Fun-Filled Week!

Dear 2B Families,

WOW! What a busy week! Between a Fire Drill, Great Hearts Day, Class Pictures, and Field Day we have been quite busy!

Scholar Shout-Outs:

Happy Birthday to Ryken (2/13)! Thanks for bringing in a fun treat for the class.

Congratulations Beatrice for your Humility virtue award.

Pictures from Great Hearts Day...Thanks to the moms who helped with our celebration in the afternoon! We wrote kind notes to other scholars, shared Friendship Floats, and made Friendship Necklaces that represented virtues we see in each other.

Field Day Pictures..."We are THEBES and we're ready to COMPETE!"

Something FUN to share! One of my former 2nd Grade students (who is now a Freshman in High School) volunteered at Field Day today! Check out this "Flashback Friday" picture when Mrs. Lacsa, Tori, and I were together in 2009!

Upcoming Events:
There is No School on Monday 2/20 and it's also R&R Weekend ~ No Homework this weekend
Thursday, Feb 23: Healthy Snack Day (Dairy)
Friday, Feb 24: Spirit Wear Day
Saturday, Feb 25: Fun Run & Family Picnic (Mrs. Dombrowski and Paisley will be participating in the 1.5 mile and we hope to see you there!)
Monday, Feb 27: Phoenix Symphony

Curriculum Next Week:


Language Arts: See if your scholar can recite The Preamble to the Constitution by Gouverneur Morris. We will start reciting this in front of the class the week of February 27. Can they tell you what "Two Heads Are Better Than One" means? We also learned a new saying, "Better late than never!" We will read a tall tale and discuss the components of a tall tale, and how that differs from a fairy tale. 

Writing and Grammar: We will continue to diagram sentences. The scholars are doing GREAT with this skill and can diagram sentences with TWO prepositions.

Spalding Words Next Week:
Tuesday: truly, true, whole, hole, address, request, raise, August, struck, getting, get
Wednesday: don't = do not, Thursday, Saturday, admission, canoe, captain, cautious, caution, cellar, covered

Literature: We have concluded our reading of The Cricket in Times Square. Please send your scholar in with their copy of Sarah, Plain and Tall. We will begin reading that the week of February 27th. 

Math: We are learning about MONEY! Coins, dollars, change, oh my! We will work on reviewing coin value, adding two prices together, as well as attacking work problems. When purchasing something talk to your child about the cost, and ask what the cost would be if the item were 10 cents, or 2 dollars more! Mental math is still a strategy we are working to strengthen!

History: We will continue our studies of the Constitution through looking more closely at the Preamble. Can your scholar tell you about James Madison and The Bill of Rights?

Science: We are moving on from learning about how our human body works as a machine to learning about simple machines! Can your scholar identify simple machines at home or around their community? We are excited to embark on this hands-on unit!

Love,
Mrs. Dombrowski

Fabulous February!

Dear 2B Families,

We are trucking right along in the 3rd quarter and doing great! Please don't forget about some important events next week:

Tuesday, February 14: Great Hearts Day
Thursday, February 16: Class Pictures

Friday, February 17: Field Day ~ Our Greek City State is THEBES and our color is YELLOW! Please wear a YELLOW shirt. Students may decorate their shirts with their team name and/or symbol of their Greek City State.   Students should wear athletic clothing free of pop culture references.  Sports team and brand logos are acceptable on clothing.  Athletic shoes are mandatory (any color).  Hats and sunglasses may be worn.  Sunscreen must be applied at home.  Please see pg. 52 in the family handbook for more detailed information. NO lunch is offered on Field Day so please PACK a lunch Friday!

Thebes

The links have a sign up genius if you wish to volunteer/bring something check them out!

Wish List: Several scholars are missing their scissors and we are also fresh out of glue sticks. If you are able to donate these items we would greatly appreciate it! 

New Book Reports: Great job on the Magic Tree House "Hand" reports! Your scholar received either a Boxcar Children book or A-Z Mysteries. Our next report is this BINGO board. Please let me know if you have questions! These will be due March 6th.

Scholar Shout-Outs:

Check out our amazing and awesome mathematicians! They are working SO hard with multiplication and division!

