GES Grey Wolf Gazette
January 13, 2023
End 68 Hours of Hunger Program Information
New Year Number Two!
Dear Greenfield Families and Friends,
We have settled back into the routines of school and learning together. Staff and students have revisited their hopes and dreams for the school year that they set in September and adjusted or created new intentions for the rest of the year. One of the great things about a school year is that we get two new years each year!
We will begin our Winter Benchmark Assessments at the end of January. These assessments help us identify areas of growth and need and teachers will use the data to plan for instruction moving forward. All reports will be sent home prior to the February break. Should you have any questions once you receive your child's reports, please reach out to their teacher.
With temperatures dropping and snow on the horizon please be sure to send in cold weather gear for outdoor learning and recess. We do have a supply of extra jackets and gloves available, but it's helpful for students to have their own gear to wear. Please label jackets, snow pants and boots in order to avoid any confusion! Many children have black or blue snow pants and it can be hard to figure out who things belong to sometimes!
UPCOMING IMPORTANT DATES-PLEASE CHECK AND ADD TO YOUR CALENDAR!
1/16/23: No School: MLK Day
1/17-1/20/23: Special: Art with Mr. Shapiro
1/23-1/27/23: Special: Health/PE with Mrs. Parker. Don't forget your sneakers!
1/30-2/3/23: Special: Library with Mrs. Aborn
1/30-2/17/23: Winter Benchmark Assessment Period
2/1/23: PTO Meeting at 5:30pm in the Library. Free childcare is available. We are actively recruiting new members to join the PTO! Come find out how you can help!
2/6-2/10/23: Special: Health/PE with Mrs. Parker. Don't forget your sneakers!
2/10/23: GES Read-A-Thon kicks off! Stay tuned for details! Last year we raised almost $2000! We are shooting for 100% participation this year!
2/13-2/17/23: Special: Music with Mrs. Neillsen
2/20-2/24/23: Special: Health/PE with Mrs. Parker. Don't forget your sneakers!
2/25-3/5/23: February Vacation!
S.E.L Corner with Mrs. Styren
Hello everyone!
First, I have to commend everyone for making it through another week in January - while these days are great for those who love the cold and winter sports, these days, some of the longest of the year, are very hard for others. I saw a great meme this week - sharing that we only have so many days until the sun sets at 7pm again. Well, there's only 58 days until daylight savings - we're getting there!
This week's focus, in the spirit of Martin Luther King, Jr. always being such an amazing self-advocate and advocate for others, is on teaching our kids to have self-advocacy skills and to use those to both speak up for themselves and for others. For those reading and feeling hesitant, when we teach our kids emotional intelligence, and practice listening to them, having real conversations with them, and teaching, they are both able to listen to us and learn, while also learning to stand up for themselves.
Resource of the Week:
- 8 Little Ways to Encourage Your Child to Speak Their Mind on Parents.com - While Parents.com often includes advertisements and opinions (so you have to be careful not to trust everything), they do have a lot of great information! This particular article supports us in teaching our children how to speak their mind - how to be independent thinkers. Teaching them to be independent and advocate for themselves when at home, will directly support them when they're in other settings away from us, such as at school or on the bus, to ask for help, and stand up for themselves when something feels uncomfortable.
Articles of the Week:
- The Best Way to Raise Assertive Kids to Stand Up for Themselves: Off the same vein, when we teach our kids to speak their minds, they are more able to assert themselves around others and communicate when things are not okay.
- Preparing Children to Stand Up for Themselves and Others: This last article is very thorough and very helpful in seeing just how much goes into teaching kids and modeling for them how to stand up when something is not okay. While adults are often present to support kids, we can't always be there. And even if we're not far away, there are always going to be moments where something can be said so quietly that other adults cannot hear. It's so important that we teach kids these skills so that they can feel comfortable and confident as individuals!
