Dear Parents, I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas break! It was so nice to spend Christmas with family in person versus virtually. 

 Important Dates: 

January 14- Spirit Day

January 26- 5th grade mass

January 28- Spirit Day

Jan. 30-Feb. 4- Catholic Schools Week 

Feb. 4- Book Reports Due

CSW- If your child is telling you about needing an outfit for their name, let me explain! One of the dress up days is for the kids and teachers to dress up as something with the first letter of their name- it can be their first name or last name. So for example-- A is for apple, B- for bat. I am excited to see what the kids come up with. I told them I am dressing up as an alien! There will be more information coming soon for the events that week! 

Reading- This week they are reading a story called They Called Her Molly Pitcher. It is the story of how Molly Pitcher helped on the battlefield during the Revolutionary War. At first she was running water to the soldiers,but after her husband was injured, she took over the cannon. She was even named a sergeant by General Washington. In grammar they are working on verbs - regular and irregular. Regular would be  when we add an -ed to the ending. Irregular is when we change the word entirely-- was/were, buy/bought.  Spelling this week has the pattern of VCCCV- vowel, consonant, consonant, consonant, vowel. I know they were paying attention to that during the pretest. 

Math- they are finishing up their chapter this week with a review and then the dress rehearsal. They will test over this chapter on Monday or Tuesday. I am not really sure of the timing yet. I did tell them to expect more problems on the test. I believe there are around 20 this time. Our next chapter will be division,but I am going to some review with them first. They need to remember the process because we jump into double digit divisors-- which will be new for them. 

Religion- They finished up their chapter on the Beatitudes! They worked on the review on Tuesday. They will finish the week with the study guide. The test will be on Monday.  Last Friday, I showed them an episode of The Chosen. It's a free app you can get on your phone.I have it on mine and my iPAD. The show is about Jesus and his life. There are only 2 seasons at the moment. I showed them the episode about Jesus and the little children. Most of the episodes are showing him picking his disciples and their journey of following him. The show shows Jesus with a sense of humor which I like to think he probably had! They loved it! We had such a great discussion as we went along! Now that I figured out how to show them, I will share more when they fit. 

Spirit Day- This Friday! They can wear sweats for $1. I am told snow is in the forecast! That might be a great day for sweats! 

Catholic Schools Week Kick-Off Mass- If you are signing up your child for this mass on January 30, please return the form or just email me! I could use some older kids for reading parts!!! 

Tuesday, January 18- I will be leaving for the afternoon that day. There will be a substitute. 

I hope everyone has a great weekend! Looks like we are getting more snow on Friday! 

God Bless,

Miss Surma