Hello Parents!
Meg would like to take some more video tomorrow of the kids. Please send them in western wear again or have them bring it along with them. Remember it is a PE day so they need to have tennis shoes for that. Thanks for all your cooperation, this will be great!!
Wednesday, February 17, 2016
Monday, February 15, 2016
Dear Parents,
Just a reminder tomorrow we will be shooting some of the video for our 4th grade silent auction item. Make sure your child wears western wear tomorrow. Also, make sure they have memorized their part to the song. Friday, I sent a sheet home with each of them showing the piece of the song they need to memorize and talked to them about locating western clothing. The song is John Mellancamp, John Deere and John 3:16 by Keith Urban. You can find it on Youtube. I am excite! This will be very fun! I like doing things that have never been done before! This has not! Thanks to the mom's who came up with the idea. Have a great Monday!!
Just a reminder tomorrow we will be shooting some of the video for our 4th grade silent auction item. Make sure your child wears western wear tomorrow. Also, make sure they have memorized their part to the song. Friday, I sent a sheet home with each of them showing the piece of the song they need to memorize and talked to them about locating western clothing. The song is John Mellancamp, John Deere and John 3:16 by Keith Urban. You can find it on Youtube. I am excite! This will be very fun! I like doing things that have never been done before! This has not! Thanks to the mom's who came up with the idea. Have a great Monday!!
Thursday, February 11, 2016
It’s that time of year! We are ready to put together the “Annual
Auction Basket”. We have chosen a theme:
Coffee Lovers Basket!! This basket already
has a couple great donations. We have a
brand new BUNN coffee maker and Keurig single cup coffee maker, one for the “I
need a whole pot of coffee” person and one for the” single cup” person. What a great start!
We are asking for your donations towards this
basket. Just think about anything coffee
and send it our way! If you would rather
give a monetary donation those are appreciated too. We can do the shopping and be sure we have a
good variety of items. Mrs. Sickels has
contacted her nephew who manages a Starbucks asking for a donation from
them. Here are just a few ideas for the
basket: coffee mugs, travel mugs,
filters for the Bunn, filter basket for the Keurig, flavored coffees, K-cups
for Keurig, creamers, hot chocolates for
Keurig, regular coffee, or gift
cards to coffee places in town or Starbucks.
Please have all donations sent to Mrs. Sickels by Wednesday, February
24th. We want plenty of time to shop and
put together the basket.
|
Dear Parents,
Happy Thursday!! I hope all of you are keeping warm! Just a reminder make sure your child is dressed appropriately for school. We will go outside unless the temperatures fall to 0 or below. This does include wind chill. We want them outside playing as much as we can. Some of the students are choosing not to bring boots. This gets them some fresh air but not the chance to run and play. Will you double check that your child is bringing the necessary gear to school, please. Thank you. It is no fun standing on the sidewalk. Please pay special attention to the Auction Basket information in today's folder.
St. Malachy Foundation Auction - The Auction is fast approaching!! It is March 5th. We are preparing a basket to put in the auction. It is a coffee lovers basket. So any item dealing with coffee will be greatly appreciated. There is a flyer in the kids folders talking about it but I will also post a copy of the flyer on my blog following this letter. Our silent auction item this year is a video that will be produced by Meg Haines. She also has a flyer in the folder pertaining to that. Be on the look out for wear for your child. If you don't have any ask to borrow things. I will also add that flyer to my blog with auction basket flyer. Any donations you can give even monetary will be greatly appreciated!!
Language Arts- This week we are reading a FUN story. It is called Hercules' Quest. It tells a very different story from the movie. Hercules' mom is jealous of his relationship with his father. She feels Zeus is giving more attention to their son and not her, so she tricks Hercules' into using his strength for the wrong reasons. Hercules' is then sent to Earth to prove himself. His goal is to earn his place on Mount Olympus. He is given 3 impossible tasks to do to prove himself. He accomplishes them and earns his place. I usually show the movie to the kids for fun so they can see the difference in the two. Since we had the field trip Tuesday we are kind of out of time. I may show it Friday during the Valentine Party, I will give them the choice. We talked quickly about prepositions and prepositional phrases this week in grammar. We also read another short story about Zomo the Rabbit and how he doesn't have friends. By the end he gains friends. This is a great story. Ask you child about it. They may have learned a few things about friendship.
