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