Great Hearts Schools intend to resume classroom instruction on Monday, March 23rd. Should we need to extend, we will tell you as soon as we have made that decision.
Wade Dyke
CEO, Great Hearts America
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Dear Archway Family and Friends,
Raised as what Robert Frost would describe as “some boy too far from town to learn baseball,” imaginative play was central to my childhood. I inhabited worlds of all sorts – not through highspeed Internet connection or VR goggles – but through the firing synapses of my own creativity. My bicycle functioned alternatively as a horse or as a motorcycle, depending on the genre of my mood, but seldom as simply a bicycle. The swing set my grandfather built with his own hands became a stagecoach or a castle turret, and many a foe was vanquished in the name of valor. For hours on end I could play. And did just that until, and even after, the sun had set over the evergreen grove that protected The West Pond.
There is something magical and life-giving about play. We don’t outgrow our need for play or mature beyond the benefit which it provides. G. K. Chesterton, extolling the virtue of play, writes in “Oxford from Without,”
"I would much rather be ruled by men who know how to play than by men who do not know how to play…It is not only possible to say a great deal in praise of play; it is really possible to say the highest things in praise of it. It might reasonably be maintained that the true object of all human life is play. Earth is a task garden; heaven is a playground. To be at last in such secure innocence that one can juggle with the universe and the stars, to be so good that one can treat everything as a joke—that may be, perhaps, the real end and final holiday of human souls."
As we welcome Spring Break at the end of this week, I encourage you to spend some time playing. Do something just because it is fun – not because it’s productive or efficient or necessary – but simply because it brings you pleasure. Try skipping. When was the last time you saw an adult skip like a child – unprompted and uninhibited? I have never seen a sad skipper. There will be things on your to-do list. Perhaps repairs to be made or taxes to be filed or any other assortment of duties that fall in the category of adulting. But for an hour, or even a whole day, why don’t you practice some kidding? It will be Good for you!
Truly,
Mr. Fee
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TAX CREDIT CONTEST WINNERS
The
3
rd
graders gave the most in tax credits! They will celebrate with a “cool” treat and a special spirit day!
Thank you to all the ANP Families that have “Taken the Credit” with ANP!
Congratulations to both students that had the most tax credits given on their behalf:
Audrey Church and Slade Mounsey will be the 'Headmaster for the day'!
We will celebrate all our winners
the week of April 13
th
!
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It's TAX CREDIT SEASON
and we need your help! Every Tax Credit Counts! If you have not yet filed your taxes for 2019, there is still time to support ANP! You have until April
15
th
to receive a dollar for dollar State Tax Credit,
“Take the Credit” with ANP
!
Thank you for helping us reach
84
%
of our goal so far! We still need $
20,213 = 51
family tax credits to go!
We hope everyone had as much fun as we did at our community basketball tournament last Saturday. Congratulations to the Pink team, our new champions, and the Blue team, as the runners up.
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IMPORTANT PARENT INFORMATION & DATES
March
16-20: Spring Break
March
21:
3rd Quarter progress reports will be available to log in to view.
M
arch
24
: Classroom Group Photos
March
25
: Headmaster for the day
March
26
-April
30
AZM2 Testing
3
rd-6th grades. Full night of sleep & healthy breakfast for students
March
27: Spirit T-Shirt Day
March
27: Field Day
March
27-April
21
AZ Merit (AZM
2
) Testing 3rd-6th Grade
March
31: Great Hearts Bard Competition
April 8:
4th Grade Coffee with Headmaster Fee
April
9:
1st Grade Bear Habitat,
2nd Grade Greece Day, and
4th Grade Spencerian Tea
April
10: No School
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PARTNERING WITH PARENTS
The AZ MERIT test is now named AzM
2
for the 2019-2020 school year.
AzM
2
is the statewide achievement test for Arizona students. Arizona public school, which includes charter school students will take the grade level AzM
2
assessments in English Language Arts and Mathematics.
Testing will begin on March 26th for the 3rd through 6th grade students. Please make sure your students have a full night sleep and a healthy breakfast each morning during testing.
Khan Academy is an excellent and free Math on line resource for you and your student. https://www.khanacademy.org In order for students to have extra practice in math, please take some time with your student to go over the following links.
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COVID-
19
To protect our students, we've been working hard to keep our school clean and have changed some of our protocols. We've expanded the cleaning methods focusing on high frequency touch points such as door handles and desks. We have suspended the classroom threshold handshaking and teachers are reminding student to wash their hands for at least 20 seconds.
