Hi Parents, Well, it is definitely still winter! Ugh! I am ready for spring to arrive at any time!
Math- This week we really stepped into dividing larger numbers by double digits. It always amazes me how adding one more number to their dividend throws them off. They want to be done with a single digit answer and sometimes it has three! :) Today I am slowing it down some more so that I can work with some kids on corrections. While I am doing that the others are using the marker boards and working in small groups. Each group has a "teacher" who assigns the problem for everyone to solve, including the teacher. Once all are correct, the "teacher" role moves to someone else in the group. It is still making them work, but adding a little lightness after the last couple of days!
Language Arts- Last week's scores were great! I didn't make copies of them. I can show you them at conferences. I hope the same this week! This week they read a story about an Indian girl who is walking home and comes upon two bear cubs and their mom! It is historical fiction, but it was a cute story. We are working on present perfect, past perfect, and future perfect verbs in grammar. We also did some work on Wednesday looking up words in the dictionary and finding a synonym for it in a thesaurus. They really had to focus on the way the words was used in the sentence and not just what they thought it means.
Religion- They did super on their tests. Again, that is something I will show you at conferences. Next week Wednesday is Ash Wednesday. We will be receiving ashes at mass. This is also the beginning of Lent. I will have the students be thinking over the weekend of what they want to do this Lenten season. Will they give something up or will they work on doing some kind of deed each week?
PE- I taped them on Monday dancing to Footloose! I sent a clip to Mr. Walsh. He is going to put it up on the Facebook sight. It is fun to watch them!!!
Auction-- Thanks again for the donations! Chris sent me a picture of our basket!! It looks GREAT! I hope many of you will be able to attend the fun on Saturday!
We are sending home a Conference Survey to all families. We have to get them back--filled out or not by Tuesday. It will be in your child's folder. Just have them return it to me by Tuesday. Thanks!
Have a great weekend! Maybe I will see you at the auction! God Bless, Miss Surma
Thursday, February 27, 2014
Thursday, February 20, 2014
Happy Thursday!!! I am starting to wonder if winter will ever end for us??? I think we all enjoyed the nice couple of days we had this week!
Auction- Thank you to all those who were able to donate to our basket! Chris has everything and it sounds like she will be putting together a great basket!
Math-We have started working on division with double digit divisors. I have started out slowly with only a few problems at a time until they get the hang of it. Some have found estimating to be their tool for finding the quotient. Some have found using multiplication to be their way! Whatever works!!! As long as I can see the process of division is being done, I am fine with it. The part they need to pay attention to is their subtraction. Some are still trying to subtract larger numbers from smaller numbers. Another part of the learning is figuring out what having a remainder that is larger than my divisor means for the quotient. They give me funny looks when I say, "Your remainder is larger than your divisor, that means your quotient is too small." :)
Language Arts- We read a story called Tucket's Travel by Gary Paulsen. It is a historical fiction story about a boy and two other children who are trying to get away from the Comancheros, but they are in an arid, desolate area. A thunderstorm ends up saving the day. Their grammar this week is working on the forms of Be-- is, are, was, were, has, have, and had. They are trying to make sure that the verb works with the subject being singular or plural. They are also working on making sure the verbs in the sentence are the same tense. In the vocabulary piece, they are working on synonyms and the shades or degrees of meanings. They look at being happy or being exhilarated. Which word would you use in certain situations.
Religion- They took the test yesterday. Those kids who were gone will take it today. I am just going to keep the test and I will show you at conferences. They did really well!
I hope everyone has a great weekend! I am off to Doon again. I have to do some things for my mom since my sister is busy, but I also plan on having her come back to Creston with me until Spring Break! God Bless, Miss Surma
Auction- Thank you to all those who were able to donate to our basket! Chris has everything and it sounds like she will be putting together a great basket!
