Dear Parents,
     Happy Thursday!!  It is our last Thursday before Christmas break!   We have had a fun week.  Today we have had a day of Christmas Celebration.  We began our day with PE and then came back to the room and did some house cleaning.  They cleaned our desks and expanded files.  They took everything out of their desks and even cleaned inside with clorox wipes.  We rearranged desks ready to go for the new year.  We then got to play games and enjoy each others company.  This afternoon we watched a movie with 3rd and 5th grade to celebrate with our whole grade band.  It has been a very nice day and really for the most part they have behaved appropriately.

Thank you!  

I would like to thank all of you for the wonderful Christmas gifts you have given to me and to the classroom.  I love them all.  The kids know me so well!  It is so nice of them to think of me.

Thank you!  

We would also like to extend a huge thank you to our homeroom mom, Calista Purdum,  for supplying us with treats today.  She gave us a couple different snacks, a drink and a saran wrap ball with candy bars in it for the kids to unwrap.  They sat in a circle and unwrapped until a candy bar fell our then passed it on to the next person.  It was a fun game.  We appreciate all you have done so far this year, Callie!  Thank you!

Language Arts 

 This week we had cuddle up and read day, and I assigned the students a new book report.  The report is not due until February 5th so they have plenty of time to work on it.  This one is a Character Sketch book.  They can work on these pages at school.  I require them to read the entire book first then they can come to me for a rubric to help them put their project together.  When we return from Christmas break we will spend Wednesday through Friday getting geared back up for routine!  We will do a writing project that will deal with Christmas break.  Then the following week will do the week 15 story, and the following week will be Unit 3 test week.  What a way to begin the new year!  I hope everyone gets to read a good book over break!  I will be reading The Lilac Girls for book club.  

Math

 We will come back and dig right into chapter 3 in Math.  This chapter is on double-digit multiplication.  We are taking some of the same strategies from chapter 2 and applying them to double digits.  We will work hard on this chapter since it is a shorter chapter for us.  

Social Studies 

 We have one more lesson in this chapter then we will have a chapter test.  This will be in the first two weeks of our return from break.  We are going to have quite a busy time when we get back.  

I hope everyone enjoys their break!  Read a good book and get some rest.  I am very excited to spend the time with all my girls!  We end up staying up late and sleeping in every day.  Not a good routine but it is fun!  

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all of you!

God Bless,
Mrs. Sickels

Dear Parents,
     Happy Thursday!! Boy, can you tell it is close to Christmas because I sure can!!  This class is just very chatty and sometimes can't stay in their seats.  We are working on it.  I am keeping them busy.  I have even told them I could give them more to keep them busy.  Tomorrow is the last day to bring items for the Food Pantry.  When I look at it we don't have too much down there.  We could use some toilet paper and toothpaste and I know toothpaste an item they really wanted.  They have trouble keeping it in stock.  Thank again for any donation you are able to give.

Language Arts -  This week they are reading a story called The Life and Times of the Ant.  It is an informational piece about ants and how they live.  It gives lots of information about the ants working together, their jobs, the chambers in an ant hill, and food.  I find it interesting .  Some of the students found it more interesting than others.  This week in grammar we have talked about present and past participles and participle phrases.  These are adjectives ending in -ing and -ed.  Great lesson to follow two weeks worth of spelling lists on words ending in -ing and -ed.  I have put this week's words on Quizlet so they can study them on computer.  Tomorrow will be the regular end of the week testing.

Language Arts Next Week -  I am not going on to do a story next week.  I plan to have some other activities.  One of the activities will take place Monday.  I usually do it during the week of Thanksgiving but it didn't work this year.  Monday will be cuddle up and read day.  The students are allowed to bring a blanket, pillow and a stuffed animal to school that day.  They can bring one thing or all three whatever they want.  We will spend out language arts times cuddled up on the floor reading the whole time.  We will read from 9:00 - 10:15.  It is an easy 75 minutes for book it this month. Plus I like to celebrate the joy of reading.  Tuesday they will be assigned their next book report.  This report will appeal to the artists in the room.  I will go over all the directions on Tuesday and they will then need to begin picking a book for the project.  I will stress a book with a strong character.  We will also do a writing project here at school that week.  This gets them out of the book and doing some other fun educational activities.  It is best to do this on this week because they are all so excited for Christmas break!

