Dear Parents,
Happy Thursday!! I told you these next few weeks would go quickly. I know for the kids it really doesn't but for us who are really preparing for Christmas it goes fast. Next week is our last full week until next year! That sounds crazy. Next week will be treated like a normal week. The only difference will be is Friday the 19th. Our schedule will be very different that day. The kids are all very excited this time of year but sometimes I feel a little too much. Usually when they are this out of sorts a big snow storm is brewing. I am not sure that is true, but if we get a good one before Christmas, I will say I am not surprised!!
Language Arts - In language arts this week, we continue the theme of nonfiction stories. This one is Antarctic Journal: Four Months at the Bottom of the World. We heard from an author who truly researches her subjects before writing about them. She went and stayed in Antarctica for four months for research. She was there over Christmas, which the kids and I had a hard time understanding. I did talk about no one being able to be there during their true winter season because it is too dangerous. This week in spelling we are working on more words ending in -ed and -ing. We learned about words parts -spect,
-struct, -tele, and -vis. We learned that 3 of them originated from Latin and one Greek. We learned their meanings which makes sense with our words that contain these parts. In grammar we are discussing modal auxilaries, which are words like; may, might, can, could, would, should, and must. We are learning what these words express and how to use them properly. This is a challenge to teach when the slang of today changes the true meaning of these words. Our main strategies and skills we are working on in the story are sequence, which we did activity over it in our small books that go along with the story, and summarizing. I reviewed the "Fab 5", that I went over earlier this year. Our end of week assessment will be tomorrow. Study those spelling words and vocabulary words!!
Math - We are working in chapter 3 on double-digit multiplication. We have reviewed area boxes this week and how to do them with a double-digit number. I am a huge fan of this strategy because it gives a visual that we can all understand. It uses partial products which again is one of my favorites. They have been working problems using area box the last couple of days. Today we will use the area box to help us, but we will be focusing on partial products. We will work our way into solving the problem using partial products without the area box. This class will catch on quickly. They have done an excellent job learning multiplication. I am enjoying teaching this content! Next week we will learn the regrouping strategy or the standard algorithm that you and I learned. After that lesson we will spend a few extra days practicing what we learned and then we will do a Math activity that deals with coordinates and following directions. They will create fun Christmas pictures following directions for coloring using a grid. It is just a fun activity to do before a break. I like to do this when I find a good spot to consider a stopping point for their vacation.
Social Studies - The projects have started arriving!! We have shared a couple. I talked to the students about proper way to present their work. I stressed no being silly and goofy and how they should be proud of the work they have done and want to share it so their classmates can enjoy their work also. We are finishing the week with a test over chapter 4. Next week we will begin chapter 5. I will be sure to have a good stopping point in this subject also.
Friday, December 19th - On this day our schedule will be a little different. The Finals of the National Geography Bee will be held in the gym at 10:15. All parents are welcome to attend to see what this event is all about. We held the preliminary rounds the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. This event is for grades 4-8. Our ten finalists are : Rowan Pope, LIly Pryor, Garon Wurster, Danika Schultes, Jaxie Luther, Aubrey Allen, Olivia Hagen, Aliyah Drey, Megan Pellman, and Tessa Powers. In the afternoon, we will travel to the Performing Arts Center to practice for our Christmas Concert. We will be gone most of the afternoon. Please look for the permission form in your students take home folder. Sign it and return it to me ASAP. They need this filled out to travel to the YMCA that day.
Monday, December 22nd - We will be going to the Congregate Meal site with the 5th grade to sing our Christmas songs to the people there. We will just walk since it is in the Depot. Mrs. Weishaar-Mullin, Ms. Surma and myself will be walking them over. We will go around 11:30 and be back by 11:55. Short trip but I know the people will enjoy the show.
Tuesday, December 23rd - This is the last day before our Christmas Break!! This day will be very different. I will let you know specifically what we will be doing those last couple of days in next weeks blog. The main thing I wanted you to know so you could plan ahead is: at 2:30 we will all meet in the gym for caroling. The student sit with their advent angels and we sing Christmas Carols. If you have never been here, I would highly recommend you try to get here. It is the most awesome thing we do as a school. The singing is loud and fills the gym. It brings tears to most of our eyes watching the kids enjoy each other. Truly fills you with the Christmas Spirit!! Please feel free to come sing with us.
I will have a lot more information next week concerning December 22nd & 23rd. So stand by until next week!! Have a great weekend, I hope all of you are getting your shopping done!!! Wishing you a very Merry Christmas and hope you are enjoying the Holiday Season.
