Important Dates
Monday, October 29, Visit from author Mary Winn Heider (see below for more information)
Tuesday, October 30, Picture Retake Day
Wednesday, October 31, Halloween class parties and parade. (See below for more information)
Wednesday, November 7, Service Learning Immersion Day (See below for more information)
Friday, November 9, NO SCHOOL, Teacher Inservice
November 19-23, Fall Break, NO SCHOOL
*Follow the Gecko class on twitter @geckoknights!
Field Trip to the World’s Largest Corn Maze
The 4th grade had a wonderful field trip to Richardson Farm in Spring Grove on Friday. Thank you to our many wonderful parent chaperones, who accompanied the small groups of students through the maze as the students worked together to read the map and find the checkpoints. Most of the 4th graders found enough checkpoints to get a certificate of achievement! It was a beautiful day to be outdoors, though the adults found it chilly. We ate lunch around a small campfire, then the children had some time to play and visit the animals. The jumping pillow and the rabbits were most popular.
Author Mary Winn Heider Visits 4th and 5th grade
Mary Winn Heider, author of the middle grades novel The Mortification of Fovea Munson, will visit the 4th and 5th grades on Monday. She will talk about her novel and the process of writing it. We have been fortunate to have had several authors visit Quest and speak to our students about the writing process and their own work. It is always a valuable learning experience for the students. You can order a book for your child through My Backpack. Please ask if you are having difficulty ordering. Thank you to Drew Shilhanek for arranging this event!
Halloween Information
Halloween is, of course, on Wednesday, October 31. Students should come to school in regular school clothes and bring their costumes with them. Please remember that Quest has a policy of no masks and nothing gory or bloody. We will have time before the party to help the 4th graders change into their costumes. The classroom parties parties begin at 1:30; the 4th grade opens the wall between the rooms and has a joint party. The school parade begins at 2:15. If the weather is nice (not raining) we will parade on the sidewalk around the shopping center. If the weather doesn’t cooperate, we will parade inside the main building. Parents are invited to watch the parade, which will end the school day.
Trick or Treat for UNICEF
The 3rd and 4th grades have been working on informing the Quest community about Trick or Treat for UNICEF. This program dates back to 1950. Children take the small orange UNICEF boxes when they go trick or treating and ask for donations of any size. We turn the donations in to UNICEF, which helps children all over the world by providing education opportunities, clean water, medical help, and more. We will count up all the donations a week or two after Halloween to give everyone time to bring in the boxes.
Parent-Teacher Conference Follow-up
Thank you all for taking the time to come in and talk about your children. I love parent-teacher conferences because I learn so much from you about your child. As I said at your conference, please don’t hesitate to contact me at any time if you have questions or concerns.
Service Learning Immersion Day
On Wednesday, November 7, the fourth-graders will travel (by bus for about an hour) with the middle school CARE group to Share Your Soles in Chicago. Students and teachers will spend all day unbagging and sorting shoes that are suitable for donation to people in the US and other countries. If you have any new or gently-used shoes that you are able to donate, please have your child bring them to school in the next two weeks. Each child needs to make a $5 donation to assist with the transportation of the shoes overseas. We have volunteered at Share Your Soles every year for the past seven years and it has always been an inspiring, eye-opening experience for our students.
Please make sure that your child wears appropriate clothing for a day of physical work. Old clothes, including a sweater and coat would ideal. Gym shoes would be perfect, as the flooring is smooth and flat. Please be mindful that the factory-like conditions (see picture below) make the work a little dusty and it can be cold if the outside temperature is low on the day. If your child has allergies or the early stages of a virus, you may want to consider keeping him or her at home. Each child will need a fully-disposable sack lunch with a drink. Both fourth-grade teachers have been to this location before, so if you have any questions about the facility or the role of the students during the trip, please contact us via email or phone. The electronic permission slip is now available in the usual place in MyBackPack. No parent chaperones will be needed as there will be five teachers in attendance.
Share Your Soles says:
We accept all types of footwear including gym shoes, sandals, boots, shoes of all sizes, men’s women’s and children’s. Your gently worn or brand-new shoes of any kind are going to people who may have never even owned a pair. It’s important that these shoes are in good condition to respect the dignity of those receiving them. Shoes older than five years old decompose, even if they were never worn. So please: be respectful with your donations, understand that our goal is to provide good, clean shoes to those in need. For example, tennis shoes should include laces and not have holes. We discard any old overly worn shoes!
Math
We will be finishing up Unit 3 with Rainbow Day on Tuesday and the unit test on Wednesday. The 4th graders have shown so much growth in this unit; they are much more adept at using protractors to measure angles, and they have a good understanding of polygons, tessellations, and how angle measurements affect both of these.
Social Studies
The Pilgrims have reached the New World. This is the point in our Social Studies unit where we have our first assessment. For this assessment, students have decided upon four big ideas about the history so far. They are creating Google Slides presentations and practicing their oral presentations. Each child will present one-on-one to his/her teacher. We are looking for accuracy of facts and an understanding of the larger picture, including motivations for change, why people face difficult and unpleasant situations, and the importance of compromise. We will begin listening to the presentations next week.