Diversity Quilt-From Mrs. Anderson

Dear Parents:

     Here in the library we have been discussing Global Literacy as a part of our STEM integration, basically explaining to your students that there is a big, wide world around them and how can they become more connected to it. We would like to explore Quest Academy’s diversity within our students by doing the following activity:  A Diversity Quilt. Students were sent home with a colored square which will become part of our “quilt.” We are asking that you work with your student and share something about your family’s culture, such as:

  • something you celebrate together
  • something you enjoy doing together
  • something that represents your family
Examples could be:
  • flags from where your family is from
  • family crests
  • Photographs of places visited
  • Words describing your family’s heritage
You can use crayons, markers, pens, or colored pencils to create your family’s representation. If you would like to see an example of a Diversity Quilt to get more ideas you can go to  kidworldcitizen.org
I am very excited about this project and I cannot wait to display the “quilt” showcasing the Quest community.
The quilt squares are due back Friday January 8th. Once all the squares have been collected an email will be sent out to let you know where you can come and see the quilt.
Parents, have fun with this project with your students, this is a great opportunity for them to learn about their heritage and be proud of who they are.

Thank you,
Nicole Anderson

Homework Week of December 14

Parents,

This week we WILL NOT be doing word sorts. I will be doing reassessments and evaluate how each child is doing in the Words Their Way program. That being said, there will be NO SORT HOMEWORK this week and your child’s group MAY or MAY NOT change when we come back for January. 

Homework:
Monday: Read 20 minutes and work on multiplication facts (with flash cards) for 10 minutes

Tuesday: Read 20 minutes and work on Prodigy for 10 minutes

Wednesday: Read 20 minutes and work on multiplication facts (with flash cards) for 10 minutes

Thursday: Read 20 minutes and work on Prodigy for 10 minutes

Please just send in your reading minutes form on Friday and that will be sufficient for this week’s homework log. I will give your child credit for their math this week when I see them logged into and working in Prodigy.
Thanks!

Grinch Party

I’m sure you’ve all heard about our Grinch focus this month. We are spending a lot of time talking about kindness and showing love to others.  It has been awesome to see the students work extra hard to be super caring. To wrap things up in December, we will be having our Grinch Party next Friday, December 18th (with the entire third grade).  We will watch the movie “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” together in the gym.  The students will be given sugar popcorn (colored green) during the party.  We will also be giving the students “Grinch Pills” at the party (green Sixlets). PLEASE DO NOT tell your child about the treats we are having so we can surprise them. :) If you DO NOT want your child to eat the sugar popcorn or “pills”, please let me know.  December 18th is a Dollar Dress Down Day, and we thought it would be fun for the kids to dress up like a “Who” or the Grinch.  Let’s be creative and have some fun celebrating our hearts growing 3 TIMES this month.

Busy Week!

This week is a busy one as we start Sage Interim Testing.  It is also Hour of Code Week.  Many have asked what Hour of Code is, so here’s a quick explanation.  Hour of Code was created to encourage kids and teachers to learn and teach code.  Each year, Code.org hosts a week where they offer fun, inspirational videos about the importance of coding, and a fun code program for the students.  Coding is how video games, android and iOS base apps are created, and will be a very big part of our futures.  This year, Code.org has teamed up with Disney and have a new Star Wars code program available for Hour of Code.   At Quest, we participate in Hour of Code Week, but that’s not our only interaction.  We code all year long in STEM class and in our classroom.  If you have not seen what your student is capable of coding, have them log on at home and show you what they can do.  We will participate in Hour of Code on Thursday.

Our schedule for SAGE testing is as follows:
Tuesday, December 8th 1:00 to 2:00 
Thursday, December 10th  2:00 – 3:00 
 
After the testing is over, I a snapshot of what the students have grasped  on the concepts we have already taught, and an indication of their background knowledge of upcoming topics.  These tests will NOT be used as term grades.  This testing will also help the children have a good idea of what to expect when we get to the end of year tests.

Remember this Friday, December 11 is our Ugly Sweater Day!

Homework: 
Read 20 minutes at least 5 days this week!

