Hello Parents, I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving! I had a very nice time with my brother and his family in Waterloo. It was great to see the nieces again!  I hope your kids filled you in on their day at BizTown! I hope you got to see the pictures we posted on Facebook. It was such a great day! The ladies there told me that this was the biggest group of kids and were worried about how it would go. It went so well! I was so proud of them! It was fun at lunch to hear our kids and others say, " I need to eat fast because I have to get back to work!"

 Calendar Dates:

Dec. 1- Spirit Day / Read-A-Thon Due

Dec. 6- Christmas Program 6 pm

Dec. 8- Mass/ Holy Day of Obligation/Noisy Change Collection

Dec. 11-15- Coin Wars 

Dec. 14- Sing for CDA at Holy Spirit

Reading- On Monday we had our LETRs class with Emily Lampe from the AEA. We spent a great deal of time working through our new reading series and discussing how we could/should plan our days. The biggest A-HA for me was that some of my stories and the work that goes with it can't all be done in 5 days. We were so used to doing that with our old series. So I told the 5th graders, that for our story this week we are definitely slowing down! It is about hurricanes and reads much like a science textbook. The story is also 14 pages long. They will NOT have a spelling posttest this Friday! It will be sometime next week. I told them I will let them know when, so they aren't surprised, but they should keep practicing their words at home. 

The spelling list for this story focuses on the VCCV pattern. On Tuesday the kids had to write and divide their spelling words up between the consonants. For example they had to write the word bargain like bar*gain and jour*ney. 

Math- We are working on multiplication. We are multiplying triple digits times double digits today. That was confusing for some so we will practice again tomorrow in class. I am not sure what is throwing some of them off yet. 

Helpful 5th graders! Your kids helped me out today! We have our new song books for the coming church year. A group of girls helped me cut the Eucharistic Prayer card out today of the books from the closet. The other kids were counting out books and delivering to each classroom! They will be ready for Advent next week! Many hands make light work! 

Religion- We are still working on the Beatitudes! We will probably be testing next week sometime.  There will not be mass next Wednesday (Dec.6) . We are moving it to Friday because it's a holy day- The Feast of the Immaculate Conception. They won't need to dress up on Wednesday, but they will on Friday! 

Advent Angel activities will also start next Friday. 

Christmas Program- In your child's folder is a permission slip for the kids to go to the high school next week to practice for the Christmas program. The program is that night at 6 pm in the auditorium. Please return the form ASAP. Thanks! I have heard some of their songs. They sound great! 

Spirit Day on Friday! They can wear sweats for $1.

I hope everyone has a GREAT weekend! Sounds like it will be a great weekend to walk around Creston on Saturday with the Merry Market Place! I know some kids will be singing! 

God Bless, 

Miss Surma

 Hello Parents! I hope you are having a great week! Colds and illnesses have started to enter our classroom. Me included! I am going to be pushing using hand sanitizer! If you are at the store, the classroom could also use more wipes! I bought a 3 pack on Tuesday. 

 Calendar Dates:

Nov. 17- End of 1st Trimester

Nov. 21 - BizTown Field Trip

Nov. 22-27- No School/Thanksgiving Break

Nov. 28- School Resumes

Nov. 29- 5th grade mass

Reading- This week we are reading a story about the tsunamis that hit Indonesia in 2004! Remember seeing that on the news?? I showed them a little of a video that was taken that day, but it was mostly the aftermath. These stories are definitely harder to read due to the content and vocabulary. It is interesting to see how they predict those earthquakes under the sea. Did you know they measure coral?? They also knew that the island was slowly sinking so the scientists predicted something was going to happen! I had no idea. That is a lot different from predicting tornadoes! Their spelling list this week is compound words! Did you notice that some have spaces in between while others have hyphens? That is always  a fun pretest to give! In grammar they are working on conjunctions and subordinating conjunctions. We also are talking about dependent and independent clauses. 

Math- We started chapter 3 this week with multiplication. They had to multiply one and two digit numbers by 10, 100, 1000. They also had to estimate their factors and then mentally multiply to find the product. On Tuesday, they worked on multiplying numbers by a single digit. On Thursday we will begin multiplying  double digits . This should be a review, but I always go slower because I know it takes a minute to remember how to do it. We will use the standard algorithm which means the way you learned to multiply! So, you can always help them at home too. 

