Hi Parents- A couple things I forgot to mention:
Mass will be on Tuesday, November 1 for the holy day of obligation- All Saints Day. You are more than welcome to attend.
Next Wednesday will be the Iowa History Fair! Look in your child's folder for a flyer with the details. The kids can invite their grandparents as well!
Thursday, October 27, 2016
Wednesday, October 26, 2016
Dear Parents,
Happy Thursday! I hope you are having a good week. We have a busy week next week...so please check out the calendar.
Monday/Halloween- We will celebrate Halloween on Monday afternoon. The Civics Club will provide activities and treats for the K-5 in the afternoon. The 5th graders should bring their costume to school on Monday. They will change into them after the activities. The parade will take place in the gym around 2:30. You are invited to attend the parade! If you want to take your child home afterwards, please just let me know before you leave. I am not going to ask for any treats or drinks because I know they will receive that from the activities. I am sure that will be enough.
Reading- This week we are reading a nonfiction piece on the Everglades. It is story about a 5th grade class that goes there for a field trip. They are also learning about what is happening to the Everglades and the work that is in place to restore the water system. On Tuesday we had a lesson on figuring out the purpose of the story. I broke the class up into 3 groups and assigned each a page to reread. They had to pick a reason as to why it was important to save the Everglades. They then shared their example with the entire class. We are going to discuss that on Thursday. I also showed them a short 7 minute video clip of the Everglades so they could get a better idea of what that park is like.
Grammar this week is covering the conjunctions (and, but, or or). We worked on writing complex sentences on Wednesday using subordinating conjunctions. This means one sentence or clause is dependent on the other. We use words such as: when, because, although, and since. For example: Because I didn't study for my test, I didn't do very well. Although it rained last night, we can still have recess outside.
Spelling this week is covering homophones: steal, steel, ring, wring, lesson, lessen. I did tell them that on Friday I would mix them up for the posttest. They will have to know the meaning of the word so they know which one to write down.
Math- We have spent much of the week correcting math tests. This takes time for me because I really want to work them individually to see what they understood of the problem and what was confusing them. We will start our new chapter today. Chapter 2 is division. It will kick off with long division right away with single digit divisors. Some of them are already doing that on our ST Math. I think many of them will move quickly. It may change though when we hit the double digit divisors, but let's not jump to that yet!
Religion- They have passed their prayers! Now we are going to begin learning every decade of the rosary. They won't learn them all in one shot. I have them focus on one mystery at a time.
Halloween Stories- During the conferences you can take time to read some of their stories. They are outside my room. They did a great job!
Friday- Free Spirit Day! Wear your black and red to support the Panther football team. The students may wear their sweats if they want to--for FREE!
Have a great weekend! I am heading to Doon to do some yardwork at Mom's house...getting it ready for winter.
God Bless,
Miss Surma
Happy Thursday! I hope you are having a good week. We have a busy week next week...so please check out the calendar.
Monday/Halloween- We will celebrate Halloween on Monday afternoon. The Civics Club will provide activities and treats for the K-5 in the afternoon. The 5th graders should bring their costume to school on Monday. They will change into them after the activities. The parade will take place in the gym around 2:30. You are invited to attend the parade! If you want to take your child home afterwards, please just let me know before you leave. I am not going to ask for any treats or drinks because I know they will receive that from the activities. I am sure that will be enough.
Reading- This week we are reading a nonfiction piece on the Everglades. It is story about a 5th grade class that goes there for a field trip. They are also learning about what is happening to the Everglades and the work that is in place to restore the water system. On Tuesday we had a lesson on figuring out the purpose of the story. I broke the class up into 3 groups and assigned each a page to reread. They had to pick a reason as to why it was important to save the Everglades. They then shared their example with the entire class. We are going to discuss that on Thursday. I also showed them a short 7 minute video clip of the Everglades so they could get a better idea of what that park is like.
Grammar this week is covering the conjunctions (and, but, or or). We worked on writing complex sentences on Wednesday using subordinating conjunctions. This means one sentence or clause is dependent on the other. We use words such as: when, because, although, and since. For example: Because I didn't study for my test, I didn't do very well. Although it rained last night, we can still have recess outside.
Spelling this week is covering homophones: steal, steel, ring, wring, lesson, lessen. I did tell them that on Friday I would mix them up for the posttest. They will have to know the meaning of the word so they know which one to write down.
Math- We have spent much of the week correcting math tests. This takes time for me because I really want to work them individually to see what they understood of the problem and what was confusing them. We will start our new chapter today. Chapter 2 is division. It will kick off with long division right away with single digit divisors. Some of them are already doing that on our ST Math. I think many of them will move quickly. It may change though when we hit the double digit divisors, but let's not jump to that yet!
