Dear Parents, WOWZA! This is such a crazy week, but so much fun!

Thursday is our day at the YMCA so they will need to be wearing sweats or shorts and have their tennis shoes. They will also need to pack their swimming suit and towel. They need a sack lunch with a drink that day! 

Friday is our Grandparents/ Special Guest Mass at church. Mass will begin at 1:30. I would suggest the guests be at church around 1:00. The kids will arrive shortly after by bus. They will have their coats and bags with them. There is a coffee/punch and cookies reception afterwards in the basement. If your guest is taking your child home, just make sure they find me before leaving! They should dress up like they always do for mass day. 

Reading- This week we are finishing up our last story in our unit. This was about two people. Joseph Plumb Martin and Sybil Ludington. They were both teenagers during the Revolutionary War. Joseph joined the militia, but wasn't too excited to do so. He only signed up for 6 months. He did receive a silver dollar for signing up. Sybil road by horseback to neighboring farms to gather men at her dad's farm. They would go onto battle from there. What we learned about her ride is that it was actually longer than Paul Revere's famous ride. I think the 5th graders enjoyed this unit and getting to know the different people.

They are finishing up their essays as well on their people from the Revolutionary War. Some of them learned the fine art of copy and pasting when working from the rough draft to the final draft. When all are done, they will share them with the class. I will also hang them outside our room so that if you are in the school sometime and want to read them!

They will test on Friday over the spelling and the story. I know that could be a little scary with the way our week is going. It will be okay.

Math- We haven't done a lot of math this week due to our schedule with Catholic Schools Week, but they are working on problem solving with multiplication of decimals and whole numbers. They are working a lot with money too. Next week they will learn to multiply decimals times decimals. That is always the trick...remembering where to put that decimal.

Religion- We are just trying to wrap up this chapter this week. They test on Wednesday. I probably won't send them home this week with our schedule. I will put their scores on Power school for you to check out there.

Auction Basket- This year the 4th and 5th are creating a basket for the LIVE auction. Kathy Ralston is taking care of it. Look in your child's folder for a handout with details on what you can do to help. Heidi Rohrig is taking care of our silent auction item. I will give you details on that when I know more.  The auction has moved this year. It is the last Saturday in February, which is right around the corner.

January Book -It Calendars Due on Monday! 

I hope everyone has a great weekend!
God Bless,
Miss Surma

Dear Parents, I hope you enjoyed your 4 day weekend! Next week will be a little crazy with it being Catholic Schools Week. I hope you checked out Mrs. Simmons' calendar of events she sent out last week.

Snow Clothes- We have a number of 3-5th graders that aren't coming prepared for the snow during recess. Most of mine have boots and snow pants, but we have quite a few kids in our wing that need hats and gloves/mittens. On Wednesday a lot of them went to the office to search through Lost and Found. They really need to have this stuff. The Lost and Found isn't supposed to be there back-up spot. 


Reading- They took their Friday test on Tuesday! The grammar section took a hard hit. It was on punctuation of commas and semicolons...those can be hard. I don't think the 4 day break in-between helped much. They had to look very closely because they were throwing in extra commas that weren't needed and some of the kids were choosing those as correct. On Wednesday, they started on their papers they are writing on their Revolutionary War people. They are creating a rough draft now on their Chromes. They will share it with me on Friday so that I can edit them over the weekend. Since next week's schedule is not really consistent...we will be starting a new story on Thursday or Friday of this week. There are a couple of days for sure next week that we won't have reading due to other events.

Math- They finally got to take the test on today (Wednesday) over our chapter.  I am hoping that we will see improvements from their "dress rehearsal"test.  Our next chapter will be multiplying decimals. They will multiply a whole number and a decimal as well as decimals times decimals.

Religion- We will be finishing up the chapter this week. They will test next week over it. I can't say which day yet...I need to look at our schedule better.

Sack Lunches- They will need a sack lunch on Monday. No drink. Milk is provided. They will be eating with their Advent Angel. On Thursday, they will need another sack lunch for our day at the YMCA. They will need a drink that day. If they are drinking a soda, they need one with a screw top lid--no cans! That way if they don't finish it, they can take it home. 


