Charlemagne 4th Grade

le 16 au 20 mai 2022

Attention:  If you know that you will not be returning to Charlemagne

next year please send a note to Mme Bernadette conover_b@4j.lane.edu so

she can work to transition your student’s files to his next school.

Upcoming Dates

Monday-Wednesday, May 16-18 – Oregon State Testing- Math

Monday, May 30 – NO SCHOOL, Memorial Day

Visiting Artists

Visual Art:

This week, we will enjoy our final session with Artist in Residence, Jen Hernandez, on Thursday. In addition to creating art projects, students discuss how kindness feels to experience (both by being kind and receiving kindness) and expression of those feelings through body movement, words, and visual art. 

Cajun Fiddle:

We began working with our cajun fiddle artist-in-residence Kelly Thibodeaux two weeks ago. Fourth grade’s turns were on Tuesday and Thursday, and the kids really enjoyed it. He had fiddles (le violin) in all the kids’ hands within minutes of them getting into the room . He will return for our second session the week of May 31. Each class will have three sessions that week. Here is a link if you want to learn more about Kelly and his program:  http://lanearts.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/KellyThibodeauxArtOfFiddling.pdf

Le français:

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

•We conjugate verbs in our writing and speaking.

•We are learning to use the Internet to locate specific information.

•We are reading passages in French to glean pertinent information.

•We are reading, writing, and speaking  French as we learn about countries where French is an official language. 

We have spent most of our time again this week on the Francophone country project. About half a dozen students have completed their dodecahedrons, so we’ll be able to start doing presentations next week. I’ll do a sample presentation on Monday, and for those kids who are nervous about presenting in front of the whole class, I’ve got supports in place, and we’ve been talking about what those supports can look like.

There is no French homework this week. The average score for last week’s quiz was 101%. Yay! Those will be returned on Monday.

We will begin spring French assessments this week. We’ll spend the next few weeks doing assessments in Reading, Writing, Listening and Speaking.

Les sciences humaines (Social studies):

We continue to spend the preponderance of our time on our Francophone country projects. I let a few students take their projects home to complete some of the faces, but they have been told not to sharpie anything until I have reviewed their writing. It’s a pretty big, multifaceted project. Students must complete their research packet, become an expert in their country, write and draw on each of the twelve sides of the dodecahedron, assemble the dodecahedron, and do a presentation. This is the scoring ticket, which will be attached to your student’s research packet when it comes home. The maximum is 4 out of 4, and 3 out of 4 meets standards.

Geometry

This week students will read about the planet Mars in a lengthy non-fiction text. They will be learning a little bit about Mars’ moons, its geography (in comparison to Earth), and about NASA’s exploration of Mars. Then we will be wrapping up the week thinking about how we might send humans to Mars. Your child will use all of this information to write a science fiction story next week. Ask your child about their alien design!

Mme Lacey, our student teacher

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le 9 au 13 mai 2022

Attention:  If you know that you will not be returning to Charlemagne

next year please send a note to Mme Bernadette conover_b@4j.lane.edu so

she can work to transition your student’s files to his next school.

Upcoming Dates

Monday-Thursday, May 9-12 – Oregon State Testing- English Language Arts (See below in English section for a description)

Monday-Wednesday, May 16-18 – Oregon State Testing- Math

Monday, May 30 – NO SCHOOL, Memorial Day

Language Arts Adoption Parent Survey

As you may know, our class has had an important role in the language arts adoption process where we are selecting a new reading and writing program for our school district. Your student is finishing the second of two 5-week language arts program trials. Parent input is an important part of our process and you may have also received a similar survey after the first program.  The district would love your feedback on this survey.

