Dear Parents,
Hello Thursday!! I feel like the weeks fly by! It must be because we are so busy. We are getting into cold and flu season!! I have had people missing this week due to illness and 2 have left school with a fever! If your child is sick please keep them home. A big class like this will spread it like crazy. I had mine a couple weeks ago but I didn't have a fever with it, just coughed a lot. The rule of thumb is your child must be fever free for 24 hours without medicine before returning to school. So, if your child leaves school at 11:00 one day,then the next day I should not see your child till after lunch, if following the 24 hour rule. We are just trying stop the spread of illness and lessen the amount of students absent. I will follow this same rule myself.
Book It!! I am pumped about the enthusiasm I am seeing in this class for reading!! I have a couple who are true competitor's and wanting to beat me!!! I love it!! Keep them reading at home. They have book report books now that they should be reading. I am fine if you read with them but make sure they are reading to you, not vice versa. Just to let you know as of today I have read 1,486 minutes in October. I have student in the 800's right now trying to catch me!
Language Arts - This has been a unit test week. We spend a part of everyday taking a section of this test. We have also discussed the first book report they will be completing. They are all hunting for a book to read. The book must be 130 pages or more and not have any pictures. Books that have been made into movies can not be done. It makes them branch out and read other things. We are also working on Halloween stories. They are to choose a fairy tale or short story to follow, and create their own Halloween Story. We talked about this in full on Wednesday. They created titles of stories for today. We will go over them and then begin writing. They may need to find a copy of the book they are choosing to follow. These stories are always lots of fun.
Math - We are finishing up Math chapter 1. We will start reviewing for a test starting tomorrow. The test will happen next week. It is a multiple choice test. They will be given a day to make corrections and then we will begin chapter 2. We have worked hard in this chapter and everything we learned we will use for the rest of the year but I know everyone is ready to move on and get on to bigger and better things. That includes me. I look forward to moving forward.
Social Studies - We are working on learning about out Government. We are learning that there are 3 levels of Government: local, State, and National. We will also be talking about the 3 branches of Government. We will discuss the purpose of each. We will be looking at studying for a test the end of next week for a test in the week following. I am very happy with the vocabulary model we used this chapter and the discussions the kids had about them. I feel they are definitely getting a better understanding of what the words really means!!
I hope everyone has a great weekend!!
God Bless,
Mrs. Sickels
Thursday, October 8, 2015
Thursday, October 1, 2015
Dear Parents,
Happy Thursday!! For the kids it is the end of the week!!! Teachers will be participating in a Professional Development day at the High School with surrounding schools. It is called 21st Century Learner. It is an all day event about bringing technology into our classrooms. I find this day very interesting because it is "real" teachers who put o the seminars showing what they are doing in their classrooms with technology. It is very informational. Sometimes there are great things we bring back and attempt to implement. A lot of things require more research before we attempt them. It is also a great day for us to interact with other teachers from other schools. I hope your kids enjoy a long weekend!!
Book It!!! - Yeah, Book It is back!!! This program went away for a few years but now we are bringing it back. I am very excited about it and so are a lot of the students. The parents I have talked to about it are happy it is back also. If you are wondering what it is or how it works, here you go: Book It is a program for reading that Pizza Hut sponsors. The teachers in each classroom set a reasonable goal for kids to reach. They spend the month keeping track of their minutes or books they read they help them reach whatever the goal is. At the end of the month they turn their calendars in and the teacher keeps track if they met the goal. if they meet the goal they get a certificate for a free personal pan pizza. In my classroom I give them a certain amount of minutes to read in a month. They have a calendar that they will write down their minutes on. They keep track of any reading they do in school or outside school. I collect calendars at the beginning of the next month. I will add up the minutes and keep a chart in classroom so students can keep track of how they are doing. In my classroom you have a choice between the Pizza Hut personal pan pizza or a coupon for $4.00 off a buffet at Pizza Ranch. Pizza Ranch also supports kids in their reading. The students must make a choice and mark the box of the prize they want. I tally the reading minutes for the 6 months we do this program. I give a prize to the people who meet my goal for all 6 months and I give a prize to the top three reader's in my classroom. Meaning the three students who read the most minutes. I read all the time, so I am also on the reading chart and I will also keep track of my minutes. The kids are pumped to be competing with me. I will give an even bigger prize to the student who reads more than I do at the end of 6 months!! It's quite a challenge and they love it! Please help your student keep track of their calendars so they can turn them in. A lost calendar is lost minutes. Here are the goals I have set for the 6 months:
October 350 min.
