Dear Parents,
Happy Thursday!!! I hope all you received the paper we sent home yesterday about the Iowa Energy game. I am so sorry for all the confusion with this. You will be getting information in the folders today about the game and what is going on. We found out by accident that we needed to know exact numbers by tomorrow morning. Check out your children's folders for information. Again, this was not meant to confuse people, we just needed a number for the parents going. We also received a lot of money today for kids fees. That was just the fee for the parents. The fee will be a little more to include the bus fee. If you sent money today that is fine, we have collected it and kept track of who sent what.
Language Arts - This week was a Unit 3 test week. We took the test over 3 days. I will send results home next week. Not all sections have been corrected yet. The other activities we have done this week include more DEAR time for the kids. I also have read out loud to them a little more. A few 7th graders came into the room on Tuesday and shared some narrative poems that they had created using the website POWTOONS. Their poems came alive on the computers. We shared them on my whiteboard. I think the kids thought this was pretty cool. I told them this was a website they could go to for free and create stories or poems. I also said if anyone chose to do it for fun we would share here at school. We ended the week with do an Appointment clock activity I was introduced to recently. It is a grouping strategy. They matched up with people and then wrote names on their clock by certain times. When I want them to partner up quickly, I may say get with your 4 o'clock partner and they immediately go to the person who is on their calendar at 4:00. Now that the clock is finalized we can do partner activities and not waste time assigning partners or finding partners. Very cool. Tomorrow we are gong to work on a writing activity. The students will be working on writing descriptive paragraphs on their bedrooms. They will need to write a paragraph describing their bedroom using all five senses. It is a fun one especially when it comes to describing the smell of one's room. It has been a fun relaxing week. Next week we get back into our textbook. It will be a normal week with spelling, grammar, and a story to read. In spelling, I am making a little bit of a change to how we pretest. This decision to change was based on an article I read that showed some interesting research on spelling tests. Spelling is very important to reading. As a matter of fact "Spelling leads to being a better reader", it is not the other way around which is most people's belief. This change does not affect you or what your child does at home, it will for right now effect pretest days. Instead of me checking their tests I will be having the kids check their own papers as I read the answers out loud. This allows them or forces them to see what mistakes they are missing and maybe see a pattern. I will still pick them up and double check the first couple of times and I will put the scores on website so you are aware how they are doing. I hope this leads to them understanding their errors and not just plain memorizing.
Math - We finished up chapter 2 this week and will begin chapter 3 today. I will get their tests back next week to come home and be signed. I have a few not finished correcting yet and checking back over their corrections is a tedious job. I am very particular with corrections especially since I gave some guidance on what I expect. We will begin chapter 3 today with the introduction pages. This chapter is on double-digit multiplication. It will move quicker than chapter 2. We all ready know all the strategies we will just change them a little. There are not as many lessons in this chapter either. It pretty much sticks to some main strategies that are important for them to learn. I look forward to this chapter because it is shorter and seems less stressful. Chapter 2 is just too long!
Social Studies - Projects are done!! We are in the last lesson of this chapter also. We will be testing next week over the last chapter of the Northeast Region. I plan to assign the next set of states too them soon. The next region will move a little faster, it has to. We have 3 more projects to get done by the end of the year. Isn't that crazy that I have to think about the end of the year all ready!!
Please be sure to check with your child to see if they are needing new notebooks, crayons or colored pencils. Sometimes we lose things or use things up. I know some kids need some things because they are borrowing from others which is not always a good idea. I am finding I am needing crayons and colored pencils for my stash because I am loaning them out and not getting everything back. Just a mid year check to replenish any supplies. Thank you.
Have a great weekend!!
God Bless,
Mrs. Sickels
Thursday, January 21, 2016
Thursday, January 14, 2016
Dear Parents,
Happy Thursday!!! Just an FYI sickness has hit our room. Yes, we have had the bronchitis stuff, but now it's the flu. I just want you to be aware of it. If your child complains about feeling like they could throw up, they may be telling the truth.
How about this warm up. Enjoy it while it lasts because the cold is coming back. Please be sure your child is still bringing the necessary recess gear. It the temp and windchill are above 0 we will still be going outside! If the windchill falls below we keep them inside for safety. We don't want frostbite!!