Math - This week we have moved onto learning the partial product strategy of multiplication. This is the same as the area box strategy without the box. Some are finding they still need the box to help guide them. We will be moving onto the regrouping strategy which is the standard algorithm we learned growing up. I was asked which is most commonly used. I would say in my eyes the regrouping is most commonly used only because it used to be the only strategy taught. If you ask which one should be most commonly used it is the strategy we are learning right now. It helps them see what exactly they are doing. It shows each step. I have taught this strategy for many years. Probably for at least 10 of my 18 years. I use it more than the standard algorithm. Our kids having so many different ways to find answers helps them to choose the strategy which is the best fit for them.
Social Studies- We are will be discussing elevation maps tomorrow. I will show them some examples of elevation maps. We will practice our knowledge of reading them. We talk about how to show elevation on maps when they are not printed in color. We mainly focus on maps of color when talking about shading but not all maps can be printed that way, like our worksheet. So I discuss how that works. We just finished talking about the land and how it is made up. We learned about the Inner and Outer Coastal Plains, Piedmont region, Appalachain Mountains, and the Fall Line. Next week we will focus on the climate of the region. The average temperatures and precipitation. I always compare the region we are discussing to our region. I compare their land to ours, their climate to ours. I want them to recognize how it is the same or how it is different from where we live. We will take considerable about Hurricanes and Hurricane season, since this is something we personally are not familiar with, kids have a lot of interest in it. We talk about the destruction they cause. I try to compare to tornadoes here.
Valentine's Party - We will be celebrating Valentine's Day tomorrow at 2:00. Danica is supplying the treats since her birthday is on Valentine's Day. Daniel is supplying our drinks. We will pass out our valentines to one another and open them. I do not allow them to eat any candy because they are getting a snack. All the candy items will come home in their valentine bag. We may watch Hercules during this time also. It usually takes a while to pass out valentines when there are so many kids in the class. Happy Valentine's Day to all of you.
I hope all of you have a great weekend. We will be spending our weekend in Ames because Molly has a dance competition. I hope the weather stays good for everyone. Next week is finally a normal week of school!! Oh Wait!! We have a teacher inservice on Wednesday! So NO School! So I guess not a normal week! I am ready to have a normal week and I think the students are too. Missing too much school throws kids way off track. I think everyone is off track due to the crazy weeks we have had. I am ready for it to calm down.
God Bless,
Mrs. Sickels
Happy Thursday!! I hope all of you are keeping warm! Just a reminder make sure your child is dressed appropriately for school. We will go outside unless the temperatures fall to 0 or below. This does include wind chill. We want them outside playing as much as we can. Some of the students are choosing not to bring boots. This gets them some fresh air but not the chance to run and play. Will you double check that your child is bringing the necessary gear to school, please. Thank you. It is no fun standing on the sidewalk. Please pay special attention to the Auction Basket information in today's folder.
St. Malachy Foundation Auction - The Auction is fast approaching!! It is March 5th. We are preparing a basket to put in the auction. It is a coffee lovers basket. So any item dealing with coffee will be greatly appreciated. There is a flyer in the kids folders talking about it but I will also post a copy of the flyer on my blog following this letter. Our silent auction item this year is a video that will be produced by Meg Haines. She also has a flyer in the folder pertaining to that. Be on the look out for wear for your child. If you don't have any ask to borrow things. I will also add that flyer to my blog with auction basket flyer. Any donations you can give even monetary will be greatly appreciated!!
Language Arts- This week we are reading a FUN story. It is called Hercules' Quest. It tells a very different story from the movie. Hercules' mom is jealous of his relationship with his father. She feels Zeus is giving more attention to their son and not her, so she tricks Hercules' into using his strength for the wrong reasons. Hercules' is then sent to Earth to prove himself. His goal is to earn his place on Mount Olympus. He is given 3 impossible tasks to do to prove himself. He accomplishes them and earns his place. I usually show the movie to the kids for fun so they can see the difference in the two. Since we had the field trip Tuesday we are kind of out of time. I may show it Friday during the Valentine Party, I will give them the choice. We talked quickly about prepositions and prepositional phrases this week in grammar. We also read another short story about Zomo the Rabbit and how he doesn't have friends. By the end he gains friends. This is a great story. Ask you child about it. They may have learned a few things about friendship.
