The following 5th graders will be attending this year's Young Writer's Conference at Graceland in Lamoni: Samantha Dunphy, Jackson Kinsella, and Katelyn Adair. Mrs. Sickels will be taking them this year. I am sure she will be sending you more information soon. They will be gone on Wednesday, April 9 2014. That is an early out for the school, but these kids will be home later that afternoon. They will need a sack lunch and drink that day! It's usually a fun day!

Hello Parents, 
I hope everyone had a great time on spring break! I enjoyed my time in Doon with my mom and family.  Now we have about 9 weeks of school left! My mom told me, "You have a lot to do in a little amount of time!" YES!!!!!

Language Arts- This week are reading Lewis and Clark. It is a historical nonfiction piece. Their story comes from the journal they wrote during their trip. In the end they traveled 8,000 miles! Amazing! I think we all agreed that we weren't sure if we could've handled those conditions. We are also working on contractions in grammar. The spelling list is about adding suffixes. Next week we will be working on the unit test. I will also discuss the final book report project next week. 

Dollars for Scholars- They are being given the opportunity again to write to win the savings bond. They will start this today with me. This is a project I like to have them work on at school. We brainstorm our given topic first looking for possible things to include in the essay. 

Math- They will be testing over this chapter on Friday. On Monday, we will do any needed corrections. I believe on Tuesday we will begin the chapter on fractions. If you're helping your child study for the test, they best thing would be to focus on dividing decimals by a two digit number. If they are dividing money, they need to remember to round their answer to the nearest hundredth or penny. The biggest problems I see right now are that they may not copy the problem down correctly, their multiplying is off, or when they subtract they get too big of a remainder and then just keep going. When it comes to the test, I won't be able to tell them where their mistake is, but I will have them walk me through the work to see if they find their own error. 

Today and Friday are the first two days of raising money for the seminary in Nigeria. They were given a paper on Wednesday with the items and prices. 

I hope everyone has a great weekend! It sounds like Sunday's temperatures are going to be wonderful!!! Next time you stop at school, make sure to check out the new alley street sign. Father Halbur blessed it as mass and it was hung shortly after. 

God Bless, Miss Surma

Hello Parents! Well, I would say the auction was a success last Saturday! The 5th grade basket was bought 9 times making a total of $4900! It was simply amazing to watch it get bought and sold so many times. I was in complete awe!! I think Mrs. Sickels was too! We both shed some tears that night. It was an emotional, but giving night! Thank you to everyone!

Language Arts- This week we read a story called Vaqueros: America's First Cowboys. It showed us the history of the cowboy. It all stems back to Christopher Columbus! We had to work on pronouncing some Spanish words. Thank goodness for pronunciation keys! We even learned where the term "buckaroo" came from--do you know??? When Americans tried to say "Vaqueros", it came out "bukera". Later it became buckaroo. I didn't know that! In grammar we are working on using commonly confused words such as: can/may, effect/affect, their, there,they're, lie/lay and more! They have been really trying to say, "May I go to the bathroom?" instead of  "Can I go to the bathroom?"  We also worked on proverbs and adages again. I am afraid this might be a dying concept. Some had never heard the saying: People in glass houses shouldn't throw stones. 
 I do plan on covering another story next week even though we have only 4 days. That means there will be a spelling test and a test over the story on Thursday before break. I am hoping it will turn out better than our Christmas tests, but I want to keep them focused as much as I can before break.

Mass-- We have our mass next week Wednesday! You are more than welcome to join us!

Math- This week they are working on dividing larger numbers as well as having zeroes in their quotient. Today we are working on dividing decimals. This will add an interesting twist I am sure. The hardest part for them this week seems to be remembering there could be another number they have to bring down before they can call it finished! They also need to pay attention to the number they get after they do their subtraction. Some of the remainders are too big!

Religion- They are testing today over Chapter 6. This chapter focused on the Sacraments of Christian Initiation and their symbols. We will be looking at Lent next!

Make sure you check out your conference schedule so you remember what day and what time you will be visiting with me! There will be a book fair during conferences as well. Don't forget to set your clocks ahead! Have a good weekend!
God Bless, Miss Surma

Hi Parents, Well, it is definitely still winter! Ugh! I am ready for spring to arrive at any time!

Math- This week we really stepped into dividing larger numbers by double digits. It always amazes me how adding one more number to their dividend throws them off. They want to be done with a single digit answer and sometimes it has three! :) Today I am slowing it down some more so that  I can work with some kids on corrections. While I am doing that the others are using the marker boards and working in small groups. Each group has a "teacher" who assigns the problem for everyone to solve, including the teacher. Once all are correct, the "teacher" role moves to someone else in the group. It is still making them work, but adding a little lightness after the last couple of days!

Language Arts- Last week's scores were great! I didn't make copies of them. I can show you them at conferences. I hope the same this week! This week they read a story about an Indian girl who is walking home and comes upon two bear cubs and their mom! It is historical fiction, but it was a cute story. We are working on present perfect, past perfect, and future perfect verbs in grammar. We also did some work on Wednesday looking up words in the dictionary and finding a synonym for it in a thesaurus. They really had to focus on the way the words was used in the sentence and not just what they thought it means.