Religion- They have passed their prayers! Now we are going to begin learning every decade of the rosary. They won't learn them all in one shot. I have them focus on one mystery at a time.
Halloween Stories- During the conferences you can take time to read some of their stories. They are outside my room. They did a great job!
Friday- Free Spirit Day! Wear your black and red to support the Panther football team. The students may wear their sweats if they want to--for FREE!
Have a great weekend! I am heading to Doon to do some yardwork at Mom's house...getting it ready for winter.
God Bless,
Miss Surma
Thursday, October 20, 2016
Dear Parents,
The weather is changing off and on. Some of the kids are wearing only a sweatshirt to school, which is fine, but that isn't a coat/jacket. Many of them choose to wear that all day in the classroom, which is fine as well. A coat is needed these days. A coat/jacket is something they will take off and hang in their locker. They may need it in the morning, but by after school time they won't. I am having that discussion with them today because many didn't dress appropriately for the cold temperatures. We don't go out if it is below freezing or raining.
Thanks,
Miss Surma
The weather is changing off and on. Some of the kids are wearing only a sweatshirt to school, which is fine, but that isn't a coat/jacket. Many of them choose to wear that all day in the classroom, which is fine as well. A coat is needed these days. A coat/jacket is something they will take off and hang in their locker. They may need it in the morning, but by after school time they won't. I am having that discussion with them today because many didn't dress appropriately for the cold temperatures. We don't go out if it is below freezing or raining.
Thanks,
Miss Surma
Wednesday, October 19, 2016
Dear Parents,
I hope you enjoyed your long weekend! I know I did! I was in Doon with most of my siblings. We are having to go through Mom's stuff. It wasn't exactly fun,but spending time with them is always good. Below is a link for the conference sign-up. I added some extra time slots on Tuesday and Wednesday because I can't get all of you in on Thursday. Check your calendars and pick your time ASAP. Thanks!
"http://www.
Social Studies- I just wanted to put out there that their Iowa History reports (rough draft) are due on Friday to Mrs. Sickels. She said if you can have it typed that would be easier for her, but I don't believe it's a requirement until the final copy. She likes to look them over and then she make some final suggestions before the final is due. The kids have a list of questions they should be able to answer. If the information isn't in the stuff they received in the mail, they may be able to find it online.
Science- Their test is on Friday. Mrs. Burg told me that they should be studying their vocabulary for sure because that is a more difficult piece on the test. I reminded them of that on Wednesday.
Math- The test is tomorrow (Thursday). If they need extra time-- we will use Friday as well. You will see their test once I am done grading and if any corrections need to be made. They will make those corrections with me. I like to sit with them and figure out what they missed and how we can fix it.
Reading- This week we read a short excerpt from Old Yeller. (Not the sad part-- I didn't tell them) This is about how the main character has to rescue his little brother Arliss from a bear cub and its mom. We are working on direct objects in grammar. So we are finding the verb and then trying to figure how who or what received that action. I ask them a lot of questions to help them pick it out. On Wednesday, we spent time going over adages and proverbs. I did tell them-- these are little phrases that they may not hear of much these days, but that there is always some meaning or lesson behind them. For example: It's better to be safe than sorry. They were able to give me lots of examples for this one. We also used it when talking about studying for their science test starting tonight (Wednesday) because we know the vocabulary piece is going to be a challenge. It is better to be safe than sorry and wait until the last possible minute to study. A penny saved is a penny earned was another one. We also talked about how we can't always take them literally...it's raining cats and dogs. They told me that just means it is raining really hard. It's not REALLY raining cats and dogs. :) This is a tricky part of the test on Friday.
Halloween stories- I am handing them back as fast as I can edit them. I have some already returned with the final copy. I am trying to give them at least 5 days to type it up. If you can't print it-- email the story and I will print it for you. I will have some of them posted on the wall in the hallway by the Spaghetti Supper!
Religion- Many of them have already memorized both prayers. I have a few that are still working on one, but they are so close. We will move to the different decades of the rosary next!
Spirit Day is on Friday! $1 for sweats!
Spaghetti Supper is this Saturday! I know spots to help work it are still open! Please check your calendar and do what you can to help out! I will probably see you there.
Have a great weekend!
God Bless,
Miss Surma
I hope you enjoyed your long weekend! I know I did! I was in Doon with most of my siblings. We are having to go through Mom's stuff. It wasn't exactly fun,but spending time with them is always good. Below is a link for the conference sign-up. I added some extra time slots on Tuesday and Wednesday because I can't get all of you in on Thursday. Check your calendars and pick your time ASAP. Thanks!