Math - This week we have moved onto learning the partial product strategy of multiplication. This is the same as the area box strategy without the box. Some are finding they still need the box to help guide them. We will be moving onto the regrouping strategy which is the standard algorithm we learned growing up. I was asked which is most commonly used. I would say in my eyes the regrouping is most commonly used only because it used to be the only strategy taught. If you ask which one should be most commonly used it is the strategy we are learning right now. It helps them see what exactly they are doing. It shows each step. I have taught this strategy for many years. Probably for at least 10 of my 18 years. I use it more than the standard algorithm. Our kids having so many different ways to find answers helps them to choose the strategy which is the best fit for them.
Social Studies- We are will be discussing elevation maps tomorrow. I will show them some examples of elevation maps. We will practice our knowledge of reading them. We talk about how to show elevation on maps when they are not printed in color. We mainly focus on maps of color when talking about shading but not all maps can be printed that way, like our worksheet. So I discuss how that works. We just finished talking about the land and how it is made up. We learned about the Inner and Outer Coastal Plains, Piedmont region, Appalachain Mountains, and the Fall Line. Next week we will focus on the climate of the region. The average temperatures and precipitation. I always compare the region we are discussing to our region. I compare their land to ours, their climate to ours. I want them to recognize how it is the same or how it is different from where we live. We will take considerable about Hurricanes and Hurricane season, since this is something we personally are not familiar with, kids have a lot of interest in it. We talk about the destruction they cause. I try to compare to tornadoes here.
Valentine's Party - We will be celebrating Valentine's Day tomorrow at 2:00. Danica is supplying the treats since her birthday is on Valentine's Day. Daniel is supplying our drinks. We will pass out our valentines to one another and open them. I do not allow them to eat any candy because they are getting a snack. All the candy items will come home in their valentine bag. We may watch Hercules during this time also. It usually takes a while to pass out valentines when there are so many kids in the class. Happy Valentine's Day to all of you.
I hope all of you have a great weekend. We will be spending our weekend in Ames because Molly has a dance competition. I hope the weather stays good for everyone. Next week is finally a normal week of school!! Oh Wait!! We have a teacher inservice on Wednesday! So NO School! So I guess not a normal week! I am ready to have a normal week and I think the students are too. Missing too much school throws kids way off track. I think everyone is off track due to the crazy weeks we have had. I am ready for it to calm down.
God Bless,
Mrs. Sickels
Thursday, February 4, 2016
Dear Parents,
Happy Thursday!! Well, we got our "Snow Day" this week! I guess pajama day was meant to be pajama day at home. I know some kids are disappointed that they couldn't wear them to school. This is a very busy week! We are enjoying all the fun! I am trying to get photos everyday! If you are not friends with me on Facebook, make it happen because I am posting all pictures there. The St. Malachy page always shares the photos from the day too. This year I feel we have prepared some great activities. The Living Rosary we will be doing on Friday morning, very cool! It is great we are celebrating our Catholic Identity this week. We also included service, by making Valentine's Day cards for servicemen and women and the nursing home! Tomorrow is our dress up day so we look nice for our Grandparents or special guests. WOW what a fabulous week. We have still been working like we normally do just with sprinkles of fun. Valentine's Day is next week!
Valentine's Day Celebration - We will hold our Valentine's Day celebration next Friday the 12th at 2:00. Please be sure your student has a valentine card for everyone in the room. Don't forget Mrs. Thomas!! I am looking for someone to supply a drink and/or a snack for our party. If you are interested please email me, send a text, or send a note. Amy Starlin and Polly Luther have donated for past parties. If your child has candy with their Valentine's cards that is fine but I don't allow them to eat any candy here. We have a snack and a drink so I feel we don't need anymore sugar than that. They will decorate a bag here at school to put their Valentines in and bring them home.