God Bless,
Mrs. Sickels
Thursday, December 11, 2014
Friday, December 5, 2014
Thursday, December 4, 2014
Dear Parents,
Happy Holidays!! I hope all of you had a very happy Thanksgiving. We did. We had a nice trip to Chicago. We enjoyed some shopping on Friday. Macy's was my favorite black Friday shopping!! They had some great deals. I have a good start to my Christmas shopping. I am almost done. Now, I am looking for specific things. The rest of the month will go quickly. We are gearing up for Christmas but at school we are still working very hard. We will work as hard as we can up to that very last week. On the last day we are hear we will finish up some important stuff but then have fun and celebrate the season with one another. We will be adding a tree to our wing tomorrow. Kids are creating ornaments to put on them.
Language Arts - This week we are reading a story called The Earth Dragon Awakes. This is a story about the Earthquake in San Francisco, California in April of 1906. We consider this Historical Fiction because it is about a true event in History. The destruction is real, but the actual story of a father Ah Sing and son Chin was fiction. It is kind of a scary story thinking about being in a real earthquake and being trapped beneath rubble. There were real pictures from that day added in also. We have focused on visualizing this week. Students chose a scene out of their book report books and drew a picture of what was happening. They shared in their groups. Fun activity. In grammar we are focusing on possessive nouns. They are getting familiar with the apostrophe again. They are learning about singular possessive nouns and plural possessive nouns. Our spelling list and decoding this week go hand in hand. The spelling list was on words ending in -ed and -ing. They had to either drop an e before adding the endings or they needed to double a consonant. We talked about how that works and how to find the base word when we remove the ending sound. Tomorrow is our weekly assessment. They should be studying their spelling words and vocabulary.
Math - We just started chapter 3. I would love to have it done by Christmas but that may not happen. We have jumped up into double-digit multiplication. Ms. Sherrod taught the first lesson and did an EXCELLENT job. We covered the first part of lesson 2 today which is on estimating products which they find very easy. Since they estimate every answer before they find the real answer they enjoy this lesson cause they don't know how to find the exact answer yet. We will continue to practice out multiplication basic facts also. I am so excited we are learning this content earlier in the year than I used to teach!!
Social Studies- We are getting closer to our first due dates!! Social studies projects will soon be in our halls. I am pumped to see them!! We have learned about land forms and resourced in the Northeast. My favorite fact is that out of 1,000 cranberry bogs in the United States, 500 of them are in Massachusetts. Not a very big state to have that many!! We will be finishing up this chapter soon and taking another test before Christmas Break. We will even get the next chapter started before we take off. Again, I said we are going to work hard and get as much done as we can, as long as we are learning!!
Please remember book orders are due tomorrow. Let me know if you are ordering for gifts. There were a lot of great things in the book orders!! I love the Holiday order. The Hunger Games Foil box set would make a great gift. I always push for kids to read the books because they are so much better than the movies. I started reading the Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone book out loud and they are really enjoying it because it has so much more than the movie. They all say, that didn't happen!! Send in your orders if you have them!! Thank you!
Have a great weekend!
God Bless,
Mrs.Sickels
Happy Holidays!! I hope all of you had a very happy Thanksgiving. We did. We had a nice trip to Chicago. We enjoyed some shopping on Friday. Macy's was my favorite black Friday shopping!! They had some great deals. I have a good start to my Christmas shopping. I am almost done. Now, I am looking for specific things. The rest of the month will go quickly. We are gearing up for Christmas but at school we are still working very hard. We will work as hard as we can up to that very last week. On the last day we are hear we will finish up some important stuff but then have fun and celebrate the season with one another. We will be adding a tree to our wing tomorrow. Kids are creating ornaments to put on them.
Language Arts - This week we are reading a story called The Earth Dragon Awakes. This is a story about the Earthquake in San Francisco, California in April of 1906. We consider this Historical Fiction because it is about a true event in History. The destruction is real, but the actual story of a father Ah Sing and son Chin was fiction. It is kind of a scary story thinking about being in a real earthquake and being trapped beneath rubble. There were real pictures from that day added in also. We have focused on visualizing this week. Students chose a scene out of their book report books and drew a picture of what was happening. They shared in their groups. Fun activity. In grammar we are focusing on possessive nouns. They are getting familiar with the apostrophe again. They are learning about singular possessive nouns and plural possessive nouns. Our spelling list and decoding this week go hand in hand. The spelling list was on words ending in -ed and -ing. They had to either drop an e before adding the endings or they needed to double a consonant. We talked about how that works and how to find the base word when we remove the ending sound. Tomorrow is our weekly assessment. They should be studying their spelling words and vocabulary.