November 400 min.
December 450 min.
January 500 min.
February 550 min.
March 600 min.
Language Arts: This week we read a Tall Tale called Stormalong. It is about Alfred Bulltop Stormalong. He is a sailor. He is a giant of a man and can't find a place to call home because he is so big. This is about his journey to find a place where he fits in and friends. The spelling list was on Homophones this week. This is words that sound the same but are spelled differently. This is always a fun list. They learn a few new words like feat, and vain. They also begin to learn that the meanings of the words are very important to the spelling. Examples would be sent, cent, and scent and vain, vane, and vein. Grammar focused on capitalization. We talked about capitalizing historical documents, historical events, titles, nationalities, and languages. This was a short week so I felt like we really whipped through some of this, but I also feel it was a good week to push through quickly. Capitalization should be review. This was the last story of Unit 1 so next week will be a test week. During this week they will also begin a writing project and get their first book report assigned to them!!! It will still be a busy week!
Math - In math this week we have been reviewing whole number addition with numbers in the hundred thousands and subtracting whole numbers in the hundred thousands. These subtraction problems also require you to regroup. Both of these lesson are a review except they have probably not used numbers this large. Next week we will work on problem-solving and then gear up for our chapter 1 test. This chapter focuses on number sense and can tend to be difficult for some. I feel the students have grasped the main ideas in this lesson and we are going to be ready to move forward.
Social Studies - We have finished the first lesson in chapter 2 and moving into lesson 2. We are doing a great job on vocabulary words. I am enjoying their illustrations and examples. I love this new way of doing the vocabulary because it really makes them understand the meaning of the word in order to complete the model. I hope that means less studying for them at the end of the chapter because they will all ready understand the meaning of the words and not just memorize them. Next lesson will focus on Government. We will have a brief overview of each branch in the government and what their job requires. We will talk about the three levels of government also.
Please check out this Spaghetti Supper site:
.https://stmalachy.bringit.bz/
I hope everyone has a great weekend. Reminder: Students are allowed to wear shorts through October but please, just because they can doesn't always mean they should. Pay attention to the weather and if a cold day please dress appropriately. We all ready have sicknesses going around. My house has had strep and mono like symptoms. Let's be as safe as we can.
God Bless,
Mrs. Sickels
Happy Thursday!! For the kids it is the end of the week!!! Teachers will be participating in a Professional Development day at the High School with surrounding schools. It is called 21st Century Learner. It is an all day event about bringing technology into our classrooms. I find this day very interesting because it is "real" teachers who put o the seminars showing what they are doing in their classrooms with technology. It is very informational. Sometimes there are great things we bring back and attempt to implement. A lot of things require more research before we attempt them. It is also a great day for us to interact with other teachers from other schools. I hope your kids enjoy a long weekend!!
Book It!!! - Yeah, Book It is back!!! This program went away for a few years but now we are bringing it back. I am very excited about it and so are a lot of the students. The parents I have talked to about it are happy it is back also. If you are wondering what it is or how it works, here you go: Book It is a program for reading that Pizza Hut sponsors. The teachers in each classroom set a reasonable goal for kids to reach. They spend the month keeping track of their minutes or books they read they help them reach whatever the goal is. At the end of the month they turn their calendars in and the teacher keeps track if they met the goal. if they meet the goal they get a certificate for a free personal pan pizza. In my classroom I give them a certain amount of minutes to read in a month. They have a calendar that they will write down their minutes on. They keep track of any reading they do in school or outside school. I collect calendars at the beginning of the next month. I will add up the minutes and keep a chart in classroom so students can keep track of how they are doing. In my classroom you have a choice between the Pizza Hut personal pan pizza or a coupon for $4.00 off a buffet at Pizza Ranch. Pizza Ranch also supports kids in their reading. The students must make a choice and mark the box of the prize they want. I tally the reading minutes for the 6 months we do this program. I give a prize to the people who meet my goal for all 6 months and I give a prize to the top three reader's in my classroom. Meaning the three students who read the most minutes. I read all the time, so I am also on the reading chart and I will also keep track of my minutes. The kids are pumped to be competing with me. I will give an even bigger prize to the student who reads more than I do at the end of 6 months!! It's quite a challenge and they love it! Please help your student keep track of their calendars so they can turn them in. A lost calendar is lost minutes. Here are the goals I have set for the 6 months:
October 350 min.
November 400 min.
December 450 min.
January 500 min.
February 550 min.
March 600 min.
