August 29, 2024

Dear Parents,

Happy Thursday! This is our first official blog. Remember they will come out every Thursday! I will send them via an email and place it on the Facebook page. It will have all the information about our classroom. It will have what we are doing and what might be coming up. Please be sure to read it each week so you are aware of what is going on.

Language Arts

This week they read the story Flora and Ulysses by Kate DiCamillo. I really enjoy this author but not so sure I enjoy this selection. We talked about the genre and what her purpose was for writing this book. We will talk about Context Clues and how they help you to know words you are unfamiliar with. For grammar we reviewed the subject and predicate of sentences. I feel like I have covered a ton of stuff with them. We will spend 7-8 days on this story. We will take a spelling post test either next Thursday or Friday. I will keep you posted. The way spelling works is this: We will take a pretest on day one of a story. If your child misses more than half the words, I automatically shorten the list for those students. This the way it works 4th and 5th grades. Some lists tend to be harder than others so maybe your child gets a short list one week and a not the next. We covered 10 vocabulary words today. They were big words and hard! Usually I have them write them out on note cards or in their notebooks. I do not have the do that with this list. There are a lot of hard words. This week it is like 20 pages long. The next one is not as long. I plan to only cover the things "essential" to our standards.

Math

We started our chapter today. We focused on the place value chart up through the millions. We talked about what a period is in math and focused on each period having a ones, tens and hundreds. Tomorrow we will focus on expanded form. Then next week we will cover number names, which is writing the number in word form. Honestly, we got started on this subject faster than I did last year.

Social Studies

We have been reading about the Regions of the United States this week. We focused on land forms. We started lesson 1 today. After lesson one we skip on to chapter 2. Again I skip around in the first 3 chapters to only cover what I feel is essential for the students based on our standards.

Assignment Books

I am not sure when the assignment books that were ordered will be here. I am having the students who have one use it, but the others we are just patiently waiting. We will all work together on using it when they all have them.

Car Line

Things seem to be moving pretty well in car line so far. We are just having trouble with a few people not getting in line. (The line forms down Oak Street to the South of School, and files up in order) We are also having trouble with cars getting out of line and leaving after your children are in the car. Please remain in line until the whole line moves. Safety is also our number one priority so make sure you know all the rules when picking up.

Welcome Back Picnic

There will be a Welcome Back Picnic in the Courtyard at school on Wednesday, September 4 from 5-7. You will find more information on what to bring in your child's take home folder. This is a great time to say "Hello" and get to know some of our new families. Most of the teachers will be present that night if you missed meeting them at the Open House.

Monday, September 1, 2024

This is Labor Day so NO SCHOOL!!! HOORAY

Well, they have had a taste of my teaching style the last couple of days. I think some of them liked the way things are going. I could tell by their faces.

I hope all of you have a great long weekend. It's Labor Day Weekend so no school on Monday. I am heading to Colorado right after school tomorrow. I am going with my daughter Josie. We are going to Estes Park. That place is my heaven on earth. I am not a beach person at all. I love the solitude of the mountains.

God Bless,

Mrs. Sickels