Mrs. Valles's Class

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. Field Day Friday 2/1 is field day! Please send a lunch with your child that day! We are wearing red and we are Athens. I am still looking for one more parent to donate snacks (thank you to the mom who is donating cutie oranges!) I also need a cooler for these snacks. Language Arts We will continu

Language Arts We will continue The Trumpet of the Swan this week. Spelling will be condensed, with a test on Friday. Writing and grammar will focus on informational writing as we create a class essay on the Titanic. Students will review their stanza to memorize The Adventures of Isabel. The recitations will be on Jan. 23rd. Math We will be working with fractions still this week. On Thursday we will take a quiz on basic fractions skills: comparing fractions, equivalent fractions, simplest form, and ordering fractions. Afterwards, we will begin adding and subtracting fractions. Science This week we will be completing the sound study guide and learning about Alexander Graham Bell. The sound test is planned for Friday the 26th. History We will continue our Viking unit this week! Students will learn about the famous Vikings Eric the Red and Leif Ericsson. They will get a study guide this week and the test will be next Monday.

We have found a full-time assistant! I am very excited to welcome Monica Hill to 3A! Here is a note from her: Hello.  My name is Monica Hill and I am thrilled to be the new Teacher’s Assistant for 3A at Archway Arete, starting January 16th.  I  am coming to 3A from helping in 5B as a substitute T.A. since December.  I was born and raised in El Paso, Texas and received a B.A. in Communication from U.T. El Paso.  After working ten years as a paralegal, I obtained teacher certification through the alternative certification program from the graduate college of U.T. El Paso.   I have been fortunate to have taught in Texas and Oklahoma in both public and private institutions,  Most recently, I was the English Language Learner teacher in Bixby Oklahoma  supporting over 60 students across K-3rd grades.  My husband Jefferey and I are very happy, after relocating five times in the past 13 years, to return to Arizona where he and I met 18 years ago.  We are the proud parents of two Arete Prep

Upcoming Testing Please be aware that MAP benchmark testing is coming up for third grade on Jan. 15th. Students should just come to school having had a good night's sleep and a nutritious breakfast to fuel their work! Please make every effort for your child to be on time and in attendance on that day so that they do not lose instructional time doing make-up testing! Homework Thank you for taking the time to complete the latest homework survey.  We looked carefully at the numeric data and anonymous comments and had good conversations as a team.  Every child is unique and homework experiences vary widely, but there are occasional patterns in these surveys that help us to adjust our homework assignments.  With this in mind, we are going to make a few adjustments in the third quarter that will hopefully make the homework experience more joyful without sacrificing good learning.  We will continue to discuss as a team and will send another survey near the end of third quarter.

Welcome back! I hope you all had a wonderful and restful break!  Upcoming Testing Please be aware that MAP benchmark testing is coming up for third grade on Jan. 15th. Students should just come to school having had a good night's sleep and a nutritious breakfast to fuel their work! Please make every effort for your child to be on time and in attendance on that day so that they do not lose instructional time doing make-up testing! Language Arts We will begin The Trumpet of the Swan this week! Please send it in asap. Spelling will be normal, with a test on Friday. Writing and grammar will focus on informational writing. Writing will actually be a big focus this quarter as we learn to formalize our skills. Students will receive their stanza to memorize from The Adventures of Isabel. The recitations will be on Jan. 23rd. Math We will start off this quarter learning quickly about probability. There will be a small quiz to check for understanding on Wednesday after math