Dear Parents,
Happy Thursday! What a week! I feel like this week has been crazier than any other and I am not sure why. Well, I guess the flu has hit the teachers and aids so we have had a lot of absences and we are all trying to be helpful to make things still function. It can be a little stressful when we do that. I am getting to this letter late in the day and have to have it done by 3:00 so it goes out today. Any time after that and it doesn't go out until tomorrow. Ugh! I apologize if it is not as long as normal. On a happy note, how about the weather! Yes, loving the nice days! I took a recess duty today and thoroughly enjoyed it! Bring on some more!
Language Arts - This week we read a story called Harvesting Hope. It is about Cesar Chavez and all he did to help the migrant workers in California. It is a sad story about a family being happy. Living in a nice house, having plenty of food and farming as a family. Well a drought hits and ruins the crops. They can no longer live in their house and barely have enough to eat. They become migrant worker who move to wherever the work takes them. Cesar Chavez helped to get a union to protect the workers from the land owners that hire them. This is a biography so a true story. We learned about dependent clauses this week. We read a fun story about a school that has a garden for kids to care for and learn to use the vegetables in meals. They learn to prepare the vegetable and to eat healthy. We also read a story from last week called Zomo's Friends. This was a folktale that had a lesson to it about being a good friend. I love the story and we didn't cover it last week but I feel it is an important one to share. Tomorrow is spelling test and end of the week test!
Math - Oh WOW! We took a math test this week. I had 4 people pass. So.... I gave everyone an opportunity to better their scores by taking another version of the test. We are still working on that. I have more students asking questions the 2nd time around. Some struggle keeping straight the area formula and the perimeter formula. Some just struggle with the finding area of combined rectangles and then there are some harder problems. I am hoping to see some improvement in scores. I will put the best score out of the two tests in the grade book. We are working hard. Next Chapter will cover division. That will be a heavy chapter.
Social Studies - We are working hard on finishing up our interactive notebook for the Northeast. We will have it finished and all put together on Monday. Tuesday we will start a study guide for this chapter. We will take a test about next Thursday and end our time in the Northeast. We will move a little quicker through the next region, now that we know how the notebook works. We have a lot of work to finish all 50 states!!!! We will get there! We will also have a new set of projects coming up soon.
Trivia Night - PTO is sponsoring their 2nd Annual Trivia Night. It is being held Friday, February, 25th at the Lobby in Creston. It will begin at 6:00 P.M. with social hour and pizza. The fun will begin at 7:00. You can reserve a table as a team with up to 8 people. Individual /couples will be placed with a team. The fee is $20 per person. Come join in the fun! Last year was a blast according to those who were there. There is a team all ready to walk away the winners this year! Hope you are up for a little friendly competition!!
Book Report - Just a reminder that our book reports are due Wednesday, March 1st. I am really trying to push people to be reading and get finished up. The character sketch is not a project that you can wait until the night before and accomplish and do well on it. Please make sure your student is working on this. If the child receives a late slip for not having it done, there are 5 points automatically taken off the score. They have had a long time to complete this project. Some need to learn how to manage their time more wisely. Please, help them to do that.
I hope all of you are getting out and enjoying this lovely weather!! Have a great weekend!
God Bless,
Mrs. Sickels
Thursday, February 16, 2017
Thursday, February 9, 2017
Dear Parents,
Happy Thursday!!! Best part is...tomorrow is Friday!! I am actually home sick today. My cough has returned with a vengeance! I hope going home and getting some good rest will help calm it down. Mrs. Bearden is there to take good care of the kids! Valentine's Day is just around the corner!! We will be celebrating here in the classroom next Tuesday, February 14th! Read further for details!
Language Arts - This week we have read the story Hercules' Quest. It tells a story about Hercules and how he is put to the test to earn his place on Mount Olympus with his father Zeus. They were confused at first about it being different then the movie Hercules which brought us to the discussion of how many movies are not like the books and how the books are a lot more detailed! We talked about prepositions and prepositional phrases this week for grammar. This is a hard one to teach and get the kids to grasp. I feel like they did a good job the first day! Today they were getting more in depth. The students also took some FAST testing this week. It is statewide testing that a lot of schools use to show fluency and comprehension in reading. I tested each student individually over the last couple weeks then today they all took a test online. This required them to have earbuds and listen to what it was telling and asking. The tricky thing with this testing is we only have like a 3-4 week window that we can give the test. We will do this same routine again in the Spring.
Math - We are finished with our Area and Perimeter chapter. The students started their review today. We will go over it tomorrow and they will take their test on Monday. I look forward to seeing the improvement from the prestest they took at the beginning of the chapter. Our next chapter we will tackle is going to be on Division. It is a very big heavy chapter. This class will do a great job getting the content. I try to make it seem very exciting so they want to learn the new concepts. If we are negative about what we are learning it will rub off on the kids and then they will struggle. If you are struggling at home helping them, just take a break and send the child to school to me and we will work it out. If it is stressful at home, it will be a very negative experience. They more positive we are the better accepted it is by the kids. That is what we are here for!
Social Studies - We continue to work on our interactive notebooks. Looking up information about the different states and cutting and pasting it into a notebook they can keep forever!! We are starting the last lesson in this chapter so a test will be in the works for next week for sure. Probably towards the end of the week. Our next chapter begins the Southeast Region. We will have a new round of projects and new flags to color! Thank goodness for our computers! I am so thankful we have them, they can pull them out at anytime to look up information and practice their vocabulary words on Quizlet.
Quizlet - I have gotten the students on a sight called Quizlet. I put their vocab words and spelling words for Language Arts on there every week. I also have put the vocabulary words for Social Studies on it. They go on Quizlet at school and play games that help them learn their vocabulary words. I tried to send it to your emails to be used at home. I am not sure I recommend it. You will get a ton of spam like emails. So far the scores on Friday tests for vocab have picked up and shown improvement. I am hoping to see huge improvement on the Social Studies test in the vocabulary section. This will tell me whether it is worth it or not. There is time at school for them to get on and do the activities so there is really no need to try it at home. Although I am sure they would love to be able to do it at home also. Sad thing is I don't have all the answers to why it works and why it doesn't.
