April 7, 2022

Dear Parents,

Happy Thursday! I hope everyone's week is going well. I am sick of the weather! I want some sunshine and warmth. I hope we get it soon. I am not a fan of clouds and wind for sure. It is so hard to decide how to dress in the mornings for school. Our room is typically very cold in the mornings until they request me to turn the heat up. It then takes a while to feel it warm up. They may want to dress in layers.

Language Arts

We have not returned to a story in our books yet. I plan to start that tomorrow. We will treat tomorrow like a Monday. Next week due to no school on Friday and Thursday being so busy with the Sedar Meal and Cross Walk I will need to get a jump on things. We have spent the time testing this week and writing a couple things. They finished their opinion essays on Monday and we printed them and shared them with the class. Tuesday I talked to them about a Dollars For Scholars Essay. It is an essay on "What Education Means to Them". One person in our class will win a $50.00 Savings Bond for a winning essay. The students write a paper on this topic. I will have 3 teachers in the building read them and choose their top three favorites. The final 3 with the most votes will be sent on to the Dollars For Scholars Committee and they will be judged there. In May at the last Mass the students will find out who the winners are. They are excited about this! All 17 will be done by the end of today and ready for judging.

Math

We have started division! Some are excited, some are not. We started working on Estimating Quotients yesterday and will most likely spend the rest of the week on that. The first two lessons are not bad then things pick up a little and tend to get a little harder. So far I think they are getting what we are doing. Again, it is a hard topic to teach and have them truly understand.

Social Studies

We will finish up lesson 3 today. This lesson has been on the Great Plains and the Central Plains. The students understand which region is ours. We also talked about why one area grows corn and soybeans while another grows more wheat and barley. We also talked about what the corn belt is and visiting the Corn Palace in Mitchell, South Dakota. We will be starting a review either on Friday or Monday for Chapter 8. They will definitely be testing next week.

Sedar Meal

The Sedar Meal is our way of recreating the last supper and we do it on Holy Thursday. The entire school will be in the gym at the same time and we share in Matzah Bread just like the last supper. There is a script we follow that guides us through step-by-step. It is a fun day with all celebrating in the gym. After the celebration we will eat lunch consisting of sandwiches, a vegetable, and fruit.

Cross Walk

After the Sedar Meal we will meet outside to begin our Cross Walk. This will begin at 12:30. We pilgrimage over to the church, reading the Stations of the Cross as we go. It is like we are taking the walk that Jesus did. We walk through downtown stopping at certain points and reading a station. When we arrive at the church we finish the stations. I pray it is a nice day for walk. There is a permission form in today's folder for you to fill out for this event. Please return ASAP. The students will be walking with their Lenten Angels so that we have more "big" people taking care of the little people. Parents are welcome to come join us in our walk to the church.

Thursday, April 14th

This is the day of the Sedar Meal and Cross Walk. On this day we ask that each student come dressed in a white shirt. At the church when the Stations of the Cross are complete we will line the kids up in the main aisle and pews to form a cross and take a photo from the balcony. This photo hangs in the office behind the secretary's desk. I think there is always an option for you to order one also.

Friday, April 15th Good Friday

Just a reminder that there will be no school on Friday, the 15th. The teachers will be working on a service project that day. We will be deep cleaning the church before Easter services. Everything will get wiped down and be nice and fresh.

Food Shelf

This is the last week that we are taking donations for the Food Shelf. We have sent a couple flyers home to the students to show what they need. The items will be delivered to the Food Shelf next Monday evening.

Spirit Day

Yes!! Tomorrow is a Spirit Day. High Temps look to be 43 so what a great day to wear sweatpants!!! Pay your $1.00 and help support people in need!

St. Malachy PTO

We would like to Thank the PTO for the snacks that they provided during testing. It is much appreciated by the students. They always looked forward to their snack when testing was complete.

I hope everyone has a great end to their week. We will be happy to have all of our testing complete! I hope the students have done well. They have done a really good job of taking their time on them for sure. Some found it more frustrating than others. I hope they have some positive results for their hard work. Enjoy your weekend whatever you have planned! Mine is to catch up on some housework and reading. If the sun would shine I plan to enjoy the outside too.

God Bless,

Mrs. Sickels