September 22, 2022

Dear Parents,

Happy Thursday!! I hope your week is going well. Ours is great! The change in weather is wonderful. I always look forward to this time of year when we can pull out the sweatpants and sweatshirts! Ohh and Hot tea! My favorite things. Everyone is doing a great job adapting to 4th grade. They are really getting the hang of it and how things work. Some still need help keeping work organized. All homework items should be stored in the expanding file. Some students tend to shove things in their desk. We need to get out of that habit. The other helpful hint is after the students writes the assignments in their assignment books, they can use a highlighter to highlight those assignments that are complete. That will help them to know what they still need to work on when they get home. This is working so far for those who are suing this strategy. The other thing they need to work on is when I say, "okay we need to stop working and put all out things away to move onto the next thing", a lot of them do not stop. They want to finish up their homework. I am working on making them stop to move on. I am using a timer on the big TV in or room to help with this. If they are not ready by the time the timer goes off they will owe some recess time. I hope to not have to use the timer all the time.I am very scheduled and we have to keep to our schedule or I will throw other teachers off as well.

Language Arts

This week or story is called The Power of W.O.W. It is written as a play. Yesterday, I split them into two groups and had them read through it. It is a fun play about a bookmobile in Dallas,

Texas that travels to neighborhoods that are too far away from the public library. The bus has run out of money so it will soon stop coming. The kids get together and make a plan to try and save the bus. It teaches us a lesson on how we can come together and work hard and make things happen. It is a story that makes you feel good for sure. In grammar we worked on sentence fragments, run-on sentences, and writing complete sentences. Our vocabulary strategy this week was on prefixes non-, an mis-. These prefixes mean "not" or "badly". The students worked on telling what words mean when these prefixes are there. we compare what the base word means and than how the prefix changes the meaning. Tomorrow we will have a normal Friday. We will have a spelling post test and the end of the week test. Be sure your student is studying their spelling words and the vocabulary (yellow) packet.

Math

We have finished Topic 1 in math. The students took their test yesterday and will make corrections on it today. Next week we will begin Topic 2. When I compare where I was last year we are about 8-9 days ahead in Math which is fabulous. Topic 2 is a longer chapter for us to cover. Topic 2 is over Adding and Subtracting Multi-Digit Whole Numbers. These first two topics (chapters) are pretty much review. Adding and subtracting seems easy for 4th graders but when we are working with much bigger numbers it tends to confuse them. We will also review some basic facts for addition and subtraction. They should be pretty fluent with these facts.

Social Studies

We are coming to the end of Chapter 2. We will be working on a study guide next week and testing by the end of the week. When I look back at last year and where we weer we are right on target with last year. But we are farther ahead in Map Skills. I have added a 20 min Map skills area on Wednesdays which is helping us tremendously. I have a book on 4th grade map skills and we are moving through it nicely. We have been working on directions and how to use a compass and follow directions on a map. Some still need a little bit of work. I am confident that we will come close to completing the Map Skills! YAY!

Spirit Day

Tomorrow is a Spirit Day! It is also Homecoming so wear your Panther gear!! The high tomorrow is only to b 58! So maybe you will want to pay the $1.00 to wear sweatpants! I wish I could wear them!! You can pay $1.00 for hats tomorrow also.

Early Out

Tomorrow is a 3 hour Early out due to Homecoming! The students will be dismissed at 12:15. School lunch will NOT be served. The Parade starts at 1:30. Have a great Homecoming!!

I just want to say again, I love this weather change. I am ready for Fall but as you will learn my favorite time of year is Winter. I am a cold weather let the snow fly girl!! I love hot tea, coffee and cocoa, a warm blanket, a book and a big window to see outside! I like to have fun, but I also like to hibernate! So I look forward to the colder weather! I am really hoping we have the winter that the Farmer's almanac predicted. Not only because of lots of snow, but I know we need moisture for the land so farming will be successful. It's Iowa we should expect it!!

God Bless,

Mrs. Sickels