Family Activity:
- Take advantage of car rides! Typically, I find that family dinners are a great time to talk about important issues, model how to ask questions and respond in a supportive manner, but with activities and work schedules, there isn't time for everyone every night to sit down. Although it's hard to make eye contact and show true whole-body listening skills while driving (please be safe!), this can often be a great time to talk. Ask your children how their day was, and ask them why they might feel that way or what happened. Ask them to share what went well and what they hope might be different next time. Ask them how tomorrow could be better (because we're all growing, and tomorrow always has the potential to be better!) and ask them how they can do it. Additionally, use this opportunity to model something about your own day and how your day could go better and what you're going to do about it. Kids are ALWAYS listening (whether we think they are or not), and they learn so much about how to interact with the world from what they see in us. If your kids are hesitant to share at first, try sharing about your day first, helping them to see why it's important to reflect, and teach them to feel empowered about making their own choices and acting upon them.
Lastly, if your child is already quite good at self-advocating (as my 2-year-old currently is QUITE good at this!) continue to teach them these skills, and acknowledge what they're sharing with you by saying something like, "Thank you for telling me," and then also remember to teach them how to respond when someone else advocates and tells them they don't like that idea, or when someone says, "no. I don't want to play that." Teach them how to be okay with negative feedback or when someone says something they don't like. We all have our own opinions, and so it's important that we recognize that others will too!
Kristina Styren
School Psychologist
Kindergarten News from Mrs. Hodgen
Math: This week we have continued our work on measurement and have been focusing on comparing numbers to 10. We talked about the concept of more than, and fewer than with numbers to 10. We also spent time counting collections of objects, focusing on numbers less than 40.
Literacy:
Science & Social Studies: Science has been all about snow, and we even learned about why snow is white.
SEL: We talked about how to solve small problems that don’t need an adult to help. We continue to work on the zones of regulation and strategies to use when you are in different situations.
Read Aloud: This week we finished Ramona the Pest. We have been reading snow themed books, including There was a Cold Lady Who Swallowed Some Snow, Snowed in at Pokeweed Public School, Snowmen at Night, Stranger in the Woods, and A Silly Snowy Day.
Classroom Counseling Focus with Mrs. Lofstedt
Kindergarten: Students learned about the feeling of frustration and practiced the Second Step skill of “stop and name your feeling.” We went through several scenarios and students identified how they would feel. Students then drew a picture of what makes them feel frustrated and a picture of how they calm down when frustrated.
1st grade: Students learned that people’s feelings can change when others say or do something kind. Students watched a video of a student who was nervous on the first day of school but whose feelings changed after a classmate helped her find her seat in the classroom. We then practiced inviting each other to join in our group to help make others feel included. We finished the lesson with a group activity identifying what we could say in a variety of situations to help others feel better.
2nd grade: We continued our empathy unit with another lesson about identifying other people’s feelings. We discussed empathy (understanding what others feel) and the importance of knowing that people may experience different feelings in the same situations. Students reviewed a variety of situations and identified how they would feel. Students worked in small groups to look at pictures and identify how the child was feeling and what clues helped them figure it out.
3rd grade: This week’s lesson focused on accepting the differences of others. Students played a game with a partner where they answered questions to find ways they are similar or different. We then looked at a picture and learned about two students in the same class. Students identified ways they were the same and ways they were different. We discussed the importance of showing respect to people who are different and what we can do to get to know others better. Students then completed a handout listing the similarities and differences they found with their partner and identified something they could learn from their partner.
4th grade: We continued our bullying prevention unit with a lesson about the power bystanders have in a bullying situation. Students watched a video showing a bullying situation and identified how the bystanders helped to stop the bullying. Students then created posters showing ways to spread kindness and respect at school.
For more information about my counseling program, please visit my website at https://sites.google.com/conval.edu/lofstedt/home
Good News from Mrs. Goodspeed's 2nd Grade Classroom!
Math: We have been working on different strategies to add and subtract some tens and some ones to double digit numbers on paper and in our heads. We will be diving into word problems next week as we learn other strategies for addition and subtraction.
Literacy: Oor phonics pattern this week as long a spelled with /ai/ and /ay/. We learned that ai is found in the middle of a syllable while ay is only found at the end of a syllable. We have been practicing retelling only the most important details from stories and making connections to texts.
Science & Social Studies: Second graders are studying different ways that people in history have stood up for equality. We learned about MLK Jr. and children who marched to have their voices heard. We have just begun learning about how women fought for equality to vote.
