Hello Parents, I am going to give you a run down of next week's activities for Catholic Schools Week before I do anything else!
Jan. 29- Kick off to our week with mass at Holy Spirit at 9am. If your child has a part in it, they will see it in their take home folder on a white sheet of paper. They should be at church by 8:30 and look for me or Mrs. Simmons. Please join us afterwards for breakfast in the basement!
Jan. 30- Wear blue and gold day! 11:30 lunch for the staff at A&G. Students need a sack lunch. Milk is provided. No extra drinks. Parent volunteers be here by 11:15.
Jan. 31- Sports Day ( you can wear sweats and hats) Support your favorite sport or team! Grades 4-8 will be going to view the movie Hidden Figures in the morning. Look for a permission form and letter to fill out. The money is due when you return the permission slip. They aren't paying at the theater. I know you are welcome to join us! Just let us know and pay your $4 with your child's fee. We are NOT doing any refreshments at the theater.
Feb 1- America Day- wear your red, white, and blue We will be doing some service projects with our Advent Angels that afternoon.
Feb. 2- Pajama Day! Talent Show in the afternoon at 1:00. You are welcome to come and watch!! Make sure your child has what they need if they are performing that afternoon.
Feb. 3- Dress Up Day. We will be having mass at Holy Spirit at 1:30. The kids will be riding the bus to the church at 1:00. They will meet their special guest or grandparent there. Let me know if your child doesn't have anyone to sit with. Many times we get volunteers, but they could also sit with me! Your child may leave from there, but they just need to find me and let me know. There will be cookies and juice in the basement after mass is over.
Reading- This week we read the story Lunch Money. It is about a boy who creates, draws,and writes his own comic books. He sells them for a quarter a piece. We also read an informational text on the history of comic books. In art on Wednesday, they each picked out a picture of a comic book superhero to color or a graffiti art to color. Our grammar this week is on adjectives. They were identifying the adjectives in a sentence after locating the linking verbs. We also worked on using articles a, an, and the as adjectives.
Unit 3 Test scores are done. I have put them in your child's take home folder. We did them online this time. I don't know if that was good or bad. They did have a paper copy of the stories they could refer back to, but I am not sure if they did that or not. Some of the stories were definitely not as interesting and some questions were pretty challenging.
I do plan on having them read another story next week. I know we will have Catholic Schools Week, but our mornings are pretty much routine, except for Tuesday. They will have a spelling test as well.
Math- We are finishing up our chapter on adding and subtracting decimals this week. We even touched a little bit on balancing a checkbook. It looks like they will do a review next week Monday. I will start the test on Wednesday most likely, but the way our schedule is looking it might get drawn out into the next week to get it done. I will have to see how things go. I hate to do that, but I will see how things go before I fully commit to doing that.
Religion- They took their test on Monday and they all did great! We have started our new chapter on baptism and confirmation.
Next week is going to be a crazy, but fun-filled week! I hope everyone has a good weekend!
God Bless, Miss Surma
Wednesday, January 25, 2017
Wednesday, January 18, 2017
Hello Parents, I hope you are having a good week! Did you enjoy the extra day with the ice??
Reading- This week they are taking their Unit 3 test. They are doing this online on their chromebooks. I will send scores home next week.
Book Report- I have assigned the next report. They are to choose a Newbery Honor or Newbery Winner book. I have shown them the ones in my classroom and I know they have been looking at the books in Mrs. Sickel's room. They will find others in the library. I also gave them the packet of book report choices. I told them they just can't do the same project they did the last time. This book report is due in about 4 weeks...so they don't have time to waste. I would say they have a few days to decide if they like a book or need to change. They will need to figure that out pretty quickly. I can help them pick out some books if they are having a hard time choosing one. The due date is Friday, February 17.
Math- This week they are beginning to add and subtract decimals. This is rather simple for them. The trick is to remember that your decimals have to be aligned and then just drop down. We are still working on estimating the decimals as well. That is a good way to see if your estimate is close to the actual answer. I keep reminding them to think of it as money. There is a big difference between. 0.71, 7.1, and 71.0.
Religion- They are finishing up their chapter. They will be testing over it on Monday.
Next Thursday, Mrs. Sickels and I will send home the parts for those of you who volunteered to be in the kick off Catholic Schools Week mass. Thank you to those who are helping out that day!
