Dear Parents, Happy Thursday! I hope your week has gone well. We have had a GREAT week! Today is our Friday. Remember, there is no school for your kids on Friday or Monday due to professional development for us. 

Reading- In your child's folder is their scores from last week's unit test. Now, some are not really great scores. That doesn't surprise me much because this is a Benchmark test and they always seem to be more challenging. I did also have a long talk with them though because that can only be part of the issue. I told them they cannot read these one time and think they have comprehended everything because their scores show that can't be working. They have an hour to do these tests. They aren't really timed. I spread them out over the week. There is no reason to rush. I have a feeling some may not have bothered to go back to the story to look for answer. We can talk more at conferences too. 

This week they are reading a nonfiction story about tree kangaroos. These are elusive animals. We are taking the journey with some scientists who want to put some tracking devices on them so they can gain more information about them.  We focused a lot on cause and effect with this story. On Wednesday we read a short story-- a myth. It was about how koalas came to be to not have tails. According to the myth it was because he was out searching for water with a tree kangaroo, but was lazy and liked to whine. The the kangaroo finally found water, the koala being so excited sliced off his tail on a sharp rock. The myth was trying to teach that you should do the work and share the rewards instead of being greedy and lazy.

Math- We are still working on the chapter with order of operations. Some of them are forgetting there are rules they have to follow in order to solve an expression. I slowed down a bit on Wednesday so I could work with some kids on making corrections. On Tuesday, they were introduced to parentheses, brackets, and braces. They took notes of the order of operations in their notebooks. They will be able to use that when they finally test over this chapter. 

Religion- We are still saying the rosary. Many of them have memorized their two prayers! I just have a few left. When they are all done, we will work on the mysteries of the rosary. 

Muffins with Mom is next Thursday! I will probably see many of you there! 

Prayers- Our prayers go out to Fr. Halbur and his family. His aunt and uncle died in the wild fires in CA earlier this week. 

Have a GREAT weekend! I am actually staying in town! I have a house that really needs cleaning! I also have a book that I need to finish for my book club! I hope everyone enjoys their long weekend! Have some fun! 

God Bless,
Miss Surma