Math - The students finished chapter 2 this week.  They took a test made corrections and we have begun work in chapter 3.  We will do the introductory pages and the firs lesson.  Then depending on the students I will take the time to teach them to play Suduko.  I love to do Suduko puzzles.  I have an app on my phone that I do a daily challenge and then there are just other puzzles to do.  Some may all ready know but to some it may be new.  I also have some Christmas Math pictures they will do next week.  I deals with chart and graph skills or plotting points.  They will get specific instructions on how to color in some boxes.  If they don't locate the correct boxes their picture will be wrong.  It is just a fun Christmas item to do.  If they can't handle the fun activities then we will go back and work hard on the chapter.  This chapter will flow pretty easily because it is stuff they all ready know it is just applying it to double-digit multiplication.

Social Studies -  This week we have focused on timelines.  We learned what a vertical timeline was and created a vertical timeline on their lives.  They could pick 10 important events in their lives to place on their timeline.  One day we worked on a list of events and the students were to go home and ask about dates, then the next day I showed them how to create it and they worked on it  in class.  Today they shared their timelines with the whole class by presenting them.  There is a specific standard on reading and creating timelines.  I feel they all understood and mastered it.  We will have another map test tomorrow on the Northeast Region.  Please be sure your children are studying the maps so they can do well.  They also are working on their last state of the Northeast for their interactive notebooks.    We will be getting back into the book to finish the 2nd chapter on the Northeast.  We will finish up and test after Christmas.  Then we move on to the Southeast Region and do all the same activities.

December 21, 2017 - We will have a very busy day celebrating Christmas this day.  I plan to finish anything that needs finishing in the morning in case their is a subject that I need to kind of put an end to before break.  Then we will begin our Christmas Party.  I ask that the kids bring a board game from home that they love to play.  I don't have a ton of games in my room so if they want to bring something that I do not have they can.  We will spend some time game playing games with each other and enjoying a snack provided by our homeroom mom.  They eat lunch with their advent angels that day so they need a sack lunch.  We will have caroling in the gym right after that.  Then the afternoon will be spent watching a fun movie with 3rd and 5th graders.   You are welcome to join your child for any part of this day.  You can join in when we play games or sing carols or the movie i the afternoon.  I feel that we need a day to celebrate Christmas as a class and have some fun.  I may even ask the students to come dressed in the Christmas Spirit. I will have a Christmas sweater on that day for sure!

Important Items to remember:

Monday, December 18 -  Cuddle up and Read and Mrs. Sickels gone in the afternoon
Thursday, December 21 -  Bring a sack lunch, dress for Christmas, and board game.
Friday, December 22- January 3rd -  Christmas Break

I will be gone the afternoon of Monday the 18th.  I will be at the doctor with one of my kids.  I love this time of year but have to pray for patience often.  The kids are all excited and so am I.  My kids are all home and under one roof which makes my heart full during this time of the year.  Only problem is we stay up late enjoying each other's company and then I am tired the next day. I hope all of you have a wonderful and safe Christmas Break.  I have family coming today and we have our first family Christmas this weekend all weekend.  I also am having a baking day with friends on Sunday to make all sorts of Christmas goodies!! I love this time of year.

Merry Christmas!!
Mrs. Sickels

Dear Parents,
     Happy Thursday!  I hope you are all having a great week!   The Christmas Program was fabulous last night.  Hopefully the little snow fall and Christmas Music put everyone in the Christmas Spirit!  I was struggling to get there with 60 degree temperatures!  That is not Christmas!  The kids love having Mrs. Stoner as their music teacher and seem to have a lot of fun with her while they are learning.  We are very grateful to have her at our school.  I am asking for you help.  Please, please, check with your child and see if they need red checking pens or pencils or new colored pencils for the classroom.  Some of them I am constantly loaning them these items.  With half a year down some of these items need replaced for sure.  I keep telling the students to ask for more.  Thank you in advance.

