Dear Parents,
Happy Thursday! I am "out of the office" today. I am at the State Track Meet today! Funny last Thursday it was too cold and conditions were too poor to run, and this Thursday there is a heat advisory! Crazy Iowa weather!! I don't plan on whining about being too hot! I told the kids I may come back with a sunburn though. I will be watching the 4X800 team at 11:20 and then Peyton Rice run the open 400 at 1:20. Then I will find a mall with air conditioning and a pedicure place!! I want to wear capri pants and sandals and I haven't yet, due to my nasty winter toes! Only 2 more Thursdays, can you believe it? I can't I am not ready. It's been a great year and I hate to see these kiddos move on. It is exciting for them but sad for me, they are such a great class. Thank God, I get to still teach them one class a day!
Language Arts - This week in language arts we have been taking the unit 5 test and sharing book reports. They have also done some free reading, and some handwriting. The book reports have been fun! They are creative students and some of their scenes are really interesting. I am impressed because there are 14 totally different boxes. Each unique in their own way. I plan on finishing book reports on Friday. The results for the Unit 5 test will go home in next Thursday's folder. Next week we will begin reading Charlie and the Chocolate Factory for fun. We will get to do just a couple fun activities with the book but really there is barely enough time left to read the whole book and of course, show the movie! I love watching the 1960's version of it. Gene Wilder is so good and the kids fit their parts perfectly. I hope to be showing that movie on May 30th. We will have to read like crazy and even read some for homework to finish.
Math - We are beginning to get into long division. We have spent the last 3 days working on partial quotient. The kids are subtracting, familiar chunks of numbers from the dividend to get their answers. I tell them there is not right/wrong way to get it as long as you are using the strategy. Some people can do it with small amount of work and others have to show a lot more work to get the quotient. This leads us right into long division. Ms. Surma and I went over chapter 4 and picked out the necessary things to teach out of the chapter before the end of the year. We should be able to get a test in over chapter 4 by the end of the year. That is our goal for sure.
Social Studies - We are making our way quickly through the Southwest Region of the United States. It only consists of 4 states: Arizona, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas. They will be getting their maps today to study 4 states for a map test on Monday. We will be moving into the West next week. Please, remember that on Thursday of the last week of school the kids will be taking their map test over the 50 states and capitals. They have exactly two weeks to get all 50 down on where they are on the map and name the capital. This is a pretty big test and is one standard/benchmark on the report card. I would be sure they are studying a little bit every night from here on until May 30th.
Spirit Day- Friday the 17th is a Spirit day. You may wear sweats (too hot) but you can wear a hat for $1.00! Bring in your dollar bills and wear a fun hat.
Spring Music Concert: This concert will be held next Wednesday, May 22nd at the High School. There is a reception to follow in honor of Father Halbur.
Well, only 2 more blogs coming from me for this class. I hope you have found this helpful and informational about what goes on in my classroom! have a great weekend! Hopefully it is a warm one for all of us!
God Bless,
Mrs. Sickels
Wednesday, May 15, 2019
Thursday, May 9, 2019
Dear Parents,
Happy Thursday!! Not really when it is chilly again today. I have state qualifying track tonight and they are talking wind chills of 23 degrees. I don't know that anyone is going to be running any spectacular times tonight! I will be enjoying my car more than the track meet most likely! I am ready for track to be over and things to warm up and stay warmed up!! I am sure all of you are also. Time is dwindling down for 4th grade. It is hard to believe! It has been a great year!!
Language Arts - Our last story in unit 5 is called "The Fun They Had". This is a great story about kids from the future finding a "book". Books in the future go across a television screen like a teleprompter. The book is about school long ago, which is school today. It is a fun short story! The kids liked it. It is science fiction. We are reviewing in grammar. We talked about ending punctuation, capitalizing words in titles and whether to put title in quotes or underline it, and also commas with coordinating conjunctions. The vocabulary strategy was on Greek and Latin word parts: therm, meter, aud, and fac. They learned therm means "heat", meter means "measure", aud means "to hear", and fac means "to make" or "to do". So the word thermometer is to measure heat. We worked with several words containing these word parts and figured out their definitions. Tomorrow will be our normal Friday with spelling posttest and end of week test! This is our last week! Next week we will test over Unit 5 and start reading Charlie and the Chocolate Factory as a class for fun! I have a book for each student. We will read some together, some in partners, and some on our own. I will put in some activities throughout the book also. At the end I will share the 1960's movie with them. One of my all time favorite movies! So much fun!
Math- We are working through the division chapter. We have learned how to estimate division problems using compatible numbers. I have taught them how to use a multiplication chart to help them find answers also. They use this as a resource. We will continue to work and learn about division until the end of the year. Tomorrow they will work on division flash cards to help with them with fluency which is very important when learning long division.