Valentine's Day, Tuesday, February 14th. We will celebrate Valentine's Day at the end of the day. The students have made bags to place their valentines in. We will take the time to share the valentines and have a snack. I am looking for a couple of volunteers to bring in our treat for the day. I am asking for someone to bring a treat/snack and one to bring in a drink. We eat the snack and drink and pass out valentines. I do not allow them to eat candy from their bags. That is to go home and be eaten at your discretion. Please email if you are willing to supply the class with either of these items for their party. Thanks in advance.
Wednesday, February 15th. This is an important day on the calendar. It is such, because the public school does not have school that day. They have PD scheduled. We ARE having school that day. There will be no buses running that day! Which means you have to make sure your student gets to and from school that day. This also happens to be the wrestling day. If you are planning on taking your child to support the Panthers at State Duals, you will need to let us know in advance. A note on Monday will be fine, so we can gather their homework on Tuesday and they do not fall behind. Thank you!!
Auction Basket - We are still gathering items and cash donations for our auction basket. Please send any donations you may have to school. Also keep in mind, next week I will need their bible verse. I will talk to the kids about it tomorrow or Monday. The silent auction item is the kids writing a favorite bible verse on a block of wood and those pieces of wood will be put together and made into a cross. It is a very cool idea. You can find it on pinterest. If you have any questions about either of these contact Kiki Scarberry for the basket, Danielle Steele for the silent auction, or myself, I can answer about both. Next Friday Danielle plans to come in and the students write on the blocks. Then she will take them and finish them.
I feel like I had a lot to report this week! I hope all of you have a great weekend! I plan to take it easy and rest and try to shake what ever it is I have.
God Bless,
Mrs. Sickels
Happy Thursday!!! Best part is...tomorrow is Friday!! I am actually home sick today. My cough has returned with a vengeance! I hope going home and getting some good rest will help calm it down. Mrs. Bearden is there to take good care of the kids! Valentine's Day is just around the corner!! We will be celebrating here in the classroom next Tuesday, February 14th! Read further for details!
Language Arts - This week we have read the story Hercules' Quest. It tells a story about Hercules and how he is put to the test to earn his place on Mount Olympus with his father Zeus. They were confused at first about it being different then the movie Hercules which brought us to the discussion of how many movies are not like the books and how the books are a lot more detailed! We talked about prepositions and prepositional phrases this week for grammar. This is a hard one to teach and get the kids to grasp. I feel like they did a good job the first day! Today they were getting more in depth. The students also took some FAST testing this week. It is statewide testing that a lot of schools use to show fluency and comprehension in reading. I tested each student individually over the last couple weeks then today they all took a test online. This required them to have earbuds and listen to what it was telling and asking. The tricky thing with this testing is we only have like a 3-4 week window that we can give the test. We will do this same routine again in the Spring.
Math - We are finished with our Area and Perimeter chapter. The students started their review today. We will go over it tomorrow and they will take their test on Monday. I look forward to seeing the improvement from the prestest they took at the beginning of the chapter. Our next chapter we will tackle is going to be on Division. It is a very big heavy chapter. This class will do a great job getting the content. I try to make it seem very exciting so they want to learn the new concepts. If we are negative about what we are learning it will rub off on the kids and then they will struggle. If you are struggling at home helping them, just take a break and send the child to school to me and we will work it out. If it is stressful at home, it will be a very negative experience. They more positive we are the better accepted it is by the kids. That is what we are here for!
Social Studies - We continue to work on our interactive notebooks. Looking up information about the different states and cutting and pasting it into a notebook they can keep forever!! We are starting the last lesson in this chapter so a test will be in the works for next week for sure. Probably towards the end of the week. Our next chapter begins the Southeast Region. We will have a new round of projects and new flags to color! Thank goodness for our computers! I am so thankful we have them, they can pull them out at anytime to look up information and practice their vocabulary words on Quizlet.
Quizlet - I have gotten the students on a sight called Quizlet. I put their vocab words and spelling words for Language Arts on there every week. I also have put the vocabulary words for Social Studies on it. They go on Quizlet at school and play games that help them learn their vocabulary words. I tried to send it to your emails to be used at home. I am not sure I recommend it. You will get a ton of spam like emails. So far the scores on Friday tests for vocab have picked up and shown improvement. I am hoping to see huge improvement on the Social Studies test in the vocabulary section. This will tell me whether it is worth it or not. There is time at school for them to get on and do the activities so there is really no need to try it at home. Although I am sure they would love to be able to do it at home also. Sad thing is I don't have all the answers to why it works and why it doesn't.
Valentine's Day, Tuesday, February 14th. We will celebrate Valentine's Day at the end of the day. The students have made bags to place their valentines in. We will take the time to share the valentines and have a snack. I am looking for a couple of volunteers to bring in our treat for the day. I am asking for someone to bring a treat/snack and one to bring in a drink. We eat the snack and drink and pass out valentines. I do not allow them to eat candy from their bags. That is to go home and be eaten at your discretion. Please email if you are willing to supply the class with either of these items for their party. Thanks in advance.
Wednesday, February 15th. This is an important day on the calendar. It is such, because the public school does not have school that day. They have PD scheduled. We ARE having school that day. There will be no buses running that day! Which means you have to make sure your student gets to and from school that day. This also happens to be the wrestling day. If you are planning on taking your child to support the Panthers at State Duals, you will need to let us know in advance. A note on Monday will be fine, so we can gather their homework on Tuesday and they do not fall behind. Thank you!!
Auction Basket - We are still gathering items and cash donations for our auction basket. Please send any donations you may have to school. Also keep in mind, next week I will need their bible verse. I will talk to the kids about it tomorrow or Monday. The silent auction item is the kids writing a favorite bible verse on a block of wood and those pieces of wood will be put together and made into a cross. It is a very cool idea. You can find it on pinterest. If you have any questions about either of these contact Kiki Scarberry for the basket, Danielle Steele for the silent auction, or myself, I can answer about both. Next Friday Danielle plans to come in and the students write on the blocks. Then she will take them and finish them.
I feel like I had a lot to report this week! I hope all of you have a great weekend! I plan to take it easy and rest and try to shake what ever it is I have.
God Bless,
Mrs. Sickels
Thursday, February 2, 2017
Dear Parents,
Happy Thursday of Catholic Schools Week! Whew! The week is almost over! What a week it has been! Such great fun and activities we have had!! I hope your kids talked about the movie because we had a great discussion about the things we saw! They were very weary of the racism and sexism that took place. Also they were very in tune to the great things all 3 of those women accomplished and in a time where they weren't suppose to do it! We had a great day of play in the gym! Today we celebrate students and their talents on the "Big" stage! Tomorrow we end the week as we began it! We have grandparents/special guest day Mass at the church. Mass will start at 1:30, students will arrive at church at 1:00. If your student doesn't have anyone coming please let me know. We have some "adoptive" grandparents on hand to sit with kids. What a great way to make a new friend! This week wears all of us out, kids and adults alike!! I hope they all have a restful weekend and back at it hard on Monday.
