Dear Parents, I hope everyone had an enjoyable weekend! The kids sounded like they did! I had a great time at my great niece's first birthday party! Her mom told me she is expecting #4 in March! Wow! She will have 3 under 3 years old. My niece Olivia looked beautiful for her homecoming dance! 

 Upcoming Important Dates:

• Friday, Sept. 24- No School/ PD Day
• Oct. 6- Field Trip to KC for Auschwitz Exhibit/ Need a sack lunch
• Oct. 8- Homecoming/3 hour early out/ Spirit Day
• Oct. 22- Spirit Day

Reading- This we we have our first nonfiction story. It is called Double Dutch.  This is a story about a group of girls in NY who compete in double Dutch contests. It took them 5 years to win a championship. The kids were busy jumping rope at recess on Monday.  In grammar this week they are working on nouns- common an proper. We made lists of each on Tuesday. They had to also identify nouns in sentences and then label them either common or proper. We then worked on identifying proper nouns in sentences that need to be capitalized. That also includes initials, abbreviations, and acronyms. We also talked about capitalizing nouns that represent a certain language- Russian, Chinese, American,etc. 

Math- We are ending our first chapter! On Tuesday, they worked in groups  and were given clues that they had to match to a certain math problem. For example, which problem has a sum that is between 19,000 and 20,000. It was great estimation work. Some were looking for an exact sum or difference. The remainder of the week will be working on the math review and then a dress rehearsal. The actual test won't be until next week. 

FAST Testing- In your child's folder are their scores for our Fall Fast Reading. They did really well. If they have to work with me during intervention time, I made a note of it on their sheet. They will test again in the winter. 

Religion- This week we focused mostly on practicing our parts for mass. We will be starting our second chapter !  October will be the month of the Rosary. We will be going back to the chapel for this. There will be two prayers that the kids will be memorizing for this, but I will wait until we get there to talk to them about it. 

Friday, September 24- This is a NO SCHOOL day! Teachers have professional development. I will be with the Lead Team going to the public school to work with our PLC instructor. I hope you enjoy your 3 days!!! 

Field Trip to KC- more information will be coming, but it is just around the corner!  It will be  long day! We leave EARLY and get back later! They will need a sack lunch that day! We will be eating our lunch at Union Station. I would say they should wear good walking shoes that day! In the exhibit, there are really only a few spots to sit down...and they are small benches so only a few can sit at a time. There is a lot of standing! I am excited for the kids to get this opportunity! This is something that means a great deal to me and my siblings. Our dad came to America from Poland at the end of WWII. He was 21. He had $2 in his pocket and couldn't speak English.  He was on the run from the age of 12 when his village was taken over. He didn't end up in a concentration camp, but was in a labor camp. We just found out last year that his dad spent a couple of years in Auschwitz, but survived. 

October 8 Homecoming- The public school has notified us that this will be  a 3 hour early out. We will not be serving lunch on that day. 

I hope everyone has a great weekend! I have no major plans except cleaning my house! 

God Bless, 

Miss Surma