ART

In the art room we have been busy working on all sorts of creative, messy and fun projects.
In Y5 and kindergarten the students have been talking about and creating shapes in all different mediums. The students in first grade have just finished working on patterned snakes and are now making wise owls using old book pages.  Second grade students have been discussing and creating different types of shapes that artists Picasso and Matisse used in their work.  The third graders have taken on the role of an architect, designing and creating a city of buildings with a team of their peers.  In fourth grade art you will find that we are adding white and black to a color to create unique tints and shades.  We are also discussing Keith Haring and his use of characters in his art.  Fifth grade students are creating depth and space in their art by using 1 point perspective. 

My sixth grade art electives just completed a unique waxing and dying process also known as batiking.  We are now working on creating altered art books that will eventually house art terminology, experiments and art vocabulary.  The seventh and eighth grade students are also working on creating depth in a drawing but are using a 2 point perspective drawing technique.  

Check out our school's Artsonia site for a peak of some of our latest projects.
http://www.artsonia.com/schools/school.asp?id=118536

Spanish

Young 5’s have been learning the parts of the body in Spanish and have been practicing “heads, shoulders, knees, and toes” in Spanish. They are moving onto the clothing unit and will be learning basic articles of clothing in Spanish. Numbers 11-15 were introduced and will be practiced at the beginning of class for the next month.

Kindergartners through fifth graders have been learning to recognize, say, read, write, and point to the parts of the body in Spanish. Kindergarten through third grade have learned and practiced "head, shoulders, knees, and toes" in Spanish. All of these grades have done numerous activities to practice the parts of the body. For one activity, the students had to use their listening skills and knowledge of the parts of the body and numbers in Spanish to create a "monstruo" or "monster" based on the directions I was giving them. Students did spectacular on this activity!

Sixth, seventh, and eighth graders have been learning how to conjugate the verb "ser" and how to use the correct conjugation in a sentence to describe others. They have been learning the definite and indefinite articles in Spanish, correct sentence structure, subject pronouns, and adjective agreement. Students are mastering these grammar concepts in Spanish and are able to form complete sentences on their own!

I am very impressed by the progress students are making! Please do not hesitate to contact me with questions or concerns. I hope you have challenged your child to speak Spanish and continue doing so!

Music

Greetings and welcome to Quests's Music Blog 2013!!
Kindergarten and first grade have been working on developing strong beat competency and aural skills by learning songs and doing an array of rhthmic activities and games.  2nd and 3rd grade will be learning some folk dances and then developing music literacy skills by learning to read beat icons or rhythmic figures.  4th and 5th grade are working on reading note names on the staff and transferring their reading ability to playing bells in the classroom.  They have also learned how to listen and identify musical intervals or the distance between notes.  Choir have been working on a variety of skills such as beat competency, note reading and vocal diction.  Band has been developing their technical dexterity by practicing scales and different scale exercises.  This is important to develop and strengthen note/rhythmic and kinesthetic pattern recognition. 

Media Center January

     The Media Center is buzzing with NWEA testing.  The Media center has been transformed into two seperate labs for testing.  During this period of time the students come visit to take their tests in Reading, Math, Language Arts, and some also in Science.  This is a busy time, but one thing we want to always remember is that no matter what obsticals are in our way we will persevere and stay strong and hit our goals.  We ask that you make sure your child has a good night sleep and a healthy breakfast before each test to ensure they have the right fuel to do well on the tests.   Testing will conclude on Febuary 5th.  Media will resume shortly after.
     Special thanks to all the volunteers that helped during the fall Book Fair.  Quest was not only able to hit our goal of $7000 in sales, but exceed the goal by $500.  It would not have been possible if not for the wonderful volunteers and people that supported the fair by your purchases.  Thank you all again.

Quest Specials

Introducing the Quest Specials Teacher's blog!  This is our little corner of the internet where we will share monthly, at least, news about our classes.  This will replace the paper newsletter that we had been putting out, in hopes to save some paper and increase our readership.  Please visit us monthly for updates. 

Specials teachers are:
Mrs. Carolyn Woods-Physical Education
Mrs. Jennifer DeLuca-Art Education
Mr. Mark Zieba-Media and Library
Ms. Renee Parker-Spanish Education
Ms. Rachel King-Music Education