Language Arts: This week we read a Tall Tale called Stormalong. It is about Alfred Bulltop Stormalong. He is a sailor. He is a giant of a man and can't find a place to call home because he is so big. This is about his journey to find a place where he fits in and friends. The spelling list was on Homophones this week. This is words that sound the same but are spelled differently. This is always a fun list. They learn a few new words like feat, and vain. They also begin to learn that the meanings of the words are very important to the spelling. Examples would be sent, cent, and scent and vain, vane, and vein. Grammar focused on capitalization. We talked about capitalizing historical documents, historical events, titles, nationalities, and languages. This was a short week so I felt like we really whipped through some of this, but I also feel it was a good week to push through quickly. Capitalization should be review. This was the last story of Unit 1 so next week will be a test week. During this week they will also begin a writing project and get their first book report assigned to them!!! It will still be a busy week!
Math - In math this week we have been reviewing whole number addition with numbers in the hundred thousands and subtracting whole numbers in the hundred thousands. These subtraction problems also require you to regroup. Both of these lesson are a review except they have probably not used numbers this large. Next week we will work on problem-solving and then gear up for our chapter 1 test. This chapter focuses on number sense and can tend to be difficult for some. I feel the students have grasped the main ideas in this lesson and we are going to be ready to move forward.
Social Studies - We have finished the first lesson in chapter 2 and moving into lesson 2. We are doing a great job on vocabulary words. I am enjoying their illustrations and examples. I love this new way of doing the vocabulary because it really makes them understand the meaning of the word in order to complete the model. I hope that means less studying for them at the end of the chapter because they will all ready understand the meaning of the words and not just memorize them. Next lesson will focus on Government. We will have a brief overview of each branch in the government and what their job requires. We will talk about the three levels of government also.
Please check out this Spaghetti Supper site:
.https://stmalachy.bringit.bz/
I hope everyone has a great weekend. Reminder: Students are allowed to wear shorts through October but please, just because they can doesn't always mean they should. Pay attention to the weather and if a cold day please dress appropriately. We all ready have sicknesses going around. My house has had strep and mono like symptoms. Let's be as safe as we can.
God Bless,
Mrs. Sickels
Thursday, September 24, 2015
Dear Parents,
Happy Thursday!! I hope everyone is having a good week. Things are moving along very well in 4th grade. They are working hard on completing their homework in the time that is given to them. The homework has calmed down because things are becoming more routine and subjects are stretching out. I am trying some new things in the classroom this week. I am anxious to see some end results of the changes. Please, keep encouraging your child to complete work and help me to be excited when they come home with no homework.
Language Arts - This week the student's read a play called The Power of W.O.W.! It is a story about a minibus that is a library that travels outside the city. It is called Words on Wheels (W.O.W.) It was a pilot program that lost it's funding. The kids who benefit from the W.O.W are sad and want to do something to try and save it. They have a car wash to raise money. A news reporter catches wind of it and does a report on it. The kids are swamped at car wash and people start just donating money. They are able to save W.O.W. for a long time. It is a great story about hard work paying off. We are discussing sentence fragments and run-on sentences this week. In spelling the list covered long O and short O. Small groups worked on the "theme" of some short stories, vocab, and whether groups of words were a complete sentence or a fragment. Remember end of week test is tomorrow!! Study the spelling and vocab for tomorrow.
Math - We worked on rounding numbers again this week. We also moved on to renaming numbers. We are learning other ways to say numbers or to represent numbers. They learned why when we talk about years we say 18 hundreds (1800"s) instead of 1,800. We also learned that 560 is 56 tens instead of 560. We drew pictures to represent these numbers also. We spent a couple days on it. During center time, we worked on rounding and renaming numbers. We will next move onto adding whole numbers. We will be adding large numbers and reviewing the regrouping process.
Social Studies - We are starting chapter 2. This chapter will cover government and economics of our country. I am trying a new model called the Frayer model with vocabulary words. I have chosen 12 words out of the 20 that they will apply this model to and have group discussions. They will be doing more than memorizing the words. This requires them to actually understand the meaning of the words and be able to show me they know it. The group discussions will help them to share what they know and for someone who struggled with a word, they will have better learning experience because they are listening to their peers conversations. We had first group discussion today on first 2 words and I like it!! I will wait to see if the end result and then apply this same strategy to our language arts words.
I hope all of you have a great weekend. Enjoy the weather.
God Bless,
Mrs. Sickels
Happy Thursday!! I hope everyone is having a good week. Things are moving along very well in 4th grade. They are working hard on completing their homework in the time that is given to them. The homework has calmed down because things are becoming more routine and subjects are stretching out. I am trying some new things in the classroom this week. I am anxious to see some end results of the changes. Please, keep encouraging your child to complete work and help me to be excited when they come home with no homework.