Catholic SchoolsWeek- 
Sunday- Mass at Holy Spirit with breakfast in the basement to follow
Monday- Spirit Day- your STM gear, need sack lunch and no drink
Tuesday- PJ Day- Schedule of Talent Show Events will be coming
Wednesday- Era- Dress up in the 50s, 60, 70s, etc.
Thursday- Workout Day- Need their swimming suit/towel, sack lunch with drink
Friday- Dress Up Day- Mass at Holy Spirit 1:30

If your child has a part in Sunday's mass at church or Friday's grandparent/special guest mass it is in their Take Home Folder on orange paper. Please check it out!

Does your child have a special guest or grandparent or parent coming to mass on Friday? If not, please let me know. If your guest is taking them home after mass...make sure they see me before leaving so that I know. Thanks! Bus and Trolley kids are still being picked up at the church if they need that ride.

Don't forget to pay your $2 for our trip to the YMCA, if you haven't already! 

Next week will be crazy busy! Hopefully the weather will be better than last year!
Have a great weekend!
God Bless,
Miss Surma

Dear Parents, Well, last Friday was certainly a surprise! Hopefully this Friday's weather isn't as extreme!

Don't forget to get the training for mass! This goes for anyone wanting to become a server and anyone who already is! Father has made some changes. You need to know before you can do the job! Wanted: New Servers for Mass at Holy Spirit

Server Training at Holy Spirit

As the new year beginnings, we have some new changes during Mass. There will be server training to help students learn the new change on Sat., Jan. 11 and Jan. 18 after Mass and on Sun., Jan. 12 and Jan. 19 before Mass starting at 8:30 a.m. All new and experienced servers need to attend the training. 

Reading- this week they read a story called James Forten. It was about a young African American who was free during the Revolutionary War time and signed up to serve. He worked on a ship carrying the gun powder from below deck to the upper deck so they could use it in the cannons. The ship he was on ended up surrendering to the British. He was treated as a prisoner of war. Luckily for him he was not sent back to Africa and sold as a slave again, which is what happened sometimes to the freed African Americans.  We learned that his dad was a freed slave who worked to make sails for the ships. He also saved enough money up to buy his wife's freedom. As an adult, James ended up working at the same business his dad did. Eventually, he became the owner. He continued to work to free slaves and get African American women the right to vote. In grammar they are working on using commas and semicolons. The commas are for items in a series, in a direct address or with a tag question. The semicolons are being used with items in a series as well, but they already have the commas so we need to separate it even more. For example if you are listing cities and their states.  My book took place in Creston, Iowa; Houston, Texas; and Detroit, Michigan. They will test over this story on Friday. 

I did talk to them about last week's story with the cold read. Only 2 of the students scored well on the cold read section of the test. The others did poorly or basically failed that part. I talked about reading it more than once before answering questions or using the story to go back and look up answers. I don't know that many of them really did that. 

Math- We finished up our chapter this week with doing some work with creating tables and filling out the record section of a checkbook. On Wednesday, we started our "dress rehearsal" for the test. I am doing the same thing I did with the last chapter. They are doing the "test" for a practice run. I will check it and we will go over it. Then they will do the same test for real. With the dress rehearsal, they are allowed to use their book to remind them of things we did. The biggest thing they needed help with was filling out the checkbook. 

Religion- We are in our new chapter and the focus is on baptism. We have talked about it getting rid of Original Sin, but also helping us get to heaven. 

Spirit Day on Friday! 

The 5th graders are going to try out for the talent show during Catholic Schools Week. They are going to sing King George's song You'll Be Back. We will practice here. I have some accompaniment music from Youtube. My niece AnnMarie is a senior at YSU in Ohio. She is a music/theater major. She said she would try and send me some videos of some moves we can add to it. I won't stress about that though. She is in her final semester...I know she has things to do! 

I hope everyone has a great weekend! Hopefully Friday's weather will be less than what they are predicting! Hope to see some of you at Trivia Night on Saturday! 
God Bless,
Miss Surma

Dear Parents, I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and New Year! The weather sure didn't make it feel like Christmas...not that I am complaining! I had a great time with my family in Waterloo. It is fun watching my nieces and nephews who are now getting older.  I also spent a couple of days in Branson with Mrs. Sickels and her mom. That was a fun getaway too. 

