Hello Parents! How many days until Christmas break???? I know the kids are counting...they may even be counting minutes!  

Celebrate Christmas with the Teachers! The teachers are going to do some dress up days just before Christmas break! We are inviting the kids to join us! They don't have to, but it sure would be fun! 

Dec. 17- wear the color red

Dec. 18- wear the color green

Dec. 21- wear something with the Christmas Spirit

Dec. 22- Ugly Christmas Sweater

Sack Lunch Needed- The kids will need a sack lunch and drink on Tuesday , Dec. 22.

We won't be able to eat lunch with our Angels, but we are still going to do a sack lunch.

They will meet up with their angels after lunch to sing Christmas carols. We won't be in the gym. 

We have a plan for the hallways to be used. They will be wearing their masks during our 

sing-a-long. 

Reading- This week we are reading a story about King George. He was an interesting King. He was 

the one who created the tax on tea. Our story is a nonfiction piece,but it's written with more of a 

humorous twist. He thought because he was King, that meant he was good. He thought colonists 

should just accept his rules because he was king and was doing this because he cared for them. 

When he was 50 years old, he became really sick. After that people thought he had gone mad. He 

didn't. His illness had affected his mind. It was a real sickness, but back then they didn't know about 

it.  He loved that people prayed for him, had huge parties with fireworks for him. He had his own zoo.

In grammar this week we are talking about the different tenses of verbs. Present, past, and future. The 

trick is knowing that some words change the spelling totally from present to past.  We talked about the

word : buy or buys...the past tense of that is bought, the future tense is will buy. You just have to love

 the English language for all of its rules!  

We also talked about figurative language. We talked about similes, metaphors, and idioms. I gave 

each kid an idiom on Wednesday. They had to draw what was written on their paper. We talked about

"It's raining cats and dogs--which really means that it is pouring rain. They had to draw a picture of it 

really raining cats and dogs.  Did you know in Africa they say, "It's raining old women and bats." 

I also taught them about the phrase-- he bought the farm! They didn't know that it meant someone 

died. Their faces were funny. I am excited to see their pictures! 

They will test on Friday over spelling and the story. Next week, we won't do another story. I think we 

will begin our next writing project. We will work on it again when we get back from break for those 3 days. 

Math- So I took that small worksheet and broke it down into about 5 days. I worked in small groups to

watch them divide. They also had to check by multiplying. Today was the last day of that! I told them 

tomorrow they would all get to divide on their own! I am breaking this worksheet down into 2 days as

well. It might be more for my sanity than theirs! 😁

Religion- This week we are starting to work on the Sacrament of Baptism.  We probably won't finish 

this chapter before we leave for break. 

Angel Gifts- your kids talked about getting Christmas gifts for their angels. I told them it is NOT required

but if they do to not spend a lot of money and get something their angels can easily carry. One year 

I had 5th graders buy giant stuffed animals that were as big as their partner. ( Not kidding). That child

had to get on the bus that night. That is just too much for them to handle. Please don't feel like you have

to buy them anything! 

As soon as the Christmas program link is out... it will get shared! 

I don't plan on writing a blog next week. Have a wonderful Christmas and New Year! Enjoy the 

holidays however you spend them! Stay safe and healthy.  See you on January 6! 

God Bless, 

Miss Surma