CGB Elementary News
November 3, 2023
We have officially reached the end of the first quarter. What a great first quarter! With the end of the quarter there is no school on Monday, November 6. This is a teacher workday to wrap up the first quarter. Parent teacher conferences are soon approaching so please review the conference schedules that were sent out. We are excited to welcome all of our families into the school to discuss your child's academic year.
Parent-Teacher Conferences Dates
For those new to the district, we only have one set of conferences during the school year. Conferences are scheduled for 15 minutes. Please arrive before your conference time to utilize the amount of time for your child's conference. The dates are below:
Tuesday, November 14 from 4:00 - 7:00
Thursday, November 16 from 4:00 - 7:00
Book Fair
The Book Fair will take place between November 13th -17th . The Book Fair will be open daily from 7:30am-4pm.
It will also be open during Parent Teacher Conferences the evenings of November 14th & 16th
from 4pm to 7pm.
Here is a link for more information on CGB Book Fair: https://bookfairs.scholastic.com/bf/clintongracevlbeardsleyes
Veteran's Day Program
The public is welcome to join us for our annual Veteran's Day Program.
Monthly Paws Drawing Winners for October
Our students earned 354 tickets which overwhelming exceeded our goal of 250. The quarter 1 reward is a movie party in the gym. The student council will help select a movie for the students to watch. Way to go students!
Pictured from left to right:
Ava (class dance party), Paige (free toy from book fair), Hannah (teacher helper), Aunders (free toy from book fair), Calvin (free book from book fair), Graham (teacher helper), Keegan (class dance party), and Landen (free book from book fair) who is pictured to the right.
CGB Referendum
CGB will be asking its voters to weigh in on a $25 million dollar bond election on November 7, 2023. Click link below for more information and for voting details.
Recess
With the weather getting much cooler, now is a good time to check for coats, snow pants, gloves, hats, and boots. Below are some school guidelines and clothing expectations below. Ultimately our recess supervisors care greatly about ensuring all students are safe and comfortable outside.
The following guidelines will be used regarding outside PE, recess and before/after school time.
Students will be inside if the wind chill “feels like” temperature is -5 or colder.
If it is raining outside students will stay inside. If it is sprinkling or a light rain we will use discretion in sending out. If it is snowing, students will go outside.
We expect families will send students with appropriate clothing for the weather.
You can send an extra jacket to leave at school if you would like.
We do have extra hats and mittens and a few boots for emergencies.
Math Curriculum
We are now almost two months into our new math curriculum. Having the experience of teaching a new math curriculum, I know the amount of work and preparation it takes to transition into a new math curriculum. Please be patient with our teachers as they learn, adapt, revise, and plan together. We have amazing teachers and despite the challenges along the way, our students will benefit in the long run.
The rigor of the new math curriculum as well as models and strategies that teach conceptual thinking is a challenge to staff, students, and families. For many years math was taught only procedurally. For example, only memorizing math facts, addition with carrying, multiplication with regrouping, memorizing the distributive property. These procedures are important but the conceptual understanding enhances mathematical thinking and understanding when applying math to real life.
Minnesota standards and state tests require students to explain their thinking and solve problems in different ways. This leads to conceptual understanding. In the graphic included, #2 says, "I can solve the problem in more than one way." This is important for parents to know. For years I often told parents there is not necessarily a wrong way to solve a math problem as long as the student was able to show and explain how they solved the problem with accuracy.
Click on this link to explore digital samples of the curriculum. Math & You Samples Website.
