Greetings Families, Europe Project Due Next Week
I hope you're off to a good weekend. The week was a little crazy with having Monday off and Friday being a half-day. I'm looking forward to a normal week this week. However, my life is about to get a little crazy as varsity girls basketball is about to start.
Before we jump into the lessons for next week, I wanted to touch on a handful of other important topics.
Winter Concern - November 20
Archway Arete will hold the Winter Concert at Higley Center for Performing Arts (4132 E Pecos Rd, Gilbert, AZ 85295) on Wednesday, November 20th. Kindergarten should arrive at 4:45 pm and 1st-2nd grade should arrive at 5:00 pm. The K-2 concert begins at 5:30 pm. Grades 3rd-5th should arrive at 6:30 pm and their concert begins at 6:45 pm. If your family has children in a lower and upper-grade level, please have the older child sit with your family until the end of the K-2 concert.
The dress attire for the concert 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.
The PSO normally has a uniform exchange to help families with putting together concert attire, but they needed to move the date of the exchange for the Prep's awesome playoff game! Unfortunately, the exchange is now after the concert, Nov. 20th. If you would like to use the uniform exchange, please email Deanna Carpenter at uniformexchangepso@gmail.com.
Homework Survey
PSO is excited to announce our Winter Festival coming December 7th from 11:00 am - 2:00 pm. This festival will be replacing our Fall Festival from previous years, though it will still have all the great activities, including a variety of bouncy houses, as well as food trucks and a vendor/craft fair. This year we are also adding a basket raffle that each grade level will be putting together. So watch out for an email from your classroom parents looking for donations from our community. Each grade level will have a different theme and we are hoping to reach out to the community for donations. The money raised from our Winter Festival goes back to our PSO, where we continue to support our staff daily in various ways. We hope to see all our families on December 7th. If you are a crafter or business owner and would like to have a booth at the festival, please reach out to Heather Bell for more information.
I hope you're off to a good weekend. The week was a little crazy with having Monday off and Friday being a half-day. I'm looking forward to a normal week this week. However, my life is about to get a little crazy as varsity girls basketball is about to start.
Before we jump into the lessons for next week, I wanted to touch on a handful of other important topics.
Winter Concern - November 20
Archway Arete will hold the Winter Concert at Higley Center for Performing Arts (4132 E Pecos Rd, Gilbert, AZ 85295) on Wednesday, November 20th. Kindergarten should arrive at 4:45 pm and 1st-2nd grade should arrive at 5:00 pm. The K-2 concert begins at 5:30 pm. Grades 3rd-5th should arrive at 6:30 pm and their concert begins at 6:45 pm. If your family has children in a lower and upper-grade level, please have the older child sit with your family until the end of the K-2 concert.
The dress attire for the concert 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.
The PSO normally has a uniform exchange to help families with putting together concert attire, but they needed to move the date of the exchange for the Prep's awesome playoff game! Unfortunately, the exchange is now after the concert, Nov. 20th. If you would like to use the uniform exchange, please email Deanna Carpenter at uniformexchangepso@gmail.com.
Homework Survey
Before I go over some of the data with you, I first want to say a big THANK YOU to those who participated in the survey. Twenty-nine out of thirty families responded (96.7%) unless a family or two had two submissions. Either way, that was way more than I had ever had before. Your input allows me to have a good picture of where my students are in terms of homework.
Let me go over the data with you. Probably the most important component is the number of minutes students are taking. When all of the responses are averaged, it looks like the average student is taking between 39-54 minutes to complete homework. However, the most common response was 45-60 minutes, which is where I would like the minutes to fall. There were four families who responded that homework is taking their children 60-75 minutes and one family said 75-90 minutes. If you are one of these families, please reach out to me. I would be happy to discuss things that can be done to keep homework under 60 minutes on a regular basis.
