Hi Parents, I hope you are having a good week besides these crazy temperatures! It was so great to see some of my siblings again last weekend and spend time with them. 

Reading- This week they are reading a story called Vaqueros. It is a story about the history of the cowboys. It talks about the history of them arriving in the US, the clothing they wore, the conditions they had to deal with, and the changes it has seen over the years. Our grammar this week is commonly confused verbs such as: lay and lie, rise and raise, can and may. I gave them a "cheat sheet" to use on the test on Friday so that they can remember when you use each word. 

Math- We started some story problems on Friday and it lead into Monday and Tuesday. Some caught on really quickly, others...not so much. They have to read the problems and pick up on the clues, but some aren't doing that. They have to do a couple of steps in order to get to the final answer. 

Religion- This week they are working in pairs to do some research on how Easter is celebrated in other countries. They are finding some really interesting things! For example, in Russia they dye eggs as well, but they use red onion skin to do it.  In Mexico they burn "fake Judases". In Australia, they don't have Easter bunnies, they have an Easter Bilby! 

Clean- Up Day- On Friday we will be cleaning the school grounds as long as the weather cooperates. As many kids that can bring a rake and work gloves ....please do. They usually ending up picking up some garbage, the dead leaves,and sticks while they are raking! Make sure you have your name on the rake. They will be by the office. 

Spirit Day on Friday- sweats or a hat for $1! The temps are only supposed to be in the 50s so that is good weather for sweats! 

I hope everyone has a great weekend! Sounds like our warmer temps will be back. I have Confirmation on Saturday. I am a sponsor for Keely Coen. On Sunday, I get to watch my nieces play soccer for Loras at Simpson. This will be Grace's final soccer game! She has been at it since she was 4 years old! 

God Bless,

Miss Surma

Hello Parents! I hope you  are doing well ! Testing week has been going pretty good. The 5th graders are taking their time which is a good thing. I do like that they aren't timed anymore. That was always my biggest hurdle. Thank you to the PTO for providing snacks! Those were a big hit! I just realized this week that we have only 6 weeks of school left! 6!!! Wow, this pandemic school year is flying by! 

Reading- We will get back into a story next week! They will have a spelling pretest on Monday!  Many are working on their book report slides. I have told them that they will have to turn in their notes as well. 

Math- We have started our new chapter on multiplying decimals. On Monday and Tuesday, I had them use a calculator for our problems. I want them to just see how the decimal moves to the right or to the left, depending on what they are multiplying by- they were using 10, 100, and 1000 as well as 0.1, 0.01, and 0.001. We also had to do a bit of refresh on exponents. I am taking out some extra lessons and getting to the route of strategies with the hope that we can get further along. 

Religion- we finished our movie on Monday of the Ten Commandments. They had great questions throughout. We are going to cover a chapter on Easter in our book before moving on to something else. 

Clean Up Day- April 23-- We will be raking school grounds that afternoon. The kids should bring a rake and work gloves if they have them! Make sure your family name is on the rake. Typically we do the fence line in the alley and behind the building up to Father's yard. It is a good day's work! 

I hope everyone has a great weekend!  I am heading to Waterloo and Waverly. On Saturday we are helping my sister Penny move into her new house. I get to see my sister Eva from PA as well! I haven't seen her in over a year! On Sunday, Eva is hosting a wedding shower for her son Vinny and fiancee Katerina. They both live in Waterloo. 

God Bless, 

Miss Surma

 Hello Parents! Hopefully everyone enjoyed their Easter weekend! I was able to clean out my flowerbed, so that was good for me! 

ISASP- Testing begins on Monday. They will do 1-2 tests a day. The 5th graders will have an extra one to do for science. The 3rd and 4th graders don't have to take that one. We are moving our schedules around to fit the tests. All tests will be taken in the morning. I don't plan on doing a story in reading next week due to these tests. So that will mean no spelling tests next week. They will get plenty of others to do instead. They will need to have a book or magazine to read in between tests. You might want to talk to your kids about it being important that they take these seriously. The thing I have noticed with this class is that when we do tests... they tend to just do random blurting or talking about whatever during the tests. I have constantly reminded them that they are testing and to be quiet. They need to for themselves and others.  