Math - We just started chapter 3. I would love to have it done by Christmas but that may not happen. We have jumped up into double-digit multiplication. Ms. Sherrod taught the first lesson and did an EXCELLENT job. We covered the first part of lesson 2 today which is on estimating products which they find very easy. Since they estimate every answer before they find the real answer they enjoy this lesson cause they don't know how to find the exact answer yet. We will continue to practice out multiplication basic facts also. I am so excited we are learning this content earlier in the year than I used to teach!!
Social Studies- We are getting closer to our first due dates!! Social studies projects will soon be in our halls. I am pumped to see them!! We have learned about land forms and resourced in the Northeast. My favorite fact is that out of 1,000 cranberry bogs in the United States, 500 of them are in Massachusetts. Not a very big state to have that many!! We will be finishing up this chapter soon and taking another test before Christmas Break. We will even get the next chapter started before we take off. Again, I said we are going to work hard and get as much done as we can, as long as we are learning!!
Please remember book orders are due tomorrow. Let me know if you are ordering for gifts. There were a lot of great things in the book orders!! I love the Holiday order. The Hunger Games Foil box set would make a great gift. I always push for kids to read the books because they are so much better than the movies. I started reading the Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone book out loud and they are really enjoying it because it has so much more than the movie. They all say, that didn't happen!! Send in your orders if you have them!! Thank you!
Have a great weekend!
God Bless,
Mrs.Sickels
Thursday, November 20, 2014
Dear Parents,
WOW!! The cold is here!! Too cold, as a matter of fact. I hope we get some warmth back in there a little or it will be a long winter. Thank you for being patient and rescheduling conferences so I could go to the football game. I appreciate it and I know my kids did too. I am finally finished with all of them. Thank you for meeting with me, I enjoy talking with all of you. Thank you for sharing your children with me. I do enjoy them every day.
Language Arts - This week we have started back in the book with a story called Hurricanes. It is a nonfiction piece on how hurricanes form and where. Also where they hit. Our spelling list was on compound words and we are talking about homophones in grammar. The homophones are the most frequently confused: to, too, two, there, their, they're, its and it's. We also touched on hear, here, read, and red. We also worked on decoding compound words. The end of week assessment is tomorrow. Please remember to study the vocabulary. Next week is a very short week so we will not read a story in the book. I plan to do another fluency evaluation and for the students to do a writing project. This also means no spelling words next week.
Math - We are finishing up chapter 2. They were assigned the review today. We will check it tomorrow. The actual test will be on Monday. We will correct it on Tuesday. I don't plan on starting chapter 3 until the Monday after Thanksgiving. Please, talk to them about trying their hardest. They also took a timed test today over multiplication facts. I am seeing improvements. Yay!! Keep working!!
Social Studies - Your child was given their due dates today for the first projects. They were excited. I will get the poster boards and cake tracers out to them next week. They may begin work on them. We are visiting the Northeast region, talking about NIagra Falls, the Appalachain Mountains, and the different mountain ranges that are in there, also the different coastlines. Maine has a very rocky coastline where in New Jersey it is sandy with great beaches. We also talked about the Appalachain Trail. It is a trail that covers 2,160 miles on top of the Appalachain Mountains. It goes through 14 states, starting in Maine all the way through Georgia. I think that is very interesting. I will be anxious to see the first projects in December!!
Book Orders - I sent home two book orders today for November, I just decided that I am gong to also send 2 for December home tomorrow. Please look at all four. You can order out of any of them. I would like them due back on Dec. 5th so that I can get them sent off and back by Christmas. If you would like to get your child gift secretly we can do that. Just email me, send me a note, stop order off to Sarah in office, I will do whatever to make it happen. I can email you when they get here and work something out to make sure it stays a secret!! I love secrets!!!
Please read the school letter on the website as well. We will be having a celebration on December 1st for Nate and T.J. Frey and it talks about the events that will be happening that day.
Have a great weeknd!!
God Bless,
Mrs. Sickels
WOW!! The cold is here!! Too cold, as a matter of fact. I hope we get some warmth back in there a little or it will be a long winter. Thank you for being patient and rescheduling conferences so I could go to the football game. I appreciate it and I know my kids did too. I am finally finished with all of them. Thank you for meeting with me, I enjoy talking with all of you. Thank you for sharing your children with me. I do enjoy them every day.
Language Arts - This week we have started back in the book with a story called Hurricanes. It is a nonfiction piece on how hurricanes form and where. Also where they hit. Our spelling list was on compound words and we are talking about homophones in grammar. The homophones are the most frequently confused: to, too, two, there, their, they're, its and it's. We also touched on hear, here, read, and red. We also worked on decoding compound words. The end of week assessment is tomorrow. Please remember to study the vocabulary. Next week is a very short week so we will not read a story in the book. I plan to do another fluency evaluation and for the students to do a writing project. This also means no spelling words next week.
