Happy Thursday Parents! I hope you are having a good week! I can't believe that we are already at Thanksgiving! Where is our time going???  I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving next week!
I will be heading to Doon with my mom. It has been great having her here! We even got some of her Christmas shopping done!



Religion- In your child's folder is a Random Acts of Kindness calendar. This is an Advent Calendar for them to use during the month of December. I know some of the things probably can't be done, but it's always good to just think about what we can do in this month for others besides the gifts we need to buy for our loved ones. These can make someone's day just a little brighter! 

Congrats to our Fire Prevention poster winners! 1st Place- Keely 
2nd Place-Nevaeh and 3rd Place- Reese. Keely's poster along with the winners from 3rd and 4th grade were sent to Des Moines for the state competition. 

Reading- In your child's folder you will find their scores for Unit 2 test. Scores were up overall!!! I did talk to them about some of their choices that were incorrect. I reminded them that they had to go back and look for context clues in the sentences when they want you to define a word. If it is something factual, go back to the story and find it! If they are asking you to figure out something...you need to think about everything you learned and then come up with your reasoning for what happened. On the Edit and Revise section, the most missed were dealing with punctuating sentences or even spelling. 

They will start a new story on Thursday and that will mean a spelling test too. They will take the posttest and test over the story next Tuesday. I had forgotten that they will be participating in the Geography Bee after mass next week. This will be the first round. 

Math-- We will be finishing up our math chapter this week. They will test on Monday over this chapter. We will start fresh after Thanksgiving. 

Prayer Service-- On Friday we are having a Red, White, and/or Blue Day! This is to show our support for those who died and those injured in Paris last Friday. We are also just showing our support for all the cities and countries are dealing with political issues or terrorist attacks. We will have a school wide prayer service for peace at 2:40 p.m. We are telling the kids they can wear red, white, and/or blue on Friday. I told the 5th graders that this doesn't mean sweats or crazy hair or painting our faces. A pair of jeans and a shirt or sweatshirt will do! 

Muffins with Mom-- What a GREAT turnout! We hope you were able to enjoy your breakfast with your children! Dads--not to worry! There will be a Donuts with Dad in February. 

Thank you to some of my kiddos this week! I had three boys who took it upon themselves to organize the bookshelves in my room. They arranged all the books by categories! There is a whole shelf for "girl books". :) Thank you Kyle, Nolan, and Cade!!! You rock!

Another thank you to George, Patrick, and Maddie! George cleaned up the game cupboard (indoor recess games)for me! Patrick and Maddie sorted through 2 decks of cards to make one complete deck! Thank you, thank you, thank you!!! :)

Early Out- We are now getting out 2 hours early on Wednesday!!!Plan accordingly! I won't be putting out a blog next week! I hope you have a great weekend and a very Happy Thanksgiving next week! I will be taking Mom back to Doon. We will be celebrating with my sister and her family in Sioux Falls. Safe travels for everyone!!! 
God Bless, Miss Surma

Happy Thursday Parents! I hope you were able to enjoy your 3 day weekend! My mom and I had a great time in Waterloo visiting my sister and brother!

Reading- This week is the final story in this unit. They are reading a nonfiction piece called Cougars. It is an interesting story! The extra vocabulary lesson this week dealt with choosing synonyms that were stronger, weaker, or similar to the actual word. We discussed how we need to use our context clues to figure out what it means and then choose a word that would be similar. Sometimes we want that stronger word to be used because it gives a better description or a better picture as we are reading it. Our grammar this week is focusing on using quotation marks with direct quotes or when you are quoting from a text. 

They will have a unit test starting on Monday of this next week. It actually works out timing wise. They should be done testing on Thursday. On Friday, I will start a new story and spelling. I am doing that because we will only 3 days the following week due to Thanksgiving. This will give me 4 days to cover a new story. So that means next Friday they will have a spelling pretest and its posttest will be on Wednesday the following week. 

Book Reports are due this Friday

Math-- We started our week with estimating division quotients. We don't round with division, but instead use compatible numbers. For example, if I am dividing 1356 by 27, I would round 27 to the nearest ten... which would be 30. Then I need to look at the dividend and I tell the kids to look at the first two digits...1356. I ask myself, "Okay, what number is close to 13 that is divisible by 3?" "I can then divide 1200 by 30 or 1500 by 30 because 12 and 15 are both divisible by 3."  I just need to add my zeroes on. 

