Volume 1 Issue 10 Graymont Grade School Newsletter

Volume 1, Issue 10 Graymont Grade School Newsletter NEWSLETTER: September 2007 August 31, 2007 I’m excited to welcome everyone to the 2007 -2008 school year. I would like to extend a welcome to our new employees for this coming school year. Jennifer Pfeifer is the new teachers’ aide. Jennifer is from Pontiac and is very excited about coming on board and working with children. Lynette Cavinder, from Bloomington, is the PE teacher. She will be working full time between Graymont and Cornell. Marti Sullen is our new art teacher. She will also be working between Graymont and Cornell. Marti lives in Fairbury and actually taught in the Graymont/Cornell schools previously. It is a pleasure to have her return. I also want to extend a warm welcome to our 7 new students. In kindergarten; Rosalee Zehr, daughter of Gary and Tricia Zehr, Parker Bennett, son of Steve and Megan Bennett, and Robbie Young, son of Rich Young. Children of Paul and Tammara Castillo are Paul Jr. in 5 th grade and Sehlese in 7 th grade. In 6 th grade David Shavers is joining us, son of Michael and Sue Shavers. Caleb Bray is in 7 th grade, son of Corrina and Darren Bray. We hope the new students are getting settled and enjoying being a part of Graymont Grade School. If you have been to the school, you will have noticed a great deal of work has been done in the building this summer. New counter tops have been installed in the kitchen and look beautiful. New flooring has been installed in the kindergarten room, and really brightens the environment. The biggest project was installing new windows in the building. The windows look beautiful and should be a great improvement to the district’s energy savings. The screens are my favorite feature. If you haven’t been to the school, you are invited to stop by and see the awesome improvements. We are looking forward to an outstanding school year. Julie Fritchtnitch 1

Fundraising The following is a list of fund raiser programs that Graymont Grade School currently participates in which provide the school with extra funds. It’s amazing at how every little bit adds up and can help make a difference. Take some time to look through the programs to see if you can help our school by participating. County Market Max Dollars: A letter is attached to the newsletter explaining how to participate in this program. Basically, complete the registration form attached to the letter and submit it at the customer service desk at County Market. Every time a purchase is made and your card is scanned, money is given to the school. Cartridges for Kids: Graymont Grade School is once again collecting empty inkjet cartridges and laser printer cartridges. We send these in and receive cash back for each one sent. Box Tops for Education: Collect the General Mills box tops found on cereals and other items like Betty Crocker fruit snacks and roll-ups. Each top is worth ten cents. Campbell’s Soup Labels: These are collected every year and redeemed for school equipment. Soup Supper: The PTO organizes an annual soup supper each March. This event is always a great success. The event takes a great deal of work in planning, so everyone is invited to participate. Club Choice: The brochure for this fund raiser includes a variety of foods including; pizza, pies, candy, cheese and sausage. Athletics Graymont Grade school has the opportunity to co-op athletics with Flanagan school. As a result, Caleb Leach, Matt Regenold, Nick Elliott, Dallas Burns, Justin Rich and Cole Borders are participating in baseball and Abby Campbell and Abby Jacobs in softball. I would like to encourage everyone to attend the games that have our students involved, and cheer them on to victory. These students work hard to keep their grades up and stay active in school sponsored events. They do a great job and deserve to have a cheering section. An activity calendar can be viewed on the website, and one will be sent home each month with all the game dates and times. Hope to see you there! PTO Pork Chop Dinner PTO will be sponsoring the first Pork Chop Dinner on September 21, 2007 serving from 4: 30 to 7: 00 pm. Ticket sales will run from August 31 st thru September 10 th. We will be offering pork chop sandwiches, baked beans, applesauce, chips, drinks, and dessert. Carryouts will be available. 2

Teacher News Mrs. Erickson Kindergarten has started off wonderfully for this 20072008 school year. There are three students this year – 2 boys and a girl. They are working well as a team. The Jolly Phonics program that is used to introduce all of the letters/sounds is well under way. There is letter homework each night and the class has been very faithful about doing the homework. Color words and number words are our focus for sight words for this month. The class is exploring with all of the different math manipulatives and beginning to start on building patterns. Patterns will continue for a while with the patterns becoming more difficult. During calendar there is a great deal of math going on, including interpreting our weather graph each day. The students have been learning the entire calendar routine as they help with calendar jobs! Our five senses will be the focus for our science curriculum for the next few weeks. The class will be discovering our world using all 5 of their senses. There will be experiments and hands-on experiences. Every student has a WARRIOR BOOK in Kindergarten that helps keep them organized. The students are responsible for returning the book each and every day. They put a star in the WARRIOR JAR each morning that they return their book. The book keeps their homework and any information that is important for parents. I am so proud of all of them for always bringing their book!!! All students in Kindergarten are able to “give me five. ” This phrase means: 1. eyes on the speaker, 2. quiet, 3. be still, 4. hands free, and 5. listen. All of the students are doing a great job with remembering all of the ingredients for “give me five. ” Thanks to all of the Kindergarten parents for coming to Open House. I really enjoyed meeting/visiting with all of you. It is going to be an awesome year. Ms. Myers Welcome back. I am very excited to have started another fantastic year. First and second graders are working really hard on adjusting to new rules and routines this year. We are having lots of fun developing our love of school and learning. In the upcoming month, we have lots of exciting work planned. A big chunk of our time during the day is donated to reading. Both grades will be working a lot with learning the sounds for all the letters and letter combinations. Furthermore, we are learning and reviewing strategies good readers use to decode words. In math, we are focusing on addition and subtraction in first grade. The second graders will be reviewing place value to prepare us for two digit addition. Our class will be using a daily program called “Rocket Math” to help us memorize all those math facts. We will be beginning this month with a social studies unit on families. We are going to discuss different family structures and roles. Furthermore, we will be discussing how families have changed over time. At the end of the unit, our class will be making our own family trees. Our class will be continuing to use guided reading in the classroom. Guided reading is important because it places readers in their exact level. With this, students will get a one-on-one opportunity to read with me. I will be sending books home with each student on Monday and Thursday of each week. Please take time to have your child read these books to you. Reading and rereading text is the best way to build great fluency in a reader. So reread those books at school and at home. Finally, don’t forget to check the school website! We love to update it with new pictures of what is happening in our classroom, as well, as other helpful information. 3

