October 24, 2024

Dear Parents,

Happy Thursday! It is almost the end of the month! I told you once we get to conferences everything goes very quickly for a teacher. Thanksgiving break is in like 3 weeks, then Christmas in 4 weeks. It is crazy how fast it goes. I know to kids and most likely parents it takes forever. How about the weather? I am liking the cooler days, so much I am not looking forward to Monday being super warm. I have put away the capri pants and am ready for warm sweaters.

Language Arts

We finished up a story yesterday and we will be starting a new one tomorrow. We did take our spelling pretest today then the kids helped me organize and fill their binders for conferences. Tomorrow we will read a story called Blind Ambition. This story is not very long so we will only spend like 5 days on it. It is about a young man that is blind and how he does normal things even though he can not see. It is really interesting. This week's spelling list is on Homophones. This is words that sound the same but are spelling different due to their meaning. Examples are: heard, herd, wait, weight, feet, feat, vain, vane, vein, and miner and minor. Those are just naming a few. In grammar this story we will work on 3 days of Capitalization rules. This should definitely be review but these kids sure don't capitalize things when they are writing.

Math

We just finished up Topic 2 today in Math. They took the test yesterday and corrected them today. I should be sending them home to be signed tomorrow. We will begin Topic 3 tomorrow. This one is covering Multiplication. We will also add multiplication basic facts to our fact testing on Wednesday of next week. It will be a blue half sheet. I begin with completing them in 5 minutes. I will be curious to see how they do.

Social Studies

We have begun chapter 4. We are talking about the Northeast Region. We have started by looking at Niagara Falls and the resources of the Northeast. We discussed grapes and cranberries. We watched some short vidoe clips on how to harvest cranberries form a cranberry bog. We learned about making maple syrup from sap from sugar maple trees. This product comes primarily from Vermont. We also learned about New Hampshire being the Granite State and having granite quarries. They took their first Map test this week and honestly did quite well. You will find those in their folders tonight.

Lunch A la Carte

Grades 3-5 have made a new rule when it comes to a la carte. Students may purchase it for themselves ($0.75). They may purchase for themselves and a friend ($1.50) or they may purchase for the entire class of 4th graders which would be $17.25. We are no longer going to allow someone to bring $10.00 then pick and choose 12 kids to share it with. It is not fair to the other 11 kids in the room who would be left out. This has not happened in 4th grade but it has happened before. We have decided to put a rule to it so we are not dealing with hurt feelings and so much money for a la carte.

Halloween Activities and Parade

Next Wednesday will be out Halloween day. In the afternoon we will have activities in the Middle school for the students. The parade will be in the gym at 2:30. Students may bring their costumes with them to school to change into before the parade. Students may also leave with parents after the parade. I just ask that you come to the room to pick them up after I have taken them all back.

Biz Town

In today's folder you will find an information sheet on our field trip to Biz Town on November 18th. We are going to need parents to drive and to help in businesses that day. This will be on a first come first serve basis. We have the biggest group of kids going this year so we have a lot of businesses to run. We go with 5th grade so we have a total of 40 students attending. It is a wonderful day that the kids really enjoy. I feel like some great life skills are learned on this trip. a permission form will come home later. Just to let you know if you want to attend there will be paperwork to fill out and a training to do the day of the event.

I look forward to meeting with you next week for conferences. It will be a long week for me working 7:45 to 7:00 at night for 2 nights and then until 5 on one night. I hope my voice holds out. With this weather my voice tends to be a bit scratchy. I am praying it is not trying to go away. I have a class I have to take Monday Morning from 8:00 to 11:30. Mrs. Simmons will be in my room teaching the kids while I am gone. I have a busy weekend planned . Molly will be down Thursday and Friday and them Saturday I am spending with family in Iowa City. It will be a great weekend to do it.

God Bless,

Mrs. Sickels