for one purpose and it being successful.  We spent the week focusing on sentence fragments, run-on sentences and how to fix them.  In decoding we reviewed the 3 strategies or rules we have learned so far.  One is V/CV pattern when first vowel has long sound.  The second is VC/V pattern when first vowel has short sound, and last is VC/CV patter when first vowel has short sound.  End of the week assessment and post test for spelling are tomorrow. STUDY!! STUDY!!

Social Studies -  We took our first test on Tuesday.  I gave them back today so that they could make corrections.  Overall I thought we did pretty well.  There were a few that didn't do so hot, but I also heard them say they didn't study at all.  It really does pay to get into a good habit of studying!  We will be starting chapter 2 tomorrow.  Your child will bring home their tests tomorrow night for a signature.  Please, sign it and return it to me.  Thank you.

Math - We are finishing up our first chapter in Math.  We will finish up the last lesson tomorrow.  Next week we will begin reviewing for the test.  I am not sure exactly which day we will test but it will be later next week.  It will also depend on whether I decide their are some problem areas that we need to clear up.  This has been a great chapter to begin the year with.  It is good to review. 

I want to thank all of you for filling out the Highlights form! I received all of them back and have it in the mail so I can get my gift for the room.  I hope everyone has a great weekend!!  I will be helping Mrs. Cline celebrate the marriage of her son, Brandon to a former student, Rachel Griffith.  

As always, any questions or concerns, feel free to email me at msickels@crestonstmalachy.com or call before school, after school, or between 8:30 and 9 in morning.

God Bless,
Mrs. Sickels

Dear Parents,
     Happy Thursday!!!  We are ending the week with some cold weather!!  Please be sure your child comes prepared with sweatshirts and jackets.  Sounds like tomorrow will be even chillier than today.  We received a note from Brad Baker at the public school.  In regards to any home football games:  Any student found on the visitors side without administrative permission will be asked to leave the football game.  Evidently some students went to the visitors side to sit during the last home game.  This will not be tolerated and students will be asked to leave.  Go out and support our Panthers!!!
     Also, please take note of the Highlights offer in the take home folder.  If you would like to order, great!! If not, please check no and send it in anyway.  I get free classroom items even if all of you say no.  I use these items in my room with your students.  They are usually gifts or prizes I can give out.  Sign it and return it!  Thank you very much!!

Language Arts -  This week we are reading My Librarian is a Camel.  This is a nonfiction story that is sharing with us how children in remote rural areas get access to library books when they do not have libraries visit.  There are 6 different countries we learn about: Canada, Peru, Kenya, Thailand, Finland, and Mongolia.  It is very interesting the creative ways in which children are supplied with the opportunity to check out books.  We have read stories in groups that talked about service projects or volunteering.  In grammar we are talking about quotation marks, and how to use them.  We have talked about quotation marks in dialogue and split quotations.  Tomorrow is our end of week assessment and this on will have a skills check which a "cold" read with some questions dealing with skills we have covered.  It is a little longer than the normal end of week assessment because that "cold" read is in addition to what we normally do on a Friday. Make sure your kids study their spelling and vocabulary tonight!!

Math- We are still working on Numbers and Operations in Base Ten.  We have been focusing on generalizing place value understanding for multi-digit whole numbers.  Today we finished talking about renaming numbers.  This was easy when they were drawing pictures and using models.  When they started putting in word problems it looked quite a bit different for them. We will still be working on Chapter 1.  The last three lessons are adding whole numbers, subtracting whole numbers, and word problems.  We will then take our first chapter test. This has been a great chapter to start with.  I am very pleased with the progression of our text.  I really feel the students will benefit from the new series and it's relationship to the Iowa Core.

Social Studies - We are discussing natural resources right now.  We are looking at how each region has a certain resource and how resources may have played an important role in how to divide the states into regions. The book also discusses conserving resources and what renewable and nonrenewable resources.  Today's homework is deciding whether a resource in renewable or nonrenewable. We will be ending this chapter next week and taking a test.  The test may not happen until the following week.  

