Mrs. Olsen's 4th Grade Blog

Welcome back to the 2019-2020 school year!

This will be a weekly reminder of what is coming up in the following week.  I will send it out as an email to the parents on Fridays.

General reminders:

1.  Binders should come back and forth to school everyday with your child.  Please check their binders for homework.

2. Make sure chromebooks are charged before coming to school everyday.

3.  Please do not hesitate to email me with any questions or concerns you have with your child. jolsen@ccsd66.org

This is what we will be working on the for the week of January 6-10, 2020!

Spelling:

The week we get back from the holiday break we will be starting in reading and spelling a unit on mythology.  So, our spelling words will go along with this.  We will work on the words for the first 2 weeks back.  So, our test on those words will be on Friday, January 17.

English/Reading::

We will be starting our unit on mythology.  I did a quick introduction on Thursday this past week about mythology.  We will be learning all about the Greek myths and doing a project as well.  The students will really enjoy it!

Social Studies/Science:

The students presented their Southeast scrapbook this week.  They did a great job.  We will finish off the Southeast with learning about the Cherokee Native American Tribe.  In science, we will start chapter 3 to continue with our unit on energy conversions!

SEL:

This week we will continue to learn more about emotion management.  

Mrs. Olsen's Math Class:

  We will be starting unit 4 on place value and the standard algorithm of addition.

Important Info:

No school from December 21- January 5. for the winter holiday break.  Enjoy the time with your family and enjoy some relaxation as well!

Classes will resume January 6.

Thanks to the parents who donated tissue boxes already!  I appreciate it! :)

** We are down to our final tissue boxes for the year! If anyone would like to donate a box or two it would be greatly appreciated!  These 4 boxes won't last till June!! I have a ton of plastic bags- I will send your child home with plastic bags in place of the tissue boxes contribution! :)

Have a great winter break!

Mrs. Olsen's 4th Grade Blog

Welcome back to the 2019-2020 school year!

This will be a weekly reminder of what is coming up in the following week.  I will send it out as an email to the parents on Fridays.

General reminders:

1.  Binders should come back and forth to school everyday with your child.  Please check their binders for homework.

2. Make sure chromebooks are charged before coming to school everyday.

3.  Please do not hesitate to email me with any questions or concerns you have with your child. jolsen@ccsd66.org

This is what we will be working on the for the week of December 16-20!

Spelling:

This is the second week of no spelling- we have been playing hangman to make up for practicing spelling! :)

English/Reading::

We are finishing up Lou Gehrig next week.  We have done some great extended response practice this week using the RACE strategy.  We will be using that strategy throughout the year and adding onto it as well.  We will touch on mythology next week before the holiday break.  When we get back in January we will start our unit on mythology. This will be fun for the students!

Social Studies/Science:

We have finished up Chapter 6 in Social Studies.  We are starting today a scrapbook for the Southeast.  This will be done with a partner and on their chromebook.  This will be a fun culminating project for them to wrap up chapter 6 on the Southeast region.  In science, we wrote our own design arguments to see how well we could do on our own supporting our claim and giving good science vocabulary to support it.

SEL:

This week we learned about emotion management.  This will continue when we get back from holiday break on controlling emotions and learning how to control our emotions.  

Mrs. Olsen's Math Class:

  We have finished up unit 3 today.  We will have our unit 3 test on Wednesday, December 18.  Next week we will spend Monday and Tuesday reviewing for the test.  They will be working on and finishing for homework their study guide on Monday, so look for that on Monday evening. Then, Tuesday we will go over the answers and practice anything that needs it so we are ready for the test on Wednesday.

Important Info:

We had a great time at the Tivoli to watch The Polar Express!

Wednesday, December 18 is our bowling field trip with Mrs. Cushing!  Should be fun!

** We are down to our final tissue boxes for the year! If anyone would like to donate a box or two it would be greatly appreciated!  These 4 boxes won't last till June!! I have a ton of plastic bags- I will send your child home with plastic bags in place of the tissue boxes contribution! :)

Have a great weekend!

Mrs. Olsen's 4th Grade Blog

Welcome back to the 2019-2020 school year!

This will be a weekly reminder of what is coming up in the following week.  I will send it out as an email to the parents on Fridays.

General reminders:

1.  Binders should come back and forth to school everyday with your child.  Please check their binders for homework.

2. Make sure chromebooks are charged before coming to school everyday.

3.  Please do not hesitate to email me with any questions or concerns you have with your child. jolsen@ccsd66.org

This is what we will be working on the for the weeks of December 9-13!

Spelling:

We will be taking 2 weeks off from spelling.  We have 2 weeks that have field trips, a SIP day and we are ahead of the other 4th grade teachers spelling lists.  So, I am giving the students a spelling break! I am sure they will be happy about that, as well as, parents!  We will start up when we get back in January from holiday break.  