"http://www.
Social Studies- I just wanted to put out there that their Iowa History reports (rough draft) are due on Friday to Mrs. Sickels. She said if you can have it typed that would be easier for her, but I don't believe it's a requirement until the final copy. She likes to look them over and then she make some final suggestions before the final is due. The kids have a list of questions they should be able to answer. If the information isn't in the stuff they received in the mail, they may be able to find it online.
Science- Their test is on Friday. Mrs. Burg told me that they should be studying their vocabulary for sure because that is a more difficult piece on the test. I reminded them of that on Wednesday.
Math- The test is tomorrow (Thursday). If they need extra time-- we will use Friday as well. You will see their test once I am done grading and if any corrections need to be made. They will make those corrections with me. I like to sit with them and figure out what they missed and how we can fix it.
Reading- This week we read a short excerpt from Old Yeller. (Not the sad part-- I didn't tell them) This is about how the main character has to rescue his little brother Arliss from a bear cub and its mom. We are working on direct objects in grammar. So we are finding the verb and then trying to figure how who or what received that action. I ask them a lot of questions to help them pick it out. On Wednesday, we spent time going over adages and proverbs. I did tell them-- these are little phrases that they may not hear of much these days, but that there is always some meaning or lesson behind them. For example: It's better to be safe than sorry. They were able to give me lots of examples for this one. We also used it when talking about studying for their science test starting tonight (Wednesday) because we know the vocabulary piece is going to be a challenge. It is better to be safe than sorry and wait until the last possible minute to study. A penny saved is a penny earned was another one. We also talked about how we can't always take them literally...it's raining cats and dogs. They told me that just means it is raining really hard. It's not REALLY raining cats and dogs. :) This is a tricky part of the test on Friday.
Halloween stories- I am handing them back as fast as I can edit them. I have some already returned with the final copy. I am trying to give them at least 5 days to type it up. If you can't print it-- email the story and I will print it for you. I will have some of them posted on the wall in the hallway by the Spaghetti Supper!
Religion- Many of them have already memorized both prayers. I have a few that are still working on one, but they are so close. We will move to the different decades of the rosary next!
Spirit Day is on Friday! $1 for sweats!
Spaghetti Supper is this Saturday! I know spots to help work it are still open! Please check your calendar and do what you can to help out! I will probably see you there.
Have a great weekend!
God Bless,
Miss Surma
Wednesday, October 12, 2016
Happy Thursday Everyone! I hope you are having a good week. It looks like you get a long weekend too. I hope you are able to take some time and enjoy it!
Just a reminder-- No School on Friday. We will be attending the 21st Century Learning at the high school. The public school is also off on Friday. We also don't have school on Monday. We (staff) will be going to Des Moines for some faith professional development as well as some meetings with the other teachers in the diocese. The public school will be holding classes on Monday.
Math- I feel like every time I tell you what we are going to do be doing, I can't follow through with it! So this week we are working with the Order of Operations. That took a bit longer. On Tuesday and Wednesday we added more to that by calling it Grouping Symbols. They were given expressions to solve that were within parentheses and then brackets and finally braces. They seemed to like this a lot more! I did hear a student say more than once,"This is fun! It is liking solving a puzzle!" YES!!!!! We will be doing a little more work with that today. Next week we will be working on a chapter review. I have the test set for Thursday at the moment. If we need to finish it up on Friday-- we will do that. One day at a time. :)
Reading- This week we read an information piece on tree kangaroos. We read about a team that goes to Papa New Guinea to locate them and then put a tracking device on them so they can do more research on the animals. We learned the word "elusive" because that is what they consider these animals! We also discussed some aspects in the story to identify the cause and effect. On Tuesday, I worked with a small group on different situations and they had to create the cause and the effect. For example, "Sharon's mom buys cookies, but hides them." The causes were many, but the one I enjoyed the most was that she was hiding them for herself! We then had to come up with what the possible effect would be from hiding them. They will be testing over the story and the spelling words today.
Unit test scores are in your child's take home folder. I don't need that copy back. I made that one for you. This was a Benchmark test which means there were more stories to read and only about 7 questions to answer per story. They only did about 2 stories a day and were given about an hour to do them in, but many were finished much sooner. I do think the questions can be challenging, but I also believe they can go back and find the answers. I have done that when I look them over while checking. I can show you the actual test at conferences in November.
Religion- They have been doing the rosary as well as learning their prayers. Some have already passed both the Apostle's Creed and Hail Holy Queen. You might ask your child over the long weekend if they have passed. They could practice it with you at home,
All School Mass- Next week is an All School Mass. Your child might have a part. IF they do, they will have a note in their take home folder telling you what the job is and if they have a speaking part, that will be attached to practice.
