Dear Parents, 
I hope you are enjoying the sunny and dry weather for a change!!! I know I love having a dry room again! 

Reading- This week we read a story called Off and Running. This is a story about two kids who are running for class president. The hold a debate with the entire grade listening. We discussed in class that Miata uses more formal language with her speech and really wants to improve the looks of the school. Rudy uses more informal language and wants things like longer recesses and ice cream every day. They filled out a Venn diagram on the characters in pairs on Tuesday. We were looking for more than Miata is a girl, Rudy is a boy kind of information. In grammar they are working on the subject and predicate parts of sentences. On Wednesday, they worked in pairs using Scrabble tiles to find out which of their spelling words was worth the most in points. They are also breaking up words based on the VCCV pattern. 
This is week 3 in our unit. That means that on Friday they will have an extra story to read and 10 comprehension questions to answer based on that story. They will still be asked the questions from our regular story as well. This test will be worth 50 points. 

Math- This week they are working on the properties of addition and multiplication. The focus is really on Distributive property, but they also work on commutative and associative. I am not sure they have a handle on it yet, so we may work some more before moving on. If you want to help out at home...work on their multiplication facts. I have noticed many of them don't have them down very well and spend time thinking. It wouldn't hurt them to work on those a little more. 

Religion- They performed their commercials on Tuesday. I hope you watched them on our Facebook page. They had a lot of fun doing those. We are also working on the Blessed Trinity. They will be drawing a picture of that for me.  I will explain more later! 

On Tuesday, during our class meeting, I presented to them a Mindset activity. Mindset means getting them to change the idea of , "This is too hard or I can't do this to I can't do this...yet." YET is a big statement. Many of them I have noticed shut down or get really negative when things get hard for them.  

So I made them work alone to draw a sketch and then they worked in groups. They were given 12 recipe cards, 20 dot stickers and a scissors. They were to create the tallest tower they could using those items. I took pictures and will post on Facebook. Sorry, but a couple of them collapsed BEFORE I got a picture. Next week they will get back with their groups and try to rebuild, but make the changes they think will help them create their tower. This also turned out to be frustrating for some because theirs didn't work and they kept saying... I don't know what to do differently. We talked as a class about how that happens sometimes in real life, but you can't walk away. You have to try again. I was really pleased with them. There wasn't a lot of negativity throughout the entire thing.I know it isn't easy, but there is no reward in the end for the tallest one. It is just to see how tall you can get it to be for YOUR group. It also forces them to think outside the box a little which can be difficult. 

Mass- They will get their mass parts on Friday. You are welcome to join us for mass next Wednesday. 

Homecoming Dismissal- Just making sure you understand we are having an earlier out than usual. The kids will be dismissed at 12:40 next Friday. 

Volunteers needed this Friday at 4pm. We will be moving the classrooms into the new building! So exciting! Mrs. Simmons gave the teachers a sneak peek tour the other day after school. It is so nice!  I can't wait to use that hallway to get to the other building! It is still hard to believe that I was parking back there a year ago! :)

Have a great Balloon Days weekend! Hopefully the balloons will lift off many times! 
God Bless, Miss Surma