Hello Parents, I hope you are enjoying this wonderful weather we are having this week! Thank you so much for making it to our play last week! I am so proud of them! They did a terrific job! I hope they had as much fun performing it for you as they did eating the cake afterwards! HaHa!

Reading- We started our book this week. We have read about 3 chapters so far. Each day they do some vocabulary and comprehension questions based on the chapter. We are having a good discussion as well. So far, Matt and his father moved from Maine to Massachusetts. Matt's dad got some land there. He and Matt built the cabin for their family and planted their first crop of corn. Matt's dad left to go back to Maine to get Matt's mom, sister, and the new baby. Matt is in charge of taking care of the cabin and the crops until he returns. Matt is discovering there aren't really enough hours in the day to do everything! We just met a man named Ben who pretty much made himself welcome in Matt's cabin for the night. Matt awakened the next day to find Ben gone...along with the gun his dad had left him. On Wednesday, they had to create a WANTED poster for Ben. They have been really good about going back into the story to find the proof they need for their answers! 

Math- They are continuing to subtract mixed numbers this week, but now they have to do renaming. The first thing they have to remember is that they need to have common denominators. I taught them 2 different ways to do the subtraction-- either through renaming or creating improper fractions before they subtract. Most of them thought the creating improper fractions was the easier of the two, but now through more practice, I see many of them using renaming!!! I have to agree... I grew up learning the improper fraction way, but the renaming is actually easier and faster. We don't have much more to this chapter. I think they could be testing over it next week. I will move on to the next chapter, which I believe will be multiplying fractions, but I doubt we finish it before the end of the year. 

Field Trip--In your child's folder is the permission form for their field trip on the 14th. Please fill it out and return it to me by May 11. Thank you! 

Book Reports- Just a reminder that they are due next Friday! They should come to school with their project and their costume on the 8th. I will do my best to get all presentations done that day. If not, they will have to finish the next Monday.

I hope everyone has a great weekend! God Bless, Miss Surma

Hi Parents, I hope this week has been going well for you! The great news we got this week is that Deborah Pope is home!!!! Our prayers continue for a smooth recovery!

Reading- This week they are taking the unit 5 test. I have chunked the test throughout the week because they are also rehearsing for their play! The rehearsals are going well! Wednesday was our official day of practicing without scripts! They did really well. There are still some areas that need a little work, but overall they are doing GREAT!!! I look forward to you seeing their performance on Friday! Remember it only lasts about 10 minutes once it starts! Afterwards, we will come back to the classroom and enjoy some of that cake!

Next week I will be starting a new unit with them in reading. We are going to read the book The Sign of the Beaver. I have ordered books from the AEA. I will be giving each student a folder that will hold all the the activities and worksheets we will be using. I am posting a picture for you! We will do some reading and discussing in class. They will also be assigned reading and assignments. I am excited about doing this! It will be different from our units. They will still have grammar and spelling worksheets and tests. They won't have those weekly tests over the story. I will be giving them quizzes throughout the book, but those won't be weekly. There will be a final test in the end! We will have a lot to cover in a short time, but the chapters aren't very long!

Book Report- They have two more weeks to be working on those!!! The due date is just around the corner! May 8!!!!

Math- This week they were adding and subtracting fractions and mixed numbers with unlike denominators. On Wednesday, I threw them the curve ball I had warned them about! They started learning about subtracting fractions with renaming and not only that, but they still had to find that common denominator! :)  For example once they found the common denominator it might look like 12 2/8- 10 5/8=??? We just spent Wednesday practicing it over and over again. Today we will do some more of that with trying to do a couple on their own! 

Field Trip- If you notice in the dates box I posted they have a field trip coming up in May. I have my drivers lined up. We will be going to DMACC in Ankeny to attend the Iowa Children's Water Festival. This is held every year at DMACC. UNI puts this on! Go Panthers! ;) It is just a day for 5th graders. There will be close to 2,000 kids there! It is a day where we walk the campus and attend little workshops or listen to speakers. They talk anything related to water or animals. It is a big science day!  They won't need a sack lunch or drink!!! That is provided for them there! It doesn't cost anything to go! It does happen rain or shine, and I have endured plenty of rainy cold days, probably more than I like to think about! I will send home a permission slip next week. 