Social Studies - Tomorrow is a Map Test over the Midwest! I have warned them all week. They should be practicing their states and capitals. We are working through a couple lessons this week on Native Americans in the Midwest, the Ojibwa. We also talked about a Land Rush in Wapello County Iowa. We are working on getting our states in our notebooks. We have more states than days left so they will have to double up some days. Tomorrow I will be assigning two states after their map test.
Elk"s Track Meet - This track meet for 4th, 5th, and 6th graders will be held on Monday, May 13th at the High School track. This is a fun track meet to introduce track and field to our young people. Ms. Lesan will be at the track on Saturday, May 11th from 10:00 - 11:00 am to practice the high jump, long jump and any running events. This is awesome of her to take the time to help the kids! It truly is a fun event. I remember participating as a kid.
Spirit Day - Tomorrow is a Spirit day! Again the kids may wear sweats and a hat for $1.00. It's a bargain! Also they may just wear one or the other! All Friday's this month are spirit days excluding the 24th.
Absent - I will be absent tomorrow. I am attending graduation at Iowa State for my daughter's boyfriend. He is graduated with an education degree and has accepted a position in Lenox, Iowa. I always love my days in Ames and especially on Campus. I wouldn't be teaching if I wouldn't have attended here and got my education degree!
God Bless,
Mrs. Sickels
Happy Thursday!! Not really when it is chilly again today. I have state qualifying track tonight and they are talking wind chills of 23 degrees. I don't know that anyone is going to be running any spectacular times tonight! I will be enjoying my car more than the track meet most likely! I am ready for track to be over and things to warm up and stay warmed up!! I am sure all of you are also. Time is dwindling down for 4th grade. It is hard to believe! It has been a great year!!
Language Arts - Our last story in unit 5 is called "The Fun They Had". This is a great story about kids from the future finding a "book". Books in the future go across a television screen like a teleprompter. The book is about school long ago, which is school today. It is a fun short story! The kids liked it. It is science fiction. We are reviewing in grammar. We talked about ending punctuation, capitalizing words in titles and whether to put title in quotes or underline it, and also commas with coordinating conjunctions. The vocabulary strategy was on Greek and Latin word parts: therm, meter, aud, and fac. They learned therm means "heat", meter means "measure", aud means "to hear", and fac means "to make" or "to do". So the word thermometer is to measure heat. We worked with several words containing these word parts and figured out their definitions. Tomorrow will be our normal Friday with spelling posttest and end of week test! This is our last week! Next week we will test over Unit 5 and start reading Charlie and the Chocolate Factory as a class for fun! I have a book for each student. We will read some together, some in partners, and some on our own. I will put in some activities throughout the book also. At the end I will share the 1960's movie with them. One of my all time favorite movies! So much fun!
Math- We are working through the division chapter. We have learned how to estimate division problems using compatible numbers. I have taught them how to use a multiplication chart to help them find answers also. They use this as a resource. We will continue to work and learn about division until the end of the year. Tomorrow they will work on division flash cards to help with them with fluency which is very important when learning long division.
Social Studies - Tomorrow is a Map Test over the Midwest! I have warned them all week. They should be practicing their states and capitals. We are working through a couple lessons this week on Native Americans in the Midwest, the Ojibwa. We also talked about a Land Rush in Wapello County Iowa. We are working on getting our states in our notebooks. We have more states than days left so they will have to double up some days. Tomorrow I will be assigning two states after their map test.
Elk"s Track Meet - This track meet for 4th, 5th, and 6th graders will be held on Monday, May 13th at the High School track. This is a fun track meet to introduce track and field to our young people. Ms. Lesan will be at the track on Saturday, May 11th from 10:00 - 11:00 am to practice the high jump, long jump and any running events. This is awesome of her to take the time to help the kids! It truly is a fun event. I remember participating as a kid.
Spirit Day - Tomorrow is a Spirit day! Again the kids may wear sweats and a hat for $1.00. It's a bargain! Also they may just wear one or the other! All Friday's this month are spirit days excluding the 24th.
Absent - I will be absent tomorrow. I am attending graduation at Iowa State for my daughter's boyfriend. He is graduated with an education degree and has accepted a position in Lenox, Iowa. I always love my days in Ames and especially on Campus. I wouldn't be teaching if I wouldn't have attended here and got my education degree!
I hope everyone has a great weekend!
God Bless,
Mrs. Sickels
Thursday, May 2, 2019
Dear Parents!
Happy Thursday! I am crazy today. It is Lap-a-thon Day which throws me for a loop! I almost forgot to post a blog! Of course, that wouldn't be the first time. We ran the sidewalks this morning. Your child might be a little sore. Some of them did not have appropriate running shoes for the event. The kids all ran their hearts out. I am super proud of all of them. I have a track meet to attend tonight so I wore my track clothes to school. I told them it was to support their running today! They were all very genuinely thankful, even though I was trying to be funny. They were rewarded with freeze pops when they were finished running. I feel very successful!