Language Arts - This week the student's read a play called The Power of W.O.W.! It is a story about a minibus that is a library that travels outside the city. It is called Words on Wheels (W.O.W.) It was a pilot program that lost it's funding. The kids who benefit from the W.O.W are sad and want to do something to try and save it. They have a car wash to raise money. A news reporter catches wind of it and does a report on it. The kids are swamped at car wash and people start just donating money. They are able to save W.O.W. for a long time. It is a great story about hard work paying off. We are discussing sentence fragments and run-on sentences this week. In spelling the list covered long O and short O. Small groups worked on the "theme" of some short stories, vocab, and whether groups of words were a complete sentence or a fragment. Remember end of week test is tomorrow!! Study the spelling and vocab for tomorrow.
Math - We worked on rounding numbers again this week. We also moved on to renaming numbers. We are learning other ways to say numbers or to represent numbers. They learned why when we talk about years we say 18 hundreds (1800"s) instead of 1,800. We also learned that 560 is 56 tens instead of 560. We drew pictures to represent these numbers also. We spent a couple days on it. During center time, we worked on rounding and renaming numbers. We will next move onto adding whole numbers. We will be adding large numbers and reviewing the regrouping process.
Social Studies - We are starting chapter 2. This chapter will cover government and economics of our country. I am trying a new model called the Frayer model with vocabulary words. I have chosen 12 words out of the 20 that they will apply this model to and have group discussions. They will be doing more than memorizing the words. This requires them to actually understand the meaning of the words and be able to show me they know it. The group discussions will help them to share what they know and for someone who struggled with a word, they will have better learning experience because they are listening to their peers conversations. We had first group discussion today on first 2 words and I like it!! I will wait to see if the end result and then apply this same strategy to our language arts words.
Hello!
We are in need of parents and students of St. Malachy School to ride on our float this Friday. Please let your child’s teacher know if you and your child are willing to ride. We are waiting for information from the High School about the location of our float. We will meet at 1:45 at the location. Please watch for the location in the Thursday newsletter on our website http://www.crestonstmalachy.
Thank you for your continued support of St. Malachy School Activities,
Jennifer Simmons
Principal
I hope all of you have a great weekend. Enjoy the weather.
God Bless,
Mrs. Sickels
Thursday, September 17, 2015
Dear Parents,
Happy Thursday!!! This has been a busy week. I went to the Civic Center last night to see Dirty Dancing and it was FABULOUS!!! It was a very late night though. I am yawning today. Tonight I am off to Denison for volleyball. I am ready for this week to be over! The week has been much better homework wise. They are working very hard. I have a "study group" that takes their work to the neighboring room and works. They are monitored by the Ms. Thomas, our aide. They enjoy this time and accomplish a lot. Things are gradually becoming more routine. Those first 3-4 weeks can be stressful for everyone.
Language Arts - This week we read a story called "My Librarian Is A Camel". It is an informational story. I find it very interesting. It tells us about communities that are far away from a major city or isolated, and how they get to enjoy library books. In Africa, they are delivered by camel. In Finland, it's by boat, in Northern Canada it is by the mail. The kids find the idea interesting but the reading is dry and hard for them to stay focused on. We will cover this story again tomorrow right before they test over it. In spelling this week the skill was focusing on long i and short i. The grammar focus was on quotation marks. We worked on how to correctly punctuate a quote from someone. This can be very tricky. The students seemed to do well. The test will be challenging. The decoding lesson this week was over VCCV patterns. You should find the test results of last Friday's end of the week test will be found in today's take home folder. They are for you, I have the originals here at school.
Math - In math this week, we have been working on comparing and ordering numbers and also rounding numbers. We are struggling with rounding numbers so we are going to spend some extra time on it. I am not comfortable leaving this until I know everyone has a handle on it. We will then have a MId-Chapter checkpoint. This means we are halfway through the chapter. We will have 4 more lessons then get ready to assess our knowledge. I use the MId-Chapter checkpoint to see if there is anything in the first 4 chapters I may need to go back and touch on again with certain students before moving forward. We have been doing a lot of group work in Math to try and share ideas with each other. Sometimes other student'st thoughts might trigger something for someone else who wasn't quite getting it. Today I have a couple games planed for some groups so they hopefully are either practicing their rounding or still working on learning rounding.
