Dear Parents,
     Happy Thursday!!  What a great week!!  We are back on track after Iowa Assessments and working hard.  We are having fun in Language Arts and learning new things in Math.  The weather was great for the Lap-a-thon this morning and has been a great week to play outside.  I hope the sun continues to shine.  We are quickly approaching the last month of school!! I can't believe it! I am excited for summer break and softball games, but I am sad to lose this kids! I am so thankful you chose our school and allowed me to work with your child!  This year has been a good one!

Language Arts -  We are having a fun time reading Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.  We are reading a couple chapters a day.  We are making journal entries for every chapter.  There is a journal prompt for every chapter and they are required to draw a picture with it.  The book has been divided into sections.  They complete vocabulary words before each section and we discuss the definitions as we read.  At the end of each section their is a page of questions that they must answer.  Part of that is summarizing each chapter.  Today we talked about how Roald Dahl's writing is very "off the wall".  He doesn't follow rules.  He overuses adjectives and prepositions.  We found a sentence today with 6 prepositional phrases in a row!  I told the kids we would use things we have learned all year when reading this book.  Finding prepositional phrases is one of them.  We also have talked about what makes this a fantasy book.  The students will be writing their own fantasy story as we cover this book.  They are working on their setting right now.  Figuring out a setting, telling what it will look like and listing some adjectives that could be used in describing the setting. We will also be making Golden Tickets soon.  We read the chapter today about Golden Tickets and will create our own tomorrow or next week.  This is such a fun book and unit to teach.

Math - We have started Chapter 5 in math.  We are learning to find the factors of a number and tell whether it is a prime number or composite number.  We are also going to be discussing divisibility rules.  I have a poster in the room showing the divisibility rules for the numbers 1-10.  These items will help us when we get into fractions in the next chapter.  This is a short chapter with only 5 lessons.  We will not spend more than a couple weeks on this.  Then we will be testing again!

Social Studies - We are finishing up on the Midwest.  We just began the last lesson today. We will finish it tomorrow.  Next week we will have a study guide and test.  This means they need to be able to locate the state and name its capital.  We will pick states for out last project next week also.  I wanted to do this week but I was missing 3 kids today and 2 left early.  That is too many to be gone.   I plan to do one chapter in the Southwest and then one chapter in the West to finish the year.  We are working along very well in the subject area.  Considering we only have it 4 days a week we are really getting a lot covered.

I hope everyone has a great weekend!!  Dance stage blocking and soccer for us! A busy time.  I feel I am running out photos to share that you might be interested in, but here a few more.

God Bless,
Mrs. Sickels

We stood right outside.  There was nothing exciting happening though,

One of 7 pair of ruby slippers that Judy Garland wore in Wizard of Oz.  These are in the Smithsonian.

Time Square looking at where the ball drops on New Year's Eve.  Pole is up towards top in front of the black square.

Jami, Josie and I on top of the Rockefeller Center.  Empire State building in the background and the 911 Memorial building in the far background.

Dear Parents,
     Happy Thursday!!  What a nice week this has been.  Weather has been very nice for us to get outside!  Weekend doesn't look very good.  I am so bummed since it is Prom.  I will be glad when this is over.  What a stressful time.  Plus, I am times 2!!!  We have had a good week in the classroom also.  No absences this week, so Iowa Assessments are finished! The snacks the kids had were awesome!  They enjoyed them.  Yesterday we enjoyed some read aloud time outside in the courtyard.  I hope our final weeks are all this nice!

Language Arts -  This week was Iowa Assessment week.  We haven't done anything in this subject yet except those tests related to language arts.  There was a reading comprehension, written expression, vocabulary, spelling, capitalization, and punctuation test.  Tomorrow we will start our Charlie and the Chocolate Factory unit.  The students are really pumped about this, as am I.  I have never been able to do this as a full unit.  I usually worked with it once a week.  This time I get to do it every day!!  The students will have vocabulary words that need completed for each section, and journal entries they need to make for each chapter.  I will hand all that out tomorrow and explain.  I will also talk about the book and all it's covers, the author and his interesting life, and where his got his stories.  Just a reminder, the book is on sale for $1.99 on amazon for your kindle or if you have the kindle app.  This app is free and can be put on ipods as well as tablets.  I have had one student take advantage, which is good because I only have 14 books. I have ordered one on my kindle so I have my copy. We would leave their devices in their bags until we needed them.  There will be lots of fun activities that we will do with this book.  I plan to watch the "old" movie when we are finished with the book.  There will also be a book project due when we are done.  We have to read the book before any of those can be completed.  We will talk about those later.

