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