Math- This week we are wrapping up our chapter with the test. We will be working on multiplying decimals next! I am not sure if I will start that this week or not. There are practice tests the kids have to do before the ISASP tests next week. I may use some math time this week for that. 

Reading- This week they are reading a historical fiction story called The Birchbark House. It is about a Native American girl who is walking through the woods on her way home and comes upon a couple of bear cubs. She wants to befriend them so she can take them home and impress her older sister, Angeline. The mother bear comes out first and stops her! We talked about how she acted foolishly and acted on her emotions instead of doing what she knows is right, and leave the cubs alone. 

Religion- we have our mass on Wednesday. In class we are watching The Ten Commandments. They are enjoying it! We will most likely cover an Easter chapter after this movie. 

Spirit Day- This Friday is a Spirit Day! They can wear sweats and/or hat for $1!!! 

Have a great weekend! Enjoy the temps! I am attending a virtual wedding shower for my nephew's fiancee! 

God Bless,

Miss Surma

 Hello Parents, I hope you are having a great week! The sun is such a huge help! 

Cross Walk- Just a reminder that I need your child's permission form returned before they can go on the walk. They need to wear a white shirt or polo that day for our group picture. I am recommending they at least have a sweatshirt or hoodie for the walk looking at the temps for Thursday.  They will also need a sack lunch and drink that day. 

Friday- No school for the kids. We will have PD that day. Happy Good Friday! 

Math- This week we finished up the chapter with word problems. There were many steps for them on some of the problems. They had to add and subtract. They even had to work with sales tax a little bit! We will be doing our dress rehearsal for the math test this week. It looks like they will take the test on Monday or Tuesday. 

Reading- This week they are reading a historical fiction story called Tuck's Travels. This story takes place roughly in the 1800s. Tuck is 15 and on his own trying to survive when he comes across two other kids whose parents died due to cholera. The three of them are now on the run from the Comancheros. If caught, there is a chance they will be sold into slavery. 

In grammar this week they are focusing on the verb forms of BE and HAVE as well as verb phrases.  They will test over this story on Thursday since we don't have school on Friday. That also means their spelling test will be on Thursday. 

Book Reports- They are busy working on these! Many have finished reading their book and taking notes. They are busy working on their Google Slides. 

Religion- They are testing over this chapter on Thursday. They have been learning about the Sacraments of Healing-- Penance and Reconciliation and Anointing of the Sick. 

My plan next week is to show them the old movie The Ten Commandments. I usually show it during Holy Week, but with our chapter ending, I didn't want the interruption. 

Mass- They 5th graders will be doing mass on April 7. The kids who had parts in the 4th grade mass, will not have a part this time. I have given the parts out so they should be practicing at home with you. 

Growth Talk Video- Just to let you know I did watch the video over spring break. It isn't the same one the kids have seen in the past. This one is not separated into two videos. I am just letting you know now...when I do show it...the girls will be hearing about boys and the boys will be hearing about girls. I will still separate them into two rooms so they don't have to watch together. I will also do this at the end of the day whenever I choose to show it. It just makes it a lot more comfortable for all the kids. 😌 They go home shortly after that. 

ISASP Testing- Just a reminder this is coming up in a couple of weeks. 

Have a terrific weekend and a blessed Easter! 

God Bless, 

Miss Surma

 Hello Parents, I hope everyone enjoyed their spring break! I ended up going to Waterloo and seeing my siblings for a couple of days. It was so good to see family in person again! 

Reading- They are taking their unit test this week. On Friday, I am going to start our next story since next week is a 4 day week. That way I won't have to cram stuff into 4 days.  So they will have a spelling pretest on Friday. I haven't told them that yet.  I showed them the Google slides I made on my dad as an example for their future book report. We are going to go over specifics on Thursday. On Friday, we will pick out books. If they can't find one at school, they will need to look elsewhere. 