Language Arts -  This week we are reading a very interesting narrative nonfiction story about Antarctica.  It is called Antarctic Journal, about the author who went and lived there for 4 months.  She then created this story from her journal entries.  I think we all found it interesting.  Do they love it, probably not but they did find some of it interesting because it is not a place we would visit on vacation.  Plus they all like to talk about penguins.  In grammar we were talking about the proper use of words like may, can, might, could, should,  would, and must.  These words can easily be used incorrectly.  The students were learning what each expresses and trying to use them properly.  This is difficult because they read a sentence  and if a word fits an it makes sense they write it down, but with these you have to figure out what the sentence is expressing and which word is more appropriate there.  They had a difficult time. Tomorrow is there end of the week test.  I did not get the words on quizlet this week, I am falling behind.  I will get them on today because I know some use this as their study aid.

Math - We are finally at the end of our chapter.  Today we are working on the review. Tomorrow we will check that together and Monday they will take the test.  I am excited to be finishing up.  We can then move on to chapter 3.  It is over double-digit multiplication.  I have some "fun" math we will do the week before Christmas which involves plotting points and coloring a Christmas picture.  It gives them a little break from the regular grind of math.  Also, if make mistake your picture doesn't turn out correctly. They are doing a great job of working hard on their math.  

Social Studies -  We have our first Map test our of the way.  Some did awesome, some still have some work to do.  Please be sure your child is studying up on those Northeast states and capitals.  We will have another map test next week probably towards the end of the week.  We will see if those who aced it can do it again and it's a chance for some to redeem themselves!   We are also working on putting more states in our interactive notebooks.  They are working on Maryland today and I think we are doing New York tomorrow.  

Absent -  I will be absent on Monday.  I am taking my mother-in-law to her eye doctor in the morning and moving my college kids home for Christmas Break in the afternoon.  They live in sororities and you switch rooms every semester so they have to basically move out. Which is not convenient but not my rules!

We only have 4 ornaments on our tree!  Hopefully more of you will be getting out your decorations over the weekend so your child can add one to our tree.  Just a reminder that we get out for Christmas Break on Thursday the 21st.  That day we will have a small celebration in the morning with our class, we will have our Christmas Caroling at noon and them a movie in the afternoon.  I will give you more details about the day next week.  Have a great weekend!

God Bless,
Mrs. Sickels

Dear Parents,
     Happy Thursday!   I hope you all had a fabulous Thanksgiving!  I know we did.  We traveled to Chicago to my sister-in-law's house.  We had a great meal and then did some Black Friday shopping!  I got a few really good deals.  In Chicago, Black Friday is not as big a deal as it is here.  No lines waiting to get into stores or for certain items.  We always come home with a very full car.  Report cards are finished and will be available online to you soon. You will need to watch for information to come.

Language Arts -  We are reading a story called The Earth Dragon Awakes this week.  It is a historical fiction piece written about the San Francisco Earthquake of 1906.  It really is a very detailed story of what happens to a father and son.  I explained it is not true but all other things discussed about the actual earthquake is true.  I also told them they could look up the topic and read more about it or at lease figure out what was truth.  The story kind of scares me talking about buildings burying people alive.  In the end they are rescued but it is pretty nerve wracking.  In grammar this week we have talked about possessive nouns.  We focused on Singular possessives and  plural possessives. Some nouns have to have the spelling changed in order to make them plural like child/children or words that don't change like moose/moose.  We talked about how to make them possessive also!  Remember tomorrow is a spelling post test and end of the week test!  We are back into a full routine!  So happy to have a full week of school and the fact that I am done traveling!  