Fire Prevention Poster Winners
Photo:
Front Row: Ava Homan, Marlee Doschadis, Kimber Baxter, Camri Martig, Huck Gillespie
Back Row: Olive Dreke, Tessa Taffe, Hannah Andrews, Ava Andrews, Ashton Nordly
(Not Pictured: Jensen Huselid, Cachi Bohlen)
5th Grade:
1st Place: Cachi Bohlen-CGB
2nd Place: Ava Andrews -CGB
3rd Place: Ashton Nordly -CGB
4th Grade:
1st Place: Tessa Taffe-CGB
2nd Place: Rhoda Hofer- Big Stone
3rd Place: Hannah Andrews-CGB
3rd Grade:
1st Place: Olive Dreke-CGB
2nd Place: Hadassah Tschetter-Lismore
3rd Place: Jensen Huselid-CGB
2nd Grade:
1st Place: Gabriel Wollman-Lismore
2nd Place: Kaylee Wollman-Lismore
3rd Place: Ava Homan-CGB
1st Grade:
1st Place: Linda Hofer-Big Stone
2nd Place: Kimber Baxter- CGB
3rd Place: Marlee Doschadis-CGB
Kindergarten:
1st Place: Jena Wipf-Big Stone
2nd Place: Camri Martig-CGB
3rd Place: Huck Gillespie-CGB
3rd Grade Field Trip to Big Stone Wildlife Refuge
Red Ribbon Week
Deputy Kyle Arndt and Deputy Alex Goergen visited CGB Elementary to focus on safety and drug prevention. Thanks to the Big Stone County Sheriff's Department for educating our students and also building important relationships with our kids.
Science of Reading
If you have read about the READ Act legislation since last May, you may have heard about the science of reading. At CGB schools, our Wonders reading curriculum is an approved curriculum that supports the science of reading. Our K-3 teachers stay very busy teaching phonics with our Fundations program.
Below are the components in the science of reading. Essentially, these are the 5 areas that students need to be proficient at to be a successful reader. We focus on these daily and have a great ADSIS (Alternative Delivery of Specialized Instructional Services) program led by Mrs. Costello and Title paraprofessionals that work with reading interventions to help all students.
- Phonemic Awareness
- Phonics and Word Recognition
- Fluency
- Vocabulary
- Comprehension
AR (Accelerated Reader)
- Building background knowledge
- Fluency practice
- Exposure to vocabulary
- Improve & monitor comprehension
Students in grades 2-5 have currently read 7,080,752 words and 1,746 books. That is amazing. Students were exposed to a great deal of vocabulary and took a short quiz providing the student with feedback about their comprehension of the book.
Accelerated reader is not always easy for families to navigate and manage but our teachers do a great job of being very intentional with the purpose of our accelerated reader and reading program.
Monthly Mindfulness
Mindfulness is the art of being present in the moment and being able to turn off other distractions. Mrs. Sigler is bringing this skill to our youth through a monthly mindfulness lesson incorporated into the PE curriculum. Mindfulness has been proven to improve emotional regulation, increase focus, reduce disruptive behaviors, and improve overall mood. All of these skills will help your child to be a successful student and successful in other aspects of life! Even the NFL is utilizing mindfulness for their players.
In October, Mrs. Sigler provided an introduction to students on what mindfulness is. A good visual example of mindfulness is a glitter bottle. Usually our brains are full of other things, like what is for dinner tonight, an assignment due tomorrow, or the embarrassing thing that happened in 2nd grade. This is like the bottle shook up. Mindfulness helps to settle the glitter and make things more clear.
Students were able to practice different forms of a body scan, to learn how to listen to their body. Most people do not pay attention to their body unless something is wrong or hurting. It is hard to be present when you are not even present in your body.
November will focus on the function of the brain and how deep breathing can actually trick your brain into being calm!
Parent Corner - Some optional articles
Some articles that may find your interest. As a parent, I found them worthwhile.
Kindness Day - Nov. 13th
What did you do that was kind today?
Instead of asking your kids if they behaved well or performed well or even if they had fun, be sure to check in with them about whether they did something kind. Ask them, every day, What good turn did you do today? What was something you did for someone else? Who did you help?
Think of the message this sends. Think of how it makes them think about their own day—to review their own actions through the lens of empathy, how their actions affect others. Think of the priorities it sets through your monitoring–that their parents are on top of not how many answers they got right but how many right things they did. Think about how much better the world would be if everyone thought this way, if everyone was raised this way.
--Ryan Holiday
When Sick...
We (mostly Kelly) stay busy in the office with ill students. It is a good time to remind families of washing hands and staying home when sick. A reminder that any student ill should be symptom free for 24 hours before returning. It is especially important to be fever free without fever reducing medication for those 24 hours before returning to school.
High School Visitors
Thanks to our high school helpers for helping in the classroom on Friday, Oct. 27th. They are pictured giving high fives to some of our weekly PAWS drawing winners.