Greeting Parents,
I apologize for this being a little late. I would like to let you know what your students would be studying this week, and I wanted to briefly speak to traffic.
Language Arts
This week we are focusing our Language Arts energy to the Spalding program. Spalding is our phonics and spelling program. The reason Great Hearts chose Spalding is because of its ground up approach. Today, students learned the basics of how to sit, hold a pencil, and place their arms on their desk. In many schools, these things are taken for granted, but as a Great Hearts school, Archway Arete takes everything seriously.
This week the students will be relearning how to print the letters of the alphabet and the sounds they make. Along with the sounds of individual letters, they will be learning the sounds of letters put together that create a new sound. We call these phonograms. These phonograms serve as the primary building blocks for understanding spelling and reading. Thus, they serve as the bulk of week one's language arts instruction.
Singapore Math
Singapore Math is built on the phrase, "I do, we do, you do." This week in math we started by reviewing concepts that students should have mastered in second grade, such as rounding, addition, subtraction, multiplication, sequence, and place value. As was expected, many of our students did very well. Some of our students need some help. That is what is great about Singapore Math. It places a large emphasis on the three aspects of math: concrete, pictorial, and abstract. That means students will have something in their hands almost everyday, which is the concrete phase. They will manipulate pieces of paper, blocks, or other objects to solve math problems. The second phase is pictorial, where students will not have items in their hands, but will use images to make since of math. The last phase is the abstract phase. In this phase, students will simply be given a math equation, 4 + 4 = x. Though this problem is simple to your third graders, a kindergartner might struggle. That is why we show them, work with them, and then allow them individual practice before expecting them to solve something abstract.
Science
At Archway Arete, we are dedicated to a well-rounded eduction. That is why our students' subjects are music, French, art, PE, spelling, language, writing, literature, math, science and history. That is a lot of subjects for a elementary age student. We have high expectations for our students. However, with this being the first year of Archway Arete, our students come from many schools and are across the board in all areas. I was particularly impressed by our students' knowledge of multiplication. Many of our students need some work with their penmanship. That being said, science and history are not being given as much attention as we would have liked this week. For science, we are introducing the scientific method. I want students to feel like scientist in science class. So we will be doing some hands on activities toward the end of the week as we learn to observe in a scientific way.
History
Like science, history is being shortened in order to help bring all students to a level ground in math and language arts. We will be introducing geography. We will be learning about the oceans and continents, as well as nations, states, and cities. The lesson will continue into next week and students will start to have a better understanding of the globe in terms of geography.
Specials
Each specials teacher should have a website up and running soon. As they give me that link, it will be included it in the specials tab at the top of the page. As of right now, the French teacher is the only one to have given me his link.
Traffic
Traffic was not pleasant today. We new it would be tough. I did not expect to stand in the sun for over two hours. Please understand that parents waiting in line for an hour and a half is not the goal. Our goal is for all students to be picked up within 30 minutes of release time. However, it will take a little time to get there. Here are a few suggestions that will help with that process:
I apologize for this being a little late. I would like to let you know what your students would be studying this week, and I wanted to briefly speak to traffic.
Language Arts
This week we are focusing our Language Arts energy to the Spalding program. Spalding is our phonics and spelling program. The reason Great Hearts chose Spalding is because of its ground up approach. Today, students learned the basics of how to sit, hold a pencil, and place their arms on their desk. In many schools, these things are taken for granted, but as a Great Hearts school, Archway Arete takes everything seriously.
This week the students will be relearning how to print the letters of the alphabet and the sounds they make. Along with the sounds of individual letters, they will be learning the sounds of letters put together that create a new sound. We call these phonograms. These phonograms serve as the primary building blocks for understanding spelling and reading. Thus, they serve as the bulk of week one's language arts instruction.
Singapore Math
Singapore Math is built on the phrase, "I do, we do, you do." This week in math we started by reviewing concepts that students should have mastered in second grade, such as rounding, addition, subtraction, multiplication, sequence, and place value. As was expected, many of our students did very well. Some of our students need some help. That is what is great about Singapore Math. It places a large emphasis on the three aspects of math: concrete, pictorial, and abstract. That means students will have something in their hands almost everyday, which is the concrete phase. They will manipulate pieces of paper, blocks, or other objects to solve math problems. The second phase is pictorial, where students will not have items in their hands, but will use images to make since of math. The last phase is the abstract phase. In this phase, students will simply be given a math equation, 4 + 4 = x. Though this problem is simple to your third graders, a kindergartner might struggle. That is why we show them, work with them, and then allow them individual practice before expecting them to solve something abstract.
Science
At Archway Arete, we are dedicated to a well-rounded eduction. That is why our students' subjects are music, French, art, PE, spelling, language, writing, literature, math, science and history. That is a lot of subjects for a elementary age student. We have high expectations for our students. However, with this being the first year of Archway Arete, our students come from many schools and are across the board in all areas. I was particularly impressed by our students' knowledge of multiplication. Many of our students need some work with their penmanship. That being said, science and history are not being given as much attention as we would have liked this week. For science, we are introducing the scientific method. I want students to feel like scientist in science class. So we will be doing some hands on activities toward the end of the week as we learn to observe in a scientific way.
History
Like science, history is being shortened in order to help bring all students to a level ground in math and language arts. We will be introducing geography. We will be learning about the oceans and continents, as well as nations, states, and cities. The lesson will continue into next week and students will start to have a better understanding of the globe in terms of geography.
Specials
Each specials teacher should have a website up and running soon. As they give me that link, it will be included it in the specials tab at the top of the page. As of right now, the French teacher is the only one to have given me his link.
Traffic
Traffic was not pleasant today. We new it would be tough. I did not expect to stand in the sun for over two hours. Please understand that parents waiting in line for an hour and a half is not the goal. Our goal is for all students to be picked up within 30 minutes of release time. However, it will take a little time to get there. Here are a few suggestions that will help with that process:
- Enter the campus from the entrance in front of the main office building.
- Only turn right when exiting.
- Have your student's name placard posted high in the windshield. Please use either the visor or tape it up. This will help with getting students to the car quickly.
- Allow your student to practice buckling up in the car. They should think of this as a race. Speed is important. A 30 second delay doesn't sound like much, but if it happens with 540 students, the time adds up quickly.
- Carpool is a viable option, but please make sure that all members of the carpool have been approved on the student's backpack tag. We cannot let students enter a car without that. It is for student safety.
Overall, we just ask for your patience. The plan we have in place is a good plan and is working at other Archway schools. We are just all new and need time to practice and get better. We also ask that you have the mentality that speed is important when you are loading your child. Our staff is very friendly and wants to talk with parents when asked a question, but pickup isn't the time for that. Please don't place our staff in that situation. Simply greetings them is sufficient.
I look forward to the rest of the week with your children.
Best,
Michael