Calling all QAE citizens to our June Project Based Learning Showcase on Thursday, June!  This is our chance to celebrate student learning, hard work and determination.  We encourage all families to celebrate both their child’s PBL work and see the PBL products of other students and older students so all children develop a vision for what is possible in the years ahead.
 
PBL Showcase Schedule
5:30 – 6:00  - Kindergarten (classrooms)
5:45 – 6:30 – 1st grade Symposium begins in Cafeteria and breaks out into hallway and 1st grade classrooms
6:15 – 7:00 – 2nd and 3rd grade   Brick and Treehouse classrooms
6:45 – 7:30 – 4th and 5th grade Treehouse and Portables

Our wonderful Head Teacher / Kindergarten teacher Katie Cryan Leary put together a site that summarizes what each grade has done for PBL this year.

Take a look at the site:
http://qaepbl.weebly.com/blog/fall-2017-pbl-projects

From "What's in My Heart? ​What's in Your Heart?" to "We Are Seattle" to "Food Justice", learn more about how our students into a complex challenge and learning!

Queen Anne Elementary is Creative Approach School that joins Project Based Learning (PBL), Social Emotional Learning (SEL), and our Five Pillars with the Common Core Curriculum. A couple of amazing parent volunteers, Jenny Brailey and Mike LaRocque, helped put together these videos that highlight what each of the Five Pillars means. Check them out and share with other parents as well as those incoming families who are considering QAE!

• We are self-directed learners
• We encourage each other to think critically and learn more
• We are concerned, confident and compassionate citizens of the world
• We learn everywhere, we learn together
• We are creative

We are self-directed learners

Poet Charles Waters is coming to QAE on Thursday, Jan. 25th to talk about poetry with our students. ​Antioch University will be bringing 30 signed copies of Charles Waters' book Can I Touch Your Hair: Poems About Race, Mistakes and Friendship for sale the day of his visit. The can be purchased for $15 each with cash or check. Parents are welcome at the assemblies! 8-8:50am for K-2 and 9:10-10am for 3rd-5th grades.

We've had enough pre-sales of his book that Antioch will be able to give 30 copies of the book to Puget Sound area schools that do not have sufficient funding for their libraries!

We'd also like to give a last minute call out for student art that encompasses the themes of race, friendship and mistakes. Please have your child submit their work to their teacher by Tuesday, January 23rd.

A message from Julie Colando:
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Thanks to PTSA we are thrilled to welcome poet Charles Waters to QAE for two assemblies on Thursday, January 25th. 8-8:50pm for K-2 and 9:10-10 for 3rd-5th grades. Attached is a book order form for copies of his breathtaking new book: Can I Touch Your Hair? Poems About Race, Mistakes and Friendship.
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Charles Waters will read poems from some of his earlier work as well as poems from this new book. as well as talking about his writing process as a poet. He will also read poems with students from QAE, who will be working on poems and artwork around the book's themes–race, mistakes and friendship in advance of his visit. Antioch University will include one QAE student's poem in a chapbook they will be publishing with a previously unpublished poem of Charles Waters'. This chapbook will be distributed to public school libraries in our area. 

You can download the book order form below. BOOK ORDER FORMS ARE DUE BY TUESDAY, JANUARY 16, 2018.

Thank you very much!
Julie (on behalf of the Reading Culture Committee)

Our first Project-Based Learning Exhibition is this week! 

Come to the school on Thursday evening, December 7th, from 5:30-7pm to see some of the results of our kids hard work this Fall! You can view in-progress and completed PBL presentations.

Here's the schedule:

• 5:30–6pm - Kindergarten - Treehouse classrooms: 30-minute exhibition window
  
• 5:45–6:15pm - 1st Grade - In Brick Building classrooms: 30-minute exhibition window
  
• 6:00–6:45pm - 2nd–3rd Grades – In or near classrooms: 45-minute exhibition window
  
• 6:15–7pm - 4th–5th Grade - 4th grade in the Cafeteria, 5th grade in Treehouse classroom, 45-minute exhibition window
• 7pm - Exhibition ends

​"We called ourselves the Explorers and we knew we wanted our kids to learn differently." - Mr. Jeffery

In exchange for receiving a very significant discount when we purchased new cases for our school's iPads, the company that makes the cases produced a video about how our students use our iPads to learn and explore.

It really captures part of what makes QAE so special!

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Our 4th annual QAE Hour of Code is on Wednesday, Dec. 7th. Hour of Code is a North America-wide event to help students understand how to create their own computer codes and engage in the problem solving and logic that underlies it. QAE is again joining in on the The Hour of Code during Computer Science Education Week. More than 100 million students have participated already (and our kids are among them!) Living in a world surrounded by technology, we know that whatever field our students choose to go into as adults, their ability to succeed will increasingly hinge on understanding how technology works. Only a small fraction of students are learning computer science, and fewer students are studying it than a decade ago (and women account for only 12% of computer science degrees).

The Hour of Code is a one-hour introduction to computer science, designed to demystify code and show that anybody can learn the basics. Here’s a video to get you inspired!

To accomplish our goal of everyone at Queen Anne Elementary coding, we need parent help! Here’s how you can get involved:

1. Talk about software development and coding with your kids. How does software impact the work you do? How does it impact the world around them? Get them excited about this critical field and its applications.

2. Volunteer to help on Wednesday, December 7th. We need morning volunteers, sign up to volunteer...

3. Learn some coding skills. Go to code.org and Khan Academy and take a few introductory or advanced coding classes on your own and with your kid(s)

4. Sign up to bring snacks in for the volunteers and staff on December 7th. Fed parents are happy! 

5. Tell others about the Hour of Code... friends, family, grandparents. Get them excited and involved. Encourage others to sign up themselves, their kids, and their schools to participate in this movement to bring 21st century skills to all kids. Get more info on the Hour of Code site.

Thank you for all your support and help as we introduce our kids to the skills they need to flourish in the 21st Century. We learn everywhere, we learn together!

Early in October Mr. Liner (3rd) and Ms. Dickens (2nd) announced QAE's year-long theme ~ Mistakes Are Welcome Here! Each month, students will explore a character trait tied to this theme. October was all about being Brave!  Mr. Liner and Ms. Dickens shared with us that they found brave in Dr. Seuss' book, "The Lorax", when the Lorax said, "I speak for the trees, for the trees have no tongues." Each class collaborated on what brave means or represents to them and filled Truffula Trees with their amazing ideas. 

If you haven't seen it, check out this amazing Brave Video featuring our very own QAE students!   Thank you to Will Miceli for helping make it happen. 

Here are a few more links to check out on what being Brave looks like at QAE:
Ms. Colando's 4th Graders
Mr. Bailey's 5th Graders
Ms. Meck's 1st Graders
Ms. Cryan-Leary's Kindergartners

Thank you to all who helped share the "Brave" message in October!  And on that note, up next will be a November filled with "Gratitude"!!