Announcements from our Room Moms:

We are still in need of volunteers for Athletic field day: 
http://www.signupgenius.com/go/30e0c4fadac2ca4fc1-athletichttp://www.signupgenius.com/go/10c0d4ea8af2e5-2bathletic
Also, here is the March lunch volunteer sign up: http://www.signupgenius.com/go/10c0544a8a629a6fe3-march2
An order form went home for families to purchase a School Spirit Shirt that can be worn on February 24th. Though we need to have ALL orders in by February 10th, so we are asking you forward this to families, with a subject line of "ORDER YOUR SPIRIT SHIRT BY FEBRUARY 10th"
No online payments accepted, only cash or check with order form.
Below is a sizing chart to also send with the order form.

Curriculum Next Week:

Spalding: Next week we will learn CURSIVE! The students are SO excited to start on the adventure. We were fortunate enough to have an introduction lesson from Mrs. Clouse on Thursday. Did your scholar come home telling you about it? Here is a picture:

We will not have spelling words next week and Spalding homework will be to practice cursive letter formation. A packet will be coming home Monday night for parental reference as well. As we move forward students will choose whether they want to write in cursive or manuscript, but Mrs. Lacsa and I will switch to writing in cursive. In third grade they will have a cursive refresher at the beginning of the year, but will be expected to be able to read cursive from the get-go! 

Literature: We will finish up Cricket in Times Square! It has been so wonderful to watch the students fall in love with the characters. 

Grammar: We will continue to diagram sentences and work on writing paragraphs.

Math: We will finish up our unit on multiplication and division with a test on Thursday. Wednesday math centers and Wednesday night homework will provide great review and practice for our test on Thursday. On Friday, the students will be introduced to our new unit: MOENY! We will review of coins and their value.

History: We will continue learning about the formation of our Constitution by learning about James Madison, the Bill of Rights, and we will recognize the opening words of the Constitution through looking at and reciting the Preamble. Please help me with this recitation at home! It was sent home in my folder on Wednesday.

Science: Next week we will review and take our test over the Human Body. Please help your scholar review their study guide at home and ask them to tell you how much they remember about each body system, healthy eating, cells, tissues, and organs!

Love,
Mrs. Dombrowski

Welcome February!

Dear 2B Families, 

Welcome February! As one of the scholars asked me this week, "Mrs. Dombrowski, WHY does it feel like SUMMER outside?! It's SO HOT!!!" I guess that cold front is behind us! Another rough week for our Arizona Winter I suppose!

Our newest virtue of the month is FRIENDSHIP! Thanks for talking to your scholar at home about how to show friendship.

Thank you to everyone who helped with Greek Fest today!

Scholar Shout-Outs:

Happy Birthday Vincent (Today, February 3rd)! He also brought donuts for the class today! How fun! Thank you, Vincent!

Jocelyn noticed a book (The Republic of Plato) that her mom had on the bookshelf. We've been learning about Ancient Greece and 3 great thinkers - Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. Thank you for making this awesome connection to our learning Jocelyn!

Your kiddos did a great job with MAP Testing this week! They are becoming more familiar with working on the laptops and they are learning more about testing with technology. 

School-Wide Announcements:

Clubs: Club opportunities are still available for families interested in placing their children in an afterschool club. If you would like to sign your child up, please go to ArchwayArete.Configio.com. 
Mondays: K-5th Grade Passport ClubTuesday: 4th-5th Grade Choir Club, 2nd-3rd Grade Art Club, 3rd-5th Grade Book ClubThursday: 3rd-5th Grade Beginning Instruments Club, 3rd-5th Grade French ClubFriday: 2nd-3rd Grade Mallet Masters, 3rd-5th Grade Sports and Activity Club

Toys: In keeping with our aim to nurture a love of intellectual and moral virtue in our students we are asking that all toys be left at home. While playing with toys can be a relaxing healthy pass time for children, having toys at school, that are not part of the academic program, can be distracting. We would like to mention, specifically, Pokemon cards and Gogos as these have been the fad of late. Please refer to pg. 42 in the Arete Family Handbook for more information about prohibited items.

Great Hearts Day & Field Day: Please make sure to read our post about Great Hearts Day and Field Day! Here is a sign up link to donate items for Great Hearts Day. Here is a sign up link to donate items for Field Day.

