Hello Parents, Hopefully everyone is having a good week this week! 

Book Report- Just a reminder their slides are due two weeks... Friday, May 14. Many have already turned them into me. They will need to bring their costume of their person on May 14. The costume will most likely just stay at school (unless they need it at home) . I know they all won't be able to share on the 14th so I plan on just spreading them out the next week. 

Lap-A-Thon- The forms and envelopes went home last week in Take Home Folders. The PTO says to bring them back on May 6, the day of the lap-a-thon. There are some fun incentives for raising money this year! 

Math- We are wrapping up our chapter this week in math. On Tuesday, I showed them a quicker way of multiplying decimals that have zeros in the problem. I wished I had taught me that method when I was a kid. I showed them that they didn't need to multiply and show all the 0's. We could a  couple if we needed to for our decimal point.  They will take the test on Monday. Our next chapter will be on dividing decimals. 

Reading- This week we read a story called Rachel's Journal. This is a young pioneer girl that is on the Oregon Trail with her family in the 1850s. They had to cross the flooded Platte River in the story. The story also talked briefly about the Donner Party...so I shared a little background on who they were and what happened to them. Rachel also talks about the song Turkey in the Straw. I shared a video of that song as well. It's one of those that you don't want stuck in your head. In grammar they are working on comparative and superlative adjectives-- big, bigger, biggest, etc. On Wednesday, we covered good, better, best and bad, worse, worst. I tried to emphasize that funner , bestest, worser are not words.  Some adjectives need the words more or most in front of them-- more beautiful, most beautiful.

Religion- They shared their posters this week of the Easter traditions in other countries. We are finishing our our chapter and then moving on to the Guidance book. 

By the way--- they all survived the Growth Talk video and did really well! 

I did send you all an email for any student interested in trying out for Color Guard or Winter Guard next year. Their dates are coming up in May! It would be great to see some STM kids out there! 

Middle School- In the past we have gone out to the middle school wing to spend some time with the students to see what it is like. Due to Covid restrictions...we aren't doing that this year. Miss Steinkamp and an 8th grader will be coming to talk to the 5th graders on Friday to give them some ideas about middle school next year. Seriously??? I can't believe we are already having these end of the year conversations! 

I hope everyone has a great weekend! Enjoy the warm temps! 

God Bless,

Miss Surma