Hello Families! I cannot believe next week is Thanksgiving already. Where has our month gone?? 

Calendar Dates: 

Nov. 21- Spirit Day

Nov. 26-Nov. 30- No School/ Thanksgiving Break

Dec. 1-19- Can wear sweatpants unless a mass day- if they paid their $20

Dec. 3 - Christmas Concert and Practice Day

Dec. 5- Spirit Day

Dec. 8- Mass / Holy Day of Obligation

Dec. 10- PE DAY - no mass

Dec. 11- 5th grade sings at Holy Spirit

Dec. 17- 5th grade mass

Reading- They finished the story this week and took their weekly module test on Tuesday. I am kicking myself for my lesson plans. Too many tests and projects to grade! The book reports have all been given, but I am grading them as I find the time. Sorry.  My goal is to come in this weekend and finish them up if I need to.  They will start this final story in our module on Thursday with the spelling pretest.  We won't be able to get it all done before Thanksgiving break so we will come back to it. 

We had a couple of book reports that dealt with 9-11. We had a good talk today about what happened that day and what it was really like.  I forget they weren't even born yet. So...if your child is asking to see videos of that day- that is the reason. I won't show those here. That is totally up to you as parents. 

Math- Today (Wednesday) they took their practice test. I need to check them. Once I have done that we will go over them . I am thinking the test will be Friday or Monday. It just depends on me grading them.  Our next chapter is multiplying decimals. I will hit a few areas, but not go heavy into this one so that I can get to our division chapter. 

Religion- We started going over each Beatitude and discussing what it means to live them out. They are harder to understand their meanings compared to the 10 Commandments, but I try to explain that Jesus gave us these to find our true happiness because in 2025, we tend to find happiness in a video game, new phone, new car, my job, money, power, etc. We talked about how none of things go to heaven with us so that happiness is just temporary, but living the Beatitudes will find us our true happiness on earth, but also in heaven some day. 

Sicknesses- Thank you for sending wipes, etc to my room. That will be helpful. If your child needs cough drops for their sore throat, cough, or just a scratchy throat- just make sure they stop in and see Mrs. Levine first. She gives me a note from the office to keep with it. They should have their own water bottles and stay away from the drinking fountain for now. I am going to tell them they should take them home every night and wash them- sick or not sick. I am doing the same with mine. Mass was a little noisy with all the coughing ( I was part of that). LOL  Remember they have to be fever free and vomiting free for 24 hours before they can come back. The same goes for strep - they can't come back until they have been on their meds for 24 hours.  I am hoping that the illnesses don't ruin your Thanksgiving breaks, but the time away from each other will be a good thing. 

Sweatpants Fundraiser- They have until December 2 to turn in their $20 if they want to participate. They won't be able to wear sweats on Dec. 3, 8, and 17.  We will have mass on December 8 due to it being a holy day of obligation. We won't have mass on December 10.  NO pajama pants! 

Winter Reminder- Remember once the snow hits, they should be bringing snow boots, snow pants, coats, mittens, and hats. Recess gets to be really long and boring if you can't play with your friends.

Permission Slip- Remember to return the permission slip for going to the high school to practice on December 3. If you've lost it, let me know. We can get you a new one. Thank you!!! 

I won't be sending out a blog next week. Remember we are only having school on Monday and Tuesday. I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving. I know we all have many blessings to be thankful for this year. I am heading to Waterloo/Cedar Falls. We are having Thanksgiving at Penny's assisted living facility with my siblings and nieces and nephews. Please travel safely to and from your destinations. 

God Bless, 

Miss Surma

 Hello Families, I hope everyone is having a great week! I am enjoying these temps much more than what we had over the weekend. 

Calendar Dates: 

Nov. 14- Biz Town Day

Nov. 21- Spirit Day

Nov. 26-Nov. 30- No School/ Thanksgiving Break

Dec. 3 - Christmas Concert

Dec. 5- Spirit Day

Dec. 17- 5th grade mass

Reading- We are finishing up our story this week. They will test over it next Monday. They will also have their post test in spelling on Monday. On Tuesday, we will do the weekly module test.  The grammar for this story is about writing plural nouns. I gave them a "cheat sheet"  for the different rules in spelling them. Based on homework, I don't think many are taking advantage of that tool. I will tell them again to use it on the test, but will have to see if they choose to do it. 

Book Reports- I forgot what it's like to have a big class! We aren't going to get through them as quickly as I thought. I am hoping to do a few every day! 

Math- We are also wrapping up our chapter on multiplication this week and Monday. We will work on the review and test next week. 

Religion- Our next chapter will be over the Beatitudes. The 5th graders don't memorize them like they had to do with the Ten Commandments. We do go over each one and discuss ways to live them each day.  These are hard to understand, but our book does a good job of simplifying them for us. 