Language Arts- This week we are reading a nonfiction story called Owen and Mzee. You can look them up and find their story online and see videos of the two animals on youtube. The kids have watched some of the videos. The story is about Owen, a hippo who was left alone after his entire pod of hippos was wiped out due to a tsunami. Owen was left stranded on a dry strip of land. He was taken to an animal refuge where he was put into an area with an aldabra Tortoise named Mzee. They are two animals who in normal conditions would not be friends. Becauase the hippo was alone and scared, the two animals bonded and are still together today. It is a cool story and the kids enjoyed it. The grammar we worked on this week was on comma rules. We reviewed when and where we use commas in a sentence. The vocabulary strategy this week was the suffixes -ed, and -ly. Tomorrow is a normal Friday. Please be sure the students are studying their vocabulary packet at home. Spelling post test is also tomorrow. There is more good news, our online system is up and running again so the kids will be able to take the test online and have instant feedback!
Math - We started division this week. We began with a lesson on estimation. I taught them how to use multiples to find estimates. I showed them how to use a multiplication chart to help them and if the chart wasn't big enough, what they needed to do to locate an answer. They seem to like this lesson and understand it. We had an observer in class that day so the students were totally in tune to me and what was going on. Today we began work on division with remainders. I started them using counters to help them to see what they were doing. Then I tried to move them to doing the problems without counters. They have a few problems they need to complete in their books.
Social Studies - We will be checking a study guide tomorrow. The test over chapter 8 will be on Monday. I then plan to give them the map of the Midwest to begin work on memorizing where those states are located. I also will quickly cover a lesson or two in chapter 9 but we will not test over this chapter. I will then move on into Southwest. We will test over one of those chapters but not the other. Then it is a quick move into the West. We will be hurrying to finish up the interactive notebooks and map tests so we can have one giant map test at the end of the year. Hard to believe I am making all my plans until the end but here we are!!
Spirit Day - Tomorrow is a spirit day Bring a $1.00 and wear your sweats or a hat! Yes just one dollar gets you both items. Lucky you!! The money goes to a great cause. We have had several teachers out with surgery this year! They have had a hip, knee and shoulder fixed! With this fund we were able to give them a care package from the staff and students to brighten their day and help with a few meals at home.
Last Day - Just a reminder that our last day of school will be Friday, May 31st! Since we are not ending the same day as the public school, I feel like I need to keep putting a reminder out there, so there is no confusion.
I hope everyone has a great weekend! Graduation is upon us, and the parties are starting. One of my children will be home Monday for the summer and the other one on Wednesday! Definitely makes my heart happy!! Jami will be home all summer but Josie is once again, working on staff at CYC camp. IF your child is attending they will see here there!
God Bless,
Mrs. Sickels
Happy Thursday! I am crazy today. It is Lap-a-thon Day which throws me for a loop! I almost forgot to post a blog! Of course, that wouldn't be the first time. We ran the sidewalks this morning. Your child might be a little sore. Some of them did not have appropriate running shoes for the event. The kids all ran their hearts out. I am super proud of all of them. I have a track meet to attend tonight so I wore my track clothes to school. I told them it was to support their running today! They were all very genuinely thankful, even though I was trying to be funny. They were rewarded with freeze pops when they were finished running. I feel very successful!
Language Arts- This week we are reading a nonfiction story called Owen and Mzee. You can look them up and find their story online and see videos of the two animals on youtube. The kids have watched some of the videos. The story is about Owen, a hippo who was left alone after his entire pod of hippos was wiped out due to a tsunami. Owen was left stranded on a dry strip of land. He was taken to an animal refuge where he was put into an area with an aldabra Tortoise named Mzee. They are two animals who in normal conditions would not be friends. Becauase the hippo was alone and scared, the two animals bonded and are still together today. It is a cool story and the kids enjoyed it. The grammar we worked on this week was on comma rules. We reviewed when and where we use commas in a sentence. The vocabulary strategy this week was the suffixes -ed, and -ly. Tomorrow is a normal Friday. Please be sure the students are studying their vocabulary packet at home. Spelling post test is also tomorrow. There is more good news, our online system is up and running again so the kids will be able to take the test online and have instant feedback!
Math - We started division this week. We began with a lesson on estimation. I taught them how to use multiples to find estimates. I showed them how to use a multiplication chart to help them and if the chart wasn't big enough, what they needed to do to locate an answer. They seem to like this lesson and understand it. We had an observer in class that day so the students were totally in tune to me and what was going on. Today we began work on division with remainders. I started them using counters to help them to see what they were doing. Then I tried to move them to doing the problems without counters. They have a few problems they need to complete in their books.
Social Studies - We will be checking a study guide tomorrow. The test over chapter 8 will be on Monday. I then plan to give them the map of the Midwest to begin work on memorizing where those states are located. I also will quickly cover a lesson or two in chapter 9 but we will not test over this chapter. I will then move on into Southwest. We will test over one of those chapters but not the other. Then it is a quick move into the West. We will be hurrying to finish up the interactive notebooks and map tests so we can have one giant map test at the end of the year. Hard to believe I am making all my plans until the end but here we are!!
