Updates and announcements

It was so nice to see some of you at the Math and Phonics night last week! If you were unable to attend and would like the completed handout, please let me know.

There will be no school this Friday.

Be on the look out for an email from our class parents with a sign-up genius for our upcoming celebration!

With the upcoming Science Fair project due, please note that we are taking measures to alleviate some student work next week, such as a catch-up day to complete the history study guide in class, and an open note test in science (which should not require too much studying if their notes are complete).

Our week in learning

This week in Language Arts, students will begin the writing process with pre-writing tools such as graphic organizers and outlines. They will be composing a descriptive essay about an imaginary field trip their class took. Please look for rough drafts coming home to help your students with spelling and grammar checks!

This week in literature, students will finish The Voyage of the Dawn Treader and update their notebooks in preparation for the last literature test of the quarter. They will be expected to place the events of the children’s adventures in the order that they occurred.

Finally, students will be preparing for their Latin and Greek Roots (1-25) test on Thursday.

In science, we will begin to wrap up their chemistry unit, delving into the structure of the Periodic Table and how atomic properties give the Table its order. They will learn how atomic weights were discovered and that the order of the Periodic Table is extraordinarily regular. There will be an open-note chemistry quiz on Friday, October 6.

This week in History, students will continue learning about the Renaissance, focusing discussion with the Castiglione and Machiavelli readings, and the Renaissance in northern Europe. Study guides are going home today and will be due on Monday, 10/2. With their Science Fair essays due on the same day, we will have a catch up day on Thursday for students to finish any incomplete notes, work on their study guides, and study for their test. The Renaissance test will be on Tuesday, 10/3. There will be a states location quiz covering the South, Mid-Atlantic, and New England regions this Wednesday 9/27. We will be learning about the Midwest region of the United States this week.

This week in Math, students will continue with our fractions unit. We will work on understanding the relationship between fractions and division, addition of fractions, and subtraction of fractions. Math groups will continue this Wednesday, 8:00-8:45.

Updates and announcements

This week, we cordially invite you to Math and Phonics night on Wednesday, September 20^th. In addition to word problems and Spalding, we will also be covering the basics of sentence diagramming.

Please be looking through the signed folders with your child at the end of every week, then returning the empty folder on Mondays.

Please check the due dates for the Science Fair in your child’s science fair packet.

There will be no school next Friday, September 29^th.

Please see this week’s family newsletter from Office Manager, Rachele Holcomb, for a link to the annual homework survey. If you are not receiving the weekly family newsletter, email Rachele Holcomb at rholcomb@archwayarete.org.

Our week in learning

This week in grammar, students will take a test on Prepositions and prepositional phrases. They will review sentence diagramming and practice reconstructing sentences from their diagrams.

In literature, students will read through chapters 10-11 and continue building their summarization skills. They will end the week with an exercise summarizing the events of chapters 1-11 in anticipation of an end-of-book test in the first week of October.

In science, students will continue studying chemistry by learning about molecules and compounds, as well as mixtures and solutions. Students will practice writing chemical formulas with atomic symbols, and learn the difference between a solute and a solvent. They will read about the difference between acids and bases and conduct a lab to determine which known substances are acids, bases, or neutral, based on their prior knowledge of the substances.

This week in History, students will continue learning about the Renaissance, focusing on Venice, Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Machiavelli, and Castiglione. On Friday, students will get to read unabridged excerpts from Castiglione’s The Courtier and Machiavelli’s The Prince in preparation for a socratic discussion on leadership on Monday. Please note that these are difficult passages and may need some parental or older sibling assistance to comprehend. I would suggest taking time to read these, and maybe creating a vocabulary list. The readings can count for reading log credit. We will also be learning about the South region of the United States on Wacky Wednesday. There will be a states location quiz covering the South, Mid-Atlantic, and New England regions next Wednesday, 9/27.

This week in Math, students will finish the unit on “More Calculations with Whole Numbers and test on Thursday. Students will start Unit 3: Fractions on Friday with a review of fractions, equivalent fractions, mixed numbers, and comparing fractions. Math groups will continue this Wednesday, 8:00-9:00.

Updates and Announcements

Week 5 has come and gone and we are hitting the ground running with week 6. Sometime throughout my years in college, a professor told me that week 5 is the most difficult week of the semester and year as students are adjusting to the full workload. I would say we are just about there as students are working diligently on their science fair projects and we begin our fourth unit in History.

Thank you so much to all of the grandparents who came to our classroom on Friday. The students enjoyed hearing you all read “The Magician’s Nephew” to them!

Picture day is this Thursday!

Our week in learning

This week in Grammar, students will take a test on Tuesday, and practice reconstructing a sentence from a sentence diagram.

In Literature, students will continue reading The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. There will be a short test on Wednesday where students will put the events of the book so far in order. Their summaries should be helpful with this.

Students will recite “The Tyger” and have their weekly roots quiz on Wednesday.

This week in science, students will begin their chemistry unit by studying the periodic table and the history behind the discovery of the elements. They will read about the chemist Robert Boyle, who conducted experiments to determine acids and bases using violet water, and will conduct their own experiments on acids and bases on Friday.

Science fair project proposals are due TODAY, Monday, September 11. Packets must be signed by parents and brought in for teacher approval.

This week in History, students will continue learning about the Renaissance with a general overview, the difference between artists and artisans, Florence and the Medici family, and the role the Renaissance popes played in Italy. Students will be practicing using fill-in-the-blank notes and column-style notes. We will also be learning about the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States on Wacky Wednesday.

This week in Math, students will continue the next unit, titled “More Calculations with Whole Numbers”. We will practice multiplying and dividing by 2 and 3 digit numbers. Students will practice using graph paper to help them stay organized in solving the problems. Math groups will continue this Wednesday, 8:00-8:45.

Updates and announcements

Another week gone! We have a lot of exciting things coming up this month. Be sure to check out the “Important Dates” part of the blog.

Our week in learning

This week in language arts, students will be introduced to prepositions, objects of prepositions, and prepositional phrases. They will practice using them to build sentences, as well as classifying and diagramming them. Look for notebooks coming home this week to help with diagram questions.

In literature, students will read through chapter 9 of the Voyage of the Dawn Treader and practice outlining events using a traditional outline format.

Students will have their weekly roots quiz. “The Tyger” will be recited on 9/13.

Students will prepare for their upcoming unit test in science this week by reviewing their foldables and quizzing each other in class. This week, students will also be introduced to their science fair projects, due 10/6. This will be due on Monday, 9/11.The unit test will take place on Friday, September 8. The first section due will be their project approval, which will require a parent signature.

This week in History, students will finish their unit on the Meso-American Civilizations with a review day on Tuesday and the test on Wednesday. On Thursday, we will begin our weekly US geography lessons, starting with the New England region. Please note that students will have periodic map tests over all of the regions, and end the unit with a 50 states map test. On Friday, we will begin our study of the Renaissance.

This week in Math, students will continue the next unit, titled “More Calculations with Whole Numbers”. We will continue working on mental math strategies and start lessons on solving word problems with bar models. Weekly Math Groups will begin this Wednesday, September 6th, 8:00-8:45. Open math tutoring will continue Monday, and by invitation only math tutoring will continue on Wednesday.