I have moved the book report due date. It is now Monday, May 16. It will give them an extra weekend to get it done. 

Hello Parents, 
I am back. I am still trying to figure out what they have done while I have been gone. Next week we will for sure be on a more regular plan. I am glad that Mrs. Bearden was here to be with the 5th graders. I know she loves them! She had great things to say! It also sounded like Biztown went really well! I loved seeing the pictures on Facebook. They looked so professional! Thank you to my parents for going along! I hope you had fun too!!!

I just wanted to say thank you. Thank you for being supportive of my absence over the last 3 weeks. Thank you for your prayers, your texts, the cards. It has been a very difficult time, but I was also very comforted knowing your kids were okay. I miss my mom more than I can say, but I do think getting back into the routine will be good. I know for sure she would say the same thing! 

Make sure to look at the calendar for upcoming events.
Below are the notes from the music teacher about next week's concert. 

Dress for the concert is: Mass appropriate slacks or skirts and a nice top that is primarily red, white, and/or blue. 

Remember, we are asking each family to bring one personal care item (toothbrush, toothpaste, bath soap, shampoo, etc.,) that will be donated to a shelter in Des Moines as well as locally. 

Have your children arrive at Creston High School no earlier than 6:30 p.m. next Wednesday, May 4.

Preschool-2nd grade children will meet their teachers in the commons area. Grades 3-8 will meet their teachers in the music rooms.

Lap-A-Thon

On Monday, the kids can wear sweats for the lap a thon. I would strongly advise two pairs of tennis shoes and socks. I have a feeling that ground will still be wet and possibly muddy. They can run in shorts as well.  They can have their devices to listen to music as they run. They should also have a water bottle. 5th graders will now be running in the afternoon. 

I hope everyone has a great weekend! God Bless, Miss Surma

Hello Parents, I hope everyone had a GREAT spring break! I had a nice relaxing week in Doon and the snow seemed to miss us there! Yahoo! We also went to Waterloo for Easter. It was great to see my sister and her kids from PA!!

Field Trip Change- There was a miscommunication with Howe Elementary on the date of our trip. We are now moving it to Tuesday, April 26. I have one parent for sure as a volunteer, possibly 2, but could still use one more. Does the date change help??? You would still need to attend the training on  April 5 or 6. Please let me know by Monday! I apologize for the mix-up! 

Iowa Assessment Week- Next week they will be taking these tests. I will remind your children to just do the best they can-- that is all I want from them. I will remind them to get a good night's sleep each night. Eating a good breakfast that fills them up is helpful as well. I know the PTO is creating the snacks for our break. They should also have a free reading book or a magazine to look at when they are finished with each test so they don't distract others. I will do my best to create a stress free environment. Their schedule will be a little crazy this week due to the testing. They won't have every class every day. We are developing a schedule. They will continue to get their specials and library time. 

Mass- The 5th grade mass is next week. I will assign them their parts this Friday. You are welcome to join us!!! 

Reading- We are reading a story that is historical fiction this week. It is from a little girl named Rachel. She is writing a journal of her traveling in the 1800s with a wagon train. 
Our grammar this week is focusing on using the comparative and superlative forms of adjectives and adverbs. For example: good, better, best or bad, worse, worst. You can also use the words more or most with an adjective...more beautiful or most beautiful. 
They will take their weekly test on Friday. Next week during assessment week we will not have a story to read. We are going to take a break. 

Math- They are beginning to divide decimals by decimals this week. They are doing really well! In fact, I have even heard some of them say, " I like this kind of math!"  That makes me smile because they didn't really say that when they were doing basically the same thing a couple of chapters ago! :)

Substitute-- There will be a sub here on Friday afternoon. I am leaving at noon to head back to Waterloo. My niece is being confirmed on Friday night. Mom and I will be there for the weekend. Mrs. Bearden will be my sub. I know the kids will love that!

