January 12, 2023

Dear Parents,

Happy Thursday!! We are getting back into our normal routine. I told the kid in a teacher's eyes we back to the "beginning of the end". The end of the year is 5 months away, which seems like a long time but for a teacher it is not. We really start thinking of our plans leading to the end of the year. I start picking the important things to teach to get them ready for 5th grade. Yes, sad but true. From January 1st to Spring Break , it's a long haul. We learn a lot and work really hard. The only relief we have is Catholic Schools week at the end of January beginning of February. This is a week filled with fun activities but we also still do schoolwork. I hope we get some snow during this long haul sometime. A snow day is always exciting! I said snow not ice. I only want snow.

Language Arts

This week we are reading a story called The Life and Times of the Ant. It is a nonfiction story about ants and their importance. It has some interesting facts about ants. It also talks about the dangers they face. The grammar this week is talking about Present (-ing) and Past (-ed) Participles and the spelling rules that go with adding those endings. The vocabulary Strategy is on suffixes

-able, and -ible. Tomorrow is a normal Friday so we will have a spelling post test and end of the week test. Be sure to study your spelling and vocabulary packet.

Book Report #2

Tomorrow I will be assigning the 2nd book report to 4th graders. They will have 6 weeks to work on this project. I will go through ll the instructions with them. I will show them 3 examples made by former students. They will know what they are doing. The first problem will be picking a book and reading the whole book. Then they may begin on their project. They should work on it at school. I provide the paper they need and they may ask questions as they work. Please be sure to help them come up with a good reading schedule so they have the book complete in 4 weeks to give them 2 to work on project.

Math

This week we are working hard to learn double digit multiplication. We have worked on the Area box strategy. They are doing a very goo job so far with this strategy. We will move onto partial products next. It is the same strategy just minus the visual. They will catch onto that quickly also. The lesson I taught today I was teaching February 23rd of last year. There are two reasons that we are ahead. Last year was the first year with this series, so I was new at it. This year I know more about how I want to teach the material and what I can leave out. I also need to give this class some credit too. They do a great job of listening and catching on to concepts. They are also very good at asking the necessary questions to help them move forward. So kudos to all of us in 4th grade!

Social Studies

We are reading about the animals in the southeast region. They made a list of animals in their notebooks and where they live. We will end the week talking about resources that come from the area. On Wednesday during Map Skills we made an answer key for the states in the Southeast. They will have their first map test next Wednesday the 18th. Please be sure they are studying. Again the goal is to learn each region as we go so they can do all 50 at the end of the year.

Sunday Mass, January 29

This mass is the Kickoff Mass to Catholic Schools Week. We are looking for volunteer students to participate in the Mass that day. They will be given a job to do just like Mass at school. If you would like your child to participate please fill out the form in their take home folders and return to school. We will give out the jobs next week on the 19th to students. You do not have to be Catholic to attend and participate. There will also be a Grandparents Mass on Friday, February 3rd. Your child has possibility of being a part of that mass also. Their parts will come home next week in their folders if they are participating.

Talent Show

This year we will be holding a talent show for Catholic Schools Week. It will be on Wednesday of that week. Time to be announced later. Students will need to try out to be entered in the talent show. We need to see that they are showing a talent and that ii is ready to perform and not something they make up on stage that day.

FAST Testing

I will begin FAST testing in Math and reading next week. The goal for Winter is 133 words per minute. We are doing some practicing this week for it. I hope to see that all students have improved! We do an awful lot of reading in here. I will send home scores when we have them all gathered.

I hope everyone had a great break! I know I did. The fun is ending this weekend as I will be taking Molly back to ISU for her Spring semester. She loves coming to the room to interact with the kids. Plus it is good experience for her to become a teacher. I will be sad once again to see her go but always love to see her accomplishments. So cheers to a new year for all of us.

God Bless,

Mrs. Sickels