Greenbriar West PTA - February 2012

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Upcoming Events

May. 14 - Jun. 2 | 9:30 am - 3:00 pm
MRA & SOL Testing (5/14-6/1)

May. 22 - | 9:30 am - 11:30 am
3rd Gr. History SOL Test (Online)

May. 23 - | 9:30 am - 11:30 am
6th Gr. Reading SOL Test

May. 23 - | 9:30 am - 11:30 am
4th Gr. History SOL Test (Online)

May. 24 - | 9:30 am - 11:30 am
3rd Gr. Science SOL Test (Online)

May. 24 - | 9:30 am - 1:30 pm
2nd Gr. Field Trip to Brookside Gardens

May. 25 |
SCA Spirit Day-Class Choice Day

May. 28 |
Memorial Day Holiday - No School

May. 30 - | 9:30 am - 11:30 am
6th Gr. Math

May. 30 - | 9:30 am - 11:30 am
4th Gr. Math SOL Test

May. 31 |
June PandaGram Sent Home

May. 31 - | 9:30 am - 11:30 am
5th Gr. Math SOL Test

Jun. 6 - | 1:00 pm - 3:00 pm
Andrew the Knight (Medieval Presentation)

Jun. 7 - | 9:30 am - 10:00 am
Kindergarten Musical Performance for Parents

Jun. 7 - | 7:00 pm - 7:30 pm
Spring Strings Concert at RRMS

Jun. 8 |
Volunteer Reception and Field Day

Jun. 8 - | 10:00 am - 3:00 pm
Field Day

Jun. 9 - | 10:00 am - 3:00 pm
Carwash at GBW to support Leslie Lynk - bring buckets and towels

Jun. 11 - | 11:00 am - 1:00 pm
Kinder End Of Year Party

Jun. 12 - | 9:45 am - 10:15 am
YOJO Reading Assembly (K-4)

From the Principal

Dear Parents and Guardians,

“Kind words can be short and easy to speak, but their echoes are truly endless.”

—Mother Teresa

We enter the month of February with a focus on strong instruction and learning in our classrooms. At our January faculty meeting, staff members shared intervention monitoring strategies, as well as instructional practices that support teaching and learning in the classrooms. As you know, the staff at Greenbriar West is committed to providing students with challenging, differentiated best practice instruction on a daily basis. We appreciate that our students come to school ready to learn, and we also appreciate your home support as well. Working together, our students will learn at the highest levels possible.

This month, we look forward to sharing random acts of kindness, heartfelt thoughts and lots of chocolate! The sixth grade class will also be hosting their Bingo Night fundraiser on Friday, February 10. This event is always lots of fun!

I am very excited and proud to announce that Greenbriar West Elementary was recently recognized as one of only twenty-two FCPS schools meeting the qualifications to receive the 2012 Governor's Award for Educational Excellence. This award recognizes schools that have met all state and federal achievement benchmarks for at least two consecutive years and have achieved excellence goals for elementary reading. Congratulations to the students, staff and community of Greenbriar West who live up to our high standards of excellence demonstating our school motto, Pride in School and Pride in Performance.

As we continue to face challenging budget times, I urge you to remain involved in the decision-making process by staying informed at this FCPS website link: http://www.fcps.edu/news/fy2013.shtml

Sincerely,

Mrs. Cleveland
Principal

From the PTA President

The second quarter is over and the school year is half-way done. PTA volunteers have done such a wonderful job enriching the lives of our students and helping our school. If you have been waiting to get involved perhaps now is the time. We are always looking for volunteers in so many areas, so make sure you are on our email list to hear about volunteer opportunities. Also, talk to your child's teacher, or a PTA Board member. It is never to too late to get involved!

