Dear Parents, I hope everyone had a great weekend! I can't believe we are at the end of our year together! Time has just flown by so quickly! I will miss these kids next year that is for sure!  I hope everyone has a wonderful summer!

May 20- 8th grade graduation/ Spirit Day

May 25- Spring Concert 6 pm

May 26- Last Day of School/ Early Out/ No lunch

Spirit Day this Friday! Kids can wear sweats/hat for $1!!

May 25- We are going to have the kids clean out their desks and lockers on Wednesday. They need to make sure they have an empty bag or bags to take their stuff home. The only thing they will need on Thursday is a water bottle and tennis shoes! 

May 25 Mass- Everyone can wear their favorite "Kick off to Summer shirt" and they can wear shorts and capris if they would like to! We are going to give our awards after mass. Following that will be the "Spray Mr. McCabe festivities"! 

Concert at the high school gym at 6 pm! Students should follow dress code and wear mass day attire. Please fill out the permission slip that is in your child's folder this week and return ASAP. 

May 26- This is a 3 hour early out! There won't be lunch served that day. Field Day starts at 9:45 if you want to come and watch! 

Social Studies - Make sure your child returns the extra book we gave them to take home before the end of the year! Thank you! 

Book Reports- They did a great job on Wednesday. I will get the grading done over the weekend! They will bring their posters and papers home next week when I am done. I hope you saw their pictures on Facebook. 

Father Patrick stopped in to meet the 5th graders on Wednesday afternoon. He was super nice! We are excited for next year with him. 

I hope you have a great weekend! I won't be writing a blog next week. If there is anything I need to let you know, I will send out an email. Again, it has been a wonderful year with your kids!!! 

God Bless,

Miss Surma

Hello Parents, I hope everyone had a great weekend and all the moms loved their gifts! We are winding down! It is amazing how quickly this year went by! 

May 18- Book Report Due

May 20- 8th grade graduation

May 25- Spring Concert

May 26- Last Day of School/ Early Out/ No lunch

Book Reports- They are due next WEDNESDAY!!! They should come to school that day with their project and their costumes. Please make sure they practice at home--maybe in front of you so they know how to pronounce their names and any other "hard" word. I also want them to practice so they aren't strictly reading off their boards or paper- they should look up at their audience once in awhile! I don't know that we will get through all of them on Wednesday,but we shall try! 

Reading- We are in our final story for the unit. Lewis and Clark is the story. It is the true story of their expedition that took them 2 years! Their spelling list this week is the suffix -ion. They are given their base word- elect and then election. In grammar they are working on contractions- this should be review. The spelling in their contractions might be the hardest! Next week will be a unit test week! No spelling next week! 

Substitute- I will be gone on Friday. There will be a substitute that day. IF anything comes up- please notify the office. 

Spring Concert- May 25 at 6pm in the Creston High School Gym (new location)

Congratulations 5th graders on winning the Dilly Bar Party for the most laps with the Lap-A-Thon! 

Mass- May 25th- This will be our final mass. We will do awards after mass for the middle school kids and then Mr. McCabe will get his Silly String Spray!

I hope everyone has a great weekend! My sister Penny is coming down and we are going to see Steve Martin and Martin Short at the Civic Center! I can't wait!

God Bless,

Miss Surma

 Hello Parents, 

I hope you are having a good week! The weather this week is depressing, but I see 70s in the forecast for next week! 

May 8- Mother's Day

May 9- Lap-A-Thon

May 18- Book Report Due

May 20- 8th grade graduation

May 25- Spring Concert

May 26- Last Day of School/ Early Out/ No lunch

Reading-This week they are reading a story called Rachel's Journal. It is about a young girl who is traveling with her family in a wagon train on the Oregon Trail. She details some of her adventures in her journal. They meet a Native American who is very kind. They get lost when she and her friends walk away from the train. Their family also has to ford the river in their wagon after a lot of rain which also happens during a thunderstorm. Their spelling this week deals with prefixes. In grammar we are working on adjectives in the comparative (-er or more) and superlative (-est or most) forms. Spelling is counting on their assignments because sometimes they have to drop a -y or add a double consonant. 

Book Report Projects Due May 18

Math- On Tuesday, they had to estimate sums and differences. I went away from the book. They were using a number line. I ended up drawing pictures on the board for them to visualize it easier! That worked! This week they are also learning how to take an improper fraction and turn it into a mixed number and vice versa. This is a little bit a of challenge. They are also going to start adding mixed numbers with unlike denominators. They are going to be pros at renaming fractions! 

Religion- We are ending our chapter on the Spiritual Works of Mercy. This week they learned about Saint Maria Goretti who was 11 years old when a neighbor boy/man stabbed her 14 times. She died the following day. She forgave him for his act and hoped she would see him in heaven one day. He had a dream of her while in prison and she handed him 14 flowers. He saw that as a sign of forgiveness and after that he changed his ways. They will have a religion test next week. 

Lap-A-Thon- It is now moved to Monday!  Kids can run in shorts or sweats! They can have devices if they want to listen to music. I might suggest packing another pair of shoes and socks for the afterwards. IF they do run, I imagine their shoes and socks are going to be muddy. They can have clean ones for the rest of the day. 

NEW STUDENT!!!! Please welcome Amelia Kendrick! We are so excited she is joining our small group! She is the daughter of Justin Kendrick and Sarah Fry (our PK para)! She is fitting right in!!! I just need to remember the number 7 now when making copies! 

I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend! To all the moms- Happy Mother's Day! 

God Bless, 

Miss Surma

 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