Hello Parents! I hope your week is going well. I think the biggest adjustment for the 5th graders is that they have to write in cursive! I am sure some of you are listening to all their woes at home. Believe me they say the same in class. I use this instead of a handwriting book. It is forcing them to write slower. It is making them take their time instead of racing! It is also a great fine motor skill! Believe me, they will get used to it!

Calendar Dates:

Sept. 1- Picture Day

Sept. 2- 3 hour early out

Sept. 5- No School/ Labor Day

Sept. 21- 5th Grade Mass

Sept. 23- 3 Hour Early Out/ homecoming

Reading- This week we read an excerpt from The Wayside School is Falling Down. I love this story! It is funny and teaches them a little bit about irony! Ask them about the teacher's spelling bee and how she taught "gravity" to her class! I think we all got a good giggle from it. They are doing the vocabulary packet like they did last year in Mrs. Sickels' room, but I have them do all 10 words. They will only do this one time every unit. I do other things with vocabulary. In grammar they are working on subjects and predicates and then deciding whether a sentence is complete or a fragment. It really is review, but every year it is like starting over. They have a hard time remembering what part of speech is found in each one...nouns and verbs. They will take a spelling test and test over the story on Friday. I gave each kid a spelling list to study from. Some have only 10 words based on their pretest. I give a list each week unless they ace the pretest. Don't let them tell you any different! 😉 

Math- Our book starts off with learning about exponents! They were amazed on Tuesday at how easy it was! They deal with mostly with 10s. Thursday and Friday we are going to focus on the three different ways to write a number out- number name or word form, expanded form, and standard form. This too should really be review. I think the hardest one is the expanded form. 

Religion- We start our year looking up Bible verses. They have to find the title of the verses...such as The Baptism of Jesus. They are also looking verses to find a missing word, so it is more like fill in the blank. I'm glad we do that since Father Patrick talked about Bibles today at mass and Bible "quotations"/ verses. He had us repeating one from the first reading today! 

Don't forget, Friday is an early out! 3 hours!!!! The kids will not get lunch here. You will need to do that! Please let the school know if pick-up will change due to that early out. You can call Mrs. Sanchez in the office or email me. 

I hope everyone has a great weekend! Enjoy the extra time!!! I don't really have any big plans except weeding in my flowerbed and doing homework for my LETRS class that many of us are taking right now. I told the kids we have a quiz every week and they are not easy!  '''

I would say we've had a great couple of weeks of school! I am enjoying your kids! 

God Bless,

Miss Surma

 Hello Parents! I hope you're adjusting to school being back in session. My alarm going off is still a struggle! I think we are having a great week so far, even though its only been two days!  I think you're kids are figuring out how Miss Surma works! 😉

Calendar Dates:

August 31- Mass

Sept. 1- Picture Day

Sept. 2- 3 hour early out

Sept. 5- No School/ Labor Day

Sept. 21- 5th Grade Mass

Sept. 23- 3 Hour Early Out/ homecoming

Picture Day will be next week on September 1st. Return any orders as soon as you can! That is a PE day so if girls are wearing sandals, make sure to pack some shoes for PE. 

DEAR Time- I told the 5th graders that on Wednesdays after library time we are going to have DEAR time. Drop Everything And Read. They will need a chapter book for this! I am going to read too! This time will count towards their Book It Calendars once we start that in October. This will be 15 minutes of reading silently for all of us.  This is good training for middle school! 

Reading- Next week we will start with a story and spelling. Their pretest will be on Monday and the posttest on Friday. This week I gave them a spelling inventory test just to see where they land. I will give bonus word eventually to some but I base that off of their pretest scores. I told them that if they ace the pretest then they won't have to take the posttest. 

Math- This week they will take a readiness test. It just shows me what they can and can't do in math. Next week we will start in chapter one! 

Technology Policy- In your child's Take Home Folder is a Technology Policy. Please read through it and sign it. Please go over the rules with your child as well. They need to sign it too. Return to me as soon as possible! 

Spirit Day- Our first one is this Friday, the 26th! The kids in our wing can wear sweats and/or a hat for $1. I know the temps won't really feel like sweats weather! 

Mass- If the kids didn't tell you about mass, make sure to ask! Father Patrick taught us a song about building our community! It was so fun and wonderful to see everyone participating with the singing and the actions! We are blessed to have him here! 

Sept. 2 is a 3 hour early out! We have PD that afternoon. Enjoy the longer weekend! 

Another item in your folder is a paper titled "Our 9". The 5th graders each month will pick a person they know living or dead, or maybe a Coach, their team, etc. No pets. That person will be who they pray for along with anyone (pets)  or anything else happening in their life for that month. Their hard work is dedicated towards that person! 

I don't have much to tell you this week. Hopefully your kids are adjusting to being back in school. I am trying not to hit them too hard with "school" yet. That will start on Monday for me! Have a great weekend! I am going to a wedding on Saturday afternoon and then the dinner honoring Mrs. Simmons in Indianola that night! 

God Bless, Miss Surma

 

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