Language Arts- This week is our last story of Unit 3 which means next week is a Unit test week! We will talk about Book reports which are due January 29th, we will have a small writing project, and also meet with 7th graders to see their poems they created on Powtoons. We will also work on the Unit 3 test.
This week we read the story Ecology for Kids. It is a nonfiction story about ecology of the earth. They explain what ecology means and what exactly an ecologist studies. It also talks about ways in which students can help protect our environment. In grammar we have talked about irregular past tense verbs, we have focused on the verb "be" and talked about past tense verbs with helping verbs. The decoding lesson was on 3 syllable words and how to break them into those 3 syllables. Tomorrow will be our end of the week test and spelling post test. Please be sure your child is looking over these items.
Math- In math this week we discussed problem solving and then moved on to reviewing for a test. The test is today. We will make corrections tomorrow in class. Next week we will begin chapter 3 which is multiplying 2-digit numbers. This chapter is shorter and will go quicker because we know all the strategies, we are just making it about a bigger number. After that we do a chapter on geometry where the focus is on area and perimeter. It is nice to slide that chapter in right after multiplication because that is what area consists of. I hope everyone looked over the problems I clued them in on yesterday. Good luck on the test!
Social Studies - We are winding down on projects for the Northeast! About the time we are completely done we will be assigning the next region! We are in the middle of the chapter right now, but will finish quickly. We are most likely looking at a test at the end of next week. Possibly the beginning of the next. We will pick up singing our states and capitals song again here at school to help them remember capitals. They will need to be able to name the states of the Northeast and capitals and also place them on a map. I hope to get some map work in next week also.
I hope all of you have a great weekend. We have some family coming, so I look forward to my weekend. Don't forget January 30th is Trivia Night. See the Principal's blog for information on how to sign up or refer to your flyer from last week.
God Bless,
Mrs. Sickels
Happy Thursday!!! Just an FYI sickness has hit our room. Yes, we have had the bronchitis stuff, but now it's the flu. I just want you to be aware of it. If your child complains about feeling like they could throw up, they may be telling the truth.
How about this warm up. Enjoy it while it lasts because the cold is coming back. Please be sure your child is still bringing the necessary recess gear. It the temp and windchill are above 0 we will still be going outside! If the windchill falls below we keep them inside for safety. We don't want frostbite!!
Language Arts- This week is our last story of Unit 3 which means next week is a Unit test week! We will talk about Book reports which are due January 29th, we will have a small writing project, and also meet with 7th graders to see their poems they created on Powtoons. We will also work on the Unit 3 test.
This week we read the story Ecology for Kids. It is a nonfiction story about ecology of the earth. They explain what ecology means and what exactly an ecologist studies. It also talks about ways in which students can help protect our environment. In grammar we have talked about irregular past tense verbs, we have focused on the verb "be" and talked about past tense verbs with helping verbs. The decoding lesson was on 3 syllable words and how to break them into those 3 syllables. Tomorrow will be our end of the week test and spelling post test. Please be sure your child is looking over these items.
Math- In math this week we discussed problem solving and then moved on to reviewing for a test. The test is today. We will make corrections tomorrow in class. Next week we will begin chapter 3 which is multiplying 2-digit numbers. This chapter is shorter and will go quicker because we know all the strategies, we are just making it about a bigger number. After that we do a chapter on geometry where the focus is on area and perimeter. It is nice to slide that chapter in right after multiplication because that is what area consists of. I hope everyone looked over the problems I clued them in on yesterday. Good luck on the test!
Social Studies - We are winding down on projects for the Northeast! About the time we are completely done we will be assigning the next region! We are in the middle of the chapter right now, but will finish quickly. We are most likely looking at a test at the end of next week. Possibly the beginning of the next. We will pick up singing our states and capitals song again here at school to help them remember capitals. They will need to be able to name the states of the Northeast and capitals and also place them on a map. I hope to get some map work in next week also.
I hope all of you have a great weekend. We have some family coming, so I look forward to my weekend. Don't forget January 30th is Trivia Night. See the Principal's blog for information on how to sign up or refer to your flyer from last week.