Language Arts - This week we read a story called The Right Dog For the Job. It is a nonfictional story about what a dog goes through to become a service dog. It talks about the training form when it is born to when it gets its first assignment. It is quite incredible the things they teach them. I am not sure the kids are very interested in this story but I was. I learned quite a bit about how the hard work that goes into training a dog. I also felt sad because different people have different roles in the training so the poor dog doesn't have a place to call home for a while. Once it gets used to one place they move on. Grammar this week we have talked about Adverbs. The students learned adverbs describe a verb and answer the questions HOW, WHEN, WHERE. Remember tomorrow is a test day. Be sure your child is looking over their vocabulary words and spelling words.
Math - We haven't had a ton of time for Math this week. We finished up using area boxes to multiply numbers. I heard many kids say they like this strategy. I also love this strategy. I feel they can see their math at work here. They have an understanding of what numbers they are multiplying together. Next lesson is partial product which is same thing as area box just without the picture. So, There is no need to draw the picture. I Iike showing them the connection between the two strategies. Partial Product is a strategy I choose to use over the standard algorithm. Other adults have seen me use this strategy and ask what I am doing. We will start that strategy next week. This chapter is moving along very smoothly.
Social Studies - I apologize, I am not going to get to projects this week. This week is a little busy. Next week I will fit it in for sure! We started a new chapter this week. They are back to doing vocabulary words in a packet this week. They have a lot less vocabulary words this chapter. They are happy about that. Our first lesson begins talking about the geography of the Southeast. The Inner and Outer Coastal Plains, the Piedmont area, Appalachain Mountains, and the Fall Line. They will finish the first lesson tomorrow.
Iowa Energy Game- Here is some information about the field trip.
I hope everyone has enjoyed this week! Next week we have a fun week too! On Monday, the 4th graders will be making donuts for the entire school to celebrate Fat Tuesday. Yes, I know it's the day before but that is due to the school field trip on Tuesday to Iowa Energy. The student body would be highly disappointed if they didn't get donuts and the 4th grade would too. So donuts Monday and field trip on Tuesday! Another fun week ! (or at least the beginning of the week is fun.) Have a great weekend!!!
God Bless,
Mrs. Sickels
Happy Thursday!! Well, we got our "Snow Day" this week! I guess pajama day was meant to be pajama day at home. I know some kids are disappointed that they couldn't wear them to school. This is a very busy week! We are enjoying all the fun! I am trying to get photos everyday! If you are not friends with me on Facebook, make it happen because I am posting all pictures there. The St. Malachy page always shares the photos from the day too. This year I feel we have prepared some great activities. The Living Rosary we will be doing on Friday morning, very cool! It is great we are celebrating our Catholic Identity this week. We also included service, by making Valentine's Day cards for servicemen and women and the nursing home! Tomorrow is our dress up day so we look nice for our Grandparents or special guests. WOW what a fabulous week. We have still been working like we normally do just with sprinkles of fun. Valentine's Day is next week!
Valentine's Day Celebration - We will hold our Valentine's Day celebration next Friday the 12th at 2:00. Please be sure your student has a valentine card for everyone in the room. Don't forget Mrs. Thomas!! I am looking for someone to supply a drink and/or a snack for our party. If you are interested please email me, send a text, or send a note. Amy Starlin and Polly Luther have donated for past parties. If your child has candy with their Valentine's cards that is fine but I don't allow them to eat any candy here. We have a snack and a drink so I feel we don't need anymore sugar than that. They will decorate a bag here at school to put their Valentines in and bring them home.
Language Arts - This week we read a story called The Right Dog For the Job. It is a nonfictional story about what a dog goes through to become a service dog. It talks about the training form when it is born to when it gets its first assignment. It is quite incredible the things they teach them. I am not sure the kids are very interested in this story but I was. I learned quite a bit about how the hard work that goes into training a dog. I also felt sad because different people have different roles in the training so the poor dog doesn't have a place to call home for a while. Once it gets used to one place they move on. Grammar this week we have talked about Adverbs. The students learned adverbs describe a verb and answer the questions HOW, WHEN, WHERE. Remember tomorrow is a test day. Be sure your child is looking over their vocabulary words and spelling words.
