December 5, 2024

Dear Parents,

Happy Thursday!! What a great concert last night. My favorite song was "No School Tomorrow" and the song the middle schoolers sang that was about the reindeer being on the roof. Those were fun ones for sure. The best part for me is when the kids are all on stage and sang "He is the Gift" what a beautiful song with so much meaning. Of course Silent Night is also a "get you in the feels" one too. We only have 11 days of school left before break. It will be a busy one. As I try to keep the schedule the same, Advent Angels will play a role and our "Respect" activities will also. (see further in the blog)

Language Arts

This week we began a new story. The story is called Rent Jazz Party. It is set in a different time in New Orleans. I feel like it happens during the Depression. Jobs were hard to come by and people didn't make much money. It is about friends and neighbors helping each other. It was a culturally different story for all of us. The strategies we are talking about with this story are Synthesize (new), plot, theme, and Author's craft, which they have seen before. We will focus on synthesizing since it is new and plot because it is important. The spelling and decoding skill is over short oo and long oo. We struggled a bit with this today when we practiced it in class. Grammar this story is working with verb tenses. Choosing whether a verb is in present tense, past tense, or future tense. I felt like it was a fun story that the kids enjoyed. This one they won't mind going over 3 times. We are looking at the spelling post test to be aroud next Thursday or Friday.

Math

We have learned a new strategy this week. It is called the Area Model strategy. It is just like Partial Product but we have a visual to go along with it. They seem to catch on pretty well, but we will see when I get the papers back to check. The standard algorithm is coming soon. They will learn how to do it the way you learned. I want to be sure they master these first strategies before we go to that one. We are still plugging away at the basic facts. Many scores went down right before Thanksgiving. I tried to point that out yesterday hoping it would boost them to do better.

Social Studies

We have been working on a study guide this week. We checked it today and they will have a test over Chapter 5 tomorrow. They also took the Map test this week over the States and Capitals of the Northeast. The majority of students did very well. Some still need some work. Remember at the end of the year there will be a test over the whole 50 states and capitals. Learning them one region at a time is very helpful but if the kids are not mastering the region then they will struggle for sure. We move on to the Southeast Region after this test. So no more Northeast states.

Respect Guidance

We had our first class meeting on respect this week. I felt like it was a great lesson and the kids really shared out. I am hoping this helps the class with how to treat each other. Tomorrow I plan to do another lesson. It will put the kids in different situations and they have to decide whether it is hurting someone or helping. Once again I hope they begin to understand how their actions affect others. Remember their are 12 lessons that I will be covering with the kids. I plan to do some before Christmas and then when we return to Christmas break. This will help them to not forget it all over their break.

Spirit Day

Tomorrow December 6th is a Spirit Day. The students can pay $1.00 to wear sweats. It is a perfect day to do that. On the fun Christmas Calendar of events that was sent home with students, it says tomorrow it ribbon or bow day. So you can wear a ribbon or bow with your sweats.

Nursing Homes

Don't forget we are also collecting items for people in the nursing homes. Just little gifts like lotions, slippers, handkerchiefs or puzzle books. The noisy change collection this week and next week will also go towards this service project. Last day for items is December 12th, so we can get the bags put together and delivered by Christmas.

This is such a busy time of year. Is your shopping done? I did a lot of mine on Cyber Monday. I have had boxes arriving daily. Remember this weekend is Merry Marketplace. I will not be here to attend. I am babysitting the grand baby Friday night and may stay with friends on Saturday to watch my Cyclones. I hope you are all finding the joy in the season so far.

God Bless,

Mrs. Sickels