May 18, 2023

Dear Parents,

Happy Thursday! This will be my last blog! I can't believe we are here! Only 7 days left including today. We have so much I have planned to do and complete. I know you cannot also believe 4th grade is almost over and then you will have a 5th grader! Honestly the teachers are all ready talking about next year and the kids that we will be getting. We have a meeting this afternoon about math and reading interventions where this happens. I am not done with these kids yet! I may struggle at the end of this year. It has been a great year, and it passed by too quickly. Though I will admit I am ready for summer. Bitter sweet time of year for sure.

Language Arts

We are working our way through Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. We are ready for Chapter 19 today. It is about Everlasting Gobstoppers. I always buy Gobstoppers to give them while I read this chapter to them. I went to Wal-Mart to get them and they were not there. I was so disappointed! But I can get them on Amazon, only in bulk! I don't want bulk and I don't want to wait until next week! BUMMER. We will be through Chapter 24 by the end of this week. I plan to have the book completed on Wednesday, so I can show the movie on Thursday. All their homework has been in their packets so there is not much work coming home in today's folder. Next week their will be more plus their packets. The students have created Golden Tickets and the 5th grade has voted on a winner. They were looking at neatness, spelling, and just the overall look of the ticket. Londyn was our winner. I have planned something a little special for them on the day we watch the movie.

Math

We have been working Equivalent on Fractions this week. We are using multiplication and division to do this. They also can use factors and multiples to help them. Some of them are finding this a bit challenging. They should be experts on this by the time we are done. Next week we will work on comparing fractions. They will find this very challenging, but I am going to allow them to use manipulatives.

Social Studies

We are nearing the end. They will take a States and Capitals test over the West on Monday. On Wednesday they will take the BIG one! All 50 states and capitals. They will get a list of all the states and a list of all the capitals to help them with spelling. For some this test will take them quite a while. For others it may be easy. Please be sure your student is studying all the regions now. We are reading about the West in the textbook. We talked about the climate. We are talking about areas in the West and landforms. That will end our year.

Spring Concert

Wednesday, May 24th is our Spring Concert. We will be going to the High School in the afternoon for our rehearsal. You will find the forms in their folders today. Please return them ASAP. The concert starts at 6:00 PM, the students are asked to be there by 5:40. The dress code is Mass attire. Thank you.

Thursday, May 25th

We have several things we are going to do on this day. The first thing is watch Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. We will do this from 9:30 to 11:30. The movie is about 100 minutes. I will give them a bathroom break during the movie. If for some reason we are not done will finish in the afternoon. The next things is we are planning to practice escaping out the window in my room. This is something that might need to happen in the event of a fire or of course the dreaded active shooter. We have decided this is a necessary thing to do. I will use both examples but I will focus on "fire" as our main reason. The last thing we will do is empty our desks and lockers. Please be sure to send an extra bag with your student so they can carry all their things home with them.

Friday, May 26th

This is the last day of school! We get out of school 3 hours early! So 12:10. Because it is so early, there will not be lunch served that day. You can celebrate by having lunch together! The morning will be spent doing fun activities. First we start with the Silly String event by the PTO. The kids who raised a certain amount from Lap-a-thon get to silly string the cooks. Then we will go right into field day. Field day is to start at 9:00. This will depend on how long the Silly String event takes. Please know you are welcome to join us this day for all activities.

Thank you!

I need to give a huge "THANK YOU" to all of you who showered me with gifts during teacher appreciation week! I loved everything! I was definitely spoiled. I have also received a couple end of the year gifts. Thank you so much for those also. I so appreciate your thoughtfulness.

Spirit Day

Friday, May 19 is a Spirit Day! Pay $1.00 to wear sweats or a hat. Remember this money is used to help others. We appreciate all the dollars you have spent this year. I know people are always appreciative of all the things we do for them with this fund.

I loved this year! Thank you for sharing your children with me. If I have not mentioned something, send me an email and I will address whatever your question might be. I hope you all have a fabulous summer. I hope you enjoy vacations and lots of book reading (haha) That's what I will be doing! I also have another daughter getting married this summer! I will be glad when weddings are done for a while. Molly can wait a couple year!! Again thank you for the great year and great kids!

God Bless,

Mrs. Sickels