SEL: independent problem solving, cooperating, when to be silly and when to be serious,
Overheard in Third with Ms. Heard
Math: We are wrapping up Module 3 with multiplying multiples of 10. We learned that if we think of multiplication in units of ten, we can solve problems like 8 x 60 = 480! Module 4 will focus on connecting area of rectangles to multiplication. Don’t forget to practice multiplication facts and skip counting at home! We are finding 7s and 8s to be especially tricky.
Literacy: In literacy this week explored the 5 different nonfiction text structures; main idea and details, sequence, cause and effect, compare and contrast, and problem and solution. When we understand how a text is organized, it helps us understand and remember what we read.
Science & Social Studies: John Benjamin from the Harris Center joined us this week to teach us all about winter birds. He brought in some fascinating bird mounts and took us out bird watching!
SEL: We continued our work with growth mindset. This week we discussed the importance of challenging ourselves in order to grow our brains.
Read Aloud: The One and Only Ivan
What's Cooking in Fourth Grade This Week?
Math: This week we spend a lot of time reviewing multiplication strategies, using partial products, arrays as well as multi-step word problems. Students worked with one by two digit multiplication and ended the week with 1 by four digit multiplication problems.
Literacy: In honor of Martin Luther King Jr. 's birthday, we started reading the Who was book, which gives a summary of his life and his efforts to end inequalities. Students focused on V/CV syllabication rule; which says when a single consonant is surrounded by two vowels, you divide the word into syllables before the consentant. This makes the first syllable open and the vowel sound long.
Social Studies: We had the great privilege of having John from the Harris Center come and kick off our Animal adaptation studies. We examined fossils of squirrels and talked about the different kinds of squirrels found in NH. We spent two class periods outside exploring signs of squirrels, this included acorns, and piles of pine cone pieces which are called a Midden. We also set up a platter of food choices with a game camera to record any critters who may come by for a snack over the weekend. We can’t wait to see what kind of wild life there is right here in GES back yard!
SEL: We continued to talk about working through hard tasks, and positive self talk. When things get difficult some students tend to give up, or express anger and sometimes shut down. We talked about doing our best, and if there is something that they need help with there is a right and wrong way to ask for help.
First Friends Preschool News
Preschool 1 and 2 have been talking a lot about the snow, snowmen, and are busy moving and singing snow songs. We have continued talking about feelings and how to show kindness and use personal space with Ms Alisa. Ms Sue came in this week and taught us all about sheep, we even got to feel and see the different colors/textures of sheeps wool and learn the wool is different depending on how much lanolin is in them “oil from sheep secretions.” We watched a video about how they get sheared and found out it does not hurt them, it's merely a “haircut.” We all sang Baa Baa Black Sheep using all the colors of the rainbow. Ms Kerry was here Thursday and Friday and we talked about how to start our letters at the top, and we practiced the letters I and T in our Writing without Tears book. We also did an art activity using salt and glue and made icicles. We love going to recess and trying to roll snow and try to make a snowman with our friends.
What's Up In Wellness with Mrs. Parker?
Local Events and Activities
2022-2023 Calendar
Resources
Where to find ConVal District and GES News!
GES has a facebook page! You can find the link here:
https://www.facebook.com/Greenfield-Elementary-School-532738607668635
The ConVal School District has news blog to serve as a hub for the latest updates, information and news about the district’s schools, students, faculty, events and accomplishments.
The blog, ConValNews.com is integrated into the schools and District’s Facebook and Twitter accounts and will automatically broadcast news blog content onto these platforms, connecting directly with the district community.
With a clean, user-friendly and mobile responsive layout, the news blog allows for easy navigation throughout. It can be accessed on computers, cell phones and tablets. Community members can subscribe and be notified by email when new posts are published.
Parents/guardians, students, staff, and community members should still utilize the district’s main website, Convalsd.net, to access the District-wide calendar of events, contact information, school committee meeting notices and minutes, important documents and notices and to view general information about the district and its schools.
Connect with us!
Email: croy@conval.edu
Website: https://ges.convalsd.net/
Location: 860 Forest Road, Greenfield, NH 03047, USA
Phone: 603-547-3334
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Greenfield-Elementary-School-532738607668635
Twitter: @ges_royc