Dear Parents,

How are you all doing? I hope you had a great labor day weekend. Here is a summary of our fourth week.

Core Knowledge Overview

Core knowledge is a huge part of our curriculum at Archway Arete. Here is the basic philosophy of Core knowledge based on the principles of cognitive Science..

Key Principles from Cognitive Science

What children are able to learn at any given moment depends on what they already know.

What they already know is a function of their previous experiences.

Rich background knowledge and a superior vocabulary go hand- in-hand.

Background knowledge and vocabulary are key prerequisites to literacy.

Background knowledge also correlates with excellent problem solving skills.

(Core Knowledge Foundation)

LANGUAGE ARTS  

SPALDING – We will continue with our spelling list this week, Children will go over 30 words this week. They will be tested on Friday. Please, review homework as they come home. Have them continue to review phonogram cards at home.

READING – READING STRATEGY:             Our reading strategy for comprehension is “making connections.”   As children learn to make connections, they will learn that there are three ways: text-to-text, text-to-self, and text-to the world. We will have student make connections to Charlotte’s web this week. I look forward to some of the great insights. We finished chapter nine in Charlotte’s Web. We will move on to at least the next three chapters.  

 POETRY : “Where Go the Boats” is our poem for the next two weeks. It can be found in Harp and Laurel Wreath pg. 29 (Students will recite poem together each day and recite it in class by memory at the end of the month.)

Author: Robert Louis Stevenson

SAYING: “Back to the drawing board,” is still our saying.  We will appreciate it if you use it at home because children retain sayings when they engage in meaningful use of the saying. We will do likewise in school.

           

GRAMMAR/VOCABULARY – In the last three weeks, we have reviewed nouns, verbs, and pronouns. The beauty of our grammar text First Language Lessons is that it keeps reinforcing concepts as their learnt. This week, we will continue to learn about verbs: linking verbs and state of being verbs.          

WRITING – As we workwith Writing With Ease , students will continue to develop narration, dictation and copy work skills. They will come home this weekend with their first writing homework. We are asking that you follow the directions given by reading the story with your child, and then have them do a summary, and then dictate a short sentence to them.

MATH

            Many students are catching on to the math decomposing of numbers when adding and subtracting.  Some will need more practice.  When overseeing your child’s homework, please encourage her/him to look for tens or multiples of tens when they decompose numbers for adding or subtracting.  Children should please focus on examples given in their homework for further help.

             Many students do not know their facts to make tens.  They should be working on math facts daily!  Your second grader needs to master the addition and subtraction facts to 20.  We cannot stress this enough!  Once students have mastered their facts, learning how to decompose numbers and do mental math will come more easily and help them to do more complicated problems (Remember:  students should be striving for automaticity with their basic facts.)  We will practice doing subtraction using parts and whole, practice comparing quantities in two sets, and doing word problems this week. The assessment test for last week’s unit was great virtually the entire class passed. 

SCIENCE

Last week in Science, we focused on Fall and Summer. We discussed what animals, plants, and human being do during this season. This week, we will focus on Winter and Spring. 

GEOGRAPHY OF THE AMERICAS

         This week, we will explore South America and the Andes Mountain. We will learn some fun facts about the countries of South America and how they impact the world at large.

Virtue

Friendship

As we have discussed friendship in different ways, we have been reading different stories that reinforce the theme.  Have You Filled Your Bucket, Today?  A Guide to Daily Happiness for Kids is a story that states that we all have invisible buckets that get filled by good feelings about ourselves.  I will share this book with my students this week. We will encourage students to be bucket fillers. Sometimes others can be “bucket dippers,” who try to dip into our buckets by saying unkind things, in hopes that it will fill their buckets.  This does not work, of course because  “Bucket dippers” are still left empty handed.  We will have many discussions in class about what we can do to fill each others’ buckets, that filling others’ buckets also fills our own, and how to apologize if we have dipped into a classmates’ bucket. I am deeply committed to fostering a classroom community where every child feels comfortable learning and having fun. This is our last week for friendship.

Quote

Humankind has not woven the web of life. We are but one thread within it. Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves. All things are bound together. All things connect

    -Chief Seattle

Announcements

We are almost through with our benchmark testing. We have a good knowledge of where all scholars are academically now. As I work out an intervention for their learning needs, some scholars will need after school tutoring. Please, expect an email or call from me if your child is one of those that will be a part of after school tutoring.

We will begin reading groups the second week of September. It will be on Tuesdays and Wednesday. On Tuesday, it will be 12:30 – 1:30pm (60mins) On Wednesdays; it will be 11:50am -12:50pm (60 mins). We will need parent volunteers. Please, this is a yearlong commitment. We will also do Math groups on Wednesday mornings starting the second week of September at 8:05-9:05 am. Please, send me an email if you are interest in volunteering.

I want to thank you all for your encouragements and support.

Sincerely,

Mrs. Toyin Atolagbe & Ms. Elizabeth Peterson