Permission Slip- In your child's folder is the form to fill out so we can practice for the Christmas concert at the high school. Please fill it out and return as soon as possible. 

Outdoor Classroom Fundraiser- make sure to check out the flyer in your child's folder. There are some specific rules to follow so make sure you read it carefully.  This is optional- not a requirement! 

Field Trip- I think we are all set. It would be great for the kids and drivers to be at school on Friday by 7:15. Meet in our hallway. I have name tags for the parents going with us!  The address is 6100 Grand Avenue, Des Moines. We usually end up parking in the back unless we get lucky up front!  The kids need to dress for mass day.  If they are on the Construction Crew they may wear jeans and a nice shirt. They will be on the floor working. I would also suggest for the girls- they might choose pants over a dress because of our town meetings where they have to sit on the floor.  They will need a sack lunch and drink that day. We will be back in time for the bus.  Students are allowed to take electronics for the car ride as long as they stay off any social media platform. This also means no picture taking and no texting to others or you (parents). They also need to keep the volume down so as not to bother the driver or others in the car.   I think they are ready to go! They have filled out all their work in their job folders and their bank tracker is set to go! I will post pictures on Friday after we get back.  Illnesses are starting to go around. If your child wakes that morning with a fever or not feeling well, please don't send them to school just to go to Biz Town. I don't want to have to call you from there to come and get them. 

I hope everyone has a good weekend! I am sticking around here this weekend! I am planning on going to the musical at the high school on Saturday night! 

God Bless,

Miss Surma

 Hello Families- I hope everyone enjoyed the long break last week! I went to Cedar Falls and stayed with my sister Penny. We had a good weekend together. 

Calendar Dates: 

Nov. 7- Spirit Day

Nov. 11- Mural Painting Day

Nov. 12-4-8 Grade Mass 

Nov. 12- Book Reports Due/ Advent Activity Night at STM

Nov. 14- Biz Town Day

Nov. 26-Nov. 30- No School/ Thanksgiving Break

Field Trip- We are set to go next Friday, the 14th. We are leaving STM at 7:30 am. Anyone in the Greenfield area can meet Rebecca Van Donselaar at Casey's at the same time. You will have to meet her there again around 2:30 to pick up your child. Please let me know. I have gotten a couple emails so far.  They will need a sack lunch and drink that day. They also have to wear mass day attire. 

Math- We have been focusing on Biz Town this week, but I think we will get some more multiplying done before we go. I have been catching up on corrections with them. I did show them this week another website 

Reading- We read through our play on Wednesday. It was fun to talk about how the king was upset that people were taking time off of work and that upset him so much that he arrested Spring. Spring was then banned. He has a dream of being taken to court for "attempted murder" because with no spring, plants and animals were going to die.  The grammar for this story will focus on making nouns plural. I am giving them a "rules" sheet that will help them keep all the different ways a noun can become plural.  The English language has to always be a little tricky! 

Book Reports Due on Wednesday!!! They will share them during reading class. 

Religion- We finished our chapter on the seven sacraments. They are working on the review and study guide this week. As of right now, the test will be on Tuesday. 

Mural Painting- Next week each grade gets to help with the new mural going up in the K-2 hallway. The 5th graders will be painting on Tuesday morning. I would suggest wearing a shirt that can get dirty or bringing an old T-shirt to wear while painting. They can change afterwards into their other shirt. 

Take Home Folder- in your child's folder is  a card from CYC if you are interested in signing up your kids for camp next summer. 

Spirit Day is tomorrow! Sweats for $1. We don't do hats during the winter months. 

I hope everyone has a great weekend. I am heading back to Cedar Falls because my sister Eva is here from Maine and her son and his fiance are going to be here. It's been a couple of years since I have seen him! 

God Bless,

Miss Surma

 Hello Families! It's always a little hard and shocking to see the closet in my classroom fill up with coats and sweatshirts! I can take the cool weather. The white stuff can stay away a little while longer. 

Calendar Dates: 

Oct. 27-30 Parent Teacher Conferences

Oct. 29- Halloween Parade at 2:15 pm 

Oct. 30- No School/Conferences

Oct. 31- No School 

Nov. 1- Holy Day of Obligation/ All Saints' Day

Nov. 12- Book Reports Due/ Advent Activity Night at STM

Nov. 14- Biz Town Day

Reading- We are reading our fantasy story called Airborn. This story take place in the past and is the story of a cabin boy and a young girl reading the journals of Captain Benjamin Malloy and his travels in his hot air balloon.  He journals about seeing some kind of animal that looks similar to a bat and a panther. It flies in the sky around him. The question in the story is whether what he was seeing was real or imagined. His granddaughter believes they are real, while the cabin boy thinks he was delirious.  We also talked about the time period because women and girl were wearing long dresses. Kate, the granddaughter, also had to have a chaperone in her presence at all times. We discussed what that meant for girls during that time period. It sounded like their conversation with Mrs. Sickels in social studies was similar when she was going over the rules for teachers back in the 1800s.  They will test over this story next week. We will be able to start a new story when we get back in November. 