Razkids login: nlloyd2
Turn in reading minutes by clicking on the link below:
http://qacblogs.org/nichol.lloyd/homework/reading/
OR
Sort-and-Reading-Log

Word Sort Groups


Green Group: Green Group
Mason, Kayl, Amya, Aleksander, Katie, Chance, Marriner, Sienna

Yellow Group: Yellow Group
Christian, Keysha, Cherokee, Cameron, Emily, Nathan, Daxon, Lana

Orange Group: Orange Group
Garrett, JD, Carson, Zurii, Brinlee


Sorts – Please print the words out and have them pick from the following categories to do nightly at home: (1 sort each night)

1. Sort your words into categories -Always do this one on Monday night and have your child explain the rule to you.  The rest of the week, your child may choose what he/she would like to do for the rest of the week.
2. Turn the word sorts face down. Time your child to see how long it takes them to sort them into the correct categories. (You may only choose this sort to do once a week)
3. Write the words 3x each.
4. Write the words in ABC order
5. Give your child a practice spelling test.
6. Play ball – Have your child grab someone to play catch and let the fun begin.  The person helping your child will say the word to him/her and he/she will spell the work back to you. Every time your child throws the ball have them say one letter of the word.  Continue until your child has spelled the word.  If your child makes a mistake, correctly spell the word for them, and have them start over. 
7. Speed Sort- Time your child 3 times to see how fast they can sort their words. 
8. Glue sort- Have your child glue the sort on a piece of paper. 
9. Syllable Sort- Sort the words according to how many syllables they have. 


Math – 

Play Prodigy at least 3 times this week for at least 10 minutes.

December Arrives This Week!!

We have three weeks to accomplish our December Goals and it’s going to fly by.

In the next three weeks we will be working on Parent Gifts, memorizing multiplication facts, learning the rest of the lower case cursive letters, editing our writing and working on a fun Grinch project.   

We will be starting to pass of our multiplication facts for the first time (we pass them off a variety of ways and numbers of times) this week.  As we pass them off the first time, we will also be filling out a glyph (picture) that we will use to graph and take data from.  In the end, we will have a Sundae Party (February 14th) where we will build a sundae to celebrate knowing our multiplication facts.  The students will have 1 minute to pass off the facts for each number group (Example: We will start with 2′s, then do 5′s etc).  

Homework: 
Read 20 minutes at least 5 days this week!

Razkids login: nlloyd2
Turn in reading minutes by clicking on the link below:
http://qacblogs.org/nichol.lloyd/homework/reading/
OR
Sort-and-Reading-Log

Word Sort Groups


Green Group: Green Group
Mason, Kayl, Amya, Aleksander, Katie, Chance, Marriner, Sienna

Yellow Group: Yellow Group
Christian, Keysha, Cherokee, Cameron, Emily, Nathan, Daxon, Lana

Orange Group: Orange Group
Garrett, JD, Carson, Zurii, Brinlee


Sorts – Please print the words out and have them pick from the following categories to do nightly at home: (1 sort each night)

1. Sort your words into categories -Always do this one on Monday night and have your child explain the rule to you.  The rest of the week, your child may choose what he/she would like to do for the rest of the week.
2. Turn the word sorts face down. Time your child to see how long it takes them to sort them into the correct categories. (You may only choose this sort to do once a week)
3. Write the words 3x each.
4. Write the words in ABC order
5. Give your child a practice spelling test.
6. Play ball – Have your child grab someone to play catch and let the fun begin.  The person helping your child will say the word to him/her and he/she will spell the work back to you. Every time your child throws the ball have them say one letter of the word.  Continue until your child has spelled the word.  If your child makes a mistake, correctly spell the word for them, and have them start over. 
7. Speed Sort- Time your child 3 times to see how fast they can sort their words. 
8. Glue sort- Have your child glue the sort on a piece of paper. 
9. Syllable Sort- Sort the words according to how many syllables they have. 


Math – 

These practice sheets have more problems than I normally assign so I will only give 2 out for the week. Please have your child complete them both before the end of the week to turn in on Friday. Thanks!

Monday & Tuesday
RepeatedSubtraction
KEY
Wednesday & Thursday: Multiply 2