September 19, 2024

Dear Parents,

Happy Thursday! We have had a long week! I think the field trip on Monday, which was super fun, made for a long week. Homework is becoming more of a constant in our room. I have been giving out late slips like crazy. I need to warn you, if the students are not doing the work satisfactorily and just wanting to get it done, they may get a late slip. Example: on a social studies worksheet there were 3 written questions. I told them as we went through the lesson that certain sentences would be used on questions on the worksheet. When I gave the worksheet out I reminded them where each of the three answers were. If they were not listening they missed out on important information. Some students gave a one word answer that had nothing to do with the question. If that is the case, they will be given a late slip for not listening to directions. I hope by conferences they have all made some great strides in adjusting to 4th grade. Some just need to give a little bit more effort in their organizational and listening skills.

Language arts

] We are reading a story called The Year of the Rat. One way I prepared them to read the story was to show them the Chinese Zodiac. They all found what year they were born and what animal they were. I am the year of the dog. In grammar we are learning about the 4 kinds of sentences: declarative (telling statement), interrogative ( question), imperative (command) and Exclamatory (with great feeling). They have learned 2 at a time. Today was imperative and exclamatory. We also practiced sorting the spelling of short e sounds and long e sounds. The last thing we talked about were 3 prefixes: mis-, pre-, and dis. They have to come up with some word examples for each one. Tomorrow they will be reading the story with partners and working on Point of view with a graphic organizer.

Next Tuesday will be their Spelling post test day. Which means Wednesday will be a pretest day for the next story.

Math

We finished up with rounding this week. We talked about constructing arguments today in Math. Which is mainly knowing what information you have and how to prove your answers using that information. Tomorrow we will start a chapter review. They will work on 1 page of the review and then they will finish it on Monday. Tuesday and maybe Wednesday we will correct the review together so that they understand how to do each problem. The test is identical to the review they just change the numbers. So if they understand the review they will understand the test. I allow them to ask me any questions they need to on the review but no questions on the test.

Social Studies

We have been discussing Government this week. We talked about how the government works and things we have to do to be good responsible citizens. We talked about the levels of government today ( local, state, and National). Tomorrow our focus is on all three branches of government. They should know them and what their purpose is. Next week our big topic will be Time zones in the U.S. We will be looking at working on our first test the first week in October.

Spirit Day

Tomorrow is a Spirit day. Pay $1.00 to wear sweats or a hat.

It is Balloon days weekend! I hope the rain holds off and the balloons can go up. It is my 35 year class reunion this weekend, also. We will be riding in the parade, if not raining. I am looking forward to seeing my classmate. I hope to see some of the kids over the weekend enjoying the fun.

God Bless,

Mrs. Sickels