Curriculum Next Week:

*Don't forget that BOOK REPORTS (Hand Reports for the assigned Magic Tree House) are due back on Monday!*

*Students will be assessed on their recitation for SMART by Shel Silverstein next week*

Language Arts: Next week we will look at direct and indirect quotations in the story The Hare that Ran Away. In Grammar we will also continue studying pronouns and subject pronouns, as well as classifying sentences. The students are doing such a wonderful job classifying sentences, and can go through the question and answer flow of a sentence independently and confidently! Stay tuned for video evidence! In Literature we will read chapters 10-13 in Cricket in Times Square and continue to follow the adventure of Chester Cricket, Tucker Mouse, and Harry Cat!

Spalding Words:
Monday: slide, farther, duty, intend, company, quite, quit, quiet, none, knew, know
Tuesday: remain, direct, direction, appear, liberty, enough, fact, board, September, station
Wednesday: attend, public, music, picnic, friend, friends, endure, during, police, until

Math: In math next week we will work through division problems and fact families! We will discuss different ways to attack a division problem, including repeated subtraction, drawing pictures, and thinking of the “friend” multiplication problem. Students are loving this unit!

History: We will not only journey to another place, but a much later time in history to discuss the American Constitution. Challenge your scholar to make connections between the US and the Ancient Greek democracies.


Science: Next week we will review the functions of our body systems and learn ways we can help make sure that our body systems continue to run smoothly so we can stay healthy. We will also learn a new word: calories! We will spend time reviewing ALL of the concepts we have learned in our Human Body Unit through playing a fun review game. A study guide will be sent home with your scholar on Thursday night. We encourage you to read through it and ask your scholar to retell some of the things they learned.

Love,
Mrs. Dombrowski

January 27, 2017 + Field Day Info!

Dear 2B Families,

I can't believe January is almost over! Although it feels a little bit like Fall with all the leaves we keep finding outside! Thanks Mrs. Smith for this cute video!

On a personal note, it has been quite a busy month! Mr. Dombrowski and I had the joy and privilege to witness not one, but TWO weddings the first two weekends of January! The first one, a dear friend of mine from high school and college. The second one, Mr. Dombrowski's cousin who was actually the best man at our wedding! Mr. D had a chance to return the favor! Last weekend my family and I had the joy of celebrating a Baby Shower for our sweet cousin! They are expecting their first baby girl in March. It's been a busy and blessed month! A few pictures to share...

There is A LOT happening here at Arete in February!

Sign Up: Daddy/Daughter Dance Volunteer Sign Up

MAP Testing: This will take place on Tuesday 1/31 and Friday 2/3. Please make sure your scholar comes to school with a full belly of something nutritious from breakfast! 

Greek Festival: Don't forget about our Greek Festival on Friday, February 3rd.

Please also "Save the Date" for...

Friday, Feb 10: Half Day (Teacher Inservice in the afternoon)

Tuesday, Feb 14: Great Hearts Day 

*8:05-8:45: Assembly, 1:30-2:00: Partner Class Reading/Socratic Discussion, 2:00-2:45: Class Party* 

We have reserved this special day to focus on the virtue of friendship and celebrate the traits that make a great-hearted student. Teachers are planning interactive and fun activities centered around these topics, and time will be set aside for students to create hand-made Great Hearts Day cards for their classmates.  Archway Arete strives to cultivate a rich, academic environment rooted in the classical tradition. This many times requires popular culture to be left at the door. On that note, students will not be permitted to bring store-bought valentines, candy, or gifts to school. Thank you for partnering with us.

Thursday, Feb 16: Class Pictures *We are scheduled for 9:30am

Friday, Feb 17: Athletic Field Day ~ Please wear athletic gear (free of pop culture, sport team logos and brand logos are okay) and athletic shoes (any color) are mandatory. Bring a sack lunch as no school lunch will be served on this day. Don't forget your water bottle! We will eat at 11:00 in the classroom.