Auction Items- Again we have things planned out for the auction. Yesterday I sent a link to a sign up genius where you can sign up for a movie or snack or both. Anything that goes a long with movie night in your house! I will add the link on here also in case you missed my email. Monetary donations are accepted. Please make checks payable to Kiki Scarberry. She is in charge of this activity. We also need small donations like $2.00 a kid for our silent auction item. Danielle Steele is in charge of it. Remember be helping your child think of a favorite bible verse they find inspiring or helpful to them. We will put those on wooden blocks then glue them in the shape of a cross. Just write the verse on a notecard and send to school. Make sure we know the book on bible chapter and verse. Thank you very much.
www.SignUpGenius.com/go/30E0E4CA8A729A2F85-movie
Language Arts - This week we are reading a story called The Right Dog For the Job. It is a short story about how a puppy becomes a service dog. It is an interesting read for anyone who has every wondered how a dog is trained to become a service dog. Some may find it not very because at this age kids are usually only interested in the things that directly affect them. We studied adverbs this week. We learned what the describe and what questions they answer. I have placed this weeks vocabulary and spelling words on Quizlet so they can study both items online. Last week the scores on the vocabulary section were amazing. I am attributing that success to the use of quizlet. This week I hope to see some better spelling scores from a few. We really use our computers several times a day now that we have our own! It was such a blessing for us to have been given the money for these computers.
Math- We have had a great week in math. We have learned how to find the area of a floor plan. They have learned to divide areas into rectangles or squares and finding the area. That is always a fun lesson to show them they can do something that looks difficult and make it very easy. We also did a little algebra this week. I gave them either the perimeter or area of a figure and the length of just one side. They had to use the formula for area or perimeter to find the missing side. Area is simple for them but perimeter was a struggle. We are still working on that. We will finish that up probably on Monday. We will be reviewing for a math test next week and possible testing next week. This was a fun quick chapter to do during this busy time.
Social Studies- We have started our interactive notebooks for the United States. They are working on the first state to enter the Union which is Delaware. They have to use their computers to locate some basic facts about the state, do some coloring, and then cut and past their information into the notebook. We have colored all the flags of the Northeast all ready. We are also putting those in the notebook. This is a fun way for them to gather facts and keep all they have learned about their state in one place. We are also still working on vocabulary words which are on Quizlet for them to practice, and reading the lessons in the book. We are very busy when it comes to social studies. We are also singing everyday. I apologize if they are singing at home and driving you crazy!
This has been a great week to celebrate Catholic Schools! I hope you are finding pictures everyday on Facebook of the class. I take a group photo and post it at some point everyday. This class has done a great job of participating in all the dress up days!! Thank you! It makes the week more fun. I even have pajamas on today! Have a great weekend!
God Bless,
Mrs. Sickels
Happy Thursday of Catholic Schools Week! Whew! The week is almost over! What a week it has been! Such great fun and activities we have had!! I hope your kids talked about the movie because we had a great discussion about the things we saw! They were very weary of the racism and sexism that took place. Also they were very in tune to the great things all 3 of those women accomplished and in a time where they weren't suppose to do it! We had a great day of play in the gym! Today we celebrate students and their talents on the "Big" stage! Tomorrow we end the week as we began it! We have grandparents/special guest day Mass at the church. Mass will start at 1:30, students will arrive at church at 1:00. If your student doesn't have anyone coming please let me know. We have some "adoptive" grandparents on hand to sit with kids. What a great way to make a new friend! This week wears all of us out, kids and adults alike!! I hope they all have a restful weekend and back at it hard on Monday.
Auction Items- Again we have things planned out for the auction. Yesterday I sent a link to a sign up genius where you can sign up for a movie or snack or both. Anything that goes a long with movie night in your house! I will add the link on here also in case you missed my email. Monetary donations are accepted. Please make checks payable to Kiki Scarberry. She is in charge of this activity. We also need small donations like $2.00 a kid for our silent auction item. Danielle Steele is in charge of it. Remember be helping your child think of a favorite bible verse they find inspiring or helpful to them. We will put those on wooden blocks then glue them in the shape of a cross. Just write the verse on a notecard and send to school. Make sure we know the book on bible chapter and verse. Thank you very much.
www.SignUpGenius.com/go/30E0E4CA8A729A2F85-movie
Language Arts - This week we are reading a story called The Right Dog For the Job. It is a short story about how a puppy becomes a service dog. It is an interesting read for anyone who has every wondered how a dog is trained to become a service dog. Some may find it not very because at this age kids are usually only interested in the things that directly affect them. We studied adverbs this week. We learned what the describe and what questions they answer. I have placed this weeks vocabulary and spelling words on Quizlet so they can study both items online. Last week the scores on the vocabulary section were amazing. I am attributing that success to the use of quizlet. This week I hope to see some better spelling scores from a few. We really use our computers several times a day now that we have our own! It was such a blessing for us to have been given the money for these computers.
Math- We have had a great week in math. We have learned how to find the area of a floor plan. They have learned to divide areas into rectangles or squares and finding the area. That is always a fun lesson to show them they can do something that looks difficult and make it very easy. We also did a little algebra this week. I gave them either the perimeter or area of a figure and the length of just one side. They had to use the formula for area or perimeter to find the missing side. Area is simple for them but perimeter was a struggle. We are still working on that. We will finish that up probably on Monday. We will be reviewing for a math test next week and possible testing next week. This was a fun quick chapter to do during this busy time.
Social Studies- We have started our interactive notebooks for the United States. They are working on the first state to enter the Union which is Delaware. They have to use their computers to locate some basic facts about the state, do some coloring, and then cut and past their information into the notebook. We have colored all the flags of the Northeast all ready. We are also putting those in the notebook. This is a fun way for them to gather facts and keep all they have learned about their state in one place. We are also still working on vocabulary words which are on Quizlet for them to practice, and reading the lessons in the book. We are very busy when it comes to social studies. We are also singing everyday. I apologize if they are singing at home and driving you crazy!
