The Headlines

The Headlines

 

It has been a very busy week in 5B!  We are delving deep into our curriculum and really getting to know one another.  It was so nice to see those of you that came for curriculum night on Thursday.  I hope you found the content helpful and came away excited for all that your scholar will be learning this year.  For those of you that did not make it, please take a few moments to look over the PowerPoint presentation and contact me if you have any further questions.

 

Math:  We are now in our first unit on estimation and rounding.  This week we practiced estimating with whole numbers up to the billions and also reviewed finding least common multiples and greatest common factors.  Next week we will estimate with multiplication and division up to the thousands place. 

Language Arts: We are still reading Prince Caspian and the students are really enjoying it; it is setting an excellent foundation for our next literature study of Voyage of the Dawn Treader.  In writing we began our study of diagramming sentences by learning about different types of pronouns and their jobs.  We will have a quiz over this next week.  We also will start Writing with Ease, focusing on summarizing and copy work.  There will be NO spelling words this week, but please start practicing the phonogram cards.  We will start quizzing over these soon.

Science: Scientific Inquiry tests have been graded and will be returned for corrections to be made on Monday. Half credit will be given for each correct answer once it is returned.  We began our Chemistry unit by learning about matter and elements.  Next week directions will come home for their element model.  This will be completed at home and presented in class.

 

History: This was the first week of our new unit, Ancient Civilizations.  We are beginning with the Mayans and next week will concentrate on the Incas.  We will be learning about ancient life and will have some writing assignments to go along with this unit.

 

Reminders:

This is a repeat statement for those of you who attended curriculum night, but I believe it is worth re-stating.  The curriculum at Great Hearts is of the highest quality and can often be quite challenging.  Therefore, the grades your child is bringing home may not be what you are used to seeing, please don’t panic!  We offer extra tutoring before and after school if needed and are here to help your child succeed.  This is also an excellent opportunity to teach them how important it is to study and be prepared for class J.

 

Important Dates:

  Picture Day: Thursday Sept. 4

  Spalding and Singapore Night: September 17th, 6-8 pm

Spalding Update

Your student may come home telling you that we had a guest teacher who gave the Spalding lesson.  This was Margie Clouse, who is the director of our program.  Margie has thirty-five years of experience teaching Spalding and is quite an expert!

We are taking her advice and doing a little back-tracking in our lessons.  We will spend this week learning some of the basic phonogram rules and patterns and will not be giving any new words for testing. 

The good news for your scholars is that they don't have a spelling test this week :)

Hopefully we will be back into our spelling words next week!

Mrs. Anderson

The Headlines, August 25

 

As we begin our third week we are really delving into our curriculum.  The kids are working really hard and I am really enjoying watching them learn.  This week will be busy as well!

Math:  We finished our unit on fractions on Friday.  This unit was designed to be a review of fractions, however as this is our first year in our new school we have students from many different levels.  We took a quiz on Friday and it was a challenge for many, so we will look over it today in class and their homework will be to make corrections.  I am available for tutoring at 7:20 am and from 2:45-3:15 so if your child needs extra help in this area, I encourage you to take advantage of that.  This week we will be starting Singapore Math, beginning with a unit on Place Value and Estimation. 

Language Arts: We are continuing our read aloud of Prince Caspian, the kids are really enjoying it, the goal is to finish the book this week and begin Voyage of the Dawn Treader next week. In writing we are working on summarizing and will also be doing some simple sentence diagraming.  After meeting with our Spalding expert, Margie Close on Friday we have added a few more words to the spelling list.  So, we will now have 45 words per week instead of 30, many of these words are review, but we will be learning the phonetic rules as we go.  For their homework the student need to write the words three times each, with markings and rules.  It is also important that the words are dictated to them rather than simply copying them.  We will go over this in depth at our Spalding night, so please be sure to attend!

