Hello Parents! I hope you enjoyed your longer weekend! I got some work done and was able to finish a couple of books I was reading! Our LETRs training on Monday was good! 

Calendar Dates: 

Feb. 24- Spirit Day

Mar. 3 - Book Report Due/ Fish Fry

Mar. 4- STM Foundation Dinner and Auction

Mar.6- 9- Parent Teacher Conferences

Mar. 10-19 Spring Break

Math- Okay, we did division with partial quotients for a couple of days. Now we begin the process of learning to divide using the standard algorithm. I go pretty slow at the beginning. Some catch on quickly, others will not. I already told the 5th graders that I won't be surprised if we have some tears being shed over this. That's okay!!! It is difficult, but I promise they will learn to divide. Now, if they ask for your help at home, you can! This is stuff you learned, but if they say, "That's not how Miss Surma does it!" just know that I probably do it similar to you, but I might just phrase it differently.  I know there are going to be days ahead of us that we all get frustrated! That is normal! It happens every year! 

Reading- Due to our snow day last week and our day off on Monday, I readjusted the reading schedule a bit. They just took their test on Tuesday from last week. I am not going to have them take a spelling and reading test this Friday. We will read another story and do grammar and spelling lessons, but I am not going to test them on it. 

Book Reports are due on Friday, March 3!!! That is next Friday!!!📚📚📚

Religion- We are still in our chapter on the sacraments of healing. We filled out our Lenten promises on Tuesday. You might have a conversation with your child on what they decided to do this Lent. They don't have to give up something. They can do something instead. We are working on the GIVE part during our noisy change collections that we will hold in March. The PRAYER part will happen each week in religion. I decided I am going to take each grade to the chapel once a week during religion class and we will say the rosary together. 

Just a reminder that on Fridays, we don't eat meat. If they bring a sack lunch that day..it needs to be meatless. PB &J sandwiches, a cheese sandwich, salad with a dressing, cheese pizza meals, etc. will all work. 

Spirit Day on Friday, February 24- sweats for $1

Make sure you have signed up for a conference time! 

Have a great weekend! 

God Bless, 

Miss Surma

 Hello Parents! I hope you have been enjoying your week! Valentine's Day was a hit! They had donuts in the morning from Landen and the rest of the treats in the afternoon!  I apologize for the sugar overload! 🤣

Calendar Dates: 

Feb 20- No School/ PD Day

Feb. 22- Ash Wednesday/ 5th Grade mass

Feb. 24- Spirit Day

Mar. 3 - Book Report Due

Silent Auction- Stephanie Anderson and Jenny Studer came in to take a picture for our item! Thank you both so much for taking care of it! 

Math- We started last week and this week we are focusing on estimation using compatible numbers when dividing. They aren't rounding- they are finding the closest fact family and then dividing mentally! They are also dividing using partial quotients. That means they are dividing by groups of 10 until they can't any longer. Don't worry! That won't come home to you!!! We do that at school. It is new and I wish I had learned it when I was in 5th grade! They will be learning the standard algorithm as well.

Reading- We read a story called The Dog Newspaper this week. It is an autobiography by Peg Kehret. I suggested the kids look for her books if they like mystery and suspense! This is how she got her start in writing. She wrote about her dog who came to the US from Germany during WWII. In grammar they are working on prepositions. They have a list of common ones that I let them look at while doing their homework. This week's test on Friday will also have the cold read story and 10 more questions. This one will be worth 50 points. 

Book Reports are due in a little over 2 weeks - Friday, March 3!!!

Religion- We are focusing on the sacraments of healing: Penance and Reconciliation and Anointing of the Sick.  Due to my surgery this year they were able to take part in the latter one. We focus  a lot on how Jesus healed people during his time on earth. 

I saw my niece Emily last weekend so I got to show them the rosary she got me while in Italy. She also had it blessed by Pope Francis. I showed them a few pictures from her trip too! She went to the location where John the Baptist's right arm is buried. It's behind doors so she didn't get to actually see anything! 