Math-We have started working on division with double digit divisors. I have started out slowly with only a few problems at a time until they get the hang of it. Some have found estimating to be their tool for finding the quotient. Some have found using multiplication to be their way! Whatever works!!! As long as I can see the process of division is being done, I am fine with it. The part they need to pay attention to is their subtraction. Some are still trying to subtract larger numbers from smaller numbers. Another part of the learning is figuring out what having a remainder that is larger than my divisor means for the quotient. They give me funny looks when I say, "Your remainder is larger than your divisor, that means your quotient is too small." :)
Language Arts- We read a story called Tucket's Travel by Gary Paulsen. It is a historical fiction story about a boy and two other children who are trying to get away from the Comancheros, but they are in an arid, desolate area. A thunderstorm ends up saving the day. Their grammar this week is working on the forms of Be-- is, are, was, were, has, have, and had. They are trying to make sure that the verb works with the subject being singular or plural. They are also working on making sure the verbs in the sentence are the same tense. In the vocabulary piece, they are working on synonyms and the shades or degrees of meanings. They look at being happy or being exhilarated. Which word would you use in certain situations.
Religion- They took the test yesterday. Those kids who were gone will take it today. I am just going to keep the test and I will show you at conferences. They did really well!
I hope everyone has a great weekend! I am off to Doon again. I have to do some things for my mom since my sister is busy, but I also plan on having her come back to Creston with me until Spring Break! God Bless, Miss Surma
Thursday, February 13, 2014
Hello Parents, Happy Thursday! I hope you are having a good week!
Dates to Remember: Donations for our 5th grade basket will be due on Monday! I have only gotten a few so far, so I am really hoping that you can help out! Please do what you can. If you write a check, write it to Chris Walters. Thank you for your help!!!!
Language Arts-They took the test over our last story on Tuesday. The scores weren't so hot. I knew that the decoding section would be difficult and possibly the grammar. I was right. Because we had the time, I had them make corrections on the test where scores were 60% or below. I looked at each piece or section of the test, not the score as a whole. You will see it on the paper I sent home in their folder. I wish I had time every week to go back and make corrections. We just don't have the class time. It may be something they have to do on their own. We started our test on Wednesday for the entire unit. We will finish it today. My plan for Friday is to go over the test. If we have some time leftover, I told the kids IF they were ready to share their book report, they certainly could. It will help alleviate next Friday. I am still making the due date the 21st, but I just thought this might help the schedule.
Math- We have started working on division with double digit divisors. We start the chapter by working on basic facts on a larger scale. Today's lesson is estimating the quotient using compatible numbers. Basically you are finding basic facts that are close to the actual numbers and then dividing mentally.
Valentine's Party- we will celebrate in the afternoon on Friday. I told them to bring in their treats on Friday.
On Friday grades 2-4 are going to a play in Des Moines about bullying. I will be teaching the 5th graders all day. They will have a normal day, but they will eat lunch with the 6-8 students.
Recess-- Now that our weather is getting somewhat nicer, we are able to go outside. I do see many of my kids without hats, headbands, or gloves. They should still have that on when going outside. I strongly suggest snow pants as well. The nicer temps are making for a sloppy playground. The kids are ending up with wet and dirty jeans due to playing in it.
Have a good weekend! God Bless, Miss Surma
Dates to Remember: Donations for our 5th grade basket will be due on Monday! I have only gotten a few so far, so I am really hoping that you can help out! Please do what you can. If you write a check, write it to Chris Walters. Thank you for your help!!!!
Language Arts-They took the test over our last story on Tuesday. The scores weren't so hot. I knew that the decoding section would be difficult and possibly the grammar. I was right. Because we had the time, I had them make corrections on the test where scores were 60% or below. I looked at each piece or section of the test, not the score as a whole. You will see it on the paper I sent home in their folder. I wish I had time every week to go back and make corrections. We just don't have the class time. It may be something they have to do on their own. We started our test on Wednesday for the entire unit. We will finish it today. My plan for Friday is to go over the test. If we have some time leftover, I told the kids IF they were ready to share their book report, they certainly could. It will help alleviate next Friday. I am still making the due date the 21st, but I just thought this might help the schedule.