Auction- I believe I have some parent helpers creating the basket for the auction. I will get info to you as soon as I know more of the details from them. Thank you!
Friday, Jan. 20- I will be taking off in the afternoon on Friday to go to Waterloo. My nieces play basketball for Columbus High School and I haven't been able to catch a game. Mrs. Bearden will be here with the 5th graders. I know they will be very excited!
Have a great weekend! Enjoy these warmer weather days. I can handle January with these temps!
God Bless, Miss Surma
Reading- This week they are taking their Unit 3 test. They are doing this online on their chromebooks. I will send scores home next week.
Book Report- I have assigned the next report. They are to choose a Newbery Honor or Newbery Winner book. I have shown them the ones in my classroom and I know they have been looking at the books in Mrs. Sickel's room. They will find others in the library. I also gave them the packet of book report choices. I told them they just can't do the same project they did the last time. This book report is due in about 4 weeks...so they don't have time to waste. I would say they have a few days to decide if they like a book or need to change. They will need to figure that out pretty quickly. I can help them pick out some books if they are having a hard time choosing one. The due date is Friday, February 17.
Math- This week they are beginning to add and subtract decimals. This is rather simple for them. The trick is to remember that your decimals have to be aligned and then just drop down. We are still working on estimating the decimals as well. That is a good way to see if your estimate is close to the actual answer. I keep reminding them to think of it as money. There is a big difference between. 0.71, 7.1, and 71.0.
Religion- They are finishing up their chapter. They will be testing over it on Monday.
Next Thursday, Mrs. Sickels and I will send home the parts for those of you who volunteered to be in the kick off Catholic Schools Week mass. Thank you to those who are helping out that day!
Auction- I believe I have some parent helpers creating the basket for the auction. I will get info to you as soon as I know more of the details from them. Thank you!
Friday, Jan. 20- I will be taking off in the afternoon on Friday to go to Waterloo. My nieces play basketball for Columbus High School and I haven't been able to catch a game. Mrs. Bearden will be here with the 5th graders. I know they will be very excited!
Have a great weekend! Enjoy these warmer weather days. I can handle January with these temps!
God Bless, Miss Surma
Wednesday, January 11, 2017
Hello Parent, Happy Thursday! I hope your week is going well for you!
First, I am just letting you know that Mrs. Levine's father-in-law passed away on Wednesday. I don't know any details yet for the funeral. We will keep them all in our prayers.
Reading- This week we read a story called We Were There, Too! This was another biography about two people who served in the Revolutionary War. Joseph Plumb Martin was 15 when he enlisted in the war and received payment of a silver dollar! He kept a diary that was later published about his experiences. We read about a battle against the British near a creek. The Redcoats were forcing the American soldiers to back up into the creek. Many died from drowning. He served his six months and then went back to farming for a year, but got bored. He signed back up and served 6 more years. We talked a lot about his experiences and the things he witnessed as a boy. The other person was Sybil Ludington. She was the oldest of 8 children and was responsible at home in helping to take care of them. One night she volunteered to round up other militiamen to join the fight. She had to ride her horse during a storm on bad roads for about 40 miles. She would use a stick to pound on the doors to awake the men and alert them. We found out that she actually had to endure more hardships on her ride than Paul Revere, but he is more well known because of the poem written by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. We read that poem as well. I would say overall the class has really enjoyed the true stories in these last two lessons.
On Wednesday, I also had them listen to songs from the Broadway musical, Hamilton. This is a current hit on Broadway! It is about the life of Alexander Hamilton during this time period. One of the characters in the play is King George. I reminded them today about him because we had read his story too. They listened to him singing! I think they really liked it! We continued to listen to more of the songs during art! I think part of the fun was that many of the songs are rap.
Math- We are really working on our decimals. They have been focused on being able to identify the place value names of each. We have also been working on rounding decimals to the nearest tenth, hundredth, or ones. On Wednesday we did that, but we also rounded to the nearest benchmark number. We used a number line to show where the number would land--to the nearest 0, o.25, 0.50, 0.75, or 1. We are doing more of that on Thursday. With that they began some adding and subtracting. What some are having the harder time with is the rounding to the nearest one or tenth or hundredth. They forget to keep some numbers and the others disappear. For example: 0.257 rounded to the nearest hundredth is 0.26. Some of them are working on decimals now when they do their ST Math. So that is helpful because it is extra practice.