Ash Wednesday is next week! 5th graders are doing mass! That is also when Lent begins so they will have to think about what they are doing for the Lenten season! 

 I hope everyone has a great weekend! 

God Bless, 

Miss Surma

 Well, we survived CSW and now we are back into our normal routine. While I love the fun, it is nice to be back in to something more normal! This won't last for long, Lent is just around the corner! 

Calendar Dates: 

Feb. 10- Spirit Day/ Super Bowl Dress Up! 

Feb. 14- Valentine's Day

Feb 20- No School/ PD Day

Feb. 22- Ash Wednesday/ 5th Grade mass

Feb. 24- Spirit Day

Mar. 3 - Book Report Due

Friday is a Spirit Day, but if you'd like to dress up in your favorite colors or team jersey for the Super Bowl this weekend, go ahead! 

Math- they took the test and many of them needed to correct so we are doing a lot of that this week. I am going to ease them into division by the end of the week. Hold on, this is a chapter where I usually have to slow down for all to grasp the process. 

Reading- This week they are reading a story called LAFFF. It is a science fiction story with a fun twist at the end. It is about a girl using a time machine. You will have to ask your kid about what happens when she does! In grammar they are working with adverbs- words that describe adjectives or verbs. Their spelling list this week are words ending in -ed or -ing. 

Religion- They just started their chapter on the sacraments of healing. Lent is around the corner! They will have to think about what they are doing for Lent. They will be meeting with their Lenten Angels soon! 

Tomorrow is Spirit Day! Sweats for $1. They can also wear their favorite team shirt/sweatshirt in honor of the Super Bowl on Sunday! 

The parent teacher conference sign up will be happening soon! Keep an eye out! 

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

God Bless, 

Miss Surma

 Hello Parents, What's that saying, "God laughs when you're busy making plans."  I feel like that is a true representation of my plans during Catholic Schools Week! 🤣🤣🤣  We are having a fun week, that's what counts!!!

Calendar Dates: 

Feb, 3- Mass @ Holy Spirit 1:30

Feb. 10- Spirit Day

Feb. 14- Valentine's Day

Feb 20- No School/ PD Day

Feb. 22- Ash Wednesday/ 5th Grade mass

Feb. 24- Spirit Day

Mar. 3 - Book Report Due

Math- so the test is taking us a couple of days to finish due to our CSW activities! I'm okay with that because I'm not sure CSW is when I want to introduce division!  Not sure there would be a lot of "soaking in" of that information! 

Reading- This week they are reading a portion of Lunch Money. It is about a boy who creates his own comic book and sells them at school for a quarter! The comic book is the size of a credit card and about 16 pages long. In grammar we are working on identifying adjectives. This can be a challenge! On Monday they had to find the adjective and then decide what it answers: how many? what kind? or origin? For example: how many- words like two, twenty-five, few, some, many. For what kind- adventure, pretty, straight, lumpy.  For origin- Chinese, American, Russian, Spanish.  On Tuesday they had to find the linking verb and then the adjective . We did that one together. The next one will be deciding where to use the articles  a, an, and the.  Those are adjectives that give you information about a noun as well! Their spelling list this week are words that end in-ed or -ing. They also noticed during the pretest that many of the words have consonants that need to be doubled! 

Their unit scores are in their folders. This was a benchmark test..which means more stories to read. The scores weren't so pretty. I can tell in some of them that they didn't look back to find the information. 

Book It Calendars- I will accept the January calendars until Friday. It's a crazy week!

Religion- They are finishing up their chapter. We are going over their study guide on Thursday, but they won't test until Monday. I am mixing up the schedule with CSW activities so that I pushed until next week. 

