February 8, 2024

Dear Parents,

Happy Thursday! Here we are again. It is Thursday! Tomorrow is my favorite day of the week! I always love Fridays. We usually get to wear jeans, I get to teach but when I go home I know I don't have to go to work the next day so it's a different more relaxed feeling to my evening. I sometimes clean up some things from my week and then I just sit and read or watch Netflix. When I go to bed it is great knowing I don't have to set an alarm. Though I will say the weekend seems to go by too quickly. I hope everyone has something fun or relaxing planned for the weekend. Our weather has been pretty nice this week. It always makes me nervous, since it is this nice what does that mean in coming. I guess we will find out.

Language Arts

We have finished the story on Dancing Around the World. We are now starting the next story which is a bunch of poems. We are talking about different kinds of poems and really looking at how they are written. Today we discussed elements of poetry and tried our best to pick out the elements as we read the poems. Tomorrow we will take a spelling pretest. We spent 90 minutes on language arts this morning. There was a lot to talk about.

Math

We have been working diligently on topic 4. I feel like we have gotten off to a great start. So far we have focused on estimating double digits and then using area box to find products from double digit factors. We have stalled out with the area box. Some are still not seeing what we are doing. We may practice a couple more days before moving on. Today they did not have Math because Language Arts went long. That's okay. It needed to happen.

Social Studies

We are talking about the Cherokee Native American Tribe. They have learned that this tribe is the only tribe that has written language. Sequoyah is the one who created it and they call it a syllabary because there are 85 symbols for the 85 syllables in the Cherokee language. It is not base on letters that make up words. Today they were given a sequence worksheet to complete. I showed them a strategy using post-it notes to help them put events in order. I gave them one post it note for each statement. They wrote the statement or a summary of the statement on the post-it and them found it in the book and placed the post-it on the page of the book. When they have done all 8 they can see the order of the post -ts. This should help them do very well on the worksheet. We did the first 4 together.

Spirit Day

Tomorrow Friday, February 9 is a spirit day. They can pay $1.00 to wear sweats. This has also been titled "red" day. You can wear your favorite red for you favorite Super Bowl team, or you can just wear red for your Valentine party.

Valentine's Day

We will celebrate Valentine's Day tomorrow. They need to bring their valentines tomorrow in their bags. Thank you to Erin Higgins for volunteering to bring in the drink/treat. Our party will not happen until the end of the day at 2:20. The students will pass our their valentines and enjoy their snack. I do NOT allow them to eat any candy out of their bags, just the treat. You get to decide how they eat the rest. Happy Valentine's Day.

Auction Basket

This year they have asked us to go back to doing a silent auction item and a basket. We are doing the baskets in grade bands. So 3-5 will be creating a basket. They have a theme of "community" this year and asked that our baskets centered around that theme. Nicky, Amy, and I are all readers so we have decided on a book basket and we plan to promote the new Book Store "The Latest Edition". So we recommend donating cash, gift cards from The Latest Edition, items that go along with reading, or books. We would like all donations by February 23rd. The silent auction will be decided tomorrow and I will let you know what we are doing with that next week.

Guest Author March 5

March is National Reading Month. On Tuesday, March 5th, children's author Elizabeth Gilbert Bedia will be visiting St. Malachy School. Families have the opportunity to purchase books she has written prior to the visit.  In this week's take home folder is an order form. Books can be purchased using cash or check. Order forms are due back to school by Tuesday, February 20th.

I am excited about the weekend. I will be seeing Molly on Friday because she is home for a dentist appointment. On Saturday I am going to Des Moines to spend it with Jami and Josie. I can't wait to see Jami. Her belly has grown quite a bit since the last time I saw her. I can't wait. I know some people don't want to age themselves by becoming a grandma but I am very ready and so excited!! July cannot come fast enough. Have a great weekend whatever you do.

God Bless,

Mrs. Sickels