Social Studies - We are getting ready for our first test. They worked on a study guide today. We will check it tomorrow and they will test on Monday. Tuesday we will correct the tests and begin the next chapter. Chapter 2 will talk about our government, and our economic system. There is a lot to learn in this chapter. Sometimes it is a hard chapter to teach because there is so much you want the kids to remember. In all honesty, they probably won't find it interesting. I will be looking for ways to present it to them that is interesting.
I hope all of you have a great weekend!! I will spend Saturday in the Red Oak High School gym watching volleyball. Sunday will be a day to myself!! Woohoo!! I will try to catch up on all the housework, and laundry that I fell behind on during the week. I am usually checking Friday Language Arts tests also!! I pray the balloons can go up and I get to see some. Sometimes on the way to or from Red Oak we see them flying. I just hope the weather allows them to go up.
God Bless,
Mrs. Sickels
Happy Thursday!!! This has been a busy week. I went to the Civic Center last night to see Dirty Dancing and it was FABULOUS!!! It was a very late night though. I am yawning today. Tonight I am off to Denison for volleyball. I am ready for this week to be over! The week has been much better homework wise. They are working very hard. I have a "study group" that takes their work to the neighboring room and works. They are monitored by the Ms. Thomas, our aide. They enjoy this time and accomplish a lot. Things are gradually becoming more routine. Those first 3-4 weeks can be stressful for everyone.
Language Arts - This week we read a story called "My Librarian Is A Camel". It is an informational story. I find it very interesting. It tells us about communities that are far away from a major city or isolated, and how they get to enjoy library books. In Africa, they are delivered by camel. In Finland, it's by boat, in Northern Canada it is by the mail. The kids find the idea interesting but the reading is dry and hard for them to stay focused on. We will cover this story again tomorrow right before they test over it. In spelling this week the skill was focusing on long i and short i. The grammar focus was on quotation marks. We worked on how to correctly punctuate a quote from someone. This can be very tricky. The students seemed to do well. The test will be challenging. The decoding lesson this week was over VCCV patterns. You should find the test results of last Friday's end of the week test will be found in today's take home folder. They are for you, I have the originals here at school.
Math - In math this week, we have been working on comparing and ordering numbers and also rounding numbers. We are struggling with rounding numbers so we are going to spend some extra time on it. I am not comfortable leaving this until I know everyone has a handle on it. We will then have a MId-Chapter checkpoint. This means we are halfway through the chapter. We will have 4 more lessons then get ready to assess our knowledge. I use the MId-Chapter checkpoint to see if there is anything in the first 4 chapters I may need to go back and touch on again with certain students before moving forward. We have been doing a lot of group work in Math to try and share ideas with each other. Sometimes other student'st thoughts might trigger something for someone else who wasn't quite getting it. Today I have a couple games planed for some groups so they hopefully are either practicing their rounding or still working on learning rounding.
Social Studies - We are getting ready for our first test. They worked on a study guide today. We will check it tomorrow and they will test on Monday. Tuesday we will correct the tests and begin the next chapter. Chapter 2 will talk about our government, and our economic system. There is a lot to learn in this chapter. Sometimes it is a hard chapter to teach because there is so much you want the kids to remember. In all honesty, they probably won't find it interesting. I will be looking for ways to present it to them that is interesting.
I hope all of you have a great weekend!! I will spend Saturday in the Red Oak High School gym watching volleyball. Sunday will be a day to myself!! Woohoo!! I will try to catch up on all the housework, and laundry that I fell behind on during the week. I am usually checking Friday Language Arts tests also!! I pray the balloons can go up and I get to see some. Sometimes on the way to or from Red Oak we see them flying. I just hope the weather allows them to go up.
God Bless,
Mrs. Sickels
Thursday, September 10, 2015
Dear Parents,
Hello and Happy Thursday!! We are working very hard in 4th grade!! We are adjusting to using our time wisely at school, and I am learning more about your students. I know it seems like some days there is more homework than others, but I will tell you that as we really get going this will slow down. The subjects start spreading themselves out and it doesn't seem like so much. It is always a struggle at the beginning of the year. The hardest part for me is making sure every student is working diligently during study hall times. There are a lot of distractions with 25 kids. We will continue to work on this. Hopefully you will see the amount of homework changing.