Science: We finished our unit on Scientific Inquiry and will begin Chemistry this week.  Their test will be on Wednesday and they have a study guide which will help them review. Part of this unit is creating a model of an element, so be on the lookout for the instructions for that to be coming home this week.

History: Our test over the World Lakes is Tuesday.  They should have brought home their study guides and vocabulary over the weekend, next up is the Mayans.

Important Dates:
Curriculum Night, Thursday August 28,

 

Curriculum Night Schedule

 

6:00-6:25:	Welcome and opening remarks by Mr. Gillingham and Ms. Pantalena (Gym)
	A-L	M-Z
6:30-7:10	Homeroom	Specials in MPR
7:10-7:55	Specials in MPR	Homeroom

 

Reminders:

If you are ordering lunch please be aware that lunches must be pre-ordered by Tuesday at midnight for the following week.  This helps us ensure that we have enough food.

 

Thank you for all your donations.  We now have a class set of whiteboard thanks to Monsieur Arnold.

 

Thanks again for all the support you give your students and the extra help you provide. Please know I am always a phone call or email away!

 

Have a great week,

Mrs. Anderson

 

 

 

August 15, Headlines

The Headlines

 

Congratulations to you and your scholars; we have successfully completed the first week of the school year!  It has been a pleasure getting to know each of your children this week and watching them come out of their shells.  We spent a great deal of time learning our classroom procedures and guidelines, but we also were able to dive into the curriculum. 

 

Each week I will post my newsletter to the blog and you will have the opportunity to read about the happening sin our classroom.  As always, please let me know if you have any questions or concerns, we are a team!

 

Math:  We started our fraction review this week, beginning with adding and ending with multiplying.  We will continue with dividing and simplifying fractions next week as well as practicing using fractions in word problems.  Be on the lookout for math journals to come home later in the week in preparation for the fraction quiz.  After this we will jump into Singapore Math.

 

Literature:  Our first literature selection will be Voyage of the Dawn Treader, if you have not sent this in please do so next week.  In preparation for our study we reviewed The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe with a power point presentation and began reading Prince Caspian aloud.  We will finish this next week.

Writing:  Our writing and grammar curriculum is First Language Lessons and Writing with Ease by Susan Wise-Bauer.  Our first focus is writing clear and concise summaries as well as practicing correct comma use through the dictation.  We will continue this next week.   We also learned our first three Greek and Latin root words, Canis, Felis, and Leon ask your child to fill you in on their meanings!

Spelling:  We started Spalding phonics this week by learning the first 26 phonograms and practicing both manuscript and cursive writing.  Next week we will continue with the first 50 phonograms and will receive our first spelling list.  The test will be next Friday.

History:  This week we began our world lake study.  We started with the meaning of a lake and learned about African World Lakes.  Next week we will travel to South America, North America, and Europe.  We will also begin our world lake postcard project.
 
Science:  Our first unit of study is the Scientific Process, we completed a short experiment focusing on observations and filled out a study guide describing the steps.  Next, we will be experimenting with paper airplanes and will finish this unit.

 

Reminders: 

 

*Beginning next week, August 20^th, the Archway Arete school day will end at 1:45 p.m. on Wednesdays rather than 1:15 like we tried this week.  The one hour gap meant that our cross-over families (parents with children in both Archway and Prep) either needed to pay for Study Club or wait in two pick-up lines back-to-back.  This is not a fair decision we asked you to make, and we sincerely apologize.  Our aim was to create more time for our faculty meetings, but it is not worth the burden it placed on cross-over families.  The Prep school day will still end at 2:20 p.m. on Wednesdays.  This means that the gap between our release times will be the same as every other school day, and families can pick up both their Prep and Archway children on the Archway (west) side at 2:20 p.m.  There is no longer any need for study club, and we will refund money to those who have purchased memberships.  Please allow a couple weeks to process these refunds.  
 

*We have PE Mondays and Thursdays and Wednesdays rotate.  I will do my best to remind your students when we have PE on Wednesdays, however all shoes worn to school should be non-scuff bottoms.  Let me know if you have any questions regarding this.

