Hello Parents, I hope you're having a great week and not suffering from any whiplash from our temperatures! 

Calendar Dates

Mar. 1- Shorts can be worn

Mar. 2- STM Foundation/ Gala 

Mar. 4-7 Parent Teacher Conferences

Mar. 6-Bishop's Mass

March 8-15 Spring Break/ No School

March 19- Reconciliation Grades 2-5

March 22- Spirit Day

Reading- The story we are reading about this week is called The Good Garden. It is about a family in Honduras living through a drought. The main character Maria is responsible for growing food while her dad is away looking for work. Her new teacher teaches her how to make compost as a fertilizer and terraces to grow their crops. She grows some radishes that they can then sell at the local market to help make them some money. This one is a realistic fiction story.  They continued to work on their grammar and using commas in sentences.  They will test over this story on Thursday. Their spelling test is also on Thursday. On Friday we will start our next story and continue to work on it next week. That story won't get finished until after break. 

Math- This week I taught them the standard algorithm for division. We've been working on it for a couple of days. Some have really caught on. On Thursday, I plan on doing some more work with them, but I have warned them that they will have homework and will have to try it on their own (don't worry- I will be right there with them if they get stuck!) This is division you know how to do if they would bring it home! 

Religion- This Lenten season part of our promises is saying the Rosary in the chapel once a week. We did that on Monday. The 5th graders are so good at knowing where we are on the Rosary and the prayer they are expected to lead. We have finished our chapter on Lent and have returned to our other chapters in the book. This chapter focuses on baptism and confirmation. We discussed how kids joining the church as they get older could receive Baptism, Eucharist, and Confirmation at one time.  We also talked about how Confirmation students pick out their patron saint. The 5th graders did research on a saint and will report on them on Thursday. 

Shorts- They can begin to wear shorts on Friday. Make sure they follow the dress code. We use the child's fingertip length to determine mid-thigh. Students who wear shorts that are too short will receive a dress code violation and could lose the privilege to wear shorts. 

Conferences begin on Monday ! Thank you for signing up for your time! 

I hope everyone has a great Spring Break! Enjoy the break time. My sister and I are heading to Galena, Illinois for a few days! We have gone there the last two years, but this year we are making it more of a reading retreat! I can't wait! If you are traveling at all during break whether to Des Moines or somewhere further I wish you safe travels! 

I hope to see some of you at the Auction and Gala on Saturday!  Looks like there will be some great baskets from the grade bands and silent auction items. 

God Bless, 

Miss Surma