le 7 au 10 octobre 2024

Upcoming Dates

  • Friday, October 11 – NO SCHOOL

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

(kincaid_j@4j.lane.edu and hopper_s@4j.lane.edu)

Please Keep Fidgets and Toys at Home

Students have been bringing squishy toys and fidgets that are not conducive to focusing on work. We have had “squishies” pop and make a gluey mess and a few have gone missing. Please do not send toys or squishies to school. If your child needs a fidget tool that helps him/her/them focus, please let us know. We have some that work great and are far less distracting. A fidget is meant to help a child focus attention, so we reserve the right to ask students to put them away when they are more of a distraction to themselves and/or others.

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

Le français

Students did pretty well bringing their homework back and forth last week. If homework is not turned in on Friday, it must be turned in the following full school day, normally Monday. We had our first vocabulary quiz, and 65% of the class missed only one or none, so well done. The mean of the two classes was 71%, but the mode was 100%. If your child scored below 71%, it is a sign that he/she/they didn’t prepare for the quiz and/or didn’t speak up when he/she/they didn’t understand the sentences because the quiz was essentially the same as the homework.

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

We continue our cursive writing instruction, and this week, we’ve gone back and written a lot of letter combinations in nonsense order so we can concentrate onthe forming of the letters. We work on alphabetizing up to the fifth letter on Wednesdays, and salthough most students are becoming skilled, some students don’t seem to know their alphabet yet. If you know that applies to your student, you could work on fun alphabetizing activities at home to help support your child.

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 conjugated the verb faire (to make or do) last week, and will conjugate the verb  aller (to go) this week, then we’ll move on to verbs that end in -er, which is 90% of the verbs in French. 

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 have completed the speaking evaluation, with a few exceptions, and our formal French assessments are complete  until January. 

Les chèvres

We began our writing curriculum this week,  called “J’observe…” We looked at a group of goats and wrote about them as a class. See the photo we used at right.

We continue the “Moi!” project which is all about them… in French.

Les sciences

We began our first science unit, Soils, Rocks, and Landforms (La terre, les pierres, et les formes du relief) this week by discussing what students already know about the subject. This week, we’ll begin our first experiment (une expérience)by exploring the components (les composants) of soil (le sol ou la terre). Next, we’ll discuss what is in each layer once we add water to our containers and let them settle. Then we’ll move into physical and chemical weathering (l’usure physique et chimique) with some fun experiments.  

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


Math this week

There IS homework this week.

We will begin to discuss multiplicative comparison problems this week. These multiplicative thinking problems may require either multiplication and/or division. For fourth graders, there’s work in the conceptual understanding here; often students jump to picking numbers and multiplying without first understanding the concept of the problem.

Examples:

Joe has 8 marbles, Mary has 4 times more. How many does Mary have? (8×4 =m)

OR

Joe has 16 marbles. This is 8 times more than Mary. How many marbles does Mary have? (16=8 x m OR 16÷8=m)

In class, students continue practicing multiplication fact fluency as they play games, draw arrays, and look for patterns in multiplication equations up to 100.  At home, you can help your child become fluent x1 through x12 facts. The hardest ones for students to remember are the x 4, x 6, x7, x8s. Maybe make a game to play in the car?

English

We wrap up our exploration of the non-fiction text, The Circulatory Story, this week.  Students are rereading portions of the text to gain a deeper understanding. Then they will write a brief outline to understand the main ideas and details and then will summarize one section of the text.
 
For a final writing project, students are putting the final touches on their first four-paragraph essays about how the author of the text uses figurative language to convey meaning in The Circulatory Story. These essays are in a 4 page booklet and will come home early next week.
 
 
 
 
 

 Dr. Johnson, pediatric cardiologist, Visits

Last week, we enjoyed a wonderful presentation about the human heart and circulatory system by guest speaker, Dr. Eric Johnson (Miriam’s dad.)  Below are some pictures.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Park Ranger Visits

A few weeks ago we welcomed my daughter, Amanda, to share about her work as a park ranger on Mt. St. Helens. This week, we will have a park ranger from Cape Perpetua tell us about National Parks and the Every Kid Outdoors Program. They will be giving each child an annual National Park Pass for your family!

 

PE & Recess

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

                      Red Class PE & Library days: Tuesday & Friday
 
At recess, students will be outside even in drizzle. So please have your child wear layers and a jacket or hat during rainy, cool weather.

 

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.