Language Arts - This week was a short week which puts a damper on getting everything we normally do completed. We are reading a story called My Brother Martin. This is a story about Martin Luther King, Jr. written by his sister. She is informing us about what childhood was like for M.L.K. and his siblings and how that inspired him to be so passionate about the Civil Rights Movement. It is quite interesting. I think students forget that these famous people were also children. Our spelling list this week was on Long e and short e words. We looked at the four kinds of sentences for grammar: declarative, interrogative, imperative, and exclamatory. They know what the ending punctuation for each would be and should be able to tell you what each sentence is doing. This week our focus was on Author's Purpose. We talked about the main 3 reasons that an author writes a story. They are: to entertain, to inform, and to persuade. I had different activities for groups to do with this. One group read a story, looked for details that led them decide what the purpose of the story was. The other group was given book titles and had to put them in a category of entertain, inform, or persuade. This is a skill we work on off and on all year. We will be able to pick these out easily by the end of the year.
Math - We have been working on 3 forms of writing a number this week. Standard form is the way we see numbers all the time, word form is when we write the number out in words only, and expanded form is when we write the number using the value of each digit. This lesson is time consuming due to all the writing that we do. I feel that I had people still not catching onto the expanded form and how to find the value of a digit using place value. Yesterday we played around with a place value chart and numbers. We made words we discussed their value and then ended with game. The game was, I roll a die and give them a number. They had to place it somewhere on the chart then I would give another number. The goal was to make the biggest number you could BUT you couldn't change a number from a place once it was there. They had a lot of fun with this. I plan to continue working with place value.
Social Studies - Wow!! These first 3 lessons have a ton of vocab words to work with. Once we get into the regions there is only 5-6 per lesson which is much better. We have been talknig about climate and weather. Today we discussed inset maps. We talked about what they are and why we use them. They did some discussion in their groups then as a whole group. I used both large maps in the room to show inset maps and we discussed why they were there. All the ones I had were there for different reasons, which was great. I then had them flip through their books and show me a set of maps with insets maps on them. It is funny, giving 25 kids permission to flip through their book, was a crazy time!! I walked around and looked at everyone's pages. They can easily pick them out but discussing the purpose was little more challenging.
I hope all of you have a great weekend. Do something fun and exciting. If you consider a volleyball tournament and then softball tournament fun then I am having a blast!! I do love watching my kids!! Jami does volleyball on Saturday and Josie softball on Sunday. Don't forget the Food Fair on Sunday also!! I look forward to this day always.
God Bless,
Mrs. Sickels
Hello and Happy Thursday!! We are working very hard in 4th grade!! We are adjusting to using our time wisely at school, and I am learning more about your students. I know it seems like some days there is more homework than others, but I will tell you that as we really get going this will slow down. The subjects start spreading themselves out and it doesn't seem like so much. It is always a struggle at the beginning of the year. The hardest part for me is making sure every student is working diligently during study hall times. There are a lot of distractions with 25 kids. We will continue to work on this. Hopefully you will see the amount of homework changing.
Language Arts - This week was a short week which puts a damper on getting everything we normally do completed. We are reading a story called My Brother Martin. This is a story about Martin Luther King, Jr. written by his sister. She is informing us about what childhood was like for M.L.K. and his siblings and how that inspired him to be so passionate about the Civil Rights Movement. It is quite interesting. I think students forget that these famous people were also children. Our spelling list this week was on Long e and short e words. We looked at the four kinds of sentences for grammar: declarative, interrogative, imperative, and exclamatory. They know what the ending punctuation for each would be and should be able to tell you what each sentence is doing. This week our focus was on Author's Purpose. We talked about the main 3 reasons that an author writes a story. They are: to entertain, to inform, and to persuade. I had different activities for groups to do with this. One group read a story, looked for details that led them decide what the purpose of the story was. The other group was given book titles and had to put them in a category of entertain, inform, or persuade. This is a skill we work on off and on all year. We will be able to pick these out easily by the end of the year.
Math - We have been working on 3 forms of writing a number this week. Standard form is the way we see numbers all the time, word form is when we write the number out in words only, and expanded form is when we write the number using the value of each digit. This lesson is time consuming due to all the writing that we do. I feel that I had people still not catching onto the expanded form and how to find the value of a digit using place value. Yesterday we played around with a place value chart and numbers. We made words we discussed their value and then ended with game. The game was, I roll a die and give them a number. They had to place it somewhere on the chart then I would give another number. The goal was to make the biggest number you could BUT you couldn't change a number from a place once it was there. They had a lot of fun with this. I plan to continue working with place value.
