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The Chameleon Connection: RISE
News for Families: Week 27: 2/12/24-2/16/24
Celebrating the Buzzy Book Club at Shenandoah University this weekend!
Having a great day!
We want all of our Chameleons to represent us well by being good listeners, kind citizens, and helpful students when we go on field trips. Here is an example of a student doing all of those things!
Buzzy loved our Chameleons!
Thankful for those families who came to this past Saturday's womens' basketball game at Shenandoah University where we had free admission while SU celebrated all of the readers at various schools. Shout out to Ms. Lockhart's second grade class for having the most readers in our school, participate in this event!
Working at all levels for student progress!
Starting the day with video announcements!
Ms. Jennifer Berry, Kindergarten teacher and lead teacher at Kindergarten starts the day right time with our newly added video announcements!
Lost and Found
Please call our main office at 540-662-3575 if these items belong to your child. We recommend labeling your child's clothing for easy retrieval.
A Message from GQES Administration!
Chameleons RISE: Raising Intentionality Strengthening Expectations for students, teachers, administration, and families.
Week: 27: 2/12/24-2/16/24
Dear GQES Families,
We are so proud of our Chameleons. Recently, our students in grades 1 and 2 have gone on field trips to the Discovery Museum, PreK to the fire department where all of our Chameleons represented our school and were good citizens! We know when we set high expectations, our students can learn more and progress better! We thank you for making sure to look at your child's work when it comes home from school and as importantly, you as the parent or guardian are in frequent communication with your child's teacher to know how your child is learning and progressing! Learning is the number one job of every Chameleon student at GQES!!
As you know, we continue to have a bus driver shortage which means we have late bus runs and double bus runs. If you know anyone who has their Commercial Driver's License (CDL) and wants to be a bus driver, please tell them to call 540-667-4253. We have learned there are signing bonuses. Please check into this, if you know someone who is interested. We want to thank our teachers and teaching assistants for staying late for these late bus runs, often without a lot of notice due to unforeseen situations. Thank you, GQES families for understanding this issue!
You may have heard about our AWESOME AWARDS where we acknowledge students being KIND as we are a Kindness Certified School. Ask your child about this great recognition. A shout out to Ms. Sara Shoemaker, full time school counselor at GQES and her intern, Ms. Vanessa Brewster for coordinating this event!
We appreciate you teaching and reinforcing our expectations for your child's behavior at our school. We ask students to show:
- smiling faces
- listening ears
- helping hands
- respecting boundaries
- doing their best in all learning tasks every day, please!
Our grade 4 students are starting to learn about the transition to Daniel Morgan Intermediate School (DMIS) , where they will go from being Chameleons at GQES to Generals at DMIS next year, 2024-2025 school year! Our grade four students will learn about electives at DMIS on their field trip this week. Intermediate school is a big change for your student's trajectory of schooling. Please be an active parent and learn how to support and advocate for your child in this transition. Our school counselors and grade 4 classroom teachers and specialists and administration have suggestions on how to ease this transition. Please reach out to any of us!
Please continue to dress your child appropriately for the winter weather: coats, gloves, scarves or hats, boots, etc. We will continue to monitor the weather/temperature with the full intention of going outside four times a day.
We have some families who do not seem to understand we must have students in school, every day, on time, and ready to learn. If there is some barrier for you as the parent/guardian to get your child to school every day, on time, and ready to learn, please call our main office at 540-662-3575. It is impossible for us to teach a child when they are not physically in school. (The pandemic showed us how hard it is for students to learn on digital devices, only.). We want and need our Chameleons in school, on time, and ready to learn every day. Thank you for cooperating with us!
If you have questions or concerns, always feel free to contact us at 540-662-3575. Thank you for partnering with us to help your child thrive!
Sincerely,
Joanie Hovatter
Principal, Garland R. Quarles Elementary School
(540) 662-3575 (Phone)
(540) 662-8449 (Fax)
Recess Research
From CAO: Right At School
WPS Update: From the Central Administrative Office (CAO)
Love problem solving!
This group of friends were talking through how to use the logs differently and collaborating on which idea they were going to use! Two seconds before the picture was taken, all of the logs were upright as in a mini-castle and then, they got a new idea!
Helping our newcomers at GQES!
We are so fortunate to have Ms. Karina Covarrubias at our school as our Instructional Resource Teacher (IRT) because she is completing her teaching degree, is bi-lingual, and a wonderful adult for students to be around daily at our school!
From our Central Administrative Office
Information
- From Ms. Jennifer Buckley, Director of Student Services
- From Ms. Maggie McCampbell Lien, PR for the division
- : Opt-In to School Texts
Info: Not receiving school-related text messages? You must OPT-IN to receive messages. Text "Subscribe" to 67587. You should receive confirmation that you are registered. Don't forget to ensure all of your contact information is correct at your student's school, too!
Attendance Information
ELA (Reading) and Math Supports for Parents to Help Students