Dear Parents,

 The second grade team of teachers will like to invite you to our Greek Festival taking place on Friday, January 30th. This initiative is a part of several culminating activities for our study of the ancient Greece unit in History. The festival has been divided into three main parts.

The first part of the festival will begin in the morning at 8am with nine Greek myth readers’ theaters. Each of the second grade classes will be presenting 3 myths. We invite all parents to join us for this presentation in the morning in the MPR. We would appreciate an RSVP so we know how many chairs to set up. We also ask that you support your child for the next two weeks as they practice the parts that they will be reading for the presentation.

The second part of the festival will begin after the presentation of the Greek myths. We would like to celebrate our scholars’ hard work and diligence in preparing for their parts.  We want to applaud their success by having some popular refreshments from Greece.  Each scholar is being asked to bring $1 to contribute to the celebration.  The deadline for the money is Friday, January 16.

The third part of the Greek festival will be a mock Olympic games for all second graders. The ninety students will be divided into two groups to represent the most popular city-states of Athens and Sparta. They will compete with each other on some common Olympic games that will be announced later. We are excited to see our second grade scholars mingle with each other and enjoy the fun feeling of being Spartans and Athenians for a day. We look forward to the fun and learning that will take place during Arete Olympic Games. Above all, we look forward to the laughter friendship and the communality that will originate from this festival.

All parents are invited to these events. If you would like to help manage some of the games during the Olympics, you are expected to have a finger print card. A separate sheet will be sent home for volunteers willing to sign-up in the coming week. You do not need a finger print card to come in and watch the reader’s theatre presentation. 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 questions.

As part of the culminating activity for our Greece Unit in History, our class is supposed to do a bulletin board display of our learning about Greek gods and goddesses. For this reason your child has been given an opportunity to enter a contest for the most beautiful god/goddess picture display. All participants are expected to bring in a picture of their favorite god or goddess. They must show evidence of drawing or coloring it by themselves to reflect their personal creativity. The best 3 pictures will be showcased on our bulletin board display. Please, encourage your scholar to participate in this wonderful event that will showcase their talents and creativity.

Alongside this picture display, all students must write five sentences or a paragraph at least, describing their favorite god or goddess. They must include the following:

·      Name of the god or goddess

·      The reason for choosing the god or goddess

·      Two – three interesting facts you want people to know about the god or goddess

·      Their favorite myth about the god or goddess

·      One question they will like to ask the god or goddess if they had an opportunity to see him/her.

Student’s write-up must be free of errors, and it must reflect student’s genuine thoughts, comprehension of materials learned in class, and independent research about the god and goddess. Your words must fit in the scroll, and your drawing or picture of the goddess should fit on a normal sized A4 typing sheet. You can use the paper with borders included in this packet for your drawing. The god/goddess write-up is due on Friday, January 16^th. There will be no written reflection logs this week for reading.

Please, feel free to contact me if you have questions about the festival.

We hope you can join us! Thank you.

Sincerely,

Mrs. Toyin & Ms. Peterson