Math - We have completed math on Iowa Assessments this week and checked our review.  I gave the kids a review sheet to help them work problems for review for the test.  The test will be tomorrow.  We will end our morning with that.  Next week we will begin chapter 5.  This chapter only has 5 lesson in it.  I hope to work through this on pretty quickly then get right to chapter 6 which is on fractions.  I know we need to get as much of this chapter done as we can for 5th grade.  Again, it is hard to believe we are nearing the end of their 4th grade year!

Social Studies - Projects are looking good.  Some have needed a little more information with them but otherwise they are looking good.  We have 3 more days of due dates and then I will assign them their last project.  I know we are not quite done with the Midwest but we will be.  I want to get them on their last project because then they will have their end of book project for Language Arts to work on.  The next lesson we read is set in Wapello County, Iowa.  It will tell the students about a "land rush".  People behind a starting line and when the gunshot or sound of a whip rang out they all rushed out to claim land.  Sounds dangerous to me!  They will find this very interesting just because it involves Iowa.  Next week we will finish up this region. 

I hope you all have a great weekend.  Help me to pray the weather holds off until the prom kids are in the gym!  Here are a couple more photos of our trip!  

God Bless,
Mrs. Sickels

The graves of John F. Kennedy and wife Jackie Kennedy Onassis.  JFK is on the left. The eternal flame is hooked to a gas line and never goes out rain or shine.  It works because as you can tell it was raining when picture was taken.

This is the "pile of shoes" from the Holocaust.  After the victims were killed in gas chamber they removed the shoes and through them in a pile.  This had a huge effect on all of us.  Shoes are dirty, dusty and have an old musty smell to them.  Really put things in perspective for some.

This is the Capital building.  The dome is under construction.  They are just doing some remodeling and fixing.  

Dear Parents,
      Happy Thursday!! Another week has passed!  What a depressing week this one has been.  The weather has been dreary all week.  I am not sure about you, but it makes me grumpy!! I wish it would just storm and then clear off!! The sun is what we need!  The students need it too.  I have had a lot of yawning and sleepy eyes this week, including my own!  Our time together is dwindling.  When I make plans every week, I am now making them with the end in mind.  Where I want them to be and what I want to cover with them by the time 4th grade comes to an end.  Hard to believe we are at that point.

Language Arts - We are reading The Fun We Had this week.  It is a story with a setting in the future.  It talks about school, teachers, homework, and books in the future.  The kids find an old book, a book made out of real pages.  They are amazed.  Then they begin comparing past and present.  It made kids think.  We also talked about the movie Back to the Future.  One of the future dates he travels to is the year 2015.  The movie portrayed life with hoverboards and things that are not happening in the year 2015.  We also talked a  little about the genre of Science Fiction.  In grammar this week they have been reviewing compound sentences.  Mainly for the use of conjunctions and the commas that go with them.  We also reviewed the types of sentences and the ending punctuation that goes with them.  Capitalization of titles, nationalities, languages, names, and states were also reviewed.  Next week we will be writing a descriptive story or a fantasy.  I have quite decided yet.  We will begin Charlie and the Chocolate Factory soon also.  If your child has a kindle or the kindle app on a tablet this book is only $1.99.   I like all students to have their own books.  They are welcome to bring their device to school and use during class.  I hope some of you take advantage of this because I am short a few copies of the book for all to have.  Thank you very much.

Math - We are finishing up the division chapter.   We completed the last lesson today on word problems.  They are multi-step word problems which means you have to do a couple different problems to get to your answer.  We will work on the chapter review then have a test.  Yes, this test we be next week.  I know this is Iowa Assessment week but I have to  have them complete the test because I am looking at the big picture.  The next chapter is a short one with only 5 lessons, then I hit fractions.  We need to get as much learning about fractions in before the end of the year as we can.  Again, I can't believe we are nearing the end.

