Charlemagne 4th Grade

le 23 au 27 janvier 2023

Upcoming Dates

• Friday, February 3:  NO SCHOOL. Teachers prepare report cards
• Monday, February 20:  NO SCHOOL, Presidents Day

What’s up! Quoi de neuf?

Please 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 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. 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 please call in and leave a message on the school line (541) 790-7080.

Le français:

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

•We speak exclusively in French during French class.

•We write in complete sentences and can identify many parts of speech.

•We are learning world geography.

Jen Stafford subbed for me most of last week, so we have a little bit of catching up to do assessment-wise for the upcoming report cards in February. I’m sorry I had to miss so many days; Lisa and Jen kept things together for me.

In my absence, students continued studying world geography, including naming continents and oceans in French, identifying the cardinal directions, putting together a world puzzle, and learning new vocabulary. This coming week’s homework is all geography terms:  jan 2023 géographie vocab

We continue with our new art project where they chose half of a magazine image and draw in the rest of the picture. They are learning how to layer colors. We also continue to memorize body parts.

Les sciences: 

We finished up our study of Soils, Rocks, and Landforms, and we had an open-journal evaluation the week before last, but a number of students did not finish it, so between my absence and the students’ absences, we’ll hopefully finish up this week. We’ll have a “Bring in your rock collection day” this week so we can all look at each other’s rock collections. I will email you the night before. In February, we’ll begin our new science unit, Energy (l’Énergie).

Mme Shelli, English & Math
hopper_s@4j.lane.edu

Math

Unit 5: Understanding fraction equivalence and comparison

•We can compare fractions to a common benchmark.

•We can compare fractions by examining 

numerators and denominators.

•We can generate equivalent fractions.

 •We can find common denominators to compare.

Students will reason to order fractions this week. Here’s a game you can play at home.

We will focus on how to reason about fractions in several ways. For example, we can compare fractions to a benchmark such as 1/2. If we know 6/12 is a half, 7/12 must be more than 1/2. Next, when a numerator is the same (ex. 3/5 and 3/7), we can compare fractions because we know which fractional part is smaller (ex. 1/7 is less than 1/5 so 3/7 is less than 3/5).

This unit builds on students’ conceptual understanding of fractions to allow them to compare with reasoning. Students move beyond drawing models. Though mathematical procedure is important, they will hopefully build a deep understanding of fractions. Students will also analyze why multiplying a numerator and denominator by the same number will generate an equivalent fraction.

There is NO math review homework but please consider playing Fraction War with your child.

English 

Literature & Writing: Unit 2 Extreme Settings

Monday, students will revisit the familiar poem “Stopping by Woods on Snowy Evening” by Robert Frost. They will write “thought shots” to describe what the speaker in the poem is thinking and feeling. This exercise allows students to write using sensory details to add more details and depth to narrative writing. On Tuesday and Wednesday, students will choose a poem or short story we’ve recently read to write a 1-2 paragraph “exploded moment.” This is a part of a story when a character describes in detail the setting and their thoughts and feelings. Here are some examples of exploded moments.

Later in the week, we’ll begin the non-fiction text, Mountains by Seymour Simon. This scientific text will connect well to the Soils & Landforms unit students learning students did in French class.

Information about our new ELA unit can be found here.

After School CLUBS

Plays in French

Choir Club

Is your student interested in singing? This month, we have begun our 2nd annual Spring Choir dedicated solely to our 4th and 5th grade students. The choir will meet once a week after school on Wednesdays from approx. 3:05 – 3:50. Rehearsals will meet each Wednesday all through the spring, starting on January 18th, with the last rehearsal on May 17th, and the concert will happen on May 24. For more information, please email Mme Doyle (doyle_k@4j.lane.edu).

Share

le 17 au 20 janvier 2023

Upcoming Dates

• Monday, January 16:  NO SCHOOL. Celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. Day
• Wednesday, January 18:  Choir club starts after school. See Mme Doyle’s note below.
• Friday, February 3:  NO SCHOOL. Teachers prepare report cards

What’s up! Quoi de neuf?

Please 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 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. 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 please call in and leave a message on the school line (541) 790-7080.

Le français:

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

•We speak exclusively in French during French class.

•We write in complete sentences and can identify many parts of speech.

•We are learning world geography.

