A Cold and Rainy Week!

Dear 2B Families,

Happy Friday! I hope you enjoyed this cold and rainy week! Personally, I am ready for warmer weather :-).

Happy Spirit Day!

Scholar Shout-Outs:

Happy Birthday Lola! Thank you for the sweet treats today!

Next Week in 2B...

Poetry: Recitations of The Preamble to the Constitution will take place next week. Please ask your child to recite this for you on the car ride home!

Literature: We have concluded our reading of The Cricket in Times Square. Please send in a copy of Sarah, Plain and Tall for your child to read. We will dive into new vocabulary, like what is a hearthstone, and what it means to be feisty. We will also discuss why Sarah feels like a move is necessary, and why Pa places an advertisement in the newspaper. Be sure to ask your literature experts for the answers to these questions.

Spalding Words Next Week:
Monday: No words - More cursive practice instead - See homework folder for capital cursive letter resource
Tuesday: don't = do not, Thursday, Saturday, admission, canoe, captain, cautious, caution, cellar
Wednesday: covered, creature, curtain, declared, declare, distance, distant, explain, floated, ghost

Writing and Grammar: We are learning about subject-verb agreement in sentences, solidifying our understanding of possessive pronouns, and reading a story called The Plant That Ate Dirty Socks!

Math: We are continuing our quest on adding up those dollar signs! For Wednesday's activity, it would be very helpful to send in any old or current grocery store ads you are not using. We are practicing adding money by making grocery lists!

History: We will be studying the War of 1812 and hearing some exciting stories! You might ask your child later in the week what "Old Ironsides" was and what famous portrait Dolley Madison saved. We will be filling out our study guides on Friday, so be sure to study over the weekend for our test the following Monday.

Science: We continue to tinker with simple machines next week. We will take an in-depth look at wedges, inclined planes, and screws. See if you can find any of these simple machine around your home and community this week.

Love,

Mrs. D and Miss Monk

Celebrating Great-Hearted Friendships!

Dear 2B Families,

Happy Long Weekend! Here are some photos to share from our sweet Great Hearts Day Celebration. Thank you to our moms for all of your help!

Next Week in 2B...

Poetry: Please start practicing The Preamble to the Constitution at home.

Spalding: There will be NO Spalding words next week. Instead we will introduce CURSIVE (your children are SO excited for this), practice it in class, and send home cursive writing practice for homework. We will also be sending home a parent packet about cursive writing so you can add that to your resources :-).

Writing and Grammar: We will read an excerpt from Little Women. Possessive Pronouns will be added to our Question & Answer Flow!

Literature: Our adventure with The Cricket in Times Square will come to an end next week. We have LOVED reading this beautiful novel!

Math: We have started our Money Unit! Practice identifying currency with your child and adding coin amounts as a practice while we introduce this during math class.

History: We will be learning about how the United States Constitution was ratified. Also, we will be taking a closer look at the opening words of the Constitution and discussing what those really mean. This should enrich your student's understanding of the Preamble, which is our next recitation!

Science: We will begin learning about simple machines like wedges, pulleys, and inclined planes. See if you can find any of these simple machines around your home or community. Feel free to email pictures of any unique finds! We can share in class and decide what type of simple machine it is!

Love,

Mrs. D & Miss Monk

Greek Festival Fun!

Dear 2B Families,

I hope your children enjoyed their day off today! Miss Monk and I enjoyed our inservice day and are feeling refreshed and ready to take on a new week!

Thank you to the parents who helped put together an amazing Greek Festival for the children! They loved it!

Next Week in 2B...

Poetry: We will introduce our new recitation: The Preamble to the Constitution!

Literature: We will read Chapters 11-13 of The Cricket in Times Square.

Writing and Grammar: Direct quotations will continue to be our focus next week as we read a story called The Hare that Ran Away. We will be revisiting friendly letters next week when writing a card to a secret classmate for Great Hearts Day! Subject pronouns will also be reviewed in our question and answer flow.

Spalding Words Next Week:
Monday: direction, direct, appear, liberty, enough, fact, board, September, station, attend
Tuesday: public, music, picnic, picnicking, friends, friend, during, endure, police, until
Wednesday: truly, true, whole, hole, address, request, raise, August, struck, getting, get

Math: We are finishing up our multiplication and division unit with learning about remainders! What do we do with those extras? We have a few quizzes this week so encourage your child to double check their work and remember their facts! Our next unit will have you seeing dollar signs! 

