I hope that everyone has enjoyed their long and restful Labor Day weekend! It was lovely to see most of you again at our Curriculum Night this past Thursday. If you have any questions about anything below (either in general or child specific), feel free to send me an email or give me a phone call.
Quizzes and Tests This Week:
Monday, September 1:
No School
Tuesday, September 2:
None
Wednesday, September 3:
None
Thursday, September 4:
None
Friday, September 5:
The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe Chapters 1-5 Quiz
In Language Arts, we will be continuing our exploration of C.S. Lewis's The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe. We will be reading Chapter 5 and reviewing for our quiz on Friday. We will be continuing to master our spelling words in our blue Spalding notebooks. The spelling tests will start up again next Friday, September 12. We will also be reviewing our pronouns, so please review these with your child at any chance you get. Our pronouns are:
I, me, my, mine
You, your, yours
He, she, him, her, it
His, hers, its
We, us, our, ours
They, them, their, theirs
You, your, yours
He, she, him, her, it
His, hers, its
We, us, our, ours
They, them, their, theirs
We will also be reviewing how to correctly form plural nouns from their singular noun, which we have been working on for about a week. The students will also be introduced to poetry memorization and will start to memorize a poem to be recited, as a class, on Friday. In Math, we will be working on our understanding of new vocabulary words (sum and difference) by using bar models and base-10 blocks to solve addition and subtraction problems. This introduction and use of bar models will help us when we get to complex word problems in the coming months. This foundation will serve us almost every day in the second semester, so it is imperative that the students understand and are comfortable using these models to solve problems, even in solving the easiest of problems. If you find that your child is having trouble with these problems or with homework, please let me know, so that we can take extra time explaining in class or even set-up times to stay after school for tutoring.
In History and Geography, we will be identifying the differences between physical and political maps. The students will also be able to explain what a region is and show how the United States is divided up into different regions. We will be focusing on these vocabulary words and critical elements: political, physical, boundary, state capitals, landforms, physical features, the Northwest, the West, the Great Plains, the Southwest, the Southeast, the Northeast, the Midwest, and New England.
In Science, the students will be focusing on levels of classification, continuing our focus on animals, vertebrates, and cold-blooded versus warm-blooded. We will be focusing on animal kingdoms, phylum, subphylum, classes, orders, family, genus, and species. We will be asking the students to talk with you about these new topics as homework, so be ready to learn all about these classifications as well!
I have also added a classroom wish list (http://amzn.com/w/6O3FO78C3LCS) to my blog. It is the first website under the heading Important Links, the link is labeled Classroom Wishlist. If you would like to donate something on it to the classroom, we would be very grateful. It will really to your children's experience here at Archway Arete, but, by all means, do not feel pressured or think that it is absolutely imperative that you must donate to the classroom.
I will also be offering tutoring starting the week of September 8th. I will send you an email if I believe that your child should come to tutoring, but if you believe that your child is truly struggling with something, please let me know. One tutoring afternoon will be held on Tuesday after school with a focus on math and science and another tutoring afternoon will be held on Thursday after school with a focus on history ad language arts. It will last for half an hour after school, so you would be able to pick up your children just after 3:15.
Have a great week everybody!
As always, if you have any questions at all, be sure to contact me!