God Bless,
Mrs. Sickels
Thursday, January 7, 2016
Dear Parents,
Happy Thursday! Welcome back!! I think students were happy to see each other on Monday. They were a little chatty. They have calmed down and are hard at work now. The students came back and we slipped right back into our routine. I am looking forward to January and all the hard work I get after having a Christmas break. I hope all of you enjoy that your children are back to school. I am happy to see them. I really did miss seeing them over break.
Language Arts - We walked right in and began a new story with spelling words and the whole bit!! The story this week is called The Life and Times of the Ant. It is really kind of interesting because it compares the life of the ant to human life. It compares the jobs of ants to jobs humans do. We learned that ants are the strongest insects and in some instances stronger than humans because they can lift a seed that is 5 times its weight. I tried to compare what 5 times a human's weight is and that you have to really really strong and work out to lift that much. The spelling words this week focus on the final ending in words. This list proved to be quite difficult for students or they were just not ready to dive back into spelling. I am going with it was difficult list. No worries, we learn from it. In grammar this week we discussing participles; present participles, past participles and participle phrases. The first two were pretty easy, the phrases was little more difficult even for me! We discussed decoding this week with suffixes. I tried to walk them through how to separate the suffix from the base word then work with putting the base word into syllables. Tomorrow is our normal assessment day. Remember to have your student go over their spelling words and vocabulary.
Math - We reviewed the standard algorithm, then moved onto to larger numbers. This lesson worked on 3 and 4 digit numbers times a single digit. It also added money amounts. We worked on that for a couple days. Today we will begin talking about multi-step word problems. This will be word problems that require you to work more than one problem. After this lesson we will be reviewing for a test. Next week we will take the test over Chapter 2. I am excited about that because then we move onto multiplying by 2 digit numbers which is easy because they know all the strategies all ready. It is also a shorter chapter.
Social Studies - We are starting chapter 5 this week. They have been working on vocabulary and we began reading lesson 1 on the Narraganset Native American Tribe in Rhode Island. We are learning their way of life and that they were lead by a Sachem. We will be finishing up lesson 1 tomorrow. This is the last chapter over the Northeast Region. They will be expected to label a map with the Northeast states this time and capitals of those states. Please practice these items at home. We will spend one day at school working on this but it should carry over to home. Sing, sing, sing the song. If your child doesn't have it, it is free on itunes. It is States and Capitals song by Macho Nacho.
Again, I want to thank all of you for the generous gifts given to me and to the classroom. The kids are so excited when you open their gift which puts the biggest smile on my face. I had a great break but am very ready to be back. I hope all of you enjoyed it also.
God Bless,
Mrs. Sickels
Happy Thursday! Welcome back!! I think students were happy to see each other on Monday. They were a little chatty. They have calmed down and are hard at work now. The students came back and we slipped right back into our routine. I am looking forward to January and all the hard work I get after having a Christmas break. I hope all of you enjoy that your children are back to school. I am happy to see them. I really did miss seeing them over break.
Language Arts - We walked right in and began a new story with spelling words and the whole bit!! The story this week is called The Life and Times of the Ant. It is really kind of interesting because it compares the life of the ant to human life. It compares the jobs of ants to jobs humans do. We learned that ants are the strongest insects and in some instances stronger than humans because they can lift a seed that is 5 times its weight. I tried to compare what 5 times a human's weight is and that you have to really really strong and work out to lift that much. The spelling words this week focus on the final ending in words. This list proved to be quite difficult for students or they were just not ready to dive back into spelling. I am going with it was difficult list. No worries, we learn from it. In grammar this week we discussing participles; present participles, past participles and participle phrases. The first two were pretty easy, the phrases was little more difficult even for me! We discussed decoding this week with suffixes. I tried to walk them through how to separate the suffix from the base word then work with putting the base word into syllables. Tomorrow is our normal assessment day. Remember to have your student go over their spelling words and vocabulary.