I hope you have a GREAT weekend! 
God Bless,
Miss Surma

Hello Parents, I hope you are having a great week! The weather has been wonderful! Thank you so much for your help with the silent auction and live auction donations! The 5th grade basket did really well. It was a very successful auction overall. Thank you for your support.

Spring Concert Date Change-- Please mark your calendars--the new date is Wednesday, May 4, 2016, at 7pm. It will be held at the high school.

Cross Walk-- On Friday we will be walking the Stations of the Cross as an entire school. You are more than welcome to join us. The students will be walking with their Lenten Angels. We will have some stops along the way where they will be picking up some mementos of Jesus' journey. We will finish the stations at the church. We are walking rain or shine. Students should dress appropriately for the walk... they may need a light jacket that day. We haven't done this before, but we are very excited about it. If you want to join us, we are gathering in the courtyard at 12:45. 

Reading- This week they read a story called The Birchbark House. It is about an Indian girl who is walking through the woods and tries to befriend to bear cubs, but the mother bear puts a stop to that. This is another historical fiction story. They are also working on Past Perfect Tense, Present Perfect Tense, and Future Perfect Tense verbs in sentences. These are verbs that usually have a helping verb in front of it--has, have, had, or will have.  They are also working on picking out a theme of the story based on what they have read. A theme is kind of a lesson we learn from the story. They will test over it on Friday. I do plan on doing another story next week even though we will only have 4 days. I will need them to stay focused next week, even though we are all ready for spring break. 

Math- We started back in the book this week. Their first lesson was learning how that decimals moves to the left when we are dividing a decimal by 10, 100, or 1000. On Wednesday and Thursday, I gave them Base 10 blocks. They are working in groups to solve division problems with decimals. They are having some fun with this because it is different and they are still solving the problem, but now they may have to trade out their ones for tenths to make it doable or they exchange their tenths for hundredths. All of these problems work out evenly so we aren't in the world of remainders right now.  This does give them a visual of just how small their answers really will be. 

Religion/Biztown-- We finished our unit on Lent, so I am now using my religion time for work on Biztown. They are currently figuring out the different kinds of jobs there are to choose from in life. Do they want to work with people, ideas, things, or data? They will be working on building a resume for their job at Biztown. They are also working on this with Mrs. Sickels during social studies.  

Conferences- If you haven't signed up for a time, please do so, or let me know if next Thursday doesn't work! We can schedule something else!!

Friday Lunch-- Sack lunch is optional. The school will still provide their Friday menu for those without sack lunches. Ala Carte will be available. Milk will be provided. No drinks needed. 

Have a great weekend! I will see you next week at conferences!!!

God Bless, Miss Surma

Hello Parents, I hope you are having a great week! I can't believe we are in March already! Where is our year going?? I know we will be busy up until Spring Break!!

Conferences- Last week I sent out an email with a link for you to sign up for conferences. Please make sure you do that!! If you can't get it, call Sarah. She should be able to help you out! If that Thursday doesn't work, let me know. We will make other arrangements. 

Reading - This week we read a story called Tuck's Travels. It was about a boy and two other children escaping from the Comancheros. These were kids that were traveling with wagon trains with their families, but were separated from them for different reasons. After one of the 5th graders checked out this unit's stories-- he asked me if they were all "old-timer" stories. :)  I would call them historical fiction, but I guess we can call them "old-timer" stories too. ha ha
 They are working with verbs again, but are focusing on the verbs be and have. We are using the different forms of those words: am is are was were has have had. 

Their Harris Burdick stories are slowly going up on the wall outside our room. I will have them up during conferences, so you can check them out!

Religion- They are working on a Lent chapter right now. We will be going to confession on Friday. I also plan on showing them the very old movie The Ten Commandments.  As a school we celebrate the Seder Meal which is what Moses and the Israelites did before leaving. We will also do the Stations of the Cross before they leave for break. 

Math- We have finished up our math part of Biztown this week. The next part is more about getting that job in Biztown. We will be getting back into our math book next week. The next chapter is dividing decimals. I told the kids that on Tuesday. They weren't too happy. :)

Stations of the Cross Walk- Next Friday we will be walking the entire school to the church and back for the Stations of the Cross. We will walk rain or shine so the kids should dress accordingly. 