Social Studies - We took a test this week.  it was a great test.  I had 6 kids with perfect papers and several just missing one or two.  That is awesome!!  We will move right into chapter 9 which is still over the Midwest.  Remember projects are due next week.  We will be sharing projects next week and also working in chapter 9.  Iowa Assessments will take place all morning but our afternoons will remain the same.  I think they are enjoying learning about the region they are a part of.  They did a great job locating states on the map.  The next test they have to also name the capitals.  Some of them have all ready begun working on memorizing those.  We will continue to work hard.

Here are a couple more photos from my trip.  I hope you are enjoying them.  Have a great weekend!!  Hopefully the weather turns around and the sun shines!

Jefferson Memorial from the top of Washington Monument

Circle is the WWII Memorial, then the reflection pool that leads to the Lincoln Memorial.  This is the view from the top of the Washington Monument.  No water was flowing in the pool or the fountain because it was too cold.

God Bless,
Mrs. Sickels

Dear Parents,
     Happy Thursday!!!  Wow! What a great week for weather!  The week has really been enjoyable.  The only downfall to this warmer weather is that allergies are kicking in!  We are very low on Kleenex.  I had a couple students bring some in at my last request.  I hope that will get us through the end of the year.  If your child is particularly bad you might send them with a box.  I know my eyes have been bothering me a lot this week.  I am not complaining though!!!  You will find a couple more pictures from my trip at the end of this letter.  If you have any requests of something I have seen please let me know.  I will be glad to share.

Language Arts - This week we read a true story about Owen and Mzee (mzay).  Owen is a hippopotamus that lost his family during a tsunami.  He was rescued and placed in Hallar Park in Kenya.  He became friends with an Aldabra tortoise named Mzee.  This is a very odd friendship which is what the story is about.  How they became friends and the reasons behind it.  This is considered Narrative Nonfiction.  It tells a story but you are learning things about the animals as you read.  In grammar we began to work on commas.  We talked about using commas with compound sentences.  We also talked about how they are used with items in a list, separating date and year, and separating city and state.  These are great lessons to have right before Iowa Assessments.  We have one more story left to read in this unit.  We will then take the Unit 5 test.  When that is finished unit 6 is meant to be a fun, light unit. Well... instead of doing that unit I will doing my  own unit using the book Charlie and The Chocolate Factory.  We will use all the strategies we learned throughout the year with this book.  This will show the students how to take what they learning and apply it to a book they read on their own of their choice.  I think sometimes they need to see things done.  So I plan to lead by example.  We will have many activities that we will do during this unit.  A lot of them are fun but again we will use the skills and strategies we learned in the text to help us comprehend. 

Math -  We are still working with Division in Math.  We only have a couple lessons left in this chapter.  We will finish the up next week.  Then we will take a Chapter 4 test.  I am thinking we will be heading into fractions after this lesson.  Fourth grade is suppose to have a very large part of math focused on fractions.  This will kind of fun for them because we will use a manipulative to help us better understand fractions.  When they can be hands on they enjoy math much better.  It will start off pretty easy but then progressively become a little challenging.  I know all these students will do well with this topic like all the others we have done this year.

Social Studies -  We are gearing up for our first test over the Midwest States.  They received a study guide today, which we will check on Monday.  This means there will be a test on Tuesday.  Projects are due in a couple of weeks.  This will be perfect timing for the end of the next chapter.  We still have the Southwest and West to get to.  We are moving along at a very good pace.  If we keep this up we will be fine.  Remember to have them practice the location of the states.  They will be required to label a map of the Midwest.

I hope everyone has a great Holy Week and Easter Sunday!!  I wish safe travels to all those who will be traveling to be with family.  

God Bless,
Mrs. Sickels

Josie, myself, and Jami in front of White House

911 Memorial at the Pentagon.  There is a bench for anyone who perished in the building or on the plane.

Tomb of the Unknown Soldier

Dear Parents,
     Happy Thursday!!  I hope all of you enjoyed your break!! I definitely did.  D.C. and New York were very interesting.  I highly recommend this trip to all of you when your child is a Junior or Senior.  I will share just a few pictures now and then each week maybe a few more.  I took 529 photos total.  I have shared them with the 4th grade.  They seemed very interested and asked a lot of questions.  

