November 10 (Monday) - No School (mid-term grading day)
November 11 (Tuesday) - No School (Veteran's Day)
November 14 (Friday) - Ruby Bridges Walk (see school newsletter for details)
November 21 (Friday) and November 24 (Monday) - Parent Teacher Conferences (details will arrive soon)
November 24-28 - No School (Fall Break)
December 22-January 5 - No school (Winter Break)
Request for Volunteer in French class
Want to better understand what your student in working on in French class? I (Mme McLaren) am looking for a parent / guardian to come support students during independent work time while I lead small reading groups. During this time, our intern Lou-Anne leads a small conversation group, so all adults are working directly with students in small groups while the rest of the class works on independent practice activities or writing assignments. Some students are having trouble staying on task, completing all of the tasks they need to over the course of a week, or need support staying in their seats / staying focused. As student needs are varied, small group instruction allows me to tailor my instruction to better reach students at their reading levels. This differentiated learning approach supports targeted skill building and more 1:1 feedback in the moment to support better learning outcomes.
If you're interested, here are the qualifications for you to be a good fit:
You don't need to speak French! Bonus points if you do, but you don't need to.
You'd need to be willing to come in on a regular schedule (ex: every Monday for 20-40 minutes).
You'd need to become familiar with the apps on our school iPads to support students finding practice activities
You'd need to complete the volunteer application through 4J and receive approval before starting.
Here's a link to sign-up sheet. Please wait for me (Mme McLaren) to reach out via email to confirm that you are cleared to come in and support. Merci!
Message from our school counselor, Mme Rachel
We are working on lesson 2.1 of Sources of Strength. Students will be introduced to the BrainTree. We will discuss how the 3 parts communicate with each other. The roots (brainstem), the trunk (limbic system), and the Branches/leaves (frontal lobe).
Message from our special education teacher, Lillian Groff
We have created a new group for some Charlemagne students: The Sunflower and Dandelion Crew. The group will begin meeting the third Tuesday of every month, starting November 18th during lunch time.
What is The Sunflower and Dandelion Crew? It's a safe and welcoming space for students with disabilities and those who identify as neurodivergent to come together, build friendships, and celebrate their unique abilities. Through games, crafts, and conversations, students connect with one another and are reminded that families are made in many wonderful ways. Our time together focuses on belonging, confidence, and connection. Students explore themes like identity, friendship, and pride in who they are—all while having fun and supporting one another.
If your child has a disability or identifies as neurodivergent and would like to join The Sunflower and Dandelion Crew, please fill out the permission form linked here or more information you can reach out to Mme Lillian at groff_l@4j.lane.edu. We’d love to have them join our circle of connection and celebration!
This week in math, students created a River Trail map. This builds students’ intuition around partitioning and iterating using a number line in context as they reason about the distance each point is from the start of the trail, both in kilometers and as a fraction of the whole trail. The process of solving this complex task fosters a real world understanding of fractions as operators and prepares students to multiply a whole number by a fraction in Unit 5. This task also explicitly supports reasoning about equivalent fractions and relationships among fractions. The first picnic area, at the 5-km point (1/6 of the trail), helps to locate the second picnic area at the 10-km mark (2/6 of the trail). This is also the location of the first campsite, which is marked by yet another fraction—1⁄3 of the trail. As students discover that some points along the trail have more than one trail feature, they confirm that the points are equidistant from the start of the trail and, more importantly, the features at the same point of the trail are labeled with equivalent fractions (for example, several features are found at 1/2, 2/4, 3/6, and so on).
In ELA, students deepened their understanding of Nez Perce culture and its relationship to homeland as they listened to and read traditional stories at the heart of Nez Perce culture. Students listen to Nez Perce storyteller J. R. Spencer bring to life the origin story “Coyote and the Monster.” A story map with accompanying TDQs support students in summarizing key story elements before they delve into the deeper meaning and role of this story in Nez Perce culture. Students applied their knowledge and understanding of Nez Perce stories, as well as summarization and characterization skills, to read another myth “How Beaver Stole Fire from the Pines” in the first New-Read Assessment for the module. Finally, they revisited the stories to determine their story's role in the Nez Perce tribe..
In health, the red class began the next unit involving our big brains. They started with a video about a woman who had half her brain removed as a young child which showcased plasticity. They then moved into a self analysis about learning styles. We discussed how learning styles can complement each other and how some our our primary, but others are also useful in different circumstances. We then set a goal to track over 4 weeks. The goal is an optional activity, but highly encouraged. This is closely related to what students will do in Empower (coexistence) next year at RMS. Blue class had a behavior rewards party during health time.
Quoi de neuf en français? (What’s new in French?)
I sent home a graded assessment on Friday from Semaines 6-7. Look for this in their homework folder.
Weeks 8-9 study guide
In science, students explored the following guiding questions:
C'est quoi, la gravité? (What's gravity?)
Comment interagissent les parties du système solaire entre elles? (How do the parts of our solar system interact?)
We had fun using models to explore inertia, why the sun is the center of our solar system, why the orbit of each planet is circular, and what qualifies a celestial body as a planet. We read a nonfiction text about gravity in partners over the course of two days to increase our oral reading fluency and practice our reading comprehension. We also watched a video of the moon landing, the challenges of astronauts eating in space, and how water behaves in a gravity-free environment. Next week, we will learn more about the stars, and why they appear to move across the night sky.
In writing, we wrote collaborative sentences, gradually adding increased detail and complexity while moving around the classroom. We also worked on the draft of our imaginary interviews (assigned through Seesaw) with a book character, stuffed animal or celebrity of their choice. Students were asked to write four questions of various forms using a variety of question words, as well as a response to each question. Ask your child to show you their interview on Seesaw! They can always log in using a home device using their Clever login.
In small groups, Mme McLaren worked helped students practice identifying adjectives in the context of a space-themed text, noticing if it came before or after the noun it was describing. Lou-Anne helped students independently generate adjectives to describe images on cards, as well as practice grouping objects by genre -- masculin, féminin, pluriel -- to help them transform corresponding adjectives into the correct form.
In math, students practice making triangular and square numbers as a factor review. Some students played a game with me to build their multiplication / division facts fluency.
On Friday, we read a fun Halloween-themed story about Trinelda, la sorcière and did an activity reminding us how to stay safe when trick or treating. We also exchanged cards with our 2nd grade buddies and played a monster drawing game.
