Hi Parents,  I hope you are having a good week. Boy, this has been a busy one for sure! I wasn't here for the Cross Walk, but I heard good things! Tomorrow is the Seder Meal.


Reading- We finished our day on Wednesday with reading. I am not sure if that was such a great idea, but I have no other choice with the Seder Meal set up tomorrow. They had a hard time focusing and paying attention this afternoon. I will check tests tonight. I may have them make corrections on the test tomorrow afternoon if scores are really low. 

Math- They did the chapter review today. We go over that tomorrow. Next week, we will use Thursday as a refresher day for the test. I will give them the test on Friday morning. 


Friday, April 26, is Clean Up Day- The 5th graders will be raking and picking up leaves. If they have work gloves at home, bring them! If they have a rake, bring it. Make sure your name is on it. Leave it by the office. Thank you! Many hands or rakes make light work! 

Spirit Day, April 26- They can wear sweats and a hat for $1 or just one of those for $1. 

Book Report- Just a reminder it is due on Monday, May 13. I have had quite a few type up the report and are done already. They will need their costume that day. 

Religion- They are still watching The Ten Commandments. Hopefully we can finish it tomorrow. 

I hope everyone has a GREAT Easter and enjoys the next few days off. I am heading to my sister in Sioux Falls for Easter.  The teachers leave on Monday morning for our NCEA trip to Chicago. That will be fun too! Hopefully the weather is somewhat nice! 

God Bless,
Miss Surma

Hello Parents, 
Well, I think your kids are surviving Iowa Assessments. Thank you to the PTO for the snacks! I really think those help the kids out. It fills their stomach and is a good brain break.  We will wrap up our testing on Thursday. 

Reading- We didn't do a story this week due to testing, but I am going to start a new one on Friday. Next week is a short week because we don't have school, but the 5th graders also lose some of their normal reading time on Thursday. They will help me set the tables for our Seder Meal. So right now, the plan is to start on Friday and be done on Wednesday of next week. That means their spelling test and end of the week test will be on Wednesday. 

Math- This week we have been able to do math in our afternoons. On Monday I showed them how to divide decimals into decimals. Do you remember moving the decimal in both places??? That is the trick for them. 

Food Pantry- We will be working at the Food Pantry on Friday. We will also be carrying all the donations that we have received during Lent. Thanks so much for those! I know Mark and Mary will appreciate them! Friday is supposed to be much colder than these first days this week. I am reminding the kids to have a jacket or coat for our walk down there. It is also a Spirit Day-- so they can wear sweats! That might be a great thing with the cooler temperatures! 


Spirit Day on Friday! 

Seder Meal- Next Thursday we will have the Seder Meal with the entire school. The 5th graders typically help me out. We set up the tables for the meal.  

Cross Walk- We will also do the Cross Walk  afterwards. That is something you are welcome to join us for if you are free and interested. We will meet in the courtyard by 12:30 to start our journey. Your children should wear a plain white shirt or t-shirt for the walk because they will take another picture at the church before we leave. 

Substitute- I will be gone on Tuesday, April 16 for my Tier 2 class that I am taking with Mrs. Sickels. I believe Mrs. Weight will be here as my sub. 

I hope everyone has a great weekend! I am heading back to Waterloo for my niece Emily's prom. 
God Bless, 
Miss Surma

There will be a Noisy Change Collection at mass tomorrow, April 10. The money raised is going to help the Nigerian Seminary. Please remember your coins! PAPER is acceptable too! :)

Hi Parents, I forgot to mention in my blog that next week we will be taking the Iowa Assessments. We should be done by Friday, but if anyone is sick next week, they will need to make those up.  The testing will happen in the mornings. PTO is providing snacks for our test days. The only other thing I can suggest is that the 5th graders get plenty of sleep next week. If they are breakfast eaters, make sure to eat! The biggest thing  I push is just to do your very best and try not to stress about them. I know they do, I was the same way. We won't be having a reading story for the week, but I might start a new one on Friday. I will play that by ear. 

Miss Surma 

Hi Parents! I hope this has been a good week for you! We have been busy that is for sure. 

Religion- The past few days we have spent working on the Rosary. They did it so smoothly! We also wrapped up our work on our posters to represent the important days during Easter. They are posted outside our room if you want to take a look. We are still in the Lent chapter in our book. Next week I plan on showing them the movie The Ten Commandments. It is the old one with Charlton Heston. I like to show this to the 5th graders every year, one because it is a classic and two because it also focuses on the Seder Meal that we will do on Holy Thursday at school. 

Math- This week we are beginning that division of decimals. They worked on Monday and Tuesday by using Base 10 Blocks to do the division. The trick is knowing that you may need to trade for tenths or hundredths. That part was tricky for some of the kids. I took pictures and posted them on our Facebook group page. We are also going to be doing some estimating. They will again hear those wonderful words, "Find a compatible number!" 

Reading- Last week Friday's test scores were AWESOME! Boy, I hope that continues! This week they are reading a story called The Birchbark House.  It is about a Native American who is walking home and encounters two cubs and their mother. Our main character is pretty calm. She knows what she is supposed to do if the mother attacks. Thankfully it never comes to that. We also know the main girl is trying to impress her sister and make her envious. She has the idea to get the cubs to follow her home. Mama bear's presence ruins that idea for her. 

