Service Work -  The 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade students will be participating once a month in some community service.  They will be walking down to The Food Bank of Iowa and helping to unload the truck that comes in on Fridays.  It usually arrives around 1:15 or 1:30 and may take about 20-30 minutes to unload.  The Food Bank provides supplemental food to those in need.  The students will providing a great service to those who volunteer their time to unload the truck, shelve the products and help the day it is distributed to families.  We are excited that they are being given this opportunity to help others in the community.  I have provided a permission form in today's folder for you to sign regarding this opportunity.  It lists the dates the student will walk down to the food pantry, which is on Wyoming Street.  It is on the corner of Division and Wyoming.  Of course this will always be weather permitting.  We will not walk in the rain or when the weather is too cold.  The teacher in charge will make the decision.  The 5th grade will be going the 2nd Friday of every month.  Please return the permission form as soon as possible.

Happy Thursday Parents! I hope you are having a good week! It has certainly flown by!


FRIDAY- Just a reminder that we get out early on Friday for the Homecoming Parade. It is also Spirit Day. They can wear sweats for $1. They can also wear their black and red for the Panthers. We will have a Pep Rally on Friday morning. 

Lunch- On Friday the students may also bring a sack lunch to school if they don't want to eat what our cooks will be providing. They will drink milk, so no other drink is needed. Remember it is an option: school lunch or sack lunch. 

Reading- This week we are reading a story called Double Dutch.  This week's story is nonfiction. This is a story about how Coach Rockett decided to start a jump rope team at the school he worked at in Harlem. The story includes some short jump rope rhymes. 
In grammar we are working on identifying common and proper nouns in a sentence. On Tuesday they were in teams and I gave them 2 minutes to name as many of each as possible. Their team would score a point if no other team named the same noun. (It's actually a version of my Scattergories game I play). We also discussed what makes it a word a proper noun. On Wednesday we talked about how we capitalize titles, abbreviations, initials, and acronyms.
Spelling- This week we started doing bonus words on the pretest. Not everyone is getting them. I based it off their spelling inventory test and their past pretest scores. 
They will take a test on Friday over the story and the spelling words. This also means next week is our last story in this unit. The following week will be a unit test week. 

Math- This week we are continuing our multiplication, but I have slowed us down a bit. They have the process down, but some are missing too many due to their multiplying or adding. We are just slowing down to get those things ironed out. 

Mass- Thank you for coming to our first mass and staying for the reception! It was so great to see all of you there!!! The 5th graders did such a great job! Our next mass is November 16. 

I hope everyone has a great weekend! Enjoy homecoming! I am headed to Waterloo after work on Friday. My nieces' homecoming is this week as well. My niece Grace is a homecoming queen candidate. They will crown their queen at the football game! I should make it in time! 

God Bless,
Miss Surma

Hello Parents, I hope you are all having a great week! We actually have a full week!  We have been busy!!!

Reading- This week we read a story about two 5th graders running for office for their grade. Each child had to give a speech before the students voted. We focused on the similarities and differences between the two speeches and how they acted afterwards. Miata spoke more formally and wanted to do things that would better their education and the looks of their school. Rudy spoke informally and promised more recess time and more days to have ice cream! The frustrating part for the students is that the story ends and we don't know who won!  We are also working on subject and predicate parts of a sentence and writing compound sentences using the words and, but, so, or or to connect them. We are also working using context clues in the sentences to figure out what a word means, especially if that word has more than one possible meaning.  On Friday, they will take the test. This is Week 3 , which means there will be an extra story they have to read and 10 more questions to answer. 

Math- This week we have been working on Powers of Ten and Exponents. That's right! Exponents. We have only used them with the number 10. They have been working on addition problems and multiplication problems with them. I am trying to get them to figure out they can do this mentally with just their basic facts. One day they said they got it, but when it came to working them out in their assignment, I wasn't seeing that. We hit it again the next day and the lightbulbs went on! I was actually hearing some of them say, "This is easy!" and "This is fun!" We will be getting into regular multiplication now. We will start out reviewing double digits times a single digit, but then we will work on bigger numbers. 

