Hello Parents, 

How was your Thanksgiving??? I hope it was still full of great food and family. It was quiet here, but I did get to Zoom call with my siblings and some nieces and nephews. It was good to see their faces again. I am really hoping Christmas can be in person, but I doubt it. 

Reading- This week are taking the unit 2 test. On Friday I am going to go over the next book report with them. Actually, I am going to take them to the library so I can show them the books I am talking about. Their book will have to be a Newbery winner or honor book. We have quite a few in the library. I will show them and help them choose their book-- even the online kids! I will check out their book for them if they find one. If we don't have what they want, they can look at the library or online of course. They just have to each have their own book.  Typically, this is one of my favorites because they are forced to get out of their comfort zones and pick something they may not have heard of before. Usually they end up really loving the book, not always, but most times. The actual project won't be due until February because I am trying to put it at the end of our next unit. I also have to work around Christmas break.

Our next unit is 5 stories that cover people from the Revolutionary War. This is my favorite unit because I have learned so much about that war and time period. Plus, I will introduce some of them to Hamilton!  Just to let you know, I have the edited version of the CDs. I know there is a lot of swearing in the original. I would like to apologize now IF your child comes home singing Hamilton, but I just can't! 😉😂

Math- We are taking it slow this week with finding compatible numbers with division. This is how they will estimate with division-- no rounding!  For example the problem might be 5345 divided by 67. We'd round 67 to 70. Then we look at the first two numbers in 5345 (53). Now on their multiplication table they will look at the row of 7's and find two numbers close to 53. I would choose 49 and 56. So now they divide 4900 by 70 and 5600 by 70.  It's all mental math...they don't have to work anything out. Thursday will be the first attempt with it as actual homework. Next week we will do the actual dividing. I expect to go slow and probably even slower since there are kids online. I know some will be super frustrated. I expect that to happen. There might be tears, BUT they will get it! I promise you! We will take it slow! If that means only a few problems for homework...then that is what I will do.  

I also taught them how to check their division using multiplication this week! So, once they are dividing on their own...they WILL check their own work to see if they got it right. I told them this will be a great thing and fewer of them will have to correct homework because they will know for themselves. 

Religion- They tested this week on the Beatitudes. We will start a chapter on Advent next! They had reconciliation today. I didn't have the online kids do it because I couldn't figure out how to make it private for them without handing out different Google meet links. 

Mass- Next week Tuesday, Dec. 8, is a holy day of obligation...the Immaculate Conception. We are having mass on Tuesday instead of Wednesday. So they need to dress up on Tuesday. They will also do Advent Angels on Tuesday. On Wednesday, they will have music with Mrs. Stoner. 

Our prayers continue to go out for Mrs. Taylor. As I am writing this, there is no change. She is on a ventilator and they are working to lower the oxygen level so that she can get off of it. She is at Methodist in Des Moines. The kids made Get Well cards for her. We will eventually deliver those to her house when she gets home. I know her recovery will be a slow one. We are so thankful that Mrs. Stoner is able to come back and help with music classes, but she is still recovering as well so band will be postponed for awhile. 

Our prayers also go out to the Wieland family. They lost two loved ones last weekend. May God continue to hold them up during this difficult time. 

I also wanted to let you know that I am really proud of all the 5th graders for being so flexible. The kids online are working hard and we can't wait for them to return. The kids in the room are patient and let me help those online kids when needed. It's a team effort. 

Have a great weekend. Stay safe and healthy.

God Bless,

Miss Surma