This has been a great week to celebrate Catholic Schools! I hope you are finding pictures everyday on Facebook of the class. I take a group photo and post it at some point everyday. This class has done a great job of participating in all the dress up days!! Thank you! It makes the week more fun. I even have pajamas on today! Have a great weekend!
God Bless,
Mrs. Sickels
Thursday, January 26, 2017
Dear Parents,
Happy Thursday!! Well...it is here! Flu has hit our school. We are taking every precaution we can to help prevent the spread of the flu. We are cleaning water fountains after each group use, we are cleaning desks everyday with Clorox wipes, and I am preaching hand washing and use of Germ-X. Influenza A, Influenza B, Strep, and the puking flu is all here. The school nurse has advised us of all these things to try and prevent the spread of disease. We are doing the best we can! You as parents need to join in and help us. You need to do just as your doctor says. Some are saying once testing positive for either strain of influenza that you should be out of school for a week. Some may say different. Our rule of thumb is make sure your child is fever free for a full 24 hours (without meds) before returning to school. Also make sure your child is vomit free for 24 hours and can eat a normal amount of food and are hydrated back up, before returning them to school. It is not only children that can get these illnesses it is also teachers. We need to try and keep our teachers healthy through this time because there is not a long line of subs on our list. We could be in trouble if several teachers were gone at once. We are lucky it hasn't hit us like it has East Union. They have more than 10% of their student population out of school. Let us pray that we can keep this under control and not have a severe problem. One year we had a class of about 14 have only 4 students present one day. That has only happened once in my 19 years of teaching. That made for an interesting day. Please be respectful and follow our wishes.
Language Arts- This week we are reading Riding Freedom, which reminds me of a Mulan story. A female is disguised as male to do a job of driving a stagecoach. This is considered a man only job. She has cut her hair and dresses as a man. She is in an accident and loses the sight in one of her eyes. She works on training herself to drive the stagecoach using other senses, mainly her sense of hearing to help her. So not only is she a woman in a man's job she would also be considered as having a handicap. She proves to them she can do her job very well with only one eye. They never figure out in our story that she is a female. It is a good way to show the girls how certain jobs weren't meant for them. Which will lead right into our viewing of the movie Hidden Figures next week. We learned about adjectives this week in grammar. What they describe and what questions they answer. We also did some discussion and computer searching on figurative language. Personification, metaphor, simile, and idioms were the ones we talked about.
Math- We finished up perimeter this week with a fun activity of going around the school and measuring different things. They measured doors, windows, desks, whiteboard, chalk boards, trophy cabinet, and file cabinets. After measuring in inches they were to find the perimeter. This got them out of the room and moving and physically doing the work instead of looking at a shape that all ready had the measurement done for them. We learned Area yesterday and will do a worksheet today on it and tomorrow we will do the fun activity again where they go measure different things and find the area. This gives them a good grasp of what area and perimeter are and how they are different. This is a fun chapter. I relate this learning to jobs that would have use these skills. We just have a few more lessons in the chapter. It is only 5 lessons long! Then we are off into the deep world of division!
Social Studies - We are covering lesson 2 this week. It is covering some pretty big topics and only skimming the surface of each of them. We talked about the Revolutionary War and immigration. It quickly told them when the revolution was, where the first shot was fired and reasons why the war happened. Immigration is about Ellis Island and where people were immigrating from. We are singing our states and capitals song everyday before Social Studies class. Some all ready have it memorized and some are working on it. Once they can sing this song they can list all 50 states and capitals! Woohoo!
Coin Wars - This week the students have been participating in the Coin Wars. Students were asked to bring in coins to fill a bucket. This money will go towards Veterans and Honor Flights. The class bringing in the most "change" will win a pizza party or a cookie party. Last year 4th grade and 6th grade won a cookie party. So far our class is way behind. Tomorrow is the last day, so if you have any spare change laying around please send with your student to help.
Catholic Schools Week!! Hey, it's that time of year! We have a lot of great activities planned for next week. You will find a sheet with a list of each day and it's activities. This will be in your youngest child's folder. But I will give you a run down here.
Sunday, January 29, this is kick of Mass at Holy Spirit church with a brunch to follow put on by the PTO
Monday, January 30, Faculty and Staff appreciation Day
Students bring a sack lunch this day
Spirit Day Dress: Blue/Gold Day for St. Malachy
Tuesday, January, 31, Student Appreciation Day
Hidden Figures Movie at the Movie Theater (see paper and permission form in today's folder) 8:30-11:15
1:30-3:00 Students vs. Teachers in gym
Spirit Day Dress: Sports Wear (hats and sweats included)
Wednesday, February 1, Community Appreciation Day
Advent Angel Activity making valentine's for servicemen and people in Nursing Homes
Spirit Day Dress: "America" Day or Red White and Blue
Thursday, February 2, School Appreciation Day
Talent Show beginning at 1:00 pm
Spirit Day Dress: Pajama Day
Friday, February 3, Grandparents/Special Guest Day
Mass begins at 1:30 pm and Holy Spirit Reception to follow
Spirit Day Dress: Dress up Day
4th Grade Auction Basket - We met and discussed both the silent auction item and the auction basket. Our silent auction item is a wooden cross. Danielle Steele is in charge of this item and will be doing all the work. Each student will be given a piece of stained wood that they will be writing their favorite bible verse on. All the pieces will come together to make a cross. Please be discussing with your child different verses that they may like and choose to write on their piece of wood. I will also talk about this hear with them. I will let you know when I need the verse. Danielle is coming in during class to have them write then she will put the cross together! I think it will be awesome! Our Auction basket is movie night! Our basket is going to look like a "Redbox". If you search Redbox auction basket you will see what we are doing. You will be getting an email with a sign-up genius for donations to the basket. Kiki Scarberry is in charge of the basket. I appreciate these ladies stepping up and helping. Keep in mind the $5.00 bin at Wal-Mart will be awesome for this basket. We are also looking for "movie Candy". I am contacting the theater for any donation they would like to give! Let me know if you have any questions.
I hope everyone has a great weekend and an even better Catholic Schools Week!