Visiting Artists

Cajun Fiddle:

We began working with our cajun fiddle artist-in-residence Kelly Thibodeaux last week. Fourth grade’s turns were on Tuesday and Thursday, and the kids really enjoyed it. He had fiddles (le violin) in all the kids’ hands within minutes of them getting into the room . He will return for our second session the week of May 31. Each class will have three sessions that week. Here is a link if you want to learn more about Kelly and his program:  http://lanearts.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/KellyThibodeauxArtOfFiddling.pdf

Here are some photos of whole groups and of the students who got to play Kelly’s 150-year-old fiddle as he accompanied them on guitar. All the kids will get an opportunity.

Visual Art:

This week, we will enjoy our second session with Artist in Residence, Jen Hernandez, on Thursday. In addition to creating art projects, students discuss how kindness feels to experience (both by being kind and receiving kindness) and expression of those feelings through body movement, words, and visual art. 

Le français:

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

•We conjugate verbs in our writing and speaking.

•We are learning to use the Internet to locate specific information.

•We are reading passages in French to glean pertinent information.

•We are reading, writing, and speaking  French as we learn about countries where French is an official language. 

Last week, we worked on prepositions and partitives, working to master à, à la, au, aux, de la, du, de l’, and des. The new “J’observe…” photo was chosen, but with two fiddle classes per group, we didn’t get to start the new writing.

This week’s French homework includes words that contain an è (e accent grave). It makes an E sound like the word “bed.” I’ve been talking all year about distinguishing between é (e accent aigu) and è (e accent grave). Since we don’t make these precise sounds or use accents in English, it is really challenging for students to hear, identify, and/or reproduce the somewhat subtle distinction. Here is a copy:  vocab è mai 2022 l Vocab

We heard that our French penpals got our letters, and we hope to get return letters soon. To the left is a photo of them holding up the letters we sent them. They are very excited, as are our students.

Les sciences humaines (Social studies):

We continue to spend the preponderance of our time on our Francophone country projects. Some kids are assembling, or have already assembled, their dodecahedrons! Some have not yet completed their sixth face, i.e. are not yet halfway through. I let a few students take their projects home to complete some of the faces, but they were told not to sharpie anything until I have reviewed their writing. It’s a pretty big, multifaceted project. I think we will be able to begin presentations next week. Students must complete their research packet, become an expert in their country, write and draw on each of the twelve sides of the dodecahedron, assemble the dodecahedron, and do a presentation. This is the scoring ticket. The maximum is 4 out of 4, and 3 out of 4 meets standards.

Fractions: Unit 10: Solving problems with addition of mixed numbers and fractions.

We will spend a good portion of this week’s English time practicing for and doing state testing in English Language Arts. There are two parts to the test. First, students take a computer adaptive test that has some short answer and multiple choice questions. Then, students will do a short performance task for 2-3 class periods in writing. Students will read a bit on a non-fiction topic and then will be given a writing task to write an informative or persuasive essay on the topic. You can find out more about these tests at this link.

This year, the state has said that the time required for testing will be less as they have shortened each of the tests. There is no time limit, so students may take their time to work on the assessment. Once all students are finished, we’ll move back into our normally scheduled English lessons.

Mme Lacey, our student teacher

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le 2 au 6 mai 2022

Upcoming Dates

Monday-Thursday, May 9-12 – Oregon State Testing- English Language Arts

Monday-Wednesday, May 16-18 – Oregon State Testing- Math (More details will be provided in weeks to come.)

Monday, May 30 – NO SCHOOL, Memorial Day

Language Arts Adoption Parent Survey

As you may know, our class has had an important role in the language arts adoption process where we are selecting a new reading and writing program for our school district. Your student is finishing the second of two 5-week language arts program trials. Parent input is an important part of our process and you may have also received a similar survey after the first program.  The district would love your feedback on this survey.