Athletic Field Day: Athletic Field Day is Friday, February 17 from 8:30-11:00 for K-2 classes and from 12:00-2:30 for grades 3-5. Each year classes are assigned a Greek City State for their team. This year, our team is THEBES and our team color is YELLOW. There will be no school lunch offered on Athletic Field Day. Please send your child to school with a lunch.

Volunteers for Athletic Field Day: In order to have Athletic Field Day run smoothly, we need your help! Coach Rubino & Coach Steinmann need volunteers setting up and running the event. Please sign up here to help with the events. Also, we need a few volunteers for class to help with donating a cooler and snacks. Please sign up here to volunteer for our class.

Athletic Field Day Attire: Please have your child wear a YELLOW color t-shirt that day. Students may decorate their shirts with their team name and/or symbol of their Greek City State. Students should wear athletic clothing free of pop culture references. Sports team and brand logos are acceptable on clothing. Athletic shoes are mandatory (any color). Hats and sunglasses may be worn. Sunscreen must be applied at home. Please see pg. 52 in the family handbook for more detailed information.

Fun in PE Today...

Curriculum Next Week:

Literature: We will read two chapters in Cricket in Times Square and discuss new vocabulary words!

Writing/Grammar: Next week we will review the writing process, play compound word Pictionary, and continue to classify sentences! Students will be introduced to the pronoun jingle and the subject pronoun jingle in grammar!

Spalding: Monday: royal, objection, object, please, pleasure, measure, treasure, navy
Tuesday: forty, fourteen, four, population, proper, judge, weather, whether, worth, contain, figure
Wednesday: sudden, instead, throw, threw, personal, everything, rate, chief

Math: We will start a new unit on multiplying and dividing by 4 and 5! If you have a moment in the car, at the grocery store, or cleaning up from dinner have your mathematician practice counting by 4s!

Science: Next week we will learn about nutrients that help keep our bodies healthy and strong. We will create a well-balanced meal for breakfast, lunch, and dinner!

We have LOVED learning about the Human Body. Please ask me what I remember about the digestive and excretory systems. We did a super gross demonstration of the Digestive System on Tuesday! Check it out! It all started with a PEANUT BUTTER SANDWICH and we ended up with our solid waste at the end!

We also wrote about the journey of our saltine cracker...

History: I hope that the scholars have enjoyed their journey through Ancient Greece. Please help your scholar prepare for the unit test by completing the study guide over the weekend. We will play trivia on Monday in order to prepare for the test. We are all looking forward to celebrating the culmination of an exciting unit at Greek Fest on Friday! Thank you for donating items and contributing your time to make this a great event possible.

Have a great weekend!

Love,

Mrs. Dombrowski

Healthy Snack Day!

Healthy Snack Day is this Thursday, January 26th. Please pack your favorite fruit or vegetable to enjoy during snack time!

January Fun!

Dear 2B Families,

We survived our 4 day week! Did the shorter week feel longer to anyone else? Just me? :-) 

Just a HEADS UP that February is going to be a VERY BUSY month! We have our Greek Festival AND Great Hearts Day!

MAP Testing: Testing will take place again on Tuesday, January 31 and Friday, February 3. This is more practice for our little ones on how to take tests on a laptop. Just make sure they come to school with a full tummy (nutritious breakfast) and ready to do their best on 1/31 and 2/2! Thank you for your help with this!

Greek Festival: Friday, February 3 (after MAP testing) students will enjoy a Greek Festival to celebrate the culmination of our unit on Ancient Greece and to recognize all we have learned about their culture and history. Please use this sign up link to help with items needed. This is for the ENTIRE 2nd grade!

Great Hearts Day: A Day for Friendship - Tuesday, February 14th is Great Hearts Day! We have reserved this special day to focus on the virtue of friendship and celebrate the traits that make a great-hearted student. Teachers are planning interactive and fun activities centered around these topics, and time will be set aside for students to create hand-made Great Hearts Day cards for their classmates. Archway Arete strives to cultivate a rich, academic environment rooted in the classical tradition. This many times requires popular culture to be left at the door. On that note, students will not be permitted to bring store-bought valentines, candy, or gifts to school. Thank you for partnering with us.

Scholar Shout-Outs:

To ALL of our scholars for working so hard at memorizing Smart by Shel Silverstein. They sound great for only the 2nd week of practice. We will keep working on it!