I would like to share that we have an S.O.S. student in our room every other day.  This is a student from the high school who is participating in Students of Service. This is a required class as a senior.  It is only pass or fail.  The student must show up on the days they are scheduled and do work while they are here. Sometimes they will check papers, hang things on walls, take things down, make copies, read with kids, put folders together on Thursday, work in groups, etc.  I try to have them do a variety of things.  Our S.O.S. student is Hanna Luther.  She is a St. Malachy graduate.  She is also the setter for the Varsity volleyball team.  Your child may want to attend a game and watch her play.  We welcome Hanna to our room!!

Have a great weekend!!

God Bless, 

Mrs. Sickels

Dear Parents,

     Hello and Happy Thursday!!!!  I hope all of you had a great weekend!  We had a great time in Chicago.  I have shared a couple photos from out trip.  The first one is of the Ferris Wheel I can now cross off my bucket list!  It constantly moves and you have to jump in as it's moving, which is very slow.  It was fine but when we got to the top it stopped!! That was NOT okay with me!!  I about panicked!!  The 2nd picture is of "The Bean" in Millennium Park.  It is in the Guiness Book for largest mirror or something close to that.  I used to have the book it was in and it is missing. As you can see it was a very busy place.  It is good to be home and headed back into our routine.  The students seemed a little tired on Tuesday but things have returned to normal.

Here is the Ferris Wheel on Navy Pier we rode!!

This is what they call the "Bean" in Millinnium Park.

Language Arts -  This week we read the story My Brother Martin, which is a biography about Martin Luther King Jr. written by his older sister.  We learned about his life as a boy and the things he enjoyed and what ideas that may have lead him to being a significant leader in the Civil Rights Movement.  Talking about a topic they can't even grasp is hard, BUT I am glad they don't understand.  Vocabulary words used were segregation and injustice which I think are higher level words for this age.  They really don't understand why in the world segregation ever took place or why it happened. This shows maybe Martin's work was successful!  Grammar this week was learning the 4 kinds of sentences.  Ask your child to describe each to you:  declarative sentence, interrogative sentence, imperative sentence, and exclamatory sentence.  We talked about all four, what they are and what punctuation they end in.  We also discussed prefixes this week.  Please be sure they study their spelling words and vocabulary words tonight for the end of the week assessment.

Math -  I am very pleased with how the students are all doing in Math so far.  They have done a great job learning and showing me they understand this first few assignments.  I told them how proud of them I am today.  With that, we moved onto rounding numbers and talking about estimation.  This is where students begin to struggle.  I felt like we did a good job on the lesson today but will finish it up tomorrow.  We will review what we did today and then move on.  Please pay attention to the homework sheet that will come home Friday night.  This may be the one that causes them some problems.  I hope to have all their confidences built up so they will be comfortable to do the work on their on.  After this lesson we are ready for a mid-chapter review.  This is a stop and check how we are doing retaining what we have learned in the first half of the chapter.

Social Studies -  We are talking about different climates. We talked about the 3 factors that influence climate. One is where we are compared to the equator, one is if we are near a large lake or ocean, and the third is elevation.  All of these affect climate.  We also talked a little about the water cycle.  The next lesson will focus on resources common to the regions.  This will be last lesson in the chapter so a test is coming!!

I hope everyone gets out and enjoys the nice weather this weekend!!

God Bless,

Mrs. Sickels

Dear Parents,
     Happy Thursday!!!  A week under a belt is a great feeling.  Things are going well in 4th grade.  On the first day of homework I did not have to give any late slips, which was a first!!  Now, the 2nd day is a different story.  This is how we learn how important it is to double check that all our work is completed.  Things are still moving slowly as we continue to learn the of 4th grade, but soon it will be moving steadily along.  Students are doing a great job paying attention and be engaged in lessons.
     I will be gone tomorrow Aug. 29th.  We are leaving for Chicago tonight.  I am visiting the University of Chicago with my daughter Jami on Friday.  Not sure this is my first choice of schools for her just because of the distance but we have family there.  Molly is attending the One Direction Concert with her Aunt as a birthday gift on Saturday night.  As for me, my birthday is Friday and I consider the whole trip my birthday trip.  Sunday we will spend on a boat on Lake Michigan which I have never done.  Exciting!!