No homework this week! Also, I will be out on Tuesday and Wednesday taking care of another family member with health issues. I have Jen Stafford coming, and she is French, so we’ll have no gaps in language instruction.

Almost all students have finished the last “J’observe…” writing project, “Une tornade de poissons.”  We have begun the next “J’observe…”  photo, and since they’re pretty excited to work on it, some students have already finished it! It’s called “Quatre porcelets dans un chapeau melon,” and it is a good opportunity for students to use words other than “cute.” I gave them a list of alternative words to use, especially for words like big (grand/grande), small (petit/petite), and cute (mignon/mignonne), and it is taped into their journals. Also, they added a couple of sentences this time, including having to choose a piglet and explain why they would choose that one.

We’ve begun a world geography study, which is a precursor to a large Francophone country study we’ll be doing in the spring. Jen will work on that with the kids in my absence.

We continue with our new art project where they chose half of a magazine image and draw in the rest of the image. They are learning how to layer colors.

Les sciences: 

We finished up our study of Soils, Rocks, and Landforms, and we had an open-journal quiz last week. We’ll be having a “Bring in your rock collection day” next Thursday so we can all look at each other’s rock collections. We’ll begin our new science unit, Energy (l’Énergie) in February.

Mme Shelli, English & Math
hopper_s@4j.lane.edu

Math

Unit 5: Understanding fraction equivalence and comparison

•We can model to compare fractions.

•We can compare fractions to a common benchmark.

•We can compare fractions by examining their   

numerators and denominators.

•We can generate equivalent fractions.

 •We can find common denominators to compare.

Students will solve problems by comparing fractions with different denominators.  Students will try drawing models to compare, but we will quickly see that it is hard to see the difference between close fractions (ex. 7/12 and 1/2). Then, we will look at how we can reason about fractions in several ways. For example, we can compare fractions to a benchmark such as 1/2. If we know 6/12 is a half, 7/12 must be more than 1/2. Next, we will observe that when a numerator is the same (ex. 3/5 and 3/7) we can compare fractions because we know which fractional part is smaller (ex. 1/7 is less than 1/5 so 3/7 is less than 3/5).

This unit builds on students’ conceptual understanding of fractions to allow them to compare with reasoning. Students move beyond drawing models. Though mathematical procedure is important, they will hopefully build some deep understanding of fractions. Students will also analyze why multiplying a numerator and denominator by the same number will generate an equivalent fraction.

There are 3 nights of math review homework this week homework this week.

English 

Literature & Writing: Unit 2 Extreme Settings

We finished reading “All Summer in A Day” by Ray Bradbury and compared it to a short film of the same title. Students determined a theme of the text and supported it with textual evidence.

 Integrated in the curriculum are opportunities to write. Last week, students wrote descriptively using sensory details. This week, as we analyze a poem called “Dust of Snow” by Robert Frost,  students will create “storyboards” to organize the plot in a narrative poem.

Information about our new ELA unit can be found here.

After School CLUBS- New opportunities!

Plays in French

Choir Club

Is your student interested in singing? This month, we will be starting up our 2nd annual Spring Choir dedicated solely to our 4th and 5th grade students. The choir will meet once a week after school on Wednesdays from approx. 3:05 – 3:50. Rehearsals will meet each Wednesday all through the spring, starting on January 18th, with the last rehearsal on May 17th, and the concert will happen on May 24th. Talk with your student to gauge their interest in joining the choir and be on the lookout for more information and a signup form from Mme Doyle (doyle_k@4j.lane.edu) soon.

Share

le 9 au 13 janvier 2023

Upcoming Dates

• Monday, January 16:  NO SCHOOL. Celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. Day
• Wednesday, January 18:  Choir club starts after school. See Mme Doyle’s note below.
• Friday, February 3:  NO SCHOOL. Teachers prepare report cards

What’s up! Quoi de neuf?

Please 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 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. 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:

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

•We speak exclusively in French during French class.

•We write in complete sentences and can identify many parts of speech.

•We are memorizing the parts of the body.

