Dear Parents, 

     Happy Thursday!  We are winding down getting ready to celebrate Christmas.  The kids are a little crazy!  They are just very talkative and can't sit still as well.  We are counting down the days.  We have 4 school days left.  I like that it is 2 this week and then only 2 next week.  I hope all of you have everything done and ready to go.  I still have to wrap some presents.  I am going to Des Moines Friday night to shop for the first time.  I have been doing most everything online.  Now, I am worried some things won't get here.    Sunday I hope to do a little bit of baking.  I didn't even fully decorate this year.    I am ready to spend some time with my kids.  

Language Arts - This week we are reading a story called The Earth Dragon Awakes.  It is a historical fiction piece about the 1906 San Francisco earthquake.  This is a real event that took place.  A lot of the things in the story are factual but the characters and the specific event that happens to the characters is not.  We read about a father and son that are in their tenement getting ready for the day when it hits.  Their tenement collapses around them.  It is pretty detailed of what is happening.   They are buried under the rubble.  In the end they are rescued but it can be a scary story.  Not in a "horror" way but maybe in an "anxiety" way.  The two natural disasters we have read about so far, have made us all agree we like where we live. NO Hurricanes or earthquakes here.  In grammar we are talking about singular and plural possessive nouns.  Nouns that show ownership and we are learning how to know if singular or plural.  The vocabulary strategy was on synonyms which is a review for us because they work on this skill every week when they do their vocabulary words.  Tomorrow will be their post test and end of the week test.

Math -  In math this week we began chapter 3.  This is on double-digit multiplication.  We have already worked on multiplying by tens and the last couple of days we worked on estimation.  The kids don't know it but tomorrow we are going to do the Christmas Math.  We will do that Friday and Monday.  Tuesday is just meant to be a fun day.  When we get back we will be working more on strategies to help with double-digit multiplication.

Social Studies -  They made it through their first map test.  We will take another map test over the northeast before we move onto the southeast.  We are also trying to get our interactive notebook of the northeast states completed.  There is so much to do before starting the next region!  These kids like this subject and are working hard.  We will have a chapter test over this chapter when we return.  Today we are working on vertical timelines.  The kids will work on creating their own timelines.  They were to come with 10 events in their lives today.  I will work with them on how to create that timeline today.  I allow them today and tomorrow to work in class then they have to be done by Monday because they will present them to the class.  

Tuesday, December 22 -  This is our last day before break.  I am not 100% sure what the day is going to look like.  I will show a movie at some point.  They will have caroling with their Advent Angels.  Your child may bring a favorite game from home.  We spend some time playing games and just enjoying everyone's company.  I have snacks and a drink being provided by the homeroom mom. I will probably do they day as it comes.  It will all depend on the kids and their behavior.  Do I show the movie in the morning then play games in the afternoon?  or vice versa.  That will just depend. It is a fun day though.  Your student must bring a sack lunch that day with a drink.  That is really the only requirement.

Dress up days:    Thursday - Wear Red

                          Friday - Wear Green

                          Monday -  Grinch Day -  You can do anything!  I have a t-shirt I wear.  Kids can wear anything Grinch or just colors that deal with the Grinch!  Whatever you want to do. (Even if you have Grinch PJ's)

                           Tuesday -  Ugly Sweater Day!   I got a new one so I am excited.

Friday IS a spirit day!  Wear your sweats with your GREEN.  Pay the $1.00.  It always goes to a great cause.

I hope all of you have a great last weekend before Christmas preparing.  I will be shopping, wrapping and baking this weekend.  Lots of Christmas music will be played.  If I have forgotten anything please email or text me to ask!  I am very forgetful right now.

Merry Christmas!

God Bless,

Mrs. Sickels

Dear Parents,

     Happy Thursday!   I feel like this week has gone quickly!  I am not sure why but it has. Maybe it was the change in Mass days.  We are all back in the room together!  We are very thankful for this.  The kids have missed each other a lot.  Things can finally go back to normal for all of us.  Next week is our last full week before Christmas break.  Remember in November when I told you the rest of the year goes quickly?  Well, it is happening!  I can't believe only one more full week!  We will spend all those days working very hard.  We will still have all subjects with lessons.  The two days in last week (21st and 22nd) We will still have work but I will also sprinkle in some Christmas activities.  