English/Reading::

We finished up our work on Martin Luther King last week and have started learning about Lou Gehrig.  We will continue with this next week.  He was a very courageous and humble man.  We will be practicing more extended response questions using the RACE strategy too.

Social Studies/Science:

We have finished up Chapter 6 in Social Studies.  I will give the students a study guide today to take home to study from.  The test will be on Wednesday, December 11.  Along with the study guide is a vocab sheet we have been filling out, you can use this to help with the study guide.  If the students know the information on the study guide they will do fine on the test.  In science, we have written a design argument together to send to the Mayor of Ergstown.  We will continue practicing different ways and ideas to come up with solving the blackout issues in Ergstown.

SEL:

This week we learned about showing compassion.  We practiced different scenarios and what we would do or how we would show compassion in these scenarios.  Next week, we will be learning about emotion management.

Mrs. Olsen's Math Class:

  We have learned about decimals this week. They are doing a great job understanding them.  We have practiced how to make a fraction into a decimal and vice versa when in the tenths or hundredths place.  I sent home a practice sheet for the checkpoint we will have on Monday, December 9.  I also sent home a study guide.  Please make sure you look at both those yellow sheets to help you with preparing for the checkpoint on Monday.

Important Info:

Tuesday, December 10 is an early dismissal day- we will end at 11:00- no lunch that day.

Thursday, December 12 is our school wide field trip to the Tivoli Theater to see The Polar Express!  Looking forward to it!

Have a great weekend!  

Mrs. Olsen's 4th Grade Blog

Welcome back to the 2019-2020 school year!

This will be a weekly reminder of what is coming up in the following week.  I will send it out as an email to the parents on Fridays.

General reminders:

1.  Binders should come back and forth to school everyday with your child.  Please check their binders for homework.

2. Make sure chromebooks are charged before coming to school everyday.

3.  Please do not hesitate to email me with any questions or concerns you have with your child. jolsen@ccsd66.org

This is what we will be working on the for the weeks of November 25- December 6!

Spelling:

Next week, we will not have a spelling list because of the short week.  However, the following week when we get back from the Thanksgiving holiday we will have a list on homographs.  These are words that are spelled the same and sound the same but have multiple meanings. The test will be Friday, December 6.

English/Reading::

We are finishing up our work with the book Happy Birthday, Dr. Martin Luther King.  We will start a story after this about Lou Gehrig and how he showed courage.  We will do many activities to dig in deep like we did with the Martin Luther King story

Social Studies/Science:

We are learning all about the Southeast in Social Studies.  We will finish up chapter 6 the first week in December.  In science we have been learning how energy is converted into different forms.  We are working hard as systems engineers to try to figure out why Ergstown is having so many blackouts.  We have been given solutions and criteria to follow to come up with an argument for what solution we think is best for the city.  We will continue with this when we get back in December.  

SEL:

This week we learned about joining into groups or conversations; what is the correct way to try to join in to something.  We had some good practice at it too.  Our next lesson is on showing compassion.

Mrs. Olsen's Math Class:

  We are continuing to work hard at fractions.  The students will be bringing home their checkpoints they took this week.  They did well on them.  Please sign and send back with your child.  We will continue with fractions and introduce decimals the next couple weeks in unit 3.

Important Info:

The 1st trimester ends today.  Report cards will be available next Tuesday, November 26.

Next week is a short week due to the Thanksgiving holiday.  No school Wednesday, November 27-29.

Have a safe and restful holiday with your family!  

See you in December!!

Have a great weekend!  

Mrs. Olsen's 4th Grade Blog

Welcome back to the 2019-2020 school year!

This will be a weekly reminder of what is coming up in the following week.  I will send it out as an email to the parents on Fridays.

General reminders:

1.  Binders should come back and forth to school everyday with your child.  Please check their binders for homework.

2. Make sure chromebooks are charged before coming to school everyday.

3.  Please do not hesitate to email me with any questions or concerns you have with your child. jolsen@ccsd66.org

This is what we will be working on the for the week of November 18-22!

Spelling:

Next week, we will be working on homophones- words that sound alike but have different spellings and meanings. The test will be Friday, November 22.

English:

We have been practicing the RACE format for extended response questions this past week.  We will continue with more of that practice next week.

Reading:

 We practiced some cause and effect strategies this week and also worked on vocabulary that goes along with Happy Birthday, Dr. Martin Luther King.  Next week we will dive into discussing and understanding Dr. Martin Luther King's I Have a Dream speech.

Social Studies/Science:

We took our Southeast region quiz today in Social Studies.  We read this week on the Northeast region's land formations and will continue next week learning more about the weather in the Northeast region.  

SEL:

This week we learned about conversations and compliments.  These are not always easy for students to give or take so we had great discussions with this topic.  Next week, we will be learning about how to join into groups or partners in a classroom or playground.

