Hello Parents, 

I hope everyone is having a great week! I am loving these fall temps! Did you enjoy Balloon Days? I am glad the rain held off for a little while! 

Calendar Dates: 

Oct. 2- Rosary led by 5th grade

Oct. 4- Homecoming/3 hour early out/Spirit Day

Oct. 14- No School/ PD Day]

Oct. 18- Spirit Day

Mass- 5th graders did a GREAT job at mass today! I was so proud. Next week they will be doing the Rosary. You're welcome to join us then too. We will be working on the rosary during  class in religion too. 

Rosary parts were handed out on Thursday! They should be practicing at home with you!!!! Not everyone has a part. 

Math- We have been working on rounding decimals this week. They are also problem solving with decimals. We are at the end of our chapter. They will most likely be taking a test  over this chapter sometime next week. 

We do time tests on Wednesdays- I am starting to see some scores going home each week, but I think some of them need to work on them at home too. If you have flashcards or just want to ask them facts for multiplication or division up to 10...that would be good too. Math is a lot easier for them when they know their facts quickly. 

Reading -This week we read a fantasy story called Captain Arsenio. He had many jobs, but wasn't able to really do any of them well. He decided he was going  to create a way to fly. We read three of his attempts. He tried really hard, but none of them worked. It was kind of funny to read and then look at the pictures of his journeys into the sky. I told the kids that reading a fantasy is different than reading a nonfiction story like the past two were. We are going to talk about the problems he faced each time and how he attempted to solve them with the next try. 

Grammar- This week is about finding the complete subject and the complete predicate in a sentence. 

Spelling- the list has words with a long I or a long O sound. They do have lists so you quiz them at home if you'd like. 

October 1 - Pep Rally in the gym for homecoming! Kids can wear their Black and Red or Panther gear that day if they want to. 

October 4 is a 3 hour early out for the Homecoming parade. No lunch that day at school. Kids can dress up in their Panther gear or their black and red to support the Panthers! It is also a Spirit Day! They can wear sweats and/or hats for $1. 

Have a great weekend! I am going to the Christ Your Life Convention at Wells Fargo on Sunday. 

God Bless, 

Miss Surma

 Dear Parents, I hope you're having a good week! Monday was weird with K-4 gone to Green Valley, but we enjoyed the day! 

Calendar Dates: 

Sept. 20- Spirit Day

Sept. 20-22 Balloon Days

Sept. 25- 5th grade mass

Oct. 2- Rosary led by 5th grade

Oct. 4- Homecoming/3 hour early out/Spirit Day

Religion- They have a test on Thursday. I have given out mass parts for next week. The people with reading parts should practice at home. I hope you can join us next week at mass.

Father will be gone on October 2 so we are doing a rosary instead of mass. I am having some of the 5th graders lead it. Not everyone will have a part. This leads us into our next part in religion class rather well. October is the month of the Rosary. In 5th grade they have to memorize 2 of the prayers of  the rosary. I will give them a paper with both prayers on it. They should work on this at home as well as at school. They also work on learning more about each mystery of the Rosary. 

Reading- They will take their next reading test on Friday. On that day I am also going to assign their first book report. They will have 6 weeks to complete the book and project. I give them a packet with a bunch of ideas for what kind of project they want to create. They can only choose one. They will keep that packet in their homework folder to look back at it when they need more information. You can find it there if you want to check it out. 

In our story this week they learned about a young girl who was paralyzed in a hang gliding accident. She hated her wheelchair because it was big and ugly. She talked to her friends who built hang gliders. They used their materials to build a better wheelchair. These wheelchairs can be seen being used by Paralympians! That's so cool that she made that happen! 

Math- This week we have been working on writing decimals in expanded and standard form. This has been harder because they have to figure out the decimal value.  Today (Wednesday) they had to read the decimals to me how you say them. I have taught them to say "and" in place of the word  "point".  For example, the decimal might be 12.345. They have to say it to me as twelve and three hundred forty-five thousandths.  We worked on comparing decimals and writing them from least to greatest. They thought today's lesson was  easy! 

Computers- This week I did have an incident where two of the 5th graders were trying to use the camera on their Chromebook to take pictures of themselves when they were supposed to be working on Successmaker. I told them they signed a technology contract on the appropriate way to handle them  and this wasn't part of that. I also warned them that if they continue to sneak to do things on their Chromes... I can and will take them away. I am just letting you all know this so you are aware. 

Spirit Day is this Friday, September 20. Hats and or sweats for $1.

I hope everyone has a great weekend! Enjoy Balloon Days! I hope the rain doesn't stop activities! 