Math- We have started working on division with double digit divisors. We start the chapter by working on basic facts on a larger scale. Today's lesson is estimating the quotient using compatible numbers. Basically you are finding basic facts that are close to the actual numbers and then dividing mentally.
Valentine's Party- we will celebrate in the afternoon on Friday. I told them to bring in their treats on Friday.
On Friday grades 2-4 are going to a play in Des Moines about bullying. I will be teaching the 5th graders all day. They will have a normal day, but they will eat lunch with the 6-8 students.
Recess-- Now that our weather is getting somewhat nicer, we are able to go outside. I do see many of my kids without hats, headbands, or gloves. They should still have that on when going outside. I strongly suggest snow pants as well. The nicer temps are making for a sloppy playground. The kids are ending up with wet and dirty jeans due to playing in it.
Have a good weekend! God Bless, Miss Surma
Thursday, February 6, 2014
Hello Parents, Wow, this is certainly a crazy week! This will be short today since I have little time to get it out before the kids arrive.
Language Arts- We are in our last story for this unit. Now with our snow day it will push into next week. That will also mean that next week will be a unit test week. Most likely that will happen towards the end of the week.
Reminder their book reports are due on February 21st. That gives them just over 2 weeks to finish the book and create their report.
Math-I have checked their tests. Overall I was quite pleased! Some will have corrections. All will need to get the test signed by you. When we get back to a normal time, we will start our new chapter.
Valentine's Party - We will trade Valentines on Friday, February 14 at the end of the day. The students are welcome to create a Valentine for each of their classmates. I will create a list of names for them since there are so many.
Friday, February 7, 2014- I will be gone in the afternoon. I am taking part of a day to travel to Waterloo to my brother's house. I am going to the Luke Bryan concert tomorrow night with my sister-in-law and nieces at the UNI Dome. There will be a substitute for me in the afternoon.
I hope everyone has a great weekend! Stay warm. Travel safely!
God Bless, Miss Surma
Language Arts- We are in our last story for this unit. Now with our snow day it will push into next week. That will also mean that next week will be a unit test week. Most likely that will happen towards the end of the week.
Reminder their book reports are due on February 21st. That gives them just over 2 weeks to finish the book and create their report.
Math-I have checked their tests. Overall I was quite pleased! Some will have corrections. All will need to get the test signed by you. When we get back to a normal time, we will start our new chapter.
Valentine's Party - We will trade Valentines on Friday, February 14 at the end of the day. The students are welcome to create a Valentine for each of their classmates. I will create a list of names for them since there are so many.
Friday, February 7, 2014- I will be gone in the afternoon. I am taking part of a day to travel to Waterloo to my brother's house. I am going to the Luke Bryan concert tomorrow night with my sister-in-law and nieces at the UNI Dome. There will be a substitute for me in the afternoon.
I hope everyone has a great weekend! Stay warm. Travel safely!
God Bless, Miss Surma
Thursday, January 30, 2014
Hi Parents! Wow! What a busy week, but I love it! I love this week!!! The kids were looking great!!!!
Math- We have a test on Friday over the chapter. We will most likely use Monday for corrections, but then we will jump into our next chapter. More division!!! Woo hoo! It will be dividing by double digits. I will expect a slow down here. This is much harder to grasp due to multiplying by two digits in a different way.
Language Arts- We are going to finish up this story on Friday. This week's story was about a boy who went to his city council to see if the city would agree to take a deteriorating basketball court and turn it into a garden for the homeless in his town. There was another girl who wanted it turned into a parking lot for the teachers. We had an interesting discussion ourselves on what should be done with it. Their spelling the last few weeks has focused on suffixes. Next week will be a real treat! I told the kids they are going to be very different words that I have never used on a spelling test. Some will be challenging, but all are kind of fun! That's the only hint I am giving!
Religion- We are discussing Nicodemus and his search for eternal life.Jesus tells him about being baptized and how you will receive the Holy Spirit. We talked about the importance of water in Church, in the Bible stories we read, and in our daily lives. They are now doing an activity revolved around showing that water in different forms.
