Queens Creek Elementary School
Parent Newsletter - April 23, 2021
Notes from the Office
We want to thank you for all the participation in the Hanging Basket Sales. Our expectations were exceeded.
We also have a small number of extra yearbook for sale for $20. They are first come, first serve.
From Dr. Bazzy
Attention: Parents of 3rd, 4th, and 5th Grade Students
Friday, April 30, is the last day to purchase recorders through School Cash Online. Recorders cost $7.00 and purchases are optional. If you have questions, please email our music teacher, Dr. Bazzy (zadda.bazzy@onslow.k12.nc.us). The link to School Cash Online is: https://onslow.schoolcashonline.com/
Important Dates
- April 12-May 7: iReady Diagnostics Window
- May 3: All picture money or returned picture packets are due
- May 4: Hanging Basket pick-up
- May 12: Teacher Workday
Links to the School and OCS Websites
Family and Community
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."
Spring Pictures
All money and/or returned pictures are due back to QCE by May 3, 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.
Transportation Edulog Portal and Bus
The purpose of this portal is to notify our parents of bus changes. This program sends the parents a text message letting them know the changes. It is a great way to for parents to stay informed when there is a change in the time of pickup or drop off for their child.
This Portal is available for all parents and all you need to do is sign up each of their children. They will need their Student ID #, go to OCS website or your school website and click on transportation.
We also need your help in getting the word out that bus drivers & monitors are needed in the county. Information for the online classes is available on the OCS website or call Transportation at 910-455-5037.
Character Education Trait - Trustworthiness
BE HONEST. . .
Don’t lie, cheat, or steal.
BE RELIABLE. . .
Keep your promises and follow through on your commitments.
HAVE THE COURAGE. . .
to do what is right, even when it seems difficult.
BE A GOOD FRIEND. . .
and don’t betray a trust.
Kindergarten Registration
Kindergarten Registration
Online Registration begins April 5, 2021.
Please click here to begin the kindergarten registration process.
To be eligible a child must turn five on or prior to August 31, 2021.
Please have the following:
Birth Certificate
Updated Immunization Records
Photo ID of Legal Parent/Guardian
Proof of Residency (Electric or Water Bill)
Grade Level News
Kindergarten 3/19/21
First Grade - March 2021
Second Grade 2/19/21
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 4/23/21
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 - 3/26/21
Art
Kindergarten students will create : Flower still life paintings, tissue paper collage, pizza collage and fans.
1st grade will create: the great wave, chicken collage, and stamp and dot paintings.
2nd grade : warm and cool weavings and Van Gogh sunflowers.
3rd grade: Starry night paintings and paper bowl weavings.
4th grade: Lighthouse paintings, clay fairy doors, and collages.
5th grade: Georga O'Keefe flower paintings, figure people drawings with manikins, and house collages.Media
Music
Kindergarten - Students are learning about the unique sound, or timbre, made by each instrument.
1st grade - Students are identifying and creating music in various forms.
2nd grade - Students are completing their cultural exchange with Sweden this month. Each class picked an American pop song to share, and the students are preparing a performance of their chosen pop song.
3rd grade - Students are reading and playing melodies on various instruments.
4th grade - Students are playing melodies on barred instruments such as xylophones, metallophones, and glockenspiels.
5th grade - Students are identifying pitches on the staff and beginning work on ukuleles.
P.E.
What's happening in PE?! We have been practicing Jump Rope for a couple of months and the 2nd and 3rd graders have been practicing the PACER. It is time to move on to cooperative activities and make these last couple of months in PE FUN!
All grades will participate in parachute activities, tossing activities, scooter activities, and a variety of relays.
STEM
Spring is here and so is the arrival of new life and fun ideas! With the nice weather the stem encore classes can start creating outside activities. QCE is also excited about our science festival and the many science activities the teachers have planned for the students. In STEM some of our fun activities include:
Kindergarten making ring gliders
First and second grade getting gooy with ooblec
Third grade and fifth learning how to use microscopes and
Fourth grade making parachutes.
What an awesome time all the students will have.
Car Rider Line!!
Screening Protocols and Flow Charts
- Do you know if you have been around anyone diagnosed with COVID-19?
- Since you were last at school, have you had a fever, chills, had trouble breathing, been coughing, or lost your sense of taste or smell?
- Since you were last at school, has anyone in your household developed a fever, chills, had trouble breathing, been coughing, or lost your sense of taste or smell?
- Have you been diagnosed with COVID-19?
General Information Topics
SchoolCashOnline
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
On this week of Earth Day celebrations, let’s remember what we all can do to keep our earth and communities sustainable generations to come!!!
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