Our class will be celebrating the holidays in our room on December 18th. Due to COVID, we are not having any parent helpers attend. We will be staying in our room and having the teachers move from room to room with their activity. We have an early out this day (1:00) and students can wear a Christmas (ugly or cute) sweater.

If you are looking for Christmas gift ideas for our classroom…here are some ideas.

I love receiving and REALLY like giving back to my class. I always enjoy getting supplies to share in our room. Dry erase markers, thin or thick tip. Ear buds are in desperate need. A teacher can never have enough pencils. If you want to send a small trinket for the students, my class has 27 kiddos.

Amazon gift cards-I love to buy things for my room

Teacher Pay Teacher gift card

Never could go wrong with Twisted Sugar Cookies!

One last idea, if you can afford it. I have families that haven’t paid their classroom donation fee of $25. I use this money to buy supplies, art projects, prizes, STEM, birthday gifts, and earbuds. I think because parents haven’t come in the building this year, it may have gotten overlooked. Our science this year has lots of hands on projects, but I can hold these activities without purchasing the supplies. Please, log in online and send our class some extra funds if you can. THANKS SO MUCH!

Quest Families,

 Happy Halloween! We are planning on having a modified version of our annual Halloween parade on Friday, October 30^th. Because the parade will start at 9:00am, we ask that students come to school already dressed in their costumes. There will be a virtual option and an on-campus option for parents and relatives to watch our on-campus elementary kiddos parade in their costumes. To watch our parade from home, parents will be sent a link to a YouTube live streaming session. Students will be recorded as they pass by the office, one class at a time, and you’ll be able to see them in all their Halloween splendor! For those who would like to attend the parade for their on-campus children, they should bring camping chairs or blankets and set them up along the outside of either building (see attached map—the yellow dots indicate where families can sit). Everyone watching the parade on campus needs to be wearing a mask and should position themselves as close to the building as possible to allow our students to parade on the sidewalks surrounding the schools. Families should also allow six feet between them and neighboring families. Although individual teachers may choose to have other Halloween festivities throughout the day, we will not be asking for parent volunteers this year. Also, afternoon kindergarten families will receive information from their child’s teacher regarding their parade.

 E-learner students are welcome to dress up as well. Their teachers will let them know when they can show off their costumes from home via Zoom/Google Meet. So that the ENTIRE school can see our e-learners in their costumes, we ask parents to take pictures of their children and send them to Angelee Spader (aspader@questac.org) no later than Thursday, Oct. 29^th. We will make a video compilation of these pictures and share it with all our students.

 Costume guidelines:

 Please note that costumes should be modest and without blood or gore. Also, face coverings must also be worn throughout the entire day. Students are welcome to paint their faces and wear Halloween masks; however, those masks will only be worn when directed to do so by the classroom teacher (e.g. during the parade, when a class picture is taken, etc). Weapons and anything that depicts violence are not allowed on school property (knives, guns, swords, spears, etc.). If you have questions about costume accessories, please contact us. Just to reiterate, no blood, either depicted on the costume or in makeup, is allowed. 

We are excited to continue this tradition at Quest! We hope these precautions will allow us to celebrate in a fun, memorable way!

Quest Families,

We are excited to start offering breakfast this upcoming Monday! Breakfast, just like lunch, will be free to ALL students. Please note that these meals will be free until June! Though we originally thought this offer would end in December, this waiver from the government has been extended!

To start, breakfasts will be simple and more of a grab-and-go option provided in the Q1 lunchroom. A sample breakfast might include a muffin, a fruit, and milk. Jr. high students are welcome to enter the Q1 building through the front doors as early as 7:45am. By 8:00am, they should be heading back to Q2. Elementary students may enter Q1 at 8:00am. At 8:20am, elementary students will go outside to meet their teachers.

Please note that half-day kindergartners and e-learner kindergarteners are welcome to take advantage of these meals as well. These parents may contact Madeline Chestnut (mchestnut@questac.org) if they are interested or if they have any questions.

Students are excited to share their progress during fall conferences. Please make sure your student is with you on the zoom conference. I am also willing to meet with parents and students in the classroom instead of a virtual zoom conference. If you plan to come into the classroom, please email me at sgarrett@questac.org, let me know, and remember to wear a mask. You will be in a waiting room on zoom until I let you into the conference. Please be on time for your appointment. If you are having trouble logging onto zoom, feel free to email or bloomz me. Fall conference: Zoom link Password: rams If you have not signed up for conferences, click here. See you soon!

Student-Led Conference Days and Times

Virtual Fall Student-Led Conferences will be held Oct. 20-21st. Please use this link to sign up.  If you can’t make these dates/times, let me know, and I will find another time we can meet. 

This Friday, September 25th will be our first dress down of the year. Students can wear non-uniform clothes for $1. POQA is excited to launch our school cookie dough and beef jerky fundraiser this Friday. The fundraiser will help with student activities and school improvements that directly affect our students. Information will be sent home on Friday. Take time and watch this fun commercial put on by our Administration explaining the fundraiser.

I will be starting math tutoring tomorrow WEDNESDAY’S after school from 3:00 to 3:30. If you or your child feels they need help with math, I would love for them to stay after school and receive some additional support.

This year we are doing math a little differently than in the past. Students are doing independent math paths and required to learn according to their level of understanding. Students can revisit each lesson over and over until the lesson is mastered. I am encouraging students to learn these lessons as quickly as they can and move on to the next lesson. The ultimate goal is to master each power standard by the end of the year. Students can progress to the next grade level’s math once all math standards have been mastered. These lessons are all found in my Google classroom.

If there is anything I can do to help your student succeed in Math and other subjects this year, please feel free to email, bloomz, or call. I have loved getting to know your students and can’t wait to watch them grow!!