Best Week Ever! – First Grade

The title of our week, “Best Week Ever” was named by Aishani. 🙂

Math Challenge Mission

This week, the “Astronauts” of the Dolphin room began a Math lesson by finding out that they were all stuck on Mars (aka the Dolphin room)! In order to Escape the Classroom, they had to successfully complete several math problems hidden throughout the room. Each math challenge would bring them closer to finding a rocket that would take them back to Earth. After reading the directions, we began our 1-hour mission. The clock began…

Our first envelope had addition and subtraction problems to complete. Once we had found the sums and differences, we put them in order of least to greatest. The answers matched different envelopes that had instructions in each one. We opened them up in order to find other fun math challenges. Each correct answer lead us to another large envelope that had several challenge cards inside. There was only 1 clue that the class struggled to figure out. It went like this:

“Your next envelope will have the answer to the last math problem on the front. This envelope is located by something in the room that has keys, but no locks. You can enter, but can’t get in. And lastly, it has space, but no room.”

The envelope was located where? Did you guess it yet? Well, the envelope was located on my computer keyboard near the Smart board! The Dolphins were feeling a bit anxious about the clock ticking down and not being able to quickly find that envelope. Once they went back and reread the clues, they totally knew it was the computer. 🙂

We did it! We found the pieces to the rocket to send us to Earth! The class was SO excited after finally completing our mission and we did it in exactly 1 hour! Amazing! The best thing about our day was the comments made afterwards like:

“This is the most amazing school ever!”

“We should have school on Saturday and Sunday!”

Now, as much fun as I had watching the class work together, figure out problems, and complete their mission, I don’t think weekend school is going to be happening anytime soon. 😉

Because of the absolutely wonderful way the class worked together, I gave them the ultimate compliment…I let them put over ALL of the marbles to the end jar!!! This means there’s a marble party coming up. Please see the flyer in the Friday folder that explains our crazy party day! You can also find the flyer here… “Mistakes that Worked” Party

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Can you believe it? We made it to the 100th day of school on Wednesday, February 5th! What an accomplishment! We definitely feel 100 days smarter, too. Check out all of the fun activities we participated in this week.

The students entered the room to find a sign to color, a 100th day snack, and their face on a $100 bill! The expression on their faces was priceless. They couldn’t believe their eyes. The money looked so real that someone asked if they could actually use it to buy things?!!? Well….maybe not, but it looks fun!

Move Up Morning

On Thursday morning, Quest Academy was filled with nervous, but excited children moving up to the next grade. For 1 hour, the entire school moves to the next grade to check out what’s in store for the future. In order to prepare questions, we completed a chart of thoughts and questions about 2nd grade. The Dolphins moved to 2nd grade to meet with Mrs. Lau and Mrs. Shah and find out some answers. They also completed a scavenger hunt that helped everyone get to know each other. When I picked up the students, everyone had smiles on their faces and a pencil to take home. I think there are some very excited Dolphins!

The Dolphins not only focused on their own move up morning, but they helped me with the kindergartners. We created a chart to inform the kindergartners about first grade. The Dolphins told me what was important to them and what I should tell the next grade students. Some of my favorite comments were:

“You will feel like the most important person!”, “We are a family!”, “We celebrate others’ successes!”, “We do fun math!”, and “We make mistakes and learn from them!”

Odyssey Night-SOARRR!

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Thank you, thank you, thank you to all of the people who attended our Odyssey Night on Thursday evening. We love to take time out to share what we do and how we do it better than anyone else. The excitement the children felt in the morning was felt by the teachers, staff, and parents last night. We truly take pride in our school. I hope you found the night informational, but most of all fun and inspirational. I really wish I had Quest Academy when I was younger! I would have loved to been able to share all of the love that this school has for education and making a difference. I think I would just be happy with a few of our special’s classes like drama and music! This was a GREAT night:)

Let’s continue to SOARRR!!!