Naaktgeboren's Class Blog

Greetings Parents, I hope you are enjoying your weekend. One good thing about living in the West is that the Superbowl starts pretty early so children should be well rested for the next day. That will be important because this week, our students, school wide, will be taking some assessments to see the progress they are making. It would benefit them if you ensured that they went to bed early enough to get a good nights rest and a good breakfast. Here is an overview of the lessons for the week. Language Arts Poem "The Charge of the Light Brigade" (stanza 1-2), by Alfred Lord Tennyson Idiom "Let bygones by bygones." Spalding We will be learning new words and reviewing our phonograms. A number of students are seeing decreasing scores on their spelling assessments that we take each Friday. I send these home each week following. Please note the challenges your child is having. If you see that he or she is doing more poorly that usually, make sure that the ...

Greetings Parents, Tomorrow I will be returning four quizzes. Please review these with your child. Spelling: The class average is 32/34. Phonograms: The class average is 9/10. History: The class average is 13/15. There were a few students who did not turn this in. I emailed you if this was your child. Many students also lost points for a lack of effort on the second part. One thing I have been really trying to stress to my students is the importance of always doing your very best. Many students gave minimal effort and received a minimal score. Math: The class average is 65/78. I also want to provide you with a overall look at how the class preformed; so all of the students' grades are listed from least to greatest. I hope this allows you to see how your child is doing compared to his or her peers in a better what than just looking at the average. 37 0.474358974 49 0.628205128 53 ...

Greetings Parents, I hope you are enjoying your weekend. Here are the lessons for next week. Language Arts Poem : “The Charge of the Light Brigade (stanza 1),” by Alfred Lord Tennyson Idiom : “Last straw” Spalding : We will be learning 30 new words and reviewing the phonograms. They will be taking the normal assessment on Friday. Writing and Grammar : We will continue our work of summarizing and copying from dictation. We are also adding comprehension activities. In grammar we are continuing our refining of diagramming sentences and will be looking at compound verbs. Literature : In literature we are reading The Jungle Book . There are a number of reading group days that fall on different days each week. Be sure to see if there are days available for you to come in and participate. There were also a few students who have not brought in their copy of the book. Please ensure that your student has his or her copy for class. Math We finished our study o...

Greetings Parents, Here is a message from the headmasters about Great Hearts Day, Friday, February 13 th is Great Hearts Day! We have reserved this special day to focus on the virtue of friendship and discussion on the traits that make a great-hearted student. Teachers are planning interactive and fun activities around these topics, and time will be set aside for students to make hand-made Great Hearts Day cards for their classmates, highlighting their virtuous qualities and invaluable friendship. Classroom Parents will assist the teacher in arranging a short celebration with snacks and activities.   Archway Classical Academy does its best to introduce students to an academic culture that leaves popular culture at the door.  The time we have with our students is so valuable, and there are so many great ideas, people, music, and art from the ages that we want to introduce them to. Therefore, we want to keep the focus of Valentine’s Day on friendship and what it means to b...

Greetings Parents, I wanted to give you two quick notes. 1. There is a math test tomorrow and your child should have a packet to help them prepare. Be sure to ask them if they have any issues. In class today, it seemed like most students were prepared. 2. Tomorrow, the PSO is selling treats during lunch. Each item is $0.50 I believe. Best, Michael Naaktgeboren

Greetings Parents, Today, I am returning two quizzes that the students took yesterday: science and literature. The literature quiz was a straight forwards vocabulary quiz with a short dictionary quiz. The science quiz assessed the students' knowledge of key vocabulary and had a short answer question. On both of these quizzes, the students did more poorly than normal. Many third graders have not gained the maturity to study on their own. When there is a quiz, I put on the whiteboard that they are to study for that particular quiz. It may be necessary for many of you to look through your child's planner each night to see if they have a quiz to prepare for. They may also need coaching on how to study, whether that is rewriting the notes, making note cards, or some other studying method. If you need any support, please let me know. Best,

Greetings Parents, I hope you have enjoyed the long weekend. On this day, we celebrate the progress we have made as a nation and the great efforts of Dr. King and those like him. May we hope that there will be some among this generation who will stand up for righteousness and peace among men. Here are the lessons for the week. Language Arts Poem : "The Night Has a Thousand Eyes," by Francis William Bourdillon Idiom : "His bark is worse than his bite." Spalding : We will be reviewing the phonograms and learning 34 new words. Literature : The students will take a quiz over literary terms on Tuesday and begin  The Jungle Book.  Please have students bring their book on Tuesday. Writing and Grammar : The students will be refining their summarizing skills while reviewing commas, prepositions, and conjunctions. Math The students will be introduced to kilometers and how to add and subtract compound units (1km 500m + 750m = 2km 250m). They will finish the...

