November 18, 2021

Dear Parents,

Happy Thursday! I hope this finds all of you well and ready for Thanksgiving. I told you this part of the year goes quickly! Maybe you don't think so but I am shocked it's here. My report cards were due today! Thanksgiving is seriously next week! I look forward to having all my kids and their significant others under one roof! Nothing makes me happier.

I will be gone on Friday. Molly is having an MRI/arthroscope (spelling) on her shoulder. Hopefully this will tell us if she will be having surgery in December or not. If we have planned it correctly, I will only miss two days for her surgery. But we all know the best laid plans don't ever work, so pray it goes our way.

Language Arts

This week we are reading a story about the famous dancer Jose Limon. It is a very quick biography of his life before and after he became a dancer. He started his training later in life than most. You can look him up on internet. I recommend previewing anything you might look up. Sometimes bodies are not covered well. He was born early 1900's and died in 1972. I hope this was of interest to our dancers in the room. We are working on pronouns this week. They learned Subject, Object, Reflexive, and Demonstrative pronouns. They also learned what an antecedent is. That is what the pronoun is replacing or represents. The vocab strategy was about Shades of Meaning in words. So looking at the word big and all it's synonyms: large, huge, enormous, giant, gigantic, ginormous, humongous, and massive. They all give you a different picture of what "big" looks like. We also talked about positive words vs. negative words. It was a fun discussion. Remember tomorrow is test day. Be sure they study their vocab in the yellow packet and spelling words.

Also this is week 10 so that means next week we would have a Unit test. Two days in not enough time to complete that test effectively. I will save it for the week after Thanksgiving break. Next week we will have a writing activity to work on. I hope to write opinion papers. On Tuesday we will have a "Cuddle up and Read" day. They can bring in pillows and blankets to lay down on the floor and just spend time reading a good book. So, they must ALL have a chapter book that they are reading. This class is really hard to get to read at school. Some like the time to read. Others do not and will do anything they can to get out of it. They are not getting out of it on this day. I am not sure when I will get the opportunity to talk to them about it. It may be Monday. I am okay if you tell your student about it, I just won't give full explanation to them until Monday.

Math

We started Topic 3 yesterday in Math. This topic is on Multiplication. There are 8 lessons in this chapter. My goal was to get it done by Christmas, but I was reminded tonight at our meeting December has a lot of activities! These activities define us as a Catholic School so we have to give up some instructional time. I try to balance that out between subjects, so I am guessing I won't have the chapter completed by then. These 8 lessons are very full of content. I may need to take some extra time on a few days. Yesterday and today was the easiest lesson we will have this chapter. I highly recommend working on multiplication flash cards if you have them. For some kids it is super hard for them to understand what we are doing only because they don't have their facts down. I handed out some multiplication tables to some kids to help them.

Social Studies

Well, we have taken a couple Map Tests on the Northeast Region. I am trying to stress to the kids how important it is to study and learn this region. At the end of the year they will take a test over all 50 states and capitals. I am trying to help them the easiest way I know how. Learning all 50 a small group at a time is meant to make that last one easy. Please help your child to get those learned. They will take one more map test before the end of this chapter. It will be after Thanksgiving. Maybe use some time over break to work on it. We are working on the second lesson in this chapter. It introduces a lot of important historical events that take place in the Northeast Region. They are big important topics but we are only skimming the surface about them. One is American Revolution. In 5th grade they will learn all about that in depth. The other is about the writing of the Declaration and Constitution. The best one is how many places have acted as out nation's capital. Ask your student the 3 places and how long each one represented the capital. They should be able to tell you New York City was the first for 1 year (1789-1790). The 2nd was Philadelphia for 10 years ( 1790-1800). It has now been Washington, D.C. ever since. Over 200 years.

Permission Form

In today's folder you will see a permission form. Please fill out and return to school by Monday. Payton Burg a former student and Mrs. Burg's daughter is working with the 5th grade on an assignment for her college class. She is going to filming. She will be doing some filming at St. Malachy with the 5th grade BUT she needs to do it in the lunchroom and at recess. We are just asking permission in case your child is int he background. If you truly don't want your child in it, we will make sure they are not sitting any where near the filming. Again this class will just be in the background. It is not a guarantee that each child will be seen in background but Payton wanted to cover her bases. I applaud her,very professional. Email me if you have an issue. The video will be able to be seen on Youtube. Again 4th graders are not the focus.

Spirit Day

Tomorrow is a Spirit Day! They may pay $1.00 to wear Sweats! This is great weather to wear them. I hope everyone participates.

Dates Closed for Thanksgiving:

Wednesday, November 24

Thursday, November 25

Friday, November 26

Monday, November 29 Professional Development

I do not plan on putting out a blog next week! It is a short week and I won't have much to talk about. If there is anything important that comes up I will create one. Otherwise I try to pop things out on Facebook. I hope all of you have a very very relaxing and joy filled Thanksgiving. I plan to enjoy all my time with my kids. I get Molly starting today! That makes my heart sing. She may be in next week to observe a little and work with students. Perfect place to get some experience! She loves our school so much she hopes to come home and teach with Mom.

God Bless,

Mrs. Sickels