Hello Parents, I hope everyone had a great week! My tooth pulling went great! I had no pain by Saturday! I also enjoyed seeing family over the weekend! I can't believe my youngest niece is a senior! 

Calendar Dates:

Sept. 15-16 Balloon Days

Sept. 20- 5th grade mass

Sept. 21- PTO Meeting/ Social 6pm

Sept. 22- Homecoming/3 hr Early Out

Oct. 25- Book Reports Due

PTO Meeting/ Social- The first one of the year is next Wednesday. I did see that if you show up your child will get a FREE SWEATPANTS Pass!!! I know they are also working on trying to make it more of a social gathering time rather than meeting. Please check it out! The more hands we have, the lighter the work! 

Reading- We read two stories this week. One is about a boy named William who grew up in  an impoverished village in Africa. Due to the drought, his family was low on food and money so he had to stop going to school after 8th grade. He went to his library one day (which consisted of 3 shelves) and found a book on energy. He was able to find parts to build a windmill for his family's crop. He also figured out how to create electricity from that so they could have a light bulb in their house. He was only 15 at the time! We read another story about Marilyn Hamilton who loved to hang glide, but after an accident she was paralyzed. She was determined to live a full life and hated being in a wheelchair. She and some friends designed a new wheelchair that was lighter and easier to move so that she could play tennis! We read about how people also play rugby and basketball from their wheelchairs. It also talked about how the design of it was really important so that the athletes could move quickly and safely.   We worked on identifying parts of the Winds of Hope story using the cause and effect. They had to figure out what William did and what caused it. 

In grammar we are working on the 4 kinds of sentences: exclamatory, declarative, imperative, and interrogative. They have had this in past years,but always key to remind them that their sentences need capital letters and some kind of punctuation!

They will have a spelling test and weekly test on Friday. I am sending home last week's weekly test scores in their Take Home Folders. These were not that pretty.  I explained to the 5th graders these are different than last year's. This one only had 11 points total. The minute you start to miss some of the questions, the faster your score drops. It's also a little like going to college and taking that first exam from your professor. You never know how those tests will look, the kinds of questions they ask, etc.  Each week will be a "cold read". That means they read it alone with no discussion in class.  They need to really read and focus and possibly read again! It doesn't hurt to go back and look up possible answers.  Some of the  questions have context clues in them...they need to look for those little hints as well. Hopefully, each week is a little better! I know not every week is the same point total.  

Next week we will begin our Monday-Friday schedule. So there will be a spelling pretest on Monday and a post test on Friday. 

Mass- Our first mass is next week Wednesday. I will be handing out their parts on Friday to them. Not all will have a speaking part, but all will have a job! You are more than welcome to join us at mass. I know the kids love seeing you there to cheer them on!! 

Math- We are really working into decimals. They had to learn how to write them in written, expanded, and standard form. They also had to be able to compare decimals and figure out how to write them from greatest to least. Our next step was learning to round them to the nearest place value name-- whole number (ones), tenths, hundredths, and thousandths. We talked about rounding money to the nearest dollar when you're shopping so you know about how much you're spending and whether you have enough money to spend. 

Religion- We worked on the seven days of creation and then the Incarnation which is the Son of God becoming flesh in Jesus Christ. We also review the Blessed Trinity- Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. I'm betting our first test will be some time next week. 

Homecoming- Next Friday, the 22nd, is a 3 hour early out. There won't be lunch served that day.  Kids can wear their Panther gear if they have some! For the first time, we are going that morning to the high school to participate in their coronation activities. There is a permission form in your child's Take Home Folder. Please fill out and return as soon as possible. We will come back here after that fun for the remainder of our time before dismissal. 

Pictures and ID- In your child's folder are their school pictures. They also included an ID badge. I'm not sure how you can use that, but there you go!

I hope everyone has a GREAT weekend!!! Enjoy these beautiful temps  and Balloon Days! I know the Children's Choir is singing at Sunday mass! I can't wait to listen! 

God Bless,

Miss Surma