We also started dividing using the traditional strategy. The mistakes I am seeing so far are either in the multiplication or subtraction.  They are also checking their division through multiplication. This is where some problems come up as well because they have multiplied incorrectly or forgotten to add their remainder on. The process is going well. They will get it!! 

Religion- They did  a great job with our prayer service today! I was very proud of them. We will get back to the book tomorrow! We are finishing up our chapter on the Beatitudes.

Fire Posters-- The 3-5th graders created posters depicting this year's theme. We had the older students come in to vote and choose the top 3 in each grade. 6th graders voted on the 5th graders posters. The first place winner from each grade will then be sent to Des Moines. The local fire department no longer participates in this contest, but we wanted to bring it back! We will announce the winners by Monday for sure! 


Have a great weekend! God Bless, Miss Surma

Well, it is definitely feeling more like fall this week! Perfect weather for trick-or-treating on Saturday!

The October Book-It Calendars are due on Monday. Make sure you sign them first! Even if they don't make the goal, if they have attempted to keep track of their minutes, send it back. I like to see how they are doing. I will give them their new one on Monday. The goal for November will be the same. 

Conferences- last week I sent you a link to sign up for your child's conference. Please make sure you do that before November 5. If you are having trouble with that date, email me. We can make other arrangements. It looks like I only need a few more. 

Math- This week we started working on division with placing the first digit. The way I taught them is the same way we all grew up learning it. Divide, Multiply, Subtract, Bring Down, Repeat. They are dealing with remainders and we have discussed how the remainder can not be equal to or larger than the divisor. On Tuesday, I taught them how to check their division by multiplying the divisor times the quotient and adding the remainder. It was funny how many of them still said, "Did  I get it right?"  We will be learning other strategies, but the overall one we will use is the strategy above. The next one we cover is one  I learned a few years ago in my math class. Division using partial quotients. I really liked because for those kids who struggle with basic facts, this is pretty easy. You multiply by 10s until you can't go any further, then you start your single digits. I will try to send home a hard copy for you to check it out. They still are multiplying and subtracting, but it gets their dividend smaller in bigger chunks! It is pretty cool. Some kids like it, others don't. That's the great thing about math--- there are multiple ways to solve a problem. They just need to find the one that works for them! 

Halloween Stories-- They are all typed and attached to their Frankensteins! They will be in the hallway for you to read during conferences. 


Reading- This week we read a nonfiction story about the Everglades. A 5th grade class took a field trip to see them. The story really talks about how the Everglades are home to many different habitats and species. It also talked about how it needs saving. On Tuesday they had to find key details in the story to prove the author's purpose that it needed saving. Our grammar this week is writing compound sentences with a conjunction. We will also be writing complex sentences. Their spelling list was a list of homophones--words that sound the same, but are spelled differently and mean different things. 

Friday-- We will celebrate Halloween! They will participate in some games and activities provided by 6-8 graders. The Halloween parade will be at 2:30. You are welcome to join us in the gym for that! 

Iowa History Projects are due on Monday! Mrs. Sickels is planning on having the Iowa History Fair on Wednesday from 1:15-2:00 in the gym. You are welcome to attend!

I am heading to Doon this weekend. My plan is to bring my mom back here with me. She will stay with me for most of November, maybe all of it. We will have to see if she is enjoying her vacation away! :) Have a great weekend! Happy Halloween!
God Bless, Miss Surma

Dear Parents! Happy Thursday! I hope you are having a great week!

On Wednesday I emailed you a link for our fall parent teacher conferences! That is where you will sign up! It should be pretty simple! I just checked my emails! I have 3 already signed up! Yay!!!

I know our school website is down. I hope you have subscribed to getting my blog because then it will be sent to your email automatically. I will try to send the link to this as well through my emails. 

Reading- This week they are reading a short excerpt from Old Yeller. We have spent time talking about the dialect in that story and that it is different from an accent. They are also working on discussing character traits to figure out what each character is like. We are discussing adages and proverbs too. This can be difficult with some context. We worked on ones like A penny saved is a penny earned. or Laughter is the best medicine. 

Halloween Stories- I am editing those and have been handing them back as quickly as I can. I have given them each a due date and the requirements for typing.

Math-- We are just beginning our new chapter on division. I will talk to you about their test scores at conferences, but if you have any questions, please call me or email.