Math - This week we reviewed partial product and then moved on to the standard algorithm of Multiplication.  Which is the way you learned to do it growing up.  The kids caught on pretty quickly, which could be that they have learned it at home.  We have only worked on 2 digits times a single digit right now.  We will move on to 3 digits times a single digit next week.  We are getting ready to end a chapter which means a test will be coming soon.  I doubt it will be next week.  But it will be the next for sure then I have some fun Christmas math activities the students will do before we start the next chapter.  I will say chapter 3 will go quickly because we are taking strategies we all ready know but applying it to double digit multiplication.

Social Studies -  This week we are working on our interactive notebook and getting some more states in there.  We also started on maps.  The students were given 4 blank maps of the Northeast Region.  They are to make an answer key map where they label each area with correct state and capital.  Then they have 3 practice maps to practice labeling.  We will have a map test next week.   It will be the exact same map that they must label with states and capitals.  I try to get them to memorize a region at a time so at the end of the year the entire 50 states and capitals are not so overwhelming.  Please be sure your child is studying these!

Food Pantry -  From November 30 - December 15th we will be collecting items for the food pantry to help boost their inventory.  The items asked for are toothpaste, toilet paper, kleenex, and Food.  The Food needs to be non-perishable canned fruits and veggies or boxed meals like Hamburger Helper, tuna helper, suddenly salad,ect.  Monetary donations are also accepted.  Please send an item or more than one with your child to help the food pantry provide for our community.  Thank you very much.

Christmas Program - Our Christmas Program is fast approaching!  It is Wednesday, December 6th at 6:30 pm.  This event is being held at the Creston High School.  I love our program, it definitely gets me in the spirit of the season.  I have heard the 4th graders singing and they are fabulous.  I am very proud of them and know they will do a great job!

Class Tree -  I have a classroom tree which is just a tree on a bulletin board but I would like the students to bring in a Christmas ornament and I will hang it on our tree.  Yes, real ornaments but you might send one that is not breakable or totally special to them.  Lots of things can happen in their bags on way to school and if it would fall off the tree it would break.  I have never had any fall of the tree only students dropping them and breaking them.  They will bring the ornament back home with them at Christmas Break.  Thank you!

I hope everyone is getting their shopping done and decorations put up.  Molly and I went and purchased our tree Tuesday night.  It is in a bucket in my garage right now but we hope to get it up tonight or tomorrow.  The decorating of the tree will take place Saturday.  I have a lot of my shopping done.  Have a great weekend!

God Bless,
Mrs. Sickels

Dear Parents,
     Happy Thursday!!!  Remember I am gone today and tomorrow.  I am attending NCYC (National Catholic Youth Conference) in Indianapolis, Indiana.  I left on a bus at 5:30 this morning.  I am going with 10 Creston youths and another chaperone.  We will spend tonight at a concert by TobyMac who is a christian Hip Hop singer.  We will then spend Friday and Saturday with some keynote speakers, at mass, in small group sessions of the student's choice, and in fellowship with other students from around our Diocese.  One night we will have a pizza dinner with Bishop Pates.  I look forward to attending some of the sessions and hope I learn some things that I can apply to my classroom and youth group on Wednesday nights.  Some of the sessions sound very interesting and very in tune to what goes on in today's world.  Mainly with the phones!  I know one was about taking selfies.  Pray for all of us while we are away.  I know I will be praying for all my students while I am gone.  I absolutely hate being away from the classroom.  I know me being gone really throws a wrench into their routine and I hate to do that to the students too.  This class has come such a long way from 3rd grade!  They have matured and are learning to be very good students.  I will honestly miss them all while I am away.  I gave them half hugs today before they left for the day.

