Updates and announcements

We have so many exciting extra celebrations and events coming up! Be sure to keep an eye on the “Important Dates” section of the blog for a quick view.

We are transitioning out of Spalding instruction for a short time in these months leading up to AZMerit. We will continue formal Spalding instruction in April.

Athletic Field Day is Friday, January 31st from 8:30-11:00 for K-2 classes and from 12:00-2:30 for grades 3-5!  Each year classes are assigned a Greek City State for their team.  This year, your child’s team is Corinth, and our team color is red. Your child may wear a plain red shirt (no logos) other than class section or Greek City State and athletic pants or shorts. We ask that students do not wear leggings as a standard rule for both the Archway and Prep side Athletic Field Day attire. There will be no school lunch offered on Athletic Field Day.  Please send your child to school with a lunch.

Field Day is this Friday. We have some wonderful volunteers to help shadow and I am still looking for a kind parent to donate a snack for the class. Please email me if you are interested.

Our field trip to the Renaissance Fair on Tuesday, February 25th is quickly approaching! We will send home permission slips this week and ask for volunteers. The number of chaperones is limited due to recent changes in the Renaissance Fair Kid’s Day rules, schools must pre-purchase tickets before the festival. This keeps our scholars safe, as not anyone can just walk in on Kid’s Day. We will send an email asking for chaperones on Wednesday this week and chaperones will be chosen on a first come-first serve basis.

Friday, February 14th is Great Hearts Day! We have reserved this special day to focus on the virtue of friendship and celebrate the traits that make a great-hearted student. Teachers are planning interactive and fun activities centered around these topics. Archway Arete strives to cultivate a rich, academic environment rooted in the classical tradition. This many times requires popular culture to be left at the door. On that note, students will not be permitted to bring store-bought valentines, candy, or gifts to school. Thank you for partnering with us.

Our week in learning

Students will learn about the idiom “Til the cows come home.”

Students will learn about the roots primus, secundus, tertius, and quartus. Students will be quizzed over these next week. Students should expect a similar quiz every week. 

Students learned about the poem “The Arrow and the Song” on 1/15 and recite it on 1/29.

In Literature, students will read through chapter 15. There are periodic journal entries which are numbered, but do not happen after every chapter. Students will do journal entries 9 and 10 this week. Please send in the book as soon as possible. 

In Grammar, students will write their introductions and conclusions on Monday, and revise their papers on Tuesday in class. If you are interested in helping students edit and revise their essays, please reach out to Mrs. Lynch. Students will begin hand writing their final drafts on Thursday, then type their final drafts on Friday before Field Day. If you have any questions, please reach out to a teacher.

In science, we will continue our study of botany. Students will be quizzed Friday over plant life cycles. They will highlight which notes in their notebooks to study and will be allowed to use their notes for half the time allotted for the quiz. We will study the life cycle and gymnosperms and angiosperms this week, as well as studying the different parts of a flower and their functions. Study guides will now be due on the 10th, and the unit test will be on the 11th.

In history, we will finish our unit and discussion of African slavery. We will discuss when slaves were first brought from Africa by Europeans both back to their countries and to the Americas, what that journey entailed, and what life was like for slaves in those places. Study guides for Unit 6: Age of Exploration are due on Tuesday, January 28^th, when we will review the entire unit. The test is on Wednesday, January 29^th. If students need last minute help at home, they should consult the textbook online at https://www.coreknowledge.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/CKHG_G5_U3_AgeExploration_SR.pdf. We will end the week by starting Unit 9: Westward Expansion Before the Civil War, including an activity day centered around Daniel Boone.

In math, students continue our unit on decimals. This week, students will focus on dividing a decimal by 0.1 and 0.01, and review for their test on Thursday. Graph paper is extremely helpful for students to use to keep track of their decimals and place value. All students are allowed to use graph paper in class, on homework, and on tests. Students may request graph paper from their teachers. There will be math groups this week, Wednesday, 8:35-9:45.

When a “test b” (multiplication test) is assigned for homework, it contains questions very similar to a quiz the following day. We take a lot of low-stakes math quizzes in fifth grade. All math workbook assignments are half of every type of problem. Please keep in mind that students may do test corrections on any math quiz for partial credit (fill in the blank sheets, not multiple choice homework sheets).