Featured on ZPS Facebook and Twitter!

Here is a ZPS video shot and editing by Jim Camenga that was featured on our school districts Facebook and Twitter pages.  

School Board Presentation

The students did an amazing job presenting to the School Board Monday night on our Quincy Wetland Project.  They worked together flawlessly and moved through the presentation they had put together, solving technical issues as they would arise.  To see them working so well as a team and trouble shooting little glitches with the iPads in front of such an important audience was a major celebration!  I couldn't have been more proud of them!

  

Q.W.P. Wristband iMovie Commericals

We have been graphing our Quincy Wetland Wristband Fundraiser totals, and noticed that whenever we do an announcement we see a small spike in sales.  So, we decided to have a little fun competition to see which group could create the best commercial to keep our sales moving up.  All of the groups did a great job, and all are sharing their commercials with different classrooms throughout the school.

The above commercial was the student voted winner, and was featured throughout the school in an email to the staff and shared with many classrooms.  We have currently sold a little over half of our 600 bracelets, so if any parents would like to sign 10- 20 bracelets out to sell around town that would also help.

The interesting part about the wristband fundraiser is that it's turned into such a great economics project within itself.  Throughout the years of teaching econonmics I've noticed how difficult it is to get kids to understand the basic concepts.  This year we are having daily discussions about markets, profit, debt, goods, and consumers.  I have the feeling that this experience will make the study of economics much easier when we get to the unit.

We are hoping to raise enough money with these wristbands to fully fund our information signs for our Quincy Nature Interpretive Trail in the Wetland.  So, again if anyone wants to sign a few bracelets out and sell in the community that would be fantastic!  They make great stocking stuffers!

Quincy Wetland Project Trail Building

Check out our trail building progress!  We would like to thank you Mr. and Mrs. Timmer for helping us dig and get our trail started.  Also, Mrs. Sturm has been with us quite a few Fridays helping brainstorm and write grants to local businesses to help us build our trail and outdoor classroom.

This Friday we had some special guests from the Zeeland West High School Wetland class.  A few students and Mrs. Soucome stopped by to help us and brainstorm about what we have here at Quincy and how we could make our Q.W.P. a reality.

Our Quincy Wetland Project Wristbands are here!

Our Quincy Wetland Project wristbands are here and will be for sale during recess at school.  Students are also welcome to bring a few home with them to sell for those interested in helping.  

Quincy Wetland Project - Q.N.I.T. (Quincy Nature Interpretive Trail)

 I have always wanted to do something with Quincy's wetland ponds.  I read a book this summer called "Place Based Education" which was about getting kids involved in real world projects that directly improve their local community.  I thought our school was the perfect place to start.  With help from our Service Learning Coordinator, and many others we have a pretty cool project planned this year.   Our quick plan is as follows:

1.  This fall dig and put down stone for a short wetland walk trail.  The kids call it Q.N.I.T. which is short for Quincy Nature Interpretive Trail.  (They have fallen in love with the name so I'm doubtful that I can convince them to call it something else. ;-)

2.  Over the winter we are planning to design the information signs along the trail, incorporating ecosystems, wetlands, and various other applicable information from our fifth grade curriculum.  We would like to have some prototype ideas to get quotes from local printing companies and have them printed and installed in the spring.  

3.  (Big Dream)  The building trades students at the high school would like to help us build a small outdoor classroom with a water testing deck.  This is a big wish at this point, but I am hopeful.  They will build it in May, and it would complete the project for this year.  I would like to have a ribbon cutting ceremony on the last week of school and have the kids officially hand the outdoor classroom and trail over to the Quincy Community.  

IF ANYONE CAN LOAN US YOUR WHEEL BARREL, A SHOVEL, AND STONE RAKE, PLEASE BRING IT TO SCHOOL.  WE WOULD LIKE TO SPREAD SOME STONE THIS FRIDAY NEAR THE END OF THE DAY. 

That is all at this point, I'll keep you posted!  

Native American Cultural Regions

Our Native American studies culminated this week with our field trip to the Outdoor Discovery Center, and our Native American Museum Day.  The ODC does a fantastic job engaging the students with the experience of Native American life.  We got to try and start a fire with just two sticks, we built native three pole houses, and got to throw primitive Atlatl.  It was a fantastic learning experience, and big day of fun.

Our Native American Museum Day was another celebration of learning.  The kids presented their differentiated projects to several other classes, we even had a visit by Mrs. Kontowicz and Ms. Miller! We finished up the day by making dreamcatchers from willow branches just like the Native American's here in Michigan would have done. Thank you so much to all the parents that donated food items, artifacts, and helping their students dress up for the day.

The First Friday of Fun

Hello Parents,

Here is a quick video from last week Friday.  The kids had a great time trying to complete the 5th grade readiness assessment!  Make sure you ask them about it!  We also had a little fun at the end of the day with a watermelon eating contest between the classes.  I hope everyone is settling into the school year.

Parent Meeting September 20th 5:30pm

There will be a parent meeting to discuss some specific 5th grade events; such as the bike trip, field trips, and camp.