Ms. Rients Welcome back! The 3 rd and 4 th graders are already working hard. In math, 3 rd grade has been reviewing adding and subtracting strategies, as well as, beginning to identify place value through the hundred thousands place. The 4 th graders have done place value to the millions place. They will work on comparing and ordering whole numbers and review adding and subtracting whole numbers. Again this year we are doing Rocket Math where the students practice their math facts. Both grades are already moving up their rockets as the 4 th graders practice multiplication, while the 3 rd graders do addition. In social studies, we are studying communities this year. We started out by practicing our map skills and are now identifying different parts of communities, including geography, climate, and natural resources. The students are practicing writing different types of sentences in language arts. Also they are identifying the subject and predicate of sentences. We also have a writing lesson each day. We work on our word wall words, practice our handwriting, and are learning how to write a good paragraph. Unit 1 for 3 rd grade reading is “Finding My Place”. In this unit, they will practice sequencing, drawing conclusions, author’s purpose, cause and effect, and character. Unit 1 for 4 th grade is “Focus on Family”. Students will focus on setting, sequence, compare and contrast, author’s purpose, and character. Students are also responsible for reading their A-Z book 3 times during the week to work on their fluency. It is important that all students get their assignment book signed each night by a parent. This counts as a participation grade, and it allows parents to see what the student is responsible for completing during the day. Also, as a reminder, I am using Snap. Grades again this year, so I encourage you to check on your student’s progress throughout each quarter. Mrs. Hott Welcome back to another great year at Graymont!! We especially welcome our new students – Caleb Bray, Sehlese Castillo, Paul Castillo and David Shavers (and welcome Justin Rich up from 4 th grade). Hopefully you all had a fun and relaxing summer and are ready to begin learning. As I said in my note home at the beginning of the year, we have many exciting things we will be studying this year including a trip to the Challenger Learning Center for a Mission to Mars. 5/6 Social Studies We have finished our first chapter on Ancient Americans and are beginning a three week study of Native Americans. 5 -8 Science We are getting through as much as possible in our textbooks on Astronomy, but will need to pick and choose what we do since we will be doing 4 -6 weeks of Challenger curriculum. I will be going for the training on September 10 th and we will begin the Challenger curriculum and training for our mission shortly after that. Math 6 -8 th grade are using Notetaking books this year which will hopefully further solidify what we are learning and give them something to use for studying for tests. 5 th grade is already finished with their first chapter and are moving right along. My pages of the web site should be updated soon and will contain the initial information sent home with students, an overview of what we will be studying this year as well as links for the various subjects. “A mind once stretched by a new idea never regains its original dimensions. - Anonymous ” 4

Ms. Wilson Welcome Back!!! 5 -6 – In Reading we have started Unit 1: Relating to Others and Discovering ourselves. We will be focusing on the reading elements: author’s viewpoint, cause and effect, generalizing, character, and sequencing. Their selection test that goes along with ever story will be every Friday morning. The students will have a spelling pre-test every Monday morning with opportunities to practice their words throughout the week. Their spelling test will be every Friday morning. 7 -8 – In Reading we have jumped right into our new books. So far we have discussed the reading elements plot, character, setting, and theme. The students will have vocabulary words to learn and will be faced with thinking critically when answering questions from each story. Please check with your students periodically during the first month or two of school to ensure they are working well with the new reading material. Special Dates to Remember • Sept. 3 – No school • Sept. 11 – 2: 00 Dismissal • Sept. 14 – 11: 15 Dismissal • Sept. 19 – Progress Reports • Sept. 21 – PTO Pork Chop Dinner • Sept. 24 – Vision/Hearing screening • Sept. 24 -28 – STS Testing 5 -8 – In Language Arts we are working on the four different types of sentences, subjects/predicates, conjunctions, run-on sentences, compound sentences, and complex sentences. 7 -8 – In Health we have decided to start on Chapter 11 which deals with maintaining a healthy weight and eating disorders. Our new health book provides a great deal of hands on activities in addition to on-line work and resources. 7 -8 – In Social Studies we have started Unit 1: Three Worlds Meet Beginnings - 1650; Societies of the Americas, Africa, and Europe. As with reading our Social Studies books are new. There will be many opportunities for students to work together in class and perform hands on activities. “A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops. " -- Henry Brooks Adams 5