Geography Bee-  The 4th graders get the opportunity to participate this year in our annual Geography Bee.  What happens is the 4th-8th grade students are split up between 3 rooms and put through 7 rounds of geography questions.  The top 10 scorers of the preliminary rounds will move on to the  Finals.  The Finals will be held on a Wednesday after Mass in December.  The official date will come later.  I have had 4th graders make it to the finals in the past.  It is the luck of the questions.  This is not something the kids can opt out of.  They will all participate.  This will happen Tuesday morning of next week.  I will run the 4th graders through a  practice couple of rounds in our own room Monday, so they know exactly what to expect.  

Language Arts-   We took a Unit 2 Test this week.  We completed it on Wednesday.  Your child knows how they did.  Sounds like some are very proud of their score.  I will try and look at those while I am gone but will definitely dig into them on Monday.  Since I will be gone for two days we are starting the next story Thursday and will cover it until Tuesday.  They will have a spelling pretest today and the post test will be on Tuesday.  Due to the nature of the week, meaning the story is split by a weekend and Tuesday we really don't have enough time, we will not be taking an end of the week test over this story.  This story is a nonfiction or informational text on Hurricanes.   The students will be interested in some of the content but not a lot and I feel like the cover a lot in a short amount of pages, which makes it difficult to understand it completely.  It will try to teach them how a hurricane is formed and what it needs to increase in intensity and what causes it to decrease.  The terminology is very high tech.   We will just enjoy this one as best we can!

Math -  We are halfway through chapter 2!!  Today they will take the Mid-Chapter Checkpoint which is a review over what we have learned so far.  They will work on it today in class then check it on Friday.  My intent is to see how they did and if not too well, I will do some reviewing of the material before Thanksgiving Break so we start the second half of the chapter when we return.  If they do well, then by all means, we will move on.  My goal is to definitely have chapter 2 complete before Christmas and be into Chapter 3 before we go on Christmas Break.  Let's hope it all works out like that!  Friday I plan to have them do some flash card work with multiplication.  This helps them to memorize their facts so when we are learning these strategies and processes they are not stressing about basic facts.  Playing with these basic facts at home would also be a plus for them.

Social Studies -  We are working on putting the Northeast Region in our interactive notebooks.  The students are finally getting the hang of how to do it.  I am finding small errors like not capitalizing a city name or the 2 letter postal abbreviation, or sometimes they put periods in the postal abbreviation.  I make them fix those errors.  We have talked about when to use capital letters and when not to.  They know the difference they are just being forgetful or lazy.  We will be starting Chapter 5 this week.  They will begin to do vocabulary and learning about the Narragansett Native Americans that were in the Northeast Region. They lived in present day Rhode Island.  They will learn how they used cooperation to survive.  They will learn what they lived in and what food they ate.  I plan on giving them the lyrics to the States and Capitals song when we return from Thanksgiving Break.  We will also begin practicing for our first map test.  It will only cover the Northeast Region.  Monday will be a practice run through of the geography bee and  Tuesday will be the real thing.  

Monday Nov. 20th Lunch -  This day is a special day and will most likely be our last lunch to celebrate the lives of Nate and T.J. Frey.  The boys untimely passing happened on November 30th and we are going to have a pizza lunch on the 20th to remember the boys and eat one of their favorite meals.  TJ would have graduated from 8th grade last year and Nate would be an 8th grader this year.  So hard to believe!  We are glad to help Corey and his family celebrate  their lives.  So hear is a pizza toast to Nathan and TJ Frey!  Love you boys!

Reminder that we have school Monday and Tuesday of next week but the kids are off on Wednesday!  I hope everyone enjoys their break.  My girls and I travel to Chicago every year for Thanksgiving.  It is our favorite time of the year.  We do our black Friday shopping in Chicago and believe it or not, it is not half as crowded as it is in Iowa!  The girls also get to do some sort of craft while at their aunt's house.  We are always excited for what the craft will be.  One year they made stand up mirrors for their dorm rooms.  Who knows what this year will bring.  I know I heard "sewing" mentioned.  If you are traveling, I hope all of you have a safe trip!

