Holiday Feast and other notes

Hello Quest Families!

Thank you to all who attended student conferences before Thanksgiving break.  It is always nice to see you all.  In two weeks, we will have the Holiday Feast!

Quest Feast Each year, the Quest Team has a holiday feast to celebrate our community and the winter holidays.  We ask each student on the Quest Team to bring in a sample (4-6 servings) dish that their family enjoys eating – perhaps something traditional – and we have a big potluck lunch.  Students sign up for entertaining with singing, instrumental pieces, or other forms of appropriate entertainment.  The feast is held in the Quest Team's classrooms.  Family members are welcome!  Each student is expected to bring a dish, a drink such as cider or juice, a dessert, or paper products like plates, forks and knives (and napkins).  Please email Melissa Williams with what you can bring.  We ask everyone to bring something to contribute to our community.  

Here is a link for more information.  

Winter Weather Clothing: With winter weather here, please help your student to remember snow boots, snow pants, hats and mittens for their lunch recess.

Assessment Feedback:  If you are interested in seeing the comments on your student's work, you will need to ask them to log into Otus.  They can click on assessments, and then click on the particular assessment you would like to review with them. Then, you would click on the small speech bubble.  We apologize that this is an extra step, but if you are interested, it will allow you to see the results of their assignments more clearly.  Most assignments have written feedback in addition to the score.  Please do not hesitate to email if you have any questions.

October 26

Quest students enjoying the Fall weather.

Student-led Conferences
These conferences are led by students.  They will look different from last year's conferences.  Students will be at the center of the conversation, guiding parents/guardians through an exhibition of their learning.  Students will focus this conference around highlights, successes, and goals.  We find that student-led conferences are a tremendous opportunity for students to be leaders in their education.  If you would like to meet for a traditional parent-teacher conference please email Curtis or Melissa and we can schedule a meeting outside of these conference dates.

Sign up here.

Percentages
Next week, we will begin to learn about percentages.  This type of math is all around us, so feel free to make connections with your students while you are out and about.

Refugee Project
We will be wrapping up the Global Read Aloud book, Refugee by Alan Gratz, this week with a point of view project.  Students will be gathering evidence from the book and creating a visual that shows the point of view of one of the characters in the story.

Quest Talent Show
The Quest students will have an impromptu talent show on Halloween.  We look forward to seeing the different acts :)

Mary's Solo Teaching
Mary Vachon will be solo teaching for the two and a half weeks before vacation.  As we teach in a team model, this means that there will be three team teachers on Quest!  Mary will lead teach more of the lessons for this period.  She will be starting on November 5th.

October 12

Callum learning about the history of the Little River State Park land.

Otus
When viewing Otus from the 'family' perspective, unfortunately, you can only see graded assessments (assignments).  You cannot see what is due.  However, there are two ways around this.  The first way is having your student log in to their Otus account at home.  The second way is to download the Otus app.  Here you can see what assignments are due and scores on completed assignments.

Postcard Exchange
During the month of October, we are connecting with schools around the world who are reading Refugee by Alan Gratz.  We are asking for students to bring in a postcard that they will send to another class around the world.  Thanks for your help with this.

Upcoming Math Topics
Students will be applying their understanding of ratios to explore rates and percentages.  More information about the math in this unit can be found here.

Learning Targets for October
Students are working on Point of View in fiction and non-fiction reading.  Next week, students will have a choice to either write a story from a different point of view, or to analyze their Newsela article and write paragraphs based on the two different points of view represented in the article.

September 28

Glass blowing studio in Waterbury Center.

Finding unit prices at Shaw's.

Phases of matter at Ben & Jerry's.

Thank you again for coming out for Back-to-School Night! Please remember to sign up for Otus.

On Monday, we will be going on a field trip to Little River State Park.

October 1 - Little River State Park

We will join State Park Interpreter, Brian Aust, for a day at Little River State Park.  Brian is preparing a scavenger hunt for us to explore the history of Little River along the history hike.  At one of the stations, Brian will give small groups information regarding the people who moved to and through this part of Vermont.  Chaperones are welcome.

9:30 Leave CBMS for a 9:45/9:50 arrival at the park.

We will eat lunch at Little River.

We plan to return for 1:30 Applied Academics.

