Hello Families, I hope everyone is safe and sound after last Friday's storms and tornado. I had just arrived at my brother's house in Waterloo when the text messages started coming in! I was praying for all! We continue to pray for those affected by the storms. 

Calendar Dates: 

May 2- Glow Run Lap-A-Thon

May 3- Public School Band Experience/ Spirit Day

May 8-12  Archery Nationals

May 15-  Final Book Report Due/ 5th Mass Day

May 17- 8th grade graduation

May 24-Last Day of School

Reading- They took their test on Tuesday  along with the spelling test. On Wednesday, we will start our last story in this module. That means they will have a new spelling test on Wednesday. I have it planned out that next week we will wrap up this story. I plan on the next spelling post test to be on Thursday, May 9. By next Friday, they will be taking a Module (unit test). The kids that are gone for archery will take them on the Monday they return.  

Book Reports are due on May 15. They should pack their costume in their bag that day. I think I will be able to get through most of them, if not all! 

Religion- They will test over our most recent chapter on Thursday. This one covered the Fruits of the Holy Spirit and the Gifts of the Holy Spirit. Last Friday, we started our Guidance books. I think we will get into more of that next week. 

Math-This week we worked on adding and subtracting of fractions with unlike denominators making sure to use the lowest common denominator possible. It became slightly more challenging when they had to add and subtract 3 different fractions within the same problem. For example: (1/2 + 3/30) - 2/20.  I haven't focused on simplifying yet. I wanted them to understand what the process to rename them before they add or subtract. I think we are there now so that is our next step!  They will also be adding mixed numbers with unlike denominators. 

Glow Run on Thursday!!! Wear bright colors, white, or neon so you glow in the dark while you run. Make sure to return your  fundraiser forms!!! 

Friday- They need to be at school EARLY! They will load the trolley at 7:55 am. Mrs. Warner will be in charge. Make sure to eat breakfast at home! They will be back at 9:00. I know some of them are excited! 

I am going to be gone on Friday. I am taking a personal day and heading to Waterloo. My niece Olivia is a senior and has a soccer game that night. This is my chance to see her play. It is also her senior prom weekend! My brother and sister-in-law are going to go to Dubuque on Friday because Olivia's older sister graduates on Saturday from Loras College. To top it all off their oldest child is graduating from her college in Colorado on Friday! Talk about needing to be in more than one place at a time! Sadly, they knew they couldn't do it all. I am going to take care of all the prom activities with Olivia while they celebrate Emily in Dubuque all weekend! WE will all celebrate Gracelyn when she comes back to Iowa for Olivia's graduation. 

Mary Brown will be my sub. She will go with Mrs. Warner to the public school. If you have any messages or concerns on Friday, contact the office. They will let the kids know. 

I hope everyone has a great weekend! 

God Bless,

Miss Surma

Hello Parents! I hope you're having a GREAT week! We are down to 4 Mondays! I cannot believe that! 

Calendar Dates: 

April 26- Spirit Day/ Earth Day

April 30 Back Up Day for Clean Up Day

May 2- Glow Run Lap-A-Thon

May 3- Public School Band Experience/ Spirit Day

May 8-12  Archery Nationals

May 15-  Final Book Report Due/ 5th Mass Day

May 17- 8th grade graduation

May 24-Last Day of School

Glow Run- The kids will have their lap-a-thon on May 2 during their PE time. If they have shorts or T-shirts that glow in the dark have them wear them! Extra fun! They should return their donation papers that went home in their take home folders before May 2. Remember for every $50 they raise, they get a can of Silly String

Reading- This week they read 2 stories. One was on Rita Moreno. She had to deal with a lot of discrimination in her acting and singing career. I did show them a scene of her singing and dancing in West Side Story.  I gave them a short little explanation of that movie. Some wanted to watch it.  Then we read about Louis Armstrong. His story was told from the point of view of his cornet. His start was in New Orleans, but then later moved to Chicago.  We did listen to a couple of his songs. In grammar they are working on adverbs. Words that describe the verb in the sentence. They can answer the questions - how? when? where? and how often? They are trickier because normally the kids want to pick out the verbs. They will test over this story next week. The spelling post test will be on Tuesday, April 30. 

