This week we sent home invitations for select students to participate in Discover 2021 Adventures. This is a 5 week, full day camp that will focus on building Math and ELA skills for students who may have been more negatively impacted by the interruptions over the last 2-3 school years. Transportation and meal are provided at no cost to the families. Please check your student's backpack to see if your student(s) received a blue or yellow envelope inviting them to participate. If you would like your student to participate, please go to the website included in the envelope or scan the QR code to register.

Thank you to the 2nd grade teachers for applying for, and winning a grant that allowed QCE to expand our Chicken Coop. Dali and his new friends (borrowed from Mrs. Gursslin) are living large in the expanded chicken run and are really enjoying the new herb garden.

We are very thankful that we can have Field Day for our students! Tuesday, May 11th will be for 5th grade (morning) and 4th grade (afternoon).

May 13th for 3rd grade (morning) and 2ndgrade (afternoon), and the 14th Kindergarten (morning) and 1stgrade (afternoon).

Students will need to wear sunscreen to school, bring a water bottle, and 2 masks, as there will be water activities. Students may also bring an extra set of clothes.

We are dedicated to providing an engaging and safe Field Day experience for your children. There will be one empty station between each class in the activity rotation to allow enough time to clean and sanitize any equipment. Our T.A.s, homeroom teachers, and encore teachers will be assisting with this. There will also be hand sanitizer readily available for both students and adults. If you have any questions on these precautions or other concerns, please feel free to contact Mrs. Staley or Mrs. Mixon.

Dear Parents,

We need your help. It is very important have we have as many parents as possible complete these surveys. These are are the same surveys being sent home by many of the teachers.

Climate & Culture Parent Survey:

https://eprovesurveys.advanc-ed.org/surveys/#/action/162053/22839

Title 1 Parent Survey:

https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=2oj0MM90xkqfNEBYMyDapOu8J8fQsGlLl-a90X8SljRUOEwxTVY0UFQ5QkpMUVpGMTIzWEFBVzVZSC4u

Get ready for gorgeous harmonies and giant goosebumps!

Two of our students at Queens Creek Elementary were selected to participate in a statewide virtual choir in honor of Music in Our School Month (March). The choir includes 100 voices of students in grades 5-12 from across North Carolina. There are only 25 fifth grade students in the choir (two of whom are from QCE - Leah Lawson and Adalyn Taylor), and our very own Adalyn is one of only eight students featured at the beginning of the performance.

This performance is a reminder that although COVID-19 has changed the way singers can perform (for now), together "We Rise."

Spring Picture packets were sent home. Please look through them and select what you want to purchase. It is the expectation that families return the unwanted pictures back to the school.

All money and/or returned pictures are due back to QCE by May 3, 2021.

We are excited to extend the Dell Member Purchasing Program to our staff, students, and families. We have added a page on our departmental website (link below) with the information needed to make a purchase and receive a discount. Anyone participating in the program will be dealing directly with Dell on the purchase, and discounts vary based upon the item being purchased and any specials that Dell may be running at the time. Gail Thomas will serve as the Point of Contact for this program, and her email is listed on the information page. You are free to share this link on your website and in newsletters, etc.

https://www.onslow.k12.nc.us/Page/41823

Happy Saint Patrick’s Day! This week in Kindergarten, we are discussing the St. Patrick’s Day holiday and reading the Irish folktale Jamie O’Rourke and the Big Potato by Tomie DePaola. Like previous weeks, we are also continuing to work on identifying and creating words in different word families. At this point in the year, students should also know 35 sight words. Please be sure you are practicing the flash cards in your child’s binder as much as possible throughout the week so they can hit that goal and progress toward 50 by the end of the school year. We are going back to basics for writing this week by practicing letter formation and placing emphasis on handwriting. For math this week, we introducing simple measurement—comparing length by telling what is taller, longer, shorter, etc. Practice at home by showing your child two objects and asking them which one is taller or shorter! Finally, do not forget that we have our Easter Egg Hunt next week on Thursday, March 25th. If you have not already, and are able to do so, please send in 8-12 prepackaged eggs so kindergarten can enjoy our hunt with plenty of eggs to find!