Social Studies - Wow!! These first 3 lessons have a ton of vocab words to work with. Once we get into the regions there is only 5-6 per lesson which is much better. We have been talknig about climate and weather. Today we discussed inset maps. We talked about what they are and why we use them. They did some discussion in their groups then as a whole group. I used both large maps in the room to show inset maps and we discussed why they were there. All the ones I had were there for different reasons, which was great. I then had them flip through their books and show me a set of maps with insets maps on them. It is funny, giving 25 kids permission to flip through their book, was a crazy time!! I walked around and looked at everyone's pages. They can easily pick them out but discussing the purpose was little more challenging.
I hope all of you have a great weekend. Do something fun and exciting. If you consider a volleyball tournament and then softball tournament fun then I am having a blast!! I do love watching my kids!! Jami does volleyball on Saturday and Josie softball on Sunday. Don't forget the Food Fair on Sunday also!! I look forward to this day always.
God Bless,
Mrs. Sickels
Thursday, September 3, 2015
Dear Parents,
Happy Thursday!!! I hope your student is enjoying 4th grade so far. I am definitely enjoying the students. It is quite an adjustment for some, and I have given out some late slips all ready. The students will get used to having homework and knowing they need to do it. Parents may need to push them along. I usually dread the first full week of school but I have really enjoyed this one. I was ready to come back and get into a routine. I like to have fun when I teach, and I think the kids are finding that enjoyable. I hope they enjoy my crazy ways!!!
Language Arts - We are finishing up our week on the story Because of Winn-Dixie. We have spent 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. 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. These are items tested over every Friday. I request they bring their vocabulary notebooks home to study every Thursday night.
Math - We have had one full lesson in Math this week. It 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 will move on to 3 ways to read and write numbers: standard form, word form, expanded form, and comparing numbers next week. It is always a slow start getting used to my teaching style and how we use our textbooks. We will move a little faster and we go along.
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. This week we have focused on the Regions, their landforms, and the climate of the United States. The students have had to do a lot of vocabulary words and we do a worksheet at the end of each lesson. The worksheets help to summarize what they have learned and what is important.
I really hope everyone has a safe and enjoyable Labor Day Weekend. I know there are lots of fun things that happen this weekend. I plan to spend some time with family. I have a cousin who has been training for a triathlon, she had something come up and can't run in the real one, so her husband made one for her around Creston. Family is gathering to watch her and show support, then having a meal together. I admire her spirit. I plan to be there.
God Bless,
Mrs. Sickels
Happy Thursday!!! I hope your student is enjoying 4th grade so far. I am definitely enjoying the students. It is quite an adjustment for some, and I have given out some late slips all ready. The students will get used to having homework and knowing they need to do it. Parents may need to push them along. I usually dread the first full week of school but I have really enjoyed this one. I was ready to come back and get into a routine. I like to have fun when I teach, and I think the kids are finding that enjoyable. I hope they enjoy my crazy ways!!!
Language Arts - We are finishing up our week on the story Because of Winn-Dixie. We have spent 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. 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. These are items tested over every Friday. I request they bring their vocabulary notebooks home to study every Thursday night.
Math - We have had one full lesson in Math this week. It 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 will move on to 3 ways to read and write numbers: standard form, word form, expanded form, and comparing numbers next week. It is always a slow start getting used to my teaching style and how we use our textbooks. We will move a little faster and we go along.
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. This week we have focused on the Regions, their landforms, and the climate of the United States. The students have had to do a lot of vocabulary words and we do a worksheet at the end of each lesson. The worksheets help to summarize what they have learned and what is important.
I really hope everyone has a safe and enjoyable Labor Day Weekend. I know there are lots of fun things that happen this weekend. I plan to spend some time with family. I have a cousin who has been training for a triathlon, she had something come up and can't run in the real one, so her husband made one for her around Creston. Family is gathering to watch her and show support, then having a meal together. I admire her spirit. I plan to be there.
God Bless,
Mrs. Sickels
Thursday, August 27, 2015
Hello!! Welcome to 4th grade!!!
I am very excited to be teaching your children this year. Thank you for sharing your precious gem with me! We have had a good first two days, I think..... I feel they have gone very well. Your kids may say differently. We are learning the basics. They have to get used to me and how I run my classroom. They have to get familiar with all my expectations and how work is done. Everything is new to them. I am sure it has been overwhelming for them. I feel overwhelmed sometimes also. We will get the bugs worked out then the day will run like a well-oiled machine! (we hope) My classroom is very routine. We will stick to the schedule. Only time we venture off schedule is when extra fun activities are planned: Advent Angels, Lenten Angels, Bullying days, Catholic Schools Week, or snow days.
