le 27 au 30 janvier 2025Upcoming Dates
Wednesday, January 29 – 2nd opportunity Rock Collection Sharing Day
Friday, January 31 – NO SCHOOL, Grading Day
Monday, February 3 – NO SCHOOL, Professional Development & Transition Day
Monday, February 17 – NO SCHOOL, Presidents’ Day
Friday, February 21 – 5:30-7:30 Carnaval! (More info coming soon.)
Please ensure that you email BOTH TEACHERS when you communicate with us.
(kincaid_j@4j.lane.edu and hopper_s@4j.lane.edu)
Le français
Jana Kincaid, French and Science kincaid_j@4j.lane.edu
Most students have completed their French assessments, with just a few students to go. And I still have plenty to grade so, there will be no French homework this week.
We did not work on our writing project this past week, we instead completed assessments. We will continue with our “J’observe…” activity this week of “Les canetons.”
We have our next buddy meet up with first graders on Thursday. It’s been hard for us to coordinate our schedules, and both first grade teachers are either new or newish, so they have a lot on their plates right now. We’re in the groove now, though, and we will get together with them every other Thursday, and I promise to take photos next time.
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.
La géographie
We are going to begin studying geography (la géographie) as an introduction to the large Francophone (French-speaking) country project we do in the spring. We will begin either this week or next, depending on how well we can tie up some other ongoing projects.
Student goal: I can name the four cardinal directions and label the major oceans and continents of the world in French.
Les sciences
We have finished up the Soils, Rocks, and Landforms unit and brought in rock collections to share. Unfortunately, several kids forgot and were upset they weren’t able to share their rocks, so next Wednesday will be another opportunity to bring in rocks. Please do not let them bring more than one dozen rocks. They can have a place for rocks that can be touched, and one for rocks that may NOT be touched.
Mme Shelli hopper_s@4j.lane.edu English & Math teacher
Math
Yes, there is Math review homework this week, one column per night.
We hope to wrap up Illustrative Math Unit 3: Extending Operations to Fractions.
Currently we are solving problems addition and subtraction of fractions and mixed numbers. Also, student will create and analyze line plots (graphs) that display measurement data in fractions of a unit. We will wrap up the unit with a short look at decimal fractions. A more in depth look at decimals will follow later this year.
Here’s a short family support video to explain our current unit. Included in the video (about 3 mins in) is a game you can play at home. Playing games and discussing fractions at home during this unit can help build your child’s understanding
English
Our current English Language Arts unit: EXTREME SETTINGS
Last week, as we explored how to write dialog in narratives, students write an imaginary dialogue between the characters in two Robert Frost poems, “Dust of Snow” and “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening.” Look for an edited dialogues and a short comic strip in your child’s home folder on Monday. Overall, students did quite well using this complex punctuation. This skill will come in handy for a bigger narrative writing project in February.
A score of 3= Meets Grade Level expectations 2= Partially Meets 1= Does not yet meet.
Next, we will spend a week and a half in the complex non-fiction text, Mountains, by Seymour Simon. We will focus on some complex vocabulary in the text as well as identifying the way the text is structured by identifying the text’s main idea and details. We’ll finish with a short group research project to learn about several of the worlds tallest and longest mountain ranges.
Find out more about 4j’s 4th Grade English Curriculum. This fact sheet for parents also includes a full list of the texts we’ll read as well as additional texts that can be read at home to extend your child’s learning.
OBOB practice
This week, there will be a “bye” week in OBOB; there will not be an official meeting on Wednesday. Then, starting in February, battles will begin.
The battles are 100% randomly chosen upfront by a bracket maker machine. This guarantees that there is no subjective scheduling, but also means that your child will battle grade levels other than their own. It is is 3-5 mixed competition with one winning team from each school. This year, regionals are a bit different. 4J will be holding their own regionals and will send the winner of each grade band to the state competition. If you are an approved OBOB volunteer, you will be receiving an email with sign-ups for the battles. If you have any specific questions, please email Ginger Topize at topize_g@4j.lane.edu.
Reminders:
Healthy and Nut Free Snacks
PE & Recess
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. Also, students need secure and sturdy shoes on PE Days:
Blue Class PE & Library days: Monday & Thursday Red Class PE & Library days: Tuesday & FridayDecember 9-13, 2024
The “Moi!” projects were sent home this week past week. Hopefully you were able to have your child explain the project to you and all the work that went into it. If your child did not complete the project, it should still have come home in parts, which may be completed and assembled at home, then brought back to school, completed, for full credit.
We are working on the “J’observe…” writing assignment with the photo at left entitled, “Je grimpe..” (I climb/I am climbing.) We are working on creating similes, and I was quite impressed with their abilities. We’ll move on to a new photo next week.
le 16 au 20 décembre 2024
WE REALLY NEED HOST FAMILIES