Charlemagne 4th Grade

 le 10 au 13 octobre 2022

Upcoming Dates:

• Friday, October 14:  NO SCHOOL (Professional Development)
• October 25 9:00-12:00 Field Trip to Alton Baker Park
• Monday, October 31 – Halloween parade (time TBA)
• Wednesday and Thursday, November 8-9:  Parent/Teacher conferences
• Friday, November 10:  NO SCHOOL (Veterans Day)
• Thursday and Friday, November 24-25:  NO SCHOOL (Thanksgiving)

Field Trip

On October 25, both classes will go on a half day field trip to Alton Baker Park. We will go on a short hike called “Kalapuya Quest” led Nearby Nature. As part of our study of Oregon history, students will discover how Kalapuya, the Willamette Valley’s first people, historically used native plants and animals for shelter, food, and clothing. They will also learn about Kalapuya transportation, traditions, language, games, and stories.

Field trip permission slips will go home on Tuesday this week. The cost of the field trip will be $10. Scholarships are available and can be requested on the paperwork going home this week. If you are interested in chaperoning, please email Mme Shelli know. Also, please be sure to fill out the background checks with Bernadette in the office as soon as possible.

What’s up! Quoi de neuf?

Please make sure to send your child to school in proper footwear and a water-repellent jacket when the weather is threatening. Students will go out to recess unless the principal decides that the weather or air quality prevents it. If your child is ill, or has had a fever or vomited within the previous 24 hours, please keep her/him home. Please continue to follow current Covid rules as well. If your child will be absent, please email both teachers (kincaid_j@4j.lane.edu and hopper_s@4j.lane.edu) and Bernadette (conover_b@4j.lane.edu) or please call in and leave a message on the school line (541) 790-7080.

Le français:

•We do our best to express ourselves in French.

•We continue to learn how to use a translating dictionary.

•We have a positive attitude and growth mindset.

This past week, your children and I met to work on our classroom code, which is about how we want the classroom to feel. I made a poster of our agreements, and we all signed it, so I expect them to do what they agreed to…

We continued our cursive writing instruction practicing words with letters that can be difficult to attach to the next letter. We have five more lowercase (minuscule) letters, then we’ll begin uppercase (majuscule) letters, and we’ll work on writing our signatures.

No French homework this week. 

Last week, we conjugated the verb être (to be), which most students seem to remember. Next week, we’ll conjugate faire (to make or do), then aller (to go). After that, we usually do verbs ending in -er (90% of verbs), then pouvoir (to be able), and vouloir (to want). 

We completed our first “J’observe” writing activity, writing four sentences together to describe the photo to the left, and will do our second one this week, this time with a bit less help from me but still with sentence starters.

We also began Tap’Touche, our French typing program, which we’ll normally do twice a week for about 20 minutes each time.

We also had buddies this week, and both classes enjoyed it very much. We’ll usually do buddies one week and library the next, but on Friday everyone got library and buddies.

We still aren’t yet ready to begin reading and FLA groups. We have a few things to finish up before we add yet another new activity.

Students have been working also on the “Moi!” project which is all about them… in French. Most students are completing their art, and many are in the midst of writing their paragraphs in cursive. Some students have completed the project already, and we’ll begin hanging them in the stairwell that leads down to our level.

Les sciences:  

We completed our first science experiment in the Soils, Rocks, and Landforms (La terre, les pierres, et les formes du relief) unit last week, learning about the components of soil. Soil is composed of humous (l’humus), pebbles (les cailloux), gravel (le gravier), clay (l’argile), and silt (le limon). We touched and described four different soils, then added water to our soil samples, and shook up the vials. Now they’re settling, and we’ll observe and draw the layers of soil next week. We’ll also determine where we think the soil samples came from, the forest (la forêt), a river delta (le delta d’une rivière), the desert (le désert), or the mountains (la montagne), based on their components. Our next experiment will be an introduction to physical weathering.

Our first math homework will come home this week. Students will have about 10 minutes of homework each night that is comprised of material that should be review. Please be sure your child does their best, but if anything is too difficult, please have them leave it blank and come to class the next day for help from me as we start our day. Homework should come back and forth between home and school each day. This should not require any extra teaching from parents or tutors and should definitely be low stress, no tears homework.

We wrapped up the unit “Applying Place Value Concepts in Whole Number Addition and Subtraction” last week. Look for an exit ticket & the booklet to come home this week. Also by the end of the week, students should bring home the unit 1 assessment. Please note that the Unit 1 workbook was not fully completed as the booklets came just this week from the printer. We’ve been doing other activities to support understanding of the standards while waiting for the book. 

This week, we will do a short review of multiplication, factors and multiples. Please help your child practice the facts of x 1 through x12 at home. We quickly move into multi-digit multiplication and students who have most fact memorized will be able to more quickly multiply larger numbers.

English:

 

In our ELA Module 1 A Great Heart, we continue a two week study of the literal heart. We will read the wonderfully complex text, Circulatory Story. Some of the goals of this week’s work will be determine the main idea and details, summarize, and determine meaning of metaphors and similes in the text.   Last week, students practiced writing organized summaries and informational paragraphs about what they have been reading. You can find out details about our first unit “A Great Heart” on this Parent Tip Sheet .You can learn more about the 4th grade curriculum here.

OBOB Volunteers Needed

Principal Joe signed up Charlemagne for OBOB with Mme Ginger being the contact person for informational emails and content. We are looking to have teams in grades 3-5 as an after school club run by parent volunteers. 

We would like co-leaders (one parent from each grade level) and support volunteers for each grade as well. This would allow for a rotation of support so as to not have too much on the shoulders of one person. It would also allow for “expert” volunteers in subsequent years to get the teams up and running quickly and effectively. Since this would be held on campus, we would have to ensure that all volunteers are on the approved list through 4J. Please reach out to Mme Ginger (topize_g@4j.lane.edu) or Principal Joe (hadley_j@4j.lane.edu) if interested.

Outside of school opportunities:

Share