Language Arts -   This unit is focusing on stories dealing with weather.  This week we are reading a story called Hurricanes: Earth's Mightiest Storms.  It is a little above their heads, I think.  It is a non fiction piece talking about how a hurricane forms and the measurement tools used to measure weather.  It is a story that is okay to hear once but 3 times in a week is too much.  I honestly am not looking for very good scores on the  end of the week test tomorrow. This week in grammar we have covered my favorite topic.  The correct way to use: to, too and two, their, there, and they're, and its and it's.  I see so many people use these words incorrectly on Facebook posts.  The vocabulary strategy this week was on suffixes -ful, -less, - ness, -ment.  Tomorrow is their spelling test and end of week test.  Next week we will cover story 2.  Then we will be done in the book until after Christmas Break.

Math -  We finished up Chapter 2 and took a test this week. You will find the results in your child's take home folder.  They began chapter 3 today.  I plan to work hard on Math all next week.  I hipe to get through the first 2-3 lessons.  Then I have a "Christmas Math" activity for them.  It deals with coordinate pairs and coloring pictures.  Seems weird it is math but that is what it is.  Kind of like Battleship.  That is working with coordinate pairs and is considered Math.

Social Studies -  This week I have introduced the Map test to the students.  This is where I give them a blank map of the Northeast Region and ask them to label all the states and capitals.  They have created an answer key and I have given them 4 practice pages.  That is one for every day.  They will take an official Map test on Monday of the Northeast region.  I do this by region because at the end of the year they will expected to label all 50 states and capitals.  It is easiest to  learn by region.  I am having them sing the States and Capitals song also.  I will have them sing the song before the test then I will have them work on it.  They have also begun to put the Mid-Atlantic states in their interactive notebooks this week.  We started with Delaware.  We are getting close to taking a test.  I plan to get that done before we go to break.  We will spend a lot of time working on finishing the Northeast in our interactive notebooks also.

Christmas Program Filming -   The plan is to film for the Christmas Program next Tuesday the 15th. Please be sure to send your student in their Christmas BEST that day.  Also, yes they still have to dress in Mass clothes on Wednesday the 16th.  We are exciting to be getting something out to you to show their work in Music and our Holiday Spirit!

December 22nd - This is our last day before break.  It is a full day. It will look a little different from what we normally do.  I will give you more details next week on what exactly the day will look like.  Yes, we have a Christmas Party it will involve treats but I am not sure what time of the day it will happen yet.  It is sack lunch day though.

Just in!  We are in a Winter Weather Advisory for Friday night at 6:00PM to Saturday night at 6:00PM.  I will take it!  I love it!   The only thing to make the season better is SNOW!  I love snow.  Reminder that tomorrow is NOT a spirit day.  I repeat NOT a spirit day.  Though I wish it was!

Well, I hope everyone has a great weekend!  I hope you are all getting ready for Christmas.  I even wrapped some packages last night!  I hope to get home in time tonight to put my lights on my porch.  Tis' the season.  

God Bless,

Mrs. Sickels 

 Dear Parents,

      Happy Thursday!  What a whirlwind of a few weeks.  I was gone with COVID and teaching from home and students were here and there.  Whew!  It's just Crazy!  Add Christmas in there and WOW!  We will get through all this together.  I am very grateful for excitement of Christmas to take away from the disappointment from everything else. Thanksgiving was a bummer but we made the best of it.  The students have been great through this whole thing and I so much appreciate it!

Language Arts -  We have been working on the Unit 2 test this week.  I am so thankful that this test is online so I can see the online kids results immediately.  We will be finishing that test today.  We have started the upper case letters in handwriting.  We have worked on handwriting every day.  Tomorrow I will have the 3 kids who are here share their  book reports.  The ones online will share when they return.  Thanks to COVID this has been way to long!  I also plan to assign them their next book report.  A few have been asking and we have been trying to find books for them all ready.  Next week we will start Unit 3 and get back to spelling tests and worksheets.