God Bless,
Mrs. Sickels
Happy Thursday!! Well...it is here! Flu has hit our school. We are taking every precaution we can to help prevent the spread of the flu. We are cleaning water fountains after each group use, we are cleaning desks everyday with Clorox wipes, and I am preaching hand washing and use of Germ-X. Influenza A, Influenza B, Strep, and the puking flu is all here. The school nurse has advised us of all these things to try and prevent the spread of disease. We are doing the best we can! You as parents need to join in and help us. You need to do just as your doctor says. Some are saying once testing positive for either strain of influenza that you should be out of school for a week. Some may say different. Our rule of thumb is make sure your child is fever free for a full 24 hours (without meds) before returning to school. Also make sure your child is vomit free for 24 hours and can eat a normal amount of food and are hydrated back up, before returning them to school. It is not only children that can get these illnesses it is also teachers. We need to try and keep our teachers healthy through this time because there is not a long line of subs on our list. We could be in trouble if several teachers were gone at once. We are lucky it hasn't hit us like it has East Union. They have more than 10% of their student population out of school. Let us pray that we can keep this under control and not have a severe problem. One year we had a class of about 14 have only 4 students present one day. That has only happened once in my 19 years of teaching. That made for an interesting day. Please be respectful and follow our wishes.
Language Arts- This week we are reading Riding Freedom, which reminds me of a Mulan story. A female is disguised as male to do a job of driving a stagecoach. This is considered a man only job. She has cut her hair and dresses as a man. She is in an accident and loses the sight in one of her eyes. She works on training herself to drive the stagecoach using other senses, mainly her sense of hearing to help her. So not only is she a woman in a man's job she would also be considered as having a handicap. She proves to them she can do her job very well with only one eye. They never figure out in our story that she is a female. It is a good way to show the girls how certain jobs weren't meant for them. Which will lead right into our viewing of the movie Hidden Figures next week. We learned about adjectives this week in grammar. What they describe and what questions they answer. We also did some discussion and computer searching on figurative language. Personification, metaphor, simile, and idioms were the ones we talked about.
Math- We finished up perimeter this week with a fun activity of going around the school and measuring different things. They measured doors, windows, desks, whiteboard, chalk boards, trophy cabinet, and file cabinets. After measuring in inches they were to find the perimeter. This got them out of the room and moving and physically doing the work instead of looking at a shape that all ready had the measurement done for them. We learned Area yesterday and will do a worksheet today on it and tomorrow we will do the fun activity again where they go measure different things and find the area. This gives them a good grasp of what area and perimeter are and how they are different. This is a fun chapter. I relate this learning to jobs that would have use these skills. We just have a few more lessons in the chapter. It is only 5 lessons long! Then we are off into the deep world of division!
Social Studies - We are covering lesson 2 this week. It is covering some pretty big topics and only skimming the surface of each of them. We talked about the Revolutionary War and immigration. It quickly told them when the revolution was, where the first shot was fired and reasons why the war happened. Immigration is about Ellis Island and where people were immigrating from. We are singing our states and capitals song everyday before Social Studies class. Some all ready have it memorized and some are working on it. Once they can sing this song they can list all 50 states and capitals! Woohoo!
Coin Wars - This week the students have been participating in the Coin Wars. Students were asked to bring in coins to fill a bucket. This money will go towards Veterans and Honor Flights. The class bringing in the most "change" will win a pizza party or a cookie party. Last year 4th grade and 6th grade won a cookie party. So far our class is way behind. Tomorrow is the last day, so if you have any spare change laying around please send with your student to help.
Catholic Schools Week!! Hey, it's that time of year! We have a lot of great activities planned for next week. You will find a sheet with a list of each day and it's activities. This will be in your youngest child's folder. But I will give you a run down here.
Sunday, January 29, this is kick of Mass at Holy Spirit church with a brunch to follow put on by the PTO
Monday, January 30, Faculty and Staff appreciation Day
Students bring a sack lunch this day
Spirit Day Dress: Blue/Gold Day for St. Malachy
Tuesday, January, 31, Student Appreciation Day
Hidden Figures Movie at the Movie Theater (see paper and permission form in today's folder) 8:30-11:15
1:30-3:00 Students vs. Teachers in gym
Spirit Day Dress: Sports Wear (hats and sweats included)
Wednesday, February 1, Community Appreciation Day
Advent Angel Activity making valentine's for servicemen and people in Nursing Homes
Spirit Day Dress: "America" Day or Red White and Blue
Thursday, February 2, School Appreciation Day
Talent Show beginning at 1:00 pm
Spirit Day Dress: Pajama Day
Friday, February 3, Grandparents/Special Guest Day
Mass begins at 1:30 pm and Holy Spirit Reception to follow
Spirit Day Dress: Dress up Day
4th Grade Auction Basket - We met and discussed both the silent auction item and the auction basket. Our silent auction item is a wooden cross. Danielle Steele is in charge of this item and will be doing all the work. Each student will be given a piece of stained wood that they will be writing their favorite bible verse on. All the pieces will come together to make a cross. Please be discussing with your child different verses that they may like and choose to write on their piece of wood. I will also talk about this hear with them. I will let you know when I need the verse. Danielle is coming in during class to have them write then she will put the cross together! I think it will be awesome! Our Auction basket is movie night! Our basket is going to look like a "Redbox". If you search Redbox auction basket you will see what we are doing. You will be getting an email with a sign-up genius for donations to the basket. Kiki Scarberry is in charge of the basket. I appreciate these ladies stepping up and helping. Keep in mind the $5.00 bin at Wal-Mart will be awesome for this basket. We are also looking for "movie Candy". I am contacting the theater for any donation they would like to give! Let me know if you have any questions.
I hope everyone has a great weekend and an even better Catholic Schools Week!
God Bless,
Mrs. Sickels
Thursday, January 19, 2017
Dear Parents,
Happy Thursday!! What a wild week! The day off Monday and 2 hr. delay Tuesday has me feeling crazy this week and also the kids. We are working hard on items in all subjects though. The talking has been more this week than usual. I am trying to keep that down without taking away recess time cause I feel they need to run and play, but some kids are experiencing a loss of time. I hope all are feeling well. I have been dealing with a little cold this week. I know influenza A and strep throat are going around pretty heavily and it has hit our building. Just a reminder if your child has a fever they need to stay home until they are fever free for 24 hours. So if your child is sent home from school at noon they should not return until noon the next day if they have not had a fever. We are trying to prevent the spread of these illnesses and also keep in mind some kids are effected a lot worse than others. Colds we can handle but fevers need to treated with a "better be safe than sorry" attitude. I know it is an inconvenience when your child is sick but we need to think of others. I, myself, don't want either of these illnesses at my house. I am pushing hand washing and use of germ-X here at school! We are also cleaning off our desks. with clorox wipes. I am trying!