Book Reports are due in 3 weeks!  If your child needs white paper or poster paper they can see me! I will also print off anything for them if you need me to. 

Spelling Posttest will be on Tuesday! 

Math- We are working on multiplying two digits x two digits this week. Dropping the 0 is the tricky part to remember for some. Today they multiplied two digits x three digits. That added another layer for some confusion for some. We are going to continue this and adding some 0's in the numbers to see what happens when we have zeroes in our problems. 

Religion- We are finishing up our work with the Rosary this week. We will be getting back into our books and starting a new chapter starting on Friday. 

Book Fair- We have a new company this year! The book fair will be open during conferences. The 5th graders filled out their wish lists during library time. I am putting a flyer in their Take Home Folders that you can check out. 

Wednesday, October 29- It is a mass day, but they DON"T have to dress up.  They can wear their normal clothes that day. They should make sure their Halloween costume is in their bag for later that afternoon. The middle school is going to supply activities again in the afternoon and the parade is at 2:15. You are welcome to come to the parade. You can also take your child home afterwards, but make sure to let me know  before you leave. 

Mass on October 29 will be the first graders and kindergarten class. Some of the 5th graders will be helping out by holding the mic. 

I won't be sending out a blog next week since I will see you at conferences. 

I hope everyone has a great weekend! I am making a trip back home to Doon on Saturday. I will take down the flowers at my parents' cemetery plot and leave them a Christmas wreath.  It will be a long day on the road, but that is okay! It will be nice to see Doon. It's good thing I have a book I can listen to on my drive! 

God Bless,

Miss Surma

 I hope everyone is having a great week! I am enjoying these fall temps. Mrs. Sickels keeps telling me about how cold our winter is supposed to be. Shush! I am not ready for that kind of talk yet! 

Calendar Dates: 

Oct. 17- Spirit Day

Oct. 20- Flu Shots at school 

Oct. 27-30 Parent Teacher Conferences

Oct. 29- Halloween Parade at 2:15 pm 

Oct. 31- No School 

Nov. 1- Holy Day of Obligation/ All Saints' Day

Math- We are starting our multiplication chapter.  With the first lesson I let them use a calculator to solve the problems. They were working on noticing the patterns when we multiply by 10s 100s and 1000s. We brought back exponents too!  Our next lesson was on estimating factors to find their product using mental math. 20 x 200=?   It is a good chance to review rounding.  The next lesson should be review because they will be multiplying by a single digit. I know they did that in 4th grade.  Our real focus of this chapter will be multiplying by double digits. 48 x 87 and bigger like 312 x 98. We will also work on multiplying with 0's.  Now, I do tell them if they don't know their facts they can use their multiplication table in their composition books.  I don't want them sitting there using their fingers to find 8 x 9 while trying to get their assignment done. Feel free to do flashcards at home or in the car! 

Reading- They have taken their first Module test ( unit test). I have a few to check tonight, but overall I was pleased with the scores. They were better than I thought they would be! I will show you their actual test at conferences.  Today I gave them a spelling pretest for our new story.  Our next story is another fantasy story. This one has a bit of a mystery to solve. It is also one of the longer stories- I think it is 18-19 pages.  In grammar we will be focusing on what a common noun is and what a proper noun is. I think street names and acronyms and some groups and official titles get confusing. 

Religion- We are working on our booklets for the mysteries. We are reading short verses from the Bible and then summarizing them . I plan on showing you those at conferences as well. 

Halloween Parade will be on October 29 at 2:15 in the gym. Students should come to school with their costume in their bag. You are welcome to attend!  If you plan on taking your child home afterwards, make sure to stop in the room and check out with me so that I know they are gone!  No weapons or anything close to a weapon for the costume are allowed. It is also a mass day, but they DON'T have to wear mass clothes that day.  It isn't a spirit day so they cannot wear sweatpants, but jeans or shorts (depending on temps) are okay. 

Conferences- Have you gone into JMC and  picked your day and time?? Please do so ASAP.

Spirit Day on Friday! Sweats and/or hat for $1!

I hope everyone has a great weekend! Big plans? Whatever you're doing- have fun! Be safe! 

God Bless,

Miss Surma

 Hello Parents, Happy Wednesday! My niece's wedding was beautiful last weekend!  We (my siblings) had a great time together . We were able to go to my niece Olivia's soccer game on Saturday! They won 5-0. Olivia played for the last 8 minutes of the game! That was fun! 