Math - We are working on a Dress Rehearsal for chapter 2.  The students finished those up today.  Tomorrow I plan on going over every problem on the test to help them understand what they are to do and maybe what they did wrong.  On Monday I plan to give them the actual test.  Then we will begin Chapter 3.  This is a shorter chapter and will not take us to awful long to get through it.  There might be a place where I need to slow down to make sure they are all understanding.  This chapter will focus on Double-digit multiplication.  Yes it is harder but because they are very good at single-digit this should be a smooth transition.  I am looking forward to doing some Christmas math things closer to Christmas!

Social Studies - We are working through our chapter.  We have been learning about the Narragansett Native Americans this week.  We also worked on some map skills.  They were looking at Map Keys and deciding if they used symbols or pictures in them.  We worked on vocabulary words today.  

Spirit Day - Tomorrow is a Spirit Day!  It is the perfect day to wear sweats and pay that $1.00.  Any money tomorrow will also go towards our adopt-a-family.

Book It - Remember to have your students turn in their book it calendars.  I need a parent signature.  I will give out the awards tomorrow.  

This week has kind of been exhausting for me!  Coming back after being sick is a lot.  But the only way to do it is to dive right in.  My evenings are spent doing nothing!  I hope to have more energy next week!  The students are really hanging in there and doing such a great job maneuvering around all this COVID business.  I am super proud of them!

God Bless,

Mrs. Sickels

 Dear Parents,

     Happy Thursday!  This will be a short blog this week.  I have been at home all week.  I was just being precautionary with cold symptoms.  Come to find out I am positive for COVID.  I don't have many symptoms but losing taste and smell are the big ones and I have lost those.  My return date would be November 25th. So I will back in the classroom after Thanksgiving.  I have been teaching some classes from home which has been fun.  I feel like I am still there and a part of class if I can do that.  Today I bowed out of Language arts due to getting my test results and having to talk to public health.  This is all so very crazy!!

Language Arts - This week is the last story in Unit 2.  It is called Jose! Born to Dance.  This was a story that we enjoyed the first time but not really anytime after that.  It is about a famous dancer Jose Limon.  He is a real person and it tells his life story about what he went through to finally decide to become a dancer.  In grammar this week we are learning about pronouns.  We learned the subject and object pronouns, and also reflexive and demonstrative pronouns.  The vocabulary strategy this week was shades of meaning.  It is talking about synonyms having different shades of meaning.  If you think of the word big, you have lots of synonyms: huge, large, enormous, gigantic.  They are synonyms but we have a different picture of how big something is based on the word we use.  Students will need to be sure to practice their spelling words and vocabulary words tonight.  The end of the week test will be tomorrow.

Math -  This week they learned the regrouping strategy for multiplication which is the strategy you were all taught growing up.  Yesterday we focused on double-digit numbers times a single digit.  Today we moved up to digits in the hundreds and thousands.  We are almost finished with this chapter which is great!  The next chapter moves into double digits so we get even harder.  They are all doing very well.

Social Studies -  They have completed a test this week.  It has been  a crazy week to test and we went about it very differently but we made it through.  We will be beginning the next chapter today.  They will be putting another state into their interactive notebooks also.  Next week we are doing a Geography Bee.  We usually do this every year.  It is a national event.  The national event was cancelled due to COVID so we are holding our own at St. Malachy.  I will hold a mock geobee on Monday with them that I will be online conducting.  Then on Tuesday we will do the real thing.  It will take place in the morning.  I will run them through 7 rounds of questions.  I will get together with the other teachers 5-8 and we will compare our results and come up with a top ten.  Those top ten students will compete in the Championship round that we usually hold in December.  It is normally done differently but we are adjusting this year to follow our COVID rules. It will be fun!

This had totally been a crazy week for all of us!  I would like to hope this could all come to an end soon.  Pray for a vaccine and pray for those people who are not doing the right thing.  We have to stop the spread and we will only do it if we all just do what is right and asked of us.  Stay safe and everyone feel better!!

