November 11, 2021

Dear Parents,

Happy Thursday! You may not think it is a happy one. It is the night before the book report is due. I am sure there is some scrambling going on. This class has been a hard one to motivate to read books on their own. They love for me to read to them but if I try to give the time to read on their own they do not take advantage of it. Now this does not include everyone because there is a handful that enjoy reading and use the time to just read. So email any questions you have about the book report. I know it says on the orange page that you need to ask me for more stuff, but I gave it all out at the beginning. Everything they need was paper clipped to the orange sheet. Please be sure the lavender sheet is brought back with them also. It is the rubric. They will use this one to self reflect themselves. We will not get the opportunity to share our book reports next week because we will be busy in language arts but we will get to the week of Thanksgiving. Everything they need to share will be right on the box do it will be just fine.

Language Arts

This week we are reading another great story. It is called Dear Mr. Winston. It is a very humorous story about a girl who acquires a snake, she has not idea what kind it is. She goes to library to research it. She is not allowed to bring the book outside the library since it is a reference book, so she takes the snake in the library in a box. Well, this leads to something bad happening which causes the story to take place. The story is in the form of a letter, an apology letter to be exact. Ask your child about it. It really is a fun read. You would enjoy it also. We are working this week in grammar on Compound and complex sentences. They are learning what they are and what makes them. It is a lot of big words for sure. Here are a few: conjunctions, subordinating conjunctions,, and dependent clauses. I am not sure why we introduce such large words to them at this age. I guess the more they hear it the better they will be at it as they get older. We also talked about antonyms for the vocabulary strategy. We use this every week in our yellow packets so they should be experts at this. Tomorrow is an end of the week test day. Please be sure to study your vocabulary and spelling words.

Math

This week we are finishing up a Math practice test and I hope to be giving them the real test on Friday. I plan to go over the practice test step by step today. The test will be just like this but changing the numbers given. This one is not that hard so I feel like if they all take the time to look over the practice test they will be very successful. I hope to begin topic 3 next week which is covering multiplication. I hope to cover this chapter and be done with it before Christmas. That means we will have to work pretty hard to accomplish that goal. I have faith we can do it.

Social Studies

This week we took a map test that did not go very well because most forgot to study or chose not to study. They are going to do another one on Friday. They know what they need to do! They need to study their maps. I have given them multiple copies of a map of the Northeast that they can use to practice and I have a stack in the back of the room they can grab from at any time to be sure they are studying. It is very important that they master the northeast now because we will then move on to the Southeast and we will leave this region behind. This is the best way to teach the kids how to label all 50. Mastering a region at a time works. We are beginning the next chapter which is talking about the Narragansett Native Americans. We will learn all we can about their life and how they lived as a group.

National Kindness Day

Friday is National Kindness Day. To honor that we are wanting anyone and everyone to represent Mr. Rogers by wearing a cardigan. He specifically wore a read zip up cardigan. We are just asking you to wear any cardigan you might have. We also might take some time to share some kindness in the room. I feel it is needed! Imagine what the world would be like if everyone was super kind.

Well I hope you enjoyed last weekend because this weekend does not look to be as pleasant. At least the temperature does not. But I guess "Tis the season"! I have a sweatshirt with that saying on it created by a former student. I guess I should wear it! We only have 7 days left of school before Thanksgiving Break. I am looking forward to it. My sister-in-law from AZ will be home. I look forward to having all 3 of my kids under the same roof which has not happened since my birthday (Aug 29). I hope everyone is looking forward to the holiday. I told you it would go fast!

God Bless,

Mrs. Sickels