Language Arts - This wee is a Unit test week, It is so nice to have our own computers and not have to share. We are able to take the test whenever we want, and Ms. Surma and I are not trying to share the computers! They are working on their Unit test. We took part of it yesterday, we will do another chunk today and tomorrow we will finish it. They have several stories to read to complete this test. I copy those stories so they have them to refer back to when answering the questions. I feel this is easier than trying to scroll back and forth from story to question of the computer. Tomorrow I will assigning to them a new book report. This is the 2nd one this year and will be due Wednesday, March 1st. They will complete a total of 3 book reports this year. One each trimester. Please be sure to check with your child about what they have chosen to read and maybe let the read to you some. I try to encourage the students to challenge themselves when choosing a book. Try to maybe read something different or a book with more pages than they are used to. Sometimes stepping out of the box may make one discover a whole new world of reading for themselves.
Math - We finished chapter 3 and took the test. WOW! Comparing the pretest to the post test is like night and day!! I had some amazing growth! There were at least 5-6 perfect papers! They really did a great job paying attention and learning this chapter! The next chapter is going to be a fun chapter. It will cover area and perimeter. Most of them have all ready worked with these on their ST Math program. I am hoping for this chapter to be fun and relaxing for them since Multiplication can be so stressful sometimes. Chapter 4 will get us back into hard content. It is Division. I plan to work very hard trying to get them division knowledge before the Iowa Assessments which are the beginning of March this year. They have all ready taken the pretest for Chapter 13 so we are reading to dig in today!
Social Studies - We finished up chapter 5 and began chapter 6 this week. They are working on coloring all the flags of the Northeast States and then we will begin putting together an interactive notebook on the United States, starting with our Northeast States. Next week we will get the lyrics and begin our states and capitals song also. Lots and lots of learning going on here in 4th grade. Another reason we love to have our own computers, is letting them use them in free time to look up information on the states. We are definitely blessed with good people who care to donate to our school. Students look up the flag of the state and color it in. I have all ready copied the flag for them, they just have to look for it to put the color on. We found out a lot of the states in the Northeast have Blue backgrounds. Mainly the New England states. That was interesting! Start working on learning those capitals!!
Auction - I asked for volunteers a couple of weeks ago to put together the 4th grade auction basket. I had one person volunteer. We are gong to meet next Tuesday, January 24th after school at 3:30 to discuss some ideas for the basket and the silent auction item. If any one else would like to join us your are welcome to. The more the merrier! We want our auction items to be great!!!
Catholic Schools Week is Coming!! It starts Sunday, January 30th - Friday, February 3rd. Next week I will give out full details of everything that will be going on that week. Dress up days and activities will all be included, next week!
The Food Pantry is having an open house Saturday, January 21st from 5-7. If you want to see the O'Riley center and food pantry where your children do service stop in. They will be having a soup supper for a free will donation. The upper level of the food pantry is a great room to hold baby showers, bridal showers, large family dinners, or anniversary parties. It has a stage and capabilities of hooking up a computer to a big screen TV. One could also hold business meetings there and use the new sound system.
I hope all of you have a great weekend!!
God Bless,
Mrs. Sickels
Happy Thursday!! What a wild week! The day off Monday and 2 hr. delay Tuesday has me feeling crazy this week and also the kids. We are working hard on items in all subjects though. The talking has been more this week than usual. I am trying to keep that down without taking away recess time cause I feel they need to run and play, but some kids are experiencing a loss of time. I hope all are feeling well. I have been dealing with a little cold this week. I know influenza A and strep throat are going around pretty heavily and it has hit our building. Just a reminder if your child has a fever they need to stay home until they are fever free for 24 hours. So if your child is sent home from school at noon they should not return until noon the next day if they have not had a fever. We are trying to prevent the spread of these illnesses and also keep in mind some kids are effected a lot worse than others. Colds we can handle but fevers need to treated with a "better be safe than sorry" attitude. I know it is an inconvenience when your child is sick but we need to think of others. I, myself, don't want either of these illnesses at my house. I am pushing hand washing and use of germ-X here at school! We are also cleaning off our desks. with clorox wipes. I am trying!
Language Arts - This wee is a Unit test week, It is so nice to have our own computers and not have to share. We are able to take the test whenever we want, and Ms. Surma and I are not trying to share the computers! They are working on their Unit test. We took part of it yesterday, we will do another chunk today and tomorrow we will finish it. They have several stories to read to complete this test. I copy those stories so they have them to refer back to when answering the questions. I feel this is easier than trying to scroll back and forth from story to question of the computer. Tomorrow I will assigning to them a new book report. This is the 2nd one this year and will be due Wednesday, March 1st. They will complete a total of 3 book reports this year. One each trimester. Please be sure to check with your child about what they have chosen to read and maybe let the read to you some. I try to encourage the students to challenge themselves when choosing a book. Try to maybe read something different or a book with more pages than they are used to. Sometimes stepping out of the box may make one discover a whole new world of reading for themselves.
Math - We finished chapter 3 and took the test. WOW! Comparing the pretest to the post test is like night and day!! I had some amazing growth! There were at least 5-6 perfect papers! They really did a great job paying attention and learning this chapter! The next chapter is going to be a fun chapter. It will cover area and perimeter. Most of them have all ready worked with these on their ST Math program. I am hoping for this chapter to be fun and relaxing for them since Multiplication can be so stressful sometimes. Chapter 4 will get us back into hard content. It is Division. I plan to work very hard trying to get them division knowledge before the Iowa Assessments which are the beginning of March this year. They have all ready taken the pretest for Chapter 13 so we are reading to dig in today!
Social Studies - We finished up chapter 5 and began chapter 6 this week. They are working on coloring all the flags of the Northeast States and then we will begin putting together an interactive notebook on the United States, starting with our Northeast States. Next week we will get the lyrics and begin our states and capitals song also. Lots and lots of learning going on here in 4th grade. Another reason we love to have our own computers, is letting them use them in free time to look up information on the states. We are definitely blessed with good people who care to donate to our school. Students look up the flag of the state and color it in. I have all ready copied the flag for them, they just have to look for it to put the color on. We found out a lot of the states in the Northeast have Blue backgrounds. Mainly the New England states. That was interesting! Start working on learning those capitals!!