God Bless,

Mrs. Sickels 

Dear Parents,

     Happy Thursday!  I hope everyone is having a great week!   Boy the numbers for COVID are sure on the rise. I hope all of you are doing your part in keeping everyone safe.  I am very thankful we are still in school face-to-face.  If for any reason that changes we have made a plan.  We will shorten the hours of the school day.  The students will get the same amount of lessons and instruction but we will just be online a limited amount of time.  We are prepared if the need arises to go online.  It is getting tiring not going places and seeing people.  One of the twins has had it.  She was pretty sick actually for being young.  Definitely not asymptomatic.  The other twin was exposed, has had to quarantine, no symptoms and tested negative but still could not go back to student teaching.  I am wearing a mask in the room all the time. I take small breaks at my desk or remove it if the kids can't understand what I am trying to get across, which depends on what mask I am wearing that day.  Sometimes I even forget to take it off for a break when the kids are not in the room.  Crazy the things we just adjust to.

Language Arts -  This week we are reading a very funny story called Dear Mr. Winston.  It is about a girl who takes a snake into a library cause she wants to know what kind of a snake it is.  The book she needs is a reference book and can not be taken out of the library.  She sneaks the snake in.  The librarian is petrified of snakes. He catches her with the snake and faints and breaks out in a rash.  He taken by ambulance to hospital.  The girls is writing an apology but is sure to point out her parents are making her and she always makes it out to be the librarian's own fault.  It is fun to read.  We are working on compound and complex sentences this week in grammar.  It is kind of hard stuff. I had to teach what a dependent clause is.  The vocabulary strategy is over antonyms which they are pretty good at since we do them weekly with the vocabulary words.  Please be sure they study for their spelling post test and vocabulary packet.

Math -  We have completed half the chapter!  The kids worked on a Mid-Chapter Checkpoint.  This is a long chapter!  We are actually about 10 days ahead of where I normally am, so that is good. The kids do a very good job of listening and really trying to understand the concept.  I try to really pump them up before the lesson starts so I have their attention. I think they think that is fun.  Then we go to work.  The second half of the chapter does not seem so bad but I will teach them the standard algorithm of multiplication. Yes that is what you learned but they will not find it as easy as the strategies we are using now.  I may have to take 3 days to teach this concept, which is normal and just fine.  I hope to be testing over chapter 2 either right before Thanksgiving or right after.

Social Studies - They began learning their States and Capitals song today. I apologize now, they will drive you crazy singing it.  Especially this class because they sing all the time!!  They have a copy of the words so they can practice at home.  Again I am sorry.  You can find the song on Youtube.  It is called the States and Capital song by Macho Nacho.   We will practice it everyday now.  They will also be starting a study guide on Thursday.  I plan to check it on Friday and then the test will be Monday.  They can start practicing their vocabulary words now.  They have notecards in their expanded file they can use to study.  We will soon begin to work on Map tests.  This is where they have to take a test over the Northeast Region.  I will give them a blank map of the region and they have to label it with the states and capitals.  We will learn the geography of the U.S. a region at a time and then at the end of the year they take an end of the year test over all 50 states and capitals.

Christmas Program -  The filming for the Christmas program will be held on Monday, November 23rd.  We would like your child to come dressed in their Christmas best!  Whatever they would have worn to a normal Christmas program. Thanks!  I will remind you next week also!  Just wanted you to have time to find those Christmas dresses!

Spirit Day!-  Tomorrow the 13th is a spirit day.  The weather is just right for wearing sweatpants!  Get out those dollars and participate.

Absent - I will be absent Thursday afternoon.  I am attending a college visit with Molly.  We are visiting Iowa State!  We have had it planned then cancelled and almost cancelled this one.  We are going to get it done and over with.  It is just a half day thing.  There is not much contact and masks are required.  The main thing is the tour of campus.  Let's see I attended there, plus I toured with both the other girls separately and now I am doing it again.  Sometimes I think I could give a better tour!   I will also be absent next Wednesday all day due to Molly competing at State Dance with the Peppers.  I don't like to be gone at all but I also can't miss my lasts with my youngest!  Believe it when people say "Time Flies"!