Weekly Quizzes: Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday

Science: The Human Body unit test in on Thursday with a study guide coming home on Tuesday. Please substitute homework reading minutes to help your child study.

History: We will be taking a turn from ancient history and diving into American history, picking up right after the Revolutionary War at the formation of the U.S. Constitution. We will be exploring the difficulties of forming a new government as well as learning about Founding Fathers like James Madison and Benjamin Franklin. Later in the week, you can ask your child what a compromise is and how people can work together toward a common goal.

Love,

Mrs. D and Miss Monk

Welcome February + Field Day Fun!

Dear 2B Families,

Happy February! We had a great first day of February with Field Day fun!

Next Week in 2B...

Poetry: Your child will be assessed on their recitation of Smart by Shel Silverstein.

Book Reports are due on Monday! We will also send home new ones next week.

Literature: The Cricket in Times Square will continue through reading Chapters 9 & 10. Ask your child about Mario's trip to Chinatown and the fire at the newsstand.

Writing and Grammar: We will write final copies for our explanatory paragraph about our two favorite colors. We will also introduce subject pronouns to our question and answer flow when classifying sentences.

Spalding Words Next Week: 20 words due to no school on 2/8
Monday: throw, threw, personal, everything, rate, chief, perfect, second, slide, farther
Tuesday: duty, intend, company, quite, quit, quiet, none, knew, know, remain

Math: We are continuing our Multiplication and Division Unit into 5s and 10s! The students will learn a fun song for remembering their 5s! Practice! Practice! Practice! Those multiplication facts whether on the way to school or while running errands.
Weekly Quiz: Wednesday

History: We are wrapping up our ancient Greece unit next week! Look for a study guide coming home on Monday. The test will be on Wednesday with the Greek party on Thursday!

Science: We are wrapping up the human body unit with a lesson on keeping our bodies healthy, fit, and strong! We will review the functions of the body systems and talk about ways we can keep them running smoothly and stay healthy.Ask your child to tell you something about each of the body systems: skeletal, muscular, circulatory, nervous, digestive, excretory.

Gratefully,

Mrs. D and Miss Monk

100th Day of School!

Dear 2B Families,

We had a great four day week! I cannot believe today was the 100th Day of School! Time flies!

Scholar Shout-Outs:

Happy Birthday to Nikolai (1/22)!

Great Hearts Day...A Day for Friendship - Thursday, 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.

Next Week in 2B...

Literature: We are continuing to follow the adventures of Mario, Chester Cricket, Tucker Mouse, and their friends through reading chapters 6-8 of The Cricket in Times Square. We are going to read about an adult who does something special for Mario! We will discuss adults in our own life who have done something special for us.

Writing and Grammar: We will be revising and editing paragraphs about our two favorite colors. We will also continue working on writing direct quotations.

Spalding Words Next Week:
Monday: election, elect, aboard, jail, shed, refuse, district, restrain, royal, objection, object
Tuesday: pleasure, please, measure, treasure, navy, forty, fourteen, fourth, four
Wednesday: population, proper, judge, weather, whether, worth, contain, figure, sudden, instead

Math: We are continuing our adventure back into multiplication with concentration on 4s and 5s. Practice with your child at home to further strengthen their confidence with their facts.
Weekly Quiz: Thursday

Science: We had a lot of fun learning about the digestive and excretory systems last week! This week we are learning how to keep our bodies healthy. Ask your scholar how to create a well-balanced meal. What foods would they include in their meal? Ask your child to tell you other ways they can keep their bodies healthy.

History: We are learning about three influential thinkers and philosophers this week: Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. Ask your scholar to tell you similarities and differences between the three scholars. We are also learning about Alexander the Great next week! Ask your child who was Alexander the Great's teacher (Aristotle).

With Grateful Hearts,

Mrs. D and Miss Monk

Important Field Day Info 2019

Dear 2B Families,

Happy Friday! We had an awesome special presenter today: Miss Monk! No, not our Miss Monk, but her sister! She lives in Mozambique and shared so many fun facts with us about this country in Africa.

Happy Birthday Andrew ~ 1/13!

Here is some important information about Field Day on Friday, February 1st.