Math - We are finishing up chapter 2. They were assigned the review today. We will check it tomorrow. The actual test will be on Monday. We will correct it on Tuesday. I don't plan on starting chapter 3 until the Monday after Thanksgiving. Please, talk to them about trying their hardest. They also took a timed test today over multiplication facts. I am seeing improvements. Yay!! Keep working!!
Social Studies - Your child was given their due dates today for the first projects. They were excited. I will get the poster boards and cake tracers out to them next week. They may begin work on them. We are visiting the Northeast region, talking about NIagra Falls, the Appalachain Mountains, and the different mountain ranges that are in there, also the different coastlines. Maine has a very rocky coastline where in New Jersey it is sandy with great beaches. We also talked about the Appalachain Trail. It is a trail that covers 2,160 miles on top of the Appalachain Mountains. It goes through 14 states, starting in Maine all the way through Georgia. I think that is very interesting. I will be anxious to see the first projects in December!!
Book Orders - I sent home two book orders today for November, I just decided that I am gong to also send 2 for December home tomorrow. Please look at all four. You can order out of any of them. I would like them due back on Dec. 5th so that I can get them sent off and back by Christmas. If you would like to get your child gift secretly we can do that. Just email me, send me a note, stop order off to Sarah in office, I will do whatever to make it happen. I can email you when they get here and work something out to make sure it stays a secret!! I love secrets!!!
Please read the school letter on the website as well. We will be having a celebration on December 1st for Nate and T.J. Frey and it talks about the events that will be happening that day.
Have a great weeknd!!
God Bless,
Mrs. Sickels
Thursday, November 6, 2014
Dear Parents,
Happy Thursday!! I want to say the end of the year is coming!! Once we hit October, I feel like it all flies by. First we have conferences, which about 3 of you need to check out and sign up, then it is Thanksgiving, next we hit Advent and Christmas. It all seems to run together and be over before I know it. We will still work hard through all these exciting times. I look forward to all the breaks with my family. So far so good with the weather, but we all know winter is coming. Again. please be sure your child is coming to school prepared for the day. Sweatshirts at recess are not enough, especially if they are wearing the coat in the classroom too. They need to bring a coat, to put on over the sweatshirt. Also, dig out those hats and mittens and get them ready!!
Language Arts - This week we are ready a Biography about Jose Limon. The story is called Jose, Born to Dance. It tells of his life growing up and how he became a dancer later in life. Everyone thought he would be an artist because he loved to draw and paint. He spent his young life focusing on that. In grammar we have discussed subject and object pronouns. Ask your students about learning the pronouns. We also learned what an antecedent is. That is what the pronoun actually stands for. We also read poetry on dance. This is the last story in Unit 2, so we will be taking a unit test next week. There will not be a regular spelling test or reading stories. We will focus on testing, sharing book reports and I will assign the next book report, if I have time. Conferences throw a wrench into the schedule, so I will get done as much as I can, the test being the priority.
Math - We learned the standard algorithm for multiplication today. This is the strategy that you all know and love. Personally it is no longer my favorite. It doesn't show the true understanding of what you are doing when you multiply. It is easier and quicker but that is not my goal as a teacher for your child. Yes, I want to teach them the things that make it easier for them, but I want them to understand the reasoning behind it. I also want them to have several options to get an answer. Deeper understanding of math is my goal. It will only help them when learning algebra and higher level courses in High School. I am very pleased with all of them and how well they are picking up on it all. We will keep up the hard work. After this chapter we will focus on double-digit multiplication. I will begin working with basic facts here at school. Please, spend a few minutes at home practicing. There are apps for ipods out there to help them get their facts.
Social Studies - We just finished chapter 3 today. Tomorrow we will correct tests. Next week we will begin studying our first Region of the United States. Which also means "PROJECTS"!! I will go over each project available with your student and then hand you the packets at conferences and share with you. I am so excited!! This is my favorite part of social studies. We will also start learning a song about the states and capitals. This will help them memorize all the states and their capitals. We will also be sure to master the location of the states within the region. They will only learn a region at a time. I feel this makes more sense to master one region at a time. By the end of the year they will be able to do all 50 states and name their capitals. Woohoo!! That is also exciting.
I hope everyone enjoys their weekend. Go cheer on the Panthers Friday night in Dallas Center-Grimes!!