Visiting Artists

Cajun Fiddle:

We begin working with our cajun fiddle artist-in-residence Kelly Thibodeaux this week. The fourth grade’s turn is on Thursday. Kelly teaches the Art of Fiddling & the Mystique of Louisiana, a comprehensive short-term fiddle teaching program. He will return for our second session the week of May 31. Here is a link if you want to learn more about Kelly and his program:  http://lanearts.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/KellyThibodeauxArtOfFiddling.pdf

Visual Art:

We enjoyed our first session with our Artist in Residency Jen Hernandez last week. She will be at Charlemagne again 5/12 and 5/19 creating a Kindness and Art projects with our students. Last week she helped students to create a sketch book to give to a classmate. In addition to art, students discuss how kindness feels to experience (both by being kind and receiving kindness) and expression of those feelings through body movement, words, and visual art. 

Le français:

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

•We conjugate verbs in our writing and speaking.

•We are learning to use the Internet to locate specific information.

•We are reading passages in French to glean pertinent information.

•We are reading, writing, and speaking  French as we learn about countries where French is an official language. 

Last week, we conjugated the verb devoir (to have to/must), which is an important verb in French. This week we will continue to work predominantly on the francophone country project. We will also work on prepositions and partitives, working to master à, à la, au, aux, de la, du, de l’, and des. We will begin a new “J’observe…” this week and the blue class will choose that photo.

There is no French homework this week. The average score between the two classes for last week’s quiz was 25/28 or ≈90%. If your child is not demonstrating understanding on his/her/their quizzes, he/she/they need(s) to either study more, practice with the meanings more, or ask for help, because I make it highly possible to be successful. Please remember that understanding the vocabulary is more important than the spelling of the words.

The tessellation projects are coming home this week. 

Les sciences humaines (Social studies):  

We continue our Francophone country project. Some kids are on their ninth side of 12 already. Others are on their third or fourth side. They’re at all different places. I’m hoping some kids will start to put their dodecahedrons together this week, and we can begin presentations next week.

Fractions: Unit 10: Solving problems with addition of mixed numbers and fractions. 

 

Key Concepts:

We can replace a mixed number with an equivalent fraction to add and subtract fractions with like denominators.

 

In fourth grade, students should begin to understand the abstract concept of fractions, but we started with a review of models of fractions. Students practiced physically constructing mixed numbers with fraction pieces last week and saw the visual connection to improper fractions. In this unit, students will become flexible with fractions, being able to convert between improper fractions and mixed numbers to add and subtract.

 

This week, students will also learn how to read and create line plot graphs. They will  measure objects to the nearest quarter inch and will record their data on a line plot.

We begin a 3-4 week science fiction unit this week. First students will read a portion of War of the Worlds Radio broadcast. Then, they will read a non-fiction text about the planet Mars. To finish, they will have the opportunity to write a narrative science fiction text using some of the science the read about.

This week we will:

• Read and listen to a clip of the radio play “War of the Worlds”
• Analyze plot & elements of drama, and summarize
• Read about the history of radio

Mme Lacey, our student teacher

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le 25 au 29 avril 2022

Upcoming Dates

Thursday, April 28 – Artist in Residence, week one of three (see below)

Monday-Thursday, May 9-12 – Oregon State Testing- English Language Arts

Monday-Wednesday, May 16-18 – Oregon State Testing- Math (More details will be provided in weeks to come.)

Monday, May 30 – NO SCHOOL, Memorial Day

Artist in Residence:

Artist in Residency Jen Hernandez will be at Charlemagne for three weeks creating a Kindness and Art project which will focus on how kindness feels to experience (both by being kind and receiving kindness) and expression of those feelings through body movement, words, and visual art. Students will focus on how our bodies feel, giving expression to those feelings through movement. Students will create individual art pieces on 6×6 inch watercolor cards, that will be placed together as a “quilt” of artwork for display in the school. Students will also create their own sketchbooks through the art-making process, and they’ll get to have unique stickers printed with their artwork on it, which they can color and take home.

Merci, Dr. Johnson

Thank you to Josie’s dad for sharing about his work as a pediatric cardiologist! Students were enthralled with his hand-drawn heart and loved the model and video of the heart that he brought in to share. What an amazing opportunity to hear from a real heart doctor during our study of the heart. Thank you!

