le 25 au 29 septembre 2023

Upcoming Dates

  • Wednesday, September 27 – School picture day!
  • Friday, October 13 – NO SCHOOL, Professional Development

Thank you so much to all the parents who came to curriculum Night! Here is our presentation from that evening in case you missed it.

What’s up! Quoi de neuf?

We are heading into inclement fall weather, so please send your child to school in proper footwear and a water-repellent jacket with a hood or a hat when the weather is rainy. Students will go out to recess unless the weather prevents it.

If your child is ill or has had a fever or vomited within the previous 24 hours, please keep your child home. You can view updated illness & Covid rules here. If your child will be absent, please email both teachers (kincaid_j@4j.lane.edu and hopper_s@4j.lane.edu) and please call in and leave a message on the school attendance line (541) 790-7080 or email Eliza at drummond_e@4j.lane.edu.

Please ensure that you email BOTH TEACHERS when you communicate with us.

Le français:

Mme Jana kincaid_j@4j.lane.edu French & science teacher

We are in the swing of correcting two horrible sentences on all full days, and alphabetizing on our short day. We continued our cursive writing instruction this week with a review of the letters c, a, d, g, h, p, and f. I modeled the new letters u, y, i, j, k, r and s. We’re going pretty quickly through the lowercase (minuscule) letters, so in October, we’ll begin to work through all uppercase (majuscule) letters. French assessments, which include writing, speaking, comprehension, reading, and listening will happen during the next two weeks. None of the assessments are very long, and I don’t put them all on the same day. I  introduced the kids to another number game this past week, Hidato. Next week, I will introduce Ken-Ken. These are logic and number games, so practicing them in French is very doable. We are continuing with our first art project, and we are making progress on the “Moi!” project which is all about them.

This past week, we began French assessments with a listening assessment. Next week, we’ll do oral reading fluency and comprehension. We conjugated the verb avoir (to have), and in upcoming weeks, we will conjugate the verbs être (to be), faire (to make or do), and aller (to go), then we’ll move on to verbs that end in -er, which is 90% of the verbs in French. We began our French typing program called “Tap’Touche” which teaches students how to type with accents. We also spent time learning about dictionaries, particularly translating dictionaries, and how to use them. We will continue to work on dictionary use, which includes learning about parts of speech. I’ve noticed that many children are not very solid with alphabetizing. We are doing it once a week, but if you can do some alphabetizing at home, that would be great. Put the cereal in alphabetical order or the names of all the family members in alphabetical order. We use dictionaries daily in my class, and not knowing alphabetical order is a limiting factor.

I hope we can begin buddies this coming week, but our buddies are first graders, and with two new teachers in first grade, they are still working on getting their programs in place and are not quite yet ready for buddies.

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

This week’s Key Concepts:

  • We can identify place value through the millions.
  • We can read and compare numbers through the millions using < > and =
  • We can multiply any number by 10, 100 or even 1000.
  • We can add numbers with regrouping (carrying)

In unit 1, Applying Place Value Concepts in Whole number Addition and Subtraction, we started by building concepts of place value in our base-10 number system. Students wrote forms of numbers (word form, expanded form, base-10 picture form), and we this week we will practice rounding skills.

We’ll start math rotations which include small group time with Mme Shelli, a game with our intern, Ludivine, and independent time in Dreambox. Dreambox is a computer adaptive math program that learns your child’s math needs and can provide activities at math concepts at levels K through 8th grade. This allows each student to be challenged at their level. Learn more about Dreambox here. You can have free Dreambox access for your child at home, too.

At home, consider playing games that build your child’s fluency in addition and subtraction of 0-20. This will be VERY helpful as we jump next into adding subtracting large numbers in the millions. This is often a big jump for students coming from 3rd to 4th grade. Games like SKUNK or ADDITION WAR are fun ways to practice at home.

 

 

English

In the Wit and Wisdom unit “A Great Heart,” students read short biographies of four famous young women: Clara Barton, Malala Yousafzai, Marley Dias, and Greta Thunberg.  They drafted an organized paragraph about why people may consider one of those women greathearted. These paragraphs will be edited, revised and made into a second draft to bring home this week.

Next, students will read The Circulatory Story by Mary K Corcoran to learn what a great (literal) heart does. This complex text includes high level vocabulary and concepts that will build students’ knowledge of the circulatory system. Students will hunt through the text to find and discuss examples of figurative language. They will examine how the author organizes the text in sections as they identify main ideas and details of each part of the book.

Learn more about our Wit and Wisdom Curriculum here: Module 1: A Great Heart.

 

An announcement from Mme ErinMarie: 

This coming week, September 28th (Thursday) and 29th (Friday) 2nd-5th grade students will be learning Pedestrian safety during Physical Education class. Students are welcome to bring their own labeled helmet and labeled, in good working order, scooter to P.E. on those days only. Blue class has P.E. on Thursday and red class is on Friday, please only have your child bring their scooter for their P.E. day. They will need to pick it up after school from the gym the same day. They can drop it off in the gym on their way into school in the morning. Only your child will ride their scooter. I have many scooters and helmets to loan if your child does not own a scooter or would prefer to borrow. If any parents are interested in volunteering to help during your child’s P.E. time please email Mme. ErinMarie langsdorf_e@4j.lane.edu for more details. This is in preparation for our Walk and Roll to school event on Wednesday, October 4th. Please see Mme. Poppy’s weekly email for more information.