I hope everyone has a great weekend! I hope to see you at the auction on Saturday night. I will be there with my mom. 
God Bless, Miss Surma

Hello Parents! I hope you are having a great week! We actually have had a FULL week! We had better hold on because I think it will get a little crazy! 

Reading- This week they were taking their unit tests. I will send scores as soon as I am done checking them. I would say overall scores came up with this one. 
Next week they will get back to spelling tests and a weekly story. This week they also started a new writing project. This one is being done in partners. They were given a piece of paper that had 3 different lists. They would roll a dice for each category. That number would determine their setting, character, and plot of the story. They could add characters to the story as they wrote. We are almost done typing our Harris Burdick stories and will be sharing those in class. I will post the finished ones in the hallway for conferences. 

Reminder: Book Reports are due on Friday!!!!


Math- This week they were busy with their Biztown Math. They were to choose an item that they would like to save up money for and purchase. These were BIG items for the most part. Once they each had a picture of the item and an average price, they had to determine how many years they wanted to save up  the money to buy it. Then they figured out how much they would have to save each month. Once they had that figured out we went shopping for banks. They were looking for the best interest rates for savings accounts. We found Wells Fargo had the best rate. From that point on we entered their data into a calculator on moneychimp.com. This showed them how much interest they would make in 5 years based on how much they were going to save each month. I think they had fun doing this project. They are also discussing all the different ways we can pay for items or get cash. They read information on debit cards, cash cards, gift cards, credit cards, checks, cash, and prepaid cards. They are determining which ones are easy to use, more difficult as well as the advantages and disadvantages of them.  They will be working on Biztown in social studies starting on Thursday! 

Religion- Their test is on Thursday. We will start a short unit on Lent next. 

Conferences: I sent an email to you to have you sign up for conferences. If that day doesn't work for you, email me and we will make other arrangements. Thank you!!! 

I hope everyone has a great weekend! It sounds like it will be a very nice weekend! God Bless, Miss Surma

Hello Parents, I hope you are going to enjoy our spring temperatures this week! I hope it sticks around! 

Math- We are working on our BizTown math during class time. Last week they learned how to write a check and record it. We are doing more of that this week. They are also learning about overdrafts. Such fun stuff! I think they are enjoying it! 

Math tests were pretty good. I told them the thing I picked up on is that they aren't paying attention to their decimals. That was usually the reason the answer was wrong. They know how to multiply! They just need to pay attention to whether they are multiplying whole numbers and decimals or decimals x decimals. The rule for their decimal changes with each. 

Reading- We read an excerpt this week from The Black Stallion, This part of the story focused mostly on Alec and the Black learning to trust each other to help their survival on the island.  We also focused on the story map and figuring out the conflict of the story and then how and when it was resolved. They also had to come up with a theme or a lesson we are to take from the story. Their spelling list this week was fun to give because it is words from other languages. I love telling them that before they take the pretest. Their reactions are funny! They did decide some of those words are hard to spell. In grammar we are working on how you write titles of books, magazine, articles, movies, TV shows, etc., when you include it in a story. Some get underlined, but others just need quotation marks. I told them if they can remember --if you can hold it in your hand, it gets underlined-- books, magazine, movies. Poems are usually in a book of poems, articles in the newspaper or magazine--do not get held alone. You hold the newspaper or the book it is found in. 

Auction- Thank you for the donations! If anyone else still wants to donate, please do so! I will get it to Katie or Kim! Don't forget to buy your dinner tickets for March 5 if you are able to attend!

Religion- Our chapter is covering the Sacraments of Healing. We discussed both the Sacrament of Penance and Reconciliation and  Anointing of the Sick.  We will have the students go to confession during Lent. 


Book Reports-- Their 2nd report will be due on Friday, February 26! 

Have a great weekend! Enjoy those spring like temps! I may even wash my car! :)

God Bless, Miss Surma