God Bless,
Mrs. Sickels
Happy Thursday!! I want to say the end of the year is coming!! Once we hit October, I feel like it all flies by. First we have conferences, which about 3 of you need to check out and sign up, then it is Thanksgiving, next we hit Advent and Christmas. It all seems to run together and be over before I know it. We will still work hard through all these exciting times. I look forward to all the breaks with my family. So far so good with the weather, but we all know winter is coming. Again. please be sure your child is coming to school prepared for the day. Sweatshirts at recess are not enough, especially if they are wearing the coat in the classroom too. They need to bring a coat, to put on over the sweatshirt. Also, dig out those hats and mittens and get them ready!!
Language Arts - This week we are ready a Biography about Jose Limon. The story is called Jose, Born to Dance. It tells of his life growing up and how he became a dancer later in life. Everyone thought he would be an artist because he loved to draw and paint. He spent his young life focusing on that. In grammar we have discussed subject and object pronouns. Ask your students about learning the pronouns. We also learned what an antecedent is. That is what the pronoun actually stands for. We also read poetry on dance. This is the last story in Unit 2, so we will be taking a unit test next week. There will not be a regular spelling test or reading stories. We will focus on testing, sharing book reports and I will assign the next book report, if I have time. Conferences throw a wrench into the schedule, so I will get done as much as I can, the test being the priority.
Math - We learned the standard algorithm for multiplication today. This is the strategy that you all know and love. Personally it is no longer my favorite. It doesn't show the true understanding of what you are doing when you multiply. It is easier and quicker but that is not my goal as a teacher for your child. Yes, I want to teach them the things that make it easier for them, but I want them to understand the reasoning behind it. I also want them to have several options to get an answer. Deeper understanding of math is my goal. It will only help them when learning algebra and higher level courses in High School. I am very pleased with all of them and how well they are picking up on it all. We will keep up the hard work. After this chapter we will focus on double-digit multiplication. I will begin working with basic facts here at school. Please, spend a few minutes at home practicing. There are apps for ipods out there to help them get their facts.
Social Studies - We just finished chapter 3 today. Tomorrow we will correct tests. Next week we will begin studying our first Region of the United States. Which also means "PROJECTS"!! I will go over each project available with your student and then hand you the packets at conferences and share with you. I am so excited!! This is my favorite part of social studies. We will also start learning a song about the states and capitals. This will help them memorize all the states and their capitals. We will also be sure to master the location of the states within the region. They will only learn a region at a time. I feel this makes more sense to master one region at a time. By the end of the year they will be able to do all 50 states and name their capitals. Woohoo!! That is also exciting.
I hope everyone enjoys their weekend. Go cheer on the Panthers Friday night in Dallas Center-Grimes!!
God Bless,
Mrs. Sickels
Thursday, October 30, 2014
Dear Parents,
Happy Thursday!! I think our really warm weather has moved on. It always seems that Halloween is when the real cold begins. I know 17 years ago on Oct. 26, we had a bad snow storm because I ended up with no electricity, and had to take the twins to my parents for warmth. They were just 4 months old at them time. Funny thing is, I didn't even know it was suppose to snow that night! Maybe the snow will stay away for a while. At least til all our local farmers get their crops out. I have really notice the trees this year. They are really pretty. The oranges and reds seem more brilliant. My neighbor had a great orange colored tree but last weekend it lost all it's leaves in one day. My kids make fun of me for pointing those things out, except one day one of the older two pointed a pretty red tree out to me. I hope everyone enjoys Halloween!!
Halloween at St. Malachy - Well, here are the details for Halloween. The morning will be a regular Friday for us. We will do everything we normally do. Yes, spelling post test and Language Arts assessment will still take place. In the late morning about 11:15 I will begin showing them the movie The Wizard of Oz. We just finished reading the book aloud and it was very different from the book. I know most of them have seen the movie a million times but I thought a fun Halloween activity. After lunch we will continue to watch it until it is out turn to go to the Halloween activities. I have a snack being brought in and juice to have while watching the movie. This is what our Halloween Party consists of, movie an snack. We will go to the upper wing when it is time and do some spooky fun activities. At 2:30 the Halloween Parade will take place in the gym. Get there early to get a good spot. If you attend the parade and want to take your child home as soon as it is over just come down to the room and pick them up. I hope everyone has a fun and safe Halloween!!
