Hello Parents, I hope you enjoyed the long weekend. I was able to get my house cleaned finally, so I know I did! haha The time change and the weather change has certainly reminded us of the time of year! 

Reading- This week we read a historical fiction story called Storm Warriors. It takes place in the 1800s. It is about a young man named Nathan and his desire to be a surfman. That was the job of saving people from shipwrecks, etc. I would imagine..the Coast Guard now. Nathan doesn't think he can do the job until he is really put to the test and is required to his medical knowledge to save some people that were on the boat. This is a good story and I think the kids were really interested in it. Tomorrow we will read a short story about the real men that did this job. Our grammar has continued to work on subordinating conjunctions and how they can be used to connect a dependent and independent clause. The spelling list was fun on Monday because it was compound words. Did you know that those can be written as one word, two words, or connected with hyphens??? Your kids weren't so sure either. Some of their words are: life preserver, homework, up-to-date. 

The book reports are due tomorrow. We will probably start to share those, but will finish them up on Friday. 

Math- This week we are working on partial quotients. This is the new way of dividing that I told your kids...you won't take this home to Mom and Dad. You might ask them to show you though! It is pretty cool and they figured it out really quickly! The trick seems to be watching the subtraction. We will go into estimation next and finding compatible numbers. We don't round when we estimate in division. When we find compatible numbers, we don't have to worry about a remainder. They all work out evenly.

Religion- We are still working on our mysteries. This time they are drawing out the Glorious Mysteries.

Veteran's Day- You are welcome to join us for the program in the gym at 2:00. We are asking the kids to wear red, white, and blue that day. It is also a Spirit Day-- so they can wear sweats for $1. If they have any in red, white, or blue...that would be cool! 

Food Pantry- We will also be walking to the Food Pantry on Friday. We will be back in time for the program. I have already talked to Mark about that. 

Book It Calendars-- I got a great return on them for the month of October! Keep it up!!!! 

Weather Change-- The weather is getting colder and from what I see in our forecast for Thursday and Friday we may even see some of that white stuff. Please make sure your child has hats and gloves for recess. I am not sure the sweatshirts are going to be warm enough anymore. The winter coats may need to start showing up. 

I hope everyone has a great weekend! If you have no plans, the high school is doing Footloose as their musical. I know a lot of STM Alumni will be in it! 
God Bless,
Miss Surma