Last week after we watched the Bully movie, I told them we were going to create a wall in our room as a reminder. It would remind us each day on how we want to BE. They came up with great words!!! For example BE yourself, BE awesome, BE unique, BE grateful It is now up in our room. It is very cool!!!
Just a reminder to make sure you make arrangements with your kids about how they are getting home on Friday after mass at church. I will ask them on Friday morning if they have a special guest coming to sit with them.
The flu season is here! My room has been hit with the sick kids. Please remember that your kids should not return to school until they have been fever free for 24 hours--without medication. Thank you!!!
I will send Take Home Folders on Friday due to our being gone today!
Have a great weekend! I am heading back to Doon with my mom. It has been great having her here for the past 2 weeks! I think she enjoyed her time away as well! God Bless, Miss Surma
Math- We have a test on Friday over the chapter. We will most likely use Monday for corrections, but then we will jump into our next chapter. More division!!! Woo hoo! It will be dividing by double digits. I will expect a slow down here. This is much harder to grasp due to multiplying by two digits in a different way.
Language Arts- We are going to finish up this story on Friday. This week's story was about a boy who went to his city council to see if the city would agree to take a deteriorating basketball court and turn it into a garden for the homeless in his town. There was another girl who wanted it turned into a parking lot for the teachers. We had an interesting discussion ourselves on what should be done with it. Their spelling the last few weeks has focused on suffixes. Next week will be a real treat! I told the kids they are going to be very different words that I have never used on a spelling test. Some will be challenging, but all are kind of fun! That's the only hint I am giving!
Religion- We are discussing Nicodemus and his search for eternal life.Jesus tells him about being baptized and how you will receive the Holy Spirit. We talked about the importance of water in Church, in the Bible stories we read, and in our daily lives. They are now doing an activity revolved around showing that water in different forms.
Last week after we watched the Bully movie, I told them we were going to create a wall in our room as a reminder. It would remind us each day on how we want to BE. They came up with great words!!! For example BE yourself, BE awesome, BE unique, BE grateful It is now up in our room. It is very cool!!!
Just a reminder to make sure you make arrangements with your kids about how they are getting home on Friday after mass at church. I will ask them on Friday morning if they have a special guest coming to sit with them.
The flu season is here! My room has been hit with the sick kids. Please remember that your kids should not return to school until they have been fever free for 24 hours--without medication. Thank you!!!
I will send Take Home Folders on Friday due to our being gone today!
Have a great weekend! I am heading back to Doon with my mom. It has been great having her here for the past 2 weeks! I think she enjoyed her time away as well! God Bless, Miss Surma
Thursday, January 23, 2014
Hello Parents! Welcome to another cold and blustery Iowa week! I am ready for warm weather and no wind!!! My mom did come back with me on Sunday so we are enjoying our time together!
Catholic Schools Week-- I created a flyer about the week. I have put that in your child's folder. It should give let you know what next week's plans will be! It will be a crazy and busy week, but a favorite of mine! Look in the Creston Advertiser next week for the insert that the 8th graders created. I know some of the 5th graders were interviewed! If your child signed up to participate in Sunday's mass, it is in their folder.
Foundation Auction- Thank you, Chris Walter, for taking care of our live auction basket! She came up with the idea of a Breakfast Basket. I put together her ideas on a flyer. If you are able to help out, there are plenty of ideas to choose from!! I have already received some cash donations, you could do that in place of an item. Christ would like to collect everything by February 17. That will give her time to do any shopping and put it together.
Math- This week they were dealing with prime and composite numbers, the divisibility rules, and creating prime factorization trees! Whew!!!!! It was most definitely a challenge. We are getting near the end of our chapter. I think there could be a test at some point next week, but I can't say when for sure.