Math - We have started work on the 2nd half of the Math chapter 2. We begin with mental math strategies. These are strategies I have always taught, but the difference is this book throws 4 different strategies at them at once where last year I taught one strategy each day for 4 days. We are finding out that having several options to work a problem is awesome! Just today I shared a way I would work a problem and someone else did a different strategy from the page and we got the same answer. What I felt was the easier strategy someone else didn't. The kids thought it was cool. I know I am out of some people's comfort zones with this. It was always that way in the past also. Today they are doing all their work in partners and will not bring it home to work on. I also want to let you know that if your child is struggling with some of the work, bring them to school early. I am here by 7:45 every morning. On Mondays I have breakfast duty but Tuesday through Friday I am in my room. Students may come in during the morning and get help. I have had a couple take advantage of that all ready. I would encourage you to do this, especially when it is something you are struggling to help with. Most parents want to revert to their way of doing things. We need to keep in mind we only learned one way to work problems. Which is sad that our our trained that way. We are working our way up to those strategies. Your child is lucky to be getting a deeper understanding of math and how it works. High School math will be so much easier for them. If you aren't understanding what they are doing send them to me in the morning and we will work it out.
Language Arts - This week we are reading Dear Mr. Winston. This is a humorous story about a child who needed to do some research on a snake. The snake book she needs is a reference book and can't be checked out of the library, sooooo she brings the snack in a box into the library. The librarian is deathly afraid. When he notices what she is doing he asks what is in the box. She tells him not to look but he does. He passes out in fear and is taken away. As he passes out he drops the box and the snake gets away and wasn't found. The story is about her apology letter to the librarian for what happened. In the letter she states things like "My parents are making me write this and Dad is going to read it to see if acceptable." She also supports her reasoning for bringing in the snake and the fact that she told him not to look in the box. It's a funny story. We are working on compound and complex sentences in grammar and we worked on beginning sounds in decoding. Spelling post test and regular assessment of Friday. Study spelling and vocabulary words tonight!
Social Studies - We will be working on a study guide tomorrow in class. If they don't get done it will be homework. We will check the study guide on Monday and take a test on Tuesday. Then we will begin to look at the Northeast region. I will show the states in the region and I will also introduce the song we use to help them memorize the states and capitals. Any practice you can do at home for locating the states will be great! I know you can get apps called Stack the states and a United States puzzle map on iphones or ipods to help. Stack the States makes them familiar with the shapes. This is when social studies gets a lot more exciting!!
I hope everyone has a great weekend! I finally have a weekend that I don't have a kid to follow somewhere for some activity! I am very excited. We are going to work on the garage and making it so Jami and Josie can get their car in there for the winter!!
I am praying the volleyball team wins their game tonight. If they do, only one more game to decide if they will attend state!! We are very excited about this. The last time Creston went to state in Volleyball was when I was junior in high school on the team, 27 years ago!! My daughter being on the team and a junior also, is very exciting. I think I want this as much as my daughter and their coach since we were in the same class.
If the volleyball team would make it, State is during the week of conferences. I will need to make arrangements to change my conference times. Please go ahead and sign up for conferences like normal. I will contact each of you if things work out and I need to be gone. We will set up times before that week or in the following week. I will be very flexible and work with each one of you. This is just a heads up. We will know for sure if we lose tonight or if we win the 3rd game next Tuesday.
God Bless,
Mrs. Sickels
Happy Thursday!! I think our really warm weather has moved on. It always seems that Halloween is when the real cold begins. I know 17 years ago on Oct. 26, we had a bad snow storm because I ended up with no electricity, and had to take the twins to my parents for warmth. They were just 4 months old at them time. Funny thing is, I didn't even know it was suppose to snow that night! Maybe the snow will stay away for a while. At least til all our local farmers get their crops out. I have really notice the trees this year. They are really pretty. The oranges and reds seem more brilliant. My neighbor had a great orange colored tree but last weekend it lost all it's leaves in one day. My kids make fun of me for pointing those things out, except one day one of the older two pointed a pretty red tree out to me. I hope everyone enjoys Halloween!!
Halloween at St. Malachy - Well, here are the details for Halloween. The morning will be a regular Friday for us. We will do everything we normally do. Yes, spelling post test and Language Arts assessment will still take place. In the late morning about 11:15 I will begin showing them the movie The Wizard of Oz. We just finished reading the book aloud and it was very different from the book. I know most of them have seen the movie a million times but I thought a fun Halloween activity. After lunch we will continue to watch it until it is out turn to go to the Halloween activities. I have a snack being brought in and juice to have while watching the movie. This is what our Halloween Party consists of, movie an snack. We will go to the upper wing when it is time and do some spooky fun activities. At 2:30 the Halloween Parade will take place in the gym. Get there early to get a good spot. If you attend the parade and want to take your child home as soon as it is over just come down to the room and pick them up. I hope everyone has a fun and safe Halloween!!
