Naaktgeboren's Class Blog

Greetings Families, I hope you have enjoyed your child's break from school and our opportunity to give thanks as individuals and as a nation. The Roman philosopher Cicero wisely noted, "Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all the others." We are blessed as a nation to have such an occasion set aside for such a noble deed. As I reflect on what I am thankful for, there is a great deal. I am thankful, like you, for my children. I am also grateful for the students I have been blessed to educate. As I reflect on my love for my own children and the great duty I have to raise them, I consider the responsibility placed on your shoulders to care for your child and the decisions you make for his or her good. With that in mind, I am humbled that you have considered me worthy to be your child's teacher. I am blessed and grateful that you have extended such a grace to me. Thank you for allowing me to teach your child and for the support and encou...

Dear Archway Parents and Students, This year Archway Arete will be competing in the  Scripps Spelling Bee ! We are excited to refine our spelling and public speaking skills in this friendly and fun competition. The timeline for the spelling bee program is as follows: Mon. 11/16 – Spelling Bee information distributed to Parents and Students Tues. 11/17– Optional spelling practice for 1st and 2nd graders in Mr. Posner's room from 3:10-4:10 Tues. 11/24 – Optional spelling practice for 3rd and 4th graders in Mr. Posner's room from 3:10-4:10 Tues. 12/1 – Optional spelling practice for 5th graders in Mr. Posner's room from 3:10-4:10 Friday 12/4 – Each child will take a grade-level qualifier test in their classroom. The test will be a selection of 20-25 words from the challenging Scripps 100 word list for your child’s grade level. The top five scorers in each class will be selected to participate in their oral classroom spelling bee. 12/7-12/10 – Oral classr...

Greetings Families, Due to the shortened week, there will be no assessments. The holiday break is also an R&R time. Language Arts: We will have a shortened Spalding word list this week; we will not have an assessment due to the two day school week. We are still creating summaries about Ancient China in writing class and focusing on prepositional phrases in grammar. We continue to follow Pinocchio in his journey toward virtue in chapter 28-29. Math: We will continue our multiplication and division unit by focusing on 9s. History: We will be looking further into the life of Julius Caesar by creating a mini book on the most important events in his life. Science: We will be discussing the different types of muscle in the human body and their importance. Best, Michael Naaktgeboren

Greetings Families, This year, our students are taking a typing class that will be once a week. This class is to prepare scholars for online standardized testing and for the many academic, social, and vocational expectations of the future. The work we do in class should allow them to be adequate typist, but many students will have a desire to move beyond that level. Students are able to access the online typing program at home if they would like. This is not a expected or requirement. Please click here  to view the login information. Your child should know how to access the lessons if they were present today. Best, Michael Naaktgeboren

Dear Archway Parents and Students, This year Archway Arete will be competing in the  Scripps Spelling Bee ! We are excited to refine our spelling and public speaking skills in this friendly and fun competition. The timeline for the spelling bee program is as follows: Mon. 11/16 – Spelling Bee information distributed to Parents and Students Tues. 11/17– Optional spelling practice for 1st and 2nd graders in Mr. Posner's room from 3:10-4:10 Tues. 11/24 – Optional spelling practice for 3rd and 4th graders in Mr. Posner's room from 3:10-4:10 Tues. 12/1 – Optional spelling practice for 5th graders in Mr. Posner's room from 3:10-4:10 Friday 12/4 – Each child will take a grade-level qualifier test in their classroom. The test will be a selection of 20-25 words from the challenging Scripps 100 word list for your child’s grade level. The top five scorers in each class will be selected to participate in their oral classroom spelling bee. 12/7-12/10 – Oral classr...

Greetings Families, As we move into week six, the math test on Monday is the biggest things students should be preparing for. In a previous post I suggested that your help your child prepare for the test using Ms. Caro's solutions. You can find her solutions here . As important as it is that students know how to solve word problems using bar models, it is equally important that they know their math facts for 1-7, and 10. There are a number of apps that can be used to help with this: iPad and Android  (I have not used all of these apps, and no app should be used by a child without a parent previewing it first).  We also have the Winter Concert coming up this week. Please be sure to note the dress code for this event. It is also off campus , which is a change. To allow students to focus on the concert, students will not have homework on Wednesday.  I want to say thank you to all of the parents who have provided items for our classroom. We are currently set on tissu...

