GCIS Weekly News 2/19/2016
Weekly Celebrations, Successes, and Up Coming Events!
GCIS Office News
Permission Slips need to be returned in order for the students to attend the trips on Thursday February 25th. These need to be returned to the homeroom teacher by Wednesday February 24th.
Spring Conferences this year will be by invitation. If you receive an invitation this next week in the mail with one or more of the teachers that are wanting to touch base with you about the progress of your child. If you do not receive a invitation and would still like to attend conferences please contact your homeroom teacher. Spring Conferences are on March 8th from 4:00-7:30pm at Greene County Intermediate.
Lost & Found
Please encourage your students to stop by our lost & found table to see if they have any items that may belong to them.
Lunch Money
As the year is starting to wind down, we are needing all lunch accounts to have a positive balance. Starting April 1st, we will no longer be able to let your child charge a meal to their account. We must have all accounts be at a positive balance before the end of the school year.
There are multiple ways for you to keep track of your child’s lunch account. Text messaging is an option if that is something you are interested in. Just let us know what carrier you have (Us. Cellular, Verizon, etc.) and we would be glad to text you the balance.
GCIS Key Players of the Week!
Next PBIS Incentive Day!
- Sledding at 7 Oaks in Boone
- Swimming, Game Room, and Open Gym at Hidden Acres in Dayton Iowa
- Skating in Jefferson
All trips will be paid for by the hard work of our students with our successful fall fundraiser! Snack bar will be available for students at 7 Oaks, and skating rink if students want to bring some additional money for that, or bring their own snack from home. If students are skating and want to have roller blades instead of skates that will be an additional charge too.
If you have any additional questions please don't hesitate to contact their homeroom teachers or the office and we can try and help! I have included the details of the trip below and also information how students earn a change to attend!
How does my student qualify to attend one of these trips?
- Students need to complete a reading challenge in addition to positive behaviors in order to attend one of these trips. (These are coming out soon!)
- Students will be earning key cards in all areas of our day as they demonstrate safe, respectful, and responsible behaviors. Each homeroom sets a goal and works towards earning key cards.
Recess Reminders & Private Dining Tickets
- You will be notified from homeroom teachers if your student has earned one of these.
- These are issued at recess and in the lunchroom.
- Recess: Students are given a verbal warning, then asked to take a 5 min break. If students are still making a choice to not be safe, respectful, or responsible, a recess reminder will be issued.
- Lunchroom: Students will be given a verbal warning reminding students of the desired behavior in the lunchroom. If students are still deciding to make choices that are not safe, respectful, or responsible, the student will be removed and will eat in a different location, along with getting a private dinning ticket.
- Any student receiving more than 3 of the Recess Reminders and/or Private Dinning tickets, will stay back at school during the PBIS incentive trips.
If you have any additional questions, please don't hesitate to call the office or your students homeroom teacher. All students attending one of these trips will have to return a parent permission slip. These will go out when it gets closer to the trip date.
-Mrs. Van Cleave
GCIS Principal
4th Grade Happenings!
Reading: This week we are continuing our study of the civil rights movement. Earlier in the unit we read The Story of Ruby Bridges and this week we are watching the movie Ruby Bridges. We are trying to compare and contrast the two types of media. We are still exploring different text-structures in various nonfiction books. Thanks for all your support with the Reading BINGO Challenge! We are looking forward to our incentive trip next Thursday.
Math: In math this week we are continuing our work with fractions. We are finding different ways to find equivalent fractions by using circles, number lines, and pizza!
Science: We started a new project! We are designing a toy car that is going to be powered with a balloon. Our first task is to create a chassis (car body) that can travel smoothly and straight. This week we built and tested our chassis, next week we will be adding the balloon motor and comparing data.
5th Grade Happenings!
Math: We are working with coordinate grids and plotting points on a grid. We are having a blast with this. :)
Lit/SS: In reading, we are wrapping up our work on comparing and contrasting stories in the same genre on their approaches to theme and topics. In social studies, we having been studying historical explorers and understanding their land and water routes.
Science: We are wrapping up our ecosystem study with a test on Monday. Be sure to study for this test from your notes and quizzes.
6th Grade Happenings!
On Wednesdays, students have been working on coding during math and science class. Coding provides students opportunities to build critical thinking skills and problem solving skills while having some fun. It’s awesome to see how engaged students are during this one hour block on Wednesdays! Students are also awesome at helping each other out when they get stuck.