Language Arts - We are reading a story called The Ever-Living Tree this week.  This is an informational story about the Sequoia trees in California.  The story wants to put into perspective just how old these trees really are.  They connect it by talking about events in history and what the tree was doing during those events.  A time line appears at the top of the page to show it's life span also.  Not a story the students are really interested in reading about.  We will work on some punctuation in grammar.  Sentence ending punctuation and quotation marks.  The strategy we are working on this week is text/graphic sources.  That is any pictures, graphs, charts, maps, or italicized words in the story.  We are looking at them and deciding what is their purpose.  Why are they important to the story and how do they aid in our understanding of the story.  We worked on this skill in the small groups and also with the main story. I hope this leads the students to pay attention to these things in other books or stories that they read.

Math - This week in Math we are starting to talk about division strategies.  We are starting with strategies that will lead us up to the standard algorithm that you were taught.  These beginning strategies help students to better understand why the algorithm works.  Growing up I never understood why things worked or how they worked but I knew how to just follow the process that was given to me.  These earlier strategies help give the students reasons why we can do what we do.  They are not just following a process, they have reasoning behind it.  This will make them better students and understand math a whole lot better.  Maybe we don't see the benefits now, but I can guarantee you that in the future when taking algebra, geometry, calculus and other courses.  It will be very beneficial.  Our children are learning so much more at a younger age, they are more advanced then us.  We are taking it easy as to not to frustrate anyone.  These lessons are simple and each one builds upon the one before.  We will be masters at division by the time we are done.  It excites me to see the understanding is coming quicker than I anticipated too.  They are doing GREAT!!

Social Studies-  We started this week by choosing our projects for the Midwest Region.  Your child should have their due date page with project and state written on it.  It will be due in about 3 weeks.  I will immediately assign the next region so we get all 4 projects in by the end of year. This week we have learned about waterways in the Midwest focusing on the Great Lakes Region.  They also learned what a lock is and how it works.  We are now beginning to discuss the Badlands.  I highly recommend a family trip to the Black Hills in South Dakota if you are wondering what to do for a vacation.  It has a lot of great things to see.  As you get to the Wall, South Dakota area you can take a drive through the Badlands.  It is very interesting.  I went as a 3rd or 4th grader and still remember our visit there. 

I hope everyone has a very enjoyable weekend!!!  Enjoy the temperature on Sunday!!

God Bless,
Mrs.Sickels

Statue of Liberty

Lincoln Memorial

Dear Parents,
     Happy Thursday!!  Spring Break is quickly approaching!!  Everyone is getting all excited about plans they may have for their time away from school.  I kept thinking a storm was brewing somewhere due to how the children's behavior has been lately.  They are harder to settle down after a transition, like from P.E., Music, or Library.  They are doing a lot of talking also.  I do believe it is more to do with Spring Break being near than a storm.  The 2 hour delay and 3 hour early out has seemed to calm them down a little.  I will be going with Jami and Josie on a school trip to Washington D.C. and New York over Spring Break.  I am very excited as I have never been to either place.  I get to see a lot of great things that I talk about during Social Studies!! I am very excited.  I intend to put my pictures on my laptop so I can share with the kids on my whiteboard.  I think I am most excited about Ellis Island because I talk about that in couple grades.  Oh, well, 911 Ground Zero will be awesome too!!  I can't wait.  I will share some pictures on my blog when I can!!

Conferences - Please remember that conferences are next week.  Check out the schedule on the website.  If the time you are signed up for isn't going to work please call the office and make arrangements.   I want to have all conferences done by Spring Break. 

Language Arts -  This week we read a story called The World According to Humphrey.  It is a fun story told from Humphrey's ( a hamster) point of view.  This story had a theme.  It taught us a lesson.  The lesson we were to learn is about how there are other things to do besides watch T.V.  This story is considered Fantasy.  We talked about other stories that we have read a loud that are also fantasy.  We about Comparative and superlative adjectives this week.  If you don't know what these words mean ask your student because they do.  We also discussed advertisements and how they use different tricks to get us to  be interested in their product, service, or idea.  We will have a normal Friday tomorrow with Spelling tests and end of week assessment.  Next week seems short but we will get through the 2nd story in this unit.  Please look for the Unit 4 test results in your folder today.  I don't need these back they are copies.  I kept the originals.

Math- We are working on Chapter 4  which is division.  We have learned two different ways to estimate quotients so far.  Each lesson has built on the other.  Today we just played with base ten blocks and division.  We will be talking about using the distributive property with division but today I let them investigate some problems on their own.  I gave no instruction just walked around observed and asked questions.  Tomorrow I will make the connections of what their investigating today means to the distributive property.  We will be getting to a mid chapter checkpoint before break.  I plan on stopping at this point and start the 2nd half after Spring Break.