They will need to bring their book report costumes on May 15! 

Math- They are adding and subtracting fractions with unlike denominators this week.  I have shown them about simplifying, but that isn't our focus just yet. The focus right now is to pick the smallest common denominator and renaming before they can add and subtract. We will also be getting into adding and subtracting mixed numbers! 

Religion- We are working on understanding the Gifts of the Holy Spirit as it pertains to when they get confirmed. We are also talking about the Fruits of the Holy Spirit. We talked a lot about Fortitude (courage) and our saints who became martyrs. They showed lots of courage because they were willing to die for their faith.  We did talk on Tuesday about the 4 steps the Catholic church takes to name someone a saint. 

Spirit Day on Friday! Sweats for $1. It is also Clean Up Day. Bring rakes and gloves! Donate $1 to the school for us to purchase flowers for outside our doors. The rain delay date is set for Tuesday, April 30.

Permission Slips- If you have not returned the permission slip that was sent home last week about going to the public school for band...please do so as soon as possible. Thank you! 

I hope everyone has a great weekend! I am heading to Waterloo. My niece Olivia is in her high school's  spring musical so I am going to go watch her perform! 

God Bless,

Miss Surma

 

Hello Parents! What a wild week of weather! We did enjoy listening to the thunder on Tuesday morning ! 

Calendar Dates: 

April 18- Spend It or Save It Assembly for 5th-8th graders

April 19- No School / PD Day

April 24- Puberty Video 

April 26- Spirit Day/ Earth Day

May 2- Glow Run Lap-A-Thon

May 3- Public School Band Experience/ Spirit Day

May 15-  Final Book Report Due

May 17- 8th grade graduation

Reading- This week we finished up our story on The Gates. They had their spelling test and weekly test on Wednesday.  On Thursday, we have our spelling pretest and start our next story. This one is about two artists. They will read a short biography on Rita Moreno, the singer and actress. You may know her from West Side Story.  We will also be reading a fictionalized biography on Louis Armstrong.  That is a biography about a person's life, but it has some made up parts in it. I plan on showing the kids some of their performances.  I am excited to read about them. I know their work, but not a lot about their journey. In grammar we are moving on to adverbs. 

Religion- We finished up our Easter chapter with the focus being on The Road to Emmaus story. We are in a new chapter now. We read about the story of Saul and how he was against Christianity. We read a little about St. Stephen and how he taught about Jesus, but then was stoned to death for this. We learned that Saul was there at the time. He didn't participate in the death of Stephen, but he agreed with the people who were against Stephen. It wasn't until Saul lost his sight after his conversation with Jesus and then healed by Ananias that he had his conversion and later became Paul. I was so excited  when I asked the kids who Paul was and they told me...he wrote the Letter to the Corinthians and wrote letters from jail! YES! YES! YES!!! 

Math- We are working on FRACTIONS!! We started by estimating fractions to the nearest 0, 1/2 or 1. Next we are renaming fractions so they have the same denominator. Our next step will be to rename these fractions and then add them.  On Tuesday, we talked about always writing fraction in the simplest form which means one of those numbers has to be a prime number. So, I started the process of teaching them how to simplify using division. As always some get it quickly while others take a little longer, but I think they are happy we aren't doing long division!!! 

Permission Slip- In your child's folder is a permission slip from Mrs. Warner. She would like to take the 5th graders on Friday, May 3, to the public school so they can watch and listen to their 6th grade band. We talked and decided to take all the kids- not just the band kids. I figured the others would enjoy the experience as well! They will need to be at school early that morning and will travel over on the trolley. They will be back by 9 am. They should definitely eat breakfast at home! They won't be able to eat it at school. Please return the papers as soon as you can. Thank you!!! 

Friday, April 19- No School! It is a PD Day for us! We usually take a PD day to do some act of service. This year we are helping out Mark O'Riley fill the food bags at the Food Shelf. Then we are coming back to school and cleaning certain rooms.  Enjoy the extra day on your weekend! 

I hope everyone has a great weekend!  Mrs. Sickels, Mrs. Burg, and I finished our LETRs class on Tuesday night so I won't have that homework! I may actually be able to read for fun! 

I plan on going to mass on Sunday so I can listen to the children's choir!

