GCIS Weekly News 1/27/17
Weekly Celebrations, Successes, and Up Coming Events!
We're not here to be average; We're here to be AWESOME!
MOVIE NIGHT at GCIS
Friday January 27th TONIGHT
- Movie Night & Bake Sale for 4th grade Student
- Doors Open at 5:30 pm
- Open for Students & Families
- Popcorn & Ice Cream
- Movie starts at 6pm
- Movie: Pets
All proceeds go to help with family of 4th grade student injured in snowmobile accident.
Awesome Students of the Week!
GCIS Office News
Office Hours
7:30 am - 4:00 pm (M, T, TH, F)
7:30 am - 3:00 pm (W)
When our office is closed, our voicemail is turned on. Please feel free to leave a message and we will get back to you when business hours resume. Thanks!
Office Phone #: 515-738-5721
Please be sure to give our office a call if your student will be out for the day, picked up early, or any changes in their after school plans. Please be sure to call by 2:30 pm on a regular dismissal day to allow time to get the message to your student. (By 1:00 pm on Wednesdays).
Infinite Campus
Infinite Campus is a great tool to be able to check on your student’s school information! You can see if they have missing assignments, view their grades, attendance, lunch balance and much more! Interested? Sign up is easy! Give our office a call to request a form.
Recess
Please make sure that your students dress appropriately for outside play. As long as the temperatures are at zero or above, we go outside. Students need to be wearing a winter coat, hat, mittens, boots and snow pants. If you have any questions or concerns in regard to this, please don’t hesitate to give our office a call.
Lunch
You are welcome to come and eat lunch with your student any time! We ask that you come through the office and sign in first. Our lunch cost for an adult is $3.45. You may view our lunch and breakfast menu online. http://gccsd.nutrislice.com
Lunch Times (M, T, TH, F)
4th Grade - 12:15-12:40
5th Grade - 10:50-11:10
6th Grade - 11:40-12:05
Lunch Times (W)
4th Grade - 10:50-11:15
5th Grade - 11:15-11:40
6th Grade - 11:40-12:05
Lost & Found
Iowa Assessment Healthy Snack Donations
Dear GCIS Parent:
Greene County Schools will be doing the Iowa Assessments the week of
February 6-10, 2017.
As these tests are extremely important, we would like to offer nutritious snacks to
our students each morning before testing begins, and we are asking for donations
of snacks such as granola bars, whole grain fruit bars and other healthy snacks.
Please send your donations with your child to school by Friday, February 3th
so we may organize the snacks for our homeroom groups.
Thank you in advance for your donations!
Greene County Intermediate School Staff
Principal Shoutout!
How many times does your child come home and you ask "How was your day?" and their response is "Good." or "Fine" Below are some great links for parents desiring to know more from their child! Please take time to browse. Hoping these resources help connect and acquire more information from your child about school!
Links:
http://www.parent.co/30-questions-to-ask-your-kid-instead-of-how-was-your-day/
Email: vancleavem@greenecountycsd.net
Website: http://www.gccsd.k12.ia.us/gcis
Location: 405 12th Street South, Grand Junction, IA, United States
Phone: 515-738-5721
Facebook: facebook.com/pages/Greene-County-Intermediate/
Twitter: @marandavc
Add it to the Calendar!
~FEBRUARY~
Iowa Assessment Week: Feb 6th-10th
- Iowa Assessment Make Up Week 13th-17th
PBIS Winter Bash: Friday Feb 24th
Student Choices:
- 7 oaks Sledding (Ogden)
- Hidden Acres: Swimming & Open Gym (Dayton)
- Skateland (Jefferson)
~MARCH~
No School: 3/1
Session #4 Clubs: 3/8
No School Spring Break: 13th-17th
GCIS Conferences
- Tuesday March 21st 4:00-7:00 pm
- Thursday March 23rd 4:00-7:00 pm
Next Parent Advisory
6:30-7:30 pm
Greene County Administration Office
Topics:
- Performance Tasks & Project Based Learning
- AEA Rep: Julie Graber & Karen Sandberg Guests
- Data from Teachers, Staff, & Students for 5-8 building
- Parent Generated Topics
Iowa Assessments
- February 6th -10th
Make Up Testing:
- 13th - 17th
Please notify the office in advance if there will be any absences you know of during this time so we can plan accordingly with testing.
Please avoid scheduling appointments during the morning, the week of February 6th-10th.
4th Grade Happenings!
Reading- We have been as busy as beavers working on our figurative language skills this week! We also introduced inferencing and plan to practice this skill throughout the year. Next week we are hoping to finish our book reviews for the public libraries.
Math- We finished classifying triangles this week (identifying an acute, right or obtuse triangle). Next week we will begin to classify quadrilaterals too.
