GCIS Weekly News 2/10/17
Weekly Celebrations, Successes, and Up Coming Events!
We're not here to be average; We're here to be AWESOME!
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
Principal Shoutout!
This week has been a busy week of testing. I wanted to thank parents for partnering with us to ensure the best week of testing for our students. Thanks to all the donations of granola bars, dry cereal, crackers, mints, gum, and water to ensure our students have a little extra brain food each day! We will wrap up make up tests this next week!
Our results should be sent back either before or after spring break! Once these come in we will either send them home or include them in our materials to hand out during conferences. Please look for conference times to sign up coming soon!
Be looking in the next few newsletter for a list of items we are hoping to have donated or recycled for our FLEX truck & Makerspace experience that is coming in April. This truck will be coming to us from ISU! Along with this great mobile hands on learning lab we will have a variety of tools and technology to allow students to design, create, and problem solve! One of the main learning experience is the ability to design and play around with virtual reality! HOW COOL IS THAT! Looking forward to partnering with Iowa State and the ISU Extension to bring these great learning opportunities for students! If you are wanting to get in on the action, please consider stopping by! I will have more details and times soon! Looking forward to having you join us!
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!
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
~APRIL~
FLEX Truck 13 & 14
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
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!
Science - With Iowa Assessments this week, our schedule has been a little crazy! Students are continuing to present their animal adaptations. We have seen A LOT of growth in the classes’ presentation skills. They are becoming more confident in front of an audience, and it is evident they are applying the constructive feedback we have given them in order to improve their oral communication skills.
Math - This week in math we reviewed some of the skills we have covered this year and discussed a bit more about fractions to help prepare us for the Iowa Assessments that we took this week. We can't wait to see how great everyone did on their math assessments!
Reading - The LONG process of writing book reviews is coming to a close. Students have taken a real world learning opportunity and went beyond just reading a book they picked out from the library. They have written lead, summary, opinion, and closing sections for their books and will have them displayed in the Grand Junction and Jefferson communities!
5th Grade Happenings!
Science: With Iowa Assessments, classes have been short this week. We have been reading about fire and its effects in ecosystems.
Lit/SS: We have started a new unit in reading. Students have been analyzing how a series of chapters and scenes fits together to provide the overall structure of a fictional text. In social studies, students are making a totem pole with symbols that represent themselves and their family. We were very impressed by our guest speaker, Jan Durlam from the Greene County Historical Museum, who came to share with us information and artifacts of the Greene County Indian tribes.
6th Grade Happenings!
Sixth graders did an AWESOME job with Iowa Assessments this week!
Reading: We have had a crazy schedule this week due to Iowa Assessments. We are finally getting our personal narratives printed. We are slowly kicking off our new Peace and Conflict unit. We will be discussing conflicts in history and ones that are currently happening in our world today. We will also be working with figurative language during this unit.
Science: We are still learning about atoms and molecules. Students have been making models and thinking about conservation of mass.
Math: We are finishing the presentations of our recipe projects. We are also working on changing fractions to decimals and percents. We will also be looking at ratios.
Special Education News
Students worked hard on Iowa Assessments. We are excited to see their results in a month to see how far they have grown.
Music News!
6th General Music:
And they’re off! 6th grade has been introduced to multiple genres of music through the study of each decade of music in the United States. Now it is time for them to take the knowledge they have learned and apply it to an artist or band of their choosing. They will complete a music project to include but not limited to: finding the personal background of a favorite artist/band or someone they want to know more about, musical influences, musical style, decade(s) of popularity, interesting facts, school appropriate musical sample.
Art
4th grade students are studying the art of Wayne Theibaud. He is an artist that does paintings of sweets… cakes, pies, donuts, cupcakes, etc. In looking at his work, it made us hungry! So now the students are creating a background wall and a tablecloth with patterns, and then they are learning how to draw a donut in perspective and attaching it to their background, complete with a napkin!
5th grade students are finishing their Keith Haring stick figures and the 5th grade hallway is looking AWESOME!!! CHECK IT OUT!!!!
6th grade students finished their animal eyes. They are being hung up in the hallway and it is fun to try to figure out the animal that each eye is attached to. I love displaying their talents!
T.A.G.
One 4th grade TAG student group took their “Infinity Mirror” and presented it to their classroom today. The students and teachers thought it was so cool! Another group worked on their trebuchet and got it working today! The last group is still putting together their working volcano!
5th grade TAG students did not meet this week due to a classroom activity.
6th grade TAG students finished their marble run poster and will be presenting it to their classrooms after IA Assessment testing is finished.
Media Tech Lit
Students are moving forward in Tinkercad by practicing and reinforcing the foundational skills of Tinkercad. This includes creating objects, importing files, moving objects, scaling objects and working with the canvas. By now, most students have entered project lessons that allow them a little more freedom to customize objects and solve challenges. The toughest challenge thus far hasn’t been navigational; it has been in reading in detail instructions in self-directed lessons; then following that info correctly. It can be an exercise in patience, however, many students are finding clarity by going back a couple steps to redo a part of a lesson and are exhibiting pride in their accomplishments.
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
Career Exploration
In Life Skills we have begun examining our interests in preparation for career exploration over the next several weeks. Students are taking interest profiler inventories at the website www.mynextmove.org that match them to a group of careers in which they may be interested. It’s been fun and interesting to learn more about their personalities and what kinds of work they may pursue in the future!
More Social Media Tools for Parents/Guardians…
Here are some more websites for you to keep up with social media trends--lots of information and tips:
Nurse News!
This Valentine’s Day, give something for the heart. Sharing a heart healthy gift is a great way to let the people in your life know you care. Instead of offering an over-sized piece of cake or a box of sweets, give something that takes care of the heart. Plan a family meal together including heart healthy recipes or plan a family day including fun outdoor activities. More information can be found on the USDA Choose My Plate website. www.choosemyplate.gov