Hello Parents! I hope all of you are doing well! Mrs. Sickels and I really enjoyed our conference in Des Moines this week. We learned so so much! We will be passing it on to the rest of the staff.

Reading- This week we are reading a story about tree kangaroos. This story is nonfiction. It was about a group of scientists trying to track them. Once they were able to capture two of them, they put radio transmitters on a collar that went around their neck. This way they could gather information about them. The tree 'roos live in Papua New Guinea. Our skill this week was on cause and effect. On Wednesday, I gave them a situation and they had to come up with the cause of that and the effect from it. Their focus in grammar is verbs. They are working on verb tenses, helping verbs, and main verbs. They will test over this tomorrow since we don't have school on Friday. Next week will be a normal week in reading.

Math- Since I was gone I had them just keep practicing division with a single digit divisor. Tomorrow they will be doing a division scavenger hunt! I will take pictures and post on Facebook. Next week we will move on in the chapter. Our next lesson will be another strategy for division, but they will only do  it at school! This one will be on partial quotients. I will have them work on it in the classroom with me because I don't want to freak you guys out! 🤣🤣 I am sure you could get it, but it is something new and you most likely were never taught this way. I am not dissing your math skills! If you want to learn this way, I will gladly teach you! I really like it! Most times they learn it and go back to the standard algorithm.

Religion- This week they worked in small groups to draw and color a picture to represent each of the Sorrowful Mysteries. They are going to share them on Thursday and then will be given a new one to do. The posters will be on display in the hallway. You can check them out during conferences.

Halloween- Next Thursday we will celebrate Halloween in the afternoon. They will run through the Civics Club activities. The parade will be at 2:30 in the gym. They should bring their costumes to school that day. They should be easy enough that they can handle getting into them unless you are coming to help.

Mass- There is no mass next Wednesday at school. We will have it instead on Friday, November 1st for All Saints Day. They will have to dress up on Friday. Thank you to all that were able to make it to our mass and join us for the reception today! 

Social Studies- Mrs. Sickels has read all of their rough drafts for their Iowa history papers. They are now working on fixing errors. The final paper needs to be printed. The paper and the 3D project are due at school on Monday, November 4. Mrs. Sickels will have the Iowa History Fair in the gym on Wednesday, November 6 from 2:00-2:45 for you to come and check them all out! They can invite their grandparents or special guests as well! If you miss that day, they will also be on display during conferences. They will start sharing their projects in class the next week. 

Prayers are going to my uncle and his kids this week. They put him in hospice care on Monday.

I hope everyone has a great 3 day weekend! After our PD in Des Moines, I am heading back home. There is a craft show on Saturday in my hometown, plus my siblings and I are going to surprise our oldest brother Carl with a dinner for his 60th birthday! Shhhh.... don't tell. It will be fun to be together again!
God Bless,
Miss Surma