We are following the CDC updates and guidelines for schools.
We are also working with Great Hearts Leadership for contingency plans.
At this time, school closures are not recommended by the Arizona Department of Health Services or any county Department of Public Health.
IMPORTANT INFORMATION ABOUT THE
Communication from Great Hearts CEO, Wade Dyke re:
CORONAVIRUS and spring break travel.
Steps to take if you or your student become sick:
- Stay home except to get medical care
- You should restrict activities outside your home.
- Do not go to work, school, or public areas.
- Stay away from others: As much as possible, you should stay in a specific room and away from other people in your home. Also, you should use a separate bathroom, if available.
- Limit contact with pets & animals: You should restrict contact with pets and other animals while you are sick with COVID-19, just like you would around other people.
- Wear a face mask
- Cover your nose and month if you cough or sneeze with a tissue. Dispose of the tissue.
- Wash hands: Wash your hands often with soap and water for at least 20 seconds, especially after blowing your nose, coughing, or sneezing; going to the bathroom; and before eating or preparing food.
- Hand sanitizer: If soap and water are not readily available, use an alcohol-based hand sanitizer with at least 60% alcohol, covering all surfaces of your hands and rubbing them together until they feel dry.
- Soap and water: Soap and water are the best option if hands are visibly dirty.
- Avoid touching: Avoid touching your eyes, nose, and mouth with unwashed hands
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PLEASE DRIVE SLOWLY & FRIENDLY!
The safety of our students and faculty is our priority. Drive slowly and be aware of the traffic laws surrounding our school. Please be courteous to other parent drivers and remember that our students model the behavior they see and hear from adults.
Please be attentive to students walking or biking on the sidewalks or crossing the street.
EARLY MORNING SUPERVISION
We provide supervision for students beginning at 7:30 a.m., thirty minutes prior to the start of the school day.
Many students are being dropped off unattended prior to 7:30 a.m. and participating in increasingly dangerous behavior. For the safety of your students, please do not leave your student at school until 7:30 a.m.
We are offering a Math Club on Monday, Wednesday and Fridays in the morning from 7 a.m-7:30 a.m. Please sign up using this link for
Math Club.
NEW BACKGROUND CHECK VISITOR/VOLUNTEER
In order to ensure the safety of our campus, we will be implementing the Raptor Visitor Management System, which helps us to always know who is on our campus.This new system will go live on March 23 and will allow us to track visitors, vendors and volunteers in a better way.
Starting on March
23
, we ask that all visitors have their valid state-issued ID ready to be scanned to be let on campus. The security of our community is of the utmost importance, and we appreciate your cooperation, understanding and patience as we roll out the Raptor Visitor Management System.
We understand this may add time to checking in when volunteering or attending a meeting at the front desk; however the safety of our students is the sole propose of this investment. Please allow extra time for checking in at the front desk.
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NEW
4
th QUARTER CLUBS
(START AFTER SPRING BREAK)
Monday:
Cricket
(K – 3
rd
Grade)
Monday:
French Club
(4
th
– 6
th
Grade)
Mon/ Wed/ Fri AM:
Math Club
(K – 6
th
Grade)
Tuesday/ Thursday AM:
Running Club
(K – 6
th
Grade)
Tuesday:
Spanish Club
(K – 2
nd
Grade)
Wednesday:
Basketball
(K – 6
th
Grade)
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YEARBOOK ORDERS
Don't delay, reserve your yearbook today!
Order a personalized yearbook for $30.00 or pay $25.00 for a yearbook without personalization.
Prices increase after March 23, order today!
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YEARBOOK PHOTOS
Don't miss your chance to help us preserve memories of the 2019-20 school year and see your photography in print! Please take pictures at upcoming concerts, field trips, club and classroom events, movie night, and more and send your photographs to the yearbook committee:
[email protected] If possible, please include names of students in the photo, grade level, and the event name and date. Thank you for your help!
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DINE OUT
March
25th from
4-8 p.m. at
Chipotle location at the Paradise Valley Mall -
4622 E. Cactus Rd.
Come out to enjoy dinner with fellow students, teachers, and parents. Dine outs are loads of fun and a great way to be a part of our ANP community.
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RE-ENROLLMENT
Current Kindergarten –
5
th grade families will resume after spring break ending Friday, March 27th .
