Hello Parents, I hope everyone had a great weekend, minus the wind of course! I was in a wind warning back home on Saturday. I saw and drove through a few dust storms. I counted 4 overturned semis and 1 camper on its top driving back on Sunday on I-80! Scary!!!

May 4- 4th grade mass

May 5-Lap-A-Thon

May 8- Mother's Day

May 18- Book Report Due

May 20- 8th grade graduation

May 25- Spring Concert

May 26- Last Day of School

Elk's Track Meet- In your child's folder last week was a form for you to fill out for the Elk's Track meet. This is voluntary, not required. It has been a long time since we have participated in it! I am glad to see it back! If your child wants to participate, just fill out the form and have them fill it out and return it to Mr. McCabe. I hope some of them participate! It gives them just a little taste of being out for track! 

Lap-A-Thon- Don't forget to get your donations filled out for the lap-a-thon! The kids will run during their PE time on Thursday, May 5. Spraying Mr. McCabe with Silly String sounds fun too! 

Reading- This week they are reading a nonfiction piece called Vaqueros. It is the history of cowboys in America and Mexico. We read that it was illegal for the Natives to ride horses back then, but then some were taught how because they were needed on the cattle drives. The grammar this week is about easily confused verbs...words like can/may, rise/raise, teach/learn, sit/set and lie/lay. I think when we went over lie/lay- many of them had this awakening and realized they have been saying it wrong for so long! I will lay these books on the desk. I am going to go lie on my bed. (That is the correct form!)  I gave them a couple of lists they can use on their assignments and on their Friday test.

Book Report Projects will be due three weeks from Wednesday, April 27. 

Flowers- I don't know if you read Jennifer's blog the last couple of weeks, but in her post about clean up day, she asked every child to donate $1 for the flowers the school would plant outside for the summer. I had 2 kids donate last week. 

Religion- We are done with our Easter chapter. We are now working on the Spiritual Works of Mercy. Next week, we will start working in our Guidance books during religion class. We won't do it every day. It goes along with our religion program,but it's more about our relationships with our parents, siblings, friends, etc. 

Math- This week they learned to find the common denominator for fractions. The next step was then adding fractions with unlike denominators. That threw some of them off! On Wednesday, we started subtracting fractions with unlike denominators. Right now I am letting them keep their answers as improper fractions in simplified form. Baby steps. Next week I am going to teach them how to change that improper fraction into a mixed number and vice versa. That step takes some practice.

I hope everyone has a great weekend! I am heading to Waterloo again. My niece Olivia is in her high school's musical Grease! That will be fun to watch! 

God Bless,

Miss Surma

 Hello Parents! I hope everyone had a great Easter! That snow could have stayed away! It certainly made for  an interesting drive back from Waterloo! 

 Important Dates:

Apr. 22- Clean Up Day/bring rakes and gloves/Spirit Day

May 4- 4th grade mass

May 8- Mother's Day

May 18- Book Report Due

May 20- 8th grade graduation

Elk's Track Meet- In your child's folder is a form for you to fill out for the Elk's Track meet. This is voluntary, not required. It has been a long time since we have participated in it! I am glad to see it back! If your child wants to participate, just fill out the form and have them fill it out and return it to Mr. McCabe. I hope some of them participate! It gives them just a little taste of being out for track! 

Clean up Day- They need to bring rakes and gloves on Friday! Make sure your rake has your name on it! Have your child drop the rake off outside the office when they arrive at school. Now, all of this will depend on the weather! 

Spirit Day on Friday- they can wear sweats and/or a hat!

NEEDED: Wipes for the classroom!

Reading- This week they are reading a story called The Birchbark House. It is about a Native American girl who tries to befriend a couple of bear cubs until the momma bear returns to find them! In grammar they are working on Present, Past, and Future Perfect tense verbs. They are having to use has, have, had, and will in front of their verbs. 

This week I started playing Wordle with them in the mornings when we have time. We have only done it a couple of times, but they seemed to really enjoy it! 

Math- On Wednesday, we started working with fractions. Most of them have been doing some fraction work already on Successmaker. On Wednesday, they are figuring out what benchmark fraction is close to the fraction they are working with. They have to focus on 0, 1/2 and 1. We will also be working on finding common denominators this week. 

Religion- We are working on the Easter chapter for now. When we are done we will work on the Spiritual Works of Mercy. We left off in a chapter that we need to get back to. 

I hope everyone has a good weekend! I am heading home to Doon. Some of my siblings and I are getting together for dinner on Saturday at the local steakhouse. It is the 6th anniversary of my mom's passing...we just thought it would be nice to get together. There is also a craft show-- so I will probably do some shopping too! 😉

Do you know we only have 5 Mondays left???? This year has flown by! 

God Bless, 

Miss Surma

Dear Parents, 

I hope everyone had a great weekend! I really enjoyed seeing my friend get married- the weather was perfect on Saturday! My daffodils have started to bloom as well!