Spirit Day - Tomorrow is a spirit day Bring a $1.00 and wear your sweats or a hat! Yes just one dollar gets you both items. Lucky you!! The money goes to a great cause. We have had several teachers out with surgery this year! They have had a hip, knee and shoulder fixed! With this fund we were able to give them a care package from the staff and students to brighten their day and help with a few meals at home.
Last Day - Just a reminder that our last day of school will be Friday, May 31st! Since we are not ending the same day as the public school, I feel like I need to keep putting a reminder out there, so there is no confusion.
I hope everyone has a great weekend! Graduation is upon us, and the parties are starting. One of my children will be home Monday for the summer and the other one on Wednesday! Definitely makes my heart happy!! Jami will be home all summer but Josie is once again, working on staff at CYC camp. IF your child is attending they will see here there!
God Bless,
Mrs. Sickels
Thursday, April 25, 2019
Dear Parents,
Happy Thursday and welcome back!!! I had a great time in Chicago! I attended some great sessions! I am very thankful we have the privilege to attend. We were able to eat Chicago Style deep dish pizza and visit Lake Michigan. Some of our best Professional development might have been in the car on the way home sharing things that we got out of our sessions. It was great therapy, my stomach still hurts from laughing! I am very happy and exhausted to be back in the classroom today.
Language Arts this week will focus on reading time for our book report books, some practice in handwriting and read aloud. I am trying to finish one book to start another. I don't find time to read to the students as often as I would like or even they would like. Next week we will be back to a regular week. We only have a couple more weeks left in our books. I hope to read Charlie and the Chocolate Factory with the kids this year. We do some fun projects with this book and most classes enjoy it. That is the plan for the rest of the year. We will also spend today and tomorrow practicing for our FAST (Fluency) testing that we will be doing in next couple of week!
Math - We will be starting division! Chapter 4. It is a rough chapter and very long. My intention is to sit with Ms. Surma and figure out the lessons she would like me to hit that will help her next year and kind of shorten the chapter up a bit. One of the classes I attended in Chicago was on 3-5 Math. It was good. I have ordered a new set of manipulatives to help me teach division and they should be here Friday. I am kind of excited about that. They will be easier to use then base ten blocks. So I really did learn something to bring home and try.
Friday, April 26th Earth Day - Tomorrow is our annual Spring cleaning day! The kids are asked to bring a rake with them to school and a pair of gloves. They are to dress according to weather and work outside. They can pay $1.00 to wear a hat. We also ask that they bring $1.00 to donate to our Earth Day Fund to buy flower pots, soil and flowers to put in front of the school to make it look more welcoming to visitors. Thank you in advance for all your support!
April is quickly coming to an end! I can't believe it! I am shocked at how quickly the year has gone by! I appreciate you sharing your child with me. I have enjoyed all of them every day! They are sweet and hard workers for sure! Be proud of them and what they have accomplished this year. They have really grown and are learning to be good students.
Have a great weekend! It is confirmation weekend and Molly will be confirmed on Sunday. It will be a nice celebration at our house.
God Bless,
Mrs. Sickels
Happy Thursday and welcome back!!! I had a great time in Chicago! I attended some great sessions! I am very thankful we have the privilege to attend. We were able to eat Chicago Style deep dish pizza and visit Lake Michigan. Some of our best Professional development might have been in the car on the way home sharing things that we got out of our sessions. It was great therapy, my stomach still hurts from laughing! I am very happy and exhausted to be back in the classroom today.
Language Arts this week will focus on reading time for our book report books, some practice in handwriting and read aloud. I am trying to finish one book to start another. I don't find time to read to the students as often as I would like or even they would like. Next week we will be back to a regular week. We only have a couple more weeks left in our books. I hope to read Charlie and the Chocolate Factory with the kids this year. We do some fun projects with this book and most classes enjoy it. That is the plan for the rest of the year. We will also spend today and tomorrow practicing for our FAST (Fluency) testing that we will be doing in next couple of week!
Math - We will be starting division! Chapter 4. It is a rough chapter and very long. My intention is to sit with Ms. Surma and figure out the lessons she would like me to hit that will help her next year and kind of shorten the chapter up a bit. One of the classes I attended in Chicago was on 3-5 Math. It was good. I have ordered a new set of manipulatives to help me teach division and they should be here Friday. I am kind of excited about that. They will be easier to use then base ten blocks. So I really did learn something to bring home and try.
Friday, April 26th Earth Day - Tomorrow is our annual Spring cleaning day! The kids are asked to bring a rake with them to school and a pair of gloves. They are to dress according to weather and work outside. They can pay $1.00 to wear a hat. We also ask that they bring $1.00 to donate to our Earth Day Fund to buy flower pots, soil and flowers to put in front of the school to make it look more welcoming to visitors. Thank you in advance for all your support!
April is quickly coming to an end! I can't believe it! I am shocked at how quickly the year has gone by! I appreciate you sharing your child with me. I have enjoyed all of them every day! They are sweet and hard workers for sure! Be proud of them and what they have accomplished this year. They have really grown and are learning to be good students.