Language Arts- This week we read a story by Peg Kehret. She is a favorite author of many of the girls in here. This was an autobiography. She had created the Dog Newspaper as a child, but soon realized she didn't have any customers. It was great though because this gave us a peak at how early she began her writing career. WE are so thankful she didn't stop writing. They also focused on prepositions and prepositional phrases. I am continuing some work on the side with adverbs. That was a hard hit area last week on the test. They also dealt with homophones such as : to, too, two and homographs like: tear, tear, lead, and lead.
Bully movie- They did very well in watching the movie. We had some lively conversations afterwards. There was a lot of anger towards the adults and students. I felt the same way, maybe even more this time. It was good to see them recognize the injustice. A powerful movie that I would highly recommend. Mr. Walsh said you can rent it/buy it on Amazon.
I hope everyone has a great weekend! I hope to see you on Sunday at our CSW kick-off mass at church!!! God Bless, Miss Surma
Catholic Schools Week-- I created a flyer about the week. I have put that in your child's folder. It should give let you know what next week's plans will be! It will be a crazy and busy week, but a favorite of mine! Look in the Creston Advertiser next week for the insert that the 8th graders created. I know some of the 5th graders were interviewed! If your child signed up to participate in Sunday's mass, it is in their folder.
Foundation Auction- Thank you, Chris Walter, for taking care of our live auction basket! She came up with the idea of a Breakfast Basket. I put together her ideas on a flyer. If you are able to help out, there are plenty of ideas to choose from!! I have already received some cash donations, you could do that in place of an item. Christ would like to collect everything by February 17. That will give her time to do any shopping and put it together.
Math- This week they were dealing with prime and composite numbers, the divisibility rules, and creating prime factorization trees! Whew!!!!! It was most definitely a challenge. We are getting near the end of our chapter. I think there could be a test at some point next week, but I can't say when for sure.
Language Arts- This week we read a story by Peg Kehret. She is a favorite author of many of the girls in here. This was an autobiography. She had created the Dog Newspaper as a child, but soon realized she didn't have any customers. It was great though because this gave us a peak at how early she began her writing career. WE are so thankful she didn't stop writing. They also focused on prepositions and prepositional phrases. I am continuing some work on the side with adverbs. That was a hard hit area last week on the test. They also dealt with homophones such as : to, too, two and homographs like: tear, tear, lead, and lead.
Bully movie- They did very well in watching the movie. We had some lively conversations afterwards. There was a lot of anger towards the adults and students. I felt the same way, maybe even more this time. It was good to see them recognize the injustice. A powerful movie that I would highly recommend. Mr. Walsh said you can rent it/buy it on Amazon.
I hope everyone has a great weekend! I hope to see you on Sunday at our CSW kick-off mass at church!!! God Bless, Miss Surma
Thursday, January 16, 2014
Happy Thursday!!! I hope you are having a good week!
This week we finally finished The Truth About Truman! Boy, by the end, there were some very angry 5th graders at a few of the characters in the book. It is their book. I would suggest reading it! It is very good and does really focus on cyber-bullying which is such an easy thing for kids to do these days. It certainly didn't end the way we all were hoping it would ,but some very good lessons throughout it.
Math- This week I am seeing more confidence in the process of division from all the 5th graders! I am having to do less work with them individually. This week they had to focus on dividing with zeros in the quotient and dividing larger numbers. The most common mistakes I see are forgetting to bring down the next number or errors in their subtraction or multiplication. Feel free to give them a problem at home to work out for you! They also know how to check it through multiplication.
Language Arts- This week we read a science fiction story. I think that is a first for this new series. It was a good story about a boy who created a time machine that could only go forward in time. It was a fun story. We also jumped to learning about adverbs for grammar. This one is more challenging because they have to be able to identify the verb or adjective that the adverb is describing. Plus, adverbs don't always come just before the verb or just after it. They really need to stop and ask themselves the questions. If the verb is "run". How far did they run? How often did they run? When did they run? Where did they run? How much did they run? The nice part is that many of the adverbs they worked with end in-ly. In their folder you will find their test scores from the story before Christmas and they story they read last week. You may also notice they rise in scores this past week. I believe taking the test on Friday of Christmas break...was not a good idea. I learned a lesson there.