I hope the kids are enjoying this week as much as the teachers do! It's a crazy week, but always so worth it to celebrate our faith and our school and our STM family! Have a great weekend! It looks like we are going to have some great temps compared to what we've been dealing with lately. 

God Bless,

Miss Surma

 Hello Parents,

Next week is Catholic Schools Week! There are a lot of activities and dress up days planned! Please make sure you check them out on Mrs. Simmons' blog/email. 

Calendar Dates: 

Jan. 16-27 FAST Testing

Jan. 29-Feb. 3 Catholic Schools Week

Jan. 30- Sack Lunch Day

Sunday is our kickoff to Catholic Schools Week! We are having mass at Holy Spirit. I have some kids doing most of the jobs at mass. There is also a breakfast after mass in the basement provided by the Knights of Columbus. Later that afternoon we have an Open House at school for prospective families! If you know of anyone interested in sending their children, let them know! They can find out information and checkout the school! Check out the times in Mrs. Simmons' information! 

Monday- Blue and Gold Day or STM Gear Day! The kids will need a sack lunch that day! Milk will be provided. 

Tuesday- Dress up as your favorite Bible figure or Saint Day!!! I can't wait to see what everyone wears! Remember you can dress up as something your saint is a patron of. For example: Sebastian is a patron saint of athletes. Come dressed in your basketball or volleyball uniform. (Remember recess- plan to have your snow pants that day!) There is also supposed to be snowman building that afternoon-depending on temps and snow! Kids should have all the right gear for that activity! 

Wednesday- Pajama Day! Wear your jammies, robes, slippers! That is also the Talent Show Day! That is scheduled from 8:45-11 am.

Thursday- Nation Appreciation Day- Dress up as your hero or patriotic day! Red White and Blue

Friday- Dress up Day! Grandparents/Special Guest Mass. They pick up their student(s) at 1 pm. Mass will begin at 1:30. Parts are being sent home in folders today if your child has a job.

Reading- This week they have been taking their Unit test as well as finishing up our FAST tests. I am also assigning their next book report. This one they will be choosing a Newbery winner or honor book. I will go over possible choices for them. They should be able to find something from my shelf or the library.  Many times these are books they wouldn't normally choose on their own! 

Math- This week we are working on reviewing our chapter. They will test on Friday that is the goal anyway! 

Next week's schedule is going to be a little off and I don't have it mapped out just yet. 

Next week looks like it is going to be COLD!!! Make sure your kids pack their snow pants and boots for recess with our dress up days. Of course, there is a good chance it will be too cold to go out, but you never know! 

The coffee cart was a HUGE treat that we all enjoyed!!! Thank you STM Social Club! 

Have a great weekend! Hope to see you at mass on Sunday!

God Bless,

Miss Surma

 Hello Parents, Okay, your kids are rock stars!! ❤ They did an awesome job today with mass and the kindergarten class, plus we had some last minute changes with kids being gone! I was so so proud of them! They did say, "Miss Surma, watching those kids is hard work!"  YES, it is!!! 

Calendar Dates: 

Jan. 16-27 FAST Testing

Jan. 20- Spirit Day

Jan. 25- Coffee/ Tea Drink Day! 

Jan. 29-Feb. 3 Catholic Schools Week

Math- We are finishing up our chapter on multiplying decimals! They will test next week. I'm writing this on Wednesday afternoon and we had our early out. I will have to see what tomorrow brings as to scheduling things the rest of the week! On Tuesday, we did work on multiplication,but we also added solving for area. We talked about the proper equation we use to solve for it. I gave them the example of carpeting our classroom would be solving for  area. 

Religion- This week we are talking about confirmation and joining the Catholic Church at the Easter Vigil. Part of the confirmation process in our church is choosing a saint's name. That saint becomes your patron saint, someone you can pray to for help or guidance. The 5th graders are using their religion time to research saints. They are finding out some basic information about their saint. They will share their reports when we are done. I told them this could be the saint the dress up as, if they want, for our Catholic Schools Week dress up day.

