Monday, December 8, 2014

Hello LEW Families!


Barnes & Noble Book Fair
Thursday, December 11.  
6:30-8:00 @ Har Mar Mall

Come join us for a book fair at Barnes & Noble and support GRS! Selected titles and wish lists will be displayed for different classrooms and it will give us all a nice chance to meet together.

Lower elementary students are going to do a little singalong/performance @ 6:30, so please try and make it if you can! 


What we're doing 

Along with daily math practice and spelling .... 

First years are working on their geometry skills and sorting triangles by their sides.  See if they can tell you the difference between equilateral, scalene and isosceles triangles.  They are also putting the finishing touches on their South American biome work. They're creating biome boxes about the amazon rainforest and they're turning out great!  We're also practicing telling time as well as how to mark important dates on a calendar (birthdays are very important of course).  

Second graders are creating a mural of the tropical rainforest and creating a informational key about all of the interesting plants and animals you can find in the rainforest.  They're also writing creative stories about three different types of lines you find in geometry - parallel, convergent, and divergent. See if they can tell you a story about one of these types of lines.  We are also very proud of the second graders because they came up with some goals to have no late work on the board, and many of them accomplished that goal! Now they have more time to do different interest works - some students are writing about sharks, some are researching rocks of South America, and some are interested in doing some Greek Mythology research.  It's wonderful when the reward is more work! Yay lifelong learning!

Third graders are wrapping up their South American biome research. They've made beautiful posters and booklets about the different biomes, the plants and animals you'll find there, as well as some interesting cultures you'll find in this continent.  Last week, we learned about 3 different kinds of samba dancing from Brazil: Samba no pe, Samba Maracatu, and Samba na Roda. See if they can tell you the differences between the three.  Third years are also learning about mathematical hierarchies using a very concrete and attractive math material.  We were able to see what one unit looks like and what it would look like if we were to put a million of those units together.  They're writing riddles about different place values in different hierarchies such as: "I am in the thousands hierarchy. You need 10 hundreds to make me. Who am I?" 

We're gearing up for our South American celebration this Friday, so we can share all of our work with one another and share a nice South American treat from Brazil called "Pao de Queijo" which means, "cheese bread." It's made from tapioca flour, so it's gluten free :)

Big Thanks!

Thank you Heather Thomas, Nicole Paulsen, Susan Sochacki, Paul Brohaugh, and Jennifer Taylor for your continued support in the classroom with sewing, sorting, and reading with the students. I know they look forward to their time with you and Jennifer and I truly appreciate your dedication and hard work.

Thank you for remembering to send your Thursday Folders each week. It's nice to send home all of their work! 

Hope to see you all on Friday at Barnes and Noble @ 6:30!

Only two weeks until the winter break. Can you believe it??

Have a wonderful evening.

Jessy

Tuesday, December 2, 2014

Winter Weather Guidelines from the GRS handbook

Recess Guidelines Pertaining to Winter Weather

Our hope is that students have access to outdoor recess whenever it is safe to be outside. To that end, the following guidelines will be enforced at Great River School. We ask that all families prepare students to dress accordingly. 

If the temperature is 32 degrees F or below, a coat, hat or hood and gloves or mittens are required. For elementary please include snow pants, hats and snow boots.

When the wind chill is -15 degrees F or below, students will stay inside.

When the wind chill falls between -15 degrees F and 0, recess may be abbreviated at the supervisors' discretion. At all other times,outdoor recess will be held.

For safety reasons, we do not allow snowball throwing at GRS.


Tis the season to be chilly!

Stay warm, all.

Jessy