Level Updates

 Kindergarten:

The kindergarten team is off to a super start. We are making new friends and learning routines. We have started or Unit of Study for Inquiry:

This Is Us

Central Idea:
We are unique.
Lines of inquiry
How are we unique

• What makes others unique
• What makes a learning environment unique
• How are we all connected
• We are excited about exploring new books and math materials too.

We are showing that we are caring and can cooperate nicely. Friends are sharing with each other while we learn and play and help each other adjust to kindergarten.

We have met some older friends in the building. They have helped us to the bus. We love our new school!

We are hoping to take a trip to Kelly’s Apple farm sometime in October. We are looking forward to many other new experiences too. J

 

Primary:

The Primary Classes are excited for our new year!  We are happy to welcome Mrs. Elias and all of her teaching experience and positive energy to our team.  

Classes began the year by creating class routines.  These routines start good habits to make for a successful year.  One routine we all have been working on is asking students to read independently. Students should sit in one place with a book for at least 10 minutes. Miss Monfiletto's friends can read for 20 minutes!  Please make sure your child is practicing reading every night. Take turns between reading to your child and them reading to you.  Reading is the best way to support your child.

Students have also been learning that they all have stories to write.  No story is too boring, it's all about the way you write it.  Right now, when students write at home, praise them for just getting a story on the paper.  Spelling and handwriting will come, but we need students willing to write so they can practice those other skills.  One favorite story of our primary classes is "The Veggie Monster," which is an entire story about a boy eating a single pea!  Always remind your children that anything that happens to them could make a good story.  In the words of Mrs. PJ, "Put that story in your pocket and pull it out at writer's." 

Support your child in math by practicing counting and writing numbers, practicing addition and subtraction facts and playing with coins to learn their value and names.  

Our first planner has been "Who We Are," and we have been learning all about what a community is, our community, community helpers and how we can be super citizens in our own communities.  All of the primary classes had the opportunity to tour the Parma Public Library and the Hilton Volunteer Fire Station.  Deputy Strapp, of the Monroe Sheriff department came to QUEST and taught us about his job and car.   Dr. Kosiorek, Mr. Giest, Mr. Dale and Mrs. Paolini taught us about their roles in our school district and how rules and laws impact their jobs.  Students have learned different strategies to handle conflict, why we have rules and how we can help.  

In a few weeks we will start the next planner, "How We Organize Ourselves," through maps and physical land features. We will learn about map features and tools we use to navigate our world.

Elementary:

The Elementary Level classrooms are off and running with the new school year.  September was spent establishing routines and getting reacclimated to the school environment.  We are happy to reintroduce hallway meetings each morning and the schoolwide auditorium meetings on Wednesdays.  Students are enjoying the opportunity to come together as a whole group.

Our first planner is a science based unit on weather.  The central idea is that weather and climate follow predictable patterns.  We will look at how geographic regions have unifying characteristics, how patterns of change are used to predict weather, and solutions humans can design to reduce the impacts of weather related hazards.  This unit offers many hands-on, authentic learning opportunities which the students truly enjoy.

Intermediate:

The intermediate team is absolutely enjoying our current unit of inquiry, Every Action Has a Reaction. Our lines of inquiry are: An inquiry into the natural world and its laws; the interaction between the natural world (physical and biological) and human societies; how humans use their understanding of scientific principles; the impact of scientific and technological advances on society and on the environment. This week we created inertia crash test dummies. In this activity, groups attempted to demonstrate the law of inertia: Newton's first law states that an object at rest tends to stay at rest and an option in motion wants to stay in motion. We created ‘crash test dummies’ (using ping pong balls and wooden cars) and collected data on how speed influences the distance that our crash dummies went when they hit a barrier. We learned valuable lessons about the importance of seatbelts and energy.

Students are working diligently to set goals that will help support our learning. We will share these goals at our upcoming 3-way conferences. This year, our focus will be on using the Approaches to Learning (ATLs) to drive our goals.

To add a little more fun into the mix, the intermediate level is also beginning preparations for our FEAST demonstrations down at the creek. Thank you for sharing in our enthusiasm for a great start to the year!