January 27, 2022

Dear Parents,

Happy Thursday!!! I call this week the calm before the storm! This is the week before Catholic Schools Week. Again it is a week of activities, fun, but also work! We will thoroughly enjoy all the fun things but I plan to still work hard when we are not having fun. It is a super week to celebrate being in a Catholic School. It is a week to celebrate all the hard work we have done in January and break up the Winter a little bit. I am praying with all the illness going around that we all get to participate in all the events. Please watch the Facebook page and your email for updates and photos of all the things we will be doing!

Language Arts

This week they are reading a story called Ecology for Kids. This is a story explaining what Ecology is, how important it is, and what they can do as kids to help it. This is another story that the kids didn't mind hearing and talking about once but to hear it 2 more times in the week. NO! I do not expect scores to be soaring through the roof on this story. We have had more informational texts in this unit. They really want to focus on different ways that informational text can be presented and help students work on comprehending these articles. The students need this skill because of how they use the internet and may read articles from the internet if they google a topic. This week our grammar has been on Irregular Past Tense Verbs, the "be" verb( am, is, are, was and were), and helping verbs. The vocabulary strategy this week was on context clues. It focused on multiple meaning words. These are words that have more than one meaning. You need to use the context of the sentence to know which definition would be correct. Tomorrow is our normal End of the week test and spelling post test. Please remind your student to study the yellow packet!!

Math

We have begun Topic 4 on double-digit multiplication. We worked on simple multiplication of tens and hundreds. We have also refreshed their memory on how to use Area box to model their work. We will also work on estimation. Since this is a new resource for me to teach from I plan math on a day-to-day basis. After I teach math for the day, I evaluate what we did and where we need to go and plan the next days lesson. It is hard to send work home when you are planning a trip. I will send things home but I will email or text you what we did that day. I do not want anyone to just do everything, I prefer they just keep up with where we are. Part of it is, I need to remember to send you an email with what we did. I will try to remember. I have 2-3 out of school next week for trips. Please be patient with me, I will definitely be patient with your child.

Social Studies

We are finishing up a study guide today and will take a tomorrow. We will correct the test on Monday and do some Map work on the Southeast states next week. They will be looking at a map test by the end of the week. I feel like I am repeating myself about the importance of learning the regions. So be sure they are practicing! We are singing the song and they are doing a great job singing it loud and proud. It make me smile.

Catholic Schools Week Monday, January 31st - Friday, February 4th

Monday Teacher Luncheon Students bring Sack Lunch Dress in St. Malachy gear

milk provided

Tuesday Station Rotation 5 different Activities Dress up as a Grown Up

Wed. Community Appreciation Making Cards Dress like the first letter of name

Thursday YMCA Day Students bring sack lunch Wear sweats bring Swimsuit/towel

No milk/bring drink

Friday Grandparents Day Mass with Grandparents Dress in Sunday Best

The blue papers I sent home about Grandparents mass would have explained that it is different this year. The students are NOT being bused to the church from the school. The Grandparent or special guest is to pick the student up when we dismiss school at 1:00 and take the student over to the church for Mass at 1:30. The blue form was to help us know what kids had people to pick them and what students did not and also who I will expect to see. If I have not received one from you, please return it ASAP. Thank you.

Spirit Day

Tomorrow is a Spirit Day! Perfect day to pay $1.00 to wear sweats!!!!

I hope you are all ready for cold weather or a snowstorm because Catholic Schools Week commonly brings on one of them. Usually there is a day off during that week. Not sure if it is forecast but we will see. I hope all of you have a great weekend! We are off to pick up Josie's wedding dress on Sunday. She picked it out and ordered it last July. We get to have a fitting and bring it home on Sunday. Super exciting! July will be here before we know it.

God Bless,

Mrs. Sickels