February 17, 2023

Dear Parents,

Happy Friday!!! WOW! Now that was a snow storm! It was so pretty coming down but not so much when you have to snow blow about 8 inches of it. If you saw Facebook then you saw my picture. So everything is a day off now. It looks like we have chance of snow next week also. Finally a little bit of a true winter. I am totally okay with it. Honestly it is about time.

Language Arts

Well today we are doing Thursday's work, so we will have our "Friday" on Tuesday of next week. That seems crazy I know but that is what we have to work with. This week we have read the story Herules' Quest. It is a myth about Hercules and Zeus and living on Mount Olympus. It is different from the movie but the kids enjoy the story. In grammar they were learning about Prepositions and prepositional phrases. This is a hard topic to teach but once you get the hang of them you can pick them out easily. The vocabulary strategy this week was on adages and proverbs which are short little says including life lessons. Examples would be: Honesty is the best policy, Look before you leap, don't cry over spilt milk, and practice makes perfect. Most of the kids recognized them all or could figure out a meaning. I hoped to show the movie Hercules just for fun, I usuallly do. This class was already asking if they could watch it. I think since our week is so messed up with a snow day this week and then President's Day on Monday I will wait and show it next week. So Tuesday we will take the spelling post test and end of the week test. As for Wednesday thorugh Friday next week we will do a writing project and watch the movie. It works out just right.

Math

We have begun our topic of division. They have learned how to divide by 10's and 100's. They are also learnig to estimate quotients by using a multiplication table. At first this seems hard but once they get the hang of it, they think it is pretty easy. Most of the homework is done at school, Again just a reminder, I only teach them partial quotients. I will not be teaching them how to do the standard algorithm.( unless Ms. Surma and I put our heads together and decide it would be beneficial if I did) The next topic I would go to is fractions which is where Mrs. Simmons wants me to get. So I am right on target.

Social Studies

We will be finishing up this chapter today and then starting a study guide on Tuesday. They will complete it for Thursday, we will check it and have a test on Friday of next week. Perfect way to end the Trimester. We will then move onto the Midwest. The kids will love that since it is where we liver. They will enjoy this Unit. Those who need to retake the Southeast Map Test will do so on Wednesday the 22nd.

Silent Auction

Well we have painted most of the blocks with a few that need to do their's yet. Thank you for all the wonderful donations that came in on Wednesday, it was awesome. I plan to use some of the extra donations to purchase clorox wipes for the room. We only have one container left. The moms that helped Wednesday thought that was a great idea because I was gonig to ask for wipes in my blog. Now I don't have to yet.

Monday, February 20th

NO SCHOOL! This is President's Day and the teachers will be having an inservice that day. So kids get to stay home but not teachers! We will still be working hard.

Book Reports

The students have a book report due next Friday the 24th. They have all been working on it here at school. All students were done reading their books in plenty of time and have been working hard on their reports. I am confident all will be done by Friday.

I hope everyone enjoyed their snow day. Many businesses shut down yesterday. It is definitely Friday! It was great to hear that some of the kids missed me yesterday. They came in this morning telling me how much they missed me. This made my day a little brighter. Well, have a great weekend since it is extra long. Molly ended up coming home Wednesday night and had two online classes Thursday. She is in the classroom today. The kids enjoy it when she is here too. Don't forget the auction is March 4th!

God Bless,

Mrs. Sickels