Math - We reviewed the standard algorithm, then moved onto to larger numbers. This lesson worked on 3 and 4 digit numbers times a single digit. It also added money amounts. We worked on that for a couple days. Today we will begin talking about multi-step word problems. This will be word problems that require you to work more than one problem. After this lesson we will be reviewing for a test. Next week we will take the test over Chapter 2. I am excited about that because then we move onto multiplying by 2 digit numbers which is easy because they know all the strategies all ready. It is also a shorter chapter.
Social Studies - We are starting chapter 5 this week. They have been working on vocabulary and we began reading lesson 1 on the Narraganset Native American Tribe in Rhode Island. We are learning their way of life and that they were lead by a Sachem. We will be finishing up lesson 1 tomorrow. This is the last chapter over the Northeast Region. They will be expected to label a map with the Northeast states this time and capitals of those states. Please practice these items at home. We will spend one day at school working on this but it should carry over to home. Sing, sing, sing the song. If your child doesn't have it, it is free on itunes. It is States and Capitals song by Macho Nacho.
Again, I want to thank all of you for the generous gifts given to me and to the classroom. The kids are so excited when you open their gift which puts the biggest smile on my face. I had a great break but am very ready to be back. I hope all of you enjoyed it also.
God Bless,
Mrs. Sickels
Tuesday, January 5, 2016
Hello!!
I just wanted to say it is great to be back. I missed seeing your children for 2 weeks!!! I hope everyone is remembering their hats, mittens, boots and winter coats, we are in for a cold spell. It's a lot more fun at recess when we can actually play in the snow.
I would also like to thank everyone for the wonderful gifts!! I loved all of them. I wrote thank you's to the kids but I never know if they hit home or not. I really enjoyed receiving all those items from the snowflakes on the tree, that was fun and nice to add to my room. I received several clipboards to which I am thankful for because I had some students who didn't have the right size or their's broke, so now I can share. I appreciate all of you thinking of me and the classroom during this season. I hope everyone had a great time with family friends over break. I know I enjoyed myself. I read a book, yes just one, only because it was a slow book and I watched a lot of movies with the kids or played games with Molly. I brought out my ancient Monopoly game and we played several times!!
Welcome back and Happy New Year and I look forward to the last half of the year.
God Bless,
Mrs. Sickels
I just wanted to say it is great to be back. I missed seeing your children for 2 weeks!!! I hope everyone is remembering their hats, mittens, boots and winter coats, we are in for a cold spell. It's a lot more fun at recess when we can actually play in the snow.
I would also like to thank everyone for the wonderful gifts!! I loved all of them. I wrote thank you's to the kids but I never know if they hit home or not. I really enjoyed receiving all those items from the snowflakes on the tree, that was fun and nice to add to my room. I received several clipboards to which I am thankful for because I had some students who didn't have the right size or their's broke, so now I can share. I appreciate all of you thinking of me and the classroom during this season. I hope everyone had a great time with family friends over break. I know I enjoyed myself. I read a book, yes just one, only because it was a slow book and I watched a lot of movies with the kids or played games with Molly. I brought out my ancient Monopoly game and we played several times!!
Welcome back and Happy New Year and I look forward to the last half of the year.
God Bless,
Mrs. Sickels
Friday, December 18, 2015
Hello!!
I just wanted to put out a few things to clarify. I may have confused you about Secret Santa. This is something the teachers do. We draw names and for 4 days we put gifts all over the building in strange spots for each other. The kids get all excited seeing them all over the building. They love when I find mine and open the gifts too!! Some parents read that in my blog and thought the kids were doing it. No they are not, it is the teachers! I am so sorry I wasn't clear about that.
Yesterday I talked about the last day activities. These will all be on Monday. I didn't put a date because I didn't want anyone to wonder until they received notification from the Principal. Monday is a "Spirit Day", plus they need a sack lunch and board games. If you have any questions please let me know!
We are all very grateful that the school is letting us out so all the staff and faculty can support Mrs. Levine during this time. Kirk was always in the building for all to visit with and Mrs. Levine has been her for over 35 years. It is the least we can do for her.
May God bless you all this Christmas season!
