September 14, 2024

Dear Parents,

Happy Thursday!! I feel like Thursdays come rather quickly. We are working hard on making sure our work is complete each day and being organized. I do ask that you do not take anything out of the homework folder and throw it away. The kids may need it. I am not sure any of you are doing that but some of you have been accussed of it all ready. If you think there are things in there that do not need ask your student, or have them talk to me about items in their folders. I will help them sort them out. I just don't want things to accidentally get thrown away because that gets your child a late slip. We need to make them more responsible for things. That is part of the goal for 4th grade. The students learn to be responsible for their work and getting it done.

I am out this afternoon for a dr. appointment in Des Moines. There will be substitute in the room after recess. I have plans all mapped out for the day. It should flow almost like I was here.

Language Arts

I am so excited! This week I actually made a plan and I have stuck to those plans and we are being successful. I am proud of it being Week 3 and I may have figured it out or I am closer to figuring it out.

We read a story this week called Kitoto the Mighty. The students expressed that they enjoyed this story and it was their favorite out of the 3 we have read. I had to agree with them. Kitoto is a mouse and he wants protection from Hawks. He is trying to find the most powerful thing in the world to help him. It circles back to mice being very powerful. It was a fun story. He changed his attitude towards himself throughout the story, which was fun to pay attention to We have worked on Retelling stories, literary elements, and Author's craft. All of these a hard to grasp the idea. They are very "deep" things and I feel like I could spend days discussing and instead they give me one very quick lesson. The hard part may be that I am very passionate about reading so I want to give them so much when I teach about these things. They are just getting the minimum. Well, I did elaborate and share what I am thinking in my own adult reading. I just share what they are learning and how it relates and how I apply it at home all the time.

In grammar this week we have been working on quotations. This topic is hard for 4th graders. I try each year to have them really pay attention to how a quotation is written and how their are a couple different kinds. I taught them how to punctuate Direct Quotations and Split Quotations. These are the 2 they will be tested over. I will try to review a bit before they test.

Our spelling words this week were over short i and long i. This list tends to be one students do pretty well on. I had some perfect papers on the pretest. I wanted to let you know I do not send lists of spelling words home. They have it in their notebooks that they can bring home and there is a place in their assignment books they can write their spelling list. The only people I give a list to is the ones whose lists I am shortening. IF a students missses more than half of the words, I will shorten their list to 10 words. It is not fair to ask them to learn that many words in a week. Some students are just much better spellers than others and I want to help those who spelling is not easy. If you want a list at home make sure you have a discussion with your student about that. The students will need to have their notebooks at school everyday so if they bring it home it needs to come back.

Math We are still working on place value this week. Some of the students are struggling with some of the concepts. I slowed down today to review what we are learning and have them practice more with expanded and standard form and Number Names. We need to understand these topics before I move on. This is the basis of all math. If we are struggling here we will struggle through the rest for sure. Today we will compare numbers which requires us to look a place value positions to make decisions.

Social Studies

This week we have been talking about different explorers who traveled the New Land in search of riches. We have discussed what Culture means and what is involved when we talk about culture. We talked a little about immigrants. I told them all of them had an ancestor that came over to the US on a boat, so they were immigrants. I told them it was most likely their Great, great, great, great, great grandparents. We also talked about the Nation's motto "E Pluribus Unum", which is Latin for "out of many, one. I talked about it meaning out of many states we are one nation or out of many peoples we are one

PTO Meeting/ Social

Our first PTO Meeting is scheduled for next Wednesday, the 20th. They are trying to make the meetings more of a social gathering then a meeting. It is a great way to learn what the PTO provides the school and meet new people. They really are very beneficial and it is dwindling. If we lose our PTO the students will lose a lot. I also see that if you attend your student will get a FREE Sweatpants pass!! To me that is worth gold! I think this first one is at The Wulf farm on Cramwell road. Inquire if you need an address. I am not scheduled to attend but I might because of the snacks!

Homecoming

Next Friday is Homecoming! It is a 3 hour early dismissal. The students will get out at 12:10. We will not be providing lunch that day. Kids can wear their panther gear to support the High School. We have been invited and provided buses to attend the Coronation activities at Creston High School. We are very excited. This is the first time in my 25 years here this has happened. There is a permission form in your child's folder to fill out so that they may attend this gathering. Please fill it out and return it to me ASAP. This will take place first thing in the morning and we will return by 10:30 ish. We will spend the remainder here at school finishing up our week. Go Panthers!!

Pictures/ID

You will find your child's school photos in their bags today. Each student was given a student ID. That can be found in their take home folders. IF you missed pictures or want a retake there will be a make-up date scheduled. I will keep you posted on when it will be. I do not see it on the calendar yet.

I hope you all get out and enjoy the balloons this weekend. I will be out of town on Saturday so will miss most of it. Seems like I always have a reason to be gone. I love Balloon days but something is always happening elsewhere.

God Bless,

Mrs. Sickels