Le français:

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

•We conjugate verbs in our writing and speaking.

•We are learning to use the Internet to locate specific information.

•We are reading passages in French to glean pertinent information.

•We are reading, writing, and speaking  French as we learn about countries where French is an official language. 

We will begin a new “J’observe…” next week and the blue class will choose that photo.

There is French homework this week, so look for that lavender sheet going back and forth every day. We are working on more vocabulary related to our francophone country study. If your child is not demonstrating understanding on his/her/their quizzes, he/she/they need(s) to either study more, practice with the meanings more, or ask for help, because I make it highly possible to be successful. Please remember that understanding the vocabulary is more important than the spelling of the words.

More and more tessellation projects are being completed, and those will come home in the new few weeks. 

Les sciences humaines (Social studies):  

We continue our Francophone country project. This past week, we began a new side of the dodecahedron with the country’s important information, like the continent on which it is found, its capital, its currency, and its population. We also worked on the sides related to languages spoken in the country, and the map of the country and its surrounding countries and/or bodies of water. I finally found a great source from the UN to help describe the socio-economic situations in most of our countries. We’ll work on common foods and a main dish from the country next. To culminate the project, students will present their country to their classmates.

Mme Lacey, our student teacher

Unit 8: Multiplicative Comparison

We finish the unit called “The Great Heart” from the curriculum, Wit and Wisdom. You can find out more about the unit here.

This week we will:

• Learn about the literal heart and circulatory system
• Closely reread the non-fiction text,The Circulatory Story, to find main idea and details
• Write a detailed, organized explanatory paragraph about the heart
  
• Use our knowledge of capitalization and commas to edit our writing
  

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le 18 au 22 avril 2022

Upcoming Dates

April 22 – Canoe Island Packets due to the office

Monday-Thursday, May 9-12  Oregon State Testing- English Language Arts

Monday-Wednesday, May 16-18 Oregon State Testing- Math (More details will be provided in weeks to come.)

Monday, May 30 – NO SCHOOL, Memorial Day

Le français:

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

•We conjugate verbs in our writing and speaking.

•We are learning to use the Internet to locate specific information.

•We are reading passages in French to glean pertinent information.

•We are reading, writing, and speaking  French as we learn about countries where French is an official language. 

Many students have completed the most recent “J’observe…” although a few students are still completing previous writing. We will be spending the preponderance of our time on our Francophone country project in the upcoming week.  We will begin a new “J’observe…” next week and the blue class will choose that photo.

There is no French homework this week, but last week’s quiz should be coming home on Monday. The average grade was 25 out of 26, so 96%. If your child scored much lower than this, he/she/they need(s) to either study more, practice with the meanings more, or ask for help, because I make it highly possible to be successful. Please remember that understanding the vocabulary is more important than the spelling of the words.

We also worked on reading and writing larger numbers. We used to teach maths in French, so kids had a lot of practice with numbers, and they just don’t get that much anymore. However, in middle and high school, most of the French happens during Social studies, which is full of dates, so kids still need to be able to read larger numbers. We’ll keep working on those.

More and more tessellation projects are being completed, and those will come home in the new few weeks. 

Les sciences humaines (Social studies):  

We continue our Francophone country project. This past week, we began a new side of the dodecahedron with the country’s important information, like the continent on which it is found, its capital, its currency, and its population. This week, we’ll do the sides related to languages spoken in the country, and a side for the map of the country and its surrounding countries and/or bodies of water. To culminate the project, students will present their country to their classmates.

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

Unit 8: Multiplicative Comparison

Mme Lacey, our student teacher

We continue a unit called “The Great Heart” from the curriculum, Wit and Wisdom. You can find out more about the unit here.

This week we will:

• Learn about the literal heart and circulatory system
• Re-read closely the non-fiction text called “The Circulatory Story”
• Determine the author’s meaning figurative language
• Write detailed, explanatory paragraphs
• Review and practice grammar rules regarding proper capitalization
  

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