A message from Sandra Nanney, QAE PTSA President:

I hope everyone enjoys their Thanksgiving week away from school. At the end of November I find myself 1) surprised that it’s November and 2) thinking how thankful I am! I want to apologize that I have not done more snippets of wider communication over the past couple of months with the people that I wanted to thank and recognize. It’s amazing how life can sweep you away…

Mary Rea, mom to Colin in Mr. Backman’s 4th grade class, she signed up to help lead our Auction. Remember to save the date: our annual auction will be on March 13, 2020.

Justin Ward, dad to Benjamin in Ms. Scannapieco’s K class, he signed up to be our Fundraising Director for this year. He is going to help provide some structure and oversight to our annual Fundraising campaigns. You'll be hearing more from Justin soon!

Jennifer Lovin, mom to Eloise in Ms. Belcher’s 2nd grade class & Romie in Mr. Backman’s 4th grade class, thank you for leading the charge in auction procurement.

April Jenks, mom to Kayla in Ms. Dickerson’s 1st grade class, thank you for teaming up with Jenn Lovin in creating and organizing the system and data.

Jodie Scott, Marna MetCalf & Nicole Forrest – What a great Jog-A-Thon! Woohoo!!! Thank you to Nicole Forrest for leading the charge on Jog-A-Thon volunteers that day, it takes a village but it really helps to have to organize each helper. THANK YOU to Jodie & Marna for taking on the big job of putting on an incredible event that allows our kids to run with such joy and to help us raise important dollars for the PTSA.

Cindy Reiner, mom to Eleanor in Ms. Dudley’s 1st grade class and Henry in Ms. Thruelson’s 3rd grade class, thank you for volunteering to be the QAE PTSA Assistant Treasurer. She is going to be crucial in making sure that checks are cut in a timely manner.

Shalini Nilakantan, Lisa Christensen, Cindy Weaver, Holly Albright, Nao Inoue, Tiffany Robinson, Kelli Baker, Meg Kelly, Sharon Breiner, Mary Giliam and many more parents for helping with over 3 hours of popcorn sales, popcorn popping, selling and clean up. It was our first ever Popcorn Fri-Yay! We are already looking at hosting another popcorn Fri-Yay in December.

And additional shout out to Shalini & Lisa along with Chris Gupta for an amazing Chili Cook Off & Bingo Night. I sampled each chili contender and I truly had a difficult time picking out a favorite!

Kay Dumlao Doherty, mom to Luna in Ms. Scheer’s 2nd grade, she continues to help make sure we are talking about race with each other and with our kids.

Andrea Hildebrandt, mom to Theo in Ms. Belcher’s 2nd grade, she continues to help us care for our community through so many green and nurturing opportunities.

Veronika Ziegler, mom to Malcom in Ms. Dickerson’s 1st grade, she is helping consolidate many of the volunteer asks that pop up. There will be ample opportunities coming up that she will need people to help sign up.

Chris Smutny, dad to Kylie in Ms. Belcher’s 2nd grade, he will be heading up our annual Fund Drive campaign (kicks off on Giving Tuesday 12/3). More information to come when that rolls out.

I know there are many others that I will have missed in the above and I wish that I was able to see and share out each individual thank you to all those who have helped make the start of this school year so successful.

I wanted to end by recapping and sharing a story around our Jog-A-Thon:

Thank you to all that participated in the JAT this year. We raised almost $37,000!!! For parent bragging rights Ms. Hartmann’s 4th grade class raised the most money of all the classes. Interesting Fact – The Class of 2021, current 4th graders, have been the highest fundraising class since they started in Kindergarten. We don’t usually recognize individual students for fundraising but I wanted to make a special call out to Sloan Weaver in 1st grade – she was the highest fundraiser this year and had bravely gone from office to office at her father’s workplace to ask for donations on behalf of QAE!

One of our parent volunteer put together this great slideshow of the Jog-A-Thon! Love to see those smiles and the energy of our Explorers!

With thanks,
​
Sandra Nanney
QAE PTSA President

Please join the QAE Green Team for some weekend fun taking care of our school grounds. 

When: Saturday, Dec. 7th, 12-2pm
Where: QAE!
Who: Everyone! It would be great to get 25 people!! 
Sign-up: e-mail [email protected] with “school clean up” in the subject line and state how many people you’ll bring. This will help make sure we have enough supplies. 

Come for a bit or the whole time. We will rake leaves, collect garbage, recycling and compost from Boston, Bigelow, Newton, 4th and inside our gates where we play.  There will be hot cocoa and cookies. 