In grammar we are working on past perfect, present perfect, and future perfect tense verbs. All of these use certain linking verbs before the action verbs. LV- has, have, had, and will. 

Noisy Change Collection- During the K-2 mass on April 10, they will be collecting money for the Nigerian Seminary. 

Food Pantry- All donations are due by April 12. The 5th graders work that day and will carry the items down to Mark. 

Reconciliation- They will be going tomorrow (Thursday) to see Father.

I hope everyone has a great weekend! The temps look amazing! Don't forget the Fish Fry is Friday night! I might see you there! I will be serving desserts! 
God Bless, 
Miss Surma

Hello Parents, I hope everyone enjoyed their spring break. I know I did. I was able to get some stuff done at home that I had been procrastinating on forever! I also got some school work done!

Book Report #3- I gave them a pink packet on this report on Monday. It has their 3 options for the reports in it. The due date is May 13. I haven't let them choose their book yet because I want them to look at the books in the library on Wednesday. As I told them, they should keep that pink packet with the book so that they can take notes as they read. The internet is the backup source AFTER they have finished reading the book. Sometimes dates aren't in the books. If your child picks the poster as their project, I am talking about those big ones they use for the science fair.They have the sides that fold in.  You can find them in Wal-Mart or something really big. My 12x18 paper won't be big enough to show everything. They can use any stencils or scrapbook accessories to add to it to make it colorful. 

Reading- This week they are reading a story called Tucket's Travels. This young boy Francis was kidnapped on the Oregon Trail by the Pawnee. He escapes and ends up helping two other children who lost their dad due to cholera. They are traveling thru a desert like area and trying to keep away from the Comancheros. They find a group of trees to hide in and a thunderstorm hits. They are pelted with rain and hail the size of his fist. The good thing is they have water to drink and their tracks have been washed away. Their grammar this week is verb usage in a sentence...using the forms of be and have. 

Math- They are testing this week. We will start on Thursday and Friday with dividing decimals. They do some hands on activities first before we really get back into the pencil and paper. It is a fun way to ease into the topic. 

Religion- We started a chapter on Lent this week. On Tuesday I broke them into pairs, groups, or working alone to create a poster that describes and shows an important day during the Lent season. They will be posted outside our room if you are in school and want to check them out. 

Next week Wednesday, April 3, the 5th graders will be in charge of leading the rosary before mass. It will start at 8:50. I will give them their part on Friday. We will practice in the classroom then and next week. Not everyone will have a part. You will have to ask your child if they are helping with it. It is NOT our mass day. We are only leading the rosary. You are more than welcome to join us!! 

Spirit Day is this Friday! $1 for sweats or a hat or BOTH  and I hear rain is in the forecast, so that's a perfect day for cozy sweatpants! :) The money from Friday is going towards the Nigerian Seminary. 

Fish Fry- I know an email went out looking for volunteers to help with the Fish Fry. Please sign up if you are able! It is a yummy meal! 

Have a great weekend! I am heading to Waterloo for my niece Emily's confirmation on Saturday. 

God Bless, 
Miss Surma

Dear Parents, 
Happy Thursday! I hope you are having a good week! We are actually putting in a full week it seems! I really hope I didn't just jinx that! 😉


Math- This week  they are working on multiplying decimals with whole numbers. It is nice to be reminding them of their multiplication facts! They are doing great, but they just need to remember where to put the decimal. On Wednesday, they did some story problems with finding totals or missing amounts by drawing diagrams. 

Reading - This week we are reading a piece from The Black Stallion.  A boy Alec and a wild stallion are stranded on an island together, but don't really have a relationship. They are working on creating that trust with each other. In grammar they are learning about how the mechanics of writing titles: books, magazines, movies, TV shows, songs, plays, poems,etc. When we write we underline the title, but if they are using a computer they can use italics. We also use quotation marks around things like TV shows or newspaper articles. They have a cheat sheet to use as a guide to remember all the rules. 
This week the spelling clue was-- Words from other countries! I wish you could have seen their faces and heard them. They were really worried and then I read the first word-- salsa. OH!!!!!  They felt much better after that! ha ha ha

Unit Test- Next week they will be testing over Unit 4. I will go over scores during Spring Break. There will not be a spelling test next week. 

3rd Book Report- I also told them that we will go over their final book report of the year next week. This one is an autobiography or biography. The library has quite a few. I do too ,but if they can't find one here, they will have to look elsewhere. I don't care if it is something they have to download, but just make sure I can check it out first to make sure. 

Religi0n- This chapter is covering the Sacrament of Penance and Reconciliation. This is good because they will be receiving this sacrament before Easter with Father Halbur. We always have a good discussion on the different sins: mortal and venial. By the way, I told them that slamming a door isn't really a sin, but it can be considered rude. There was some debate on that one.

Lenten Angels- This will start next week Wednesday. 

Spirit Day on Friday, March 8!!!

Book Fair- The book fair will be here during conferences.  They are going to help the first graders next week make their wish lists. 


Conferences are next week! You have all signed up! I will see you either Tuesday or Thursday! 

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