October 5, 2023

Dear Parents,

Happy Thursday! Fall is here! I am welcoming of the cooler weather. Sweatpants and sweatshirt season is my favorite. I do enjoy some pumpkin spice items also. I have been working on yardwork. I am getting ready for cold weather. I have been trimming back rose bushes and cleaning out around the house and shed. I hate yard work. It is the worst. My neighbor used to mow and weed eat and help me with it, but I lost him in August of this year. Now I am on my own. I do think of him and smile as I am doing it. I am also the person who loves winter, so bring on the cold. I told the kids today when my twins were born the first measurable snow happened on October 26th that year (1997). I remember because it is my nephew's birthday. It knocked out power to the north side of town. I had to load up and go to my parent's on the south side where there was heat. So it was bad enough to take out electricity for most of the day. We of course took pictures outside in their first snowstorm. I told them I didn't think it would snow that early this year.

Language Arts

This week they are reading a story called The Game of Silence. This story is based off of the Ojibwe Tribe in northern Minnesota. (We will learn about this tribe in Social Studies when we study the Midwest) It was a way they kept their children quiet during important meetings in the birch bark houses. These houses were normally one room houses. They had no where to send the children during a meeting especially when raining outside. In this story it is raining. The parents that attend the meeting bring gifts that are put in a pile for the children to see. If they remain quiet during the meeting they get to pick items from the pile. If they were not quiet there was no prize.

This weeks grammar talking about verbs. We picked out action verbs, linking verbs and then main verbs and helping verbs. They learned the "be" verb (am, is, are, was, were). They learned that this can be a liking verb or a helping verb. spelling was based on the short u and the long u sounds. Long u can sound like /yoo/ or /oo/. We sorted our spelling words on what kind of vowel sound and practiced them with partners. We also talked about the suffixes -y and -ly. We talked about many words that end in these suffixes. Tomorrow will be their spelling post test and end of week test. This test was a little better for most students last week. I am trying to help them to be better at taking these tests. We have started a "cheat" book. This book has all the strategies or skills for reading and comprehension. They are able to use this book when testing. So if they are being asked what text structure is being used, they can go to the book and look up text structure to see what it is talking about. They have been cutting and pasting this week and loving every minute of it!

Math

This week they took their first Math Assessment. They have made corrections and have the test in their folders for you to sign. Just sign it near the top. They need to return the test tomorrow or it will be a late slip. We began topic 2 with a what you know page. This next topic should be an easy one for the students and one we won't spend much time on. It should all be review. We will be working with addition and subtraction with larger numbers. They should know how to add and subtract already. We are just going to apply that to larger numbers now.

We also started working on basic facts. Basic facts are truly the basis of Math. If the students can not do their facts and fluently they will always struggle. We want them to become masters at the facts. On Friday's we will take basic math fact tests. Right now they are taking addition and subtraction. When we begin topic 3 I will add in Multiplication. Around Christmas I will add in division. In addition I start them doing 100 problems in 3 minutes. When they pass at 3 minutes then I will bump them down to 2 minutes. When they pass at 2 minutes they are done. This will be the way it works for all of them. Subtraction starts at 4 minutes and works down to 2. Multiplication and division start at 5 minutes. As long as they are giving me their best effort every time they take a test, I am fine. We should see improvement. I have graphs for them to fill out on Tuesdays so they will see their improvment or lack there of. The quicker they can get at rattling off their facts then they can focus on bigger things. So many concepts we teach are slowed down because of their lack of knowing their facts. If you have flash cards at home that would be a great help to them. The more they practice the better they will be.

Social Studies

4th graders took a test this week over chapter 2. They made corrections on those tests today. I will send them home tomorrow to be signed and returned on Monday. I keep these tests and put them in their binders. The student will get their binder at the end of the year to keep. It will have all tests and/or test results from this year in it. We Will begin talking about the Northeast Region on Friday. I will introduce those 11 states and have them make a list in their notebook. The Northeast is divided into the New England states and the Mid-Atlantic states. We will separate them so they can get used to the difference. Next week we will work on the map of the Northeast during Map skills and they will prepare for a map test which will be the next Wednesday. They will be expected to label a map with the states on it. At the end of the year they have to label all 50 so learning them a region at a time is the best way to get to know all 50.

Spirit Day

Friday the 6th is a Spirit Day. You can pay $1.00 ti wear sweats or a hat. With the high only going to be 52, it would be sweats for me! I wish I could pay to wear them. Remember the money goes to a great cause.

Reading and Math Scores

The FAST test scores are in your child's folder today. If you have any questions you can pop in to see me in the morning or after school. Conferences are coming up at the end of the month and I will talk about them then also. Interventions will begin next week for sure. I have given some students a pink form to fill out and return. Please do that ASAP. Thank you.

No School

Friday, October 13th is a professional development day for teachers so there will be no school that day. Please

mark your calendars.

Well, again welcome to Fall. We will be whining tomorrow. I have a wedding to attend this weekend. It is a former student and one of my besties' sons. I can't wait to celebrate. I will also get to spend some time with my own children at the wedding. I look forward to that. I hope all of you enjoy the cooler temps. Bring out those sweatshirts!! Our room at school is very hard to keep comfortable. We freeze a lot of the time. I will shut the air off tonight so that we are maybe okay tomorrow. It might be an "open the window day".

God Bless,

Mrs. Sickels