Charlemagne 4th Grade

• Tuesday, April 1 – School resumes for students
• Friday, April 11 – No school – Professional Development for teachers
• Tuesday, May 20 – 3-5 Music Concert (See below for full information)

Classroom Needs

We asked each family to bring two full boxes of tissues at the beginning of the year, so if you already did that, feel free to ignore this request. However, we are getting low on tissues and would love some donations. Please don’t send tissues with lotion in them. Thanks to Callie’s dad and to Olivia Y’s family who already sent some in. Merci! Come on everyone else. 

Le français

Most students have completed our newest “J’observe..” writing prompt, “Les garçons et la moto.” The boys are in India, fresh from bathing at the canal in the village of Chachura in Utter Pradesh, precisely here. Many students though the boys were in Africa rather than Asia, but a few kids had it figured out. We will do a new “J’observe…” writing activity the first or second week back to school.

We have two art projects up in the hallway. Our “Tubes” project is in the stairwell that leads down to 4th & 5th grades. The other project is “Les cerisiers en fleur” or “Cherry blossoms” in a limited space, so Mme Wolf selected a few to display. They will all come home in the next few weeks.

Student goal:  I can express myself in writing, conjugating verbs, creating interesting sentences, and respecting the grammar rules I have already been taught.

Student goal:  I can find grammatical and punctuation errors in sentences in French.

Student goal:  I can form lowercase and uppercase letters correctly in cursive.

• Monday- Friday, March 17-21, 2025 – Spirit Week – Read Across Charlemagne! See the poster (below) to know what to wear to school each day if your child so chooses. 
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• Monday-Monday, March 24-March 31 – Spring Break
• Tuesday, April 1 – School resumes for students
• Friday, April 11 – No school – Professional Development for teachers
• Tuesday, May 20 – 3-5 Music Concert (See below for full information)

Classroom Needs

We asked each family to bring two full boxes of tissues at the beginning of the year, so if you already did that, feel free to ignore this request. However, we are getting low on tissues and would love some donations. Please don’t send tissues with lotion in them. Thanks to Todd Gonsalves who already sent some in. Merci!

Le français

Most students have completed our newest “J’observe..” writing prompt, “Les garçons et la moto.” The boys are in India, fresh from bathing at the canal in the village of Chachura in Utter Pradesh, precisely here. Many students though the boys were in Africa rather than Asia, but a few kids had it figured out. We will do a new “J’observe…” writing activity the first week back to school.

Student goal:  I can express myself in writing, conjugating verbs, creating interesting sentences, and respecting the grammar rules I have already been taught.

Most students have completed their cursive instruction, although it will probably be another couple of weeks before everyone has finished. Now, we use our cursive just in our daily writing. We will rewrite our signatures this week also.

Student goal:  I can find grammatical and punctuation errors in sentences in French.

Student goal:  I can form lowercase and uppercase letters correctly in cursive.

• Monday-Monday, March 24-March 31 – Spring Break
• Tuesday April 1 – school resumes
• April 11 – No school – Professional Development for teachers

Le français

This past week’s quiz was to apply the four rules from last week’s homework. These are not new rules, we’ve been using and discussing them all year. Happily, the average score was 90%, 71% of all students quizzed scored 85% or greater, and the most recurrent score was 107% with 10 incidents. Yay!

Many students have completed our newest “J’observe..” writing prompt, “Les garçons et la moto.” The boys are in India, fresh from bathing at the canal in the village of Chachura in Utter Pradesh, precisely here. Many students though the boys were in Africa rather than Asia, but a few kids had it figured out.

Student goal:  I can express myself in writing, conjugating verbs, creating interesting sentences, and respecting the grammar rules I have already been taught.

A number of students have completed their cursive instruction, although it will probably be another couple of weeks before everyone has finished. Now, we use our cursive just in our daily writing.

Student goal:  I can find grammatical and punctuation errors in sentences in French.

Student goal:  I can form lowercase and uppercase letters correctly in cursive. 

