Hello Parents, I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. I had a great time in Colorado with my nieces! It was so nice to see those mountains in the distance each morning! 

Calendar Dates: 

Dec. 6- Spirit Day/ St. Nick's Day / Wear a bow or ribbon day

Dec. 12- 5th Grade sings at Holy Spirit

Dec. 18- 5th grade mass 

Dec. 21- Jan. 5 -Christmas Vacation

Jan. 6- Classes Resume

Mass- The 5th graders will lead mass on the 18th! I will hand out jobs next week. 

Religion- We are finishing our chapter on the Beatitudes. They will have a test tomorrow (Friday). Afterwards we will move into the chapter that covers Advent and our liturgical year. 

Permission Slip- I am sending home another slip! The 5th graders are just so busy. Next Thursday, they will be going to Holy Spirit to sing for the CDA. They serve us lunch as a thank you! The ladies love to hear their singing. They also provide a wonderful lunch! The kids will not go hungry! Please sign and return by next Tuesday. Thank you! There is a small cost because we are taking the trolley. 

Reading- You will see their module test scores in their folders.They all did GREAT! I did take out the written response question. In my opinion it was unrealistic to ask a 5th grader that question. It was very difficult. I am not sure a middle schooler would have like it either! They finished their stories and I will begin the editing process. They took a spelling pretest on Tuesday. 

Our new unit is nonfiction. It covers natural disasters. The story we are currently reading is about a volcano that erupted in the Philippines. We have been talking about how we prepare for thunderstorms, tornadoes,and snow storms compared to what they have to do to prepare for a volcano. There is a lot of hard vocabulary in this story. Volcanologist is one of the words! That's just fun to say! The story also includes footnotes. I explained what they were and what the mean. They are learning even more terminology that has to do with volcanoes. 

The grammar in this story has to do with direct objects. These can be tough, but I will be teaching them some helpful questions they can ask when they are trying to locate them in the sentence. 

Math- We are finishing our chapter. The practice test will begin on Thursday. They will most likely have a test over this chapter on Monday or Tuesday next week. 

12 Days of Christmas- we are going to have some fun dress up days to celebrate the season of Christmas. Each day I will remind the kids what the next day will be. I will also post it on my Facebook page to remind you. This is for fun! It is NOT a requirement! 

Friday is a Spirit Day! Sweats for $1! They can also wear a bow or ribbon! 

Don't forget we are helping buy gifts for the nursing homes. If you can help out, that would be great! We will have another noisy change collection next week! 

I hope everyone has a great weekend! Are you going to Merry Marketplace? Looks like there will be a lot happening in town! Have a great weekend, no matter what you do! 

God Bless,

Miss Surma