2012 GBW Spelling Bees

2012 GBW Grades 3-6 Scripps National Spelling Bee

HELP NEEDED! We need 3 judges and 2 pronouncers for this year’s Spelling Bee (held on 2 separate days, February 3 (Gr 3-6) and March 2 (Gr K-2)). Parents, teachers, and/or staff, whose child is not participating in this year’s spelling bee, please consider being one of our judges/pronouncers.

FAMILY FUN BINGO NIGHT!

Friday, February 10, 2012
6:00 pm Pizza Served
6:30 - 8 pm Bingo

Reminder - Come out and have some fun! All tickets are $7.00 per person (good for 10 games of Bingo and prizes). Additional cards are available in advance and at the event. Pizza will be sold for $1.00 per slice (must be preordered). Soda and snacks will be available for purchase.

Registration is limited due to space considerations. Please buy tickets for ALL persons attending Family Fun Night to ensure enough seating for everyone. We will only sell tickets at the door if we have extras. LAST YEAR THE EVENT SOLD OUT!! An adult must accompany all children, no drop-offs allowed.

2011-2012 Yearbook

Preorder Forms Coming Home Soon!

Look for them in your student’s Thursday folder on February 16.

Cost will be $15 each and order forms will be due March 1.

McEducator’s Night—Feb 23

Celebrate our GBW business partnership with the Greenbriar McDonald’s by joining us at our annual McEducator’s Night on Thursday, February 23 between 5:00 and 8:00 p.m. GBW teachers will be at McDonald’s ready to serve you! The school receives a percentage of total sales during McEducator’s Night and these funds are used to support and maintain GBW’s technology resources. The class with the highest percentage of student attendance that evening will be treated to a cookie and juice celebration in their classroom compliments of McDonald’s.

GBW Book Swap

Friday, March 2 book swap

Do you have children’s books in your home that are no longer read?

Please consider donating them to our GBW Book Swap! We will be having our 5^th annual Book Swap in the open area below the Little Theatre all day on Friday, March 2. Each student will be permitted to visit and take at least one book.

GBW Students greeting Korean Exchange Teachers

Korean Exchange Teachers

Advanced Academic Program News

Students in General Education classes are enjoying AAP Response, Process and Socratic Seminar lessons. As we work on Thinking Strategies in different subject areas, we continue to learn that SMART people don’t know all of the answers; SMART people don’t give up trying to find the answers.

Did you know that according to a Wall Street Journal article, handwriting is actually important for brain development and cognition or understanding? This means that children who write in long-hand are activating the thought, language, and short-memory regions of their brains.

Art News

Congratulations go out to the following students who’s art work was published in the December 2011 Centre View childrens edition. The students are as follows: Hudson Acocella, Adam Batori, Sydney Bates, Lucy Blazquez, Ally Bream, Stephanie Fong, Mandy He, Shreya Manoj, Moriah Obnial, McKenna Ramsey, Kevin Song, Melody Su, Radha Vinayak, Anna Xu, and Jasmin Yoon. If you did not get this Centre View Newspaper, you can view the issue on line at http://connectionarchives.com/PDF/2011/122811/Centreview%20North.pdf.

Bullying Awareness Assembly

Bullying Awareness assembly

General Music

February will be a very musical month for our fourth grade students! On Friday, February 24, the fourth grade students will present their Colonial Day Performance. The performance will take place in the GBW gymnasium at 9:30 am and all parents of fourth grade students are invited to attend! The students will present songs and dances from the colonial time period. Following the performance, the students will continue with Colonial Day at GBW.

On Tuesday, February 28, the fourth graders will participate in a musical field trip to the Kennedy Center! At the Kennedy Center the students will hear a special Young People’s Concert presented by the National Symphony Orchestra. The program is titled A World of Music and is designed to introduce students to the international language of classical music. Prior to attending the concert, the students will learn about the basic tools that composers use to create music.

—Laurie Barber and Bene’ Dodd

¡Hablemos español!