 Important Dates:

Apr 14-Seder Meal/Cross Walk

Apr. 15- School Closed/ Good Friday

Apr. 17- Easter

Apr. 22- Clean Up Day/bring rakes and gloves

Cross Walk- We are going on our Cross Walk on Thursday after the Seder Meal. Parents are welcome to join us for the walk! I would say meet us in the courtyard by 12:30. The kids need to wear a white shirt that day so Mrs. Simmons can take the group picture in the church! If they don't have a white shirt, they can wear a white t-shirt and then flip it inside out for the picture. 

Make sure your child is dressed appropriately on Thursday! I think the temps and wind are going to make it a cold walk! 

Reading- They are reading the story called Tucket's Travels by Gary Paulsen. Tucket  and two other kids are on the run from the Comancheros. Their parents have died and they are on their own. They also don't have any food or water. Tucket has to lead them to a grove of trees for shelter from a storm with the hope of finding water and hiding out. Their grammar this week is really a review of the forms of be and have. They are making sure the verb they choose can be used with the nouns or subject of the sentence. They will test on Thursday on their spelling words and over the story. 

Religion- I usually spend Holy Week showing them The Ten Commandments! I surprised some of them by telling them that the man playing Moses is also Doc in Field of Dreams and Bacca, the man Moses kills, is Vincent Price who talks in Michael Jackson's "Thriller" song. 🤣They will help me on Thursday set up the tables for our Seder Meal. 

Math- We are still working on division of decimals. On Wednesday they are going to start learning how to divide decimals by decimals instead of whole numbers!  We will start our fraction work sometime next week, although many of them are already getting a taste of it on Successmaker, which might make my job easier! 

I hope everyone has a wonderful Easter! I am heading to Waterloo to spend it with my sister and brother and their families! We are even doing an adult egg hunt so that should be fun! 

God Bless,

Miss Surma

 Dear Parents, I hope everyone is having a great week! 

Important Dates:

Apr. 8- Spirit Day

Apr. 10- Palm Sunday

Apr 14-Seder Meal/Cross Walk

Apr. 15- School Closed/ Good Friday

Apr. 17- Easter

Apr. 22- Clean Up Day/bring rakes and gloves

Cross Walk- We are going on our Cross Walk next Thursday after the Seder Meal. Parents are welcome to join us for the walk! I would say meet us in the courtyard by 12:30. The kids need to wear a white shirt that day so Mrs. Simmons can take the group picture in the church! If they don't have a white shirt, they can wear a white t-shirt and then flip it inside out for the picture. Please fill out the permission slip going home in their folder on Thursday and return ASAP. Thanks! 

Seder Meal- The 5th graders will help me set up the gym next Thursday for the Seder Meal. It's become a 5th grade tradition! Mrs. Clark and Mr. Anderson will have a lot of it ready for us. The kids will basically set the tables! I will post pictures when we are done on Facebook.

Reminder there is no school on Good Friday! The teachers will be doing a service project that day. We are going to be cleaning the church before the Easter services! 

Thank you to the PTO for providing our snacks this week during testing! The kids and teachers enjoyed the treats! 

This week we took some time when not testing to work on the Dollars for Scholars essays. Each grade will have a winner. They get a $50 check to use for their education. The essays are due next week Thursday. Parents typically get notified in the mail if their child wins. 

Food Shelf- This is the last week we are accepting donations for the Food Shelf. Miss Steinkamp and I are going to deliver the donations next Monday after school. 

Reading- Their unit test scores are going home on Thursday in their folders. Next week they will be back to reading a story and having a spelling test. It will be on Thursday because we don't have school on Friday. 

I hope you have a great weekend! A friend of mine is getting married on Saturday and I will be helping her get things lined up for that. Palm Sunday is this Sunday! The beginning of Holy Week!

God Bless,

Miss Surma

 Hello Parents, I hope you had a great weekend! It was nice to get home and spend time with my sister and her husband. 

Important Dates:

Apr. 1- Field Trip to DM

Apr. 4-8- Iowa Assessment Week 

Apr. 8- Spirit Day

Apr. 10- Palm Sunday

Apr 14-Seder Meal/Cross Walk

Apr. 15- School Closed/ Good Friday

Apr. 17- Easter

ISASP Testing- On Monday we will begin testing. The 5th graders have 4 tests total to take. They will do one a day. 5th and 8th are both tested in science whereas the other grades are not. I will try to test in the mornings when they are most awake! They will still get their specials. The tests are timed, but we are given suggestions on about how long they should take. The PTO will provide snacks for a test break. What can you do?? Make sure they get plenty of sleep the night before, eat a good breakfast each morning (if they are breakfast eaters), and let them know that they should do their best and not blow this test off. We do use this information to make other decisions. 

Due to the testing, their schedule/routine will be off next week.

Math- I have been using some of our normal math time to work on our practice tests this week so we aren't covering much for material. I will get back into it later this week and next week. 