Have a great weekend! It is confirmation weekend and Molly will be confirmed on Sunday. It will be a nice celebration at our house.
God Bless,
Mrs. Sickels
Thursday, April 18, 2019
Dear Parents,
Happy Holy Thursday! This has been a short week for me! Not only do we have tomorrow off, but I was out of the building Tuesday in Red Oak for a class, then Wednesday morning I was in Des Moines for Molly's last shoulder appointment! Yes!! It was the last unless she begins having issues again. Surgery last July was a complete success and he is very happy with where she is and how she is doing. That was a relief! But I felt like I wasn't here. You kids are great! They told me they missed me when I returned Wednesday afternoon! That made my day!
Language Arts - We read a story this week about the Coastal Redwood trees in California. We know them as the Sequoia trees. The story was called The Ever-Living Tree. It is a cool story to show the lifespan of the trees. It relates it to the human world and what was happening while the tree was growing. It talked about dinosaurs, Augustus Ceasar, the great wall of China and more. It is cool to see how old the trees can be. In grammar they reviewed ending punctuation and capital letters in sentences and quotations. The vocabulary strategy was about the prefixes pre-, inter-, and ex-. We will be taking our end of week test today since we have no school tomorrow.
Math - We took a Re-do of the chapter 13 test. Scores were not what I had hoped. I allowed them a chance to increase their scores, which most of them accomplished! I wrote the formulas on the board this time to help them keep them straight. I was hoping a test in math was not a good idea after Iowa Assessments all week. For some it worked and they improved to a more proficient score. Some didn't give much effort this time either. I was disappointed and visited with them about a missed opportunity. Today we are going to work on basic multiplication facts, take a fact test and practice facts. When we return next week we will begin the chapter on Division. Yesterday they took the Chapter 4 pretest. I have a few that need to make that up today also.
Social Studies - We are moving right along. Today they had a map skill on map scale. They worked in partners and then I gave them 4 states to work on putting in their interactive notebook. One was for today and the other 3 are to be done over their break. It gets a great jump on the notebook so we will have all 50 by the end of the year. This should not take them more than an hour if they sit down and focus. I give them some of the information up front. They will need scissors and glue to make this happen. I will remind them all to take their notebook home. That would also be a problem.
April 22-24- School will not be in session these dates. The teachers are attending NCEA in Chicago. I am looking forward to learning some new things and coming back and giving them a try. I hope the kids have nice 3 days.
Earth Day - Please remember that Friday, April 26th is Earth Day and we are holding our annual Spring Clean up. The students get to wear comfortable work clothes this day for free. Fourth graders need to bring a rake and gloves that day. Also, we are asking each student to bring a $1.00 to donate towards flower pots, flowers, and soil to put out front of the school.
Spirit Day - April 26th is also Spirit Day. The students may pay $1.00 to wear a hat. This is separate from the $1.00 they donate for Earth Day.
God Bless,
Mrs. Sickels
Happy Holy Thursday! This has been a short week for me! Not only do we have tomorrow off, but I was out of the building Tuesday in Red Oak for a class, then Wednesday morning I was in Des Moines for Molly's last shoulder appointment! Yes!! It was the last unless she begins having issues again. Surgery last July was a complete success and he is very happy with where she is and how she is doing. That was a relief! But I felt like I wasn't here. You kids are great! They told me they missed me when I returned Wednesday afternoon! That made my day!
Language Arts - We read a story this week about the Coastal Redwood trees in California. We know them as the Sequoia trees. The story was called The Ever-Living Tree. It is a cool story to show the lifespan of the trees. It relates it to the human world and what was happening while the tree was growing. It talked about dinosaurs, Augustus Ceasar, the great wall of China and more. It is cool to see how old the trees can be. In grammar they reviewed ending punctuation and capital letters in sentences and quotations. The vocabulary strategy was about the prefixes pre-, inter-, and ex-. We will be taking our end of week test today since we have no school tomorrow.
Math - We took a Re-do of the chapter 13 test. Scores were not what I had hoped. I allowed them a chance to increase their scores, which most of them accomplished! I wrote the formulas on the board this time to help them keep them straight. I was hoping a test in math was not a good idea after Iowa Assessments all week. For some it worked and they improved to a more proficient score. Some didn't give much effort this time either. I was disappointed and visited with them about a missed opportunity. Today we are going to work on basic multiplication facts, take a fact test and practice facts. When we return next week we will begin the chapter on Division. Yesterday they took the Chapter 4 pretest. I have a few that need to make that up today also.
Social Studies - We are moving right along. Today they had a map skill on map scale. They worked in partners and then I gave them 4 states to work on putting in their interactive notebook. One was for today and the other 3 are to be done over their break. It gets a great jump on the notebook so we will have all 50 by the end of the year. This should not take them more than an hour if they sit down and focus. I give them some of the information up front. They will need scissors and glue to make this happen. I will remind them all to take their notebook home. That would also be a problem.
