Q2 Week 7

“Every strike brings me closer to the next home run.” ~Babe Ruth

Dear Parents,

We often strike out, even when we try our hardest. Nobody is perfect, and one of the hardest lessons for a 4th grader to learn is that learning isn't always easy. Our aim at Archway Trivium East is to give your students access to ideas that will allow them to grow into lovers of Truth, Goodness, and Beauty. These ideas are big, and often difficult. Do not be discouraged if you find they sometimes struggle with them, the struggle itself is an excellent lesson. Keep encouraging them to do and be their best, and let us know if you have any thoughts or questions!

This Week

1) In History we will be learning about Muhammed's flight from Mecca to Medina and how he preserved and grew the religion of Islam in its infancy. If you have any questions about the goals or methods regarding our lessons about Islam, please feel free to email me and ask them.

2) We will be spending most of our Writing and Literature classes in the next three weeks working on our Twelfth Night Reader's theater play, which will be performed on the last day of school (Dec 16th)! The performance will be open to parents and further details are coming soon!

3) We are going to be introducing Paul Revere's Ride this week! This is one of those hard challenges I mentioned. The poem is long and intimidating, but 4th graders have managed to memorize the whole thing every year that I have taught it. We will work to get the first several paragraphs memorized before Christmas break, and students will finish it during project week.

Best,

Mr. Ohbayashi

Q2 Week 6

Dear Parents,

Happy Thanksgiving! It is exciting to have a long weekend ahead of us, but we have a lot of exciting things to learn this shorter week as well.

Deficiency notices were sent out over the weekend, so make sure you double check for them. If you received a deficiency notice for your student and have any questions please feel free to email me. There is still a lot of time to bring up grades in this quarter.

Here is a snapshot of what we will be doing this week:

In History we will be learning about the founding of the religion of Islam. We will learn how the prophet Muhammad organized a religion in the face of great resistance, and how he established traditions and Pillars of the Muslim faith that would endure to the modern day. We will have an open note quiz on Wednesday.

In Literature  we will be having a seminar on King Arthur this Monday. The question we will be discussing is "Who was the best Knight in the book and why?" Ask your students how the conversation went and if they learned anything new from their peers! We will then be introducing William Shakespeare's play Twelfth Night which the student's will be performing as a reader's theater in December.

In Writing we will be practicing writing persuasive sentences and analyzing what types of sentences we use to be persuasive. Ask your students what they think persuasion is and how we can be persuasive in a virtuous way.

Best,

Mr. Ohbayashi