April 17, 2025

Dear Parents,

Happy Thursday!! This week has gone quickly for me. Not sure why but it sure feels like it flew by. Holy Week is a busy week and definitely was for 4th grade. It was our Mass on Wednesday. The class did a great job. I am super proud of all of them. Today was the Sedar Meal and Cross Walk. It is one of my favorite things we do. Having he entire school making a pilgrimage to the church and celebrating the stations as we go, is amazing. It can also be nerve wracking. Making sure we get everyone across the streets safely. The kids seem to enjoy it. The 4th graders all have a younger Lenten Angel, so they were in charge of keeping them moving safely. They did a great job. Some of them had some challenges and handled them perfectly.

Language Arts

We started a new story today called "Let's Dance Around the World". It is a story about many different dances and where they came from. Today while we read the story I showed them on the screen what all the dances looked like. It was fun to read about them and then watch exactly what they look like. We learned about tap dancing, hip-hop and break-dancing, Tarantella, Japanese folk dance, the English Morris dance, Los Viejitos, Limbo, and the Brazilian Capoeira. They definitely learned some new ones. They found some funny. I just explained that it is a different culture and so it is different. I said they may find our dances funny. The spelling of this story is about words ending in the long /e/ sound. In grammar we will talk about present and past participles and also participle phrases. Decoding with focus on the spelling strategy of the final long /e/ sound, just like spelling words. I will keep you posted on when the post test will be.

Math

We have been learning partial quotient this week. Some are catching on and some need a little help We will work on this until I know everyone is comfortable with it. We will see how long that takes. It is not a strategy that learned so if they need help they need to ask for it at school. I am her by 7:45 in the morning and I am happy to keep anyone after school and work with them.

Social Studies

We have begun talking about the Southwest Region. We are talking about lesson one and the Grand Canyon. We are discussing erosion and the agents of erosion. We will talk about the people who live in the canyon and visiting the Grand Canyon. They will take their only map test next Wednesday over the state AND Capitals of this regions because there are only 4 states.

Dollars for Scholars Essay

The students are writing an essay about "What Education Means to Me" for a contest for the Dollars for Scholars group. One person in this class will win $50. They have already written the essays we did that Monday and Tuesday. Teachers in the building will vote on the essays and narrow it down to the top 3. Then those 3 will go on to the DFS group and a winner will be chosen. I will announce the winner at the last Mass of the school year or 2nd to last. Good luck to all students.

Spirit day

Tomorrow is Good Friday and also a Spirit Day for St. Malachy. They may pay $1.00 to wear sweats or a hat.

Clean-Up day

Monday, April 21st

We do NOT have school on Monday. The teachers have professional development. We use one of our days as a "service" day where we do service work for the community. We will be working at the Food Shelf in the morning and then enjoying lunch together as a staff. It will be a nice day after Easter.

I hope all of you have a very Blessed Easter. I am having Easter at my house so it will be a busy one for me. I am looking forward to it. I pray for safe travels for those who might go somewhere.

God Bless,

Mrs. Sickels