 

*Please send in an extra folder for music if you have not done so and a file box for our Greek and Latin roots.  I apologize that this was not on the supply list and if this is a problem for you just let me know.

 

Important Dates:

*August 22- Half Day, student dismissal, 11:45

*August 28 – Fifth grade curriculum night, 6 pm

 

Wish List:

 

 *Thank you so much for sending in Kleenex!  We have already gone through a few boxes.

*White Boards!!!  These are wonderful to use in the classroom for review of spelling and math, just to name a few.  If you have extras from years past that you are not using I would greatly appreciate the donation. 

 

Thank you for all your support at home and for the lovely teacher’s gift of the Arete bag.  I am looking forward to wonderful year with all of you!!

 

Sincerely,

Shauna Anderson

We have almost made it through an entire week!  I hope that you can all come and help celebrate our new campus tomorrow night at the school social.  There will be food, good company and free ice cream!  Click here for more information: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BxSuyHM9YtLNZWVtSUJmbjYwdTg/edit?usp=sharing

I will be sending out the link to our class newsletter tomorrow, so be on the lookout for that as well.

Hope to see you all tomorrow!

We had a wonderful first day at Archway Arete!  Our young scholars were eager to learn and had outstanding positive attitudes.  We spent most of our day getting acquainted with one another, organizing school supplies, and familiarizing ourselves with the procedures we will use to keep our classroom in order. 

All students came home with a packet of information about our classroom.  Please take the time to look this over with your child and return it as soon as possible.

I have a few housekeeping notes to share with you as we begin our first week:

*Lunches should be brought to school or bought online before school.  Follow the link under "Important Places" if you would like to order lunch.

*Some school supplies will be returning home with your student today, please keep these extras at home and if they are needed during the school year I will let you know.

*The Harper Laurel Wreath book, phonogram cards, and the classics books should be kept at home.  I will let you know when the books are needed.

*Folders are needed for music and homework.  The list only asked for one folder, but if possible please send in another as well.  If you are unable to get one I can provide it if needed.

*We are in need of Kleenex! It would be greatly appreciated if you could send a box in with your child this week

Your kids are wonderful and I am so excited to spend the year with them.  Please email me if you have any questions or concerns and thank you for all your support!

-Shauna
sanderson@archwayarete.org

Dear Fifth Grade Families,

I want to first thank you for the privilage of teaching your children. As a parent myself, I know how important a teacher is in the life of a child.

I am thrilled to have found Archway Arete this year. I started my teaching career in 2000 in the Kansas City area where I graduated from Emporia State University with a degree in elementary education and a minor in Spanish . I then had the opportunity to stay home with my children. In the interim I practiced a different type of teaching, working as a personal trainer and group fitness instructor. However, my love of children and education drew me back to my first calling.

I married my husband Shawn in 2001 and we have three children, Maya, 11; Isaiah, 9; and Will, 6. After living in Overland Park, Kansas for almost twenty years, our family moved to Phoenix in 2010 and made our home in Ahwatukee. We have fallen in love with the beauty of the mountains and sun.

When I'm not working I like to stay active; I enjoy all types of fitness, from running to Zumba to Yoga! I'm an avid reader, and after years of talking and contemplating, finally decided this year to start a book club. We are active in our church community as well, serving in the children's ministry and in small groups. The rest of our time is spent carting kids to baseball, volleyball, football, dance, and play practice. I am constantly in awe of how fast life seems to move!

Teaching is my passion , and I am honored to be a part of Great Hearts Academy. My goal this year is to help your scholar develop a love of learning and to deepen their appreciation of the beauty and wonder that surrounds us. My hope is that this last year of grammar school would be a launching point that prepares both their hearts and minds for what lies ahead. I look forward to a fruitful and passionate year with you and your child!

Sincerely,

Shauna Anderson