Hi Parents! Wow! What a busy week, but I love it! I love this week!!! The kids were looking great!!!!
Math- We have a test on Friday over the chapter. We will most likely use Monday for corrections, but then we will jump into our next chapter. More division!!! Woo hoo! It will be dividing by double digits. I will expect a slow down here. This is much harder to grasp due to multiplying by two digits in a different way.
Language Arts- We are going to finish up this story on Friday. This week's story was about a boy who went to his city council to see if the city would agree to take a deteriorating basketball court and turn it into a garden for the homeless in his town. There was another girl who wanted it turned into a parking lot for the teachers. We had an interesting discussion ourselves on what should be done with it. Their spelling the last few weeks has focused on suffixes. Next week will be a real treat! I told the kids they are going to be very different words that I have never used on a spelling test. Some will be challenging, but all are kind of fun! That's the only hint I am giving!
Religion- We are discussing Nicodemus and his search for eternal life.Jesus tells him about being baptized and how you will receive the Holy Spirit. We talked about the importance of water in Church, in the Bible stories we read, and in our daily lives. They are now doing an activity revolved around showing that water in different forms.
Last week after we watched the Bully movie, I told them we were going to create a wall in our room as a reminder. It would remind us each day on how we want to BE. They came up with great words!!! For example BE yourself, BE awesome, BE unique, BE grateful It is now up in our room. It is very cool!!!
Just a reminder to make sure you make arrangements with your kids about how they are getting home on Friday after mass at church. I will ask them on Friday morning if they have a special guest coming to sit with them.
The flu season is here! My room has been hit with the sick kids. Please remember that your kids should not return to school until they have been fever free for 24 hours--without medication. Thank you!!!
I will send Take Home Folders on Friday due to our being gone today!
Have a great weekend! I am heading back to Doon with my mom. It has been great having her here for the past 2 weeks! I think she enjoyed her time away as well! God Bless, Miss Surma
Thursday, January 30, 2014
Thursday, January 23, 2014
Hello Parents! Welcome to another cold and blustery Iowa week! I am ready for warm weather and no wind!!! My mom did come back with me on Sunday so we are enjoying our time together!
Catholic Schools Week-- I created a flyer about the week. I have put that in your child's folder. It should give let you know what next week's plans will be! It will be a crazy and busy week, but a favorite of mine! Look in the Creston Advertiser next week for the insert that the 8th graders created. I know some of the 5th graders were interviewed! If your child signed up to participate in Sunday's mass, it is in their folder.
Foundation Auction- Thank you, Chris Walter, for taking care of our live auction basket! She came up with the idea of a Breakfast Basket. I put together her ideas on a flyer. If you are able to help out, there are plenty of ideas to choose from!! I have already received some cash donations, you could do that in place of an item. Christ would like to collect everything by February 17. That will give her time to do any shopping and put it together.
Math- This week they were dealing with prime and composite numbers, the divisibility rules, and creating prime factorization trees! Whew!!!!! It was most definitely a challenge. We are getting near the end of our chapter. I think there could be a test at some point next week, but I can't say when for sure.
Language Arts- This week we read a story by Peg Kehret. She is a favorite author of many of the girls in here. This was an autobiography. She had created the Dog Newspaper as a child, but soon realized she didn't have any customers. It was great though because this gave us a peak at how early she began her writing career. WE are so thankful she didn't stop writing. They also focused on prepositions and prepositional phrases. I am continuing some work on the side with adverbs. That was a hard hit area last week on the test. They also dealt with homophones such as : to, too, two and homographs like: tear, tear, lead, and lead.
Bully movie- They did very well in watching the movie. We had some lively conversations afterwards. There was a lot of anger towards the adults and students. I felt the same way, maybe even more this time. It was good to see them recognize the injustice. A powerful movie that I would highly recommend. Mr. Walsh said you can rent it/buy it on Amazon.