Math - We haven't had a ton of time for Math this week. We finished up using area boxes to multiply numbers. I heard many kids say they like this strategy. I also love this strategy. I feel they can see their math at work here. They have an understanding of what numbers they are multiplying together. Next lesson is partial product which is same thing as area box just without the picture. So, There is no need to draw the picture. I Iike showing them the connection between the two strategies. Partial Product is a strategy I choose to use over the standard algorithm. Other adults have seen me use this strategy and ask what I am doing. We will start that strategy next week. This chapter is moving along very smoothly.
Social Studies - I apologize, I am not going to get to projects this week. This week is a little busy. Next week I will fit it in for sure! We started a new chapter this week. They are back to doing vocabulary words in a packet this week. They have a lot less vocabulary words this chapter. They are happy about that. Our first lesson begins talking about the geography of the Southeast. The Inner and Outer Coastal Plains, the Piedmont area, Appalachain Mountains, and the Fall Line. They will finish the first lesson tomorrow.
Iowa Energy Game- Here is some information about the field trip.
Tuesday, February 9th
Buses leave at 8:30 am
Buses will back by 2:45 pm
*Wear St. Malachy Gear
*All students will ride on the bus to the event.
*Students may leave with their parents. Students MUST check in with their teacher prior to leaving.
*School lunch is provided
*We will not be purchasing from the concession stands.
*Students should never be without an adult for any reason.
*If you child is not riding the bus home please contact the office by Monday at 3pm to let the school know their travel arrangements.I hope everyone has enjoyed this week! Next week we have a fun week too! On Monday, the 4th graders will be making donuts for the entire school to celebrate Fat Tuesday. Yes, I know it's the day before but that is due to the school field trip on Tuesday to Iowa Energy. The student body would be highly disappointed if they didn't get donuts and the 4th grade would too. So donuts Monday and field trip on Tuesday! Another fun week ! (or at least the beginning of the week is fun.) Have a great weekend!!!
God Bless,
Mrs. Sickels
Thursday, January 28, 2016
Dear Parents,
Happy Thursday!! I hope everyone is having a good week. The students have been a little talkative this week and several have served some time outside on the wall at recess. I have a few that are struggling to stay in their own seats. Winter is always a restless time. I ask that you check with your child to see if they are needed some updated supplies. I have several who do not have red checking pens and they need to have them. I have told the kids to let you know. I appreciate your keeping them supplied with items we need.
Language Arts - This week in language arts we are back to our normal routine. We read the story Riding Freedom this week. This is about a woman wanting to do a man's job. The job is being a stagecoach driver. This was only a job for men. I asked the kids in the beginning how do you think she accomplished this? I had about 6 of them guess that she disguised herself as a man. This prediction was true. The thing is she in injured in an accident and loses the use of one of her eyes and has to wear a patch. The story is more about overcoming this obstacle. She reteaches herself to drive a coach using her other senses. She ends up proving her abilities by the end of the story. We did Spelling just a tad bit different on Monday. We took the pretest and then I read the answers to them so they could check their own work. I feel like this was pretty successful. It makes them look at the word and see where they made their mistake. So instead of just memorizing each word , they may learn from seeing their mistake. If I checked the test, they would look at the test just to see how many they missed but never really looked at each word to see why. This requires them to see why. Next week I may change the way we do Wednesday's words with this same idea in mind. Grammar had us learning about adjectives this week. Not only did we just spend one day picking out adjectives, we also talked about the correct order of adjectives. I do not remember learning this at all in school. The kids' worksheet has a chart at the top showing the order adjectives should be in if there is more than one describing a single noun. We went over the chart and they will complete the worksheet but again it is a very quick lesson. We are working on editing and revising the paragraph on their bedrooms.
Math - Well, chapter 2 is behind us. I have some stragglers still making corrections due to being absent, but otherwise we have moved into chapter 3. The first lesson took us a bit to refresh their memories but we are not moving through. Lesson two was on estimation and they seem to enjoy this because it is quick. They round the numbers or use compatible numbers then use a quick mental math strategy to find the answer. I am hoping this chapter is not as hard for them. I am trying to pick up the pace with them a little bit, but I am also very big on mastery and being sure students have a good understanding before moving on. All that they do builds upon each lesson so they need to understand each one. We will have completed the first two lesson and starting the 3rd by the end of this week. Again, this chapter has a lot less in it, I think just 8 lessons.