Greetings Parents, We sent home the latest math test with the students yesterday. Part of their homework for the weekend is to correct the problems they missed and to return the test on Tuesday. We did not put this in their agenda, so please ensure that they do this. There is also a place for you to sign. Please sign the document and list any comments you might have. Best, Michael Naaktgeboren

Dear Parents, The next book we will be reading in class is The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling. As instruction on this book begins next week, please ensure your student brings his or her copy to school by Wednesday next week. This classic is a beautifully told story that is rich in plot and character and is guaranteed to promote many wonderful conversations in the classroom about virtues. There are a few details in The Jungle Book that I want to let you know about before we begin to read, in case you would like to discuss them at home with your child. Mowgli, the main character, is involved in battles with different groups of animals in the jungle, and he hunts and skins a tiger. The discussions we have about these topics in class, of course, will be handled with a great deal of sensitivity toward personal beliefs. Please feel free to reach out to me with any questions or concerns. Best, Michael Naaktgeboren

Greetings Parents, Ms. Prestipino, an Archway staff member and the Quintus Camp Director, asked that we inform you about Quintus Camp, which is a week long camp that takes place over Spring Break. Please see the information below. Looking for a fun, enriching program for your student over Archway Arete Spring Break? We have the answer: Great Hearts is pleased to announce Quintus Camp, taking place this Spring Break!   Designed for parents who want or need options for their students during school breaks, Quintus Camp is an enrichment camp with time for play, learning, projects, and activities - all in a fun "camp" atmosphere that will appeal to your grade K-6 student. With flexible packages for parents (ranging from half-days to full and extended days), Quintus Camp is the perfect choice for school break programming. Quintus will run Monday through Friday, 7:45 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. at Archway Arete March 16th-20th.  If you have any questions, or need a copy of the regist...

Greetings Parents, Here is a message the administration has asked me to relay about fingerprinting. This is very important if you plan on participating in our classroom during future events. If you have not been fingerprinted, here is your chance!  Our Great Hearts Human Resource Department has been gracious enough to schedule a separate event for all of our Archway Arete and Prep families to have an opportunity to be fingerprinted. The event is scheduled for Thursday, January 22nd, 8:15-10:15 a.m. in the library and is open to all family members of students who are currently enrolled at Arete. We are asking for a $20 donation toward the school to offset the cost. We encourage your family and extended family to have this done if they are interested in volunteering for events at the school or being a part of your child's classroom. Please feel free to contact Office Manager Rachele Holcomb at (480) 222-4233, or via e-mail at rholcomb@archwayarete.org with any ques...

Greetings Parents, As many of you have heard, my plumbing was out last week and that caused my life to be a little crazy. Hopefully, moving forward things will run a little smoothly and I won’t miss any more days. Here are the lessons for the week. Language Arts Poem : “The Violet” by Jane Taylor Spalding : We will be learning 30 new words and reviewing our phonograms. Please ensure that your child is studying the phonograms regularly as we return from break because a number of children struggled with this last week. Literature : We continue or reading of The Little Prince and discussion the components of fiction, such as setting, characters, plot, and so on. I have noticed a number of students seem disinterested in The Little Prince during our reading times. They are struggling to answer simple comprehension questions after the lesson. Please encourage your child to ask questions during our reading times if they become confused by the story. Writing and ...

Greetings Parents, We have some needs in our classroom and it would be helpful if donations could be made. First, the pencils you provided to the class have expired. I try to provide two new pencils a month to the students, but can no longer do that. If you would like to provide pencils, you can find them on Amazon here . We have also entered the cold season for a usually warm desert. With that, sniffles and colds have hit. That makes us in need of tissue. The administration has also asked the staff to be more attentive to student cleanliness. They would like for students to be able to wipe their hands regularly. For this, they have given us the approved brand of sanitation hand wipes. If you would like to provide these for the class, you can find them on Amazon here . Best, Michael Naaktgeboren

Greetings Parents, As I continue to evaluate how to best tutor students who are having difficulties in content areas, I am changing the tutoring schedule again. Below in the new schedule. Monday and Tuesday : Math Wednesday : Writing Thursday : History and Science Friday : By Appointment I would now like to address specific things that we will be working on during each tutoring session, and what we will not be covering. Math During math we will be focusing on concepts and modeling. We will not be working on math facts. We do reinforce the students understanding of math facts during our Rocket Math times, volunteers who help with math facts, and at other random points. However, the majority of this work needs to be taking place at home. Writing Most of the students have made good progress in their reading skills, but we need to continue to develop our ability at reading to summarize and writing freely. This includes developing ideas into written words and how to properl...

Greetings Parents, Ms. Miller and I would like to thank you for your kind gifts. Your kindness and generosity is truly remarkable. It warms my heart to consider the sacrifices you have made on out behalf. Though my heart is gladdened by your gifts, I have greater joy in the grace you give by allowing me to be your child’s teacher. It is a truly remarkable act of charity and trust. As the father of a growing daughter, my heart is made more and more aware of the tremendous confidence you have placed in me. I do not take that lightly. So, thank you! You are wonderful people and I’m blessed to have you as parents of my students. I hope your break has been enjoyable and restful. The break was a blessing for my family as we have now moved in, mostly, to our new home and celebrated Christmas with family. Yet, I am ready to be back with my students. Two weeks seems short, but I have grown fond of them and have begun to miss them. I hope that they are prepared to return. Here are t...