In science, students are still working on atoms, molecules, and compounds. This week, students worked on making models of different atoms.
In math, students are continuing to work on algebraic expressions. We have also started working on finding the area of different polygons.
In reading, students have been working on their research papers. We’ve had to research a topic and organize our writing. Along with our writing, we have been working on comparing and contrasting different genres with the same theme or topic.
Music Mania
General Music
Concert Information:
4th Grade: Thursday April 7, 2016
7:00 p.m.
Greene County Intermediate Gym
5th General Music & 5th/6th Bands
Thursday, May 7, 2016
7:00 p.m.
Greene County Middle School Gym
4th General Music
Students have completed the Level 4 Recorder Belts! They now know how to play and read 5 notes on the recorder. Some of the students will be bringing the final levels of songs home to practice. The final levels will be tested more on an independent basis to earn the final belts. We will have a portion of our Spring Concert dedicated to recorder demonstration.
5th General Music
Mini Sport Presentations are winding down. Students did a wonderful job informing classmates about each of the sports we cover in our musical. We have begun work on learning songs, choreography and lines. I love the energy they bring to the classroom each day!
6th General Music
Each student has chosen a famous musician, band or dancer to research. They are using their skills of research, reading, writing, speaking and listening to create Prezis or a Google Slide presentations.
Iowa Choral Director’s Association Honor Choir Friday, March 11, 2016
The following students will be attending the ICDA Honor Choir.
Eliot Schilling
Sadie Reedy
Shelby Stoffa
Avery Walker
Madison Hayes
Lucy Dudley
Lyndsey Zahradnik
Sebastian Davis
Jonathan Mobley
Mallory Prescott
Madison Moore
Rylie Moranville
Alexandria Miller
Band
6th grade percussion auditions will begin the week of February 29th.
I am planning the solo and ensemble recital for early to mid April, and will provide more information when I have a firm date.
Physical Education
If you haven’t had your child bring their packet back, please do so early next week. I would like to wrap up this fundraiser next week.
FCS
5th graders have learned the five areas of Family and Consumer Science. Most of them have already passed on this expectation. We discussed health this week and how we all need to work on our physical, mental and social health.
6th graders are finishing up their pencil pouches and they should be coming home so you can enjoy their talent. Many aren’t perfect which brings up the discussion about what we would want it to look like if we purchased it versus what we are okay with if we make it. My students do not have the skill yet to make a perfect pencil pouch but can see how much they have learned from the beginning.
Media & Tech Lit
This week the students worked really hard to get their projects done. 6th graders completed their state research reports using the website http://mrnussbaum.com/ They used the USA portion of the website to discover facts about the 50 states. These facts were then put into a graphic organizer. The students will be using this website again to design their own maps.
The 5th graders finished up their timeline projects about a famous person. Using an interactive timeline application, they were able to display their information in a neat and organized way. This website is free to use and is a great tool for creating a date, time, or event timeline.( http://www.readwritethink.org/files/resources/interactives/timeline_2/ )
The 4th graders have started working on a poetry slideshow. This week they worked on an autobiographical poem. They answered questions about themselves, and the web application generated a poem from their responses. Eventually, the students will have four poems added to their Google Slideshow, with pictures to represent what they are sharing.
Counselor's Corner
THANK YOU!!!
We are sending out a huge THANK YOU to all of the great people who have supported Iowa Assessments Week.
Thank you, GCIS Students, for doing your best on your testing.
Thank you, Parents & Guardians, for donating healthy snacks for kids during testing week.
Thank you, GCIS Staff, for being patient, flexible and attentive to student needs during testing.
Special Thanks goes out to Jefferson HyVee and to Fareway grocery stores for their generous donations of healthy snacks and drinks that students were offered before testing each day. We appreciate you SO MUCH!!!
Nurse News
February is National Children’s Dental Health Month. One way to protect your teeth is to get adequate amounts of fluoride. Brush your teeth at least two times a day with fluoride toothpaste. Another source of fluoride is in your tap water. According to the American Dental Association most bottled water does not contain fluoride and some home water treatment systems can decrease the amount of fluoride in your drinking water. Water that contains adequate fluoride helps prevent tooth decay. More information is available on www.ada.org.