Social Studies - We have spent his whole week gearing up for the test over Chapter 5 which is Friday. The biggest thing with this test is labeling a map with the northeast states and being able to name the capitals of the states. We have been singing the song at school this week to help. I hope the kids have the song at home and are practicing it there also. Next week we will work on getting our next projects going. The next region of study is the Southeast.
I hope you are all excited about Catholic Schools Week next week and of course a snow storm. It seems to always happen that way. Today in your child's folder you may find a mass part. If you signed them up to participate in Sunday's mass you will find a blue sheet telling what they are doing. Otherwise your child may have an orange sheet which is showing that they will participate in Grandparent's Day Mass on Friday. Please be sure they practice their parts and if they are participating in Sunday's mass be sure they are there in the church by 8:30. Thank you very much.
God Bless,
Mrs. Sickels
Happy Thursday!! I hope everyone is having a good week. The students have been a little talkative this week and several have served some time outside on the wall at recess. I have a few that are struggling to stay in their own seats. Winter is always a restless time. I ask that you check with your child to see if they are needed some updated supplies. I have several who do not have red checking pens and they need to have them. I have told the kids to let you know. I appreciate your keeping them supplied with items we need.
Language Arts - This week in language arts we are back to our normal routine. We read the story Riding Freedom this week. This is about a woman wanting to do a man's job. The job is being a stagecoach driver. This was only a job for men. I asked the kids in the beginning how do you think she accomplished this? I had about 6 of them guess that she disguised herself as a man. This prediction was true. The thing is she in injured in an accident and loses the use of one of her eyes and has to wear a patch. The story is more about overcoming this obstacle. She reteaches herself to drive a coach using her other senses. She ends up proving her abilities by the end of the story. We did Spelling just a tad bit different on Monday. We took the pretest and then I read the answers to them so they could check their own work. I feel like this was pretty successful. It makes them look at the word and see where they made their mistake. So instead of just memorizing each word , they may learn from seeing their mistake. If I checked the test, they would look at the test just to see how many they missed but never really looked at each word to see why. This requires them to see why. Next week I may change the way we do Wednesday's words with this same idea in mind. Grammar had us learning about adjectives this week. Not only did we just spend one day picking out adjectives, we also talked about the correct order of adjectives. I do not remember learning this at all in school. The kids' worksheet has a chart at the top showing the order adjectives should be in if there is more than one describing a single noun. We went over the chart and they will complete the worksheet but again it is a very quick lesson. We are working on editing and revising the paragraph on their bedrooms.
Math - Well, chapter 2 is behind us. I have some stragglers still making corrections due to being absent, but otherwise we have moved into chapter 3. The first lesson took us a bit to refresh their memories but we are not moving through. Lesson two was on estimation and they seem to enjoy this because it is quick. They round the numbers or use compatible numbers then use a quick mental math strategy to find the answer. I am hoping this chapter is not as hard for them. I am trying to pick up the pace with them a little bit, but I am also very big on mastery and being sure students have a good understanding before moving on. All that they do builds upon each lesson so they need to understand each one. We will have completed the first two lesson and starting the 3rd by the end of this week. Again, this chapter has a lot less in it, I think just 8 lessons.
Social Studies - We have spent his whole week gearing up for the test over Chapter 5 which is Friday. The biggest thing with this test is labeling a map with the northeast states and being able to name the capitals of the states. We have been singing the song at school this week to help. I hope the kids have the song at home and are practicing it there also. Next week we will work on getting our next projects going. The next region of study is the Southeast.
I hope you are all excited about Catholic Schools Week next week and of course a snow storm. It seems to always happen that way. Today in your child's folder you may find a mass part. If you signed them up to participate in Sunday's mass you will find a blue sheet telling what they are doing. Otherwise your child may have an orange sheet which is showing that they will participate in Grandparent's Day Mass on Friday. Please be sure they practice their parts and if they are participating in Sunday's mass be sure they are there in the church by 8:30. Thank you very much.
God Bless,
Mrs. Sickels
Thursday, January 21, 2016
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
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
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