February 27,2025

Dear Parents,

Happy Thursday!! It is the last Thursday of the month! I feel like February went quickly. I heard some kids discussing that January and February were the longest months. I agree with January but not February. It flew by. It is hard to believe conferences are next week and Spring break to follow. I am ready for break and I really feel like the students need a break from each other also.

Language Arts

We finished up Module 4 Week 2 yesterday. Today we began Module 4 week 3. They will be reading a nonfiction story about St. Augustine, Florida. It is very interesting, at least to me it is. This is definitely a place I would love to visit. Lots of history in this town. Our spelling list this week will be working on adding -ed and -ing to words. We will work on the spelling rules used to do that in decoding. Grammar will cover singular and plural possessive nouns. We will focus on the use of the apostrophe. The new strategy we are working with is inferences and we will review Author's purpose. we will most likely not finish this story until after Spring Break.

Book Reports

The Character Sketch Book Report is due Monday, March 17th. This is the first Monday after Spring Break. They have had 7 weeks to pick a book, read it and work on project. I will be sure that all students leave with the correct paper over Spring Break to finish the report.

Math

This week we finished up learning how to multiply using the standard algorithm. They took a quiz on Wednesday and we corrected those today. Tomorrow we are going to start perimeter and area. It is a benchmark that I need to teach and since we just finished multiplication and have only a few days before break. I decided to fill it with this. We only need 3-4 days to learn how to find the perimeter and area of a rectangle. When we return from Spring Break we will get busy with division. That also means we will add division to our basic fact testing on Wednesdays.

Social Studies

We started lesson 2 today in our chapter. This one covers the Badlands of South Dakota. It is a great vacation spot. So much to do and see. I talked to them about it being a great vacation spot and not far from here. The next lesson will cover farming in the Midwest. We will talk about the kinds of crops grown in the western Midwest States vs. other states. We will also discuss why that is. We will be very close to getting ready to test right when we return from Spring Break.

Book It Calendars

February Book It Calendars are due by Tuesday, March 4th. I hope to have enough certificates to go out to the ones who meet the goal. Pizza Ranch has discontinued the certificates. I only have what I have. If I don't have enough for all of them I will not give them out. I hate that we have lost support from Pizza Ranch it is very disappointing. If anyone would have any ideas for something new to offer we are open to hear them. We love to promote reading since all three of us in this wing are avid readers. We want to get them reading some how.

Auction/Gala

The St. Malachy Auction Gala is this Saturday at the Legacy. The doors open at 5:00. The 4th grade contributed a rosary made by the students. They hand-painted each bead. Each student got to do 2 beads. Father came to the room and blessed the rosary for them. It was super cool.

Lent

Ash Wednesday is March 5th. The students will receive ashes that day. On Tuesday, March 4 it is Fat Tuesday. They 4th grade always celebrates Fat Tuesday with donuts. We will make and deliver donuts to the entire school that morning. It is a tradition I have been doing for at least 24 - 25 years. The students will be making their Lenten Promises this week.

Dress Code

March is here and Shorts will be allowed. There is a note going home today about shorts. The shorts have to be long enough. If the code is broken many times it may result in the student losing the privilege to wear shorts. I also say just because we can does not mean we should. On cold days they should not be wearing shorts because we will still go outside. I almost wish there was a temperature rule with it. Like 60 and above may wear shorts. We also can not change into them at school if it gets warm.

I am looking forward to meeting with all of you next week. Please be sure you have signed up for a time to meet. I am flying to Texas to visit my cousin for Spring Break this year. She lives in Blanco, which right in between Austin and San Antonio. I hope to do a lot of relaxing, reading and visiting bookstores. That is the perfect vacation.

God Bless,

Mrs. Sickels