October 28th

Happy Halloween!
The kids will bring home a book order tomorrow (Tuesday.) I want to get it sent off to insure delivery before Christmas. It will be due on Tuesday, November 5th. If you want the order to be kept a secret from your child, just shoot me an email. I'll keep it on the sly and email you when it gets here so we can make arrangements for the pick-up.

For all you veteran South Elementary parents, you already know about Halloween, but for the new parents, here is the skinny.
     • No costumes at school.
     • Keep all candy home the next day. Sugar highs with 22 kids are bad enough without encouraging
       more hyper activity.
     • This year our music teacher is having a Halloween sing at the end of the day, just for fun.

Keep up the home reading time. It is so-o-o-o important!!!!!

October 24th

Hello out there in cyber world.

Just a quick note. Your child's homework tonight is another pretest for math...chapter 2. Have your child do it alone. Then check to see if he/she understands everything. If not will you please help him/her? I've done my best to plug in holes in the kids' knowledge base while teaching the concepts.

Also, I'm taking the progress reports home tonight to start getting them ready to send out to you parents. I'll staple them to the spelling tests that will be coming home on Monday. Watch for them!

Have a great rest of the week.

October 11

It is with a heavy heart that I write this blog to inform you that POWER HOUR will no longer be a part of our curriculum. When I have good children boldly lie about doing their work just so they can participate, what does that tell me Power Hour is teaching them? When too many parents email and call telling me that their children don't want to come to school on Fridays because they don't get to come to Power Hour because they've been messing around and not completing assignments, that tells me Power Hour isn't worth it.  So-o-o-o POWER HOUR is no longer nor will it be the rest of the year. Friday afternoon will simply be a continuation of regular study.

For my more advanced children who need extra to continue their extended learning, I will start projects for them which they can work on any time they complete their regular core work early.

Many parents are worried that their children miss recess to finish work, even knowing that oodles of time is given to complete assignments. Please know that the children who are working at recess always take a lap around the playground and come huffing and puffing back into the room. THEY GET THEIR EXERCISE!!

Now on a lighter note:
• Remember that Harvest Holiday will be next Thursday, Friday, and Monday (17th, 18th, and 21st.) Tuesday school will resume.
• The students need an apple next Monday. We are going to be making shrunken-head witches.
• Thank you all for coming to parent teacher conference. It's always nice to get on the same page.
• Each Monday, attached to the spelling test, I will send home a bright pink paper informing you of the work that was accomplished the week before. The incomplete work will also be in your child's backpack. If you wish to keep your child current with the class, have your child complete the work at home.

I just know that next week will be better than today.
Carolyn Olenslager

Power Hour, etc.

Today was our rock testing Power Hour. In order to go, the kids had to have their work from the week completed and passed off.

Congratulations to the following kids who did just that.

      Aurora          Lakela          Jenzie          Josh

      Cason          Brook P.        Iliana            Olivia     (Zach did finish during library time!)

     John              Kylie G.        Amanda        Abi

     Gabriel          Jared

If your child is not on this list (even after all the extra time he/she got in order to get finished), PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE work with your child at home to get assignments/chores done on time and the way they are supposed to be. That should carry over to the school setting. Thank you!!!!!!!

On some parents' requests, I sent home next week's homework today instead of next Monday. If you don't want to look at it until Monday, that is just fine with me. The kids will be working on a rock project of their choice. I listed 27 different ideas. The 27th is the best, though...have your child think of his/her own that interests him/her. It will be due for presentation to the class next Friday, October 4th.

Remember that school lets out at 2:30 each day next week, including Wednesday. I'll see you at parent teacher conference!

week of September 24

September 24, 2013

Dear families,

Before I forget, homework tonight is the test prep papers for chapter 1 of Go Math. Have your child do them. The kids who have got the concepts really HAVE them! Please help your child if he/she is still struggling. We’ve already spent twice as long as the program calls for on this chapter and must move on.

The chapter test will be tomorrow.

Reading parents...we will begin next Tuesday at 8:45.

This is who I have on the sign up sheet for now through December...

Tuesday: Joy Klas

Wednesday: Christine Schofield

Thursday: Jim Durfee

Friday: Julie Brown

THANK YOU!!!!!

