GCIS Weekly News 3/18/2016
Weekly Celebrations, Successes, and Up Coming Events!
GCIS Office News
Reminder:
No School - SPRING BREAK
March 21-25
- HAPPY EASTER - Sunday, March 27
GCIS Parents: as we work to continually improve safety measures we ask that all parents wait in the office area regarding all matters.
PBIS Trip: Our next PBIS Incentive Trip will be to the Web House the week of April 25th-29th.
Reading Challenge: We will be having another reading challenge for students to complete! Details were planned today and we will launch Friday March 18th prior to break and it will run up to the week of our PBIS incentive trip. (April 21st-25th) Click HERE for the link to information and details. Students were sent home with a copy today!
Please remember... to send lunch money with your students. There are alternative ways to pay! Just ask the office! Starting April 1 we will not be able to let your student charge on their lunch account. If you have any questions or concerns about this topic, please give us a call at 515-738-5721.
GCIS Key Players of the Week!
4th Grade Happenings!
Lit/SS: We have finished our unit on Civil Rights. The students did a great job researching and sharing their learning through our Ruby Bridges Projects. When we return from Spring Break we will start our unit covering the regions of the United States. Some of the topics we will be discussing are: landforms, economy, climate, natural disasters and culture.
We are also getting closer to the end product for our library book reviews. This week we spent time looking at other book reviews and identifying their opinions, reasons and supporting details.
We sent home a new reading challenge today! This is due back by April 25, 2016 and is part of the responsibility piece of our key behaviors- without it your child will not be eligible to participate in the next PBIS incentive day. The challenge is called The ABCs of Reading. Please touch base with your child and make sure they are reading and working on this. We appreciate your support so much!
Science: This week we spent time working on our Jet Toys and getting ready to present them and our data to our classes. I think we are all pretty proud of our final products and feel this project was a success!
When we come back from Spring Break we are going to start a unit on the Solar System. We are looking forward to learning more about moon phases, the Earth’s position in the solar system and how it creates our days, nights, years and seasons; as well as learning more about what is actually in our solar system!
Math: This week we finished up unit 3 on fractions and decimals and completed our unit 3 test. After break we will be starting Unit 4. Throughout this unit we will be working on longer multiplication problems, and different strategies to solve these problems. We discussed the importance of working on basic multiplication facts at home, to ease the transition into larger numbers.
Jimmy Taco Jet Toy Car!
Homer the Baseball Jet Toy Car!
Minivan Jet Toy!
5th Grade Happenings!
Lit/SS: In reading, we wrapped up our work on identifying and comparing and contrasting text structures of informational texts. The students worked hard and did a great job! When we return from Spring Break we will be working on describing how the narrator’s point of view influences how events are described in a story. In social studies, we are studying French and English explorers’ history and their impact on our world today.
*** Please remind and encourage your child to READ, READ, READ over Spring Break! ***
Math: We are working on multiplication of fractions. Boy are we working on multiplication of fractions. We are gaining!!
Science: This week we tested over our Biome unit and have started our Rock and Mineral unit. We will learn much more about this starting March 28th. In your spare time next week, keep reading, work on flashcards for multiplication and division, and go outside and play!!!
6th Grade Happenings!
In reading, we finally finished our informative writing papers! We had our publishing celebration today. We celebrated all of our hard work as authors and shared our papers with our peers. We are continuing our economics unit and will be working on a group project when we come back from break. Keep up with your 20 minutes of reading over break!
In science, students are learning about acids, bases, and the pH scale. They’ve discovered some interesting facts and some exciting reactions.
In math, students are finishing up their car/truck project. Students had to calculate monthly payments including interest. They also had to plan a trip and calculate the total cost of the trip including gas, hotel stays, food, activities, and souvenirs.
Special Guests!
Music Mania
Concert Information:
4th Grade Spring Concert
Tuesday, April 5, 2016 @ 7:00 p.m.
Greene County Intermediate Gymnasium
Grand Junction
Spring Concert: 5th and 6th Grade Bands, 5th Grade General Music
Thursday, May 5, 2016 @ 7:00 p.m.
Greene County Middle School Gymnasium
Jefferson
4th General Music
Students are progressing very well! The rhythm and note reading is improving as they apply these skills on recorder. We presently have 3 Black Belt Recorder players! I am so pleased with the accomplishments of ALL of the students. They continue to try to push themselves to next level challenge placed in front of them. We will have vocal pieces from several genres of music. The students are excited to sing and play for you all on Tuesday, April 5th at the Intermediate school!
5th General Music
Our portion of the Spring Concert will be a different from past years. Students were brainstorming how we could incorporate ways to display their rhythmic skills and vocal skills in a unique way. We have been working diligently on a musical “Get In the Game”. This musical combines music and sports creating a theme focusing around self confidence and teamwork.