Click here to see the First Grade Newsletter

ELA: We will continue to talk about context clues, main idea and details, and making inferences in different texts.
Math: We will continue to practice our skills on telling time. Please also be practicing those basic math facts at home!
Writing: Students are still working on sharing their opinion about specific topics.
Social Studies: We will be learning about historical figures from black history.

Third grade will be administering the final iReady Reading Assessment starting the week of May 3rd. Ask your child if he/she has a working pair of earbuds. Your child will need earbuds or headphones for class testing. They will also need to make sure they come to school with their computers charged. Thank you!!

This week 4th grade will be working on:

Math: Introducing Equivalent Fractions
Science: Types of Energy
ELA: Elements of Plays (dialogue, stage directions, setting, script, cast of characters)
SS: Introducing History of North Carolina Social Studies Writing Project

(Please practice multiplication facts and division strategies at home)

Representatives from Swansboro Middle School will be visiting the 5th Grade students. Mr. D, the SBMS Counselor, will be bringing several teachers to speak to the 5th Graders about the expectation of middle school and some of the elective choices, including Band and Orchestra.

Art

As the year ends, students will do the following projects in art!

Kindergarten: They will study about Monet's garden and create a Monet's bridge.

1st grade: Flamingo paintings and Pete the cat drawings.

2nd grade: weavings and still life painting

3rd: weaving a yarn bowl, Egyptian painting

4th : Fairy doors in clay and god's eyes

5th: Proportion people and tabby weavings

Media Center

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/e/2PACX-1vT6nqW7h265d1OwfMFnA-c2V2K3CkzoqYLoTusuC5vVTBys0kGM4dgclyP6pV50tPFEqY_qDyT9K6Ar/pub?start=false&loop=false&delayms=3000&slide=id.p

Music

Kindergarten - Students are learning how to use their voices in four ways (speaking, whispering, singing, and shouting). They are also learning to sing on pitch.

1st Grade - Students are learning to sing on pitch. All will be invited to sing solos during music class.

2nd Grade - Students are playing xylophones, metallophones, and glockenspiels, as well as singing.

3rd Grade - Students are learning to create musical textures by performing in two or more groups simultaneously.

4th Grade - Students will finish the year by studying the instruments of the orchestra.

5th Grade - Students are playing ukuleles and using technology to create music.

P.E.

We are very thankful that we can have Field Day for our students! Tuesday, May 11th will be for 5th grade (morning) and 4th grade (afternoon).

May 13th for 3rd grade (morning) and 2nd grade (afternoon), and the 14th Kindergarten (morning) and 1st grade (afternoon).

Students will need to wear sunscreen to school, bring a water bottle, and 2 masks, as there will be water activities. Students may also bring an extra set of clothes.

We are dedicated to providing an engaging and safe Field Day experience for your children. There will be one empty station between each class in the activity rotation to allow enough time to clean and sanitize any equipment. Our T.A.s, homeroom teachers, and encore teachers will be assisting with this. There will also be hand sanitizer readily available for both students and adults. If you have any questions on these precautions or other concerns, please feel free to contact Mrs. Staley or Mrs. Mixon.

STEM

The weather has finally become beautiful so that means the students will have a lot of time outside talking about nature and going on adventures. The students get so excited to learn about all the things outside and what is their purpose. We then will look under the microscopes to really get a closer look at the creature world.

Food Waste

(without paper products)

· Food waste can be used for composting and sold to farmers or it can be provided as a food source for local animal farms that meet federal, state and local regulations for food scrap usage.

· Almost half of the food in the U.S. goes to waste - approximately 3,000 pounds per second.

· Food scraps make up almost 12% of municipal solid waste generated in the U.S.

· Many schools and businesses are starting to compost food waste on site.

Glass

· Glass can be recycled and re-manufactured an infinite amount of times and never wear out.

· Making glass from recycled material cuts related water pollution by 50%.

· Recycling just one glass jar saves enough electricity to light an 11 watt CFL bulb for 20 hours.

· More than 28 billion glass bottles and jars end up in landfills every year -- that is the equivalent of filling up two Empire State Buildings every three weeks.

CANS

· Every three months, Americans throw enough aluminum in the landfills to build our nation’s entire commercial air fleet.

· The average person has the opportunity to recycle more than 25,000 cans in a lifetime.

· Recycling a single aluminum can saves enough energy to power a TV for three hours.

· It requires 95% less energy and water to recycle a can than it does to create a can from virgin materials