Service- The 5th graders helped out during their recess on Wednesday at the Rectory Rerun. A truck arrived that needed to be loaded. Usually the middle school kids help out with this, but they were eating lunch at the time. The 5th graders were more than willing to help out! They were most excited to tell me they loaded a Christmas tree! I was proud of them for stepping in during their recess time!
I sure love your kids! They are a great bunch! Have a great weekend! Enjoy your extra couple of days. I am heading to Doon on Friday after our meetings.
God Bless,
Miss Surma
Just a reminder-- No School on Friday. We will be attending the 21st Century Learning at the high school. The public school is also off on Friday. We also don't have school on Monday. We (staff) will be going to Des Moines for some faith professional development as well as some meetings with the other teachers in the diocese. The public school will be holding classes on Monday.
Math- I feel like every time I tell you what we are going to do be doing, I can't follow through with it! So this week we are working with the Order of Operations. That took a bit longer. On Tuesday and Wednesday we added more to that by calling it Grouping Symbols. They were given expressions to solve that were within parentheses and then brackets and finally braces. They seemed to like this a lot more! I did hear a student say more than once,"This is fun! It is liking solving a puzzle!" YES!!!!! We will be doing a little more work with that today. Next week we will be working on a chapter review. I have the test set for Thursday at the moment. If we need to finish it up on Friday-- we will do that. One day at a time. :)
Reading- This week we read an information piece on tree kangaroos. We read about a team that goes to Papa New Guinea to locate them and then put a tracking device on them so they can do more research on the animals. We learned the word "elusive" because that is what they consider these animals! We also discussed some aspects in the story to identify the cause and effect. On Tuesday, I worked with a small group on different situations and they had to create the cause and the effect. For example, "Sharon's mom buys cookies, but hides them." The causes were many, but the one I enjoyed the most was that she was hiding them for herself! We then had to come up with what the possible effect would be from hiding them. They will be testing over the story and the spelling words today.
Unit test scores are in your child's take home folder. I don't need that copy back. I made that one for you. This was a Benchmark test which means there were more stories to read and only about 7 questions to answer per story. They only did about 2 stories a day and were given about an hour to do them in, but many were finished much sooner. I do think the questions can be challenging, but I also believe they can go back and find the answers. I have done that when I look them over while checking. I can show you the actual test at conferences in November.
Religion- They have been doing the rosary as well as learning their prayers. Some have already passed both the Apostle's Creed and Hail Holy Queen. You might ask your child over the long weekend if they have passed. They could practice it with you at home,
All School Mass- Next week is an All School Mass. Your child might have a part. IF they do, they will have a note in their take home folder telling you what the job is and if they have a speaking part, that will be attached to practice.
Service- The 5th graders helped out during their recess on Wednesday at the Rectory Rerun. A truck arrived that needed to be loaded. Usually the middle school kids help out with this, but they were eating lunch at the time. The 5th graders were more than willing to help out! They were most excited to tell me they loaded a Christmas tree! I was proud of them for stepping in during their recess time!
I sure love your kids! They are a great bunch! Have a great weekend! Enjoy your extra couple of days. I am heading to Doon on Friday after our meetings.
God Bless,
Miss Surma
Wednesday, October 5, 2016
Hello Parents, I hope you are having a great week! We have been busy!
Reading- They are still working through their first unit test. I don't think I will have scores done for you until next week. Sorry about that. They finished up the comprehension section on Wednesday. They are working on the revision piece on Thursday and Friday.
We have also been working on creating Halloween stories. On Tuesday they worked on a Halloween mad-lib. This was to give them an idea of what a Halloween story could be about...it doesn't have to be scary. This was silly and funny. This was also a good way for them to work on some parts of speech. On Thursday, they will begin creating their own idea of their Halloween story. I have told them that their story cannot be gross or violent. It can still be a scary story without so much description. We have enough violence in our world these days, I don't want that in their stories. It can be about a Halloween party, a haunted house, trick-or-treating, or just a scary story. They will write their rough draft out for me to edit. Their final draft will have to be typed. If you don't have a computer at home, let me know. We can make a plan for them to use one here. They can come in early or stay after school with me to work on it. If you don't have a printer, you can always email me your child's paper, and I will print it off here. I usually give them different due dates on the final draft only because I don't sit down and edit them all in one night. They will all get the same amount of time to type it up-- I just base it on when I am able to hand it back to them.
