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