Week 7 News

Nightly Science Homework:
Throughout the past week, you may have noticed that your child has started bringing home small science notebook assignments. They will have four nights worth of homework to read on most weeks. These assignments are assigned for a few reasons. First, they are useful in helping students prepare for the state science test that will be taken in April. Lastly, they help students develop the skill of reading and comprehending informational texts.

These nightly readings, can be counted toward your child's 25 minutes of nightly reading. They should not read these for science and be expected to read for another 25 minutes (unless you want them to).

Chivalry Week:
Fourth grade has participated in chivalry week since Arete first opened. The main thing we want fourth grade students to learn is that during the Middle Ages honor and manners were woven together in society. Knights were an esteemed segment of the Middle Age society. They were honored for their great bravery on the battlefield and legends surround their heroism. Knights also held to a strict code of chivalry, which was not limited to, but dealt with relationships with their maidens. Knights would often swear their loyalty to their maidens.

The goal of this activity is NOT to create roles for boys and girls to follow. Our goal is to develop a deeper understanding of the feudal society in the Middle Ages. This society was built on loyalty among knights, vassals, lords, and maidens. During this time, everyone had to cooperate with one another for the greater good of their community. Lords took care of their serfs and residents came together to celebrate holidays. Our goal is NOT to persuade our students to think that we should follow feudalism today. Our goal is to show that the structure of society has changed since the Middle Ages, yet the virtues of honor and friendship still remain to be beneficial to all people today.

This week, ladies will be assigned a knight. There will be no aspect of romanticism involved. Instead, each person will serve the other through acts of kindness.

Here are some examples of how boys and girls have showed acts of chivalry/kindness to their classmates in years' past. It is very neat to see how creative they are when deliberately showing kindness to one another.
- Boys can carry girls' backpacks.
- Girls can throw away the boys' trash at lunch.
- Boys can seat girls when they enter the class.
- Girls can sharpen the boys' pencils.

If you have any questions about this activity, or simply don't want your child to participate. Please reach out to me. There has been great success with this exercise in previous years.