Religion- They are finishing up their first chapter on creation. This week they had to draw pictures that represented 3 in 1-- like the Trinity. They did a great job! If you are ever in our hallway, check out their work! It is on our walls!  They will be doing a study guide on Thursday. We will look it over on Friday. They will have a test on Tuesday, since we don't have school on Monday. 

Chromebooks- We have started working with the Chromebooks!!! They have learned their password for the ST Math. It is made up of a combination of 13 pictures, letters, and numbers. Once they have passed the training for that, they are set to go! They are working on math problems. We are doing this in addition to our Go Math series. There are different levels they have to work through. The hardest part might be that I can't help them. They have to sit and try to solve the problem and then try again. I am not sure if it is harder for them or me! :) 

Mass- Our first mass is next week. The 5th graders will get their parts on Friday. Just remember I can't give all of them a job. So those who don't have a part in this mass, will have one in our next mass. We are also having a reception afterwards for any parents or grandparents that can join us! Stay for some refreshments and some visiting with your children! 

I hope everyone has a great weekend! Enjoy the nice weather and Balloon Days festivities! 
God Bless,
Miss Surma

I had a parent request a copy of the 5th graders' schedule. I decided I would just make copies for all of you! They are in your child's Take Home Folder. 

Hello Parents, Happy Thursday! I hope you had a great long weekend! I was able to get ALL of my papers checked in Doon--so it was very productive for me.  I do want to explain something about my trips to Doon. Most of you might remember that my mom passed away this past April. My siblings and I haven't sold my parents' home yet and we don't plan to until next fall...unless something changes. Anyway, I do go home to check on the house, keep it clean, do yard work, and just spend time there. It was a great home for six kids to get brought up in, and I plan to enjoy it while we still have it. :)

Reading- This week we read a mystery based on the fairy tale The Princess and the Pea. It was also written as a play. So the 5th graders had a little opportunity to read the play and some great acting skills! We also discussed the makeup of a play. It is divided into scenes. Those scenes are numbered in Roman numerals. They know those! There is also a little mystery about one of the main characters-- Rena.  We also discussed the possible themes-- that you can't judge a book by its cover and that while you may seem really different from someone at first,  you may find that you have a lot in common. Rena and Althea did just that in the story!  In grammar this week we are discussing the four kinds of sentences: declarative, exclamatory, imperative, and interrogative. We focus on the job of each and how we punctuate each one.  They will have their spelling test on Friday. In your child's take home folder you will find their scores from last week's test over the story. I will send home a copy of the score sheet each Thursday. I don't need those back. 

Math- This week we have spent time on the properties of addition and multiplication. Commutative, Associative, and Identity Property. We also are spending a greater amount of time learning the Distributive Property. In my room, if I feel that the topic is a difficult one, we may do a lot together in class to practice the procedure. We have been doing that a lot this week. Now they know this may not be the fastest way to add or multiply, but it does allow them to do it mentally versus having to work out a big problem. What I love about it is your children's faces from beginning to end!!! At first, I can see the confusion, but as we practice and discuss more...that look begins to go away until I see the "I GOT THIS"!!! That is just the best sight to see! I know that feeling of being overwhelmed with math and believing I am not good at it! I hated feeling like that! Believe me, I will do what I can to appease your child feeling like that in my room! 

Religion- On Tuesday, I showed them a short little biography video on the life of Saint Teresa. We talked about how she was named a saint this last weekend. In mass, the 6th graders and Father also talked about her. She was a remarkable woman. She is definitely someone we could all strive to be more like.  In class we will be focusing on the Holy Trinity.

Our first mass will be on September 21. I will do as other teachers have done in the past and only use half of the class for this mass. Today, we made a list on the chalkboard of all the jobs they do during mass. They were each given a recipe card and wrote their top 4 choices of jobs they would like to have in our masses. I will do as best I can with those! After our mass, is our 5th grade reception for you the parents and grandparents. You can stay after mass to have coffee or juice and donuts with your child and visit with us! 

Food Fair is this Sunday if you can't decide what to make for dinner! Come to St. Malachy!!! 

