Week of 2/2

Odds and Ends: 

*New Student: We welcomed a new student, Gayathri, to our room last week. We are so thrilled to have her with us!

*January Pride Award: This month we honored Evi Zervas with the Empathy award. Evi goes above and beyond to help her classmates and teachers. Great job, Evi!




*Valentine's Day: Our classroom Valentine's Day party will be Thurs. 2/12 at 1:30-2:20 (since we have no school Fri. 2/13). If your child would like to distribute Valentine cards/treats to his/her classmate, here are our class guidelines:
1. It is optional, but if you want to distribute, you must have enough for all students in class. We have 21 students (10 boys and 11 girls)

2. It is much easier to pass out if the individual student names are not on the cards.

3. No nuts, please!


Spring conferences are coming up the week of February 9.  These are by teacher request only.   I have 16 conferences already scheduled.   If you feel that you would really like to sit down with me and chat, please email me.  Please know that I am always available via email or phone.  Have a great weekend! 

UPCOMING EVENTS: 

*Tues. 2/3: Matter Matters Presentation

*Thurs. 2/5: Math: Ch. 7 Test

* Fri. 2/6: Spelling Test

A LOOK AT NEXT WEEK: 

*Reading: We will continue our look at culture and traditions. We will work on the skills of theme and main idea/details, as well as compare and contrast. The students are doing a fabulous job during our Daily 5 rotations!

*English: We will continue to work with figurative language and adjectives.

*Spelling: We will have another week of spelling with a pretest Monday, homework due Thurs, and the final test on Friday.

*Science: We will continue to work on ch. 11: Matter. Our matter presentation is Tues. 2/3. We are looking forward to doing fun experiments with a real scientist! The end of the unit test is tentatively schedule for Tues. 2/10.  A study guide was sent home with your child.

*Social Studies: Culture Day presentations were amazing and we learned so much about each other! Thank you for spending so much time and effort in making the project a success! We will continue our study of ch. 3 as we look at immigration and the Ellis Island experience.  Our test is tentatively scheduled for Fri. 2/20. A study guide will be sent home.

*Math: We began our ch. 7 unit on Division concepts. We will focus on the skills of division as equal sharing and repeated subtraction. We will focus on the relationship between division and multiplication. The test will be on Thurs. 2/5. A practice test will be sent home Wed.

Our focus  for fast facts this week is 4's multiplication. Students must pass their 4's x  facts by Fri. 2-6. Thank you for keeping up the good work studying facts at home!

Thanks for checking in the blog this week!
Mrs. Olsen

Week of 1/26

Odds and Ends: 

*Congrats to all students in doing a great job in our classroom spelling bee! Congrats to Cherlys and Sabrina will be advancing to the 3rd Grade level spelling bee on Wed. 1/28!

*Conferences: Spring conferences are made on an "as-needed" basis. A note will be sent home to your child is a conference is being requested. If you would like a conference and did not receive a note, please email me and we can set up a time to meet. Thank you!

*Six Flags Reading Sheets are due by 1/30.

UPCOMING EVENTS: 

*Mon. 1/26: Culture Day
Math: Ch. 6 Test

*Tues. 1/27: Culture Day

*Wed. 1/28: Grade Level Spelling Bee

*Fri. 1/30: Spelling Test
Math: 3's multiplication Fast Fact Test

A LOOK AT NEXT WEEK :

*Reading: We will continue to focus on our theme of tradition and culture as we compare and contrast stories about traditions. We will also focus on theme, main idea, and topic. We will learn about figurative language and explore poetry as well.

*English: We will begin a study of adjectives.

*Spelling: We will be back on our schedule for weekly spelling lists and assignments. Homework will be due Thurs. The test will be on Friday.