April 22-24- School will not be in session these dates. The teachers are attending NCEA in Chicago. I am looking forward to learning some new things and coming back and giving them a try. I hope the kids have nice 3 days.
Earth Day - Please remember that Friday, April 26th is Earth Day and we are holding our annual Spring Clean up. The students get to wear comfortable work clothes this day for free. Fourth graders need to bring a rake and gloves that day. Also, we are asking each student to bring a $1.00 to donate towards flower pots, flowers, and soil to put out front of the school.
Spirit Day - April 26th is also Spirit Day. The students may pay $1.00 to wear a hat. This is separate from the $1.00 they donate for Earth Day.
I hope all of you have a Wonderful Easter with your family!
God Bless,
Mrs. Sickels
Thursday, April 11, 2019
Dear Parents,
Happy Iowa Assessment Week! We are finishing up our testing today. The students will be done by the time they go to lunch today. They have done a really good job of being quiet and working on the assessments. I sure hope their scores reflect them doing their best work. We would like to thank the PTO for providing us with snacks this week. Monday we had muffins, Tuesday was cookies, and today is pretzels. It gives them a nice brain boost to get out of room, have a snack and move around. We want to get that blood flowing! I have to admit I came to school in a fowl mood, not because of the students and testing but because I was dreading going to a track meet in Lewis Central and freezing! I even said a prayer during prayer about it not being too cold or if so it cancelling. My prayer was answered! It was cancelled! I think it is just too hard on kids to run in such cold conditions and that wind wasn't going to allow anyone to break any records for sure! My day is made! The kids and I celebrated with a happy dance!
Book Report - I have assigned the last and final book report for 4th grade. ( I can't believe I am saying that "Last and final"!) It will book a diorama or book box. The students will read a book then create their favorite scene or a prominent scene from the book inside the box. The students all have a packet on it. It gives directions and also has the rubric I will use to score the project. Please be sure the student covers the entire box inside and out so I don't see any of the shoe box. I showed the students an example that I have in the classroom and talked about all the directions. They should know what they are doing. They may have questions once they finish the book and are ready to begin work. This project is due Monday, May 13th. The students are encouraged to begin reading their book because this time once they tell me a book they cannot change it. They have until Monday to get this done. Also the book must be over 180 pages this time. I am requiring them to challenge themselves.
Language Arts- We have not done anything in the book this week. I assigned a book report. They have been working on Handwriting and a Dollars for Scholars Essay Contest. They have been asked to write an essay about "What Education Means to Me". Some of them are all ready finished. I will be looking them over and having them clean them up. Teachers from the building will vote on them and the top 3 essays will be submitted into the contest. The winner will win $50. One person from this class is guaranteed to win! Good Luck 4th graders!
Math - We have been working on reviewing for Math this week. We will finish today and take a test tomorrow over Perimeter and Area. They have been doing a nice job and I plan to see great things on the test. I hate that we are taking a test during the test week but I can't put it off. I want to get moving. We need to work on division for the rest of the year.
Social Studies - We began the Midwest yesterday. We will be moving a little bit faster through this chapter than the others. I am trying to keep things moving so we get where we need to be. We do A LOT in social studies in the year! Lots of information is thrown at the kiddos. They seem to love it! Start learning the Midwest states and where they are on the map.
Dreambox - I just wanted to give a report on Dreambox since we talked about it at conferences! The students have been doing a great job meeting the goal of 7-8 lessons a week! They are all growing and improving! I am proud of the work they have done and appreciate anything you have said to them at home to help motivate them! More of the students seem excited about getting on and working in their free time. Thank you.
Earth Day Clean-Up - We will be holding our Spring Cleaning Day on Friday, April 26th. The 4th grade students are asked to bring a rake and gloves that day. They will spend about an hour raking and cleaning up around the school and the rerun. I love the way the school looks after clean up day. I hope the weather cooperates for us to do this. We also ask each student to donate $1 to the school. This dollar will be used to purchase flower pots, soil and flowers for the front entrance of the school. It helps to make a welcoming to those as they enter our building. Thank you in advance for this donation. We appreciate it!
Spirit Day - Tomorrow is a spirit day! According to Weather Bug on my phone the high tomorrow will be 41 degrees so I great day to wear sweats for $1.00! Hopefully it is one of the last days it is that chilly.
I hope all of you have a great weekend! I will be attending Molly's ten year dance recital! I am excited! I love watching her and all the St. Malachy kids shine on the stage! Plus we have all our family back to attend!
