February 2, 2023 Ground Hog Day

Dear Parents,

Happy Thursday! We are doing it! We are surviving Catholic Schools Week!! Well, maybe I should say "I" am surviving Catholic Schools Week! It is a fun week but "WOW' is it a lot of work. We have had a successful week. We have still been working hard when we are not having fun. I think they are annoyed that we are still working. I think the kids would like this week to do no work at all. I am always very proud to celebrate our great school. I can't wait to be in the packed church tomorrow afternoon to truly celebrate.

Language Arts

This week we are back to reading a story in our textbooks. We have read the story Riding Freedom this week. It is a whole book but we only read a portion of it. It is about Charlotte Parkhurst who disguised herself as a boy to do a man's job. She was a stagecoach driver. She was known as "One-eyed Charley" because she lost sight in one of her eyes in an accident. She had to prove herself after her accident. She proved she could still drive. I have the book Riding Freedom in my classroom. The grammar lesson this week was on adjectives. I tried to show them how important this part of speech is by reading a sentence full of adjectives and then reading it without the adjectives. Adjectives is what brings life to writing. They were amazed with the difference! Which makes it fun for me. The vocabulary strategy was about figurative language; simile, metaphor and idiom. Tomorrow we will still have a spelling post test and end of the week test. We will just do all of it in the morning.

Math

This week we have been working on the standard algorithm of double-digit times double-digit multiplication. The book does not have me teach it but we felt we needed to do that in 4th grade. I plan to be finished with it this week and start division or topci 5 next week. I do not teach the standard algorithm to division I will only cover partial quotient. They will learn the other in 5th grade.

Social Studies

This week we have read and learned about explorers who explored the Southeast Region. We were introduced to the settlements of St. Augustine, Roanoke Island, and Jamestown. WE talked about some Presidents from the SE, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and Andrew Jackson. We finished the week talking about Pioneers Daniel Boone and Davy Crocket. I shared some photos from my trip the Alamo last Spring Break. Next week we will skim the surface of some events from the Civil War. The main reasons why it took place and how the country had to rebuild itself. This is such a huge topic to cover but again we only skim the surface!

Book It Calendars

I will accept calendars for the reward until Friday. After that I will count their minutes but no prize will be awarded. Everyone so far has done a great job reading in January.

Whew! The week is almost over! One more day. It has been memorable for sure. I loved the talent show! I loved seeing everyone put themselves out there and get up in front of school to show us what they could do. Hero day was great to see who the kids chose to dress like. I also enjoy Friday because I get to see everyone dressed up in their very best. Sounds like we might have some special visitors from the Diocese down here to celebrate.

I hope everyone has a great weekend. I am going to see Hairspray with my daughter Josie in Ames at CY Stephens auditorium. We will meet Molly for dinner before the show. I am looking forward to it.

God Bless,

Mrs. Sickels