Biz Town- The 4th and 5th got together to finish up their work in their businesses on Tuesday. Today, I sat with each business and we filled out their checkbooks and deposit tickets. They also had to enter some information into their bank register so they will be ready to go! We will leave that morning at 8:00 am! Please make sure your child is here by that time! They need to wear mass day attire. They need to have a sack lunch and drink that day. No sodas. We told them not to pack a full course meal because they probably won't have much time to really eat that day.  It is also a "working lunch"! 😉 I will tell the kids that morning what cars they are riding in. They are sooooo excited! They have a countdown going on! 

Religion- We started our new chapter on the Beatitudes. They don't have to memorize them! We spend a lot of time talking about each one and how to live it! Our next mass is on the 29th, the Wednesday we get back from Thanksgiving. I don't know that I will have everything ready for them next week...so they might not get their reading parts until the 28th, but I am going to try!    I told the kids today that Father was back, but wouldn't be at mass because he was sleeping! Guess who surprised us??? It was so good to see his smiling face again! 

Our kickoff to the Read-A-Thon started today with our Advent Angels! It was a lot of fun! Ask your kids!  They can add that 30 minutes of reading to their papers! 

I won't be writing a blog next week! I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving! If you are traveling to see family, I will say some prayers for smooth roads and no deer! I plan on heading back to Waterloo to spend it with my brother and his family. 🦃🍽

God Bless, 

Miss Surma 

 Hello Parents! I hope you enjoyed the extra days with your kids after conference week! I know I enjoyed the longer weekend. I was able to clean my house. Resetting my clock didn't seem to go well for me on Monday morning! I messed up my AM and PM! Amazingly, I still made it by 7:45! I now have 2 alarms set! 😀

 Calendar Dates:

Nov. 10- Veteran's Day and Pep Rally/Spirit Day

Nov. 15- Read-A-Thon kickoff/ PTO Meeting

Nov. 17- End of 1st Trimester

Nov. 21 - BizTown Field Trip

Nov. 22-27- No School/Thanksgiving Break

Nov. 28- School Resumes

Nov. 29- 5th grade mass

Reading- This week we read a story called Eruption! It is about a volcano eruption that happened in June 1991 of Mt. Pinatubo in the Philippines.  This is definitely a nonfiction story filled with harder vocabulary words that are definitely for this topic area! I showed them a quick video about this volcano too so they could really see some of the devastation afterwards. Our grammar this week is focusing on direct and indirect objects.  They will have a spelling test and weekly test on Friday morning. 

Math- Mrs. Sickels and I got our kids together and told them their jobs for BizTown Day! I think they are pretty excited. Then our CEOs and CFOs had to do some math to figure out how much they were asking for in their loans from the bank. The other kids were busy writing ads for the newspaper, radio, magazine, and video.  I am going to get them back in our math books on Thursday! We are working on multiplication. 

Religion- They did a chapter review on Tuesday and will be working on a study guide. They won't test until next week. This chapter gives a brief overview of all 7 sacraments. Our next chapter is covering the Beatitudes. 

Friday- The afternoon will be crazy, but packed with fun! First, it is a Spirit Day. They can wear sweats. We'd like to see them in some black and red as well to support the football team! If they would rather wear red, white, and blue for Veterans Day- that is okay too! 

Our Veterans Day program is shorter this year. It will be from 1-1:40 pm.We will be leaving right after for the high school to attend the Pep Rally.  We will be back for the bus, but don't be surprised if we are a little late due to the rally. Please be patient in the bus and car line. 

Just a reminder- your kids will need a sack lunch and drink on the field trip November 21. We are asking that they don't bring any pop/sodas for their drink that day. Water bottles, Gatorade, juice boxes are fine. They really won't have a lot of time with their lunch and drinks. They will not be carrying their water bottles with them to their jobs like they do in school. 

I hope everyone has a great weekend! Will I see you at the dome??? I am planning on watching the 10 am game with Van Meter that morning to watch my godson play. My brother Joe also films the games for the Panther Network. He will most likely be above one of the end zones. You might catch me hanging out with him! Safe travels for all those going to the game! Go PANTHERS! 🏈🏈🏈

God Bless,

Miss Surma