Wednesday, October 30, 2013

Happy Halloween!!! I hope you are having a great week! My mom did come back with me on Sunday, so I have enjoyed having her at my house!

Mass- Tomorrow is Holy Day of Obligation. The 5th graders are doing mass. Please join us if you are available. They do need to dress up as usual for mass day.

November 1st-- No more shorts being worn.

Language Arts-- This week we are working on compound words in spelling and in our decoding. Our story this week was historical fiction. It was about a young man who wanted to become a surfman and rescue people from storms at sea. He realizes in his first real experience that he doesn't have the courage to go through with it, but he has enough skills to care for their injuries. We find that those critical skills are just as important! We also discussed characterization and what we can infer from our characters by their words, actions, and thoughts. We are working on subordinating conjunctions this week and dependent & independent clauses. With the the use of the subordinating conjunction in a dependent clause combined with an independent clause, they now have a complex sentence. 

Math- We have started multiplying decimals and whole numbers. The trick is remembering to put the decimal in your answer and putting it in the correct place. 

Halloween Stories-- These have been shared! The kids are really enjoying listening to what their classmates have created!

Spaghetti Supper on November 2nd. The Civics Club will be providing a haunted house and games for the kids!!! 

Have a good weekend. I am heading back to Doon with my mom. Our visit went by too quickly!  God Bless, Miss Surma

Wednesday, October 23, 2013

Hi Parents, I wanted to just do a few reminders for next week.

Oct. 30- This is a mass day. We also have an early out.

Oct. 31- We will have Halloween festivities that day at school. They can also bring their costume to school. We will have the annual Halloween parade at 2:30 in the gym. You are welcome to come!!!

Nov. 1- This is All Saints Day in the church. This is a holy day. We will have mass at school. This is the 5th grade mass. You are welcome to join us. I will assign parts on Friday. I am working with the other half of the class.

Nov. 2- This is the Spaghetti Supper! Come one, Come All!!!!


PTO is selling STM gear during the conferences and again at the Spaghetti Supper. They are selling it CHEAP! If you need a Christmas gift or something for your child to wear during Catholic Schools Week...now would be a GREAT time to shop!

Have a great weekend! Enjoy the 3 days! I am heading to Doon to see my mom. I am hoping she will come back to Creston with me and spend a week here!!! God Bless, Miss Surma

Great job with all the Iowa History Projects!!!!
I was very impressed!!! They will start to present during
class next week!

Wednesday, October 16, 2013

Hello Parents, I hope you are having a good week. Our weather is much more like fall. I have tried to remind your kids that they will want jackets for recess this week due to the colder temperatures. I did see some brought out their winter coats and gloves! That isn't a bad idea!!

Math- This week we are working on the standard algorithm for multiplication.  They are multiplying 3 digit and 2 digit numbers by 1 or 2 digit numbers. I see two common errors for some kids.  Some are forgetting to drop that 0 down in the second row when they start multiplying by the tens.  Other kids are skipping either the number in the tens or hundreds place when they multiply.  (That is really hard to describe here...I can explain better during conferences).  Some are really using their fingers to figure out their facts instead of the table. I am trying to break them of that habit, because it does take them longer.  Last week we worked on estimating to find a product. They seemed to like doing that. This week we used that estimation to help us answer the question, "Is this product reasonable?" I am trying to get them to explain why or why not without doing all the work of multiplication. 

Language Arts-  This week they read an excerpt from Old Yeller.  It made me think I may have to read that entire story aloud to them at some point. We are also working on direct and indirect objects in our grammar. I told them that this is new for me!!! I haven't ever taught this in 5th grade. The Iowa Core is pushing us all! We really broke sentences down on Wednesday to pick those out.  We also worked on Adages and Proverbs! YIKES! We created some standard ones together on  a worksheet and then we figured out what they meant. Some are common ones, but there were some I had never heard before.  "Misery loves company" and "A penny saved is a penny earned" were a couple of the ones I grew up hearing. This will most likely be on their test on Friday.
I have edited some Halloween stories. I attach a sticky note to their paper with the next step and a due date. The due dates won't be the same for everyone. I base it on when I give them back. They should get about a week to type it up, and they can return the finished product as soon as they are done. They don't need to wait. 

Social Studies- Projects due Monday. You can drop them off that morning in Mrs. Sickels room. 

The Truth about Truman School-  We started reading this last Friday. I think we got through about 12 pages of reading and discussion. I think they are already hooked by the way they were upset when I had to stop. I think we are having good discussion. When we finish the book, they will be able to keep it. I really recommend you taking some time to read it.  