Reading- This week is their unit 4 test. They won't have any spelling or vocabulary to do. At this time, I don't think I will be doing a story next week with the ISASP tests. That means no spelling test next week either! 

Field Trip- The kids will need to wear jeans and a nice shirt on Friday, no shorts.They should also wear comfortable walking shoes. Our morning will be outside when we get there. The kids will need a sack lunch with drink. Remember it is a Friday during Lent.  They also need to pack a mask for the Civic Center just in case it is needed. They may have electronics for the ride up and back. 

Please help donate to the Food Shelf. A flyer went home last week with items you can purchase to donate! Mrs Sickels and I help on Monday nights pack food bags for kids to get for their weekends. We usually pack over 150 bags. 

I hope everyone has a great weekend! 

God Bless, 

Miss Surma

 Hello Parents, I hope everyone had a great spring break! I headed to Waverly and visited my sister and brother! My sister and I also drove to Galena, Illinois for a couple of days! It was GREAT!  The weather was perfect until that snow!

Important Dates:

Mar. 24- PTO Meeting

Mar. 25- Spirit Day $1 for hats or sweats

Mar. 30- 5th grade mass

Apr. 1- Field Trip to DM

Apr. 4-8- Iowa Assessment Week 

Spirit Day- Friday, March 25- Due to temps they can wear sweats or a hat for $1

Religion- We are in our Lent chapter right now. Our first story was of Jesus being tempted in the desert by the devil. We talked about the correlation of the 40 days he spent there and the 40 days of Lent. We also talked about what we gave up for Lent being our "temptations" like he faced with the devil. On Wednesday, the 5th graders took the ACRE test. It is a standardized religion test given to 5th and 8th graders. I think the 8th graders already took it. Mrs. Simmons comes in to help us get it going because it is online!

Field Trip- There is a form in your child's folder on Thursday for our field trip next Friday to the Des Moines Civic Center. Please fill out and return as soon as possible. There is also a $5 fee for each child to help pay for the gas and buses. They will need a sack lunch and drink that day! 

Reading- This week they are reading the story The Black Stallion. It's not the entire story of course, just a portion. Alec is stranded on this island with Black. They have to create a friendship to help each other survive! Our grammar focuses on the rules of writing titles of books, newspapers, songs, TV shows, articles, etc. I gave them a cheat sheet again that I will let them use on the test. The spelling list was fun! Words from other languages threw them off! Ask them what dungarees are or what is a siesta??🤣🤣

Mass- We have mass next week! I will give them their parts on Friday!

Friday- This Friday is the Solemnity of the Annunciation of the Lord for the church. Father Adam said that you can eat meat on Friday and have whatever is you gave up! So... that means they can eat ice cream, play that video game, drink a juice box, but just for Friday!! 😊😊

ISASP Testing is the week of April 4. These are the Iowa Assessments. They will take some practice tests next week. In 5th grade they are tested in reading, language/writing, math and science. 

April 1st Fish Fry- Knights are looking for people to donate cookies! 

Thank you again for the birthday gifts! That means a lot! I think they liked their "treats" from me! I hope you have a great weekend! I am heading to Sioux Falls to see my sister. We are going to visit our mom's best friend on Saturday. She is like our 2nd mom and has been dealing with cancer. 

God Bless, 

Miss Surma

 Dear Parents, I am so happy the temps this week are getting us closer to spring, but I did tell your kids they need to watch... temps can change quickly! They might not want to wear shorts in the 40s! 

 Important Dates:

Mar. 4- Spirit Day

Mar. 5- Auction and Dinner

Mar. 8- Honor Choir in Underwood

Mar. 10- Conferences/ No School

Mar. 11-18 Spring Break

Mar. 21- Classes Resume

Reading- This week we are doing our story in 4 days due to our short week last week. They will have a post test on Friday in spelling. This week our story is Darrell Rock Reporting. It is about a young boy who writes an article for the local newspaper to persuade the town to take an empty lot and create a town garden that will help the homeless people there. He has to take his argument to the town council to get voted on. Another student wants to turn it into a parking lot for the teachers. Who wins???? In grammar we are working on different kinds of pronouns. 

Math- I was hoping we'd be done with this chapter before break, but I am not quite sure that is going to happen. The four day week has messed with my plans a bit! 

Religion- They have been learning about the sacraments of healing- penance and reconciliation and anointing of the sick. The plan is to test over this before we leave for spring break. When we get back from break, we will focus on Lent. 

Spirit Day on Friday!

Shorts- I told the kids that I know they can now wear shorts again, but I also stressed to use good judgment.  As of right now, next Monday is back in the 30s. That could be a very cold recess and we won't keep them inside because they wore shorts. 

Honor Choir is next Tuesday! I am going to put another copy of the letter Mrs. Stoner sent you with all the details just as a reminder in your child's take home folder this week. I will be going with them that day since all of them are participating! 

I hope everyone has a great weekend! 

God Bless, 

Miss Surma