Upcoming Field Trip:

We will take a short field trip to the Lane County History Museum on April 25th as a follow up to our study of pioneers and the Oregon Trail.  We have enough volunteers going at this time.  Our time out of the building will be: Blue class 9:40-11:30 Red Class 12:15-2:00.

Homework:

Mme Shelli’s Class:  There is nightly math practice this week. 

Mme Jana’s Class:  There is no French homework this week.

Important Dates: 

Thursday, April 18    Drawing for Canoe Island chaperone at 6 pm.

Thursday, April 25 Field trip to Lane County History Museum Blue class 9:40-11:30 Red Class 12:15-2:00

Friday, May 3   NO SCHOOL – Transition Day 

May 6-19 State Testing in English & Math in Mme Shelli’s room.

May 15 – Trip to Salem to state capitol building

Monday, May 27    NO SCHOOL – Memorial Day 

Mme Jana’s News  (kincaid_j@4j.lane.edu) 

FLA (French Language Arts): We did not work on “J’observe” or on any new dictées this week. We spent a fair amount of time letting most kids catch up on overdue assignments. We’re nearly caught up now, and will work on writing this week. We did have two days of reading groups and two days of science experiments. I am pleased to see the kids are developing some good strategies for understanding French spelling. Most students did particularly well on this past week’s vocabulary spelling quiz, and it had a number of difficult words

Les sciences:  We completed our run at the soils, rocks, and landforms kit. The kids were able to see how normal rain affects erosion and deposition of landforms. Then on Thursday, we modeled flood conditions, so the kids were able to see what a momentous impact it can have on our physical environment. We also discussed what was happening in Alton Baker Park and in the Dorena Lake area. We’ll begin our final unit, L’environnement (Environments) the week after next. I still have to order critters!

Les sciences humaines (Social studies): I hope to begin the francophone countries project this week. We’ll have a slow start as we explore which countries in the world speak French. Then we will draw sticks, and each student will draw a country arbitrarily from a hat. Next, we’ll work together on researching those countries. Oncc I have finalized all the research materials for the project, I will post copies of them on the blog. This is a project we will do at school, and we’ll use the research to make dodecahedrons. The kids really love this project and get to present their work to the class and may well choose to hang the dodecahedrons in their rooms. ( I love that!) I will make a schedule so you can come and see your child give his/her presentation if you are available.

Mme Shelli’s News (hopper_s@4j.lane.edu)

English Language Arts:

This week, students will continuing to read a novel that focuses on the time period of Westward Expansion.  Each day, either Kacie or I are leading literature discussions and checking in with individuals to help them successfully finish their novel.  In the end, students will be writing a novel review.

Students are writing historical fiction journals based on a fictional journey to Oregon in 1847.  Each day, students are getting a bit of historical background before making decisions about what will happen to the characters they are developing.  If you haven’t already heard about it, be sure to ask your child what is happening in their story!

Math:  For three weeks, students will be studying geometry.  Students will be classifying angles and polygons.  They will be measuring angles with protractors and solving real world problems such as this one about a ferris wheel or this one about game spinners.

Welcome back to our student teacher, Kacie Kennett.  She will be with us full time through the first week of June.  She will continue to help lead small group novel studies this week.  She will also be leading our next math units: Angles and Geometry. I will still be there to support and guide as needed.  This class is a great group and I’m sure they’ll be very welcoming to her.