Mrs. Sickels
I just wanted to put out a few things to clarify. I may have confused you about Secret Santa. This is something the teachers do. We draw names and for 4 days we put gifts all over the building in strange spots for each other. The kids get all excited seeing them all over the building. They love when I find mine and open the gifts too!! Some parents read that in my blog and thought the kids were doing it. No they are not, it is the teachers! I am so sorry I wasn't clear about that.
Yesterday I talked about the last day activities. These will all be on Monday. I didn't put a date because I didn't want anyone to wonder until they received notification from the Principal. Monday is a "Spirit Day", plus they need a sack lunch and board games. If you have any questions please let me know!
We are all very grateful that the school is letting us out so all the staff and faculty can support Mrs. Levine during this time. Kirk was always in the building for all to visit with and Mrs. Levine has been her for over 35 years. It is the least we can do for her.
May God bless you all this Christmas season!
Mrs. Sickels
Thursday, December 17, 2015
Dear Parents,
Happy Thursday!!! This week the only good thing about Thursday is that Friday is tomorrow!!! I would say the 4th graders are getting excited for Christmas. Some a lot more than others. The most important thing is we are still working hard. This has been a week of ups and downs. With the passing of Kirk Levine being our low and the excitement of Secret Santa starting in our building, emotions are high. We are praying for Mrs. Levine and her family daily. I hope everyone had the chance to share with your children on his passing. If not they are aware of it today. Funeral arrangements can be found online at Pearson's funeral home.
Language Arts - This week in we have been reading a story called Antarctic Journal. This is about the author's 4 month visit to the Antarctic. We learned a lot about the region through this story. The was a narrative nonfiction story. It told a story about her stay but told us factual information. In grammar we have been talking about Modal Auxilaries, which are words like: may, should, could, can, might, and would. We discussed the appropriate times to use these words. The fun one we talked about was "may" and how we should use "May I" to ask permission for things. In spelling we worked on words with endings of -ed and -ing again. This week was better than last week. Tomorrow is our normal testing day so make sure they are studying for their spelling test and end of the week test over the story.
Math -Yes, folks we did it! We have learned the standard algorithm!! The math that you were taught in school! The students like it but they did say they liked the partial product strategy too. Some still get a little confused when multiplying how to record their answers but we are working on it. We will spend the next couple of days working on it. Some were very excited to see this, so I am sure some of you have been sharing this strategy at home. We took another timed test yesterday and I will have the results on the computer by the end of the day. Any student who got 100% for the 2nd time will move down to only 4 minutes of time allowed to take the test. Woohoo!! That is exciting. The goal is 2 minutes. I can just get it done in 2, so it is quite the challenge!
Social Studies - We are finishing up chapter 4. We their study guides today. They need to study for the test tonight because they will take it at 8:30 tomorrow morning! On Monday, I will give the tests back for corrections and we are done! It is a great stopping place for Christmas Break! When we return, projects start rolling in! We will start on the next region as soon as chapter 5 in complete!
Last Day- The last day before break is a fun one for us! We will spend the first hours in the morning doing some house cleaning in our desks and finishing anything that needs finished. At 10:00 we plan to watch a Christmas movie with 3rd and 5th grade. We have a sack lunch with our Advent Angels, then we sing Christmas Carols from 12:30 - 1:00. At 1:00 we will come back to our room and have our Christmas Party. We will have a snack and play games. The students are asked to bring in a board game from home to play with others. No electronics just board games. I have some good ones here but not a lot! I know kids have favorites at home. Please allow them to bring them. I love playing games!!! Parents are welcome to join us at any point of the day, or all day for that matter!! It is a fun day celebrating Christ's birth with our school family. I am looking for one volunteer to provide snacks for that day! Anyone interested email me or text me at 641-202-1580. If you text, let me know who you are.
I want to end by saying Merry Christmas to all of you!!! I hope you have a very special Holiday Season! I will be thinking of all of you! I really do miss your children during this break! Be safe!
God Bless,
Mrs. Sickels
Happy Thursday!!! This week the only good thing about Thursday is that Friday is tomorrow!!! I would say the 4th graders are getting excited for Christmas. Some a lot more than others. The most important thing is we are still working hard. This has been a week of ups and downs. With the passing of Kirk Levine being our low and the excitement of Secret Santa starting in our building, emotions are high. We are praying for Mrs. Levine and her family daily. I hope everyone had the chance to share with your children on his passing. If not they are aware of it today. Funeral arrangements can be found online at Pearson's funeral home.
