October 19, 2023

Dear Parents,

Happy Thursday! Again, I feel like Thursdays come quickly. Everything is becoming so routine. We are finally getting into a good routine. I am adjusting (finally) to a new schedule of having our special in the afternoon, and also to the new reading series we are using. I am finding I really like the series and what it has to offer, but it has just taken some time to get used to all the changes. I do have to spend some time Thursday or Friday after school to plan and if I don't feel confident with it, I come in on Sunday and make sure all is planned out well. I am getting better and spending less time on Sunday in the building. It takes away from my reading time when I am here.

Language Arts

This week we are reading the story Rent Party Jazz. It is a very good story based on African American life. We worked on "Plot" with this story. It was very easy to pick out all the pieces in plot with this story. All the students did a very good job on finding all the parts. It has been very helpful for us to be putting together a Composition Notebook of skills and strategies. When ever we are learning a new skill or strategy we cut and paste it into their notebook. They can pull this notebook out at anytime to use it to help them. They are able to pull it out for a test if necessary.

In grammar this week we talked about the 3 different verb tenses (Past, present, and future).

We also talked about helping verbs and past participles (past tense verb ending in -ed). they reviewed verbs from last week too. In decoding and spelling this week they worked with the short /oo/ and the long /oo/ sounds. We talked about spelling and did a word sort, plus we did a lot of looking at words and deciding long or short. I added in some extra worksheets to help them practice their spelling words more. The new program we have this year is actually just a newer version of what we used to have just with a lot of extra stuff added in it. They did not carry over any worksheets for spelling. Well, lucky me, I did not throw out the old worksheet book so I am using them for this class also. they are the same lists of words. It works and I feel like we are doing more with their actual spelling words. It should help them learn the words.

Tomorrow is normal Friday. We will take a spelling Post test, reread the story together and disucss, and they will take the selection test (5 questions) and the end of week test over this story. I hope our scores improve because I feel like we did a lot with this story this week.

Math

We have finished up talking about addition this week and moved on to subtraction. Subtraction tends to be harder for them due to regrouping. They sometimes forget to regroup and that causes errors. We have been working on this most of the week. Honestly just getting them to slow down and take their time is an issue for most in this room. They want to rush and just get done so they don't get a late slip but they are doing poorly on the work. We need to work on finding a good balance. This topic is coming to an end. We will be doing a review next week and taking the test also.

Social Studies

This week we have begun talking about the Northeast Region. We talked about the Niagara River, how it was formed and why it is so important. We learned about the different Mountain Ranges found in the Northeast. We also talked about how Maine has rocky cliffs for a shoreline and New Jersey has sandy beaches for relaxing and swimming in the Ocean. We took our first Map test over the region also this week. I had 7 perfect papers and the rest not so good. Some I know didn't evern try to study. They will take another Map test over this regions in about 2-3 weeks. This is something they need to practice at home to be sure they are learning it. At the end of the year they will need to be able to label all 50 states. Learning them a region at a time is so much easier than trying to cram all 50 in at once. Please have your student set aside some time to work on this. You can find some things online that can help.

Conferences

Conference week is coming. We have conferences scheduled on Monday night, Tuesday night, Wednesday night and then Thursday morning until noon. Please be sure you get signed up for a time that works for you. I can't wait to visit with all of you. Friday November 3rd there will be no school due to having conferences all week. The teachers definitely need a day of rest!

Halloween

Halloween will be celebrated on the 31st. The students are to being their costumes in a bag to school. The morning will be normal with classes as scheduled. The afternoon will be full of Halloween Activities. We have an Annual Halloween Parade at school around 2:30. You are welcome to come to the gym and watch the parade. As soon as the parade is over you may come to the room and pick up your child to go home with you. We ask that you go to the room and get them. We will have a snack in the room that day also. Trick or treating will take place that night in Creston. If you want to find me I will be at 1111 Hillcrest Dr. giving out candy. This is my mom's house. My neighborhood never has any kids so I go there where there are tons of kids and help hand out candy. I hope to see you there.

Spirit Day

Friday the 20th is a Spirit Day! You can pay $1.00 to wear sweats or a hat. Looks like we are going to have a perfect day Friday with a high in lower 70's so maybe a hat is the option. Remember our money goes to a good cause.

I hope everyone has a fun time enjoying the weekend. I have Molly coming home tonight and staying until Sunday. I get her an extra day. I am super excited. She is pumped to be home. She has not been home for more than one night all semester. I also have my neighbor and friend's auction this weekend. They are blocking off the street in front of my house to hold the auction in part of my yard because they have a very small space. It will be an early Saturday morning for me for sure. If you are looking for some antiques this is a sale to visit. They have some pretty old pieces of furniture also.

God Bless,

Mrs. Sickels