Upcoming Dates
- Wednesday, September 20 – Curriculum Night (6:00-7:00) Visit your child’s classrooms and hear from both teachers.
- Wednesday, September 27 – School picture day!
Please ensure that you email BOTH TEACHERS when you communicate with us.
Your child will begin with his/her homeroom teacher again during the first full week of school.
Le français:
Mme Jana, French & Science kincaid_j@4j.lane.edu
First, thank you for sending your kids to school ready to learn! Thank you also for completing the parent survey. I will read them this weekend. I think we had a great short first week. We mostly went over school and classroom routines those two days. We also did a getting-to-know-one-another activity. I had them read the room, which just means they walk around the room and read everything up on the walls. It helps them familiarize themselves with resources in the room. We also prepped our French and science journals with tables of contents and numbered the first 20 pages. They also wrote all the months in order in English and in French, to the best of their ability, so we know what to work on. Every student chose a French book to keep at his/her desk. Everyone also wrote his/her/their signature on Friday, which we will redo five more times this year to monitor progress.
This coming week, we will begin correcting what I call the “horrible sentences.” I create a sentence with errors, and the students do their best to correct on their own or with a partner, then we go over the corrections together. This has multiple grammar lessons in it, and the students learn how to use editing marks. Also, the students will do a little alphabetizing exercise for me to see what work we need to do there. We will begin our cursive writing instruction this week with the letters c, a, d, and g. We’ll go through all lowercase (minuscule) letters, then progress and work through all uppercase (majuscule) letters. We will also begin a logic packet called “Problèmes de logique,” this week, which many students enjoy. It’s a French logic packet that they can work on when they have finished class work. French assessments, which include writing, speaking, comprehension, reading, and listening will happen during the next three weeks. None of the assessments are very long, and I don’t put them all on the same day. I’ll also introduce the kids to Sudoku this week. Upcoming weeks will introduce the games Hidato and Ken-Ken. These are logic and number games, so practicing them in French is very doable.
In the next week or so, we will begin our French typing program called “Tap’Touche” which teaches students how to type with accents.
We will begin our first art project this week which involves concentration and fine motor control. It takes a few weeks, but you’ll be seeing those lovely projects soon as we hang them up on our walls. This coming week, we’ll begin a “Moi!” project which is all about them… in French.
Les sciences:
We will begin our first science unit, Soils, Rocks, and Landforms (La terre, les pierres, et les formes du relief) in early October.
Mme Shelli hopper_s@4j.lane.edu English & Math teacher
Math
Key Concepts:
- We can be responsible with math materials.
- We can play, win, and lose games respectfully.
- We can add and subtract numbers through the millions.
- We can participate in mathematical discussions, listening to and adding on to others’ ideas.
We start the year with games and activities to activate mathematical thinking and discourse. Last week, we began “math talks,” short math discussions, using the Which One Doesn’t Belong? puzzler. This week, students will view a few more puzzles and make a WODB puzzler of their own.
We also learned a game called SKUNK, which is a great game to play at home, too. It can be played with addition or multiplication. This month, we will focus on addition and subtraction with regrouping (borrowing/ carrying) through the millions. Consider playing games at home that encourage fluency with basic facts- adding and subtracting numbers 0-20. Games like SKUNK or ADDITION WAR are fun ways to practice at home.
English
Our English Curriculum is called Wit and Wisdom.
This week, we are jumping into our English Language arts with Unit 0 which introduces some of the routines for reading and writing. We started by reading the text Nasreen’s Secret School. As a class, we wrote a summary of the text to include the conflict, major events, and resolution. This week, we will examine how the main character changes in the text and determine the text’s essential meaning. To build our knowledge more about the setting of the text, we will also read Malala’s Magic Pencil and The Proudest Blue.
Later the week, we’ll start Module 1: A Great Heart. Here’s some information about the modules for the year here.
Meet our 4th Grade English Student Teacher
Hello, I’m Madame Hannah! I’m excited to be student teaching with Madame Shelli and your fabulous 4th graders this year. This means I will be observing, co-teaching, and taking over various responsibilities within the classroom as part of my educator preparation program. I’m studying for my Master’s in Education at the U of O and have been working with kids for over a decade. I call Kodiak, Alaska & the Hudson Valley in New York home. I love both the Pacific Ocean and exploring cities.
Write a Comment
You must be logged in to post a comment.