God Bless, 

Miss Surma

Dear Parents, I hope this week has been a good one! Watching the eclipse on Monday was really cool. I can't imagine the total blackout that some people were able to experience. My sister in Maine and my nephew in Ohio had quite the show ! 

Calendar Dates: 

April 18- Spend It or Save It Assembly for 5th-8th graders

April 19- No School / PD Day

April 26- Spirit Day/ Earth Day

Reading- We have been mostly testing this week so we haven't had a lot of reading class time. We are continuing to work on our story called The Gates when we get the opportunity. 

Math- We are starting our fractions chapter. 

Religion- we are working through our Easter chapter. Soon we will be adding our Guidance book to our religion class time. Just a reminder- the guidance book focuses more on relationships with family, friends, and God.  We will do this alongside religion classes. I won't replace it. 

April 19- No School! It is a PD day for the teachers! Enjoy your longer weekend! 

Permission Slip- There will be a form in your child's folder. I will be showing a puberty video to the boys and one to the girls on April 24. Before Covid the public school nurses would do this for me. Since Covid, I show the video in class. We separate the boys and girls so no one is uncomfortable! It really doesn't go into major details. Its a video of kids explaining how their bodies are changing and will change in the next few years. The girls' video does talk to them about their periods.  Please sign the slip and return as soon as possible.  When your child isn't watching the video, they will be in the kindergarten room helping kindergartners with whatever they are working on. Mrs. Chesling said she would be happy for the extra help! I plan on showing one video in the morning and the other in the afternoon on April 24.

ISASP- We will be done with testing on Thursday!  Then we can back to some normalcy with our schedule! 

I hope everyone has a great weekend! Enjoy the beautiful weather!!! 

God Bless,

Miss Surma

 Hello Parents, I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter! I had a great time with my family in Waterloo and Waverly. 

Calendar Dates

April 5- Spirit Day

April 8- Eclipse Day

Apr. 8-12 ISASP Week

Apr. 19- No School/  PD Day

Apr.26- Earth Day Cleanup/ Spirit Day

Reading- We started a new module on Monday. This unit will be all about different kinds of art.  On Tuesday, we read the story The Gates.  It is a story about a couple of artists that worked for 26 years to get New York City to say "yes" to their art construction idea for Central Park. They finally agreed to it and made them sign a 43 page contract! It cost them 26 million dollars to create the art piece and erect it throughout Central Park! Then it was only up for 2 weeks in 2005.  We were all in shock by the the persistence of them to not give up! The 5th graders couldn't understand why it was up for only 2 weeks, but we inferred it was part of the contract deal they signed! https://images.app.goo.gl/4d6DxsqpxAugu8Cg8  Click here if you want to see a picture of the art piece! It went all throughout the park.  The grammar for this story will be adjectives. On Tuesday, we found adjectives in sentences and then figured out if they answered- how many? what kind? or origin?  Their spelling list this week is covering words that drop the final-y before adding their endings....-ier -ies  -ied  -iest

Math- On Tuesday, they started their practice test which was finished on Wednesday. They will go over it on Thursday with me. The real test will be on Friday. 

Religion- We are finishing up the movie we started last week. Once that is done we will work on the Easter chapter in our book. 

Spirit Day is this Friday! Sweats and/or a hat for $1!!! 

ISASPs- On Wednesday, I started giving the 5th graders practice tests for the ISASPs. This year they will have one extra test to take. They will take a test in science. That is a test for the 5th and 8th graders.  Next Monday we will start testing. My plan is to do one a day. They will have their tests in the mornings on Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday. On Wednesday, we will do one after their recess. I think our morning time will be too short after practicing mass and then going to  it.  I always tell the kids to try to get a good night's sleep, eat a good breakfast ( if they are breakfast people, and then just do their best). They aren't really timed anymore so they don't have that added pressure. I will try to keep the room quiet and relaxed during the tests. 

Dollars for Scholars Essays- The 3 winners from our class are Presley, Harlow, and Harper! One of these three will win the scholarship. We usually don't know who that is until May. Congrats!!! 

I hope everyone has a great weekend! Hopefully there will be some nice temperatures so that we can all be outside! I see tulips blooming in my yard! 

