Queneesh Elementary Volume 8 Issue 3 November 2015

2345 Mission Rd.,

Courtenay, B.C. V9N 9H1

Phone: 250-334-4089 Fax: 250-334-4029

www3.sd71.bc.ca/School/queneesh Whereabouts: 250-334-4029

Dear Parents/Guardians, Thank you for your continued support of our school and doing all that you can to have your child to school

on time and ready to learn. We are enjoying the positive school spirit and find the sense of good will and

belonging makes this school a wonderful place to be.

Our busy halls …

Learning happens in our school in many places. Some of our children work on tables outside classrooms

with their peers, with a staff member and sometimes by themselves. Because this learning continues often

right up to the 2:30 bell, we ask that families that arrive for pick-up please respect this learning space. Our

halls can be very crowded at the end of the day. Now that our younger children are more comfortable with

our building, pleas establish a meeting place with your child away from our classroom doors, perhaps at our

totem pole at the school entrance or a spot outside. Thanks for your understanding.

Our hungry kids… Thank you to Superstore for a recent donation of a gift card to support our breakfast and lunch program.

We also appreciate the cash contribution from the school district’s tech department. They salvaged and

sold materials from some old computers. The cash this generated was donated to this program. The

support of our many parent volunteers and the extra donations that we have received is helping us to put

healthy foods into the tummies of our deserving Q kids. They are much more able to focus in class as a

result.

Mrs. VanderRee & Mrs. Pederson

Parent/Teacher Conferences We will have a non-instructional day on Thursday, November 26th. This will be to accommodate Parent/Teacher Conferences. We will be using the on-line program again this year so parents can log on and book their appointments. More information to follow.

Communicating Student Learning Teachers have three options for communicating about your child’s learning this year. You will learn

about your child’s progress through an e-portfolio, a paper portfolio or a more traditional report card

using MyEd B.C. In all cases, letter grades will not be reported instead the emphasis will be placed on

student learning. Please see the letter from Director of Instruction, Allan Douglas that is in this

newsletter and on the school website for more details. Your child’s teacher will let you know which

method of communicating student learner they will be using.

You may find this link useful. It is an article in the Globe and Mail:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/education/schools-that-give-letter-grades-a-

fail/article17807841/

PAC Meeting The next PAC meeting is on Wednesday, November 18th at 6 pm in the library. If you require babysitting please contact the office by Tuesday November 17th. Our PAC and Montessori society intend to work as one group to support our school. Montessori business will be discussed as part of this meeting at 7 pm.

Photo Re-take Day Photo re-take day is scheduled for Wednesday, November 25th at 9 am

If you

Poinsettia Fundraiser Order forms were sent home on November 3. Please return you order by Tuesday, November 10th. Cheques can be written to Queneesh PAC. Poinsettias will be delivered to the school on Dec. 9th.

Ready, Set, Learn

This event is for three year old children and their families and is intended to provide information regarding Kindergarten readiness skills and to provide the children with some comfort level with the school and staff. It will be held on Tuesday, November 17th from 5:00 – 6:00 pm at Queneesh. Please contact the school at 334-4089 if you plan on attending and if you know of any friends or neighbours who have a three year old please get them to call us.

PLC Update Our Professional Learning Communities are progressing well. We intend to update you regularly on our

PLC work. Some of our inquiries this year are a continuation of work from last year and some are new

ones. Given the curriculum changes as well as changes in reporting, several of our PLC groups are

focusing on the impact of student learning through self-assessment or portfolios. Our inquiry topics

include: - How can we strengthen our connections with families with the intent of supporting their children’s

educations?

- How can we encourage students to buy into school community?

- Models of learning support.

- Joyful Literacy

- How can we use e-portfolios to enhance student learning and communicate individual learning to parents?

- How will using different writing strategies engage and improve student writing? How can we bring in

student voice and self assessment into the reporting process?

- How to help our students in a mainstream setting better their language skills?

Scholastic Book Fair Library Fundraiser Can you spare an hour or two to help with the book fair? We need parent volunteers to help set up on Tuesday November 24th at 8:40, Wednesday November 25th from 2:30-3:00 and Thursday November 26th from 9 – 2:30. Training will be provided. We will give you a time slot and children can accompany you. The Book Fair will be held in the project room. The profits are used to buy more books for the library. All assistance is greatly appreciated. If you are able to volunteer please email or call Mrs. Freney at 334-4089 or margaret.freney@sd71.bc.ca Sale times are Wednesday November 25th from 2:30 – 3:00 and Thursday November 26th from 9:00 – 2:30

1000x5 - Comox Valley’s Children’s Book Recycling Project In your home, how many children’s books sit on shelves, tables and under the bed - more than 50? 100? How many times have you read the same story to your little one – more than 10? 25? 50? Congratulations – you

are building wonderful reading habits that will last a lifetime and lead to endless hours of learning. Not every family has the opportunity to provide books to their children, making it difficult to build these

reading habits. 1000x5 aims to help with that - by the community, for the community. Through this initiative, gently-used children’s picture books are collected from our community, and delivered to our collection depot.

