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