I hope everyone stays safe and healthy!

God Bless,

Mrs. Sickels

Dear Parents,

     Happy Thursday!  I hope everyone is enjoying the weather this week. Sounds like next week will be chilly again.  We have been lucky to have what we have.  It is hard to believe we are in November all ready.  For me, this year is close to the end.  It is always that way after conferences.  Once conferences are over then it is like 3 weeks before Thanksgiving week.  After that it is only 3-4 full weeks before Christmas week hits.  It all seems to go very fast, especially when we are working so hard.  I plan to get a lot of things accomplished in these weeks.

COVID-19 Rules - FERPA stands for Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act. This is very similar to the hospital's HIPAA laws.  I wanted to make sure you knew that I shared with your students that I am not able to share with them if a student in the room or school test positive for COVID.   It is the job of Public Health to contact trace and make notifications to families who are possibly exposed.  The numbers in Union County are on the rise, there is no doubt about that.  Families in our community are being affected.  We are continuing our mitigation procedures at school. Just know we as teachers can not give out any information.  

Language Arts - This week we are reading a realistic fiction story called Me and Uncle Romie.  It is very good. I really enjoy this story. The story is based on a real character Romare Bearden who was a collage artist.  I am talking about what a collage artist is and what their art looks like.  I hope to have the students do their own collage art at school.  If they are asking for items to bring to school for it, just know it will be glued onto artwork and you won't get it back.  The kids tend to like this story too because it is a "feel good" story. In grammar we have been working on Past, Present, and future Progressive Tenses.  This deals with verbs ending  with -ing and the tense of the verb is based on the helping that is in front of it.  It has been easy stuff for the kids this week.  Our vocabulary strategy was on Idioms.  This is figurative language.  We talked about sayings like "break a leg", "feast or famine", "heart of gold", "good as gold", "head over heals", and "safe and sound".  If we took their literal meanings they would not make sense.  The kids has to rewrite sentences replacing words with these sayings.  Tomorrow is a test day.  Please remind them to study their vocabulary packet (gold) and spelling words.

Math -  We have had some great math lessons this week.  The kids have learned what the Distributive Property is and they have used it to solve problems.  We also finished the week using that same property and expanded form to solve multiplication problems.  They are working problems into the thousands using this strategy.  It is super easy when you are shown what you are doing.  I told the kids their parents would think what they were doing was hard, too long, and makes no sense, but it makes perfect sense them.  This strategy teaches them exactly what multiplication is and what you are doing to find your answer.   Using the standard algorithm is hard for some to learn because they don't understand what exactly they are doing.  They get the process and what to write but they don't know the "why" .  What we are doing now helps them understand the "why" and make them better at math.  They were excited because they all thought it was easy and made sense.  Some people use this strategy as mental math and don't even realize that is what they are doing.  Your kids are dabbling in some Algebra.  They are doing an excellent job too.

Social Studies -  We have been learning this week about Chesapeake Bay in Maryland.  They have learned what the Bay has to offer.  We have talked about Seafood restaurants in Des Moines that may have seafood from this area.  We also talked about fishing being a hobby around here but for the "watermen" in the Chesapeake Bay area it is their job.  If they don't catch anything they don't get paid.  They were amazed by this.  We also talked about how pollution plays a roll in ruining the habitat.  They had great conversations.  We will be gearing up for a test next week.  They will work on a study guide before testing.

Tomorrow is NOT a spirit day!!  

I hope everyone has a great weekend.  I will be cutting back my rose bushes and getting them ready for winter this weekend.  It is not a fun job at all.  I always get compliments on my roses in the summer though.  They are pretty low maintenance.  I water every night and keep the dead buds cut off.  I learned from a neighbor on Montgomery street who always had beautiful roses. He taught me the tricks of the trade.  