“Costuming” for this musical requires, shorts, t-shirts, jerseys.
6th General Music
As each student has researched and created a presentation of various people related to the Arts, the class’ knowledge and appreciation for different genres continues to increase. The students have introduced each other to such a wide variety of music spanning from Ella Fitzgerald to current artists just trying to get started in the industry. Discovering the influences of the musicians allowed us has allowed us to compare and contrast what may have transferred over into the current musical works.
Peer evaluation allows students feedback on things that went well and suggestions to improve on future presentations. Students are very respectful and thoughtful in giving constructive feedback. All students benefit from these evaluations as they verbalize thoughts and put them into action.
Band
Below you will find a link that allows you to view the 5th and 6th grade solo and ensemble schedule for Saturday, April 16th. This is a come and go event, so you only need to be present for your student’s time slot(s). Any and all family and friends are welcome at this event, because the students are excited to show what they’ve learned for this performance.
Like any other performance, dress clothes are recommended for this event whatever that means at your house is acceptable.
I understand we already have some possible conflicts with baseball, softball, and dance. I would still like students to be able to perform for their families, so try to communicate any conflicts so I can work on possible solutions for make-up performances (example: after school at the middle school on a weekday).
Have a great spring break.
Mr. Palmer
FCS
5th graders are working on their understanding of relationships and conflicts.
Part of this unit is also studying the family life cycle, drawing our family picture, and sharing it with their class.
6th graders are studying goals and building marshmallow towers to emphasize the importance of knowing how to write a goal so it is more likely to be achieved.
Art
5th Grade art students have finished their Onomatopoeia word designs. For those who don’t know, that is a word that imitates the sound it represents. They’re a-ma-ZING!
6th grade art students have been given the choice to draw an living animal, no tracing, by looking at a picture and it has to be in the animal’s natural habitat. They have just started working on them. They will also have the choice to add color in any medium they have available to them.
PE
Media & Tech Lit
The students have been working hard to get their projects completed this week. 6th graders made line graphs using the Create a Graph application, to create a visual representation of their typing statistics. 5th graders began creating their Popplets about their birthdays. And, 4th graders added more to their poetry projects.
We also had some extra time to listen to some read alouds during library. The students listened to some interesting stories about a few of their favorite authors. Some of them were pretty funny!!
T.A.G.
4th grade TAG students have continued their work on their castle. It looks fantastic so far and they are working hard on their research and problem solving skills to make it as realistic as possible.
5th grade students will be learning how a combination lock works by building a combination vault. They will learn what a Cipher is and how it unlocks secret codes like the ones used during wars in history!
6th Grade students should be reading from their Battle of the Books lists and adding questions to their shared document. We will have a practice Battle the next week after spring break when we get back to school. I will be sending an email Friday to parents which will include the questions that students have came up with so far, so they can study over spring break. It will also include more information about the competition, which is on April 7th at the Ames Public Library.
Counselor's Corner
Pennies for Patients
Our Pennies for Patients fundraiser continues through April 1. All proceeds go directly to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society to assist blood cancer patients and their families, and to fund research to fight blood cancers. LLS is saving lives a penny at a time.
Resilience
is the ability to work with adversity in such a way that one comes through it unharmed or even better for the experience. Resilience means facing life’s difficulties with courage and patience – refusing to give up. It is the quality of character that allows a person or group of people rebound from misfortune, hardships and traumas.
Resilience is rooted in a tenacity of spirit—a determination to embrace all that makes life worth living even in the face of overwhelming odds.
When we have a clear sense of identity and purpose, we are more resilient, because we can hold fast to our vision of a better future.
Much of our resilience comes from community—from the relationships that allow us to lean on each other for support when we need it.
Nurse News
The fourth graders watched the video on changes during puberty this week. They were given a booklet with good talking points. Some had questions and there are likely many that had questions they didn’t want to ask. They were encouraged to talk to parents about their questions. Please contact me with any questions you may have. Thanks!
Thinking Ahead to 2016-2017
Our goal at Greene County Intermediate School is to provide each student an engaging curriculum in a caring environment. Children between the ages of 8 and 12 are unique in intellectual, social, emotional, and physical growth. Recognizing that these children are strikingly different from each other, a lot of time and consideration is put into the makeup of each class list.
As we begin to schedule students and organize students into homerooms , the items listed below are always considered when designing student placements.
- Number of students in each class
- Gender (balancing the number of girls/boys in each class as much as possible)
- Behaviors (Recommendations from teachers as to the students who should be separated for success)
- Other various needs