Queens Creek Elementary School

Parent Newsletter - May 7, 2021

Happy Mother's Day!!!!!

Important Dates

  • May 10: Last day to register for Adventures Summer Learning (by invitation only)
  • May 11: Field Day 5th(AM) & 4th(PM)
  • May 12: Teacher Workday
  • May 13: Field Day 3rd(AM) & 2nd(PM)
  • May 14: Field Day Kinder(AM) & 1st(PM)
  • May 17-28: Extend 1 Test Window
  • May 20: EOG for Reading 3 and Science 5
  • May 25: EOG for Reading 4-5 and RTA 3
  • May 27: EOG for Math 3-5
  • May 28: Last day of school

Links to the School and OCS Websites

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Family and Community

Discover 2021 Adventures - Register by May 10

Last 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.

OCS Virtual Chess Championship 2021

  • Students MUST login with their school issued login!
  • Please have parents request student logins/passwords by Monday at 3:00 pm by e-mailing jason.barnes@onslow.k12.nc.us. I will not be looking up/adding accounts for kids the day of the tournament.
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Enlarged coop for Dali and friends

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.

Field Day

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.

Important Parent Surveys

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

North Carolina Music Educators Association "We Rise" Virtual Choir

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."

NCMEA We Rise Virtual Choir 2021

Special Purchasing Program to be extended to OCS Families.

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

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Grade Level News

Kindergarten 3/19/21

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!

Second Grade 2/19/21

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 4/30/21

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!!

Fourth Grade 2/12/21

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)

Fifth Grade - 4/23/21

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.

Encore - 4/30/21

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.

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Quarantine and Close Contact Flow Charts

Masks Should Be Washed Regularly- Click Here for Info

CDC recommendations on washing your child's mask.

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General Information Topics

SchoolCashOnline

Parents, you can now pay all fees online. Please click the button below to set up your account. It is fast and secure.

Afternoon School Dismissal

Car Rider Parents, Please continue to display the yellow window card until your child enters your car. The best place to display the yellow card is over the passenger side visor. This will assist the staff to quickly load the students into the cars safely.


All afternoon transportation changes will happen within the School Dismissal Manager system. This eliminates the need for notes that don't always reach the teachers or emails to the front office that might not be seen until after dismissal. All changes need to happen before 2:00pm. At 2:15pm each teacher is sent an email with a list of all his/her students and how each one is getting home.


If you still have not claimed your account, please email either the jill.yager@onslow.k12.nc.us or michelle.staley@onslow.k12.nc.us and they will assist you.

Green and Global Topics

ColorCycle It!!

The QCE Kindergarten Team is collecting dried up markers to donate to Crayola as part of the Crayola ColorCycle program. Crayola repurposes old markers and converts them into energy and wax compounds, recycling every part of the marker no matter the assembly or type of plastic. The markers do not have to be Crayola brand, the program accepts any and all markers. If you or your students have any markers that dry up, instead of throwing them away, please consider donating them to a kindergarten teacher to contribute to the ColorCycle program. Students may deposit the old markers in the ColorCycle bucket by the cafeteria. Thank you!
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