*Social Studies: We are all looking forward to learning more about each other during Culture Day. If your child wants to bring in food to share, please keep in mind the following:

1. They should share just a sample of the food item with each child (there tends to be a  lot of food and the students can get too full if the portions are too large)  

2. You MUST include a list of ingredients with the food items..no NUTS, please! 

3. If your food needs to stay warm or cold, please email me so we can make arrangements.  

Thank you! 

*Science: We are learning about how matter changes states. We are looking forward to our in class field trip on 2/3 about Matter!

*Math: We will have our ch. 6 test on Monday. A study test was sent home today to practice over the week.  We will begin ch. 7 Tues. as we begin to learn about division. The fact we are focusing on this week is 3's multiplication. Students must pass by Fri. 1/30.  Some students are working on 9's as well or have moved onto 4's, 6's, or 7's. Please ask your child what facts they should be focusing on!

Have a great weekend!
Mrs. Olsen

Week of 1/19

Odds and Ends: 

*Spelling Bee: A list of words will be available for your child to review as they prepare for our classroom spelling bee. We will have our first practice on Wed. 1/21 and are final class bee on Fri. 1/23. The winner and runner up from our classroom bee will advance to the grade level bee on Wed. 1/28. The winner and runner up from the grade level bee will advance to the district bee on 2/9.

*Matter Matters: Please send in your $7.50 to participate in our "in class" field trip from High Touch-High Tech as they enrich our unit on matter.

UPCOMING EVENTS: 

*Mon. 1/19: No School: Martin Luther King, Jr.'s Birthday

*Wed. 1/21: First Class Spelling Bee

*Fri. 1/23: Final Class Spelling Bee
Prefix/Suffix Graded Review
Math: 9's multiplication timed test

A LOOK AT NEXT WEEK: 

*Reading: We will continue practicing our Daily 5 reading rotations as we learn about culture through a variety of texts. We are working on cause and effect and theme.

*English: We will begin our study of adjectives.

* Spelling: There is no spelling this week. We will finish up our unit on prefix and suffix.

* Social Studies: We will continue to learn about culture as we focus on immigration this week.
Don't forget to continue working on your Culture Day project and presentation. Your child is either presenting on Mon. 1/26 or Tues. 1/27.

*Science: We will continue our study of matter (ch.11). We will focus on states of matter and how matter changes states.

*Math: We will continue to work on ch. 6 as we learn about the Associative Property of Multiplication and apply our knowledge of facts with word problems. We will focus on 9's multiplication next week. The last day to pass 9's will be 1/23.

Have a great weekend!
Mrs. Olsen

Week 1/12

Odds and Ends:

*MAPs Testing: Due to the cold days, our new MAPs testing will be Reading Tues. and Math Thurs. Please have your child try out some of the MAPs practice games accessible through the district website. Thank you!

UPCOMING EVENTS:

*Tues. 1/13: Reading MAPs

*Thurs.1 /15: Math MAPs

* Fri. 1/16: Early Dismissal

*Mon. 1/19: No School: Martin Luther King, Jr. Day

A LOOK AT NEXT WEEK:

*Reading: We will work on our new essential question, "How does learning about cultures other than your own impact your thinking?". We will connect our learning in ELA to Social Studies as we study immigration and culture. We will be focusing on cause and effect as well.

* English: We will work on verbs and adjectives.

* Spelling: We will not have a list this week, as we continue to focus on prefix and suffix.

* Social Studies: We will work on ch. 3, culture and immigration. Your child received information today about our culture day presentations, which will take place on 1/26 and 1/27. Please fill out the idea sheet over the weekend and return it to school on Mon. 1/12. This is a fun and exciting activity that students and families have enjoyed working on together. It's a great way to include grandparents and other family members into the planning!

*Science: We will begin ch. 11: Matter.

*Math: We will continue to work on ch. 6, focusing on multiplication facts for 3, 4, and the distributive property. We will also work on 5's facts (new pass by date: Wed. 1/14) and also 10's facts.  Thank you for continuing to practice facts at home!

Stay warm this weekend!
Mrs. Olsen