Religion- They did super on their tests. Again, that is something I will show you at conferences. Next week Wednesday is Ash Wednesday. We will be receiving ashes at mass. This is also the beginning of Lent. I will have the students be thinking over the weekend of what they want to do this Lenten season. Will they give something up or will they work on doing some kind of deed each week?

PE- I taped them on Monday dancing to Footloose! I sent a clip to Mr. Walsh. He is going to put it up on the Facebook sight. It is fun to watch them!!!

Auction-- Thanks again for the donations! Chris sent me a picture of our basket!! It looks GREAT!  I hope many of you will be able to attend the fun on Saturday!

We are sending home a Conference Survey to all families. We have to get them back--filled out or not by Tuesday. It will be in your child's folder. Just have them return it to me by Tuesday. Thanks!

Have a great weekend! Maybe I will see you at the auction! God Bless, Miss Surma

Happy Thursday!!! I am starting to wonder if winter will ever end for us??? I think we all enjoyed the nice couple of days we had this week! 

Auction- Thank you to all those who were able to donate to our basket! Chris has everything and it sounds like she will be putting together a great basket!

Math-We have started working on division with double digit divisors. I have started out slowly with only a few problems at a time until they get the hang of it. Some have found estimating to be their tool for finding the quotient. Some have found using multiplication to be their way! Whatever works!!! As long as I can see the process of division is being done, I am fine with it. The part they need to pay attention to is their subtraction. Some are still trying to subtract larger numbers from smaller numbers. Another part of the learning is figuring out what having a remainder that is larger than my divisor means for the quotient. They give me funny looks when I say, "Your remainder is larger than your divisor, that means your quotient is too small." :)

Language Arts- We read a story called Tucket's Travel by Gary Paulsen. It is a historical fiction story about a boy and two other children who are trying to get away from the Comancheros, but they are in an arid, desolate area. A thunderstorm ends up saving the day. Their grammar this week is working on the forms of Be-- is, are, was, were, has, have, and had. They are trying to make sure that  the verb works with the subject being singular or plural. They are also working on making sure the verbs in the sentence are the same tense.  In the vocabulary piece, they are working on synonyms and the shades or degrees of meanings. They look at being happy or being exhilarated. Which word would you use in certain situations. 

Religion- They took the test yesterday. Those kids who were gone will take it today. I am just going to keep the test and I will show you at conferences. They did really well! 

I hope everyone has a great weekend! I am off to Doon again. I have to do some things for my mom since my sister is busy, but I also plan on having her come back to Creston with me until Spring Break! God Bless, Miss Surma

Hello Parents, Happy Thursday! I hope you are having a good week!  

Dates to Remember: Donations for our 5th grade basket will be due on Monday! I have only gotten a few so far, so I am really hoping that you can help out! Please do what you can. If you write a check, write it to Chris Walters. Thank you for your help!!!!



Language Arts-They took the test over our last story on Tuesday. The scores weren't so hot. I knew that the decoding section would be difficult and possibly the grammar. I was right. Because we had the time, I had them make corrections on the test where scores were 60% or below. I looked at each piece or section of the test, not the score as a whole. You will see it on the paper I sent home in their folder. I wish I had time every week to go back and make corrections. We just don't have the class time. It may be something they have to do on their own.  We started our test on Wednesday for the entire unit. We will finish it today. My plan for Friday is to go over the test. If we have some time leftover, I told the kids IF they were ready to share their book report, they certainly could. It will help alleviate next Friday. I am still making the due date the 21st, but I just thought this might help the schedule. 

Math- We have started working on division with double digit divisors. We start the chapter by working on basic facts on a larger scale. Today's lesson is estimating the quotient using compatible numbers. Basically you are finding basic facts that are close to the actual numbers and then dividing mentally. 

Valentine's Party- we will celebrate in the afternoon on Friday. I told them to bring in their treats on Friday. 

On Friday grades 2-4 are going to a play in Des Moines about bullying. I will be teaching the 5th graders all day. They will have a normal day, but they will eat lunch with the 6-8 students. 

Recess-- Now that our weather is getting somewhat nicer, we are able to go outside. I do see many of my kids without hats, headbands, or gloves. They should still have that on when going outside. I strongly suggest snow pants as well. The nicer temps are making for a sloppy playground. The kids are ending up with wet and dirty jeans due to playing in it.

Have a good weekend! God Bless, Miss Surma

Hello Parents, Wow, this is certainly a crazy week! This will be short today since I have little time to get it out before the kids arrive. 

Language Arts- We are in our last story for this unit. Now with our snow day it will push into next week. That will also mean that next week will be a unit test week. Most likely that will happen towards the end of the week. 

Reminder their book reports are due on February 21st. That gives them just over 2 weeks to finish the book and create their report. 

Math-I have checked their tests. Overall I was quite pleased! Some will have corrections. All will need to get the test signed by you. When we get back to a normal time, we will start our new chapter. 

Valentine's Party - We will trade Valentines on Friday, February 14 at the end of the day. The students are welcome to create a Valentine for each of their classmates.  I will create a list of names for them since there are so many. 

Friday, February 7, 2014- I will be gone in the afternoon. I am taking part of a day to travel to Waterloo to my brother's house. I am going to the Luke Bryan concert tomorrow night with my sister-in-law and nieces at the UNI Dome. There will be a substitute for me in the afternoon. 

I hope everyone has a great weekend! Stay warm. Travel safely! 
God Bless, Miss Surma