Math - We have started work on the 2nd half of the Math chapter 2. We begin with mental math strategies. These are strategies I have always taught, but the difference is this book throws 4 different strategies at them at once where last year I taught one strategy each day for 4 days. We are finding out that having several options to work a problem is awesome! Just today I shared a way I would work a problem and someone else did a different strategy from the page and we got the same answer. What I felt was the easier strategy someone else didn't. The kids thought it was cool. I know I am out of some people's comfort zones with this. It was always that way in the past also. Today they are doing all their work in partners and will not bring it home to work on. I also want to let you know that if your child is struggling with some of the work, bring them to school early. I am here by 7:45 every morning. On Mondays I have breakfast duty but Tuesday through Friday I am in my room. Students may come in during the morning and get help. I have had a couple take advantage of that all ready. I would encourage you to do this, especially when it is something you are struggling to help with. Most parents want to revert to their way of doing things. We need to keep in mind we only learned one way to work problems. Which is sad that our our trained that way. We are working our way up to those strategies. Your child is lucky to be getting a deeper understanding of math and how it works. High School math will be so much easier for them. If you aren't understanding what they are doing send them to me in the morning and we will work it out.
Language Arts - This week we are reading Dear Mr. Winston. This is a humorous story about a child who needed to do some research on a snake. The snake book she needs is a reference book and can't be checked out of the library, sooooo she brings the snack in a box into the library. The librarian is deathly afraid. When he notices what she is doing he asks what is in the box. She tells him not to look but he does. He passes out in fear and is taken away. As he passes out he drops the box and the snake gets away and wasn't found. The story is about her apology letter to the librarian for what happened. In the letter she states things like "My parents are making me write this and Dad is going to read it to see if acceptable." She also supports her reasoning for bringing in the snake and the fact that she told him not to look in the box. It's a funny story. We are working on compound and complex sentences in grammar and we worked on beginning sounds in decoding. Spelling post test and regular assessment of Friday. Study spelling and vocabulary words tonight!
Social Studies - We will be working on a study guide tomorrow in class. If they don't get done it will be homework. We will check the study guide on Monday and take a test on Tuesday. Then we will begin to look at the Northeast region. I will show the states in the region and I will also introduce the song we use to help them memorize the states and capitals. Any practice you can do at home for locating the states will be great! I know you can get apps called Stack the states and a United States puzzle map on iphones or ipods to help. Stack the States makes them familiar with the shapes. This is when social studies gets a lot more exciting!!
I hope everyone has a great weekend! I finally have a weekend that I don't have a kid to follow somewhere for some activity! I am very excited. We are going to work on the garage and making it so Jami and Josie can get their car in there for the winter!!
I am praying the volleyball team wins their game tonight. If they do, only one more game to decide if they will attend state!! We are very excited about this. The last time Creston went to state in Volleyball was when I was junior in high school on the team, 27 years ago!! My daughter being on the team and a junior also, is very exciting. I think I want this as much as my daughter and their coach since we were in the same class.
If the volleyball team would make it, State is during the week of conferences. I will need to make arrangements to change my conference times. Please go ahead and sign up for conferences like normal. I will contact each of you if things work out and I need to be gone. We will set up times before that week or in the following week. I will be very flexible and work with each one of you. This is just a heads up. We will know for sure if we lose tonight or if we win the 3rd game next Tuesday.
God Bless,
Mrs. Sickels
Thursday, October 23, 2014
Dear Parents,
Happy Thursday!! Again I feel like I just wrote a letter. Most of the time I feel the week is dragging along. We are still working very hard in 4th grade. You should see all results of things on Power School. I put all tests and most of the student's homework on it. Please keep in mind, homework is for the students to practice what they are learning and for me to see how they are doing and if more time is needed in that area. If I feel the score is not where I think they should be I will have them make corrections. If they do a good job on corrections then I will adjust their grade appropriately. So you may see one score one day and the next it may be different after they have made changes. I hope you are all on there following your students. This is how I keep up with my high-schoolers and how they are doing. It is very handy to see if they are getting their work done. I don't receive late slips from high school teachers telling me my kids are falling behind. Now is the time to get online and learn how to keep track of your student. If you are unsure how to do it come see Sarah or give her a call. She is a great resource to answer your questions.
Language Arts - This week we are reading a story called Me and Uncle Romie. It is written about Romare Beardon a well-known collage artist. (if you follow the art world) We have talked about what a collage artist creates and the story actually has a good example. We have talked about verb tenses again this week focusing on present progressive verbs. We also reviewed the 4 kinds of sentences we write. Our target skill was characters and paying close attention to characters, what they are thinking, what they are doing and how they speak. This gives us a good idea of what kind of character they are. We also spent some time on the target strategy of visualizing. I read a paragraph from our read aloud book to them (Wizard of Oz) and they were to draw a picture of the scene they were hearing. According to a couple students it was a fun activitiy. I also compared it to books that have been made into motion pictures. I told the kids to create that motion picture in their mind as they read. Remember to study spelling words and vocabulary words for tomorrow.
