Dear Parents, I hope this week has been running smoothly for you! Hold on...just a few more days until Christmas break! That's what I keep telling myself! They did a great job singing at the church! Steve was there filming so keep an out for the video! 

 Important Dates: 

Dec. 17- Spirit Day

Dec. 21- Wear your Ugly Christmas Sweater

Dec. 22- Mass with Bishop Joensen/ Sack Lunch Day

Dec. 23- Jan. 4. Christmas Break

Jan. 5- Classes Resume

Dress Up Days-

Tuesday- Ugly Christmas Sweater

Wednesday- Dress up for Mass with the bishop and wear red or green if you can! 

Reading- This week we read the story called Can't You Make Them Behave, King George? If you have watched Hamilton, you've seen King George sing. His lyrics kind of portray a man that sounded a little crazy. In fact, when he was 50 he had a horrible illness that affected his brain. Back then they thought he was crazy. He wasn't. It was due to his illness. He thought he was making great decisions for his country and that the American colonists were just being stubborn kids. In grammar we are working on the proper tenses of verbs- present, past, and future.  They will have their reading and spelling test this Friday. 

With only three days next week, I don't plan on doing another story. We will work on writing our Harris Burdick stories.  I will also be assigning the next book report. I will go over that with them and have them choose their book. I am doing this before break, in case they want to start reading it! The project will be due on February 4.

Math- They are beginning to multiply whole numbers and decimals. They are also multiplying by 10s, 100s, and 1000 to see how the decimal moves each time.  The process is the same, this time it is all about dropping the decimal in the answer. 

Religion- On Monday, I stopped our religion work and we prayed the rosary for the people suffering from the tornadoes last weekend. I told them this was something we could do for them from Iowa.  We are finishing up our Advent chapter. Our next chapter will be covering the Beatitudes. They don't have to memorize them, but we do get into an indepth conversation about how we should be living them every day.  We talk about how finding true happiness is by living these- happiness in money, things, power, etc. is only short term because we usually want the "next best thing". 

Spirit Day this Friday, December 17- sweats for $1!

They will need a sack lunch on Wednesday, December 22. They will be eating with their Advent Angel and then we will sing Christmas carols in the gym.  If they are buying their angel a gift, that is usually when they give them. 

We will have some fun in the afternoon on the 22nd in our room. I haven't got it fully planned yet, but we may watch a movie or play some games or maybe both! 

Thank you for the gifts for the nursing homes! Our tables are getting fuller every day! Thank you for the help with noisy change collection as well! 

I won't write a blog next week so I am going to wish you a very Merry Christmas now! I hope your holidays are packed with family and fun and are as stress-free as possible! May 2022 bring all of you joy and happiness!  I will be traveling to Waterloo for Christmas with my brother Joe and his family. I am sure my sister Penny will be there as well. Penny and I maybe traveling to Arkansas during Christmas break to see her mother-in-law. 

God Bless, 

Miss Surma