Hello Parents, I hope everyone had a great Christmas! I hope the illnesses now stay away! I had a nice time at my sister's house. We were able to get together at my brother's one night, but then the flu hit there too. I spent a lot of time reading books over break! It was wonderful!
Calendar Dates:
Jan. 9- Spirit Day
Jan. 12- FAST Reading begins
Jan, 19- FAST Math begins
Jan. 22- Ben Tracy speaking about Social Media
Jan. 24- Spirit Day
Jan. 26-31- Catholic Schools Week
Catholic Schools Week Mass at Holy Spirit Church - Mrs. Simmons sent a link on Monday to sign up for helping at our kickoff mass on Sunday, January 26. Please check your schedule to see if your child can help us out!
Book Report- Next week I will be assigning the next book report.
Reading- They had their spelling pretest on Monday. This is always a fun one for me! It is compound words, BUT some of the words have a space between them and some have hyphens! Their spelling posttest will be on Tuesday.
This week we are reading a nonfiction story about a tsunami. You might remember it. It hit Indonesia on December 26, 2004. This story talks about a scientist who tried to warn them earlier that year that a powerful earthquake would be hitting some time. He couldn't exactly say when, but he was right. It hit 6 months later. We are using a lot of science vocabulary in this story.
In Grammar we are working with conjunctions and subordinating conjunctions to create a complex sentence. I explained to them on Wednesday when it is appropriate to use the word "because" at the beginning of a sentence.
Because he had a doctor appointment. - not a complete sentence
Because he had a doctor appointment, he was late getting to work. ( Now we have our complex sentence with a subordinating conjunction.
FAST Testing- I will start this on Monday. We will start with the reading tests. Math will come later. This week they have been doing a 1-minute read with a partner. This is just good practice for next week.
Math- Now that I have everyone back, we worked on estimating decimals and then multiplying them. I let them use a calculator too. On Tuesday, they worked on multiplying decimals times a whole number. 0.42 x 4. I tried to keep it in the context of going to the store and buying something that cost 42 cents and you are buying 4 of them. We did talk a little about sales tax as well. We will work on that more on Thursday.
Friday is a Spirit Day! Sweats for $1
Shoes- I know the new UGGs clogs are out and that some of your girls may have gotten them for Christmas, but we have a policy in our wing that they cannot wear shoes with out a back on them. Those clogs just don't have enough of one to really count or help out. Some of them slip off so easily. So I have been talking to the girls individually to tell them they can't wear them to school They can next year in 6th grade. Our kids still enjoy playing at recess. Those shoes come off too quickly and then we have kids getting hurt. The girls have been really good at understanding, but I thought I better make it clear to all.
Religion- - we are finishing up our Christmas chapter and then moving on!
Auction- The auction is coming in March! There is a letter to families in the folders. We are not doing classroom or wing baskets this year. We are making one basket from the school. Please make sure you read the letter. Thank you!
I hope everyone has a great weekend! I hope the weather is a little warmer!
God Bless,
Miss Surma