Greetings Families, Over the weekend, students should be working on pages 129-131 in their math workbooks. These pages focus on word problems and will be an important tool to prepare students for Monday's test. To help you ensure your child is prepared for the test on Monday, Ms. Caro has provided her solutions to the problems. Please review your child's work with these solutions. Click here to see her solutions. Best, Michael Naaktgeboren

Greetings Families, Today, your child will be bringing home a take home quiz. We have not covered all of the necessary information to complete this quiz, but will by tomorrow. The quiz is due on Monday. I would suggest that students spend some time answering the questions they can tonight to reduce the amount that must be done over the weekend. Please check your child's work to ensure that they have completed the quiz, as a few students did not have their science quiz completed for today and are missing recess to finish it. Best, Michael Naaktgeboren

Greetings Families, At the beginning of the second quarter, we began having students fill out reading logs to show what they are reading. A number of students are failing to turn these in and it will significantly hurt their grade if they are not doing their nightly reading and recording it. We also began having students take home books from a special class library, which includes some pop culture items. Students are required to read at least three of these books a quarter and fill out a brief report. A number of students have completed three books, some even more. However, a few students have not completed one book report. With only six weeks left, please ensure that your child is keeping track to finish their reports by the end of the quarter. Lastly, their will be a math quiz on Monday, November 16. This math quiz will focus on multiplication and division using the numbers 0-7 and 10. Please have your child reviewing these math facts on a regular basis. At conferences I was ab...

Greetings Families, We are moving into week 5 of ten. Over the past couple of weeks students have been demonstrating their learning, or lack there of, on assessments. It is very important that students are spending time at home preparing for these assessments and many will need your encouragement for them to dedicate the time necessary for them to do well. I know this is a major shift from second to third grade, but as the year progresses the expectations are increasing as we prepare students for 4 th grade. Assessments at a Glance Monday: Science Take-Home Test goes home Thursday: WPR and Take home Science Test is due Friday: Spelling Test Lessons Language Arts Pinocchio's adventures continue; Carlo Collodi had quite the sense of humor and there is much laughter in the classroom. In grammar we will create synonym rolls and antonym apple pies, we will also continue to review prepositions and objects of the preposition. Our Spalding word list will consist of 2...

Greetings Families, As noted in the weekly lessons post, there is a science quiz Friday. This quiz will likely need a lot of study time, which is why we are providing the study guide for it today. The students will be required to memorize all of the major bones or bone groupings in the human body. We have and will continue to review these in class this whole week. Tonight we are sending a study sheet home to help them prepare, but they may need extra copies. To supply that need, I am providing a digital copy that you can find here . When printing, the second page is the only page they should need as they have a copy with the answers in their binders. Best, Michael Naaktgeboren

Greetings Families, Thank you so much for your support during the book fair. We could not have had the success we did without the PSO's support and your purchasing of books. It was pretty great having to of the raffle winners from 3A. If you were not able to come in last week, we are continuing the book fair online. As expected, there are many more book available online than we had on hand. Click here to visit. Best, Michael Naaktgeboren

This year the Winter Concerts will be held on Wednesday, November 18th at the Higley Center for the Performing Arts at  4132 E. Pecos Road Gilbert, AZ 85295.   The K-2 Concert will begin at 5:30 p.m. with the students arriving at 4:45 p.m. and the 3-5 concert will begin at 7:00 p.m. with students arriving at 6:30 p.m. The attire for the concerts will be as follows: Boys:  Black pants, white dress shirt, black dress shoes, and black socks. Hair should be combed neatly. Girls:  Black skirt, white top, black tights, and black dress shoes. Hair should be pulled away from the face with no distracting adornment. Please follow the Archway Arete dress code for guidelines on jewelry.