Charlemagne Elementary School

In French we will engage in a variety of interdisciplinary activities in addition to studying the French language. You can expect your student(s) to:

• Learn to read, write, and speak in complete French sentences
• Read a variety of fiction and non-fiction
• Write daily in journals and at our writing station in creative and original ways while studying all other content areas (math, social sciences, etc.)
• Read weekly stories to give us new vocabulary and grammar in French relating to each other content area
• Help students express themselves with growing detail in all subject areas 
• Perform plays in March and May for live audiences
• Sing songs and learn some dances and movements to help us remember letter sounds, prepositions… and sometimes just for fun

You or your student(s) can expect to study three main areas including geometry, numbers and algebraic concepts. Within those areas we will:

• Focus on numerical patterns and commutative and associative properties of addition and subtraction in Algebra
• Learn in depth definitions and descriptions of two and three dimensional shapes
• Study symmetry and patterns
• Build solids
• Analyze shapes in our daily life
• Play games involving shapes
• Learn about our base ten system
• Make groups of 10s in estimating and counting large numbers of a variety of objects
• Learn to add and subtract two digit numbers by carrying and borrowing tens

Similarly to math there are three units of study: the weather, solids and liquids, and the life cycles of beings who hatch from eggs – particularly chicks and local insects. 

In Fall we will: 

• Observe the weather
• Learn to use tools to keep data on temperature, wind velocity and rainfall
• Learn about how to make healthy clothing and activity choices for different types of weather
• Enjoy the Fall’s most dramatic changes (and the apple harvest) at Deitering Orchards 
• Make pumpkin and apple pies from scratch
• Count seeds and plant them in the spring

In the Winter we will:

• Take a look at different solid objects and liquids
• Conduct a variety of tests
• Analyze a variety of qualities, such as hardness, ability to sink, float, stack or roll

In the Spring we will:

• Hatch chicks from eggs
• Inspect our composting worm bin’s steady stream of newly born worms
• Watch the transformation of butterflies from caterpillars
• Observe the hatching of insects beneficial to our school’s garden

In English we use the Wit and Wisdom curriculum. This curriculum emphasizes intrentional instruction based on fitting the needs of, and encouraging the diversity of, learners at our school. Within this framework we will study:

• Phonemic awareness
• Different, new vocabulary
• How to employ phonics to read, write, and spell
• How to improve upon language comprehension and fluency
• Basic spelling and grammar

In this portion we will:

• Write stories
• Learn about what a character is, and different types
• Focus on beginning, middle, and end
• Learn appropriate punctuation
• Study guess and go spelling
• Learn how to use capital letters