Hello Parents, I hope you are having a good week! This weather is beautiful! Bring on spring!!! 

Calendar Dates:

Apr. 4- Field Trip to Des Moines/ Spirit Day

Apr. 9- 5th grade mass

Apr. 7-11- ISASP Testing

Apr. 17- Seder Meal/Cross Walk

Apr. 18- Good Friday/Spirit Day

Apr. 21- No School/ PD Day

Reading- We are finishing our Pioneer Sampler story this week. They will test over it this week, and they will take the weekly module test.  On Monday, they will take the Module/Unit test. We will start our next module on Tuesday.  

I am planning on assigning the next book report next week. This is the biography I told you about at conferences. If they can't find a book they like at school, they are welcome to check out the library, a book store, or get one online. Just let me know.  Remember the project will be a Google slides presentation- which they will most likely do at school. If you have a computer at home, they should be able to access it there as well.  That will be a bit down the road. They first need to read the book and take notes. 

Math- They are doing really well dividing two digits into three digits. That will soon bump up to dividing into the thousands. This usually gets a little trickier.  I am also going to teach them to check by multiplying. That way they know if they "did it right". 

Religion- We have been focusing on a chapter dealing with Lent.  As part of their Lenten promises- we  all agreed we would go to the chapel once a week to say the Rosary. We started  that last week. We will go again this week. 

Thank you for the Noisy Change Collection money!  I gave the money to Mark O'Riley on Wednesday evening. We gave him over $600. That should help him purchase some food for the Food Shelf that he runs. He was very appreciative! 

Field Trip- The 5th graders will head to Des Moines next Friday- April 4. We leave around 8:30. We will be back in time for the bus that day. They will need a sack lunch and drink that day. 

Mass- The 5th graders will be in charge of mass on April 9. I will hand out parts next week. Please join us for mass that day if you're available. 

ISASP- The standardized testing will begin on April 7. Next week I will be doing some practice testing with them so they know what to expect that week. 

I hope everyone has a great weekend! 

God Bless,

Miss Surma

 Hello Parents, I hope everyone was able to enjoy their spring break! I know I did. I didn't really do anything, but I got a lot of little chores done at home! I also made time to read some books! The weather was beautiful! 

Calendar Dates:

Mar. 21- Spirit Day

Mar. 24- Reconciliation

Mar. 26- Noisy Change Collection at Mass

Apr. 4- Field Trip to Des Moines

Apr. 9- 5th grade mass

Apr. 7-11- ISASP Testing

Substitute- I will have a sub on Friday afternoon. Mrs. Weight will be here with the kids. I am taking some time to clean and hang out with my siblings. Some are coming to Creston on Friday to celebrate my birthday with me. 

Reading- This week we are reading a story about a pioneer family and about their life. We learned about how they harvested their hay. We looked up pictures of the tools they used online. They also talked about how they watched the weather by watching animals in nature and the moon.  On Wednesday, I showed them a couple of videos. One was a man showing how they thatch a roof...that was something they talked about in the story. The other was a short video giving us a tour of what a cabin in the 1850s would have looked like. We also talked about how life was so different. We talked about our modern conveniences today.

Grammar is covering the different tenses of verbs. We talked about past and present tense on Tuesday. On Wednesday, we worked on future tense verbs. They also had to write them with contractions. 

I have it mapped out so that they will take their spelling test next week as well as our weekly test. This is the last story in the module. That means they will be taking a module test too. 

Religion- We are working on a Lent chapter right now. They did take the ACRE test on Tuesday.

Reconciliation is on Monday with Father Patrick and Father John.  The kids made cards for Father's birthday! They gave them to him after mass. He was thrilled!  Some of the kids were excited to hear that Lionel Messi is his favorite soccer player!  

Noisy Change Collection at mass next Wednesday! The money goes to Mark O'Riley and his Food Shelf. 

Math- we started working on division on Monday. We will get back at it on Thursday and Friday.  They did a pretty good job on Monday! 

Field Trip- There is a permission slip in their Take Home Folder for our trip to Des Moines on April 4. Please fill out and return ASAP. Thank you! 

Spirit Day on Friday! They can wear sweats and/or hat for $1!!! 

I hope everyone has a great weekend! My sister Mary and I are going to the Book Fest in Des Moines on Saturday. One of our favorite authors - C J Box is going to be there! We are excited to hear him talk about his books! 

God Bless, 

Miss Surma