Math- We started our week with subtracting decimals. We then moved into figuring out which number comes next in a series of numbers. They had to figure out the rule of add or subtract and by how much. That was a little tricky for some of them. We have a couple of lessons left in this chapter and then we will be testing. I don't think the actual test will happen next week, I haven't mapped that out yet. 

Religion- We are working on our chapter of the Sacraments of Healing. Those would be Penance and Reconciliation as well as Anointing of the Sick. Both of these sacraments can be received more than once. They will test over this chapter next week. 

April 12- On the original school calendar we didn't have school on that day. That is now changed. Due to our snow days, we ARE going to be in school that day! Our last day of school is now May 28. 

Donations- We are still taking donations for the Food Shelf if you'd like to help out. We will deliver them next week on our Cross Walk. 

Paper Towels- I hate to ask for this, but I am out of these in the classroom. I don't want everyone to donate! I don't have the room for them, but I could use maybe 5 rolls. If you can help out, that would be so great! I am doing just great on the wipes! 

Cross Walk- Look in your child's Take Home Folder for information on the Cross Walk! 

No School on April 2, Good Friday. There is PD for teachers that day! 

The ISASP testing week is coming up the week of April 12. These are the new Iowa Assessments. These are different. They will not fill in bubble sheets. These tests are online. I am going to talk to the 5th graders about taking these seriously. We did the ACRE religion test before break, and I am not sure they understood that it was a test...even though Mrs. Simmons talked to them beforehand. I had quite a few kids just blurting out during the test and disrupting others. Their focus seemed to be on how many questions and NOT the actual questions. I don't want to see or hear that during the ISASP. They will need a book to read in-between tests. They all have to have head phones or ear buds. I know I have a handful of kids that I keep telling them they need to get new ones...with no luck. Please talk to your child and ask them if they have headphones or ear buds.  This is not something I will let them go to the hallway  to do so they don't disturb the others. They have to have them! Thank your for the help! 

I hope everyone has a great weekend! 

God Bless,

Miss Surma

 Hello Parents! I hope your week is going well! The weather is helping so much with good moods! The countdown in on for spring break! I can feel it. 

Math- This week we are working on our checkbooks, deposit slips, and keeping a bank register for our checking account. They have so many questions...which has been GREAT! Each day we fill out a deposit slip or two and sometimes they ask for cash back. Then they have to record it in their bank register. They are busy writing out checks for different things. On Tuesday, they bought a new shirt for a little over $14. They thought that was so expensive! 😂 They  deposited a paycheck for $8. 48--something like that. Again...WHAT??? What is our job??? They are learning words like-- debit and credit. Some of the tasks they do talk about using their debit card. I think they will enjoy our mock Biz Town day. We will get back into our math book and continue our work with decimals. Last week they had to estimate sums and differences using rounding and benchmark numbers. I think many of them liked the benchmark numbers better than rounding. This means they had to round to the nearest 0, 0.25. 0.50, 0.75, or 1.00. 

Religion- We are in our Lenten chapter. On Monday we read about Jesus in the Temple. The only time we really see Jesus get mad in the Bible. I explained that he thought those people were making money the most important thing in the Temple. It would be like us...setting up tables inside the chapel or the church and selling our goods. I showed them a video clip of that scene from a movie. They were shocked. I heard many of them say, "Whoa, he is MAD!" 😁

On Tuesday, they will go through reconciliation with Father. Those that aren't Catholic will receive a blessing from him. 

Food Shelf- We are sending home a flyer this week for our Lenten almsgiving. We are collecting food items for Mark O'Riley's Food Shelf. Please look it over and if you can help...send items with your kids! Thank you!!! 

ACRE Test- I told the 5th graders that on Friday afternoon they will take a religion test on their chrome. Mrs. Simmons will be coming to help me get them on it. This is a multiple choice test that is given to 5th and 8th graders...to see what they have learned about our Catholic religion. I gave them some example questions. It isn't really anything they can study for. 

