Hello Parents, 
I hope you are all having a great week! I like the weather much better this week! We should be finishing up with Iowa Assessments today! The kids did a great job of staying focused during the testing. We should get results back in May. I will let you know.

Emails-- I know the school has been having issues and I thought I was exempt. I am not. I know I have sent out some emails--to family and they haven't received them. If you are emailing me and I am not responding, please let me know!!! Write a note in your child's assignment book. I will look into it! 

"The Video" will be watched this Friday!!!!! Some of them are nervous about it. I keep telling them that they will be fine and it will be painless. :)

Religion-They were able to go to reconciliation on Tuesday. Next week during religion I try to focus on it being Holy Week. We will go to the chapel on Good Friday and pray the Stations of the Cross...to remind them of the long walk he took that day and what how he sacrificed his life for us. As a school we will be taking part in the Seder Meal on Thursday. I will be showing the 5th graders the movie The Ten Commandments.  This also shows them how the Jews were freed and celebrated with the Seder Meal before their journey in the desert. 

Math-- We are working on fractions. This week we spent time changing improper fractions to mixed numbers and vice versa. They also used Benchmark fractions to estimate about how much of a shape was colored in. We used common fractions like 1/4, 1/2,1/3, 2/3, 3/4 and 1 whole. 

Language Arts- Next week we will be back to a normal routine. They will have a spelling test on Monday and again on Friday. They will still have vocabulary words. Their book will be more like a magazine. It has a lot of pictures with short stories or articles. It just depends on the topic. This week they are working in groups writing a story about how their character(s) came to school to discover their teacher is missing! The ones I have read are very cute. 

I hope everyone has a great weekend! I am going to go home to Doon to pick up my mom. She is going to stay with me for the next 3 weeks so that she can go to Waterloo for Easter and a First Communion later this month! Enjoy the nice weather!
God Bless, Miss Surma