Dear Parents, I apologize for changing formats again! The Smore I sent last week was great, but I am using the free version and they don't give me enough to use in a month's time and I don't really want to pay the $70 for an upgrade! So... I am going to use this until Blogger decides to be no more! 

 Upcoming important dates:

• 🏈Friday, Sept. 10- Spirit Day! Hawkeye/ Cyclone Day ( or any other team you cheer for!) 
• Thursday, Sept. 16- PTO Meeting 6pm
• Saturday, Sept. 18- Holy Spirit Block Party 3-8pm
• Wednesday, Sept. 22- 5th and 4th grade mass @ 9:15
• Friday, Sept. 24- No School/ PD Day

Reading- This week we have to kind of crunch things together since we are only doing 4 days. This week our story is rather long. It is also a play called A Royal Mystery. It is a different take on The Princess and the Pea. It also reminds me of the movie The Parent Trap. There is a fun little twist at the end! In grammar we are working on recognizing the 4 kinds of sentences...declarative, imperative, exclamatory, and interrogative. They will have a spelling test on Friday as well as the test over the story. 

Math- We are continuing our work on place value. Last Friday they worked on writing decimals. They also wrote those decimals as fractions. For example: they wrote 0.32 and then 32/100. They only go to the thousandths. I try to get them to think of decimals in monetary form, but that doesn't work with thousandths.  It is difficult to wrap their head around the fact that hundredths can mean pennies and tenths as dimes. They are doing great! They will also be working on writing decimals in word, expanded form, and standard form. 

They have also been taking a placement test on Successmaker. This coincides with our new math series. It is a different form of Dreambox. So far, I like this much better and I think they do too! So far I don't see as much frustration on the students' part. If they get it wrong, they give them a clue to help try once more. Once they complete the placement test it will align them with problems and activities to do based on their score. This is not something they will do at home. 

Spirit Day - This Friday they can wear sweats or a hat for $1. It is also Cy/Hawk game weekend so if they want to support their favorite team they can! Sorry, I'm allergic to those colors!😉 I will be in purple and gold! 💜💛

Religion- This week they are learning about Saint Damian of Molokai. He worked as a priest in Hawaii to care for the lepers. He was very young and eventually he contracted the disease and passed away. He dedicated his life to teaching the sick about Jesus. 

FAST Testing- Next week I will conducting the FAST tests in reading and math with the 5th graders. I  will send home reading scores as soon as I can.  Emily, our AEA consultant will be here the week after to go over the scores with me to see if there are any interventions I need to do with your kids. 

I hope you enjoyed your long weekend! I didn't do much,but I did get a book read in a day so that was fun! This weekend I will be in Des Moines again to watch my niece play soccer. 

God Bless,

Miss Surma