Language Arts - We are finishing up our week on the story Because of Winn-Dixie.   We have spend a lot of time this week focusing on the vocabulary words form the story, decoding words, and picking out subjects and predicates of a sentence.  These are all things that they will be assessed on tomorrow.  It will also assess their comprehension of the story.  I also worked on an extra story with some students and we focused on story elements: setting, characters, and plot.  Remember there is a spelling post test tomorrow! I have instructed the students to be sure and study for spelling and also study their vocabulary words in their notebooks.

Math - We have had two full lessons in Math this week.  The first one focused on the base ten system and understanding that each place value is 10 times the previous place value.  We looked at base ten blocks up to 1,000 then discussed what they would look like if we had physical example past 1,000.  We also learned 3 ways to read and write numbers: standard form, word form, expanded form.  Ask your student to show you.  Their homework tonight focuses on this topic.  We will move on to comparing numbers next. 

Social Studies - We are discussing the 5 regions of the United States.  These regions are: Northeast, Southeast, Midwest, Southwest, and West.  We begin by talking about the United States as a whole and our government system.  Then we will move on and study the states by their region.  All 4th graders love social studies because of the content we study and the projects they will complete.  

I hope everyone has a very enjoyable and safe Labor Day weekend!!  Mrs. Irelan will be here in the room tomorrow with the kids.  We are meeting tonight to go over her day tomorrow.  I am sure they will have a very productive day.

God Bless,
Mrs. Sickels 

Hello!!! Welcome to 4th grade!!!
     I am so excited about starting a new year.  I am looking forward to working with your child!!  Thank you for sharing your precious gem with me!  I think we have had a great first couple of days.  The class has been rather quiet, which is normal in the beginning of the year.  I know this will change so I will just enjoy it!  So far no homework!! I have been working on assessing your kids to see where they are in Language Arts and Math so I know what direction I need to go with them.  I did give them an extra recess today just to get outside and wake up.  I hope this blog is helpful in keeping you posted on things we are doing in class and fun things we may do throughout the year.  If you have any questions or concerns for me shoot me an email at msickels@crestonstmalachy.org  or call the school 641-782-7125.  I am available most mornings 7:45 - 8:10 then again 8:30-9:00.  Also at the end of the day 3:15-3:45.

Language Arts -  This first few days I am assessing the kids on what they retained from last year and what areas they struggle in, so I know where to begin work with them.  We took half of the test today and will finish tomorrow.   I also gave them a diagnostic spelling test to see how well they spell.  Next week I will begin the first story of the Unit with them, which is called Because of Winn Dixie.  It is a story from a book right off my book shelf written by Kate DiCamillo.  They will enjoy it. You will begin to see homework next week.

Math - I am very excited about our new math series!!  The math series is based on Iowa Core.  This means I will be teaching the students all the standards and benchmarks that are aligned with Iowa Core.  I will use the same strategies to teach the material to the students that I have been using.  I love the way this book progresses through the year.  We took half of a diagnostic test today, this test will tell me what they retained from last year.  Keep in mind this is based on if the students had learned from this series.  It will really tell me what area they really don't know and what I need to focus on.  We will take a  beginning of the year test next week which is based on what they are going to learn this year.  This will let me know the weak areas that I may need to slow down and allow time for students to absorb new  concepts. 

Science and Religion - Just a reminder that your child will go to Ms Surma for Religion class and Mrs. Burg for Science.  I am in charge of 3-5 Social Studies.  This is the same as last year.  Any questions about these two classes, please feel free to contact them.

Again I am looking forward to a great year full of fun and LOTS of learning.  Have a great weekend!

God Bless,
Mrs. Sickels