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