I hope everyone has a great weekend! I hope to see you on Sunday at our CSW kick-off mass at church!!! God Bless, Miss Surma
Catholic Schools Week-- I created a flyer about the week. I have put that in your child's folder. It should give let you know what next week's plans will be! It will be a crazy and busy week, but a favorite of mine! Look in the Creston Advertiser next week for the insert that the 8th graders created. I know some of the 5th graders were interviewed! If your child signed up to participate in Sunday's mass, it is in their folder.
Foundation Auction- Thank you, Chris Walter, for taking care of our live auction basket! She came up with the idea of a Breakfast Basket. I put together her ideas on a flyer. If you are able to help out, there are plenty of ideas to choose from!! I have already received some cash donations, you could do that in place of an item. Christ would like to collect everything by February 17. That will give her time to do any shopping and put it together.
Math- This week they were dealing with prime and composite numbers, the divisibility rules, and creating prime factorization trees! Whew!!!!! It was most definitely a challenge. We are getting near the end of our chapter. I think there could be a test at some point next week, but I can't say when for sure.
Language Arts- This week we read a story by Peg Kehret. She is a favorite author of many of the girls in here. This was an autobiography. She had created the Dog Newspaper as a child, but soon realized she didn't have any customers. It was great though because this gave us a peak at how early she began her writing career. WE are so thankful she didn't stop writing. They also focused on prepositions and prepositional phrases. I am continuing some work on the side with adverbs. That was a hard hit area last week on the test. They also dealt with homophones such as : to, too, two and homographs like: tear, tear, lead, and lead.
Bully movie- They did very well in watching the movie. We had some lively conversations afterwards. There was a lot of anger towards the adults and students. I felt the same way, maybe even more this time. It was good to see them recognize the injustice. A powerful movie that I would highly recommend. Mr. Walsh said you can rent it/buy it on Amazon.
I hope everyone has a great weekend! I hope to see you on Sunday at our CSW kick-off mass at church!!! God Bless, Miss Surma
Thursday, January 16, 2014
Happy Thursday!!! I hope you are having a good week!
This week we finally finished The Truth About Truman! Boy, by the end, there were some very angry 5th graders at a few of the characters in the book. It is their book. I would suggest reading it! It is very good and does really focus on cyber-bullying which is such an easy thing for kids to do these days. It certainly didn't end the way we all were hoping it would ,but some very good lessons throughout it.
Math- This week I am seeing more confidence in the process of division from all the 5th graders! I am having to do less work with them individually. This week they had to focus on dividing with zeros in the quotient and dividing larger numbers. The most common mistakes I see are forgetting to bring down the next number or errors in their subtraction or multiplication. Feel free to give them a problem at home to work out for you! They also know how to check it through multiplication.
Language Arts- This week we read a science fiction story. I think that is a first for this new series. It was a good story about a boy who created a time machine that could only go forward in time. It was a fun story. We also jumped to learning about adverbs for grammar. This one is more challenging because they have to be able to identify the verb or adjective that the adverb is describing. Plus, adverbs don't always come just before the verb or just after it. They really need to stop and ask themselves the questions. If the verb is "run". How far did they run? How often did they run? When did they run? Where did they run? How much did they run? The nice part is that many of the adverbs they worked with end in-ly. In their folder you will find their test scores from the story before Christmas and they story they read last week. You may also notice they rise in scores this past week. I believe taking the test on Friday of Christmas break...was not a good idea. I learned a lesson there.
Book Reports- Depending on our schedule, I will be talking to them about their next book report. This one will be a Newbery Honor or Newbery Winner book. I have a list of books for them to choose from. They will also get the list of projects. They cannot repeat the same project they did in the first trimester.
Catholic Schools Week- A flyer went home last week. There is a class theme day. Mrs. Sickels and I talked and wanted to do something around TJ and Nate. She came up with the idea of auctioneers, cowboys, or outdoors because we know they loved the mountains and they loved going to the Sale Barn. We have made some suggestions such as cowboy hats or some kind of cap, plaid shirts or western type shirts or t-shirts, cowboy boots ( if you have them). Some of the 5th graders asked about wearing their buttons they made at CYC. TJ loved wearing his "Stevie Joe Bob" button or his Sheriff pin. I will brainstorm with the kids some more to see if they have any more ideas. They could also just wear their colors: pink, orange, and yellow.