God Bless,

Miss Surma

 Hello Parents, I hope you're having a good week! We sure had a great time at Green Valley State Park! It was such a beautiful day! I hope grades K-4 have a great time on Monday!

Calendar Dates: 

Sept. 20- Spirit Day

Sept. 20-22 Balloon Days

Sept. 25- 5th grade mass

Oct. 4- Rosary led by 5th grade

Reading- They took their first test this week. Scores were not that good. First, I am not surprised. They need to get back into these and remember how they work. Second, they need to take more time. I am stressing that they read or listen and read the stories more than one time before they answer questions. Third, they need to remember to go back and look up things in the story or ask me questions if they don't understand what it being asked. I can sometimes reword it in a way that makes sense. 

Spelling- they took their next pretest on Wednesday.  We will start our new story this week. Week 2 is always two short stories. We will read both of them, but I will focus more on one than the other.  The grammar this week will focus more on identifying the four kinds of sentences.  They do DOL every week to work on fixing sentences, so my hope is that this will help with the grammar lessons too. 

Math- We are working on decimals and their place values now. This gets a little bit trickier for them to understand. Tenths and Hundredths are easier to relate to because I can talk about money -- dimes and pennies. Thousandths is harder to understand. They are learning how to write it as a decimal and as a fraction. 0.25 = 25/100   0.6= 6/10   0.874= 874/1000.

I see scores rising for the most part on our weekly time tests. If there is something you want to do to help- quiz your child on their facts when you're riding in the car, hanging out, doing chores, etc. I think some of them need some more regular practice. 

Religion- We have been talking about the Incarnation - God being made flesh by sending us Jesus.  We also talked about the Blessed Trinity. They had to draw a picture of one thing and then label the parts Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Once I have them all, I will post a picture on my Facebook page. (If you're on Facebook, remember to sign up for my page so you can see the pictures I post of different things they do. St. Malachy Fabulous Fifth Grade is what you want to search up!  This week they learned about Saint Damien. He was missionary priest who volunteered to go to Molokai, Hawaii to teach and help the lepers that were forced to move there so they wouldn't spread the disease. He is one of my favorites. We are nearing the end of our chapter. They will be getting a study guide soon! 

Next week I will hand out their mass parts for September 25. I was able to give everyone a job! They will also be leading the Rosary for the school on October 4. We don't have mass that day because Father will be gone.  Not everyone will have a part for that service. 

I hope everyone has a great weekend!  I plan on cleaning my house! I know...so exciting! 

God Bless,

Miss Surma

 Hello Families! I hope everyone had a great weekend! My sister and I made it to 12 different book stores in eastern Iowa. I really loved seeing towns like Bellevue and Fort Madison. They are right on the Mississippi River! So so pretty. 

Calendar Dates

Sept. 6- Spirit Day Hats and/or Sweats for $1

Sept. 9-FAST Testing begins /Field Trip to Green Valley

Sept. 25- 5th grade mass

Field Trip- Please make sure you return the green and white permission slips for the field trip to Green Valley by Friday. If you haven't paid the $5, please do so. Thank you!   Don't forget they will need a sack lunch that day with a drink. They also need to wear clothes and shoes they can get dirty. I am saying no sandals. I think tennis shoes will be easier for them to get around and safer. 

Reading- We have read the story about Thomas Edison and Henry Ford. It is a narrative nonfiction story about Henry and Thomas' inventions, but also the things that didn't work! The lesson Henry learns from Thomas is to never give up on his ideas! Due to our field trip on Monday, they will test over this story on Tuesday. They will also have their spelling post test on Tuesday. 

Grammar- this week they are learning about writing complete sentences.  On Tuesday, we picked apart sentences to figure out if they were complete, sentence fragments, run-on sentences, and comma splice sentences. 

Math- we are working on writing numbers in standard, written, and expanded form through the millions.  Standard- 8,879   Written- eight thousand, eight hundred seventy-eight  Expanded- (8 x 1,000) + (8 x 100) + (7 x 10) + (9 x 1). I find that the kids can say the number or read it to me, but when they have to break down the number by place value that is where they stumble. We will get there! 

Religion- They are working on the first story in the Bible. Genesis tells us the story of Creation. We work on learning about that and what God truly wanted for us. He created all things and thought of them as  "good". 

Spirit Day- Tomorrow is our celebration of the Cy-Hawk Game this weekend! They can wear their gear and a hat and or sweatpants for $1. They don't have to wear Cy-Hawk gear.  I won't be wearing that! I'm a UNI girl.  If they want to wear their Creston Panther gear- they can ! 

I hope everyone has a great weekend! My sister and I are meeting in Des Moines  on Friday night to meet the author Jodi Picoult! I am so excited! 

God Bless,

Miss Surma