Hello Parents, 
I hope everyone is getting into the groove of school again! Welcome to 5th Grade!!!  So, this blog is my main way of keeping you up to date on what we are doing. I very rarely send home paper stuff. I will post things on our Facebook page as well, but you should always check here for information. 


Reading- This week they are reading an excerpt from Wayside School . This is a humorous fiction story. There are some silly things that happen in the school and with the teacher! We are focusing on creating a story map to identify the problem in the story , the events, and the resolution. We are also talking about irony. In grammar we are working on identifying the simple subject and simple predicate of a sentence. I am trying to get them to focus on finding the noun and the verb!  They took a spelling test on Monday. They will have a posttest on Friday. I don't do bonus right away. I will base that on some pretest scores to see. Once they are doing bonus, they continue to do it. They are learning that in 5th grade everything but math is done in cursive, unless I tell them otherwise. This is great for many of them because it is forcing them to slow down. They will test over this story on Friday. They will take an online test as they did last year in 4th grade. 
We also got them on Quizlet this week. They will be able to work on spelling and vocabulary words there. 



Math- They took a pretest this week. On Wednesday we started our first chapter. It focuses on place value. They will be working with millions and eventually we will be working the place value positions of decimals. 

Religion- We always begin our year discussing the Bible and how to locate readings or passages in the different books. We then move into the story of Creation and the Holy Trinity. 

Spirit Day is next Friday! They can wear sweats for $1! It is also the big CY-Hawk game so they can support their favorite team! I will most likely be supporting the UNI Panthers. I might be "allergic" to those other colors! :)

I am reading the book Wonder to them. This is a fave of mine. I am also working with them on acts of kindness. In the book, August was born with some facial deformities and he is just beginning his 5th grade year. He was home-schooled up until this point. It is a great story on accepting differences and bullying. We will have a REAL-LIFE Auggie as our pen pal. His name is Mason. The kids will be sending him letters so we can get to know him better. He is 11 years old. I'm also trying to get them to catch some acts of kindness so we can fill our jar. It's kind of like the bucket fillers. 

Facebook- If you are on Facebook, make sure to look for my page St. Malachy Fabulous Fifth Grade. Ask to join and I will take care of the rest! 

Chromebooks are up and running! They are already typing letters up for their Iowa History project with Mrs. Sickels. 

Holy Spirit International Food Fair is set for September 10. 

I hope everyone enjoys the three day weekend whether you are staying put or traveling. I am heading to my hometown of Doon. My siblings and I will be putting our childhood home for sale this fall. I am going home to do some more packing, donating, and pitching this weekend. Have a great weekend!!!

God Bless,
Miss Surma