Hello Parents, I hope you are enjoying your January weather in November! Me? Not so much! I am not ready for these temps!

Math- This week they are learning the standard algorithm for division. We started on Tuesday with doing some division one problem at a time. So far they are doing well. They remember the steps of division, but I am trying to teach them some easier tricks to estimating to start the problem out. So far the problems haven't been too big so they are able to easily get an estimate. They are also doing well at explaining to me why a larger number wouldn't work.

Reading- This week we read a historical fiction  story called Storm Warriors. It takes place in the 1800s. It is about a group of men whose job it was to rescue people from their ships during storms. I am guessing kind of like the Coast Guard does now. They didn't have the equipment we do today. In this story the ship was 30 yards off the coast and they had to swim out to them to save them. The main character Nathan wants to be a surfman, but thinks he isn't courageous enough to do the job. Through the story he is saving people by helping them once they reach the beach. He has read many medical books, so he knows first aid. He soon realizes he does having the makings for being a surfman. We all enjoyed this story!  In grammar, we are continuing with subordinating conjunctions and complex sentences. I gave them a list of words that can be used as subordinating conjunctions. They can use this list on homework and the test on Friday.  Our spelling list is interesting this week because it is all compound words. Did you know that it can be a compound word even if there is a space between them?  Light bulb is one example. Some of the words have hyphens too.

Religion- We are just starting our new chapter. We are covering the Beatitudes. This will be pretty detailed because they have to come up with ways to live them. The won't have to memorize them.

Spirit Day- We have three spirit days this month! This Friday is one! They can wear sweats for $1!

Artist in Residence- Next week each grade will be helping to create our art project. It will be displayed outside Mrs. Stoner's room. I will be excited to see what they come up with!

This week in our class meeting time I gave each kid a sheet of paper with everyone's name on it, They  had to come up with a positive word to describe each person. Then they cut them into slips and put them in the envelope with the person's name on it. I am taking them and creating a poster of them. I will hang them up in our room once all of them are done. They will get the envelope back to see all the descriptions as well! They were so excited to see what people said about them. I need to get to work on it ,or they will be after me for sure!

I hope everyone has a great weekend! I am helping with the high school's musical so I will be there all weekend! I hope some of you can come! I have yet to see the entire play, but I will!
God Bless,
Miss Surma