God Bless,

Mrs. Sickels

Dear Parents,

     Happy Thursday!!  Well, this is a short week for us.  There will be a few changes in our schedules.  I plan to cover those below.  I am looking forward to conferences next week.  Everyone has signed up for a time. I always like to  visit with parents about their students.  I like to share what I am seeing and hear from you on what you are seeing. I hope the kids enjoy their extra day off.  I sure wish I was getting that extra day off.  Next week will be a crazy week for sure.  Halloween and Conferences in the same week is insane.  I hope to have a fun and successful week.

Halloween- We will be celebrating Halloween on Wednesday, October 28th.  I plan to have a normal morning then spend the afternoon enjoying ourselves.  Our Homeroom Mom, Sam Baird, will be supplying snacks and drinks for the afternoon.  I plan on playing a geography game and then doing some Halloween Art.  There will be a Halloween parade so be sure to send your child's costume to school.  The parade this year will be done virtually. I am not sure on specifics but each class will go to the gym and be filmed parading around the gym in costume and they may even be interviewed about their costume choice. I will get you information about the virtual link next week.

Language Arts - This week we are reading an informational story called Coming Distractions Questioning Movies.  It is interesting the first time you read it, but not the 2nd and 3rd time you read it.  The vocabulary strategy we discussed had to do with Greek and Latin word parts.  Phon, photo, tele, graph, phono are the word parts.  I showed the kids what they mean and how it works in certain words.  I grammar we talked about the 3 verb tenses: past, present, and future, and we learned about helping verbs and past participles.  Fancy words for a helping verb and a past tense main/action verb.  This wee is a short week but I am going to use next Monday as our "Friday".  Since next week is an even shorter week I am extending this week into next.  The spelling Posttest and end of week test will happen on Monday.  Then Tuesday and Wednesday we are going to work on writing Personal Narratives.  This is just a short story or essay about themselves.  I have video clips to watch to help the kids.  A personal Narrative is a Standard that the students must work on in 4th grade.  We will follow the steps on brainstorming, prewriting, editing, revising and publishing to complete the paper.

Math -  This week in math we have focused on multiplication comparisons.  They have done a great job understanding how to write a comparison statement from a multiplication problem.  We then moved onto learning how to use those comparisons to write a word problem with pictures to help us solve.  We finished that lesson today.  If you looked at it you would go, "huh!"  It is not easy stuff.  I am super proud of them for learning it and learning it quickly.  Next week we will begin to move on in the chapter.  Lesson 3 is super easy, I will teach them 2 strategies in one day.  It is multiplying tens and hundreds.  So problems like 100 X 3  or 1,000 X 6.  Then we will learn to estimate products.

Social Studies -  The students have enjoyed putting their first 2 states into their notebooks this last week.  They love to color, cut and paste.  Plus they are learning facts about the state.  We will soon begin learning our States and Capitals song.  I will give them a sheet with the lyrics on it and we will sing along with the song.  It is a great way to memorize all the states and capitals.  The song is found on youtube, it is called States and Capitals Song by Macho Nacho.  You can practice it at home too.  I apologize now because once they learn it, they will sing it all the time.  This class is constantly singing.   The next lesson are over resources in the northeast and harvesting Chesapeake Bay.  

Conferences - Conferences are next week on Thursday.  Everyone has signed up for a time.  Please be sure to read through the rules again.  I will be cleaning thoroughly in between each conference. If you requested a virtual meeting I will just meet you on the classroom link.  It's the same thing your child goes to when getting online for school.

● Conferences will last 12 minutes - this allows for time to clean between each visit. ● 1 Parent/guardian may attend (we recommend the other parents/guardians attend via facetime or speaker phone call) 

● Teachers will take the temperature of the parent/guardian in attendance 

● Masks are required 

● To reduce exposure we ask that parents/guardians use the door nearest your child’s classroom door ● We ask that children to not attend 

● We will have the Book Fair in the gym on Thursday from 1-9:30. We ask parents to social distance and sanitize their hands before shopping.

 I hope everyone has a great weekend.  The student should enjoy their long weekend.  I am preparing for a crazy week next week.  We will survive!  I hope you do as well.  See you next week!

God Bless,

Mrs. Sickels