St. Malachy Foundation Auction- I stuck a note in your child's folder. I am looking for someone to take care of the Live Auction Basket from 5th grade. Please let me know if you will help out. Thanks!!!
Have a great weekend! I plan on going to Doon. Mom's birthday is on Friday. My sister and I are throwing her a party with some of her friends. I am hoping she will come back to Creston with me for a couple of weeks!
God Bless, Miss Surma
This week we finally finished The Truth About Truman! Boy, by the end, there were some very angry 5th graders at a few of the characters in the book. It is their book. I would suggest reading it! It is very good and does really focus on cyber-bullying which is such an easy thing for kids to do these days. It certainly didn't end the way we all were hoping it would ,but some very good lessons throughout it.
Math- This week I am seeing more confidence in the process of division from all the 5th graders! I am having to do less work with them individually. This week they had to focus on dividing with zeros in the quotient and dividing larger numbers. The most common mistakes I see are forgetting to bring down the next number or errors in their subtraction or multiplication. Feel free to give them a problem at home to work out for you! They also know how to check it through multiplication.
Language Arts- This week we read a science fiction story. I think that is a first for this new series. It was a good story about a boy who created a time machine that could only go forward in time. It was a fun story. We also jumped to learning about adverbs for grammar. This one is more challenging because they have to be able to identify the verb or adjective that the adverb is describing. Plus, adverbs don't always come just before the verb or just after it. They really need to stop and ask themselves the questions. If the verb is "run". How far did they run? How often did they run? When did they run? Where did they run? How much did they run? The nice part is that many of the adverbs they worked with end in-ly. In their folder you will find their test scores from the story before Christmas and they story they read last week. You may also notice they rise in scores this past week. I believe taking the test on Friday of Christmas break...was not a good idea. I learned a lesson there.
Book Reports- Depending on our schedule, I will be talking to them about their next book report. This one will be a Newbery Honor or Newbery Winner book. I have a list of books for them to choose from. They will also get the list of projects. They cannot repeat the same project they did in the first trimester.
Catholic Schools Week- A flyer went home last week. There is a class theme day. Mrs. Sickels and I talked and wanted to do something around TJ and Nate. She came up with the idea of auctioneers, cowboys, or outdoors because we know they loved the mountains and they loved going to the Sale Barn. We have made some suggestions such as cowboy hats or some kind of cap, plaid shirts or western type shirts or t-shirts, cowboy boots ( if you have them). Some of the 5th graders asked about wearing their buttons they made at CYC. TJ loved wearing his "Stevie Joe Bob" button or his Sheriff pin. I will brainstorm with the kids some more to see if they have any more ideas. They could also just wear their colors: pink, orange, and yellow.
St. Malachy Foundation Auction- I stuck a note in your child's folder. I am looking for someone to take care of the Live Auction Basket from 5th grade. Please let me know if you will help out. Thanks!!!
Have a great weekend! I plan on going to Doon. Mom's birthday is on Friday. My sister and I are throwing her a party with some of her friends. I am hoping she will come back to Creston with me for a couple of weeks!
God Bless, Miss Surma
Thursday, January 9, 2014
Hello Parents, I hope you have been staying warm!!! It looks like we might see the outdoors today for recess!!!
Language Arts- This week they are reading the story Lunch Money. It is about a boy who creates his own comic book. This is a book by Andrew Clements. I told the kids they could read the entire story if they were interested in it. Our grammar this week is focusing on adjectives and articles. They learned that adjectives answer questions like: How many? What kind? or the Origin. This can be difficult to find, but I try to tell them to find their nouns and pronouns in the sentence and then look for possible adjectives that come before those words. Once they find it, they need to go through those questions to see which one it answers. The hard part is to realize most sentences have more than one! They will have a spelling test tomorrow as well as the test over the story. I still have some kids making up the unit tests from last week. Once all are finished, I will let you know scores.