God Bless,

Miss Surma

 Hello Parents! I hope everyone is having a great week! I can't believe it is Easter already! 

Calendar Dates

March 28- Seder Meal/Cross Walk/Wear White Shirt

March 29- Rosary at 2 pm

March 31- Easter Sunday

April 5- Spirit Day

Apr. 8-12 ISASP Week

Apr. 19- No School/  PD Day

Reading- They took their Module test on Monday! These were our best scores yet!!! I am really proud of them! I am really excited to see they are putting so much effort into those short answer questions!!! I assigned them their book report today! A few have already finished reading and taking notes! They are starting to make their Google slides for their presentation! The project will be due in May. 

This week they also wrote their rough draft for the Dollars for Scholars essay. They were given 5 words. They had to choose one and explain how that is important to their education. 

Math- They are working on problems as a review. Next week we will focus on the test. This week is just too busy with Holy Week  activities. 

Religion- They took their test today! All did well!! I will send home tomorrow to be signed by you. I am currently showing them the movie The Ten Commandments. I always show this to the 5th graders the week of Easter because our Seder Meal follows the Hebrew people as they left Egypt. Once they get passed the fact that the movie is from the 50s, they get involved in the story of Moses. 

Seder Meal and Cross Walk tomorrow! Thank you for returning the permission slips. The walk should start around 12:30 in our courtyard if you'd like to go with us! Remember to wear a white shirt for the photo we take at the church! 

Rosary- We will be praying the Rosary at 2:00 pm on Friday. The 8th graders will be leading us. This will be our final activity to celebrate our Lenten Season and Good Friday. 

I hope everyone has a wonderful Easter with your family and friends. I am heading to Waterloo to spend it with my brother and sister. Safe travels for those of you going out of town! 🐰

God Bless,

Miss Surma

 Hello Everyone! I hope you all were able to enjoy your Spring Break!! My sister and I had a relaxing time in Galena. Our brother and nieces came to spend an afternoon with us so we didn't get a ton of reading in! The weather was perfection! 

Calendar Dates

March 22- Spirit Day

March 28- Seder Meal/Cross Walk/Wear White Shirt

March 29- Rosary at 2 pm

March 31- Easter Sunday

April 5- Spirit Day

Apr. 8-12 ISASP Week

Reading- We are finishing our story this week! They will have their spelling test and reading tests on Friday!  Hopefully they are studying those spelling words because it has been a little bit since we've worked with them! We did play our Tic Tac Toe game with them today! I was pleased that so many remembered to drop the -e before adding -ing!  On Monday they will take their Module Test (unit test). We will also be working on our essays for Dollars for Scholars next week. I will also assign the next book report - which I talked about at conferences. It isn't going to be due until the middle of May. 

Math- We will finish our worksheet on Thursday. Hopefully it will be a little easier after taking a break! We will probably do a little more practice with dividing larger numbers on Friday. Next week we will begin the finishing up of this chapter! The test is just around the corner! 

Religion- We are going to get back to our chapter, but we took a break on Monday to make birthday cards for Father Patrick. On Tuesday they went to Reconciliation! I was really proud of the 3-5th graders! They were able to answer ALL of Father's question about Easter and Jesus dying on the cross! 

Permission Slip- In your child's folder is a permission slip that we need back before next Thursday. It is for the Cross Walk on Thursday. We will do the Seder Meal first and then they will walk with their Angel partners to the church with stops along the way to remind us of the walk Jesus took on that first Good Friday. They need to wear a white shirt so we can take our picture in the church. If they don't have a plain white one, they can wear a white one and then we will have them flip it inside out before we leave for the walk. You are welcome to join us on the walk if you want to! It is a great experience. 

Students are expected to participate in the meal unless they have a documented food allergy/issue.

Middle School Ready?? I told the 5th graders this week I was going to start doing some things to get them prepared for middle school next year. So from this point on they won't be doing corrections on homework assignments unless I see that they really are lost and need to fix things. They will still correct their tests. I have told Mrs. Sickels and Mrs. Burg to do the same in their classes with them. I told the 5th graders- your score will be your score. 

Spirit Day on Friday! It looks like the temps will be perfect for sweats! 

I hope everyone has a great weekend! Palm Sunday is this weekend!

God Bless,

Miss Surma