Charlemagne 4th Grade

Well, I was out sick all week with Covid. So, everything we were meant to do this past week, we will do this next week.

The big news is….French homework begins this week! Students will come home on Monday with a lavender sheet of French homework. Students should bring this homework home and back to school every single day. They turn it in to me on Friday, the same day as the vocabulary quiz. We’re beginning with the days of the week. Each night, students complete one section of the homework. I have gone over each category, and they should have an example written in each section. They are meant to ask an adult to initial the homework each night. Initialing the homework simply tells me that you see your child has done the homework, not whether it is correct or not. I prefer that parents NOT HELP with homework. We’re really just trying to establish routine and responsibility. If your child loses the homework, you can print off a copy here:  jours de la semaine sept 2024 Vocab

Me reading and spelling the words:

Me reading the words with time for students to write the words:

Student goal:  I can name and order the days of the week in French.

We will continue our cursive writing instruction, and we’ll go back and do a lot of words that use the letters we’ve already learned, which helps with understanding how to attach the letters and their relationship to one another. Also, we are working on alphabetizing and on learning how to use a translating dictionary. 

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

Student goal:  I can form all the lowercase letters correctly in cursive. 

We will conjugate the verb être (to be), and in upcoming weeks, we will conjugate the verbs 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  continue to spend 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 a number of children are not very solid with alphabetizing beyond the first letter. 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.

Student goal:  I can alphabetize words up to and beyond the fifth letter.

Student goal:  I am learning to quickly and efficiently use a translating dictionary.

We still have to complete the speaking evaluation, and a few kids are still catching up from absences, then that will be it for these formal French assessments until January. 

We will begin our writing curriculum this week, and it is called “J’observe…” We look at a curated photo and describe what we observe. 

We continue 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. They are called “Les tubes. We will continue the “Moi!” project which is all about them… in French.

Les sciences

With one of my guest teachers, the students made lists of what they already know about soils, rocks, and landforms. I’ll review those, and then we will begin our first science unit, Soils, Rocks, and Landforms (La terre, les pierres, et les formes du relief) this week. 

We read through the complex non-fiction text, The Circulatory Story,  last week. This week, as students read through sections of the text a second time, they will learn strategies for reading complex text.  The focus will be on determining main idea and details in each part of the text. They will create a simple outline which will aid the students in writing short summaries. This text includes a lot of figurative language, so we’ll be identifying and discussing meanings of similes and metaphors in the text as well.

 

This week we will welcome an parent and guest speaker, Dr. Eric Johnson, pediatric cardiologist, who will talk to us about his work with the heart and circulatory system.

 

Here’s an overview of the entire year of 4th grade in our Wit and Wisdom English curriculum.

Please help your child wear clothes and shoes appropriate for running and jumping on their PE days. Closed toed shoes such as tennis shoes would be great; sandals or boots do not work well for PE.

Blue Class PE & Library days: Monday & Thursday

 

 

Building and Field Trip Volunteers

The school will be requiring that folks who would like to volunteer at the building or on field trips complete a Volunteer Orientation before beginning their support of the classrooms and our students. In 4th grade there are opportunities to volunteer at recess, in the library, and on field trips. Our first field trip will be in December. Later in the year, there may be classroom volunteer opportunities, too.

If you would like to volunteer, please contact the office for the date of the next volunteer training.

Once you have completed the video orientation and District  Volunteer Background Check we will ask that you sign a Charlemagne Confidentiality Agreement at the front office on your first day.