A reminder...Thursday is our field trip to Cedar Breaks and Parowan Gap. On the first of the year registration paper for the school, one of the boxes you could check was permission for your student to go on field trips. Everyone checked that box, so permission is already taken care of.

Be sure to have your child dress for the temperature. Cedar Breaks will be cold first thing in the morning. I’m taking a coat. I can leave it on the bus later through the day. Hats are okay.

The kids can bring a water bottle if they choose. Only water can be in it. NO SNACKS. We teachers have already bought a little snack for them to eat before we leave Cedar Breaks to head down the mountain for lunch. That should help the kids who get car sick.

The students can bring things to do...books, pencil and paper, etc. but NO ELECTRONIC DEVICES!!!

The first kids went to the prize box today for having 20 HOMEWORK coupons. Boy, were they excited! Other pieces of homework quickly came out of backpacks. I’m sure some of those kids will go to the prize box tomorrow.

Pictures are coming home today – for those who ordered them this fall.

Have a great week!

Mrs. O

week of September 16th

Last week was a real eye-opener for the kids as well as me. They are
definately not used to working independently!!!  This will be a top
priority in the next few weeks. I'm adding in extra time after our
read-aloud when the kids return from lunch. The students who completed
their reading centers on time will go straight to silent reading after the
story. The others can have that time to finish up their work. This means

that their home reading time will be *even more important* to keep on top
of. (I know that only 7 kids turned in home reading time for August.)


FYI:
• Your child will be bringing home the Parent Teacher Conference sign up
sheet tomorrow. If you have several children attending South Elementary, I
scheduled with the other teachers so you will only need to come in one
time. If you have only one student at South, please sign up in the extra
time slots with a time that is convenient for you. The honoring of that
time is on a first-come first-serve basis, so sign up fast!

•Our first "bus" field trip is on Thursday, September 26th. We will leave
promptly at 9:00. Have the kids dress according to weather conditions. We
will go to Cedar Breaks first and see off the lookout, then take a hike.
Lunch will be at Canyon Park. Afterwards we will drive to the Parowan Gap
to see and record the petroglyphs there. I NEED 2 PARENTS TO HELP WITH
SUPERVISION. If you possibly can, will you email me or send in a note. You
would need to provide your own lunch and wear good walking shoes. The bus
can't let on younger siblings, sorry.

•On October 4th, we will be taking a walking field trip to the Braithwaite
Fine Arts Gallery and the Frehner Natural History Museum. Again, have your
child dress for the weather.

CURRICULUM:
reading and language: extending sentences
science: erosion experiments - types of rocks
math: different ways to write numbers - composing and decomposing numbers

Have a great week!
As always, I will paste this into the blog if you need to refer to this

September 3-7

This week our studies will concentrate on:

     •short vowel sound review along with the phonetic markings on phonetic skills #1 and #2 (short vowel word rules)

     •names - name poems and how each child got his/her name which will be made into a cute little "face" book

     •gravity science unit - kids will need to know how to tie by Friday in order to make a parachute as our culminating activity

     •5 children are ready to go on to 3rd grade spelling word pretest. We will do that this week.
    

The math prerequisite skills test was "eye opening." Only 5 passed with 70%. SO-O-O I will be doing a lot of "filling in the gaps"
 and moving a bit slower until the kids come aboard. We are lucky to get an aid from 12:00 to 12:30. She will work with the 3 lowest kids
 in each of the second grade classes as a little group in my hallway. I know many more kids could benefit from her help,
but we are blessed to even have an aid so we're not complaining!!!!  The higher kids who will pick up faster will be challenged.
I have a bunch of stuff to have them do, so don't think they will be held back.

I will copy this email over into my blog each week if you have erased your email and need to review the info. To get to the blog,

just click on the purple words below my name on this email. It will take you directly to the blog.

Have a great week!

Welcome to our new year!

August 14, 2013 

I just want you to know that I am super excited to be back and look forward to working with your children. The kids always surprise me with their cute personalities and sayings. I love children!

Our first few days will be spent on friendship building, pretesting, and getting back into the groove of a new school year.  I hope your children come home with tired brains everyday. That means I am doing my job.

Be sure to contact me with any questions you have. I will do the same with you. Then we can be on the same page.

Carolyn Olenslager