Math- we are working on basic division with remainders. We are not focusing on decimals yet. We post the steps they follow in a problem: Divide, Multiply, Subtract, Bring Down, Repeat until they have a final remainder. They will also learn about having a zero in the quotient. We will move from their to larger numbers to divide. I am impressed. There are quite a few that have caught on quickly to the process.
Religion- Right now I am trying to finish up The Truth About Truman book. We really didn't do anything with it in December. We are having good discussions though as we read. I think we are really seeing all different kinds of bullying, but especially what cyber bullying can look like.
Book Order- I am sending home a book order. If you are interested in ordering you, remember you can order online or using the form. Please have all orders to me by next Thursday, Jan. 16.
Catholic Schools Week- There will be a letter for volunteers to sign up to participate in Sunday's mass at Holy Spirit. This isn't a sign up for helping with the music. That will be another letter from Mrs. Wignall.
I will send home more information on the individual days next week.
Have a good weekend!!! God Bless, Miss Surma
Language Arts- This week they are reading the story Lunch Money. It is about a boy who creates his own comic book. This is a book by Andrew Clements. I told the kids they could read the entire story if they were interested in it. Our grammar this week is focusing on adjectives and articles. They learned that adjectives answer questions like: How many? What kind? or the Origin. This can be difficult to find, but I try to tell them to find their nouns and pronouns in the sentence and then look for possible adjectives that come before those words. Once they find it, they need to go through those questions to see which one it answers. The hard part is to realize most sentences have more than one! They will have a spelling test tomorrow as well as the test over the story. I still have some kids making up the unit tests from last week. Once all are finished, I will let you know scores.
Math- we are working on basic division with remainders. We are not focusing on decimals yet. We post the steps they follow in a problem: Divide, Multiply, Subtract, Bring Down, Repeat until they have a final remainder. They will also learn about having a zero in the quotient. We will move from their to larger numbers to divide. I am impressed. There are quite a few that have caught on quickly to the process.
Religion- Right now I am trying to finish up The Truth About Truman book. We really didn't do anything with it in December. We are having good discussions though as we read. I think we are really seeing all different kinds of bullying, but especially what cyber bullying can look like.
Book Order- I am sending home a book order. If you are interested in ordering you, remember you can order online or using the form. Please have all orders to me by next Thursday, Jan. 16.
Catholic Schools Week- There will be a letter for volunteers to sign up to participate in Sunday's mass at Holy Spirit. This isn't a sign up for helping with the music. That will be another letter from Mrs. Wignall.
I will send home more information on the individual days next week.
Have a good weekend!!! God Bless, Miss Surma
Thursday, January 2, 2014
Welcome back!!! I hope everyone had a great Christmas break and New Year! I don't have much for these two days.
Just a reminder that our mass is next week. You are welcome to join us!
Language Arts- They had to come back to a unit test today and tomorrow. Next week we will start with our new unit. From what I can tell, we are out of the Revolutionary War! :) Our first story is Lunch Money by Andrew Clements. He is a great author! They will have a spelling test as well next week.
This unit test is a big one. I have split it up into two days. We probably won't get to math today, but we will for sure tomorrow.
Have a great weekend! Stay warm! God Bless, Miss Surma
Just a reminder that our mass is next week. You are welcome to join us!
Language Arts- They had to come back to a unit test today and tomorrow. Next week we will start with our new unit. From what I can tell, we are out of the Revolutionary War! :) Our first story is Lunch Money by Andrew Clements. He is a great author! They will have a spelling test as well next week.
This unit test is a big one. I have split it up into two days. We probably won't get to math today, but we will for sure tomorrow.
Have a great weekend! Stay warm! God Bless, Miss Surma
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