God Bless,
Mrs. Sickels

Dear Parents,
     Happy Thursday!  I hope you are all having a great week!  The weather has turned chilly and looks to remain that way.  It is November so we should expect it.  I hope everyone has dug out their winter coats, hats and mittens.  Looks to be a cold one tomorrow at recess.  Please be sure your child brings their coats so they can enjoy recess.  It's not much fun when you are freezing.  Also remember, if your child is not feeling well, and running a low fever, please keep them at home until they are fever free for 24 hours!  If we send your child home at 10:00 in the morning with a fever, we should not see your child back at school until after 10:00 the next day.  We are trying to help prevent the spread of illness.  We won't be able to do that but we try to take precaution.  I will also really start pushing for the hand washing and use of germ-x!  I am trying to watch out for all of you!  We have had great attendance so far.  Today, we have a student gone due to illness but we haven't had very many at all.  That is a good thing!

Language Arts - This week we are reading a story called Jose`! Born to Dance.  This is a biography about a famous dancer Jose` Limon.  No, the students are not very interested in this story.  I like the way it reads but it is considered nonfiction so the kids are not responding well.  It tells some of the struggles his family faced as he was a child and how he overcame and went on to dance.  We have talked about Author's purpose this week and why Author's write stories and also that they may have more than one reason to write something.  Pronouns have been our focus in grammar.  They learned there are 5 different groups of pronouns: subject, object, possessive, reflexive, and demonstrative.  I only had to cover 3 groups but we did talk about all five.  We also learned about an antecedent, which is what the pronoun is replacing or what noun the pronoun stands for.  Remember that all vocabulary for this week are on Quizlet.  Our spelling post test and end of week test are tomorrow as normal.

Math -  This week we have started working our way into some new strategies for multiplying.  These strategies work very well and the students understand what they are doing.  They are realizing that they are learning to multiply very slowly.  Some are struggling with basic facts but understanding the processes that I am teaching them.  We focused on using expanded form, which we learned in chapter 1, to multiply.  It makes it pretty easy.  The amount of writing they do is more than what they want but it really gives them the beginning foundation of how multiplication really works.  Keep in mind we are only working on single digit multiplication.  But I also know they pick up on double-digit quicker due to what we are learning now!  I hope they keep up the good work.

Social Studies - Yes, we have a test tomorrow.  We have worked on the study guide and corrected it.  Their vocabulary words are in their packets and also on Quizlet so they can study.  Some of them have been working on them on Quizlet for a while.  This test is mainly matching, multiple choice and 2 quick essay questions.  I hope to give them a few minutes to study with a partner today in class.  Chapter 5 also focuses on the Northeast Region.  We have a lot to finish.  We have states to put into the interactive notebook and start working on our states and capitals.  I have a song we will use to help them with that.  It is called States and Capitals song by Macho Nacho.  It is on itunes and last I knew it was free.  I will give them a copy of the lyrics and we will start singing almost every day in class.  We will also work on locating all states on a map of the Northeast.  Lots of work to finish off this region before we move on to the Southeast.

STEM NIGHT!  Remember that STEM night is tonight from 5:30-7:30 in the gym.  It is a great time, hope to see you all there.

Appreciation Dinner -  The Food Pantry is putting on a Volunteer Appreciation Dinner this Saturday night 5-7 in the O'Riley Center.  You received an invitation last week in the folder for this event.  All our students 3-5 and their families are invited since we go down and help unload the truck on Fridays.  It sounds like it will be an excellent meal.  I hope some of you can attend.

November 16 - 17 - I am just letting you know that I will be gone next Thursday and Friday.  I am attending NCYC (National Catholic Youth Council) in Indianapolis with the High School Youth Group.  It is a great opportunity for me to be with the students as they attend sessions to better their knowledge and relationship with God.  I am looking forward to the trip and all that I will see.  Please pray for us on our travels.  I will be back the next Monday.  Mrs. Bearden will be in the room with them.  