Thank you Kendall for bringing in this book about the Human Body!

Next Week in 2B:

Language Arts:

Literature ~ In literature next week we will read chapters 4-6 in Cricket in Times Square, answering comprehension questions after each chapter, as well as discussing adults in our lives and the special things they do for us! We will also use context clues to figure out meanings of unknown vocabulary words!

Writing/Grammar ~ We are revising and editing our paragraph about our two favorite colors!

Spalding Words ~
Monday: fairy, knock, leather, linen, mixture, nation, pause, peace, permission, rough
Tuesday: social (society), steal (steel), strange, trophy, voices, voice, eight, ate
Wednesday: afraid, uncle, rather, comfort, election, elect, aboard, jail, shed, refuse, district, restrain

Math: We will be reviewing mental math strategies from chapter 7. Thursday nights homework will provide great practice for the test Friday! Practice some mental math in the car like these problems: 71-5, 245-3, 24+5, 123+10, etc. We talked a lot about how to do this in our head without having to "stack" the problem.

Science: We will continue learning about the human body by studying the digestive system and excretory system (insert giggles and laughter from our 2nd graders)! We will also be conducting a fun (and maybe a little gross?) demonstration of the DIGESTIVE system PLUS we will be making a MODEL of the excretory system using some common items! Please use this link to sign up to donate these items. We appreciate your generosity! Please ask me what I remember about cells, tissues, and organs!

History: We are excited to present the Great Thinkers of Ancient Greece and discover the origins of many of our roots here in the United States, and especially at Archway Arete. Students will connect our Socratic-style discussion to Socrates himself. Challenge your scholars to differentiate facts between Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, and Alexander the Great.

Love,
Mrs. Dombrowski

Welcome Back! Happy New Year!

Dear 2B Families,
Happy New Year! I hope you all had a restful and enjoyable Winter Break! Like I told the kids this week...

I think they were excited about the scented donut erasers!
Happy New Year from Team Dombrowski (Paisley included)!

Scholar Shout Outs: 
Happy Birthday Megan on December 29th! It's GREAT to be 8!

Happy 1/2 Birthday to these sweet scholars: Andrea on January 5th, Thomas on January 6th and Kodie on January 10th!

Next week in 2B...

Language Arts: We will be moving from Reading Logs to Book Reports! I'll be sending chapter books home next week with your scholars. We will start with historical fiction and assign the "hand report" which you will see in your scholar's folder on Monday. Your child will have 3 weeks to finish, reading 20 minutes each night. If they finish early please have them do the report and we will assign them the next book. Thank you for your help with this!

Literature: This week in literature we will be reading from our new book, The Cricket in Times Square. If you have not already please send the book in with your child. We will discuss what it is like to move from one place to another. We will also have a group discussion about a time we wanted something really badly and our parents wouldn’t let us have it. I will ask the kids if they were able to talk their parents into it, or if they realized why their parents told them no. We will read chapters 1-3 in the book and continue to discuss characters. Ask your student how Paul the shuttle conductor was nice to Mario!

Writing and Grammar: In grammar we will continue to diagram sentences! In writing we will use our prewriting map from last week to write a rough draft of a paragraph on our favorite colors!

Spalding Words: We will only have 19 words next week since there is no school on Monday.
Tuesday: dozen, there, their, they're, tax, number, October, reason, fifth
Wednesday: baking, bake, bowl, cheap, cheerful, chicken, driving, drive, echoes, echo

Math: Next week we will continue our unit on mental math! The students are doing a wonderful job on this challenging unit! We had a great discussion and came to the conclusion that mistakes and challenges make our brains learn best! Next week we will be working on adding and subtracting two and three digit numbers mentally!

History: We will continue with our unit on Ancient Greece learning more about Athens, the golden age, and Pericles. We will also learn about some arts in which Athens excelled. Ask me what I learned about the Olympic Games and the Persian War!

Science: Next week students will learn how all living things are made up of microscopic cells. We will describe the relationship among cells, tissues, organs, and systems. Ask me about the body systems at home! What are they and what functions do they perform?

Wishing you a wonderful new year! I know it's going to be a great 2nd semester!

Love,
Mrs. Dombrowski