Auction - I asked for volunteers a couple of weeks ago to put together the 4th grade auction basket. I had one person volunteer. We are gong to meet next Tuesday, January 24th after school at 3:30 to discuss some ideas for the basket and the silent auction item. If any one else would like to join us your are welcome to. The more the merrier! We want our auction items to be great!!!
Catholic Schools Week is Coming!! It starts Sunday, January 30th - Friday, February 3rd. Next week I will give out full details of everything that will be going on that week. Dress up days and activities will all be included, next week!
The Food Pantry is having an open house Saturday, January 21st from 5-7. If you want to see the O'Riley center and food pantry where your children do service stop in. They will be having a soup supper for a free will donation. The upper level of the food pantry is a great room to hold baby showers, bridal showers, large family dinners, or anniversary parties. It has a stage and capabilities of hooking up a computer to a big screen TV. One could also hold business meetings there and use the new sound system.
I hope all of you have a great weekend!!
God Bless,
Mrs. Sickels
Thursday, January 12, 2017
Dear Parents,
Happy Thursday! This has been a whirlwind of a week for me!! I was out of classroom on Tuesday and Wednesday this week. My mother-in-law was taken to Des Moines with a blood clot in her leg and also in each lung. (very scary) I am now back and will be the rest of the week! Things were a little crazy but I spent today getting things back in order! I am all caught up now and have the kids exactly where we need to be. I am very thankful we have reliable substitute teachers that can follow our plans and teach so the kids are not missing a day!
Language Arts - This week we are reading the story Ecology for Kids. This is a story about Earth, it's ecosystems, and protecting our environment. It is Science topics in language arts. It is informational text. Everything they are reading is factual information. The skill they are focusing on is Facts and Main Ideas. We find the main idea and then pay attention to the details below that support our main idea. They are also working on clarifying their reading. Knowing that if they don't understand what they are reading or don't know the meaning of the word, they need to stop and clarify before they move forward. Try to understand before you go any further. I have related this to my own reading in my personal time for them and how I use my dictionary on my kindle, or if I am reading a book, I use my phone or computer to search the meanings of things I am unsure of. In grammar we have been working on verb, Irregular verbs, the BE verb, and helping verbs. Tomorrow is our week 1 assessment. Then next week will be the Unit 3 benchmark test. It will still be taken online, it's just a bigger test looking at all we have learned in Unit 3.
Math - We have finished up chapter 4 this week. We will be starting the chapter 4 test tomorrow. I hope they all get the test finished but this one will require them to take their time so it may take 2 days. We will just see. We went over their review today in class and then I had them get out an extra practice worksheet for them to work on at home so they are practicing for the math test. It is not an assignment that they have to do, but it will help them prepare for tomorrow's test. We will start chapter 13 next which will cover area and perimeter. It is a fun chapter where we do a lot of hands on and it makes a nice transition for the students.
Social Studies- We took chapter 4 test this week! The students have all finished, it has been checked, they have corrected, and now I need to look at their corrections. We will begin chapter 5 which still covers the Northeast region. Some kids struggled on labeling the map this test. Next time they will need to be able to label the map AND know the capital of the state. I will teach them a song to sing this chapter to help with that. They will all have a copy of the lyrics so they can learn it quickly. We will then try to sing the song everyday at the beginning or end of class.
REMINDER: THERE IS NO SCHOOL ON MONDAY! This is a planned day off with the Diocese of Des Moines. The teachers will be traveling to Des Moines to meet with the other teachers in the diocese for inservice. Sounds pretty lucky we all ready do not have school if the weather does what it is suppose to do. I hope that doesn't happen.
I hope everyone has a great weekend!! Stay safe!
God Bless,
Mrs. Sickels
Happy Thursday! This has been a whirlwind of a week for me!! I was out of classroom on Tuesday and Wednesday this week. My mother-in-law was taken to Des Moines with a blood clot in her leg and also in each lung. (very scary) I am now back and will be the rest of the week! Things were a little crazy but I spent today getting things back in order! I am all caught up now and have the kids exactly where we need to be. I am very thankful we have reliable substitute teachers that can follow our plans and teach so the kids are not missing a day!
Language Arts - This week we are reading the story Ecology for Kids. This is a story about Earth, it's ecosystems, and protecting our environment. It is Science topics in language arts. It is informational text. Everything they are reading is factual information. The skill they are focusing on is Facts and Main Ideas. We find the main idea and then pay attention to the details below that support our main idea. They are also working on clarifying their reading. Knowing that if they don't understand what they are reading or don't know the meaning of the word, they need to stop and clarify before they move forward. Try to understand before you go any further. I have related this to my own reading in my personal time for them and how I use my dictionary on my kindle, or if I am reading a book, I use my phone or computer to search the meanings of things I am unsure of. In grammar we have been working on verb, Irregular verbs, the BE verb, and helping verbs. Tomorrow is our week 1 assessment. Then next week will be the Unit 3 benchmark test. It will still be taken online, it's just a bigger test looking at all we have learned in Unit 3.
Math - We have finished up chapter 4 this week. We will be starting the chapter 4 test tomorrow. I hope they all get the test finished but this one will require them to take their time so it may take 2 days. We will just see. We went over their review today in class and then I had them get out an extra practice worksheet for them to work on at home so they are practicing for the math test. It is not an assignment that they have to do, but it will help them prepare for tomorrow's test. We will start chapter 13 next which will cover area and perimeter. It is a fun chapter where we do a lot of hands on and it makes a nice transition for the students.
Social Studies- We took chapter 4 test this week! The students have all finished, it has been checked, they have corrected, and now I need to look at their corrections. We will begin chapter 5 which still covers the Northeast region. Some kids struggled on labeling the map this test. Next time they will need to be able to label the map AND know the capital of the state. I will teach them a song to sing this chapter to help with that. They will all have a copy of the lyrics so they can learn it quickly. We will then try to sing the song everyday at the beginning or end of class.
REMINDER: THERE IS NO SCHOOL ON MONDAY! This is a planned day off with the Diocese of Des Moines. The teachers will be traveling to Des Moines to meet with the other teachers in the diocese for inservice. Sounds pretty lucky we all ready do not have school if the weather does what it is suppose to do. I hope that doesn't happen.
I hope everyone has a great weekend!! Stay safe!