I hope everyone has a great weekend!  God Bless, Miss Surma

Happy Thursday Parents! I hope you are having a good week!

We are almost finished with the Iowa Assessments! I think they will be done by the end of the day on Thursday!

Reading-- Just a reminder that they will be taking Unit 5 test next week. I postponed it a week due to IA Assessments. They also have the script for our play. On Friday they will try out! They will know their part before they leave on Friday. That will give them the weekend to start memorizing their lines. They are already asking me about what to wear so here are my suggestions for the roles:

Manuel-- Mass Day Attire
Pablo- Mass Day Attire, maybe add a hat of some kind to make you look like an older guy
Carlos and his sisters-- wear what you would wear to school! Look like a kid!
Women or Villager-- Be creative! You are the older people in town. I've had girls dress up like little old ladies and boys use canes! Carry a purse or cane! Wear a hat! Mass day clothes or raid your parents or grandparents closets!
Judge-- I will take care of! I have a robe to put over your clothes.

Props- We will need toy food, a small purse, and a gavel or toy hammer. 

Math- They worked on estimating fractions using benchmark numbers this week. They also used what I had taught them earlier about finding a common denominator to create an equivalent fraction before you can add or subtract them. They have no problem with this since we did it earlier! The hardest part is remembering to simplify!

Religion- We finally finished the epic The Ten Commandments movie! We are also starting Guidance. I did some on Wednesday, but this will be a Friday thing most weeks!

Lap-A-Thon- I sent home the Lap-A-Thon letter with the pledges' envelope. That will be due back on April 23. They run that day! They can bring their music to listen to as they run if they want! They might also want another pair of shoes. I know shoes get really muddy. 


Our prayers continue to be said for Deborah Pope and Kenneth Rhone. We hope they both get well soon!

I just want to say again....that I really love your kids! They made my day yesterday when they gave me the scrapbook! It will be treasured always. They are such a great group of individuals! Each is unique and special in their own way, I love that about them. I know we all look forward to summer, but that last day might be really tough for me! 

Have a great weekend! God Bless, Miss Surma

Have I told you lately how much I love my 5th graders????

They "surprised" me with a 5th Grade Memories scrapbook today, I did remind them our year isn't over yet! HA! Inside was a page for each student, including Nate! It was so sweet! We went through each page and giggled at the things they wrote! I certainly won't forget them and I will dread May 26 when I have to see them move on! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you, 5th graders! You have a special place in my heart! 

Hello Parents, Did everyone enjoy Easter?? I hope so! The weather was perfect! I hope you are having a great week! I hope the sun shows up soon! 

Reading- This week we are reading a nonfiction piece called Lewis and Clark. It is about the expedition west in the 1800s. We also read a short book called The History of the Fur Trade. I think I learned quite a bit about that business that I had not known before. This week in grammar we are working on contractions with verbs and pronouns. Their spelling has been covering the suffix -ion. This is the last story in this unit. I do not want to test them over this unit next week when they are already doing the Iowa Assessments. I decided that the following week will be Unit 5 testing. I am not sure what this will do to scores, but I just am not comfortable trying to get it into next week as well. 

"The Baker's Neighbor"- I plan on them working on this play the week of April 20-24 too. We will do some testing each day on our unit and then work on practicing the play. I will give them the scripts next week. I will hold try-outs on Friday of next week. That way they can start memorizing their lines over the weekend. The play will be performed at 2:15 on Friday, April 24 in the gym. The play lasts only about 10 minutes, if you can take off work to come and watch--please do! We only do the one performance! I don't want to mess with schedules. 

Math- Please look at the blog I posted on Wednesday! That will show you in pictures what they have been working on!!! They are loving the fraction strips! 

Deborah Pope- Please keep her in your prayers. Most of you probably know her heart was not in good shape. She needed a heart transplant.  I was notified on Wednesday that they had a heart for her.  As of Wednesday morning, she was in Omaha at the hospital waiting for the heart to arrive. She is in surgery this morning (Thursday).  We pray for her and Rowan that things would go well for the surgery and that recovery will be smooth. 

