May 2, 2016

All library books are due tomorrow. Happy hunting!

I hear that after this morning's events, I owe everyone an apology. No matter the  student's behavior that precipitated my comment, I apologize for expressing any negative feelings.

April 27, 2016
I have been reminding the kids, but I'll put a bug in your ear, too. If your child has not completed his/her cereal box book report yet for April, it is due this Friday.

Also, I'm sending the "Kite Flight For Sight" reading time papers home with your child tomorrow. Look for those in their backpacks.

Dear families,

Here are a few dates to put on your calendars for your students:

• This Friday, April 22nd - Bard's Birthday Bash (no permission slip required)

• This Friday, April 22nd - Chapter 13 final math test. All late homework needs to be turned in on  that date.

• Saturday, April 30th - KITE FOR FLIGHT from 10 to 12 at CMS. I'll send home the reading times I've been keeping, the day before.

• Tuesday, May 3rd - All library books due.

• Week of May 2nd to 6th - final lunch workers week

• Thursday, May 5th - Reading Celebration with Mrs. Marriott and the PTA ladies

• Friday, May 6th - SAGE language test at 9:00 am

• Monday, May 9th - Battle Of The Books at 9:00

• Monday, May 9th - SAGE 1st writing test at 1:00

• Tuesday, May 10th - SAGE science test

• Thursday, May 12th - SAGE 2nd writing test

• Friday, May 13th - SAGE math test

• Thursday, May 26th - Field Day

• Friday, May 27th - Final day of the year

April 4th
Pioneer Fun

To help the students get into this pioneer life, we will be doing fun things along our trek. By this Friday, have your child bring an empty 48 ounce can. Ii think a soup can will possible work, but the next size up will be better.) We'll be trying to make our own bass fiddles to sing to. It will be interesting, I'm sure!

3rd quarter progress report

Tomorrow the kids will be bringing home their 3rd quarter progress reports. It is on white paper with the percentage highlighted in yellow. I'll make sure they leave school with it. If you want a more detailed report, just go onto your parent portal and check for third quarter individual scores.

-- 

Parent note for March 22

A few things you need to know:

• Tomorrow is chapter 11 math test. All homework that needs to be turned in for chapter 11 is due by tomorrow.

• Friday is the end of third quarter. All late assignments are due on that day. If you are unsure of your child's status, get onto your parent portal and look. You can see anything that is not handed in. The kids know where the extra papers are if they need makeup pages.

• Spring pictures are on Thursday. If you want them, send in your money and packet that day.

• School will be regular on Friday and Monday because we've already had our spring break. (Next year spring break will be back to Easter weekend. Yeah!!!!)

I think that is all for now.

February 29, 2016

Quick parent note

Today the kids are bringing home a pink packet of invention papers. In class we worked on coming up with questions that we could use to interview each other to get ideas for a problem to solve with an invention each individual child will create at home. Then they worked in teams of 2 or 3 to refine what a great problem would be. Finally, each child had to come up with a problem they wanted to invent something to help solve that problem. PLEASE let your child work through their chosen problem BY THEMSELVES. The get them to create their invention that will solve the problem BY THEMSELVES. In other words, we don't want to know what YOU can do. We want the students to find out what THEY can do WHEN THEY THINK. One rule, their inventions must be made from what they can find at home. No fair going to the store and buying things.

On Friday, we will have our culminating mountain man activity...a rendezvous. One of the stations is the bartering corner. The kids saw some examples of things they can bring for this (if they choose to participate.) Mrs. Reynolds also told them some things she has seen come in. They know that they MUST HAVE YOUR PERMISSION for what they bring.

Remember that next week is spring break. No school all week.

February 10, 2016
The lessons are also calling for shoeboxes. If you have some hanging around, will you send them in? Thanks.

January 20, 2016

A few things to be aware of:

1. Friday, our class will be walking to the Heritage Center to see the Russian program with dancing, singing, instruments, etc. prior to the Cedar City Music Arts performance that night. A permission slip will go home tomorrow for you to sign. If the kids don't have a permission slip, they will stay at school with work to do.

2. The spelling bee pretest in class will be on January 28th. The highest three will represent our class in the school spelling bee.

