May 11, 2023

Dear Parents,

Happy Thursday!! Only one more blog after today! I am still in disbelief!! This year seemed to go fast! They have learned so much and come a long ways. I am very proud of them. It will be hard to end the year. I might be a tad sad. I will be gone tomorrow. I will be gong to Iowa State to get Molly. She has completed her Sophomore year! So exciting yet hard to believe. Mrs. Brown will be here in the classroom for the day. The students seem half excited about it. They seem to enjoy her.

Language Arts

We have begun reading Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. They are loving it. We are still doing skills we have learned all year and yet they are enjoying it. I told them if this was out of the regular textbook they would be complaining. They informed me it was because this book was a fun book. Sometimes I think teaching them out of "real" books they would learn more, but we live in the information age and we have to focus on teaching them skills to read informational text so they can search the internet and understand what they are getting. I hope I have truly instilled in some of them what it means to read for their own enjoyment and love to read a "fun" book. We have read chapters 1-4. Today we will read chapter 5 which is on the Golden Ticket. We will discuss the principles of supply and demand. They will also get to create a Golden Ticket for the 5th graders to vote on. The winners will get a chocolate bar. It is really fun how you can get them to the work that goes with this book and they just dig in and get going. There are fun things in the packet where they have to draw and use their imagination. They also still have deadlines they need to meet and the opportunity to get late slips if the work is not done. I am so mean!

Book Reports

Book Reports are due tomorrow. I am not here. We will not share them until next week, but they will receive a late slip if they are not turned in tomorrow. I am excited to see them. Some of the books they read were pretty interesting.

Math

We have learned about factors and now this week multiples. They like multiples better than factors for sure. They say they are easier. Today we will begin to look at fractions. Our focus will be equivalent fractions. Next week we will continue this focus. We will be working on fractions until the end of the year. Some are all ready not liking fractions.

Social Studies

We are learning about the Southwest States. We took the Map quiz yesterday and everyone got a perfect paper. There were only 4 states so I expected it!! Next week they will take the Map Test with states and Capitals. That may or may not make it a little more challenging. We learned about the Navajo living in Arizona. We talked about how Kit Carson was sent by the President to settle conflicts in the Southwest with the Native Americans. We are not sure we agree with how he went about things. He ruined their crops, their homes and anything they owned to leave them with nothing. They were then forced to walk to Fort Canby which was a bug distance. Many died on the way. They are one of the largest tribes still around today. Their reservation land is in Arizona, Utah, and New Mexico. It is made up of 3.5 million acres of land making it the largest reservation. We are now talking about the Spanish influence in the Southwest. Spanish missions were very important. Some missions were the beginning of many large cities. We focused on San Antonio, Texas, and the Alamo.

I hope everyone enjoys their weekend. Sounds like we have rain chances started today for the rest of the weekend. That does not make for a good weekend. Especially when Market on Maple is to be this weekend and I know I have students participating with booths. Good luck to all. I will see you there.

God Bless,

Mrs. Sickels