On the question of whether the homework is useful, the average answer was 4.3/5 (86%). The most common answer was 4. Three families gave homework's usefulness a 3, but no families answer with a 2 or 1. On the question of whether families felt equipped to help their child, the average was 4.2/5 (84%). The most common answer was 4. Three families responded with a 3, but no families answer with a 2 or 1.
Thirteen families said that they would like more training (45%). The most common request was math with seven families (24%); but four families asked for Spalding training (14%), two asked for training in language arts (7%), two asked for training in science (7%), and one asked for support in history (3%). I'm not sure how to best support all the needs of all our families. Please remember that I have resources on this blog that may be helpful. If you are interested in attending another workshop in which I could teach you who to solve math problems the Singapore Math way and provide support with Spalding, please let me know.
Winter Dress Code
During the winter months (Thanksgiving break to the end of Spring Break) boys must wear pants and girls may wear pants or skirts. During this time, skirts must be worn with tights or long socks. For details and directions on where to buy our uniforms, please look at the Family Handbook link included in this newsletter. Please note the Prep will begin winter dress code November 4th but the Archway will continue to begin winter dress code the week immediately following Thanksgiving as we have in the past. This year, the Archway start date for the winter dress code is December 2nd.
Spirit Wear Day
This Friday, November 8th, is Spirit Wear Day! Students may wear Arete spirit shirts to school. Spirit shirts will be available for purchase at Movie Night on November 22nd, just in time for the December 18th Spirit Wear Day. Stock is limited!
Winter Dress Code
During the winter months (Thanksgiving break to the end of Spring Break) boys must wear pants and girls may wear pants or skirts. During this time, skirts must be worn with tights or long socks. For details and directions on where to buy our uniforms, please look at the Family Handbook link included in this newsletter. Please note the Prep will begin winter dress code November 4th but the Archway will continue to begin winter dress code the week immediately following Thanksgiving as we have in the past. This year, the Archway start date for the winter dress code is December 2nd.
Spirit Wear Day
This Friday, November 8th, is Spirit Wear Day! Students may wear Arete spirit shirts to school. Spirit shirts will be available for purchase at Movie Night on November 22nd, just in time for the December 18th Spirit Wear Day. Stock is limited!
Winter Festival
PSO is excited to announce our Winter Festival coming December 7th from 11:00 am - 2:00 pm. This festival will be replacing our Fall Festival from previous years, though it will still have all the great activities, including a variety of bouncy houses, as well as food trucks and a vendor/craft fair. This year we are also adding a basket raffle that each grade level will be putting together. So watch out for an email from your classroom parents looking for donations from our community. Each grade level will have a different theme and we are hoping to reach out to the community for donations. The money raised from our Winter Festival goes back to our PSO, where we continue to support our staff daily in various ways. We hope to see all our families on December 7th. If you are a crafter or business owner and would like to have a booth at the festival, please reach out to Heather Bell for more information.
Lessons
Writing/Grammar: This week, students will be writing their first paper for the second quarter. This will be an expository paper on the importance of water conservation.
History: During history this week, students will look at Joan of Arc and the Black Death. There is an open-notes quiz on Wednesday and an open-notes test on Friday.
Remember, the Europe Project is due Tuesday, November 12th. There is one more long weekend to work on it. Here is a post I wrote about it a few weeks back. I'm been fielding questions here and there about it. If you have any questions, please let me know.
Literature: The goal was to be through chapter thirteen of Robin Hood, but with all of the half days, Great Hearts Day, and other things, we've fallen behind. Hopefully, over the next few weeks, we will be able to get back on track.
Math: The students will review mixed numbers on Monday and will be tested on Tuesday. Then, they will move on to studying improper fractions. At the bottom of this page is the study guide they will receive tomorrow. I'm also attaching Khan Academy videos on how to change mixed numbers to improper fractions and vice-versa.
Poem: During weeks four and five, students should work toward memorizing their next poem, "The Sin of Omission." This beautiful poem by Margaret Sangster reflects on the things people neglect to do, and the harm it causes the person who neglects to do good.