There, the books are screened for suitability, sorted, cleaned, and bagged by volunteers for distribution to young children (birth to age 5) and their families. Working with family-serving agencies within the Comox

Valley, 1000x5 will then give the gift bags of books to families who need them. Would you please make an effort to drop off gently used picture books for babies and preschoolers in the

green drop box outside the school office? All children deserve a chance to be read to.

For more information about this program, please visit our website at https://www.rebelmouse.com/1000x5/, or email us at comoxvalley1000x5@gmail.com

Halloween Fun at the Q

Queneesh’s gym was packed with some amazing

energy and costumes at both our Family Dance and

our school’s costume parade. Thank you for

supporting your children with both these events.

We also appreciate the student leadership initiative

with the addition of a costume contest to our annual

Costume Parade. Six grade 6/7 students had the

tough job of picking winners for the 5 categories.

Everybody Deserves A Smile! Each year, with the help of the community, E.D.A.S. creates gift bags to be delivered to homeless shelters

for people in need. We will be collecting (new or PERFECT condition used) toques, mittens, wool or

partially wool socks and scarves. We will also be collecting soap, shampoo, conditioner and body

wash. Some of our classes will decorate the gift bags with messages of hope. Others will bake

cookies. Help bring a smile to someone in need! Visit our display in the foyer to donate and find out

more. All donations must be in by the first week in December.

Yellow Bracelet Campaign

As many of you are aware, four of our Queneesh children are missing and have not yet been returned to

their mother, Alizon Azer. While the authorities, Ms. Azer and her team are working extremely hard to

bring the kids home, we would like to offer our support as a school. Because this is such a sensitive topic

and we do not want to create fear or upset the other children of our school, we have been and will continue

to be very careful about how we speak to kids about this abduction. We will show our support to Ms. Azer

and the return of her kids by selling the yellow bracelets with the words, ‘ findazerkidsnow’ on them.

Bracelets will be $2 each and will be pre-sold. Yellow pre-order forms will go home on Nov. 16th

. As we

launch this initiative Mrs. VanderRee and Mrs. Diewert will host several mini-assemblies to talk to

students in grades 1/2 and up. In this format, as we explain the yellow bracelets, we will be able to answer

student questions, and continue to offer our message of hope that we will soon see our friends back in the

halls and classrooms of Queneesh. We miss them!

Christmas Treasures Donations are being accepted for a Christmas Treasures Sale. Your donations will

be used as items that will be sold to students during our Christmas Treasures Sale.

Children will be given an opportunity to shop on Dec. 11th

. Gift wrapping will be

also available. Though this is a PAC fundraiser, the goal is to give all children an

opportunity to select gifts for the special people in their lives. By Dec. 11th

, we

hope to have a wide variety of new or nearly new treasures that students can

purchase ($1 or $2 each) as gifts for their parents or siblings.

Thanks for supporting this event. Donations can be dropped off in the box in the

school foyer. If you are available to help with the sale, please leave your name at

the office.

Dec 21 – Jan 3 Winter Break

November 2015 Sunday

Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday

1 2 Kindergarten Dental Screenings

3 PAC Fundraiser Poinsettia notices home

4 PLC Day Early Dismissal @ 12:20 pm

5 6 Hot Lunch Fresh Slice Pizza

7

8 9 10 Remembrance Day Assembly 10:45 Red Shirt Day

11 Remembrance Day

12 13 Hot Lunch Subway

14

15 16 Yellow Bracelet Mini-assemblies

17 Ready, Set, Learn 5 – 6 pm

18 PLC Day Early Dismissal @ 12:20 pm PAC Meeting 6 pm

19 20 National Child Day Hot Lunch Kama Bento

21

22 23 24 25 Photo re-takes 9 am

26 Parent/Teacher Conferences No School

27 Hot Lunch Little Caesars

28

29 30

November 2015

Winter Break Dec 19 – Jan 3rd

School re-opens on Monday, January 4th, 2016 Happy New Year

December 2015

Sunday

Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday

1 2 PLC Day Early Dismissal @ 12:20 pm

3 4 5

6 7 8 9 Poinsettia Delivery

10 11 Report Cards Home Christmas Treasures Sale

12

13 14 15 16 17 Christmas Concert 1 pm & 6:30 pm

18 PJ Day Last Day Of School

19

20 21 Winter Break Dec 19 – Jan 3

22 23 24 25 Merry Christmas

26 Boxing Day

27 28 29 30 31 New Years Eve

1 January Happy New Year