Reading- This week we read a story called Darnell Rock Reporting. It is a story about a boy named Darnell who is trying to persuade his city council to take a deteriorating basketball court and turn it into a community garden for the homeless in his town. Another girl wants them to turn it into a parking lot for the teachers. She says it will help them with their job. I did tell the kids that where I park my car...doesn't really change how I teach! 😉 Darnell lost to the city council, but another member of the community came up to him afterwards and offered a different plot of land  that they could use for the garden. So...he did win in a way too. 

This week we are working on pronouns. We have focused on indefinite and possessive so far. 

The kids were so excited to NOT wear a coat to recess today. I am trying to get them to take home snow pants, but keeping the boots around. We just have so much mud. Hopefully these warmer temps will dry them up! 

Shorts are back! They can wear them, but they aren't allowed to wear sweats over them or a pair of pants . We aren't taking time to change clothes. Just remind them that they have PE in the morning and it will be outside . The warm temps aren't until they go home typically. I see the 40s in next week's forecast. 

Have a great weekend! Enjoy the spring temps! I have noticed our daylight is lasting longer! YAY! 

God Bless, 

Miss Surma

 Hello Parents, I hope you've been able to drive by the school and see all the snowmen! It was such a great afternoon and the kids seemed to really enjoy it! 

STM Biz Town- Typically this year would have been a field trip for 4-5 graders to go to Biz Town in Des Moines. They would have worked at their job there and gotten paid. Mrs. Sickels and I are doing a simulation of what that day would've been like in a much smaller form. So...it starts this week! The kids are taking turns each day for the next two weeks cleaning tables after their 3-5 lunch and picking up garbage at the end of the day. They get "paid" $9.00 an hour.  (your kids already asked for a raise! 🤣) Next week in math, I am going to teach them how to fill out a deposit slip and a bank register as well as write out a check.  On March 10 from 1-2 pm, they will be in 3 groups. They will go in rotations. One group will go to the office to pay Mrs. Lane  for their school lunches for a week.  One group will go to the kitchen and visit Ethan and Lesha. They will buy a bag of popcorn from them. The third group will go to see the 7th graders in the science room to do some shopping! Each group will have 20 minutes in their room and then move to the next station! It isn't quite the same, but they will still learn a lot and have some fun along the way! 

Math- We are moving along with decimals. Last Friday, they learned to compare decimals and then write them in order from least to greatest. We still have to figure out that in a race the fastest time...means the smallest number. This week we are learning to round them and estimate the sums. Next week we will learn about the checkbook so they will begin their adding and subtracting of decimals! 

Religion- This week we started our Lenten chapter. On Tuesday, I gave them a sealed envelope at the beginning of our class. I told them that they couldn't do anything with it, but if they did...they wouldn't get what was inside. Then we read the story about Jesus being tempted in the desert by the devil. We talked about temptations he faced and that we do similar thing to him...we are fasting and praying during Lent. We are doing this for 40 days just like he did. 

Reading- This week we read a story called The Dog Newspaper by Peg Kehret. This is an autobiography. We get to see how she started her writing career. She had a dog named BJ when she was a little girl. BJ came from Germany. Peg's uncle found the puppy when he was there during WWII. He and his buddies took care of BJ. He sent BJ to America to Peg's house. Peg wrote a newspaper for her block about her dog and other neighborhood dogs, but the paper wasn't a success. She would end up only putting out a few issues. There just wasn't exciting stuff to write about in a dog's day to day life. In grammar we are talking prepositions,prepositional phrases, and object of the preposition.

Spirit Day is this Friday! Sweats for $1! 

Don't forget the auction is this Saturday, but you can already get on to place your bids! I put the link on our FB page and Mrs. Simmons has been sharing it. 

Conferences- I have sent out the link. Make sure you have signed up. My Tuesday is full, but the Thursday still has openings. IF you are going to do it virtually, email me so I can send you a link. 

Have a great weekend! Hopefully more of this snow will melt! 

God Bless, 

Miss Surma