The Creston Color Run is set for September 25. If you haven't signed up, please do so! There are forms in the office or you can enter online! There is also a route for the kids!  The PTO is doing this as their fall fundraiser. The kids won't be selling cookie dough or wrapping paper this year. I will be participating, but I will be walking! :)

Book Orders are due Friday! 

Friday is our first Spirit Day! The kids can wear sweatpants for $1. It is also our ISU/IOWA game day-- kids can wear their favorite team jersey or t-shirt !!!! I will be in purple and gold! GO UNI!!!! 

Have a great weekend!  God Bless, Miss Surma

I forgot to mention I am putting a book order in your child's folder. If you are interested in ordering please return it by next Friday, September 9. If you are sending a check, you can write it to me or Scholastic Books.  Thank you!!!

Hello Parents- We are in with a week down! I think it is going well. We are very busy! Last week they took some pretests in reading, spelling, and math. This week we are going at it! 


Reading- We read a short part from The Wayside School book. We had to discuss what was Louis' problem in the story and then how it was resolved. We will do more of that on Thursday. This is a funny story with an ending that isn't really expected (unless you've read the book). We will take a test over this on Friday. They will also have their spelling posttest on Friday.  Since we don't have school on Monday, they will have their pretest on  Tuesday.  In grammar we are working on what makes up a complete sentence and a fragment. We also identify the two parts of a sentence: subject and predicate. I did talk to them about picking out the who or what (noun) and the action or linking verbs. This is usually a difficult task. We will get more specific with those parts of speech as we go on. 

Mrs. Mitchell is doing the BRI tests right now. Once she is done, we will have small group time with her.

Vocabulary- I want to give you a heads-up on this!  We are doing the Frayer Model with our definitions in reading. They did this last year in social studies, but I am tweaking it for reading.  We did it this week together in class so I could show them how it would look.  They will have a big box for each word. They will write the word, a short definition, use the word in a sentence, and then they need to find two antonyms and two synonyms.  Now, if you have a thesaurus at home they can certainly use that, but some words are located in there. We used the internet. I went to www.thesaurus.com  and was able to type in their vocabulary word and a list came up! It does take some time.  They can do most everything here, but they may need the internet at home to do that research. We will do what we can in class, but I can't promise this won't be homework. They will have most of the week to do it. I would like them to have it done on Thursdays so we can go over the words. 

Math- We are starting with place value positions of numbers and learning how to write a number in word, standard, and expanded form. For example: If the number is 1,234. That is standard form. Word form- one thousand,two hundred thirty-four.  Expanded form- (1 x 1.000) + (2 x 100) + (3 x 10)+ (4 x 1).  This is a little new compared to how I taught it before, but it makes much more sense to them when I ask--how many 100s does it take to equal 200?  We started this today (Wednesday).  We will do more together tomorrow.  One thing I have noticed is that some need to refresh themselves on their multiplication facts. They can use the chart in their assignment book, but those basic facts should be a little quicker. Maybe quiz them in the car when you drive to practice, a game, or Des Moines. 

Religion- They have been working with the Bible this week. I always start the year by reviewing how we look up verses in the Bible. This coming Sunday Mother Teresa will be canonized (named a saint). We will celebrate this at mass next week. I also have some information on her that I will share with them in class next week. 

We don't have really any study halls except on band days and that is first thing in the morning. Right now they have some extra time with our mornings because we haven't been on the computers yet, but we will be.  I have been trying to stress that if they have homework they need to make use of any free chance they get to work on it, especially if they have signed up for other things outside of school. I can tell you this... I don't give homework for major holidays like Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Spring Break. I can't guarantee that your child won't have something to do on Halloween. I also remind them their job right now is school. So that has to come first. I am not going to work around their extra activities outside of school.  If they use their time, they really shouldn't have much to do, but with a lot of the core classes in the afternoon, they will have to be smart about not wasting time. They can do this! 

Any questions or concerns please email me or call the school! 

I hope everyone has a great long weekend. Please be safe! I am planning on heading home to Doon. Take Care!!!

God Bless, 
Miss Surma