WELCOME TO MISS KELLY'S FOURTH GRADE CLASS!

This is the first blog post of the 2017-2018 school year.

Welcome to fourth grade! It was a delight to begin to get to know your children today, and I'm pleased to start an exciting year of learning together.  

"Arete" means "excellence;" and excellence is what we will strive for this year. Your children will be encouraged to develop good habits of organization, study skills, depth of understanding, and virtues such as responsibility, perseverance, and humility. 

We began today with discussions of some of our classroom procedures, which are crucial for ensuring a safe, orderly, and academically successful environment. The students learned to sit in a scholarly way, transition to other rooms quietly and efficiently, and observe proper classroom etiquette in listening to others and offering their own thoughts. Other procedures will be introduced as they become useful to us. If you have any questions about any of our procedures, please don't hesitate to ask!

The following is important information: please read all the way through.

Snacks- I ask that you bring in healthy snacks for your child. In addition, I ask that these snacks be "dry" snacks. By this, I mean snacks that, if spilled, would not create a mess on the carpet, i.e. no yogurt, fruit cups, pudding, jello, juice, etc.

Volunteers - I am pleased to have so many parents offer to volunteer their time and services!

As grateful as I am for our wonderful parent volunteers, I will wait until the first week of September before inviting you into our classroom. This delay assists us in establishing our procedures and building our classroom culture.

Please also remember that volunteers are required to have fingerprint clearance here at Archway Classical Academy. This policy is strictly monitored and applies to *all* volunteer positions and duties, including field trip chaperones. If you are interested in volunteering but have not yet obtained the necessary clearance, please see the Archway website for more information, or ask at the front office.

Supplies  - We did a great deal of supply sorting today! If any of your child's personal supplies have not been labeled with his or her name, I ask that you do so as soon as possible. Children will have the opportunity to label supplies with Sharpie markers tomorrow morning. 

Your child should have the following supplies for his or her personal use (not including books):

• 5 spiral notebooks: blue, black, yellow, red, & green

• 1 composition book for Spalding

• 5 pocket folders: blue, black, yellow, red, & green

• 1 agenda

The yellow folder will be your child's "take-home" folder and should be brought home every evening and returned to school in the morning. Other notebooks and books will be sent home as needed. 

Toys and Tools - I ask that everything in your child's desk be a tool for learning, not a toy for fun and potential distraction. I told the children today that if I glimpse a toy, or a tool that is being used as a toy, I may confiscate the item for the rest of the day. Toys brought to school for after-school activities should remain in your child's backpack for the entire day. 

Our studies this week

History: Today we began our first history unit on maps. Goals for this unit include learning basic map reading skills and understanding why and when maps are used. This unit serves as a foundation our entire History/Geography curriculum, which will incorporate maps in many ways as we proceed to discuss Medieval Europe, Revolutionary War America, and many other places and times.

Science:  As in history, the unit with which we begin this week will provide the building blocks for later studies in chemistry and earth science. Students will learn about inference, data collection, and the scientific method. 

Language Arts: Spalding phonics commences this week, beginning with our first phonogram review tomorrow (Tuesday). In grammar, we will discuss the elements of a good sentence, and students will learn basic rules of discussion. Literature starts with a reading of The Princess and the Goblin.

Math:  Our Singapore Math curriculum will take off this week with an introduction to whole numbers, number sense, ordering, place value, and the modeling system we use for word problems.

I appreciate all your communications and input, and I look forward to a wonderful week! Please never hesitate to reach out with questions or concerns.

Best,

Miss Kelly