Social Studies - As always I am loving the projects that are coming in.  We are a little backed up right now on sharing because of illnesses this week.  The projects are all still due on the day they are assigned but they may not share it on that day.  I think we are doing to have to carry over into next week for sharing.  Of course, if it is cake or food they will take priority that day.  We just finished the last chapter in the Southeast region.  We will be doing the review tomorrow and checking it on Monday.  They will take the test on Tuesday.  We will begin the Midwest and assign next projects as soon as we return from break.

I would like to thank all of you for your donations for the Auction items the 4th grade put together.  The scrapbook went for $200 and the "Heart of Iowa" basket went for  $200.  For having such a small class I am pleased with the amount of money we made for the foundation.  Also, thank you to all who attended the event.  It really is a good time.  It is so humbling to see all the people come out to support our school.  It shows how important our school really is to those who attend now and those who have attended in the past.  Thanks again for your support!!

God Bless,
Mrs. Sickels

Dear Parents,
    Happy Thursday!! BRRRRR..... Baby it's cold outside!!  Recess in back to being inside.  If the temperature including windchill is below 0 we keep the kids inside.  Yes, it is nice to get them outside but not to freeze!  I have a cupboard full of games that they can play.  If you have any board games or card games at home that aren't in use anymore and have all the pieces please think about donating them.  I get all mine garage sales mainly.  It is always nice to have newer games to add to the mix.  Just keep it in mind.  Today they were able to play with their electronics during recess time.  That is a great thing!! They can donate money to a good cause and get to play with something they enjoy at recess.   

NEED!! I need more Kleenex.  This has been a very bad year.  We just put out the last Kleenex box.  If you are at the store and could maybe throw in an extra box for school that would be great.  We are still in great need for it.  I appreciate any that can be brought in.  The sooner the better since the last one is in use.  Thank you very very much!!!!

Language Arts - This week has been a test week.  We took our Unit 4 test on Monday and Tuesday.  We made corrections on the test on Wednesday.  I have been busy working on report cards so the scores are not ready to be sent home today. I will send them in next week's folder.  I assigned their last book report for the year.  They have all the directions and are picking books with more than 180 pages in them.  the assignment is a book box or diorama.  On Friday this week we are taking the CRS (Constructed Response Supplement) Test.  It is a standardized test that we use for assessing students.  These score are reported to the state.  It is a test of 8 questions.  You can't study for it.  We just take it.  I have told the kids that is what we will be doing on Friday.  All the 4th graders throughout the Des Moines Diocese will be taking this test sometime next week.  No worries, the 4th graders normally do quite well on it.

Math - We have finished chapter 13 and the students did a nice job on those test.  We have now begun Chapter 4 which is on Division.  This is a very long chapter with 12 lessons over division. Some of the lessons are a carry over from the Multiplication chapter and so they are finding very easy.  We are all ready on lesson 4 of this chapter.  I didn't plan on getting as far as I did today, but it was easy for them.  It will get more challenging but right now they are loving it because their confidence level is up since it's all very familiar.  Next week may become a little more difficult.  Keep working on those division facts.

Social Studies - Projects will start coming in tomorrow.  I have a cake and a quarter due.  Then the rest of the students are next week.  We have started talking about history that took place in the Southeast regions and had big impacts on the region.  We will be reading about the Civil War this lesson.  We only skim the surface of the Civil War.  I only talk about some of the fighting and how it ruined some of the cities in the region and how they had to rebuild.  We discuss slavery as being one of the issues but not the only issue that led to the Civil War.  Most people think that is the only reason.  We all know how big the topic of slavery can be, but again we just skim the surface.  Keep practicing those maps of the Southeast region.

Conferences - Keep in mind the conference schedule is on the St. Malachy website.  Please, go on and double check the time you are scheduled for and be sure it still works.  If not give the office a call and she can see about making some changes.  If nothing works than you will need to contact me to see what I can do to meet with you.  All conferences need to be completed by that Thursday.  Thank you!

I hope all of you have a great weekend!!  Hope to see you all at the St. Malachy Foundation Gala!!

God Bless,
Mrs. Sickels