Book Reports- Depending on our schedule, I will be talking to them about their next book report. This one will be a Newbery Honor or Newbery Winner book. I have a list of books for them to choose from. They will also get the list of projects. They cannot repeat the same project they did in the first trimester.
Catholic Schools Week- A flyer went home last week. There is a class theme day. Mrs. Sickels and I talked and wanted to do something around TJ and Nate. She came up with the idea of auctioneers, cowboys, or outdoors because we know they loved the mountains and they loved going to the Sale Barn. We have made some suggestions such as cowboy hats or some kind of cap, plaid shirts or western type shirts or t-shirts, cowboy boots ( if you have them). Some of the 5th graders asked about wearing their buttons they made at CYC. TJ loved wearing his "Stevie Joe Bob" button or his Sheriff pin. I will brainstorm with the kids some more to see if they have any more ideas. They could also just wear their colors: pink, orange, and yellow.
St. Malachy Foundation Auction- I stuck a note in your child's folder. I am looking for someone to take care of the Live Auction Basket from 5th grade. Please let me know if you will help out. Thanks!!!
Have a great weekend! I plan on going to Doon. Mom's birthday is on Friday. My sister and I are throwing her a party with some of her friends. I am hoping she will come back to Creston with me for a couple of weeks!
God Bless, Miss Surma
This week we finally finished The Truth About Truman! Boy, by the end, there were some very angry 5th graders at a few of the characters in the book. It is their book. I would suggest reading it! It is very good and does really focus on cyber-bullying which is such an easy thing for kids to do these days. It certainly didn't end the way we all were hoping it would ,but some very good lessons throughout it.
Math- This week I am seeing more confidence in the process of division from all the 5th graders! I am having to do less work with them individually. This week they had to focus on dividing with zeros in the quotient and dividing larger numbers. The most common mistakes I see are forgetting to bring down the next number or errors in their subtraction or multiplication. Feel free to give them a problem at home to work out for you! They also know how to check it through multiplication.
Language Arts- This week we read a science fiction story. I think that is a first for this new series. It was a good story about a boy who created a time machine that could only go forward in time. It was a fun story. We also jumped to learning about adverbs for grammar. This one is more challenging because they have to be able to identify the verb or adjective that the adverb is describing. Plus, adverbs don't always come just before the verb or just after it. They really need to stop and ask themselves the questions. If the verb is "run". How far did they run? How often did they run? When did they run? Where did they run? How much did they run? The nice part is that many of the adverbs they worked with end in-ly. In their folder you will find their test scores from the story before Christmas and they story they read last week. You may also notice they rise in scores this past week. I believe taking the test on Friday of Christmas break...was not a good idea. I learned a lesson there.
Book Reports- Depending on our schedule, I will be talking to them about their next book report. This one will be a Newbery Honor or Newbery Winner book. I have a list of books for them to choose from. They will also get the list of projects. They cannot repeat the same project they did in the first trimester.
Catholic Schools Week- A flyer went home last week. There is a class theme day. Mrs. Sickels and I talked and wanted to do something around TJ and Nate. She came up with the idea of auctioneers, cowboys, or outdoors because we know they loved the mountains and they loved going to the Sale Barn. We have made some suggestions such as cowboy hats or some kind of cap, plaid shirts or western type shirts or t-shirts, cowboy boots ( if you have them). Some of the 5th graders asked about wearing their buttons they made at CYC. TJ loved wearing his "Stevie Joe Bob" button or his Sheriff pin. I will brainstorm with the kids some more to see if they have any more ideas. They could also just wear their colors: pink, orange, and yellow.
St. Malachy Foundation Auction- I stuck a note in your child's folder. I am looking for someone to take care of the Live Auction Basket from 5th grade. Please let me know if you will help out. Thanks!!!
Have a great weekend! I plan on going to Doon. Mom's birthday is on Friday. My sister and I are throwing her a party with some of her friends. I am hoping she will come back to Creston with me for a couple of weeks!
God Bless, Miss Surma
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