God Bless,
Mrs. Sickels
Thursday, January 5, 2017
Dear Parents,
Merry Christmas!!! I hope all of you had a wonderful holiday! I know I did! I am always sad to see it come to an end! We are all a little tired this week but it will all be fine. Some thought the break was too long and some not enough! We are back in the routine of things. I will say everyone seems very refreshed! We came back from break and found a new student in our room. We have been very welcoming to Josephine Bolinger! We are excited to have a new girl to add to our room!
Thank you! I would like to say thank you to all the students who gave me a Christmas gift. I love everything! I sent notecard thank you's with the kids but I fear you don't see them. I really appreciate all the nice things I received. It was a very Merry Christmas for me!
Language Arts- We jumped right back into a routine this week with a new story. It is called The Life and Times of the Ant. It is informational text about the life of the ant. All the jobs they work, what they dangers are of being an ant, and what their nests look like. It is a fun story cause all the pictures relate ant life to human life. In grammar we are talking about present and past participles and also participle phrases. They have done an excellent job learning a lot in a short period of time. We also read a fable called The Ant and the Dove. It is a cute story with a moral. It focused on being kind and returning kind deeds. Nice thing to talk about as we enter back into a social setting together!
Math - We started learning the regrouping strategy in double digit multiplication. This is the standard algorithm, the one strategy you learned as a kid. It seems to be moving along very well. I think it is moving smoothly due to the strategies we learn prior to this one and due to ST Math. Some of them are all ready passed this section in ST Math. What a great support for our math program this has proved to be. I know the kids don't care for it all that much but I see the benefits as a teacher. After we finish this chapter we will do a chapter on Area and Perimeter which most kids have all ready completed on ST Math. Then we will move into division. I hope to have a round of division in by the time we take our Iowa Assessments the week of March 5th.
Social Studies- Projects start coming due on Monday!! Please make sure your child is aware of their project and due date. We are also getting ready for our first test in the Northeast Region. I gave them maps today to help them study the location of the states. They will be expected to label a map with all the Northeast States. We will begin working the capitals for the next test. I have a song that I will introduce to them that sings all 50 states and capitals. It is a great way to memorize all of them. The students will begin their study guides tomorrow and will test next Tuesday. Please spend some time over the weekend working on studying the maps.
Auction- The St. Malachy Auction is fast approaching! I am just wondering if I have any parents that have any interest in heading up our class basket? If you are interested please let me know. I usually have a hand in the silent auction item. I have all ready started looking for ideas I am also open to any ideas you might have. Thank you in advance for your help.
Cold Weather - The temperatures have dropped and it is very cold outside. Please be sure your student comes to school prepared. Our rule is if the temperature the windchill are about 0 degrees we will be outside. If is it 0 degrees or below we stay inside. Tomorrow we are suppose to walk to the Food Pantry to help them unload the truck of food. If it is even 1 degree we are going. They really need our help. We make life so much easier and faster for them when we are there. It is amazing how much time some of those volunteers put in to keep the food pantry moving successfully. Please remember hats and mittens tomorrow! Thank you!!
It is good to be back in the classroom with the kids. I hope they are all ready to work hard for the next 3 weeks. Then we are blessed with Catholic Schools Week. Yay! So much fun celebrating our school! The teachers are planning a fun-filled week!!
God Bless,
Mrs. Sickels
Merry Christmas!!! I hope all of you had a wonderful holiday! I know I did! I am always sad to see it come to an end! We are all a little tired this week but it will all be fine. Some thought the break was too long and some not enough! We are back in the routine of things. I will say everyone seems very refreshed! We came back from break and found a new student in our room. We have been very welcoming to Josephine Bolinger! We are excited to have a new girl to add to our room!
Thank you! I would like to say thank you to all the students who gave me a Christmas gift. I love everything! I sent notecard thank you's with the kids but I fear you don't see them. I really appreciate all the nice things I received. It was a very Merry Christmas for me!
Language Arts- We jumped right back into a routine this week with a new story. It is called The Life and Times of the Ant. It is informational text about the life of the ant. All the jobs they work, what they dangers are of being an ant, and what their nests look like. It is a fun story cause all the pictures relate ant life to human life. In grammar we are talking about present and past participles and also participle phrases. They have done an excellent job learning a lot in a short period of time. We also read a fable called The Ant and the Dove. It is a cute story with a moral. It focused on being kind and returning kind deeds. Nice thing to talk about as we enter back into a social setting together!
Math - We started learning the regrouping strategy in double digit multiplication. This is the standard algorithm, the one strategy you learned as a kid. It seems to be moving along very well. I think it is moving smoothly due to the strategies we learn prior to this one and due to ST Math. Some of them are all ready passed this section in ST Math. What a great support for our math program this has proved to be. I know the kids don't care for it all that much but I see the benefits as a teacher. After we finish this chapter we will do a chapter on Area and Perimeter which most kids have all ready completed on ST Math. Then we will move into division. I hope to have a round of division in by the time we take our Iowa Assessments the week of March 5th.
Social Studies- Projects start coming due on Monday!! Please make sure your child is aware of their project and due date. We are also getting ready for our first test in the Northeast Region. I gave them maps today to help them study the location of the states. They will be expected to label a map with all the Northeast States. We will begin working the capitals for the next test. I have a song that I will introduce to them that sings all 50 states and capitals. It is a great way to memorize all of them. The students will begin their study guides tomorrow and will test next Tuesday. Please spend some time over the weekend working on studying the maps.
Auction- The St. Malachy Auction is fast approaching! I am just wondering if I have any parents that have any interest in heading up our class basket? If you are interested please let me know. I usually have a hand in the silent auction item. I have all ready started looking for ideas I am also open to any ideas you might have. Thank you in advance for your help.
Cold Weather - The temperatures have dropped and it is very cold outside. Please be sure your student comes to school prepared. Our rule is if the temperature the windchill are about 0 degrees we will be outside. If is it 0 degrees or below we stay inside. Tomorrow we are suppose to walk to the Food Pantry to help them unload the truck of food. If it is even 1 degree we are going. They really need our help. We make life so much easier and faster for them when we are there. It is amazing how much time some of those volunteers put in to keep the food pantry moving successfully. Please remember hats and mittens tomorrow! Thank you!!
It is good to be back in the classroom with the kids. I hope they are all ready to work hard for the next 3 weeks. Then we are blessed with Catholic Schools Week. Yay! So much fun celebrating our school! The teachers are planning a fun-filled week!!
God Bless,
Mrs. Sickels
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