This week’s French vocabulary is body parts. We have been working on them since December, and they’re starting to stick, so I hope the vocab this week will be fairly easy for them. Here is a copy:  jan 2023 parties du corps vocab

Many students have finished the most recent “J’observe…” writing project, “Une tornade de poissons.”  I showed the students the next “J’observe…”  photo, and they’re pretty excited to work on it. It’s called “Quatre porcelets dans un chapeau melon,” and it will be a good opportunity for them to use words other than “cute.” I gave them a list of alternative words to use, especially for words like big (grand/grande), small (petit/petite), and cute (mignon/mignonne), and it is taped into their journals.

We’ll begin a new geography study next week. On Friday, we began a new art project where they chose half of a magazine image and draw in the rest of the image. They will likely come home at the end of February.

Les sciences: 

We’re still working to finish up our knowledge about Soils, Rocks, and Landforms, and we’ll be having an open-journal quiz next week. We’ll begin our new science unit, Energy (l’Énergie) in February.

Mme Shelli, English & Math
hopper_s@4j.lane.edu

Math

We will wrap our unit on modeling addition and subtraction of fractions on Monday. Tuesday there will be a quiz on the unit and we will do our mid-year EasyCBM assessments in math.

Wednesday we will begin Unit 5: Understanding fraction equivalence and comparison

Key components of this unit are:

• We can compare fractions with visual models. However, hand-drawn visual models are not always accurate.
• We can compare fractions to a common benchmark. (For example, I know 1/3 is less than 1/2 and 5/8 is more than 1/2 so 1/3 < 5/8.)
• We can compare fractions by examining their numerators and denominators.
• We can generate equivalent fractions.
• We can find common denominators to compare fractions.

There is NO math homework this week.

English

Wordstudy:  This week we will analyze words with long // spellings. 

Literature & Writing: Unit 2 Extreme Settings

Last week, we read “All Summer in A Day” by Ray Bradbury. Students compared the setting in science fiction text to a non-fiction informational video. They examined the plot to determine the central conflict in the story was. This week, we look more closely at the text to look at the author’s use of descriptive and figurative language to paint a clear picture of the setting, characters, and plot. They will then write some short descriptive paragraphs with sensory details.

Information about our new ELA unit can be found here.

From Music Teacher

Is your student interested in singing? This month, we will be starting up our 2nd annual Spring Choir dedicated solely to our 4th and 5th grade students. The choir will meet once a week after school on Wednesdays from approx. 3:05 – 3:50. Rehearsals will meet each Wednesday all through the spring, starting on January 18th, with the last rehearsal on May 17th, and the concert will happen on May 24th. Talk with your student to gauge their interest in joining the choir and be on the lookout for more information and a signup form from Mme Doyle (doyle_k@4j.lane.edu) soon.

Share

le 4 au 6 janvier 2023

Upcoming Dates

• Wednesday, January 4:  First day back to school for students
• Monday, January 16:  NO SCHOOL. Celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. Day
• Wednesday, January 18:  Choir club starts after school. See Mme Doyle’s note below.
• Friday, February 3:  NO SCHOOL. Teachers prepare report cards

From Music Teacher

Is your student interested in singing? This month, we will be starting up our 2nd annual Spring Choir dedicated solely to our 4th and 5th grade students. The choir will meet once a week after school on Wednesdays from approx. 3:05 – 3:50. Rehearsals will meet each Wednesday all through the spring, starting on January 18th, with the last rehearsal on May 17th, and the concert will happen on May 24th. Talk with your student to gauge their interest in joining the choir and be on the lookout for more information and a signup form from Mme Doyle (doyle_k@4j.lane.edu) soon.

What’s up! Quoi de neuf?

Please 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 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. 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:

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

•We speak exclusively in French during French class.

•We write in complete sentences and can identify many parts of speech.

•We are learning the parts of the body.

No French vocabulary homework this week, but next week’s words are body parts. We began drawing a body and labeling all the body parts in December, so we’ll spend time in January integrating all that vocabulary.

We have completed formal cursive instruction, and we’ll be using it daily to continue to master challenging letters and links. We continue doing Tap’Touche French typing program once or twice a week. 

We are using this week to work primarily on writing in French and plan to continue to work on the most recent “J’observe…” writing project, “Une tornade de poissons.”

I finally remembered to ask our lovely intern, Lisa, to do a presentation about herself last week. During the presentation, it became apparent that most students don’t have much experience with the world map, so we’ll be working on geography in January also, leading up to our Francophone study unit in the spring.

Students should have brought their “Moi!” projects home the week before winter break.