God Bless,
Mrs. Sickels
Happy Iowa Assessment Week! We are finishing up our testing today. The students will be done by the time they go to lunch today. They have done a really good job of being quiet and working on the assessments. I sure hope their scores reflect them doing their best work. We would like to thank the PTO for providing us with snacks this week. Monday we had muffins, Tuesday was cookies, and today is pretzels. It gives them a nice brain boost to get out of room, have a snack and move around. We want to get that blood flowing! I have to admit I came to school in a fowl mood, not because of the students and testing but because I was dreading going to a track meet in Lewis Central and freezing! I even said a prayer during prayer about it not being too cold or if so it cancelling. My prayer was answered! It was cancelled! I think it is just too hard on kids to run in such cold conditions and that wind wasn't going to allow anyone to break any records for sure! My day is made! The kids and I celebrated with a happy dance!
Book Report - I have assigned the last and final book report for 4th grade. ( I can't believe I am saying that "Last and final"!) It will book a diorama or book box. The students will read a book then create their favorite scene or a prominent scene from the book inside the box. The students all have a packet on it. It gives directions and also has the rubric I will use to score the project. Please be sure the student covers the entire box inside and out so I don't see any of the shoe box. I showed the students an example that I have in the classroom and talked about all the directions. They should know what they are doing. They may have questions once they finish the book and are ready to begin work. This project is due Monday, May 13th. The students are encouraged to begin reading their book because this time once they tell me a book they cannot change it. They have until Monday to get this done. Also the book must be over 180 pages this time. I am requiring them to challenge themselves.
Language Arts- We have not done anything in the book this week. I assigned a book report. They have been working on Handwriting and a Dollars for Scholars Essay Contest. They have been asked to write an essay about "What Education Means to Me". Some of them are all ready finished. I will be looking them over and having them clean them up. Teachers from the building will vote on them and the top 3 essays will be submitted into the contest. The winner will win $50. One person from this class is guaranteed to win! Good Luck 4th graders!
Math - We have been working on reviewing for Math this week. We will finish today and take a test tomorrow over Perimeter and Area. They have been doing a nice job and I plan to see great things on the test. I hate that we are taking a test during the test week but I can't put it off. I want to get moving. We need to work on division for the rest of the year.
Social Studies - We began the Midwest yesterday. We will be moving a little bit faster through this chapter than the others. I am trying to keep things moving so we get where we need to be. We do A LOT in social studies in the year! Lots of information is thrown at the kiddos. They seem to love it! Start learning the Midwest states and where they are on the map.
Dreambox - I just wanted to give a report on Dreambox since we talked about it at conferences! The students have been doing a great job meeting the goal of 7-8 lessons a week! They are all growing and improving! I am proud of the work they have done and appreciate anything you have said to them at home to help motivate them! More of the students seem excited about getting on and working in their free time. Thank you.
Earth Day Clean-Up - We will be holding our Spring Cleaning Day on Friday, April 26th. The 4th grade students are asked to bring a rake and gloves that day. They will spend about an hour raking and cleaning up around the school and the rerun. I love the way the school looks after clean up day. I hope the weather cooperates for us to do this. We also ask each student to donate $1 to the school. This dollar will be used to purchase flower pots, soil and flowers for the front entrance of the school. It helps to make a welcoming to those as they enter our building. Thank you in advance for this donation. We appreciate it!
Spirit Day - Tomorrow is a spirit day! According to Weather Bug on my phone the high tomorrow will be 41 degrees so I great day to wear sweats for $1.00! Hopefully it is one of the last days it is that chilly.
I hope all of you have a great weekend! I will be attending Molly's ten year dance recital! I am excited! I love watching her and all the St. Malachy kids shine on the stage! Plus we have all our family back to attend!
God Bless,
Mrs. Sickels
Friday, April 5, 2019
Dear Parents,
Happy Thursday! It would be better if the sun was shining for sure!!! We have been working hard in 4th grade since Spring Break. The students are doing a great job of using their time wisely and getting their work done. When all their homework is complete they have to split their study hall time for Dreambox and free reading. They do a good job of timing themselves. They are all showing great responsibility with Dreambox since conferences also. We are completing large amounts of lessons each week which is what we want. They are putting forth a lot more effort. I am very happy with all of them!
Language Arts - This week the story is called "I Do That!". It is a biography about Esther Morris who was instrumental in getting women the right to vote in Wyoming in the 1800's. Wyoming allowed women to vote about 40 years before the United States passed an amendment in 1920 to give women the right to vote. This is why the Wyoming state nickname is called the Equality State. Esther Morris knew that she could do what men were doing. She was a very successful women, owning and operating a millinery shop when women were not to do such things, was her fist accomplishment. She also became a judge in Wyoming. You can google here and find information. The kids enjoyed this story. In grammar we are talking about negative words. We practiced contractions using not. There are other words that are considered negatives: no, no one, not, nobody, nothing, nowhere, and none are examples. They worked on changing positive sentences to negative sentences. Today we will discuss using double negatives. The vocab strategy this week was on Adages and Proverbs which we have done a couple times this year. These can get very tricky for kids to understand. They are just little sayings that you can't take literally but have a life lesson in them. Examples would be, Hang in there, it's never too late, there's a will there's a way, actions speak louder than words, and don't rock the boat. Tomorrow is our normal Friday. We will take our post test and end of week test tomorrow. Please be sure your student studies the yellow vocab packet tonight.