Greek and Latin Roots: Students should be reviewing roots 33-35 for the review check on Wednesday.
Science: Having completed the life science unit, students will now move on to the meteorology unit. This week, they will look at the water cycle, the dispersion of water on Earth, and the types of clouds. There is a science quiz on the water cycle on Wednesday. I've placed the study sheet below.
Spalding: This week, students will learn 30 words and be assessed on those words and phonograms on Friday.
Schedule
Tuesday: Math Test - Mixed Numbers
Tuesday: Picture Retake Day
Wednesday: Greek and Latin Roots Review Check (33-35)
Wednesday: History Quiz (Open-Notes)
Wednesday: Science Quiz - Water Cycle
Thursday: Math Quiz - Review
Friday: Spirit Wear Day
Friday: History Test (Open-Notes)
Friday: Spalding Test
Monday (Nov. 11): No School
Tuesday (Nov. 12): Europe Project Essays and Packet Due
Tuesday-Wednesday (Nov. 12-13): Europe Project Presentations
Friday (Nov. 15): Skateland Charger Night
Wednesday (Nov. 20): Winter Concert
Friday (Nov. 22): Movie Night - Toy Story 4
Monday (Dec. 2): Winter Dress Code Starts
Saturday (Dec. 7): Winter Festival
If you have any questions or concerns, please don't hesitate to let me know. Thank you for all you do.
Best,
Michael Naaktgeboren
Poem: During weeks four and five, students should work toward memorizing their next poem, "The Sin of Omission." This beautiful poem by Margaret Sangster reflects on the things people neglect to do, and the harm it causes the person who neglects to do good.
It isn't the thing you do, dear;
It's the thing you leave undone,
Which gives you a bit of heartache
At the setting of the sun.
The tender word forgotten,
The letter you did not write,
The flower you might have sent, dear,
Are your haunting ghosts to-night.
The stone you might have lifted
Out of brother's way,
The bit of heartsome counsel
You were hurried too much to say;
The loving touch of the hand, dear,
The gentle and winsome tone,
That you had no time nor thought for,
With troubles enough of your own.
The little acts of kindness,
So easily out of mind;
Those chances to be angels
Which every one may find
They come in night and silence
Each chill, reproachful wraith
When hope is faint and flagging
And a blight has dropped on faith.
For life is all too short, dear,
And sorrow is all too great;
To suffer our great compassion
That tarries until too late;
And it's not the thing you do, dear,
It's the thing you leave undone,
Which gives you the bit of heartache
At the setting of the sun.
Greek and Latin Roots: Students should be reviewing roots 33-35 for the review check on Wednesday.
Science: Having completed the life science unit, students will now move on to the meteorology unit. This week, they will look at the water cycle, the dispersion of water on Earth, and the types of clouds. There is a science quiz on the water cycle on Wednesday. I've placed the study sheet below.
Spalding: This week, students will learn 30 words and be assessed on those words and phonograms on Friday.
Schedule
Tuesday: Math Test - Mixed Numbers
Tuesday: Picture Retake Day
Wednesday: Greek and Latin Roots Review Check (33-35)
Wednesday: History Quiz (Open-Notes)
Wednesday: Science Quiz - Water Cycle
Thursday: Math Quiz - Review
Friday: Spirit Wear Day
Friday: History Test (Open-Notes)
Friday: Spalding Test
Monday (Nov. 11): No School
Tuesday (Nov. 12): Europe Project Essays and Packet Due
Tuesday-Wednesday (Nov. 12-13): Europe Project Presentations
Friday (Nov. 15): Skateland Charger Night
Wednesday (Nov. 20): Winter Concert
Friday (Nov. 22): Movie Night - Toy Story 4
Monday (Dec. 2): Winter Dress Code Starts
Saturday (Dec. 7): Winter Festival
If you have any questions or concerns, please don't hesitate to let me know. Thank you for all you do.
Best,
Michael Naaktgeboren