I hope this blog is helpful in keeping you posted on things we are doing in the classroom 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 9:30-10:00. Also at the end of the day 3:15-3:45. Also, brand new this year, I have a voicemail box You can call the school and leave a message on my voicemail. The BEST way to reach me and get a response is via email.
Language Arts - The first few days I am assessing the kids on what they retained from last year and areas that need some work, so I know where to begin with each one. We took a spelling inventory today, which is like a pretest. It just gives me an idea of what kind of a speller they are. Tomorrow we will take the diagnostic test. On Monday, I will begin the first story of Unit 1 with them, which is called Because of Winn Dixie. It is a story from a book right off my shelf written by Kate DiCamillo. They will enjoy it. You will begin to see homework in this subject on Monday.
Math - I am also assessing the students this week in the area. I am seeing what they retained over the summer or for some what they learned. It will help me see the areas they do well in and which ones I will need to slow down and spend some extra time on. We took part of this test today and will finish it tomorrow. I will spend weekend going over it and making some teaching decisions. Our series is called Go Math and follows the Iowa Core. After teaching it last year, I am in love with it. Kids have a much better understanding of Math then before. We really get in depth. Things are really broken down so kids have a better answer to "why" we do the things we do in Math.
Social Studies - We will be studying the United States this whole year. The first three chapters focus on "Living in the United States". We will learn that the U.S. can be split into 5 different regions. We will also talk about our Government and how it is set up. We will then study the states a region at a time. Kids will be able to label on a map the states of each region and by the end of the year they will label all 50 States on a map. We have projects we complete during each region. The projects usually start after conferences so we will discuss them more then. I hope your kids love this subject as much as I do.
Science and Religion- Just a reminder that our 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. You should check out their blogs to see if there is anything about 4th grade on them. If you have questions or concerns about these two classes you will need to make contact with these two teacher.
I am looking forward to a great year full of fun and LOTS of learning. Have a great weekend!! Happy Birthday to me Saturday, August 29!!
God Bless,
Mrs. Sickels
I am very excited to be teaching your children this year. Thank you for sharing your precious gem with me! We have had a good first two days, I think..... I feel they have gone very well. Your kids may say differently. We are learning the basics. They have to get used to me and how I run my classroom. They have to get familiar with all my expectations and how work is done. Everything is new to them. I am sure it has been overwhelming for them. I feel overwhelmed sometimes also. We will get the bugs worked out then the day will run like a well-oiled machine! (we hope) My classroom is very routine. We will stick to the schedule. Only time we venture off schedule is when extra fun activities are planned: Advent Angels, Lenten Angels, Bullying days, Catholic Schools Week, or snow days.
I hope this blog is helpful in keeping you posted on things we are doing in the classroom 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 9:30-10:00. Also at the end of the day 3:15-3:45. Also, brand new this year, I have a voicemail box You can call the school and leave a message on my voicemail. The BEST way to reach me and get a response is via email.
Language Arts - The first few days I am assessing the kids on what they retained from last year and areas that need some work, so I know where to begin with each one. We took a spelling inventory today, which is like a pretest. It just gives me an idea of what kind of a speller they are. Tomorrow we will take the diagnostic test. On Monday, I will begin the first story of Unit 1 with them, which is called Because of Winn Dixie. It is a story from a book right off my shelf written by Kate DiCamillo. They will enjoy it. You will begin to see homework in this subject on Monday.
Math - I am also assessing the students this week in the area. I am seeing what they retained over the summer or for some what they learned. It will help me see the areas they do well in and which ones I will need to slow down and spend some extra time on. We took part of this test today and will finish it tomorrow. I will spend weekend going over it and making some teaching decisions. Our series is called Go Math and follows the Iowa Core. After teaching it last year, I am in love with it. Kids have a much better understanding of Math then before. We really get in depth. Things are really broken down so kids have a better answer to "why" we do the things we do in Math.
Social Studies - We will be studying the United States this whole year. The first three chapters focus on "Living in the United States". We will learn that the U.S. can be split into 5 different regions. We will also talk about our Government and how it is set up. We will then study the states a region at a time. Kids will be able to label on a map the states of each region and by the end of the year they will label all 50 States on a map. We have projects we complete during each region. The projects usually start after conferences so we will discuss them more then. I hope your kids love this subject as much as I do.
Science and Religion- Just a reminder that our 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. You should check out their blogs to see if there is anything about 4th grade on them. If you have questions or concerns about these two classes you will need to make contact with these two teacher.
I am looking forward to a great year full of fun and LOTS of learning. Have a great weekend!! Happy Birthday to me Saturday, August 29!!
God Bless,
Mrs. Sickels
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