Religion- They are really working on their decades of the rosary! We will probably be back in the book next week!

Back to the Future Day- I hope they enjoyed the day as much as I did! They went to the 21st Century room in the library and were able to play with the robots and the goggles that took them on a 3D ride! We were the first group, so some of the stuff wasn't working for us. The person from the AEA couldn't be here due to a family emergency. We did the best we could, but we will get another chance next week! They will need their phones or ipods again for that. Father Halbur did a great job of relating the movie to today's gospel! In my room they made posters comparing trends and current events and prices from the 50s, 80s, and today! That took pretty much the rest of our day! I loved reliving the 80s. 

Halloween Activities-- Next Friday we will have activities for Halloween in the afternoon. They should also come to school with their costume in their bag or in another bag. We will do the Halloween parade again that afternoon at 2:30 in the gym. You are welcome to attend! If you want to take your child home after the parade, that is okay, but just see me before you do so I know they are leaving.

Spirit Day is this Friday! $1 to wear sweats!

I hope everyone has a great weekend! Enjoy these great fall temps! 
God Bless, Miss Surma

Hi Parents-- I just wanted to let you know NOT to look for their math tests tomorrow. They weren't able to finish them today. We ran out of time. My schedule for math is different this year, so we will have to finish them tomorrow. I will have them done for Monday! 

These are their Anger pictures from art! Too much fun!

Happy Thursday!!! I hope everyone is having a great week!

Reading- This week you will find your child's scores from the unit test in the take home folder. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact me, otherwise we will discuss at conferences in November. This week they read a nonfiction story about tree kangaroos or tree 'roos. A group of scientists were studying them. The story was mostly about how the scientists are able to capture them and attach a collar around their necks. This would send information to a satellite. A skill we focused on was cause and effect. We identified the causes from a particular page and then they had to tell me the effect from that cause. We also are working on verbs in grammar. They are learning about action verbs and helping verbs. On Wednesday, they had to identify the verb and then tell me if that verb conveyed sequence, time, condition, or state. We are also going to talk about picking verbs that are vague and verbs that are more exact. For example a vague verb would be went, but an exact verb would be scrambled. I told them to think about that as they write their rough drafts for their Halloween stories.  In our small groups on Monday and Tuesday, we worked on synonyms and antonyms. They also had to come up with a definition of the main word based on its synonyms or antonyms.

Halloween rough drafts are due Friday. I told them they should write it in print and skip lines ( that part is for me when I edit them). The final draft needs to be typed. I will edit them and return as quickly as possible. I will give them a due date for their final draft when I return it to them. If you don't have access to a computer, please let me know. We can use the lab before or after school to get them to type up their final story. IF you just have trouble printing it out, email me the paper, and I will print it off. 

Math- They are testing over chapter 1 on Thursday. The last two lessons in this chapter were really the beginning steps to algebra. They thought at first it was going to be difficult, but the more we worked on them, the easier they became for them.  I heard many of them say, "Wow, this is way easier than I thought it was going to be!" I hope to send home the tests on Friday with their scores, but that will depend on if there are a lot of corrections to do. 

Religion- Everyone has passed their prayers!! Woo hoo! They are now working on knowing all the decades to rosary. I told them they will have their first quiz over the Sorrowful Mysteries on Friday. If they don't pass it then, they will retake it on Monday. We went to the chapel last Friday to say the entire rosary. I was so impressed! I started it out, but then each student ended up leading a prayer or announcing the next decade. What impressed me most was that I didn't have to tell them which prayer was next or remind them where we were on the rosary. They knew it! It flowed so smoothly. They were so reverent. I just really enjoyed that prayer time with them! 

Art- Last week I showed them a how to video on drawing Anger from the movie Inside Out. We didn't finish it then, but we did this week! They loved it! Their pictures are so cute! I will post a picture when I remember my phone! I know many of them told me they went home and did others last week! 

Conferences--Keep a  look out for a sign up for conference times! Let me know if you cannot meet on November 5. We can make other arrangements. 

School Website-- It is down and has been for 2 weeks. I know Mrs. Simmons has decided to make her own blog so that you can get information. Hopefully you are all getting mine as well in your emails! 

Book Order- I sent home a book order. If you are interested in ordering, please have the order returned by Friday. Thank you! 

I hope everyone has a great weekend. I am heading home to Doon on Friday after work to visit Mom for the weekend. 
God Bless, Miss Surma