Wanted: New Servers for Mass at Holy Spirit

Server Training at Holy Spirit

As the new year beginnings, we have some new changes during Mass. There will be server training to help students learn the new change on Sat., Jan. 11 and Jan. 18 after Mass and on Sun., Jan. 12 and Jan. 19 before Mass starting at 8:30 a.m. All new and experienced servers need to attend the training.

The gang is back together! All 13-5th graders were here on Monday! Everyone was very excited to see and talk to Sadie! 

Last week, I assigned them a new writing project. This is more informative. They had to look through 3 websites I gave them and choose a person from the Revolutionary War. This is a mini biography project they are doing. This will help them out when they do the real one for their book report in May. These people go along with our unit in reading right now. Right now they are taking notes on their people. We are going to talk about how to write this paper on another day, probably this week. Their rough draft will be due on Jan. 24. That one can be typed or hand written. I am leaving that up to them.

Last week they shared their Harris Burrdick stories with the class. I will be sending those home so you can read them. I hope you have them explain the basis behind them. They come from a book called The Mysteries of Harris Burrdick by Chris Van Allsburg. He is the author of Polar Express.

Last Thursday, I sent home a slip asking for volunteers for our kick off mass for CSW on Jan. 26. Please return as soon as possible if your child is going to help out! Thanks so much! 

Reading- This week we are reading a story called Molly Pitcher. She is really named Mary Hays, but she got the name Molly Pitcher during the war. She was on the battlefield at Monmouth with her husband. She would run water in a pitcher to the men fighting because it was such a hot humid summer day. She actually took over at a cannon after her husband had been injured. General Washington actually named her a Sergeant for her work and bravery. In grammar, we are working on regular and irregular verbs. They are learning how some verbs can change a tense by adding a -d or -ed. Other verbs have to change the entire word for example-- go becomes went. If a verb ends in a consonant and a -y, then they have to change the y to an i and add -ed. This is also the third story in this unit which means that on Friday's test there will be a cold read section for them to do as well. 

Math- We have been learning to estimate decimals. They learned to round them to the nearest whole number which is the number in the ones place. They also learned to look at the decimal and get it to the nearest benchmark number. Those numbers are 0, 0.25, 0.50, 0.75. and 1.00. So if the number is 2.03-- they would say 2.00, if it was 2.18 they would change it to 2.75.  If it were 3.89 they would change it to 4.00. They are also adding and subtracting decimals. The two problems I have come across are that they don't always pay attention the sign. Some of them add when they are supposed to subtract.  The other issue is when they are subtracting... 17.00-8.45. They forget they need to do some borrowing. Some of the kids would write 9.45 as their answer. Our chapter will be done next week. They will probably be testing towards the end of next week. 

Religion- We started a new chapter this week. Right now they are creating groups that would be like an after school group for fun. They have to give themselves a name, have a patron saint, a symbol, and a list of activities they do when they get together. 

Talent Show- This year we are doing a talent show during Catholic School's Week. You might want to talk to you child about it. They are doing tryouts the next two weeks--starting on Tuesday. I am thinking of a class one that we could do as well. 

Heat- So the motor to my classroom heat isn't functioning correctly and is being fixed, but in the mean time our room gets chilly. The kids need to dress appropriately. I told them if they are wearing a t-shirt, to have a sweatshirt along so they could just add that. IF it should get really bad, I will move the class to a vacant room. Luckily, our weather outside has been nice! 

We will be going to work at the Food Pantry on Friday. I see snow in the forecast. They might want their boots on Friday just in case! Friday IS NOT a  Spirit Day.

I hope everyone has a great weekend!
God Bless,
Miss Surma

Wanted: New Servers for Mass at Holy Spirit

Server Training at Holy Spirit

As the new year beginnings, we have some new changes during Mass. There will be server training to help students learn the new change on Sat., Jan. 11 and Jan. 18 after Mass and on Sun., Jan. 12 and Jan. 19 before Mass starting at 8:30 a.m. All new and experienced servers need to attend the training.