Language Arts - This week in we have been reading a story called Antarctic Journal. This is about the author's 4 month visit to the Antarctic. We learned a lot about the region through this story. The was a narrative nonfiction story. It told a story about her stay but told us factual information. In grammar we have been talking about Modal Auxilaries, which are words like: may, should, could, can, might, and would. We discussed the appropriate times to use these words. The fun one we talked about was "may" and how we should use "May I" to ask permission for things. In spelling we worked on words with endings of -ed and -ing again. This week was better than last week. Tomorrow is our normal testing day so make sure they are studying for their spelling test and end of the week test over the story.
Math -Yes, folks we did it! We have learned the standard algorithm!! The math that you were taught in school! The students like it but they did say they liked the partial product strategy too. Some still get a little confused when multiplying how to record their answers but we are working on it. We will spend the next couple of days working on it. Some were very excited to see this, so I am sure some of you have been sharing this strategy at home. We took another timed test yesterday and I will have the results on the computer by the end of the day. Any student who got 100% for the 2nd time will move down to only 4 minutes of time allowed to take the test. Woohoo!! That is exciting. The goal is 2 minutes. I can just get it done in 2, so it is quite the challenge!
Social Studies - We are finishing up chapter 4. We their study guides today. They need to study for the test tonight because they will take it at 8:30 tomorrow morning! On Monday, I will give the tests back for corrections and we are done! It is a great stopping place for Christmas Break! When we return, projects start rolling in! We will start on the next region as soon as chapter 5 in complete!
Last Day- The last day before break is a fun one for us! We will spend the first hours in the morning doing some house cleaning in our desks and finishing anything that needs finished. At 10:00 we plan to watch a Christmas movie with 3rd and 5th grade. We have a sack lunch with our Advent Angels, then we sing Christmas Carols from 12:30 - 1:00. At 1:00 we will come back to our room and have our Christmas Party. We will have a snack and play games. The students are asked to bring in a board game from home to play with others. No electronics just board games. I have some good ones here but not a lot! I know kids have favorites at home. Please allow them to bring them. I love playing games!!! Parents are welcome to join us at any point of the day, or all day for that matter!! It is a fun day celebrating Christ's birth with our school family. I am looking for one volunteer to provide snacks for that day! Anyone interested email me or text me at 641-202-1580. If you text, let me know who you are.
I want to end by saying Merry Christmas to all of you!!! I hope you have a very special Holiday Season! I will be thinking of all of you! I really do miss your children during this break! Be safe!
God Bless,
Mrs. Sickels
Thursday, December 10, 2015
Dear Parents,
Happy Thursday!! We are having a great week!! This was definitely a different week! The change of Mass on Tuesday instead of Wednesday threw everyone for a loop! We are also having a great week. The kids seem pretty settled this week considering we are gearing up for Christmas. We have had hard working week. I am very pleased that we are completely settled in and really working on our learning. Some are still struggling with managing time, so their work is done on time. Most students dig right in and want to get finished. I am stressing not to hurry too much, so that they make mistakes.
Social Studies - I just finished putting together due dates for their first projects. I have 2 projects due a day. I only have time for a couple to share their work so we can still have part of our regular social studies lesson for the day. The dates range from Jan. 4 - 20. Make sure these due date sheets are placed where everyone is aware. We are talking about resources from the Northeast region this week. We discussed: grapes in New York, cranberries in Massachusetts, maple syrup in Vermont, and granite quarries in New Hampshire. We have completed all the vocab for this chapter!! The kids are excited to be finished with that. I feel we will be looking at a test over chapter 4 before Christmas.
Math- This week in math we are focusing on word problems. They are multi-step problems. This means there is more than one problem to be worked to find the answer. Most kids hate these because it means more work. I am trying to have them look at them as a challenge. I am trying to get them excited about finding the ways to work out answers. I think they think I am crazy!! You will get their results of the first multiplication timed test this week. It is on the blue half sheet in the folder. We took another one on Wednesday and we are working on getting that one checked. I also put results on Power School as soon as I have them ready.