Mrs. Olsen's Math Class:

  This week we started fractions in unit 3.  It was a little bit of a rocky start but hopefully the students will use their bag of fraction pieces to help them understand fractions better.  These should be kept in their math folders to use at home and in class.  Next week, we will have a checkpoint on Tuesday.  It is only a couple problems and I will send home a study guide on Monday to help them prepare for the quiz or checkpoint.  It will be on equivalent fractions- finding and labeling equivalent fractions.

Important Info:

Next week we have the Roller Skating outing on Thursday, November 21.  Please send in permission slip and money if you are interested.

Please remember to check in on your child's gratitude calendar.  We have been filling it out daily, but you can check in too to see where they are at. :)

Have a great weekend!  

Mrs. Olsen's 4th Grade Blog

Welcome back to the 2019-2020 school year!

This will be a weekly reminder of what is coming up in the following week.  I will send it out as an email to the parents on Fridays.

General reminders:

1.  Binders should come back and forth to school everyday with your child.  Please check their binders for homework.

2. Make sure chromebooks are charged before coming to school everyday.

3.  Please do not hesitate to email me with any questions or concerns you have with your child. jolsen@ccsd66.org

This is what we will be working on the for the week of November 11-15!

Spelling:

Next week, we will be working on vowel letters ei and ie.  Generally, i is before e, except after c or when sounded like a as in neighbor and weigh.  The test will be Friday, November 15.

English:

We have done some journal writing this week in place of SEL lessons.  They have been fun to listen to and share!

Reading:

 We have been practicing answering text dependent questions and diving deeper into the story we read Happy Birthday, Dr. Martin Luther King. We will be working on cause and effect next week as well as continuing with the text dependent question answers.

Social Studies/Science:

We were introduced to the Southeast region today in Social Studies.  The students have homework on the Southeast map that is due on Tuesday, November 12 and their quiz on the states in the Southeast will be on Friday, November 15.  Some students will need to finish their Northeast map over the weekend as well.  I wanted to hang up their bones we did in class last week for science but the windows in the class have screens, so I couldn't hang them up!  Hopefully they could enjoy them at home. :)  We started learning about converters in science this week too, will continue with that next week.

SEL:

This week we did some fun journal entries to fill in for the SEL time.  Next week, we will be learning about how to handle conversations and compliments.

Mrs. Olsen's Math Class:

  Today we took the Unit 2 test.  I will have those back to the students on Monday.  Hopefully the extra day was helpful to the students to prepare them for the test.  I had a lot of students come in for extra help during recess. :)  Unit 3 we will start next week on fractions.

Important Info:

Next week we have our Veteran's Day assembly on Monday.  Fourth grade is asked to wear white on Monday, November 11.

Thank you to all the Veterans out there!

Have a great weekend!  

Mrs. Olsen's 4th Grade Blog

Welcome back to the 2019-2020 school year!

This will be a weekly reminder of what is coming up in the following week.  I will send it out as an email to the parents on Fridays.

General reminders:

1.  Binders should come back and forth to school everyday with your child.  Please check their binders for homework.

2. Make sure chromebooks are charged before coming to school everyday.

3.  Please do not hesitate to email me with any questions or concerns you have with your child. jolsen@ccsd66.org

This is what we will be working on the for the week of November 5-8!

Spelling:

Next week we will be working on the suffixes -ment, -tion, and -ly.  It can change the meaning or part of speech of the word.  The test will be Friday, November 8.

English:

We had fun writing a description of our Halloween costume for everyone to guess.  These will be added to our portfolios.

Reading:

  Next week we be practicing more on answering text dependent questions and diving deeper into the story we read Happy Birthday, Dr. Martin Luther King. We will be practicing summarizing as well.

Social Studies/Science:

We started our United States map this week and will finish it up next week on the Northeast region.  This map will be filled out throughout the year and then brought home at the end of the year once we have finished studying all the regions in the U.S.  We will also start the Southeast region next week.  Quiz on that will not be until the following week.  I will let you know next week when that will be. 

We did a fun bones activity today in science for Halloween!  Next week we will start chapter 2 in science on energy converters.

SEL:

This week we learned how to understand different perspectives in classmates, friends, and family members. Next week, we will be reviewing the lessons we have learned so far in the year.

Mrs. Olsen's Math Class:

  We will finish up unit 2 on Tuesday next week.  The plan is to have the review and study guide on Wednesday and the unit 2 test on Thursday, November 7.  Please watch for the study guide to come home with red marks- those are the things to practice for the test.  The study guide and test are very similar!

Important Info:

Next week is a short week also, no school on Monday, November 4 for a teacher institute.

Have a great Halloween and stay warm!!

Thanks to all who made it out to parent conferences this week!

Have a great weekend!