Hello Parents,
I hope you are having a good week! Welcome to 5th grade. I hope you have signed up to receive these blogs or are finding them on my Facebook page for our class.

The 5th graders are learning our new routine this week. I am too. I'm not used to having most of their core classes in the morning! Those hours fly by so quickly!

Reading- Last week they took a pretest for me in reading and in spelling. It's purpose is to give me an idea of what kind of readers they are.
This week they read a story called " A Package for Mrs. Jewls". It is from the book Wayside School.
The purpose of this story is to entertain. The kids enjoy the fact that the school is 30 stories tall, but there is no 19th floor. Louis is a maintenance man and he has to deliver a package to Mrs. Jewls. When he arrives, she decides to hold a spelling bee to decide who will open the door. One  of the words is package, but the child spells B-O-X. This happens a few times. Again we laugh at these parts.   In grammar they are learning the basics again. We are talking about writing sentences and that a complete sentence needs a subject (noun or pronoun) and a predicate (verb). They are also determining if sentences are complete or fragments.
Their spelling words this week have short vowel sounds. They will take their posttest on Friday. I told them that if they ACE their pretests, they don't take the posttest. No one aced it this week. They also have a list of spelling words that they can study with you. I send those home each week. I will give bonus words eventually, but I look at pretest scores to determine who will get the extra 5. I also lessen the load for kids who struggle with their spelling-- again this is based on how they do each week on their pretest.
I also told them they have to have a chapter book with them at all times. We will do 3 book reports this year, but I haven't assigned the first one yet. I want them to get used to the work.

Math- They have taken a pretest in math. It was 50 problems. It does have problems they may not know how to do yet. That has taken 3 days to get it done by everyone. Our first chapter will start on Thursday. We cover decimals first with the focus being place value names. We will be adding and subtracting them eventually.

Religion- We start our year learning how to find chapter and verses in the Bible. They are working on that now. We will move into our first chapter on creation when we are done with the Bible activity. Bishop Pates will be with us for mass next week!

Pictures- Pictures are tomorrow! If you haven't sent it in yet, please do! Some parents pack an extra shirt if they don't want them to wear that one all day. It is up to you!

 GROUP BAND TOMORROW!!!!

I hope everyone has a great weekend! It is a 3 day weekend! I am heading to Arkansas with my sister. She is going to visit her mother-in-law and I'm just going for the fun! Whatever you are doing, have a great time. Be safe. See your kids on Tuesday! If you need to reach me, my email is asurma@crestonstmalachy.org.

God Bless,
Miss Surma

Hi Parents, 
Please make sure you sign up on the bottom of the Blog to receive these as an email each week! 
I will also post it to our private 5th grade Facebook page. You will need to ask to join that ! Please search for: 
St. Malachy Fabulous Fifth Grade  on Facebook and ask to join. 

Open House is set for Wednesday, August 22 from 4-6pm! Can't wait to see you and your kids! I will be making introductions this year as this is the first time I have had your children! 

See you soon! 
God Bless, 
Miss Surma