Language Arts - This week we are reading a story called The Earth Dragon Awakes. It is historical Fiction. It's historical event is the San Francisco Earthquake of 1906. We follow the happenings of a father and son who lived in a tenement building. The building collapses. The characters and events that happen to them are not true but could have happened. The kids found the story interesting since we do not have to deal with earthquakes here in Iowa. We have spent time talking about possessive nouns this week in grammar. This is the use of apostrophes to show ownership. Is spelling the list focused on adding the endings of -ed and -ing to base words. Next week the list will have more words with these endings. We discussed the base words and endings on some of the spelling words for decoding this week also. End of the week assessing will take place tomorrow.
Geography Bee - Grades 3-8 attended the final competition of the Geography Bee yesterday during our regular Mass time. We had 10 finalists to compete for the Championship round. Our class had two representatives: Daniel Buls and Cecilia Zachary!! We are so proud of them!! Megan Pellman ended up being the school Championi!! Congrats to Megan!!
I hope all of you are getting everything ready for Christmas. I am ready to start wrapping presents!! I have some shopping left to do on the twins but not Molly. I am done with her. We start having Christmas parties this weekend! FUN!! I hope you enjoy all the season has to offer!!
God Bless,
Mrs. Sickels
Happy Thursday!! We are having a great week!! This was definitely a different week! The change of Mass on Tuesday instead of Wednesday threw everyone for a loop! We are also having a great week. The kids seem pretty settled this week considering we are gearing up for Christmas. We have had hard working week. I am very pleased that we are completely settled in and really working on our learning. Some are still struggling with managing time, so their work is done on time. Most students dig right in and want to get finished. I am stressing not to hurry too much, so that they make mistakes.
Social Studies - I just finished putting together due dates for their first projects. I have 2 projects due a day. I only have time for a couple to share their work so we can still have part of our regular social studies lesson for the day. The dates range from Jan. 4 - 20. Make sure these due date sheets are placed where everyone is aware. We are talking about resources from the Northeast region this week. We discussed: grapes in New York, cranberries in Massachusetts, maple syrup in Vermont, and granite quarries in New Hampshire. We have completed all the vocab for this chapter!! The kids are excited to be finished with that. I feel we will be looking at a test over chapter 4 before Christmas.
Math- This week in math we are focusing on word problems. They are multi-step problems. This means there is more than one problem to be worked to find the answer. Most kids hate these because it means more work. I am trying to have them look at them as a challenge. I am trying to get them excited about finding the ways to work out answers. I think they think I am crazy!! You will get their results of the first multiplication timed test this week. It is on the blue half sheet in the folder. We took another one on Wednesday and we are working on getting that one checked. I also put results on Power School as soon as I have them ready.
Language Arts - This week we are reading a story called The Earth Dragon Awakes. It is historical Fiction. It's historical event is the San Francisco Earthquake of 1906. We follow the happenings of a father and son who lived in a tenement building. The building collapses. The characters and events that happen to them are not true but could have happened. The kids found the story interesting since we do not have to deal with earthquakes here in Iowa. We have spent time talking about possessive nouns this week in grammar. This is the use of apostrophes to show ownership. Is spelling the list focused on adding the endings of -ed and -ing to base words. Next week the list will have more words with these endings. We discussed the base words and endings on some of the spelling words for decoding this week also. End of the week assessing will take place tomorrow.
Geography Bee - Grades 3-8 attended the final competition of the Geography Bee yesterday during our regular Mass time. We had 10 finalists to compete for the Championship round. Our class had two representatives: Daniel Buls and Cecilia Zachary!! We are so proud of them!! Megan Pellman ended up being the school Championi!! Congrats to Megan!!
I hope all of you are getting everything ready for Christmas. I am ready to start wrapping presents!! I have some shopping left to do on the twins but not Molly. I am done with her. We start having Christmas parties this weekend! FUN!! I hope you enjoy all the season has to offer!!
God Bless,
Mrs. Sickels
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