November 7,2024

Dear Parents,

Happy Thursday! Thank you all for coming to conferences. I enjoyed talking to each of you. I am glad that you all got a chance to see ALL the things we are doing in school on a daily basis. Maybe some days there is not a ton of homework but we have definitely covered a lot in class. I told the kids what I had showed you and how some of you were overwhelmed by the things they were learning.

I also told the kids the break was perfect for me but not so much for them. They have been very talkative since being back in the classroom. I spent Friday in Des Moines with my granddaughter, then I just rested and relaxed over the weekend. It was wonderful. We have been back to the grindstone this week. We will work hard from now until Thanksgiving.

Language Arts

We finished the story Blind Ambition today by taking a spelling post test and taking the end of the story test. I am hoping for some good scores. You will find the scores from Module 2 week 1 in the folder this week. Tomorrow we will take a spelling pretest over the next story. The title of the next story is The Game of Silence. It is historical fiction based on the Ojibwe tribe. We will talk about this tribe when we talk about the Midwest Region in Social studies. I let them know that so they know this tribe is from our region of the U.S. It is an interesting story about being in kid in the tribe and a game that they play to be quiet during tribal meetings. The grammar for the next story will focus on Verbs: Action Verbs, main verbs and helping verbs, and Linking Verbs. The spelling list will focus on words with vowel sounds /u/ (short U), /yoo/ and /oo/ long u sounds. After this next story we will gear up to take a Module test over everything we have learned.

Math

This week we have begun preparing for Biztown. Right now we have been working on Teller calculations. We are filling out a worksheet and counting money in their drawers. I have talked about my time working in the bank and how I had to do this daily. I also talked about when I managed the swimming pool and had to count the drawer at the end of the day and turn in the deposit. They are finishing this fun because they know the job this math is related to. We have troubles figuring out the totals because they are not used to using a calculator so they are making mistakes. They don't want to admit that they are not hitting all the correct buttons. They want to blame the calculator. This makes me laugh. We will work on this until the end of the week then next week we will learn to write checks, and fill out deposit slips.

Social Studies

Biztown

I have sent information home today in the folder for this Field trip which will take place Monday, November 18th. We will need to leave by 7:30 AM. This is early but we have to be there by 8:45 for our parents to be trained. I know this puts trolley people in a bind but we are working in helping to figure that out. We may have a parent from that area driving so we may be able to put all our trolley kids in that car and they can leave from there and meet us. I will keep you posted on whether we can make that work. We are attending with another school, St. Joe's in Des Moines. We actually have the bigger group, if you can believe that. We plan on being back to Creston around 2:30. If you are a driver/helper. You can take your child at this time. We will not be doing anything until they are dismissed to go home. Please fill out the permission form and return it along with the $10.50 it costs to attend. Thank you.

Spirit Day

Friday, November 8th is a Spirit Day. Kids can pay $1.00 to wear sweats. Weather is perfect for sweats. I wish I could wear them. Thank you to those who donated some extra to this cause.

All School Mass

Next Wednesday is an All School Mass. There are a few 4th grader that have parts. I have included them in today's folder. Please be sure to practice the parts at home this week.

This weekend I plan to spend Saturday with my granddaughter again, so my daughter can decorate for Christmas. She heads back to work soon so she wants to have it done. I am very happy to help. I take any time I can get snuggle. She is already growing and changing so quickly. The kids love it when I show them pictures. I always call it the "Many Faces of Maddyn". I am one who gets her riled up and then I just start snapping pictures and usually end up with the perfect picture when I am done. I hope you all have a great weekend and enjoy the weather. It is perfect Fall weather minus the rain.

God Bless,

Mrs. Sickels