Athletic Field Day

Athletic Field Day is Friday, February 1st 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.

Athletic Field Day Attire:

This year, your child’s team is Thebes, and our team color is YELLOW. 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. Students may wear athletic bottoms. 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.

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 Gethings & Coach Warren need volunteers setting up and running the event. Please sign up at: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/508084aacaf28a4fd0-field to help with the events.

We need a few volunteers for class to help with: *Please e-mail Mrs. D if you can help!

• Bringing a cooler for snacks (we will return your cooler to you!)
• Snacks for snack time during Field Day (nut free)
• A couple volunteers to remain with our class throughout the Field Day festivities

Coming Up Next Week...

Literature: We will read chapters 4-5 of The Cricket in Times Square, answering comprehension questions after each chapter. We will also learn how to use context clues to figure out meanings of unknown vocabulary words.

Writing and Grammar: We are starting paragraph writing next week! The first type we will learn about is called explanatory. We will write a paragraph about our two favorite colors. We will also read an excerpt from a story called Five Children and It by Edith Nesbit.

Spalding Words Next Week: (Only 20 due to no school on Monday)
Tuesday: mixture, nation, pause, peace, permission, rough, social, society, steal (weak), steel
Wednesday: strange, trophy, voices, voice, eight, ate, afraid, uncle, rather, comfort

Math: We will be wrapping up Unit 7 with plenty of review this week! After our cumulative test Thursday, we will be introducing Multiplying by 4! Keep up those multiplication tables 1-3 in the meantime. Weekly Tests: Tuesday (as a class), Thursday

Science: We are learning about the digestive and excretory systems next week. Talk to your child about how these systems work together to digest our food and get rid of waste. We will also be doing a gross, but educational experiment next week! Be sure to ask about it towards the end of the week!

History: The Ancient Greece unit continues with two lessons on Ancient Athens. We will take a tour of Athens, learning about the buildings and culture of the golden age, the time when Athens was at its highest. During this time, Athenians often went to parties called symposiums. Ask your child about what happened at a symposium. It may be unlike any party they've ever been to!

Love,

Mrs. D and Miss Monk

Week One of 2019 Done!

Dear 2B Families,

Happy Friday! Thank you for reading our new blog post.

Scholar Shout-Outs:

Happy Birthday Daniella 1/3
Happy Birthday Nicholas 1/7
Happy 1/2 Birthday Miss Monk 1/7
Happy Birthday Jillian 1/11

Clubs: https://docs.google.com/document/d/18DwPk4-JICmHZG_1ECNFz_ObqUlNc4rkamFSJ_a30t0/edit?usp=sharing

MAP Testing on Monday 1/14: Please help your children arrive to school on time, well rested, with a good breakfast so they are ready to do their best on their test!

Homework Change: We're moving from leveled readers to book reports! We will be sending chapter books home next week with your child. They will have 3 weeks to finish, reading 20 minutes each night. Thank you for your help with this and please reach out if you have questions.

Spalding Words:
Monday: yesterday, among, question, quest, doctor, size, December, dozen, there (not here), their (they), they're (they are)
Tuesday: tax, number, October, reason, fifth, baking, bake, bowl, cheap (eat)

Wednesday: cheerful (keep), chicken, driving, drive, echoes, echo, fairy, knock, leather, linen

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. We 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 discuss characters.

Grammar: We're reviewing parts of speech and jumping back in with marking and editing sentences to help us prepare us for writing paragraphs!

Math: We will be continuing our mental math unit with subtraction! Keep on practicing those simple math facts at home to help. We also start math groups! We look forward to seeing our volunteers. :)
Weekly Quiz: Tuesday

Science: We are continuing our Human Body unit by learning that all living things are made up of microscopic cells. We will also learn that cells make tissue, tissue makes organs, and organs build body systems. Ask you child to explain the relationship of cells, tissues, organs, and systems.

History: Next week in the Ancient Greece unit, we will be comparing the lives of children in Athens versus Sparta. Ask your child which city-state they would rather live in and why. We will also learn about the Ancient Greek Olympics! Lastly, the students will learn about the very exciting Persian Wars. Though the Greeks were outnumbered, they won the war against the Persians. Ask your child to tell you why people today run marathons and where they came from.

With Grateful Hearts,

Mrs. D and Miss Monk