3. Our chapter 7 math test is tomorrow. All chapter 7 homework is due tomorrow, or I can't accept it.

4. January's book report is due on the last Friday of this month, the 29th. Some children are trying to turn theirs in without it being completed. I am returning the report to them to finish and return.

5. Spring parent teacher conferences are the first week in February, the 1st to 3rd. I will just send home the schedule from the first of the year's conference. If you need to change your time, let me know ahead of time.

January 4, 2016

Dear families,

            Before we left for the holidays, we got the scores of the SAGE test the students took in October. Granted, this was during the first quarter so I shouldn’t expect super high scores, but  when I saw that only 26% of the fourth graders in the district scored at proficient, I was quite taken aback. Proficient translates as a score of 3 or 4, an A to a Ct. Three fourths of our students scored at a 1 or 2, a C- to an F. I don’t know about you, but these are the kids I am working with and I would very much like to see more students succeeding.

            So I’ve come up with a plan of sorts. I am open for your ideas, too, so we can help our children understand the importance of putting effort into their learning.

Teacher Goals and Purpose

Parent Goals

1. Create weekly spelling lists. Spelling is a portion of what students are expected to know and display on the test. 2. When children hand in book reports that don’t meet the criteria, I will return them to the students to complete according to directions. This will help children realize there is a standard they must reach and work towards that. 3. On writing assignments, according to the areas we have studied and practiced, if the children are not trying to employ those strategies because of lack of effort, I will reinstruct the strategies, then have the children rewrite until they show the usage of that strategy. This will help them internalize what they are learning and use it. This will help them to learn to think and not speed through things. 4. In daily bell work, some children are just speeding through as fast as they can in order to get to the extra activities. If children get less than ¾ correct, they will redo the incorrect answers at lunch recess when I can give them individual help. The students will learn to think while doing their assignments instead of randomly putting answers. Also, those who aren’t getting a concept will get extra instruction. 5. Homework is so important. It helps cement the concepts learned in math lessons each day. Children who habitually don’t do homework will now go to the skills room during break to complete it. Those children who forget every now and then are exempt because I know they will bring it in the next day.  Math builds concept upon concept. You have to have each building block in place or the next concept added makes no sense.

1. Make sure your child reads between 20 and 30 minutes each day. Ask them comprehension questions to make sure they are getting the meaning and not just reading words. Have them read chapter books. Small picture books should now just be for fun. 2. Each day, Monday through Thursday, your child will bring home homework. Showing me they have their homework paper is how I dismiss them. Have them do it. I don’t send home anything we haven’t studied at school. If they say they don’t know how to do it, tell them to get out  the day’s practice pages. The first page has step by step instructions so they can review the process as needed. If they don’t have those pages, question them on where they are. We tear them out of the book every day to work on them and take home. I see so many of these pages thrown in the garbage, but if you ask for them each day, the kids will soon learn to take them home. 3. MAKE your child memorize their multiplication tables. They can no longer fake their way through without this knowledge. Multiplication comes before division. We are using both, plus adding fractions, common denominators, etc. into the mix. Those children who still don’t have this third grade skill are SO LOST! They are floundering badly. 4. Get your child to school on time. These first minutes in the morning are when bell work is done. When they miss this work time, it puts their whole day behind schedule. They are trying to play catch-up with all its frustrations.

            I hope these goals and follow-through at home and at school will help our children work and learn on the level that will lead them to success in their education. I promise to do my part at school. Education can take the children to a great life if we show them how to succeed and expect them to do so.

December 15, 2015
Dear families,

A few things as we rush towards Christmas:

1. If your child has any missing coats, jackets, gloves, etc. please check the lost and found before this weekend. At the break all items in the lost and found will be taken to a charitable institution.

2. As the kids have probably told you, we are having a snowman pinata for our Christmas party. If you can, please send in a bag of wrapped candy to help us fill it.

3. Our chapter 6 math test will be this Friday. Any late homework is due by then.

4. December book report is due this Friday.

5. Two children have passed off the 'Twas The Night Before Christmas poem. Good for Brookly and Aurora. A couple of others are so close that I think they will get it.

6. The mammal reports were absolutely wonderful. Thank you for letting them work on their own under your guidance where copying wasn't possible.