Religion- We are back in a regular chapter. This chapter is focusing on baptism. We read about how John the Baptist baptized Jesus. We also read about Nicodemus learning about baptism saving him. Nicodemus was a secret follower of Jesus for awhile, but when Jesus died on the cross, he helped Joseph of Arimathea bury him in the tomb.
Food Pantry- This Friday we will walk to the Food Pantry to help with their truck's load of items.
Spirit Day- This Friday is also Spirit Day! They can wear sweats for $1!
Catholic Schools Week- In your child's folder is a sign up to help with our kick off mass at Holy Spirit Church on January 29. Please take a moment to check your calendar and see if your child would like to help us out. The PTO will host a breakfast in the basement after mass that day!
I hope you have a great weekend! No school on Monday! Enjoy the extra day! We will be heading to Des Moines for PD.
God Bless,
Miss Surma
First, I am just letting you know that Mrs. Levine's father-in-law passed away on Wednesday. I don't know any details yet for the funeral. We will keep them all in our prayers.
Reading- This week we read a story called We Were There, Too! This was another biography about two people who served in the Revolutionary War. Joseph Plumb Martin was 15 when he enlisted in the war and received payment of a silver dollar! He kept a diary that was later published about his experiences. We read about a battle against the British near a creek. The Redcoats were forcing the American soldiers to back up into the creek. Many died from drowning. He served his six months and then went back to farming for a year, but got bored. He signed back up and served 6 more years. We talked a lot about his experiences and the things he witnessed as a boy. The other person was Sybil Ludington. She was the oldest of 8 children and was responsible at home in helping to take care of them. One night she volunteered to round up other militiamen to join the fight. She had to ride her horse during a storm on bad roads for about 40 miles. She would use a stick to pound on the doors to awake the men and alert them. We found out that she actually had to endure more hardships on her ride than Paul Revere, but he is more well known because of the poem written by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. We read that poem as well. I would say overall the class has really enjoyed the true stories in these last two lessons.
On Wednesday, I also had them listen to songs from the Broadway musical, Hamilton. This is a current hit on Broadway! It is about the life of Alexander Hamilton during this time period. One of the characters in the play is King George. I reminded them today about him because we had read his story too. They listened to him singing! I think they really liked it! We continued to listen to more of the songs during art! I think part of the fun was that many of the songs are rap.
Math- We are really working on our decimals. They have been focused on being able to identify the place value names of each. We have also been working on rounding decimals to the nearest tenth, hundredth, or ones. On Wednesday we did that, but we also rounded to the nearest benchmark number. We used a number line to show where the number would land--to the nearest 0, o.25, 0.50, 0.75, or 1. We are doing more of that on Thursday. With that they began some adding and subtracting. What some are having the harder time with is the rounding to the nearest one or tenth or hundredth. They forget to keep some numbers and the others disappear. For example: 0.257 rounded to the nearest hundredth is 0.26. Some of them are working on decimals now when they do their ST Math. So that is helpful because it is extra practice.
Religion- We are back in a regular chapter. This chapter is focusing on baptism. We read about how John the Baptist baptized Jesus. We also read about Nicodemus learning about baptism saving him. Nicodemus was a secret follower of Jesus for awhile, but when Jesus died on the cross, he helped Joseph of Arimathea bury him in the tomb.
Food Pantry- This Friday we will walk to the Food Pantry to help with their truck's load of items.
Spirit Day- This Friday is also Spirit Day! They can wear sweats for $1!
Catholic Schools Week- In your child's folder is a sign up to help with our kick off mass at Holy Spirit Church on January 29. Please take a moment to check your calendar and see if your child would like to help us out. The PTO will host a breakfast in the basement after mass that day!
I hope you have a great weekend! No school on Monday! Enjoy the extra day! We will be heading to Des Moines for PD.
God Bless,
Miss Surma
Wednesday, January 4, 2017
Hello Parents,
I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and New Years! I had a great time back home. My siblings and I gathered at my parents' home for our last Christmas in the house. We will sell their home this coming fall at some point. Many many laughs were shared and a few tears, but overall a wonderful time.