Cleaning up, raking and collecting leaves from our site helps the environment in so many ways. Just a few examples:

• Great opportunity to affirm lessons about the importance of trees in our community and our lives. 
• Getting students active in fresh air outdoors, coupled with stewardship of our school yard. 
• Help our District Grounds Staff rake leaves off sidewalks and driveways to make our school grounds safe — and in the process, avoid the pollutants generated by gas leaf blowers.
• Collect and stockpile leaves to use for your compost bin, worm bin, winter-bedding over garden plots and/or our school’s landscape beds.
• Admire the beauty of fall colors, enjoy the smell of crisp air.  

Our annual celebration of the season returns! All QAE families are welcome to our Winter Celebration on December 5th. This celebration has become a QAE family favorite as it is a time when we can all come together and proudly share our family traditions to welcome Winter. We invite families to share a favorite dish or a tradition - song, dance, poem, story, or craft. The success of this event is definitely dependent on all families and students participation! Join us for an evening of fun, food, family, and friendship!

When: Thursday, Dec. 5th, 2019, 5:45-7:30pm
Where: QAE Cafeteria and Chill Zone

We need your help to make these celebrations a success! To sign up for food, traditions, or just to help set up and clean-up see links below!  

• RSVP here to bring a dish, side or dessert. 
• RSVP here to share a craft, entertainment or other tradition
• RSVP here to help with set up or clean up​​

Check out this great slideshow video one of our parent photographers put together from last month's Jog-A-Thon:
http://www.studiochen.com/files/20191004/20191004.MP4

​And a few numbers to summarize where we landed. Thanks to all of you who volunteered!

• The event brought in almost $37,000!  $35,670 has been collected so far (checks keep trickling in)
• Ms. Hartmann's 4th Grade class raised almost $5,000

​Our Chili Cook-Off and Bingo Night was a ton of fun! Thanks to all those who brought chili and other goodies. The winner for favorite chili went to Reese Christensen in 1st grade for the Kids chili and 2nd place was a tie with Chris Gupta and Chris Nettles! Winner of the Most Creative chili was Ravdin Family for the white turkey and poblano chili. Bingo was a hit as well. Thanks to Shalini Nilakantan, Lisa Christensen and the other volunteers who made this happen!

QAE has been lucky to have Book-It Repertory Theatre perform at our school over the last few years. On Thursday, Nov. 7th at 8am, Book-It will be performing an adaptation of the book: My Name is Celia/Me Llamo Celia.

Book-It Theatre performs at QAE three times per year, supported by our PTSA in the past and supported this year by our SPS Creative Approach grant. All classes will read the book in advance. Stick around after drop-off for the performance—parents and preschoolers are welcome to attend!

We'll be honoring veterans during our annual assembly on Friday starting at 8:15am (and remember, no school on Monday!). All families are welcome to join us for this special assembly. We need your help—if you or a member of your family are a veteran we'd love if you shared your reflections with our students.

• If you have a veteran in your family who would like to attend and/or share their reflections, please email Janine at [email protected]
• If your child is a scout, we invite them to dress in their uniform on Friday. Please email Janine as we'd like to recognize their community involvement at the assembly.

Got a can't-miss secret chili recipe up your sleeve? Or just like eating? Either way, please RSVP for the QAE Chili Cook-Off that's taking place at the school next Wednesday, Nov. 13th at the school. You vote to pick the best chili winners and enjoy fun prizes for Bingo winners!  We’ll also have other treats for sale (cash only) with lots of fun all around. Find out more...
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Molly Brooks’ illustrations have appeared in The Village Voice, The Guardian, The Boston Globe, Time Out New York, The Nashville Scene, The Riverfront Times, The Toast, BUST Magazine, ESPN social, Sports Illustrated online, and others. She will be coming to QAE on Monday, Nov. 18th at 9am to talk to 3rd-5th grade students about the process of writing, illustrating, and revising a graphic novel, followed by Q&A. 

Her original graphic novel series Sanity & Tallulah (the second book in the series JUST came out) is available for purchase beforehand so that the author can sign copies after her talk. If you would like a personalized signed copy of the book, please fill out the form below and return it to your child's teacher or Dr. Valdez in the library before the event.

Here's part of a review of Sanity & Tallulah:
"Sanity & Tallulah is the best kind of science fiction, full of imaginative ideas and crazy possibilities but fundamentally focused on characters and relationships. This is a diverse future centered on family, but Brooks doesn’t lose sight of the classic adventure structure, where two girls use their determination, smarts, and bravery to save their home."