7. Christmas break begins at 3:30 on Friday. We will begin school again on Monday, January 4th.

Have a marvelous holiday!

November 30, 2015

Dear families,

• Just a reminder that the fourth grade classes are going to the SUU Women's Basketball game at the college tomorrow at 1:00. It is freee for the kids. Please DON'T send any concession stand money.

• The spelling list on the gold paper is our next spelling list. As we teachers reviewed the mistakes made on the previous spelling lists, we found that the students were not sure of the ending spelling patterns for the "L" sound, so we are having the kids practice that skill.

• Tomorrow the December book report and home-reading-time papers for December will be coming home.

• An optional homework (to tease the memorization brainiacs) will be coming in the next day or two. The assignment is to memorize the entire poem of "T'was The Night Before Christmas." We will be working on it in class, but more effort than that will be needed to have it memorized by the last day before Christmas break. The children who accomplish this will earn a candy bar.

Carolyn Olenslager

Dear families,
November 17, 2015

Hi...

Just a few highlights to be aware of:

1. Chapter 4 math test is this Friday. That means that any homework for chapter 4 that is missing will only be accepted until Friday.

2. November's book report is due next Tuesday. Most of the students already have them turned in. Thanks.

3. Thanksgiving holiday begins next Wednesday. Enjoy it with your family or whatever you are doing.

4. Just another plug...if your child doesn't know his/her times tables yet, please run through some flashcards every night. They can't do division if they don't know their facts. They are dieing!!!!

5. We will be starting 2 new units. In Spanish we will begin our color words. In Utah history we will begin learning about Spanish explorers and trappers/fur traders. Our Indian unit has been a blast!

November 3, 2015
Dear families,

I thought I'd better send out the next info from our class.

1. Several parents have asked if their child could retake the math test. The answer is no. It would be a great idea to have them correct the ones they missed. Math adds upon each other, so it's important to know the information.

2. The book report  "teepee" page went home today. This month we thought it would be fun for the kids to read an Indian legend or story with an Indian as a main character. Then do the book report about that. I did "The Sign Of The Beaver" because it is also a battle of the books reader. A shorter story is also completely acceptable like "Arrow To The Sun." If your child did not bring home a legend from the library or from my classroom library, you can google in "Indian legends" and come up with something. The book report is due on Tuesday the 24th.

3. We are going to begin a "shrunken-head Indian" apple sculpture. The kids will need an apple (already starting to shrivel would be perfect) and an empty individual-size plastic water bottle you would take to a ballgame or somewhere. We will probably start the carving on Monday.

4. We are now beginning our division study in math. The students who don't have their multiplication facts memorized yet are really struggling. Please do some flashcards with them each night at home. Thank You!

5. We have our super helpers for our field trip. Thanks!!!!!!

Carolyn Olenslager

If you're interested:

I just saw in the newspaper yesterday that there is a free arts workshop for kids through SUU.

When: October 24th, Saturday

  ages 3-4 from 11:00 to 11:45

  ages 5-8 from 12 to 1:45

  ages 9-11 2 to 3:45

Where: Gateway Prepratory Academy  is hosting this. 201 Thoroughbred Way, Enoch

  (Take the first turn left after the stake center on 3600 North...past the bowling alley.)

Information: 435-865-8024 or suu.edu?pva/ta

-- 

October 5, 2015

Dear families,

By now some of you are dieing! The homework today is for bonus points only for the children who want to expand and go further. The story is from our new unit on the Middle Ages. This is a factual unit and will teach the writing skills of opinion and persuasive papers.

Now you can take your heart back out of your throat and enjoy the night.

October 2, 2015
Dear families,

Just a quick note before I leave school...

• Monday is our chapter 2 GoMath test which means Monday is the last day to turn in any late homework for chapter 2. After that , no makeup homework for that chapter will be accepted.

• We are starting our Native American/ Indian of Utah study. In a few weeks the kids will be making mini dioramas of the different tribes homes and villages. Be saving a couple of egg cartons. toothpicks, skewers, tiny tree branches, anything else you can think of that could be used to make tee pees, wickiups, etc.

• Monday we are also beginning the second unit in our new reading program. It is entitled "The Middle Ages." I think the kids will love to learn about knights and castles. It should be fun.

--

Carolyn Olenslager