Reading- This week we are reading a story about James Forten who was an African American who worked on some of the battle ships during the Revolutionary War. Our discussion today was focused on the fact that he wanted to become a soldier and help out, but that the reality of his situation was that he could be captured and sent to the West Indies to become a slave, even though he was a free man. Again we had a great discussion throughout the story on what it must have been like for him during that era. We also learned about the making of the sails for the ships and how difficult a job that was for the men. The thread they used could cut their hands like a knife. They had to use wax to coat the thread in order to make it easier.
Grammar- They are working with commas and semicolons this week. They are learning to put them in places more than just separating items in a series.
I will probably be setting a date soon for the next book report. I want to look at my calendar a bit more.
Math- This week we started working with decimals. At this point they are learning the place value names and then recognizing what happens when you multiply or divide a decimal number by 10. The key is to notice how that decimal moves to the right or the left. They were using calculators in class, but soon some of them figured out the pattern and did it mentally! Woo hoo! We also created some dance steps " to the right , to the right, to the right" when we multiply and "to the left, to the left, to the left" when we divide! It was fun! Some of them have already got a pretty good idea of decimals because of dealing with money, but also because they are doing that work on the Chromebooks with their ST Math.
Religion- We came back and are doing a short chapter covering the Christmas season since we are still in it until Sunday.
Auction- I know it is early, but I am asking now for help with the auction basket or the silent auction item. I will be asking for donations to the basket as well once we have a theme chosen. If any of you are willing to take on one of those items, please let me know. First come first serve. I will also help out! The auction is set for Saturday, March 4, 2017. I believe 8th grade is already doing a Christmas basket. Just email me or send a note with your child! I can also help out in picking a theme.
Friday, January 13, is a Spirit Day! We will also walk to the Food Pantry to help out in the afternoon! Hopefully the temps will be better than this week!
Catholic Schools Week is around the corner. Be sure to keep an eye out for the schedule of activities for that week! There will also be a volunteer list being sent home for the kick off mass at Holy Spirit Church. Mrs. Sickels and I are planning that one.
Have a great weekend! Stay Warm!
God Bless, Miss Surma
I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and New Years! I had a great time back home. My siblings and I gathered at my parents' home for our last Christmas in the house. We will sell their home this coming fall at some point. Many many laughs were shared and a few tears, but overall a wonderful time.
Reading- This week we are reading a story about James Forten who was an African American who worked on some of the battle ships during the Revolutionary War. Our discussion today was focused on the fact that he wanted to become a soldier and help out, but that the reality of his situation was that he could be captured and sent to the West Indies to become a slave, even though he was a free man. Again we had a great discussion throughout the story on what it must have been like for him during that era. We also learned about the making of the sails for the ships and how difficult a job that was for the men. The thread they used could cut their hands like a knife. They had to use wax to coat the thread in order to make it easier.
Grammar- They are working with commas and semicolons this week. They are learning to put them in places more than just separating items in a series.
I will probably be setting a date soon for the next book report. I want to look at my calendar a bit more.
Math- This week we started working with decimals. At this point they are learning the place value names and then recognizing what happens when you multiply or divide a decimal number by 10. The key is to notice how that decimal moves to the right or the left. They were using calculators in class, but soon some of them figured out the pattern and did it mentally! Woo hoo! We also created some dance steps " to the right , to the right, to the right" when we multiply and "to the left, to the left, to the left" when we divide! It was fun! Some of them have already got a pretty good idea of decimals because of dealing with money, but also because they are doing that work on the Chromebooks with their ST Math.
Religion- We came back and are doing a short chapter covering the Christmas season since we are still in it until Sunday.
Auction- I know it is early, but I am asking now for help with the auction basket or the silent auction item. I will be asking for donations to the basket as well once we have a theme chosen. If any of you are willing to take on one of those items, please let me know. First come first serve. I will also help out! The auction is set for Saturday, March 4, 2017. I believe 8th grade is already doing a Christmas basket. Just email me or send a note with your child! I can also help out in picking a theme.
Friday, January 13, is a Spirit Day! We will also walk to the Food Pantry to help out in the afternoon! Hopefully the temps will be better than this week!
Catholic Schools Week is around the corner. Be sure to keep an eye out for the schedule of activities for that week! There will also be a volunteer list being sent home for the kick off mass at Holy Spirit Church. Mrs. Sickels and I are planning that one.
Have a great weekend! Stay Warm!
God Bless, Miss Surma
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