Gratz Brown Elementary
January Newsletter
Accredited with Distinction
Moberly's Mission Statement:
Create a safe environment that fosters mutual respect and responsibilityInspire and value life long learners,
The Spartan Way is excellence for all!
GBE's Partners in Education:
El Vaquero
Sonic Drive-In
Art's Appliance
Central Bank of Moberly
Dates to Remember:
January 4th, 2016
- School resumes -- Late start Monday
- PTO Meeting at 5:30 for January
January 8th, 2016
- Grade Cards go home
- PTO Movie Night at GBE- "Max" begins at 6:00 pm
January 12th, 2016
- Monthly Board of Education meeting at Central Office begins at 5:30
January 15th, 2016
- (Make Up Date if needed) PTO Movie Night
January 18th, 2016
- No School - Martin Luther King Jr. Day
Other Upcoming Dates of Importance:
Friday, February 5th, 2016
- Mid Quarter
Wednesday, February 10th, 2016
- Progress Reports sent home
Monday, February 15th, 2016
- No School - President's Day
Program Feature from GBE: Eagles Gifted Program
PTO Information:
PTO Movie Night is coming up this week!! Fun and Festivity to kick off the New Year at GBE on Friday, January 8th, 2016. The movie will begin at 6:00 pm and approximately end around 8:30 pm. We ask that all students attend with an adult. The movie being shown that night will be "Max". There is not cost for this evening.
Other Reminders for Parents and GBE Families:
Attention! Please NOTE Spartan Tutoring WILL NOT resume until January 25th!!
GBE is working on being Green :)
Your Child's teacher may have already asked or will be asking if you are comfortable with receiving the Classroom Newsletter and GBE Building Newsletter digitally versus in a paper copy. This is in order for us to save on using paper building wide.
If you would prefer to have the paper copy, then please make sure to communicate this with your child's teacher when they send the request.
Thank you for helping us become a little "greener" with our paper resources! :)
Children's Literature Festival Coming up this Spring
Our GBE PTO and local donations will assist our school in taking 50 students to the Children’s Literature Festival at Truman State University in Kirksville on April 15. Mrs. St.Clair has been communicating to students in 4th and 5th grade how they can qualify to attend this annual event. Please encourage your child to attend by reading the required books, meeting their Reading Counts goal each month and completing an application when they become available in March. If you have any questions, please contact Mrs. St.Clair, GBE Librarian.
Six Flags Reading Logs
Winter Weather is Upon Us:
Inclement Weather Letter & Snow Routes have been posted to the district website-- Please listen for announcements on School Closings during Inclement Weather:
Note from Mrs. Doss
Happy New Year!! It is 2016! Wow, the year has gone by so quickly! I hope each of you have enjoyed your family time and break with your children.
We will come back together on Monday, January 4th, to start the second half of our school year. Teachers have been working over break on preparing your students' grade cards. These will be ready to go and sent home this coming Friday, January 8th.
Students have been working with teachers during our Response to Instruction time each day to strengthen Math and Reading Skills. The school has done this across grade levels and have had students working with specific teachers and skills that are seen as areas of need or enrichment. When we return, teachers will be using our morning RTI time to pull our students back into grade level classrooms and work on needed Math instruction to strengthen basic math skills, but also add on to our students' foundation skills to prep them for upcoming required assessments this spring. This focus on math will also allow our students to build on strategies to tackle math computations from various angles. These strategies are ones that help our students be ready for 21st century learning and problem solving. This decision is one our staff supports knowing it is what our students need as we progress through the school year. We are also working on forming various ideas and strategies to implement for Response to Intervention as we plan for next school year.
As we enter the new year, we will be working on piloting some new ideas for our students. One of these is our Student Advisory Committee, formed by administration and teacher recommendations, that will meet with Mr. Samuel and myself monthly. These students will be school leaders that are a voice for our children and bring forward any concerns, ideas or partnership ideas they have for GBE. This change is one that our PBS team will be implementing later this month. Another, is working with some of our older students to mentor younger students in making decisions that support the Spartan Way as learners at GBE! As I stated prior, these would be a pilot for the remainder of this year to support student ownership as active members of our school. If seen as successful for students these can be looked at to continue for the following school year.
Not only do we have great plans for our students building wide! Our teachers are working diligently on planning for your child's return this next Monday. We have had several teachers in the building over the break. It is great to see such dedication from our staff. In the area of staff we will also have some new additions to introduce for the remainder of the school year.
As the new year enters, so do some new faces at GBE. In 3rd Grade we have Mrs. Amanda Anderson joining us to take over as our Special Education instructor for the remainder of the year. Mrs. Anderson is a native of Moberly, and has been teaching since 2002. She is excited to join our team at GBE!
Our other new face in the hallways is Ms. Amanda Eiberger from the Kansas City area. She is a recent graduate from Columbia College. Ms. Eiberger will be taking over our 5th Grade Special Education classroom for the remainder of the school year. Both ladies have been in the building over the break preparing their rooms to be ready for our students.
As you can see we have many exciting things getting ready to begin as we return from break. The teachers are anxious to have students return and get us all back into the routine of our days here at GBE.
Looking forward to next Monday and getting started on the second half of the school year with our students-- Thank you for your partnership with us at GBE!
Angie Doss