Iowa Assessments-- They will be testing on Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday. At this point I don't have any testing being done on Wednesday or Friday. We plan on still having our afternoon classes. I will get math in when I am able. The best thing you can do is make sure they get plenty of sleep and a good breakfast each morning. Probably the most important they can do??? Just do your best! That is all I ask of them!  The PTO will be supplying snacks.  I also provide "brain food" during the tests-- suckers, mints, Jolly Ranchers,etc. 

I hope everyone has a great weekend! I am actually staying in Creston! ;)
God Bless, Miss Surma

  This week the 5th graders started learning how to add and subtract fractions with unlike denominators! They were given fraction strips to work out their problems. This was a great way for them to "see" it happening. They had so much fun! They will be learning the traditional way to add and subtract fractions with unlike denominators, but not just yet. They are first going to work on estimating fraction sums and differences using Benchmark numbers and fractions--0,1/2,1! 

The problem was 7/8- 1/4= 5/8

The problem was 5/6-1/2 =1/3

Hi Parents, 
I hope you are having a great week!  At the time of my writing this blog, your kids are watching the "video". :)  They were so funny before lunch! They were sure they should have seen it BEFORE they ate today! 

Dollars for Scholars- They wrote their essays this week. I had completely forgotten about it. Thanks to Macy for reminding me! The 3 that will go on to be judged for the $50 certificate are: Macy, Megan, and Halle. I had 3 other teachers read the essays to choose the three they think answered the question. 5th graders are given 6 traits and have to choose one. Then they have to explain how that trait is important to their education. Some of the traits are respect, caring, citizenship, and responsibility. I am really happy I didn't have to choose the 3 because I thought they were a lot of good ones! 

Book Report- I have given them the outline for their book report. It will be due on May 8. That gives them about 6 weeks. Many have already chosen their person. If they need help picking, let me know. Remember they are to read a book about this person. The internet is only to be used to find extra information or if they couldn't find something in their book. I told them for their costume to please not go out and buy anything unless absolutely necessary. I told them to look in their closets, your closets, grandparents, or ask friend first to borrow something. If they choose to type the report and don't have access to a computer, let me know. We can make arrangements to work in the library before or after school. 

Reading- This week we read a story called Rachel's Journal.  This story is a young girl's journal about her family moving across America in the 1850's. We talked a lot about how difficult it was for them and the different challenges they had to face. In grammar we are talking about comparative and superlative adjectives and adverbs.  For example, we are talking about when to use good, better, best or bad, worse, worst as adjectives. This also means when do we add -er or -est to the adjective? On Wednesday, we talked about adverbs and putting more or most in front of them.  The adverbs we dealt with all ended in -ly. Their spelling this week was about working with prefixes. That also worked into our decoding this week. We broke the word into the prefix and the base or root word.  They are testing today over spelling and the story since we don't have school tomorrow. 

Math-- Okay we had to do a few days of corrections with adding our fractions with like denominators and ordering them.  Last week they did have a couple of problems with VERY LARGE denominators! Luckily the computer gave me a website just to type the numbers in to find it! It still required a lot of work for them. They had to go back to multiplying and dividing! Next week we are going to start back in our book with adding and subtracting with unlike denominators. 

Religion- This week they finished up their chapter. Next week we have mass to prepare for and I will be showing them the movie The Ten Commandments. I usually show it this week, but I wanted to finish up our chapter. Today we will be going to the chapel for the Stations of the Cross. 

Young Writers- Mrs. Burg will be sending home information on this trip. Just a reminder, I will give them their homework on Tuesday that they will be needing for what we do on Wednesday while they are gone. They will need a sack lunch and a drink. I told them I hope they have GREAT weather! I usually end up going on the days we have rain or thunderstorms! 

FYI-- Iowa Assessment Week is April 13-17.

I hope everyone has a wonderful Easter! I am heading to Doon...once again! :)  I am celebrating it with my mom and my oldest sister and her family. 
God Bless, Miss Surma