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