September 16, 2021

Dear Parents,

Happy Thursday!!! What a week! It has been a good one in 4th grade. The students are showing some struggle this week but it's to be expected. They are doing better at using their time wisely, BUT we still need to work on organization. Some are not using their expanded file like they should. I hope to have some time today or tomorrow to help some students get better organized. I may be requesting some extra pencil pouches for some of your children just to keep things in one place. Some of their desks are a complete disaster and most of the items could be kept in a pencil pouch. I feel like the students are getting settled into the 4th grade routine pretty well. They are still a chatty group and I am working on that with them. I will be happy when the day comes and I don't feel so crabby about the noise level. Just remember by the end of the year they will be much better students all the way around. We work on it daily.

Language Arts

This week in language arts we are reading a story called My Librarian is a Camel. It talks about countries in the world that do not have libraries or access to internet. Yes, there are many places in the world that are not as privileged as we are. I told the kids they are so lucky to have books at their fingertips all the time. We learned about how these countries that are not lucky get books. Some are brought on camels, elephants, boats and even through the mail. I will tell you this story is interesting the first time but not the 2nd and 3rd time. I know it is boring to them. So with that we need to understand that their end of the week scores will not be as good as previous weeks. Also, the grammar this week is on quotations. These are not easy. There is a lot of punctuation mistakes that can be made when dealing with quotations. We have done all the worksheets together for grammar, I have been trying to decide how to make the grammar section easier for the students tomorrow on their assessment. I do not want them to fail. They way they are tested is so hard. We may do that section of the test together and I narrow it down to 2 choices instead of 4. So if their score is low just know it is super hard. I personally think most adults would do poorly also. The vocabulary strategy this week was over context. We talked about what it means to use context and we it might look like. Tonight be sure that the students are studying their vocabulary packet and spelling words. By studying their vocabulary words that guarantees the first 5 questions on the test be done correctly. I tell them there is absolutely no reason to miss any of the first 5 questions.

Math

We have finished our fist topic this week. This book refers to them as topics we used to call them chapters. We are working on reviewing for a test for next week. They are doing a review today. We will check that together on Monday. We will do a practice test then take the real one. It is a lot to get ready for the assessment. I feel it does a great job preparing them and should help them to all do a good job. Then we will move right into Topic 2!

Social Studies

I feel like they have learned a lot of new information about our government! They can tell you the 3 levels of government. They can tell you the 3 branches of government and what they do. They may struggle with the Judicial Branch. They can tell you who is the head of the Executive Branch at all 3 levels. That is way more than they were able to do last year. We have one more lesson in our chapter to complete then we will begin reviewing for a test. We review the same way as in 3rd grade except we don't use 2 days of class time to complete it. What they do not get done at school will be homework. That is new for them. They also have a lot more vocabulary words to study for this year. I had many last year that did not do well on the vocabulary words. They really have to step it up this year and study them or they will do poorly. They have all the words on note cards in their expanded files that they could start studying now and not wait until the night before.

Mass

Next week is the 4th and 5th grade Mass. I have 6 students who will be participating in that Mass. If they are not in this one they will definitely have a job in the next one we plan. Kylin will be a greeter, Brock and Ayari will be gift bearers, Breckyn and Kalvin will sing sanctuary, and Indie will be the opener/closer/song announcer. You are welcome to join us for Mass. It begins at 9:15 and is usually over by 10:00. It is nice to finally have some guests in the gym with us and a full gym!

Fast Testing!

We have spent the week Fast Testing. Many have completed everything and some still have a few things they need to accomplish yet. I will be anxious to show their results during conferences.

Tomorrow is not a spirit day this week. So no paying a $1.00 for anything. It is Balloon Days I hope everyone can get out and enjoy the balloons. Sounds like the weather is suppose to be just right all weekend. According to what I see there are lots of fun things to do! The Holy Spirit Block Party is Saturday. From 3-5 is family games, from 5-7 there will be a supper and live music. There are things going on uptown with the parade, many events at the airport in the afternoon. Have a great weekend!!!

God Bless,

Mrs. Sickels