Hello Parents, 

How is your week going?? I hope you're able to find some peace and quiet moments in all this crazy!  For my online parents.. thank you for your patience as I am learning daily! 

Math- We have been working on division with a single digit divisor. Their dividends have varied from 2 to 4 digits. I think we have done enough groundwork to move back into the book. They will continue working on division with single digit divisors for a bit, but not much longer. We are going to move into two digit divisors most likely after Thanksgiving break. I will see how things are going. I have discovered that long division quiets down the kids! Who knew??? 😄

Religion- This week we are working more on the Beatitudes. We read a story about a young saint named Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati. He died at the age of 24. He spent his youth having fun, but also doing kind acts of charity. He gave his own shoes to a boy that was at his door. When he graduated from school, he was given the choice of a car or money as a gift. He chose money. Then he gave that money away to help those in need. We are trying to discuss how we can live the Beatitudes on a daily basis. 

The kids did great at mass! Thank you to the 5th graders for being so flexible with getting jobs at the last minute due to kids having to go online! Hopefully we will ALL be together soon! 

Christmas Concert- We are going to tape the program on Monday, the 23rd. The kids should dress in mass clothes that day. We plan on walking to the church unless the weather isn't cooperative. 

Reading- This week we are reading a nonfiction story called Cougars. It is an interesting story. There is much to learn about this animal!  I think the kids were even surprised at some of the facts!  Our grammar this week is on quotation marks. This can be tricky.  We are mostly working on where they belong in a direct address. 

I am not sure we will do reading next week with only two days. When we get back from Thanksgiving we will do the Unit test. I don't like waiting, but I also don't want to cram it into two days. 

I hope everyone has a safe and happy Thanksgiving. I decided to play it safe and not go see my family. The risk is just to great in my opinion. I have plans for reading a good book or two and maybe get some Christmas decorations up! 

God Bless,

Miss Surma

Hello Parents! I hope you are all safe and healthy! Hopefully you are having a great week! 

Math- Well, it has been a slow start learning division as I expected it would be. That's okay, I know it is a difficult procedure to figure out. I saw some light bulbs turning on on Tuesday during class. Most of them could walk me through solving a problem! We actually did an entire worksheet today on division! There were a few tough spots, but I heard the kids say, "The more I do it, the more I get it! " YAHOO! 

Reading- This week we are reading a historical fiction story called Storm Warriors. This story takes place in the 1800s in North Carolina. A group of men are assigned the task of saving a crew from their ship that has run aground.  My guess is that this group is really the first of the Coast Guard. Nathan is the main character and is a teenager who wants to join this group, but after witnessing what they must do, he doesn't think he is brave enough to really do it. In the end, his studying of medical books comes in very handy with some of the passengers on the ship.  Spelling- This week their list consists of compound words. Some are two words written together as one ( wildlife), then there are words that have a space in between ( home run), and finally there are words with dashes or hyphens ( up-to-date). Tricky tricky!! They will test over this story on Friday along with their spelling words. 

Book Report Projects are due on Friday! 

Religion- We started a new chapter on the Beatitudes. These are not really rules,but more like guidelines from Jesus. He said this is the way to find true happiness. I talked to the 5th graders about things we find happiness in...they told me... ATV's , video games, sports, dance. We also talked about how we buy new cars, phones, take trips,etc. Those things bring us happiness, but it can be short lived. They will really delve into finding ways we live these Beatitudes.

Christmas Program- We will be recording their songs for the program on November 23. Taping will either happen at the church or in the music room...depending on the weather. We do want the kids to dress up that day as though they would dress up for the actual concert night! Mass day attire! 

Mass- We have our mass next week. Not everyone will get a part due to the limited jobs. 

This the last week of the Read -A- Thon! I hope some of your kids are participating in this! 

The end of the trimester is on Friday. The 2nd trimester will start on Monday. Mrs. Simmons will let you know when our progress reports are done!  Monday will be a clean slate for lateslips! Actually, your kids did really well overall. 

Have a great, but safe weekend! Stay healthy! 

God Bless, 

Miss Surma

 

Hello Parents! Wow, we are actually doing a full week of school! I am not sure we will know what to do on Friday! 😊

Covid-19 Rules-  

FERPA stands for Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act. This is very similar to the hospital's HIPAA laws.  I wanted to make sure you knew that I told your kids, I cannot, by law, tell any of them or you if a student in our room or school tests positive for Covid-19. It is natural that they ask me, but I tried to explain that I cannot give them this information. It is the job of Public Health  to contact trace and make notifications to families who are possibly exposed or have tested positive. The numbers are on the rise, there is no doubt about that. Families in our community are being affected. We are continuing our mitigation procedures at STM. Just know that we as teachers cannot give out any information. 

Religion- They have finished a new chapter. This one briefly discusses all 7 sacraments and sanctifying grace. They will be testing over it on Friday. Our class will be in charge of mass on November 18. 

 Book Reports will be due on November 13. I am not sure if we will be able to share all of them on that day, but I will sure try! 

Reading- This week they read a nonfiction story on the Florida Everglades. It is a difficult story to read and comprehend because there are a lot of vocabulary words in it that are difficult. One word that comes to mind is thermoregulation! Say that 5 times fast!  Plus they talk about the animals that live there and the plants that are native to the area. This week in grammar they are working on using conjunctions and subordinating conjunctions.  Spelling is homophones! That is always a fun test to give just to see their faces. Ring and Wring! Lesson and Lessen! I did warn them that on the post test I mix them up so they need to pay attention to the sentence.  This is also our third story in the unit. That means they will get a cold read to do. They also have ten more questions. 

Math- Well, I think I have all the tests returned to me. All of them made improvements from their dress rehearsal test. I think next time, they will have to do the chapter review or test prep at home. I started this week with some division worksheets of basic facts. I wasn't letting them use their multiplication tables either just so I could see what they knew about their facts. On Thursday we will do an activity in class with division and remainders. On Friday, I plan to start the standard algorithm with them. They won't have to worry about remainders in that one. We will take it slow. I know this will throw some of them off. That's okay! We will get through it! 

Advent Angels- We weren't sure how to do this this year, but I think we have it figured out! I know this will make the kids really happy! This will start the first week of December. 

I hope everyone has a great weekend! Sounds like we should all enjoy the warm temps because they will be changing! 

God Bless,

Miss Surma