Calendar Dates: 

Oct. 15- Mass/ Noisy Change Collection

Oct. 17- Spirit Day

Oct. 20- Flu Shots at school 

Oct. 27-30 Parent Teacher Conferences

Oct. 29- Halloween Parade at 2:15 pm 

Reading- We are finishing up our story this week. We will take the Module 1 (unit ) Test next week Monday. I was planning on doing it Friday, but I had to rearrange some things. They took their post test in spelling today. 

I also finally score their last test after they corrected it. Now, we did those corrections together. Next time, I will have them correct on their own. I wanted them to see that some of those answers are right in the story- they have to go back and look things up. I think that is a bigger problem because they don't want to take the time to find the answer.  Making corrections definitely helped their scores. 

Spelling Pretest- Some of the kids received notes on the last pretest that I would be adding bonus/ challenge words to their next pretest. I base that on who does well on pretests because that means they know how to spell the word already without any studying or prep work. Who knows- I may add some more to that list later. 

Math- They are adding and subtracting decimals. We won't be testing over this chapter. The only tricky thing is remembering that they may need to do some borrowing . For example: 0-9=9 is not correct. 8-9= 1 is not right either... they forget they have to borrow from the number next to it.  They also need to remember to line up the decimals when they are adding or subtracting in the problem. Place value numbers need to line up. I can't take away my ones from my tens. 

Religion- Last Friday they were assigned one of the mysteries of the Rosary. They are drawing posters to represent them. They will share those on Thursday and we will hang them up in the hallway. When you are here- you can check them out! They are also filling out little books about each one. You can see those at conferences.  I only have a few people that need to pass their last prayer! That will happen tomorrow. 

Noisy Change Collection on Wednesday, October 15 at mass! 

Rosary- On Friday afternoon, we will be going outside to draw and color their prayer petition with chalk on the sidewalk. The MS students will be drawing a rosary around the flag pole as well as doing their own petitions.  5th graders are going to start their pictures by Father's old house down the sidewalk. 3rd and 4th will be drawing theirs as well. Hopefully the rain stays away for a little while so we can enjoy them. I told the 5th graders they need to think about who or what they want to pray for on their sidewalk square. 

I hope everyone has a GREAT weekend! I am heading to Altoona on Saturday morning for the ALS Walk. Looks to be nice weather! 

God Bless,

Miss Surma

 Hi Families! It says October on the calendar, but it sure doesn't feel like it. 

Calendar Dates: 

Oct. 1- 5th Grade Leads Rosary /No mass

Oct. 2- Starting to test prayers in religion

Oct. 3- Spirit Day/ Miss Surma gone

Oct. 6- No School/ PD Day

Substitute- I am going to be gone on Friday. I am heading to Dubuque. My niece Gracelyn is getting married Friday afternoon.  I am also responsible for getting my sister Penny to the wedding so I am leaving Thursday after school. Her sister Olivia has a soccer game at Loras on Saturday. It will be a busy weekend. Mary Brown will be in the room with them.  If there are any changes to your child's end of the day plans, please contact Mrs. Levine in the office because I won't be checking emails. 

Book Report- I assigned the first book report on Monday. They have a purple packet in their folders with ideas for what the different projects look like.  They have to choose a chapter book and show it to me before they start reading it. Some more found their book at the library today.  The project will be due on Wednesday, November 12. It gives them 6 weeks to read the book and complete the project.  A lot of the project work can be done at school in their free time. 

Reading- Last week they took their weekly test on paper instead of computer. I am sorry I am so slow in getting their scores back to you, but I decided since scores weren't the greatest this gave us an opportunity to correct them. When they do them on their computers, there isn't the opportunity to correct them because it shows them the right answer. I will get the scores back to you, but I can't say for sure when that will be.  

We are reading our new story which is a fantasy. Captain Arsenio leaves a diary of his inventions for trying to build something that can fly! Ask your kids the three different attempts we read about! This story is kind of funny and a great break from the nonfiction they have been doing.  In grammar we are focusing more on sentence structure. 

Rosary- The 5th graders did a terrific job with the Rosary today! So proud of them. The 6-8 even gave them a small cheer in the hallway on the way back from the library! 

Book It Calendars- It starts today!!! The goal for October is 600 minutes. That is about 20 minutes a day.  You will sign the calendar at the end of the month and they will turn it in to me. I am giving them the Dilly Bar coupons from last year. Pizza Ranch no longer participates. 

Math- we are working on adding and subtracting decimals in this chapter. We don't do every lesson in this one. I want them to get the main parts down, but then we will move on. I don't know that they will test over this chapter either.  We are working on rounding some more. That was hit hard on their little pretest at the beginning of the chapter. 

Spirit Day on Friday! I know the weather isn't really sweatpants weather. 

Monday, October 6 is a PD Day for us! No School for the kiddos! Enjoy your 3 day weekend! 

Lots of things in their Take Home Folders tomorrow- make sure to check them out. 

I hope everyone has a great weekend! 

God Bless,

Miss Surma