Tuesday, November 26, 2013

Parents, 
Just a quick reminder, tomorrow we are having a noisy change collection for the Philippines during mass. On Monday, December 2, we will start our campaign for the St. Nick Project through Catholic Charities. A flyer went home last week in the folders. We are asking for donations. We tried to break the list up for grade bands, but do what you can. The last day to donate will be Dec.6. Thanks again for your help!!!! I hope everyone has a wonderful and blessed Thanksgiving! -Miss Surma

Friday, November 22, 2013

Miss Surma's Molasses Sugar Cookies

3/4 cup butter ( I use the cheap margarine sticks)
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1/4 cup molasses
2 cups flour
2 tsp. soda
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. ginger

I melt the butter first in the microwave until very soft and then let it cool in the fridge. Then I mix the rest of the ingredients together. The butter I add last when I know it has cooled down.  Form into 1 inch balls and roll in sugar. Do NOT flatten. Bake at 350 degrees. I bake until slightly brown on the bottom and edges. I let them finish "baking" outside when they are cooling down. They end up being soft in the middle and crunchy on the outside.
 Good luck! 

Thursday, November 21, 2013

Hello Parents, I hope you are having a good week! It's almost Friday!

Math- Last week I said we'd be doing area and perimeter after our math test. I was wrong. I meant volume! We may do some area and perimeter too. After I am done with that area we will go into division. This first chapter is usually a review of dividing using a single digit divisor. The next one will be with a double digit divisor. That one can be a little more tricky. For you as parents, division has not changed. We still have the same steps we grew up with. I tell them there is an order to it: divide, multiply, subtract, bring down, and repeat steps if needed.  How I ask them may be different from you, but if they should say, "That's not how Miss Surma does it." It most likely is the same, I just might use different words.

Language Arts- This week we continue our journey with the Revolutionary War. We read a nonfiction piece on King George. The author made him kind of sound humorous. He didn't really think it was a war until the English soldiers surrendered at Saratoga. This week they worked in groups to identify facts and opinions found on a couple of pages in our story. They had to share their findings with the class. We did have to discuss whether some were really facts or opinions. They are also working on figurative language. We are discussing similes, metaphors, and idioms. We are also working on the tenses of verbs: present, past, and future. One piece was reading sentences to see if all the verbs in that sentence were the same tense. That was a little tricky. They have to slow down.

Religion- We are still working on the Glorious Mysteries at this point. They are more difficult than the Sorrowful. I have a feeling that they aren't studying as much. I am reminding them to take their books home at night and work on them.

Molasses Cookies- This week I  baked them some molasses cookies. They learned about molasses during Iowa History. Mrs. Sickels told them I baked some great molasses cookies, so I did do that! I think they all liked them! If you need a recipe, let me know!:)

St. Nicholas Project- Please look in your child's folder. We as a school will be participating in this for only a week after Thanksgiving. Please do what you can if possible.

I most likely won't be doing a BLOG next week. Remember that next Wednesday is only a 1 hour early dismissal. I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving! If you are traveling, have a safe trip.

Have a  good weekend! God Bless, Miss Surma

Thursday, November 14, 2013

Hello Parents, I hope you are having a good week! Are you enjoying the temperature change?? I am not!

Language Arts- This week is a combo week. This is a test week with our series, but I looked ahead at the calendar and the week of Thanksgiving is only 3 days. I didn't want to get behind in our series, so they are taking 1 test a day. They read a story and answer questions. The questions are checking for comprehension, vocabulary, grammar, and decoding. They are focusing on all the things we've worked on in this unit. They are also reading the next story. I have lined up those lessons a little differently. I don't want to drain them. They will test over this story and spelling words on Friday. Their book reports are due on Friday. I think I will collect them all and then have a few share each day. That might be easier on the schedule.

Math- They are finishing up their chapter this week. We will do a review and they will most likely test on Monday. We went into the beginning of understanding algebra. On Tuesday they had to solve an equation such as : 3+b= 15  b=12.  It is a difficult task to wrap your head around that you are solving for a letter and then hearing words like variable and algebraic expression. I think before we move into division we are going to work with area and perimeter since we are doing multiplication now. I don't plan on doing an entire chapter, but give them some idea on both.

Funds for the Philippines- The Civics Club is organizing a fundraiser for the people in the Philippines after they typhoon last week. They are creating a flyer. You should look for it in your child's folder today or they will have it with them on Friday. The kids are going to be able to do a variety of things and pay money for each thing, for example, wear sweats to school. There will also be a Noisy Change Collection on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, November 27.

Trimester- The first trimester ends on Friday. That mean on Monday, November 18 they will have a clean slate with late slips!!! :)  The progress reports will be online and they will be done by December 2.

I hope you have a great weekend! God Bless, Miss Surma


Thursday, November 7, 2013

WOW! I LOVE your kids!!! This morning, our math is difficult with Algebra. I was moving around the room to get to helping all of them. When students finished, they helped me out!!!! They went around and helped others!!! Then I had a pile of math corrections, so they stepped in and helped kids with those too while I was working with kids myself! Thank you, 5th graders!!!!! You filled my bucket for sure as well as your own and others!
Happy Thursday!!! I hope you are having a good week!

Dress Code- As we are now changing seasons, remember no shorts are to be worn. I would suggest the kids come with a sweatshirt or winter coat, the mornings and recesses are getting colder. I would also like to remind everyone that in the dress code policy it states that leggings may be worn as long as the bottom of the dress, skirt or short extends to at least mid-thigh. This has been an issue on mass days mostly.

Math- They have been working on multiplying decimals this week. The trick seems to be counting how many places to the left we place that decimal in the answer. Most of the mistakes I am seeing are due to that fact. The other errors are not dropping zeros or it is in the multiplication and addition. They need to take time and slow down. Some of the errors could be easily fixed if they just slowed down. I talked to them this week about taking time with our work. The goal should be to do it well, not to do it quickly so that I don't have homework to do at night. We are also working on algebra!!! It is very basic. For example: If n=4, then what is n+5=?  They learned the different ways of writing an algebraic expression on Wednesday. n+4, b-4, 4b or 4x n, n/4. We are getting close to the end of our chapter. I would expect a test next week.

Language Arts- This week they read a nonfiction story on cougars. I learned a lot about that animal! They also learned about replacing a vocabulary word with a synonym. They had to determine whether that word had a stronger, weaker, or similar meaning to the sentence. In our grammar, we are focusing on quotation marks, quoting texts, using interjections with our quotations. They also read a few short poems. We focused on alliteration. That is when there is a particular consonant sound being used throughout the poem. They each created their own poem on a made-up Superhero! They will be sharing these with the class. Reminder: Book Reports are due on November 15. 

Art/Class Meeting- During art on Wednesday, each child was given a list with their classmates' names on it. They had to cut them out and then beside their name write at least one positive thing about them. They put them in envelopes. I will use them and create posters out of them for each of them. These posters will hang from our ceiling during the month of November. I think this is just a great way to recognize how well they know their classmates or that maybe they need to get to know them better.

I hope everyone has a great weekend! I am going to see Keith Urban in concert on Saturday! I am looking forward to that one!!  God Bless, Miss Surma