Book Report- I assigned their first book report as well. It has to be a chapter book they haven't read before or had read to them. It should also be over 100 pages. I know they like these I Survive books and they are great, but I want them to try something a little more challenging. They were also given a handout with about 8 different options for their report. They only choose 1. They have plenty of time to do this--about 7 weeks. They will need to let me know their book once they have it picked out. The due date is Thursday, November 17. I chose that day because I know we won't be able to get through all of them in one day. It will also be another unit test week, so it will be good to break up the testing.
Math- This week we did some more work with division using the Distributive Property. We are also stepping into the world of writing algebraic expressions. They seem to enjoy this because they are making up word problems to go with the expression, but are finding that it isn't so easy. We will also be going into that a little further working with the order of operations. I have made them little cards to keep that will remind them of the steps. We are nearing the end of our chapter. They could be taking a test next week, but we will see how these final lessons go. The fun part for me this week was that in doing a "review" problem on their worksheet, I heard many say, " I can't do this, I don't know how to divide." I reminded them they learned two ways to divide a problem using multiplication and division with the Distributive Property! They said, "We can do it that way?" I said, "Why not? It's division isn't it?" They were so excited to remember that and not worry about doing long division.
Religion- They will take their test on Thursday. On Friday we start our work with the Rosary. If they want to have their own rosary with them, I am fine with that, but I will tell them they are responsible for taking care of it. If it is a special gift from someone... I suggest they keep it at home. I have plenty of rosaries they can use.
Friday Lunch- This Friday is the optional sack lunch day again. If they want to eat the school's menu they are more than welcome to! We will supply the milk. No drinks are needed.
Spirit Day- Friday is also Spirit Day! They may want the sweats because I hear the weather will be cooler! $1.
Have a great weekend!
God Bless,
Miss Surma
Reading- They are still working through their first unit test. I don't think I will have scores done for you until next week. Sorry about that. They finished up the comprehension section on Wednesday. They are working on the revision piece on Thursday and Friday.
We have also been working on creating Halloween stories. On Tuesday they worked on a Halloween mad-lib. This was to give them an idea of what a Halloween story could be about...it doesn't have to be scary. This was silly and funny. This was also a good way for them to work on some parts of speech. On Thursday, they will begin creating their own idea of their Halloween story. I have told them that their story cannot be gross or violent. It can still be a scary story without so much description. We have enough violence in our world these days, I don't want that in their stories. It can be about a Halloween party, a haunted house, trick-or-treating, or just a scary story. They will write their rough draft out for me to edit. Their final draft will have to be typed. If you don't have a computer at home, let me know. We can make a plan for them to use one here. They can come in early or stay after school with me to work on it. If you don't have a printer, you can always email me your child's paper, and I will print it off here. I usually give them different due dates on the final draft only because I don't sit down and edit them all in one night. They will all get the same amount of time to type it up-- I just base it on when I am able to hand it back to them.
Book Report- I assigned their first book report as well. It has to be a chapter book they haven't read before or had read to them. It should also be over 100 pages. I know they like these I Survive books and they are great, but I want them to try something a little more challenging. They were also given a handout with about 8 different options for their report. They only choose 1. They have plenty of time to do this--about 7 weeks. They will need to let me know their book once they have it picked out. The due date is Thursday, November 17. I chose that day because I know we won't be able to get through all of them in one day. It will also be another unit test week, so it will be good to break up the testing.
Math- This week we did some more work with division using the Distributive Property. We are also stepping into the world of writing algebraic expressions. They seem to enjoy this because they are making up word problems to go with the expression, but are finding that it isn't so easy. We will also be going into that a little further working with the order of operations. I have made them little cards to keep that will remind them of the steps. We are nearing the end of our chapter. They could be taking a test next week, but we will see how these final lessons go. The fun part for me this week was that in doing a "review" problem on their worksheet, I heard many say, " I can't do this, I don't know how to divide." I reminded them they learned two ways to divide a problem using multiplication and division with the Distributive Property! They said, "We can do it that way?" I said, "Why not? It's division isn't it?" They were so excited to remember that and not worry about doing long division.
Religion- They will take their test on Thursday. On Friday we start our work with the Rosary. If they want to have their own rosary with them, I am fine with that, but I will tell them they are responsible for taking care of it. If it is a special gift from someone... I suggest they keep it at home. I have plenty of rosaries they can use.
Friday Lunch- This Friday is the optional sack lunch day again. If they want to eat the school's menu they are more than welcome to! We will supply the milk. No drinks are needed.
Spirit Day- Friday is also Spirit Day! They may want the sweats because I hear the weather will be cooler! $1.
Have a great weekend!
God Bless,
Miss Surma
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)