Reading- We are in our last story of this unit. In this story they are reading about two teenagers that played a role in the Revolutionary War. One was a young boy named Joseph that actually signed up for 6 months of service and fought in the war. The other was about a girl name Sybil. She didn't fight in the war. Her job was to ride on horseback and travel at night to gather more militiamen to go to another battle. Her ride was similar to Paul Revere's. 

Next week will be a unit test week. There won't be any spelling tests. 

FAST Testing- We have done some this week. I will continue to the more the rest of this week and then finish up next week. 

Spirit Day on Friday! Sweats for $1!!!

☕☕🧃🧃Our coffee/smoothie drink day was postponed until next week due to the weather. The kids were just happy that it was still happening! 

If you can help out the Monday of Catholic Schools Week while the teachers go to lunch here is the sign up! 

https://www.signupgenius.com/go/4090d48adab29a5f49-parent?fbclid=IwAR1-_6_9jWxjdyGxH4q4funo4Nm9mRE53oW9laYJflKQ6xwdOmH97EBfRdY#/

Make sure to keep a lookout for the Catholic Schools Week information that Mrs. Simmons puts out! 

I hope everyone has a great weekend! 

God Bless,

Miss Surma

 Hello Parents!!! How is everyone doing??? I hope well! It is so good to be back! I know I keep saying that but it really is the truth! I really missed being here and your kids! We are definitely working at getting back into the groove of school and the expectations Miss Surma has for them. They are really having a difficult time listening to directions and there has been a need for repeating them multiple times. I told them on Tuesday, that the repeating will soon come to an end. They are closer to being in middle school now so they need to step up their game. So, I feel like we are back at square one a little bit and needing to relearn how things are done. 

Calendar Dates: 

Jan. 16-27 FAST Testing

Jan. 18- Mass

Jan. 20- Spirit Day

Jan. 29-Feb. 3 Catholic Schools Week

Math- We are still working on our multiplication of decimals. We had quite a few papers that needed correcting when I got back, but this week we are back in the book. They are working on multiplying decimals times decimals now. The trick is knowing where to put that decimal. It no longer works to drop it straight down! 

Religion- They will have a test on Thursday over chapter 5. Last week we did take some time to watch the funeral of Pope Benedict XVI. We didn't watch the entire funeral, but the kids were able to see the big crowd and the number of priests, bishops, and cardinals there. 

Reading- They read the story called James Forten today.  He was a freed slave that joined the military during the Revolutionary War. His job was to carry gunpowder to the top deck of the boat for the canons to use. We talked a lot about the fear for the free slaves was that they could get taken and sold back into slavery. His ship had to surrender to the British so he was very fearful that that would happen to him. It didn't. After the war he worked with abolitionists and getting women the right to vote. He also had a very successful business.  In grammar they are working on commas in a series as well as using semicolons in a series when commas are already in place. They will test over spelling words on Friday as well as our story. 

Mass- The 5th graders will be helping the kindergarten class with their mass next week on January 18. Some of the 5th graders will be holding the mic for them, while others will have a short speaking part. I will be giving them their reading parts to practice. The kindergarten kids have most of the work! The 5th graders are excited to help out! 

Catholic Schools Week- In your child's folder is a sign up for our kick off mass at Holy Spirit on January 29. If you child wants to participate, fill it out and return it to me. Please look at your weekend schedule before saying yes, but I really hope to see some 5th graders there! There will be a Grandparent/Special Guest mass on Friday, February 3 at church as well. If your child gets a part in either mass, we will be sending home information on that. 

FAST Testing will begin next week in reading and math. Scores will be sent home when everything is compiled! This week I have them doing a cold read to time them. The winter goal is 149 words in 1 minute. 

I hope everyone has a great weekend! I went to the new Tom Hanks movie last weekend with Mrs. Levine. I highly recommend! 

God Bless,

Miss Surma