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TIPS FROM THE NURSES
Please read these
tips from our wonderful nurses. Also, please consider contributing to the
supplies needed in the nurses office. When you email an absence into the attendance
email please include the specifics of your student's illness. Our nurses track what is going around the classroom and school.
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SPRING FESTIVAL/CARNIVAL
2020
You don't want to miss this years Spring Carnival on April 4th!
The whole community will be out to enjoy the food trucks, vendors, Ferris wheel, multiple carnival rides, rock climbing, bungee jumping and bounce houses!
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LOST & FOUND
Please take a look at our current Lost and Found inventory and pick up. This is for K-6
th
. Labeled items will be returned to your scholar.
www.anppso.org/lostandfound
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SUMMER MOVIE TICKET ORDER FORM
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DROPPING OFF FORGOTTEN LUNCHES
Parents please bring any forgotten lunches to the front office by
10 a.m. Thank you!
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NOTICE OF UPCOMING BOARD OF DIRECTORs MEETING
The next meeting date for the 2019-20 fiscal year is May
14, 2020
. Meeting locations will be posted on the school website as the date approaches.
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GREAT HEARTS GALA, SEPTEMBER
19, 2020
Please save the date for the evening of September 19, 2020 at Chateau Luxe for the premiere Great Hearts fundraising event to support our faculty through the Teacher Excellence Fund.
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ARGONAUNTS SPORTS CAMP END OF THE YEAR (May 21
st
– May 29
th
)
These are the last
4 half days of the school year and the Thursday and Friday after school is out. This camp will be from May 21
st through May 29
th. On the half days, students will be given a lunch period and time to change clothes. We will play a variety of traditional sports, international sports, and invasion games. Teams will get to play these sports and compete for the chance to be called the overall champion! For more details visit the
Extracurriculars page on the school website.
Registration for the Argonauts Sports Camp will open on Tuesday, March 10
th
at 9am.
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TEACHER SPOTLIGHT
Mr. Messana was born and raised in the Valley of the Sun. He had a solid education growing up, with many good educator role models, and earned a Bachelors of Arts degree from Arizona State University. After working in the food and retail industry, he was happy to finally start his career in education.
Mr. Messana’s desire for teaching goes back to Mrs. Barr’s First Grade class, when he was only 7 years old. That desire was fulfilled in August 2016, when he started working for Great Hearts in the after school Athenaeum program at our previous campus. He fell in love with the mission of Great Hearts, the curriculum of Archway North Phoenix, and the students. He joined the Archway staff when we moved to our new home as an Assistant Teacher in 5th Grade and is excited to grow in his new 6th Grade position.
Besides teaching, Mr. Messana enjoys genealogy, philosophy, good food, and visiting his beloved grandmother.
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LO
VE AND LOGIC
This weeks Life skill's article comes from Insider's Club:
In Love and Logic, we often separate the things we CAN control from the things we WISH we could control. A giant wish shared by many educators and parents is that kids will always be kind to one another. Cruel comments and malicious teasing can be devastating.
Sadly, our wish that kids will always be kind has to do with something beyond our direct control–the behavior of others. The good news is that we CAN control our own actions by:
1. Intentionally modeling kindness
We can make sure that kids see us regularly displaying kindness toward others. Our example is a powerful force.
2. Intentionally noticing and celebrating kindness
We can watch for, and celebrate, acts of kindness we see from kids. We can raise the odds of kindness by noticing even small acts of kindness and then celebrating them without causing embarrassment.
3. Providing healthy outlets
Some kids mistreat their peers and stir up conflict out of sheer boredom. We can make sure that kids have plenty to do, including outlets for their creativity, energy, and desire to play.
4. Controlling kids’ access to one another
When kids are mean to others, we might be able to limit their access to peers (in-person or online). “We want you out here playing with the other kids – as long as we don’t have to worry about them being pushed around and called names.”
5. Providing consequences for unkind behavior
We can expect kids to solve problems (and, hopefully, restore relationships) using restitution. In many cases, kind gestures that benefit the family/community or the offended party can create win-win scenarios.
It is a noble wish that kids will be kind to one another. We know that this wish will not always come true, but focusing on what we can control will raise the odds of kindness all around.
Thanks for reading.
Jedd Hafer, Love and Logic Institute
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Archway Classical Academy North Phoenix|
archwaynorthphoenix.org
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14100 North 32nd Street, Phoenix, AZ 85032
602 996 4355
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