The High School is putting on the musical The Wedding Singer this weekend.  This is the first time I have had a child participate in a musical and I am excited about it.  I had to dress her in 80's costumes and do her hair in 80's style.  I am a pro at that since I lived that era!  I almost forgot how to use a curling iron! I did have to go buy one that was more like what I used to use.  They will perform the show Friday at 7:00, Saturday at 7:00 and Sunday at 2:00.  This is where I will be all weekend!

God Bless,
Mrs. Sickels

Dear Parents,
     Happy Thursday!!  We actually have a full week this week!  Remember next week is conference week.  If you have not signed up for a conference please be sure to do so.  I will put the link to the sign up page following this paragraph.  I have to do my own conference for my daughter Molly at the High School at 9:00 so I have signed myself up for the 8:40 and 9:00 time slots.  I need to be able to drive there.  I apologize if that is a time you would want.  I look forward to talking to you about your student and how they are doing.  Here is the link: http://www.signupgenius.com/go/20f0544a5a72ca1fe3-mrs

Language Arts - This week we are reading a story called Me and Uncle Romie.  This is a fun loving fictional story.  The kids should be enjoying this story this week.  It is an easy read that is very realistic.  It's a story about love and family and also fine arts.  It discusses collage art, which is a form of art that I compare to scrapbooking.  You use paint and other items like paper, cloth, tickets, feathers, flowers, anything you want to put with it.  Collage art is to tell a story.  There were a few examples in the story also.  We were talking about present progressive and past progressive verbs this week and our vocabulary strategy was on proverbs and adages,which are figures of speech like an idiom.  Saying things like, he was as good as gold, I am head over heals for him, and hang in there.  This week I have put their vocabulary words on Quizlet which is a website that helps them to study their words in many different ways.  They get to choose how they study or what game they will play to help them better know their words. I hope to see some improvement in vocabulary scores this week due to this new study tool.  Tomorrow is post test in spelling and also end of the week assessment.  

Math - We have been studying comparison word problems this week in math.  The next lesson will be over multiplying tens, hundreds and thousands.  This is an easy lesson for them.  It teach them the strategies in the book but also the short version of looking at the basic fact and counting the zeros.  They will find this lesson fun because they will pick up on it very quickly.  Most students love when the get something very quickly and are more eager to work with it.  This might be the easiest lesson in this chapter so we better enjoy it.  I feel like they are doing a great job listening and paying attention in Math class.  I tell them every day how important it is to follow what I am doing. I move from the front of the room to the back of the room a lot during math to keep their eyes moving with me. I don't think they realize what I am doing but it seems to work!!

Social Studies - We have now put two states in our interactive notebook.  The students should be getting better at understanding what they are to do with the pages and how to cut and paste them in the notebook.  Which means we will move a little faster with this.  They will get a state assigned to them and be expected to find the information, color what needs colored and also cut and paste on their own.  We are talking about the resources that are found in the Northeast Region.  We will learn about a few important items that come from these states. Items that we use here and most likely get from the Northeast states.

Halloween!  Next Tuesday is Halloween.  We will celebrate here at St. Malachy.  The students are to bring their costumes and we will have our annual parade at 2:30.  We also have Halloween activities that we go the Middle School and participate in.  The homeroom teacher is going to supply us with treats and juice boxes while we wait our turn for activities.  What an exciting day!

It is Homecoming for Iowa State!  I am headed up to tailgate the game.  I bought an alumni shirt for the weekend and probably will be covering with a coat, hat and mittens.  They look to have a little snow on the ground.  Another reason I will be in Ames to see SNOW.  You will quickly learn I love snow and want to have some this year.  I grew up playing in the snow and snowmobiling every weekend. I loved being outside then coming inside to hot chocolate and the furnace in our house.  Now that was winter!  I feel if it has to be cold then we should have snow.  I hope everyone has a great weekend and stops in to the Vendor Fair!  I bet you can find some great Christmas Gifts!  I am sorry I am missing it.

God Bless,
Mrs. Sickels