Math - We have completed half of chapter 2! The students worked on their mid chapter checkpoint review yesterday. We went over it today. It shows me I need to spend about one more day on partial product. Some students had corrections to work on today and those who didn't played a game. I have a 30 sided die that they role to make multiplication problems and then they were to use the expanded form and partial product strategy to work them. Tomorrow we will review the partial product strategy and have a worksheet to complete on it. I just feel they need a little more practice before moving on. This chapter is very important because in chapter 3 we do the exact same strategies but with double- digit numbers instead of single digit. It will be harder, so we need to master the strategies now. I love these strategies and totally enjoy teaching this chapter. They are learning a lot!
Social Studies - We are finishing up lesson three so we will be looking at reviewing for a test towards the end of next week. I am glad to be at the end because we will talk about each region separately and I enjoy doing that. Especially those regions where I have not been but the kids have. I learn a lot and enjoy it. I will be getting packets ready to send home over the social studies projects that 4th graders will do this year. If you have had me before you all ready know all about them. I will discuss them at conferences so everyone is up to speed, in case this is your first year with me.
I hope all of you have a great weekend! This is "Molly" weekend. It is dancing at Ice Hockey game Saturday night then parents preview on Sunday. Also, volleyball with her on Saturday morning. I am happy to be right here in town though. Maybe I can get some much needed things done!!
God Bless,
Mrs. Sickels
Happy Thursday!! Again I feel like I just wrote a letter. Most of the time I feel the week is dragging along. We are still working very hard in 4th grade. You should see all results of things on Power School. I put all tests and most of the student's homework on it. Please keep in mind, homework is for the students to practice what they are learning and for me to see how they are doing and if more time is needed in that area. If I feel the score is not where I think they should be I will have them make corrections. If they do a good job on corrections then I will adjust their grade appropriately. So you may see one score one day and the next it may be different after they have made changes. I hope you are all on there following your students. This is how I keep up with my high-schoolers and how they are doing. It is very handy to see if they are getting their work done. I don't receive late slips from high school teachers telling me my kids are falling behind. Now is the time to get online and learn how to keep track of your student. If you are unsure how to do it come see Sarah or give her a call. She is a great resource to answer your questions.
Language Arts - This week we are reading a story called Me and Uncle Romie. It is written about Romare Beardon a well-known collage artist. (if you follow the art world) We have talked about what a collage artist creates and the story actually has a good example. We have talked about verb tenses again this week focusing on present progressive verbs. We also reviewed the 4 kinds of sentences we write. Our target skill was characters and paying close attention to characters, what they are thinking, what they are doing and how they speak. This gives us a good idea of what kind of character they are. We also spent some time on the target strategy of visualizing. I read a paragraph from our read aloud book to them (Wizard of Oz) and they were to draw a picture of the scene they were hearing. According to a couple students it was a fun activitiy. I also compared it to books that have been made into motion pictures. I told the kids to create that motion picture in their mind as they read. Remember to study spelling words and vocabulary words for tomorrow.
Math - We have completed half of chapter 2! The students worked on their mid chapter checkpoint review yesterday. We went over it today. It shows me I need to spend about one more day on partial product. Some students had corrections to work on today and those who didn't played a game. I have a 30 sided die that they role to make multiplication problems and then they were to use the expanded form and partial product strategy to work them. Tomorrow we will review the partial product strategy and have a worksheet to complete on it. I just feel they need a little more practice before moving on. This chapter is very important because in chapter 3 we do the exact same strategies but with double- digit numbers instead of single digit. It will be harder, so we need to master the strategies now. I love these strategies and totally enjoy teaching this chapter. They are learning a lot!
Social Studies - We are finishing up lesson three so we will be looking at reviewing for a test towards the end of next week. I am glad to be at the end because we will talk about each region separately and I enjoy doing that. Especially those regions where I have not been but the kids have. I learn a lot and enjoy it. I will be getting packets ready to send home over the social studies projects that 4th graders will do this year. If you have had me before you all ready know all about them. I will discuss them at conferences so everyone is up to speed, in case this is your first year with me.
I hope all of you have a great weekend! This is "Molly" weekend. It is dancing at Ice Hockey game Saturday night then parents preview on Sunday. Also, volleyball with her on Saturday morning. I am happy to be right here in town though. Maybe I can get some much needed things done!!
God Bless,
Mrs. Sickels
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