Updates and announcements
We are entering our fourth week
of school already! As we are getting settled in here at Arete, I am also settling into my college courses. This year, I get to pursue my Elementary Education certification through Rio Salado college while teaching. While I hold a Music Education certification, I am so excited to learn more and become certified in Elementary Education.
I’d like to invite everyone to our Curriculum Night this
Wednesday, August 29th, 6:00-7:30. Please note this is a parent-only
event. There is limited seating in the classroom.
Here is our schedule for
Curriculum Night:
• 6:30-6:45: Classroom procedures, routines, homework
expectations
• 6:45-6:50: Lead teachers rotate through each classroom
• 6:50-7:25: Curriculum and Demo Lessons (10 minute grammar
lesson; 10 minute Spalding lesson; 15 minute Singapore lesson)
• 7:25-7:30: Q&A
Our MAP testing was postponed
to this Friday due to computer updates. Students will take the test on the
computers. Please make sure students go to bed early on Thursday and have a
good breakfast Friday morning.
We had a strong start to announcements
this week! We will rotate every week through the three classes.
Our week in learning
This week, students will learn about the idiom
“Count your blessings”. Students will recite “The Eagle” on Wednesday, 8/29. As
a routine, students will have two weeks to memorize their poems. This will be a
regular rotation and the recite date will be on the “Due Dates” section of the
board. We will learn about the poem “The Tyger”.
Students will continue learning Greek and Latin
roots, learning grex,omnis, amphi, and ambi. Students will have a weekly quiz
over these roots next week. Students should expect a similar roots quiz every
Wednesday.
In spalding, we will continue to work through the
rule pages. They will continue spalding homework using the words from these
rule pages. Our spalding tests are usually scheduled for Thursdays.
In Literature, we will read through the fifth
chapter in “Voyage of the Dawn Treader”. We will focus on summaries and
identifying and defining vocabulary words from the chapter. Students will read
through chapter 8 by the end of the week and learn about round, dynamic, and
static characters. Please note that not all classes will be in the same part of
the chapter every day, but should end the week on the same chapter.
In Writing and Grammar, students will review parts
of speech, types of sentences, and sentence diagramming. We will have our first
grammar test on Thursday, August 30th. The “Practice Quiz” homework should
serve as a study guide for students.
Students
will continue their study of the scientific method this week and begin learning
different methods of presenting their data. They will practice making bar
graphs to analyze the results from last week’s Sticky Tape Experiment, and
begin learning how to make a materials list and procedure for an experiment
they have already done. On Thursday, students will perform the Wet Penny
experiment in small groups and practice graphing and analyzing data.
We
will begin this week in history by playing the game pok-ta-pok, a game that was
played in Mayan civilizations where students will have to work on small teams
to get a ball in a basket without using their hands or feet. We will then shift
our focus to the Aztec civilizations and end on Friday beginning to study the
Inca civilizations. For U.S. Geography on Wednesday we will learn about the
States in the South.
In
math, we will continue our new unit on “More Calculations with Whole Numbers”.
We will look at the distributive property, and mental math. Please note that we
will have frequent quizzes in math. When a “b” quiz comes home for homework,
that means there will likely be a quiz the next day. This means there will be
frequent, low stakes math quizzes. We will continue math groups on Wednesday,
8:00-9:15.
