December 7, 2023

Dear Parents,

Happy Thursday!! Here we are again. It is Thursday of the first full week of December. This week has gone quite well. The excitement of Christmas has not totally set in with the students yet. Thank goodness. I do realize it is coming. I am getting excited for my family to be here and enjoy their company. Our first Christmas is the 16th. This one brings family as far away as Scottsdale, Arizona. We try to pack in a lot of family time over the 2 days of the weekend.

Language Arts

This week we read the story Perseus and the Fall of Medusa. It is a Greek myth written as a play. We focused on the scenes and what the main idea was in each one. We talked a lot about Elements of a Drama. We looked at the cast of characters and the setting. We also paid attention to easily confused words as we read. The grammar lesson was on these words ( their, they're, there, to, too, two, it's, its, your and you're). In decoding we talked about making nouns plural. We discussed all the rules involved in regular and irregular plurals. We even had a mini lesson at the concert while the big kids sang the Hippopotamus song. Our spelling list was a hard one this week. It was over Homophones. These are words that sound the same but are spelled differently, (ex. steel. steal, aloud, allowed, manor, manner, lesson, lessen, principle and principal.) The kids really struggled with it. We did quite a bit with the words on Tuesday before the test on Wednesday but it did not help them very much. Today and tomorrow we are sharing book reports (finally). I thought I scheduled them to be due on a Unit test week and I was off by like 3 weeks. My bad!! We sure a re enjoying listening to them present. They will bring them home next week after the 1st graders have a change to vote on their favorite. I will give prizes to the top 3. This is just for fun but also to show them their projects have to look fun for young non readers to want to buy their cereal.

Math

We have begun learning Partial Product for multiplication. This is not a strategy you learned in school and it is not new math. I have been teaching this strategy for like 22 of my 26 years. It is the best strategy to truly understand multiplication and how it works. We struggled on the first homework assignment. They acted like they knew what they were doing until I turned them loose. Some only paid attention about half the time as I did several examples and gave explanations on the board. Today we went over all the problems. They have papers to correct. Tomorrow we will move on and work with Partial Products some more and have a worksheet to complete for homework.

Social Studies

We just finished up a lesson which leads us to a study guide. They began work on the study guide today. It is due on Monday. We will check it on Monday then test on Tuesday. We took the Map Test of the Northeast with capitals yesterday. They did pretty good. Some did not study at all and were putting states that are not a part of the Northeast on their, I think only because they knew the capital. We are not done testing over the Northeast. So if they did not get that section down they will need to keep working on it for the end of the year test. This is where you have to know all 50 states and capitals. So remember there will be a test next Tuesday.

Mass

Tomorrow is our Mass. I apologize that I made a typo last week and said it was on Thursday. It is Friday. We will celebrate the Feast of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Please make sure your child practices their part if they have one. All are welcome to join us if you can! Please remember to dress in Mass attire tomorrow. Also tomorrow is a noisy change collection for our Adopt-a-family.

Coin Wars

Coin Wars will begin next week. I think students will come explain what they are raising money for. The kids can then bring in change to add to the bucket. This year the money is going to Sleep in Heavenly Peace which is the group that makes beds for kdis who do not have a proper bed to sleep in. This sometimes becomes quite a competition also. The winning room gets a pizza party, cookie party or Lollipop party. Who doesn't want a party?

Nursing Homes

We are still collecting items to give to the people in the Nursing Homes. We have 200 people this year and the tables are looking pretty bare down there. Please send what little items you can to help us make someone's Christmas a little brighter.

Advent Angels

We begin this tomorrow! The kids are excited. We will be making Christmas ornaments for the tree in the Lobby.

I am looking forward to my weekend. I am getting together with all three of my kids in Adel at Josie's house to do some Christmas baking. We did it a lot when they lived at home and I had friends over. Now they want to carry on the tradition. That makes a momma happy for sure. We are making Crinkle Cookies, Christmas Crack, and Fudge. I am not sure what the others are bringing to make. I hope everyone has a great weekend!

God Bless,

Mrs. Sickels