October Principal Update

QUEST Families

I hope the month of October finds you and your family well. Our school is in full swing, and it has been really great to see so many families participate in our start-of-the-year events! One of the ab Thank you so much for your partnership.

District Improvement Team 

The Hilton Central School District has a District Improvement Team, and we are currently looking for anyone that is interested in joining. This group is currently focused on the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusivity action plan, and your input would be welcomed. If you are interested in joining or learning more about the commitment, please reach out to Derek! 

Halloween 

Halloween is fast approaching, and our school will have an outdoor parade around the bus loop on 9:30 am on 10/31. Please feel free to join us (to view, please stand in the grass as students will be walking along the sidewalk!). If you wish to participate with other classroom-wide activities, please chat with your child's teacher about opportunities. 

What if we do not celebrate Halloween? 

If your family does not celebrate Halloween, please be sure to communicate with your child's teacher so that we can prepare alternate opportunities for your child.  

What is allowed and not allowed to be worn to school on Halloween? 

• No blood should be part of the costume that is worn to school.
• Toy weapons that go with the costume should not be brought to school.
• If a child has a mask with their costume, they should bring that in their bag; their classroom teacher will instruct them when it is an appropriate time to put it on.
• Costumes should not be offensive or discriminate against others.

Change to Parent Pickup Time

Starting on 10/16/23, our announcement for students to come down for parent pick-up will occur at 3:25 versus 3:20. Because we have had a wide gap from the time parent pick-up is announced and when the buses are dismissed, this extra five minutes will be put to good use (instructionally!). If you pick your child up, please be aware of this five minute difference in practice! 

It's Almost Conference Time

Conferences are starting in many rooms, and our goal is to have all of our conferences with families complete by Thanksgiving. At QUEST, your child is also invited to the conference so that they can take ownership (agency) over their learning. 

We look forward to conferencing with our students and our families, so please be on the lookout for a sign-up from your child's teacher! 

PTSO

QUEST families are amazing! Our PTSO set a new record for fundraising, a new record for the book fair, and we have had consistently high turnout for our events--thank you, families. Our school is founded on partnerships, and all of our great events are possible because of this. Thank you!

Please be sure to check out all the information on this month's blog--it is packed full of good stuff. As always, reach out if there is any way I can be of support. 

Yours in Education, 

Derek Warren

QUEST Principal 

Level Updates

 Kindergarten

The kindergarten team is off to a super start. We are making new friends and learning routines. We are exploring our 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 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 read A LOT of books and story time is a favorite time!

Exploring math materials is really fun too.

We love our kindergarten play time on Fridays when we get to see our kindergarten teammates!!!

We love our new school!

Primary

The primary team is off to a great start! We have been learning routines and working on being a classroom family! In reading, we are getting groups up and running if they are not already. Look for books to come home soon. Older friends should read each night for twenty minutes and younger friends should spend ten minutes reading at home. Read aloud stories count toward these minutes and are a great way to spend time together while modeling fluent reading. Don't forget to talk about the story together too! In writing, we are composing narrative stories that are true stories that have happened to us. Please help your child come up with ideas to write about by talking with them and reminding them of events that have happened. For example, holiday stories, summer stories, vacation stories, tooth stories, etc. Please help your child make a list of topics that they can write about during writing time and send it in to school. 

In math younger friends are counting and beginning addition and we are playing lots of games to reinforce this. Older friends are learning to recognize and count coins, tell time to the hour and half hour, practice addition and subtraction facts, and will be starting story problems soon. Our first planner is How We Organize Ourselves (Government) and involves inquiring into democracy, the purpose and levels of government and patriotism. We are all learning to sing some patriotic songs! Next, we will be moving into a science planner next that is about the Earth's features. We love teaching your children and are excited for the rest of the year!

Elementary

The Elementary Level is off to a great start! Our first unit of study is all about forces, interactions, and energy. Students will be looking at how energy and matter interact, how energy can be transferred, and how humans use their understanding of the natural world and its resources. The unit started off with students learning about kinds of energy and identifying the types of energy different everyday objects represent. Classes made solar ovens to convert the sun’s energy into heat energy and cooked s’mores inside the ovens. Students will also be working with electrical circuits, building a “roller coaster” to see how speed and energy go together, and learning about renewable/nonrenewable energy sources.

