April 26, 2023

Happy Thursday, I mean Wednesday!! I am back! Only 3 more blogs from me. Whew! I bet you are glad! Just kidding. I am trying to get this out today (Wednesday) instead of waiting until Friday. We have a crazy end to our week this week. Field trip tomorrow and then Earth Day clean up on Friday. I will be exhausted by Friday after school. I actually have nothing planned this weekend which is nice. I can do what I want. I may need a trip to Hobby Lobby for something for our last door decoration. Ms. Surma got a new fun thing on Amazon but I looked and couldn't find anything different.

Language Arts

This week we are reading a story called Owen and Mzee. This is a story about a baby hippopotamus and a very old turtle. They become good friends. The hippo is rescued after a tsunami that has killed all the other hippos in his pod. He is taken to a rescue where he is put with Mzee a Aldabra tortoise. They learn to be the best of friends. It talks about this being a strange friendship from two totally different animals. This is a true story you can google their names and find it. Grammar this week has been on rules for using commas. They leanred commas with Direct Speech and Names, Commas in compound sentences, items in a series, separating city and state, and separating day from year in a date. These are all common comma rules the students should be using in their writing. The vocabulary stratetgy this week was on suffixes -ed and -ly. They will need to study their spelling words and vocabulary words Thursday night for their normal tests on Friday.

Math

They finished their topic 5 assessments this week. They made corrections yesterday. They are bringing home these tests today to have you sign them and then return them to me. We have taken out Topic 5 and 6 from their books. We are going to work on a few lessons in Topic 7 dealing with factors and multiples then we will move into topic 8 to work with fractions. We will be focusing on Fractions the rest of the year.

Social Studies

The students are working on a study guide right now. This is due Friday since we will not be in school to have class tomorrow. We will check the study guide on Friday and take a test on Monday! This will be the last Social Studies test for the year. I told them to try hard to do the best they have ever done on a test since it is the last.

Field Trip

Tomorrow is our Field Trip. I think they are excited about it. The students are able to bring electronic devices on the bus. They must be able to use earbuds or turn the volume off while on the bus. They will not be allowed to communicate with others on the bus or at home from their devices. We treat the day like a school day. These items will need to stay on the bus while we are at the park and in the Civic Center. We are not responsible for lost or stolen items.

We are planning on going to Walker Johnson Park to have lunch and play in the park a bit before we go to the Civic Center. Our show is at noon. We will leave Des Moines right after the show and be back at school by 2:45. Remember to send a sack lunch with your child! I try to pack some extra because I have had to share my lunch before due to lunches being forgotten. Please be sure their drink has a screw type lid so we can put them back on tightly if they do not finish their drink. Please wear St. Malachy Gear tomorrow. We want to be proud of the school we are representing.

Earth Day

Friday is our Earth Day clean up. We postponed it from last Friday. The students need to bring a rake and gloves that day. Please be sure to have your family name on the rake so it is clear which one belongs to what kid. We will be getting dirty so please take adavantage and wear your sweats that day. It is to be 65 with a 50% chance of rain. Please pray that the rain holds off so we can do our clean up.

Spirit Day

This Friday is a Spirit day. Pay a $1.00 to wear sweats! It's the perfect day to do that.

FAST Testing

I have started the Spring FAST testing. They have completed the online reading portiions of this test. Next week I will begin testing with each student where they read to me for 1 minute. The goal for Spring is to read 147 words per minute. We will do the Math part of this testing next Tuesday during Technology time. Most of them have shown great improvement so far with the online testing.

School Supply Order

The school supply order is out there ready for you to place your order. I just want you to know, Ms. Surma and I did a lot of talking about the items in the order. Some of them do not last the year so we have removed them from the order. Items left on this list are great! At the beginning of next school year we will send an email to let you know things that will need to be purchased for class. We feel this will be a better use of your money.

I think I have included everything you should know for the rest of this week! Whew! I feel like this time of year my blogs contain more information! The end is near. Can you believe it? I can't! I am ready for summer for sure but I will miss these kids a lot. They may need to visit me. I will be on my porch reading. That is where you will find me.

God Bless,

Mrs. Sickels