Science - The 4th graders are finishing up their Animal Adaptation Research Projects. They have spent a lot time not only researching their animals, but also designing models or presentations to showcase their expertise. Animals are quite amazing in the ways they have learned to adapt to the challenges their habitats present!
5th Grade Happenings!
Math: Fractions, Fractions, Fractions. Not much more to say about that.
Science: Animal Adaptations: Camouflage, Mimicry, behaviors, and a quiz this week. Snow days, late starts, crazy schedules!
Lit/SS- We are wrapping up with our inferencing unit. The kids created an interactive notebook page this week using their inferencing skills! In Social Studies the students are making a Mini Research Project on a Native American Group question of their choice. Each student will present these in class next week. We can’t wait to see what new information they found out with the researching skills they put to work! Also, all 5th graders need to continue reading 20 minutes per night and filling out their weekly reading trackers. Thank You:)
6th Grade Happenings!
In science, students constructed an explanation to demonstrate their understanding of atoms. They started with a claim and supported it with evidence they gathered from a model. Students also included an algebraic expression as evidence.
In reading, we are continuing to work on our personal narrative unit. Students are working on adding details and editing. Ask your child to share their narrative with you.
In math, students are working on their recipe project. Students will have to change their recipes to accommodate different sizes of groups. This will require multiplying and dividing mixed numbers and fractions. We will also be creating an online cookbook for 6th graders and their parents.
Music News!
4th Grade General Music: Working on our rhythm unit, we are working with auxiliary percussion instruments. We will be working on songs enhancing this unit as well as continuing work on the recorders.
http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/why-every-kid-in-america-learns-to-play-the-recorder
5th Grade General Music: Students are working on pitch matching, ear training. They are learning about tone color, vocal registers and experimenting with highs and lows. They are also learning how to analyze a piece of music looking into details of the time signature, melodic contour of the notes, identifying note names, and phrases.
6th Grade General Music: Buddy Holly, Bo Diddley, Elvis Presley, Chuck Berry… voices of the 1950’s music era. We have discussed influences of jazz, country, rhythm and blues, swing on the rock ‘n roll style. The 1950’s brought in many rebels, however the 1960’s really shakes up the music scene. Onward we travel!
Art
All art and life skills switched classes again. (Every three weeks). The new 4th grade art group is working on weaving heart baskets to use for Valentine’s Day, which will be here before you know it!!!
The new 5th Grade students are learning about Keith Haring and making their own stick figures to hang on the walls like Keith did with his graffiti art. It’s starting to look awesome in the 5th grade hallway!
The new 6th grade art students are drawing abstract close ups of an animal eye! They are able to choose which animal they would like and to choose which medium they would like to use to create it. (Medium - Material of artistic expression) Can you tell what animal and medium Ty Kenan used to create this masterpiece?
T.A.G.
6th Grade TAG worked on their poster to display their marble run that they created. Here is a picture of the finished project! Everyone always asks to see it work!
5th grade TAG students will meet Friday and are building a trebuchet, which is basically a catapult - A medieval machine that launches rocks as a weapon.
4th grade TAG students were not able to meet due to the snow day on Wednesday.
Special Education News
4th graders finished up their writing about Winter break. They are learning about triangles and types of angles.
5th grade in math are still working on fractions. In reading they are finishing up inferencing and working on their Native American research project.
Physical Education
Classes will be traveling to Spare Time Lanes in Jefferson Feb 6-14 for our bowling unit. Each student will have a chance to bowl two times.
This week in class we did some simulation bowling to prepare for our bowling unit.
Counseling News
The Power of Thank You…
In this TED TALK video, Dr. Laura Trice muses on the power of the magic words "thank you" — to deepen a friendship, to repair a bond, to make sure another person knows what they mean to you. Try it with your family members and friends:
... and How to Teach Kids Perseverance
and Goal-Setting:
All parents share that sense of frustration when their child doesn't try hard enough to accomplish something they know s/he's perfectly capable of. What can you do? One way to foster a can-do attitude is to help your child learn to set goals and meet them, one small step at a time.
In her article, How to Teach Kids Perseverance and Goal-Setting, Marie Faust Evitt discusses how to encourage perseverance by teaching preteens how to set goals and work to meet them.
Read her full article at http://www.parents.com/parenting/better-parenting/style/how-to-teach-kids-perseverance-goal-setting/
Nurse News!
Eating healthy and getting enough physical activity during the winter months can be difficult. The USDA has created an easy way to help you decide how much of each of the food groups you should eat. The plan can be personalized for age and amount of physical activity. Go to https://www.choosemyplate.gov/MyPlate-Daily-Checklist to view the daily checklist.