The Elementary Level classes are beginning routines to incorporate more Spanish into our day. Students are completing Spanish Language sheets on a regular basis and practicing speaking in Spanish while in their classroom.

Intermediate

Intermediate students have been busy this school year. Our current Central Idea is analyzing data and cycles helps us make predictions. We have been exploring The Got Water kit which has us looking at Earth's systems and how they interact. Ms. Reese has arranged for Glen Johnson to come to speak to our kids about the weather and how patterns and data are used to predict the weather. In writing, we have been focusing on informational writing pieces and how to write with the purpose of informing our audience. We are all reading Esperanza Rising and investigating the historical context as it applies to the story. In math, the 6th graders have been learning about factors, multiples, prime factorization, and order of operations. The 5th graders have been exploring and learning different whole-number multiplication strategies for finding the products of 2 and 3-digit numbers.

Our Corner of the World

Musical

QUEST MUSICAL COMING SOON!

 

The musical will be announced during Wednesday morning meeting this month!  This opportunity is available to all students in grades 3-6. Students must be responsible, independent, and comfortable singing and dancing on stage!   All students will be required to audition.  Paperwork will be available in the Main Office starting on Monday, October 16th.  Contracts will be due on Friday, October 27th.  No late paperwork will be accepted!

Library News

We are off to a great start in the library! Thank you to all of our families who supported the book fair this past month and helped to promote a culture of reading at QUEST!

We kicked off October with a new hallway display featuring apples, pumpkins, and leaves illustrated by QUEST students. We are also inviting students to guess how many leaves are in our fall estimation jar!

This month, kindergarten is reading books by Mo Willems and Primary is reading books by Melanie Watt as we discuss the role of authors and illustrators in a story. Elementary and Intermediate are learning how to use SORA and Destiny to search our library catalog and read e-books. Students can access SORA from home on their Chromebooks in a few easy steps.

1. Visit https://soraapp.com/home
2. If SORA doesn't login automatically, choose Monroe 2-BOCES and Hilton Central School District.
3. Use the "Explore" tab at the bottom of the screen to find e-books and audiobooks. Students can borrow two books on SORA at a time for approximately three weeks. Books are returned automatically- no need to worry about due dates. Students can check what they have borrowed, as well as return or renew books by clicking on the "Shelf" tab at the bottom of the screen.
4. SORA is also available as an app and follows the same steps to sign-in! Search Sora, by OverDrive Education in the Apple App Store or Google Play.

Happy reading 🙂

Mrs. Shippers
Library Media Specialist

Student Council News

Elections

We are looking forward to another great year of student council! Officer positions include president, vice president, secretary, and treasurer. Elementary students may run for secretary and treasurer positions. Intermediate students may run for president and vice president positions. Candidates will give speeches during the whole school meeting on November 1st. Voting will take place on Election Day, Tuesday, November 7th. Applications for officer positions will be available for interested students starting on October 11th.

 

In addition to officer positions, each classroom will also select a student council representative. Classroom representatives will be selected after November 7th. If you have any questions, please reach out to Emily Tracey (etracey@hilton.k12.ny.us) or Valerie Pond (vmccormick@hilton.k12.ny.us). Thank you!

 

Make a Difference Day – Saturday, October 28

Come volunteer at Make a Difference Day this year on Saturday, October 28. QUEST is hosting a gently used clothing concert drive at the Hilton Community Center. If your family wants to volunteer email etracey@hilton.k12.ny.us or vmccormick@hilton.k12.ny.us for more information. Below is the agenda for the day. There are multiple volunteer opportunities.

9:00-9:30 am – Breakfast/Sign-at LeBeau Field 

 9:30-9:40 am – Opening General Information 

9:45 am – Depart to Worksites  

10:00 am-12:30 pm – Projects Around Town 

 12:35 pm – All Volunteers Back to the High School