le 9 au 13 mai 2022

Attention:  If you know that you will not be returning to Charlemagne

next year please send a note to Mme Bernadette conover_b@4j.lane.edu so

she can work to transition your student’s files to his next school.

Upcoming Dates

Monday-Thursday, May 9-12 – Oregon State Testing- English Language Arts (See below in English section for a description)

Monday-Wednesday, May 16-18 – Oregon State Testing- Math

Monday, May 30 – NO SCHOOL, Memorial Day

Language Arts Adoption Parent Survey

As you may know, our class has had an important role in the language arts adoption process where we are selecting a new reading and writing program for our school district. Your student is finishing the second of two 5-week language arts program trials. Parent input is an important part of our process and you may have also received a similar survey after the first program.  The district would love your feedback on this survey.

Visiting Artists

Cajun Fiddle:

We began working with our cajun fiddle artist-in-residence Kelly Thibodeaux last week. Fourth grade’s turns were on Tuesday and Thursday, and the kids really enjoyed it. He had fiddles (le violin) in all the kids’ hands within minutes of them getting into the room . He will return for our second session the week of May 31. Each class will have three sessions that week. Here is a link if you want to learn more about Kelly and his program:  http://lanearts.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/KellyThibodeauxArtOfFiddling.pdf

Here are some photos of whole groups and of the students who got to play Kelly’s 150-year-old fiddle as he accompanied them on guitar. All the kids will get an opportunity.

Visual Art:

This week, we will enjoy our second session with Artist in Residence, Jen Hernandez, on Thursday. In addition to creating art projects, students discuss how kindness feels to experience (both by being kind and receiving kindness) and expression of those feelings through body movement, words, and visual art. 

Le français:

Mme Jana, French & Science kincaid_j@4j.lane.edu

•We conjugate verbs in our writing and speaking.

•We are learning to use the Internet to locate specific information.

•We are reading passages in French to glean pertinent information.

•We are reading, writing, and speaking  French as we learn about countries where French is an official language. 

Last week, we worked on prepositions and partitives, working to master à, à la, au, aux, de la, du, de l’, and des. The new “J’observe…” photo was chosen, but with two fiddle classes per group, we didn’t get to start the new writing.

This week’s French homework includes words that contain an è (e accent grave). It makes an E sound like the word “bed.” I’ve been talking all year about distinguishing between é (e accent aigu) and è (e accent grave). Since we don’t make these precise sounds or use accents in English, it is really challenging for students to hear, identify, and/or reproduce the somewhat subtle distinction. Here is a copy:  vocab è mai 2022 l Vocab

We heard that our French penpals got our letters, and we hope to get return letters soon. To the left is a photo of them holding up the letters we sent them. They are very excited, as are our students.

Les sciences humaines (Social studies):

We continue to spend the preponderance of our time on our Francophone country projects. Some kids are assembling, or have already assembled, their dodecahedrons! Some have not yet completed their sixth face, i.e. are not yet halfway through. I let a few students take their projects home to complete some of the faces, but they were told not to sharpie anything until I have reviewed their writing. It’s a pretty big, multifaceted project. I think we will be able to begin presentations next week. Students must complete their research packet, become an expert in their country, write and draw on each of the twelve sides of the dodecahedron, assemble the dodecahedron, and do a presentation. This is the scoring ticket. The maximum is 4 out of 4, and 3 out of 4 meets standards.

Fractions: Unit 10: Solving problems with addition of mixed numbers and fractions.

Key Concepts:

• We can convert improper fractions into mixed numbers.
• We can model subtraction and addition of fractions on number lines and in area models.
 
This week’s math work involves several problem solving opportunities where students will practice being flexible with fractions. Students will convert between improper fractions and mixed numbers to add and subtract. We will weave in some games and some graphing review into the problem solving as well.
 
PLEASE help your child become FLUENT in multiplication facts up through 12 x12.  Games and daily practice can help. Look here for a list of ideas for practice at home.

Homework:

There is NO MATH homework this week.

English:

We will spend a good portion of this week’s English time practicing for and doing state testing in English Language Arts. There are two parts to the test. First, students take a computer adaptive test that has some short answer and multiple choice questions. Then, students will do a short performance task for 2-3 class periods in writing. Students will read a bit on a non-fiction topic and then will be given a writing task to write an informative or persuasive essay on the topic. You can find out more about these tests at this link.

This year, the state has said that the time required for testing will be less as they have shortened each of the tests. There is no time limit, so students may take their time to work on the assessment. Once all students are finished, we’ll move back into our normally scheduled English lessons.

 

Mme Lacey, our student teacher

Mme Lacey continues to take the lead in math this week while Mme Shelli will lead all of the work around state testing. Mme Lacey will jump back into our Mars unit once ELA testing is complete. Up next, Mme Lacey will lead students as they read a non-fiction book about the planet Mars and and Mars exploration.