I won't blog next week due to conferences. There will be a book fair during those nights. I don't plan on sending home a book order form this month due to the book fair.

Have a great weekend!!! God Bless, Miss Surma

Thursday, October 10, 2013

Hello Parents,  I hope this week has been going smoothly. We have made some small changes to the schedule to meet the state requirements. The kids in 4-5th grades have to have 30 minutes of physical activity daily. On our non-PE days we aren't meeting that requirement. Mrs. Sickels and I have put in a 10 minute "recess" in the afternoon. They won't do much, but we just want them moving. This winter, we may do that in our rooms or take them to the gym. I am sure you could hear the CHEER from the classroom when they found out! :)

Math- We took the math test on Tuesday and some finished it up on Wednesday. Our next chapter covers multiplication. They will be multiplying large numbers. Their assignment books have a multiplication table in them. I allow them to use them whenever they need to. I don't want most of their time being spent on trying to figure out what 9x8 =, especially when they will be multiplying numbers in the hundreds and thousands.

Halloween Stories-- They turned in their rough drafts on Wednesday. I will give them back as soon as I am done editing. I usually attach a sticky note with the due date and typing requirements on them. If you don't have a working computer or access to one, let me know. They can work before and after school in the library to type up the final copy.

Religion- October is the month of the rosary. We are trying to say a couple of decades a day, but we will do the entire rosary on Friday in the chapel. In 5th grade they are to memorize 2 of the bigger prayers said during the rosary. Right now, I have them working on Hail Holy Queen. They each have a paper copy, but it is also in their book. They will keep working at it until they pass. Once they pass it, they have to learn the Apostle's Creed. We do quite a bit with the rosary in 5th grade, so there won't be much book work for awhile.

Language Arts- This week they read a nonfiction story about a tree kangaroo.We also focused on the skill of cause and effect while reading.  We also read a myth on why koala bears have no tail. We will also be focusing on synonyms and antonyms. This will show up on their vocabulary section of Friday's test.

Conferences---Please make sure you sign up for a time. If you need to be early, let me know. I am sure we can work something out. 

Have a good weekend! I am off to Cedar Falls/Waterloo for UNI Homecoming! Go Panthers!!!
God Bless, Miss Surma


Thursday, October 3, 2013

Blogger is not letting me change my dates on the side so I am posting them here.

Oct. 4- No School
Oct. 8- Math test
Oct. 16- Early Out
Oct. 22 & 24 Parent Teacher Conferences
Oct. 25- No School

Please take time to go to www.crestonstmalachy.org  and sign up for conference times. If you need to meet with me earlier than those days, send me an email. We can make some arrangements. Thanks!!!
Hello Parents, I hope you have been enjoying  your week!  Just a reminder there is no school on Friday. We are attending the 21st Century Learning at the public school that day.

Language Arts- Well, they took the Benchmark Unit 1 test this week. I broke it up over 3 days. Each day they were to read 2 stories and answer questions.  I am not done scoring them yet, but overall it isn't looking the best. Following the Core is definitely giving all of us more of a challenge than in the past. The questions were harder, but they did follow things we've talked about throughout our first unit. They were asked to define words in the context. They were asked to figure out the chronological order of events. They were asked to read a poem and then answer the questions. I told the kids they should really read the story twice before answering the questions to make sure they fully understood what was happening. I am not sure if they took my advice or not.  We will go over them on Thursday. I also have a copy of last week's assessment in their folder. This is your copy. The comprehension questions were difficult, but I think they had a harder time with the decoding and the grammar. It was quite clear that some kids know the difference between singular and plural nouns while others do not. They really have to read ALL the choices given to them before picking an answer. They have to look at the clues given in the example sentences as well.
Next week we will begin our next unit. They will have a spelling test next week too. They are also writing a Halloween story. They are just writing their rough draft now. That will be due on Wednesday, October 9.

Math--Mrs. Parrish, our college student, taught a lesson on Tuesday and Wednesday dealing with the subtraction of decimals. She also brought them in a little cookie treat! They were pretty happy with that one! Due to her son being ill and having to push that lesson back, the test has been pushed back too. I only pushed it back a day. So, now they will have a math test on Oct. 8. I believe our next chapter will be over multiplication.

Religion- We will be saying the rosary this month. I told them they could bring their own rosary, but they were responsible for taking care of it. I do have plenty of extras so they don't need to bring one from home. In 5th grade, they will also learn all the different mysteries of the rosary. They will also have 2 prayers to memorize, but we aren't there yet.
Have a GREAT weekend! I plan on catching some soccer games in Des Moines. My nieces will be there playing. God Bless, Miss Surma