To Bring:

• Walking shoes
• Water bottle
• Rain Gear
• Snack
• Brown bag lunch (one can be purchased at school with prior notice)

Postcard Exchange

During the month of October, we will be reading Refugee by Alan Gratz. This is the Global Read Aloud book for middle school, so we will be connecting with classes from around the world about this book. We will be participating in a postcard exchange with schools and are asking for each student to bring in a postcard or a dollar to help with this exchange. Thanks for your help with this!

Otus

Otus
In an effort to minimize the number of websites students and parents need to check, we are piloting an online system called Otus.  Otus is a place where students, teachers, and parents can communicate through announcements, assignments, assessments, reflections (blogs), and lessons.

Parents / Guardians will have their own accounts and will be able to see what is going on in the Quest classrooms.  To create an account, please follow the directions here.

You will need your student to log in first to get their Student Code from their Profile.  These codes were sent home today with students.

Quest Website

September 21

Thea and Zoey finding the best deals at local supermarkets.

Hello Quest Families,

We had another great week on Team Quest!  Students researched an element from the periodic table and created identity masks for their element.  They used their lessons on graphic organizers and note-taking to help them research and write paragraphs as well.

For Math, we extended our learning about ratios by learning about unit prices.  We looked through flyers from the Village Market to see the real world application of unit prices. 

Next Thursday is Back-to-School Night.  We look forward to seeing everyone that evening!  We will also be going on our field trip that day to local Waterbury businesses to see how what we study in the classroom is used in the real world.  Please make sure your student has brought in their permission slip.

Welcome Back

Lincoln, Tanner, and Addy making their first attempt at creating a scientific model of how ice cream is made.

Welcome Back to the Quest Team!

We have had an excellent start to our sixth grade year.  The students have come back with much enthusiasm, and we are excited for the 2018-2019 school year here on Quest!

Curtis's classroom has moved to what was formally known as the "project room."  We are utilizing our movable wall to change the learning environment of our different classes.

Our student teacher, Mary Vachon has started to work in our classrooms.  Welcome Mary! Her student letter can be found here.

Mr. Taylor and Mrs. Williams will be participating in a Learning Lab for Innovation.  Information about that can be found here.


The schedule:  Our day starts at AG, and then moves to "Core 1."  This is an interdisciplinary time of the day.  Students receive whole class, small group, and hands on learning during this time with both Mr. Taylor and Mrs. Williams team teaching the lessons.  These lessons are based on 3 learning targets:  Finding main idea / using graphic organizers, ratios, and creating models to communicate scientific information.  Your student has participated in whole team activities (making ice cream, receiving direct instruction, creating questions for our question board), small group activities (drawing models of matter, hands-on activities), and individual time for reflection.

After Core 1, we move into workshops, which operate in a similar manner to last year.

Although we will refer to these learning targets throughout the year, our focus will shift after the end of September.

Snack - At 10:00, we have a snack break.  Students do not each lunch until 12:15, so this snack break is crucial for helping them get through the morning.  Please send a snack with your student each day.  If you are unable to do this, please notify the Quest teachers.  Then at 10:15, students go to band and chorus.  Mr. Taylor and Mrs. Williams work with small groups of students for additional workshops at this time.

After band / chorus / studyhall, students have reading class.  Students are working on graphic organizers to chart the main ideas of their reading.  They are also recording their books in their planners.

The next hour is dedicated to Core 2.  Students work on projects (an identity box) and material related to our learning targets and curricular themes.  This time of day is more project and problem based.

Students then have lunch and recess block with the rest of the 5th and 6th grade.  They end their day with Applied Academics (World Language, PE, Art, Music, Tech Ed, Sustainability).

POWs:
POWs!  We will be starting our POWs this week.

POWs are a two week process this year.  For the first week, students will be creating graphic organizers about a non-fiction article.  We will begin these during our workshops.  Students have one week from when it is assigned to when it is due.  The due date is in your student's planner.

The next week, students will start their writing in workshop, and will have a week to finish and revise their writing.  They will have some time during workshop block to work on their writing pieces, however, they will most likely still have some to bring home to finish.

The POW assignment can be found on the Quest Website.  Follow this link to see this week's topics.


Math Homework
Students will have a weekly assignment that they will begin during workshops at school.  The assignment will mostly be practicing skills and concepts taught in workshops.  They will have a week to complete the assignment and record the due date in their planners.

Welcome back and feel free to email us with any questions.