Good morning fourth grade families. I hope your children enjoyed their first day of school as much as we did. It was wonderful to our classrooms full of students eager to be there. We are happy to have all of them together again: the returning in-person scholars, the distance learners from last year, and our many new students from other schools. Welcome!

I am Mrs. Maza and I'll be writing the blog for the first quarter. This is my 12th year here at Archway, and I am proud to be part of this wonderful community. My youngest child started with me 12 years ago as a first grader and will graduate in May. It's been a lovely journey, and I hope you all have fabulous experiences in your time here, too.

I always start my blog with a little blurb about what's going on in my life right now. Feel free to skip past this part...I'll never know! haha 

The major news around here is that my in-laws are going to move into the house next door to me. My own mother lives 5 houses down from me in the house I grew up in. Now my husband is working to remodel the house next door for his folks. It's been a LONG process, as those of you who had a 4th grader last year know. I was writing about this darn remodel in the spring! Anyway, we're getting close! I think it'll be ready by the end of the month. My brother-in-law flew in Thursday night to help Dave with some electrical work this weekend. I have 5 children, but only two of them are still at home. I love it when we are all together again so I'm looking forward to Sunday night when I will have all my children over with their spouses to celebrate my son-in-law's birthday. I love to entertain and often have large gatherings (which naturally happens with just my immediate family). I hope you all have a lovely weekend with your families, too.

Let's take a look at what we're doing this week.

Language Arts

     Grammar - I love grammar! We won't be starting grammar this week to allow for more time to learn procedures and other beginning of the year stuff.

     Literature - We will begin our year with The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Volunteers are not allowed for the first month, but we'll have reading groups on Wednesdays as soon as we are able. There will be links to the left of this post for your child's classroom.

     Poetry - We will begin with our first poem next week. We typically learn three poems each quarter. We do spend 5 minutes every day in class reciting with the kids, but it is part of their nightly homework to spend another 5 minutes memorizing on their own. When memorized, the students will recite the poems in front of their peers. We are looking for them to have good eye contact, project their voices, speak clearly and fluently, and hopefully to gain confidence as the year progresses.

     Writing - We will be working on a few different skills this first quarter. First off, we'll work on summarizing. We will use the Writing With Ease packets to read passages and summarize them. We'll also have dictation exercises to help the students hold complete thoughts in their heads for longer periods of time. Then we'll be learning to write topic sentences and how to build better paragraphs.

     Latin and Greek Roots - I won't be writing about the L&G Roots each week. Just know that we will be learning two to three new roots each week along with 10-15 derivatives of those roots. Those words will be their spelling words for weekly tests on Fridays. Learning all of these roots in 4th and 5th grade will really help improve their vocabulary.

Math - We will not begin using our books until next week to give families a chance to get them ordered and delivered. If your child does not yet have their Singapore Math workbooks and textbooks (or any other necessary books), please see the Headmaster's Update for the link to order their consumables. We will start this week with some review of math facts and an assessment to see if there are any gaps from third grade that need addressing.

Science - We begin our amazing science curriculum with a look at the scientific method. We'll do some cool activities that the kids will love!

History - We will start our first unit on maps this week. As you are driving around, please start pointing out the cardinal directions to your 4th grader. 

That's about it. Just a reminder to sign up to follow the blog by email. Also, each of the teachers has a wish list item linked to the blog on the left hand side. (Note to Mrs. Heisler's families...we are having technical difficulties getting her wish list linked here, please see her email or use her QR Code to access her list). We thank you in advance for your generosity! Have a fabulous week!