Les sciences

This week, we labeled a drawing of the inside of an incandescent bulb, looked at the inside of a broken incandescent bulb, broke a CFL bulb to see how different it is inside, and we did a little check for understanding as well. Most students seem to understand that for a circuit to be complete, two contact points on the D battery (la pile D) and two contact points on the bulb need to be connected by metal. This week, we get to create a circuit that includes a switch (un interrupteur) and a motor (un moteur)! Also, we’ll be testing a large variety of materials to determine which are insulators (un isolant) and which are conducteurs (un conducteur).

• Tuesday, March 4 – actual MARDI GRAS!
• Monday-Monday, March 24-March 31 – Spring Break

Le français

This week’s French homework asks students to apply four different rules, one per evening by writing one or two sentences. None of the rules are new, but this is a new style of homework. If your child is stressed out and crying because he/she/they do not understand, just send them in with the homework undone, and we’ll discuss it at school. Here is a copy of the homework:  vocab règles mars 2025l Vocab

Rules translated: 

Most students have completed “Les canetons,” and we began a new “J’observe..” writing prompt, “Les garçons et la moto.” We had an interesting conversation about there being so many people on one vehicle, and that nobody is wearing a helmet. This led us to the conclusion that it is very likely not in the US. In the writing, students have to propose where they think the boys are in the world and why they think so. After most students have completed their writing, I will show them precisely on Google Maps where these boys are, and I’ll include the link in the blog.

Student goal:  I can express myself in writing, conjugating verbs, creating interesting sentences, and respecting the grammar rules I have already been taught.

We got together with our buddies on Thursday and finally exchanged Valentine’s cards and did a “Would You Rather?” activity with them. They came to fourth grade instead of our going up to them.

A number of students have completed their cursive instruction, although it will probably be another couple of weeks before everyone has finished. Now, we use our cursive just in our daily writing.

Student goal:  I can find grammatical and punctuation errors in sentences in French.

Student goal:  I can form lowercase and uppercase letters correctly in cursive. 

Les sciences

This week, we completed our first experiment of lighting a tiny bulb (une ampoule) using one or two electrical wires (un fil électrique) and a D battery (une pile D). It was quite fun. We found four ways it could be done with just one wire! This week, we’ll draw and label  the inside of  an incandescent bulb, and we’ll continue to learn about circuits, insulators, and conductors.

• Monday-Monday, March 24-March 31 – Spring Break

Le français

This week, there is no French homework! We have worked on  expressions with avoir (to have) for the last two weeks. The average on the quiz was quite different for the two classes, so I’m going to report them separately. Usually they’re pretty close, but this time, the blue class average was 96% and the red class average was 90%. I can say that 19 students in each class got 100% or better.  That’s 38 of the 48 students who tested, i.e. 79% of all students received 100% or better. I will be contacting all of the parents of students whose scores are concerning.

We continued and most have completed our “J’observe…” activity this past week of “Les canetons.” We will begin a new writing prompt, but I don’t want to show the photo until the kids have seen it in class. Their writing is getting much more rich and interesting. Most students need to continue to incorporate grammar rules into their writing and speaking. Being able to do something in a pointed activity and being able to use it fluently in everyday use is a leap.

Student goal:  I can express myself in writing, conjugating verbs and respecting the grammar rules I have already been taught.

We missed our buddy time week before last due to our snow day, so we’ll see them this week.

We are nearing the end of cursive instruction, probably another couple of weeks, and then we’ll use cursive on our writing assignments. 

Student goal:  I can find grammatical and punctuation errors in sentences in French.

Student goal:  I can form lowercase and uppercase letters correctly in cursive. 

Les sciences

We began our new science unit on Energy (l’Énergie) this week by finding out what students already know about energy. This week, we’ll begin our first experiment by lighting a tiny bulb (une ampoule) using one or two electrical wires (un fil électrique) and a D battery (une pile D). Then we get to talk about circuits!

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

Math

Yes- Math review homework each night.