Les sciences: 

We have nearly completed our science unit about Soils, Rocks, and Landforms, but will do a couple more finishing-up activities. We’ll begin our new unit, Energy (l’Énergie) in February.

Mme Shelli, English & Math
hopper_s@4j.lane.edu

Math

Unit 4: Decomposing & Composing Fractions for Addition and Subtraction

• We can decompose (breakdown) fractions in more than one way.
• We can use a number line or rectangle/ circle models to model addition and subtraction of fractions and mixed numbers.
  
• We can add and subtract fractions with like denominators.

Several students were absent the last few weeks of December, so we’ll spend a little time reviewing and wrapping up this unit over the next several days.  Students should be able to model and describe addition subtraction of fractions and mixed numbers with like-denominators by the end of this unit. Next, students will be modeling and solving problems where they will generate equivalent fractions.

English

Wordstudy:  This week we will analyze words with long /ē/ spellings. 

Literature & Writing: In our next unit called Extreme Settings, students will be reading science fiction, poetry, a non-fiction geology text, excerpts from a survival handbook, and an adventure novel. Students will look closely at authors’ development of character, setting and plot in fiction texts.

We begin by reading a short science fiction text called “Summer in A Day” by Ray Bradbury.  This classic science-fiction story takes place on the planet Venus Students will analyze the text to reveal how the setting impacts characters. Then, they will analyze the author’s use of sensory details (what can be seen, heard, smelled, felt, tasted) to create a vivid picture in the readers’ minds. Next week, students will write and revise a short descriptive paragraph to include sensory details and metaphors or similes. This will lead to a longer narrative writing assignment later in the unit.

Information about our new ELA unit can be found here.

Share

le 12 au 16 décembre 2022

Upcoming Dates

• December 19-January 3:  Winter break
• Wednesday, January 4:  First day back to school for students

Please remember to let both teachers and Bernadette know if your student will be missing any of the upcoming week. It very much helps us with our planning. Thank you to the parents who have already informed us.

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 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. 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:

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

•We speak exclusively in French during French class.

•We write in complete sentences and can identify many parts of speech.

•We use kind words and actions when interacting with others. 

French vocabulary homework this week concentrates on words that contain un accent grave (`). Most students did very well on their vocabulary quiz last week. In class, we continue to work to understand the difference between un accent aigu and un accent grave (`). Here is the homework:  vocab è nov 2022 l Vocab 

We’re working on learning body parts. We have drawn and labeled a body and will do other activities in class to learn body parts. This will continue into January.

We have completed formal cursive instruction, and we’ll be using it daily to continue to master challenging letters and links. We continue doing Tap’Touche French typing program once or twice a week. 

We are using this week to work primarily on writing in French and plan to complete the most recent “J’observe…” writing project, “Une tornade de poissons.”

We’re also working on bookmarks for our exchange with our first-grade buddies on the last day of school, December 16.

Most students have completed the “Moi!” project, and they will come home during Winter Break. Students who work more slowly or have gotten a bit behind for one reason or another may bring the project home in the coming weeks to catch up, but will complete the project at school.

Les sciences: 

We did our first experiment on how landforms are created and used trays & large amounts of soil & water to model how erosion (l’érosion) and deposition (le dépôt) occur. We are waiting for the soil to dry so that we can try the same experiment in a flooding situation. We’ll also begin working on a coloring and cloze project to help better understand how landforms are created.

Mme Shelli, English & Math
hopper_s@4j.lane.edu

Math

Unit 4: Decomposing & Composing Fractions for Addition and Subtraction

Here are some key concepts of the this new unit:

• We can decompose (breakdown) fractions in more than one way.
• We can label fractions on  a number line to model addition and subtraction
  
• We can add and subtract fractions with like denominators.
  

English

Wordstudy:  This week we will analyze words with long /ē/ spellings. 

Literature & Writing: To wrap up our first major English unit “The Great Heart,” students will review vocabulary through some games and activities, and then they will complete a final quiz. Last week, we finished the short novel Love that Dog by Sharon Creech. On Monday and Tuesday this week, students will compose a final informational paragraph identifying a major theme in the novel and citing evidence to support their reasoning. To wrap up our study of poetry, students will have some time to write and perform poetry as well.

Information about the Wit and Wisdom curriculum for 4th grade can be found here.

Share