September 7, 2023

Dear Parents,

Happy Thursday!! This week has gone quickly. It is hard to believe that it is Thursday all ready! We are beginning to really get into the swing of things and more homework is happening. I have tried to help the kids be organized about their work. I am trying to make sure that the pieces that are homework are in their homework folder and everything is written in the assignment book. If the student has the assignment done I have instructed them to highlight the assignment so they know they have completed it. That is just another way to know the work is complete. Some of them like this and some do not. I am just trying to help them eliminate the late slips. So far they have done a great job by not getting lat slips. I hope they can keep this up!

Language Arts

Well this week was a little better for me! We were to read two stories this week. There is no way to do that when we have 4 days. So I picked one out of the two to read. I have been covering skills that are in my standards and let the rest go. I am trying very hard to establish a routine. We will all do much better when I get this down for them.

This week we read the story "The Year of the Rat". It is an interesting read. I will say I feel like the stories we are reading seem a little harder than the ones in the past. They are a more complicated text. They really make the students think about things and also use their prior knowledge. Not everything is easily stated. We are drawing conclusions a lot. I do like the way it makes the students really feel the story. This is harder for some but they will get the hang of it. In grammar this week we talked about kinds of sentences. There are 4 kinds: declarative (telliing statement), interrogative (question), imperative (command), and exclamatory (with strong feeling). We have worked on all 4 this week. They did a great job. For most the students I know this is reveiw. We talked about the prefixes mis-, pre-, and dis-. We talked about how they change the meaning of the base word and they came up with examples of each one. We also talked about Characters and how the author developes characters in a story. There a 5 things they try to include about characters. We went over those 5 things today. One is the way the character looks, their voice, their behavior, their thoughts and feelings, and the last one is traits of the character. In a well written story the author will develop the character by making sure all these things are present. Friday we will take our spelling post test and we will reread the story together as a class and discuss. Then they will take a quiz online to show that they learned the concepts we covered this week. Last week the did not do very well on the end of the week assessment but I chalk that up to it was our first week and Mrs. Sickels taught everything but maybe I had too much content and I didn't do any one thing well. I have shortened what we are learning this week so I am hoping they do better! This has definitely been a challenge for me.

Math

We have started digging into Number Sense in math. We begin the year focused on the place value chart and the three ways to write a number. We talk about Standard form, Number Name (word form), and expanded form. We will use expanded form a lot this year. I know I spend a couple days just on lesson 1, but I need them to master these topics and they are pretty big. I am not sure how the book creator thought it was okay to spend one day on such heavy content. We are off to slow start but I hope to pick up the pace later down the road.

Social Studies

We are digging into the beginnings of America. We start by discussing how people came to America. The people we are referring to are the Native Amercians and those who were here earlier than Christopher Columbus. We talk about 2 theories which they wrote in their notebooks today. I would hope if you asked them what they are they could tell you but they may not remember from this morning.

Spirit Day! CY-HAWK Game

Tomorrow is a Spirite Day. Again you can pay $1.00 to wear sweats, a hat or sunglasses. Remember the sunglasses are only worn outside not in the classroom. Tomorrow will be cooler temps so sweats may be okay. Also, you are to wear your favorite team the Hawkeyes or the Cyclones. I am a hard core Cyclone because I graduated with my teaching degree from there and all 3 of my kids have gone there. Two of them have graduated and one is still there in her Junior year. All of my kids are in the field of education. One is a high school English teacher, one a guidance counselor and the 3rd wants to be early childhood with 1st graders. I know my Clones probably won't win this weekend but I will still wear the cardinal and Gold and cheer loud.

FAST Testing

I have begun FAST testing this week. We will do some language arts and Math testing. We use these scores to help us determine who needs interventions and with whom. Will they pull out and go to Mrs. Mitchell or will they stay in a small group with me. We will make these decisions after testing is finished and we meet as a team to go over scores. We will do this towards the end of September. You will be notified if your student is going to be doing any kind of intervention.

Last weekend was such a nice long weekend this one will seem very short. I hope you enjoy it no matter what you do. I am going to watch the ADM vs. Lewis Central game because my son-in-law coaches for ADM. Then on Saturday I am going to Ames to be a part of the fun. I am tailgating with friends but not going into the game. I just love the atmosphere, plus I get to spend the day with my daughter. Sunday will definitely be a day of rest for me.

God Bless,

Mrs. Sickels