Math - We are working on the last lesson in chapter 13 that we will be doing. We will finish it up today and begin the worksheet. Tomorrow we will then begin to review and will test sometime next week. Next week is Iowa Assessment week but we will be fine. This test will not be too hard for them. I will put the formulas on the board to help them. They will just need to show me their work to get the answer using the formula. It is also only a 15 point test.
Social Studies - We are taking a test over chapter 7 today. We will then move into the Midwest states. We have all ready begun putting states in our notebooks. I wanted to get a jump on it. We will push through the Midwest a little fast then we did the other regions. I will get maps to the kids to practice labeling the states. Keep singing the song an getting those capitals down.
Iowa Assessments - Next week is the week!!! We will take tests on Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday and only in the morning. The students will still go to their special at the normal time. LEAP will not happen for the Language arts students but it will for the Math kids. Sorry it just worked out that way due to tests. Please be sure your child gets a good amount of sleep and a breakfast filled with protein! I will give them a pep talk about doing their best work on these tests. I can't wait to see how they do.
Reminder: St. Malachy School will not have school on April 22-24! The teachers will be traveling to Chicago to the NCEA( National Catholic Education Association) conference. I look forward to this trip. We get to hold mass with thousands of other Catholic teachers and attend classes that may help us bring back ideas for our own classrooms. You know me, I try to find classes that deal with kids and books! Last time I attended a class on volunteering and then the Food Pantry volunteering was born! I also try to hit any class that might deal with technology. I also enjoy my time with co-workers wandering the city and seeing the sights. I can't wait to see what this year has in store for me.
God Bless,
Mrs. Sickels
Happy Thursday! It would be better if the sun was shining for sure!!! We have been working hard in 4th grade since Spring Break. The students are doing a great job of using their time wisely and getting their work done. When all their homework is complete they have to split their study hall time for Dreambox and free reading. They do a good job of timing themselves. They are all showing great responsibility with Dreambox since conferences also. We are completing large amounts of lessons each week which is what we want. They are putting forth a lot more effort. I am very happy with all of them!
Language Arts - This week the story is called "I Do That!". It is a biography about Esther Morris who was instrumental in getting women the right to vote in Wyoming in the 1800's. Wyoming allowed women to vote about 40 years before the United States passed an amendment in 1920 to give women the right to vote. This is why the Wyoming state nickname is called the Equality State. Esther Morris knew that she could do what men were doing. She was a very successful women, owning and operating a millinery shop when women were not to do such things, was her fist accomplishment. She also became a judge in Wyoming. You can google here and find information. The kids enjoyed this story. In grammar we are talking about negative words. We practiced contractions using not. There are other words that are considered negatives: no, no one, not, nobody, nothing, nowhere, and none are examples. They worked on changing positive sentences to negative sentences. Today we will discuss using double negatives. The vocab strategy this week was on Adages and Proverbs which we have done a couple times this year. These can get very tricky for kids to understand. They are just little sayings that you can't take literally but have a life lesson in them. Examples would be, Hang in there, it's never too late, there's a will there's a way, actions speak louder than words, and don't rock the boat. Tomorrow is our normal Friday. We will take our post test and end of week test tomorrow. Please be sure your student studies the yellow vocab packet tonight.
Math - We are working on the last lesson in chapter 13 that we will be doing. We will finish it up today and begin the worksheet. Tomorrow we will then begin to review and will test sometime next week. Next week is Iowa Assessment week but we will be fine. This test will not be too hard for them. I will put the formulas on the board to help them. They will just need to show me their work to get the answer using the formula. It is also only a 15 point test.
Social Studies - We are taking a test over chapter 7 today. We will then move into the Midwest states. We have all ready begun putting states in our notebooks. I wanted to get a jump on it. We will push through the Midwest a little fast then we did the other regions. I will get maps to the kids to practice labeling the states. Keep singing the song an getting those capitals down.
Iowa Assessments - Next week is the week!!! We will take tests on Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday and only in the morning. The students will still go to their special at the normal time. LEAP will not happen for the Language arts students but it will for the Math kids. Sorry it just worked out that way due to tests. Please be sure your child gets a good amount of sleep and a breakfast filled with protein! I will give them a pep talk about doing their best work on these tests. I can't wait to see how they do.
Reminder: St. Malachy School will not have school on April 22-24! The teachers will be traveling to Chicago to the NCEA( National Catholic Education Association) conference. I look forward to this trip. We get to hold mass with thousands of other Catholic teachers and attend classes that may help us bring back ideas for our own classrooms. You know me, I try to find classes that deal with kids and books! Last time I attended a class on volunteering and then the Food Pantry volunteering was born! I also try to hit any class that might deal with technology. I also enjoy my time with co-workers wandering the city and seeing the sights. I can't wait to see what this year has in store for me.
I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend! Prom and spring softball events have begun. Enjoy whatever you are doing.
God Bless,
Mrs. Sickels
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