For the children participating in the Spanish FLES program, 2012 has gotten off to a wonderful start despite the cold outdoor temperatures at GBW. The Spanish word wall in the cafeteria is alive and full of vocabulary words that appear in the weekly “Spanish Word” contest. Children enjoy looking up and reading the words while having thier breakfast or lunch. They note the use of many cognates that relate to both English and Spanish. Upper grade students are competing with lower grade students for the weekly word of the week prize of the “Sombrero de la Sabiduria.

Library Link

Heart Help us to “READ OUR HEARTS OUT!”

Greenbriar West School is sponsoring a school wide reading incentive program during the month of February. Students and staff are invited to celebrate the love of reading together as a school. During the month of February, they are encouraged to work together to read as many books as possible!

Physical Education - News That’s Fit to Print!

Fairfax County Public Schools is proud to announce the awarding of a Carol M. White Physical Education Program (PEP) Grant from the U.S. Department of Education to the school division. The “Living Fit in Fairfax” project is a three-year grant program. The goal is to improve the health and fitness literacy of students by addressing needs revealed in the CDC School Health Index, Fairfax County Youth Risk Behavior Survey, and FCPS fitness data. The project will coordinate nutrition, fitness, and physical activity opportunities for K-12 students. This project is fitness based and supports student achievement of the Virginia Standards of Learning for health and physical education.

4th Graders in Science Class

electricity in science class

RC Corner – Feb. 2012

Apology of Action: When “Sorry” Isn’t Enough

Managing hurt feelings is a skill taught explicitly in the Responsive Classroom approach. “Apology,” children learn, means letting someone know you’re sorry, and “action” means to do something. Through apology of action, children learn what to do to make amends when saying “sorry” isn’t enough.

The Reading Corner

Diary of Fly If you are looking to add something to your nightly routine of reading aloud, then try this! Tumble Books is an online resource where children can listen to stories read aloud. These books can be accessed from your home computer. Also, there are over 50 Tumble Books available for the iPad, with more coming soon!

To find these titles, go to Blackboard and select Specialists. Once in Specialists, click on Reading. This will take you to the Tumble Books website. Click on Story Books. For the iPad, you must then click on the GREEN button called "iPad Books" ... or use the Tumble Search feature: type in "iPad" and hit GO. To launch a book from your iPad, simply click on the iPad icon!

5th Graders in Math Class

Fifth graders using scales to learn metric and customary measurements during math class.

using scales to learn metric and customary measurements

GBW Gears Up for Spring Carnival & Huge Birthday Celebration!

Mark your calendars and plan to be part of GBW’s 40th birthday party carnival. Plan to spend the afternoon celebrating here at GBW on Saturday, March 17 from 12:00 noon to 4 pm.

There will be moon bounces, a huge inflatable obstacle course, games, food, bake sale, pie and cake decorating contests, cake walk, a prize wheel, 50/50 raffle, music, and much, much more! We will be offering new games that will add excitement to some of our popular favorites.

The Spring Carnival Class Basket Raffle and Silent Auction is Back for 2012!

One of the most exciting events of our Spring Carnival is back for 2012! We are looking for a few good parent volunteers to help us with our Silent Auction and Class Basket Raffle which will be held in the Library during our Spring Carnival on March 17.

Help us collect items to auction off, or put together a themed basket with your class that will be raffled off to raise money for our PTA!

GBW Class Basket Raffle

Once again we will be holding our CLASS BASKET RAFFLE with our Silent Auction held during the Spring Carnival on March 17.

Parents, we need a volunteer from your class to coordinate a class basket to enter!

Our baskets will be put on display in the school library during Carnival, where the baskets will be raffled off to fund all the great activities sponsored by our GBW PTA!

Nutrifax: Children't Health Month

The two major oral health diseases are tooth decay (dental caries) and gum (periodontal) disease. Both diseases are influenced by nutrition and diet. Nutrition plays an important role in the development of teeth and oral tissue. Dental caries result from the interaction between the tooth, oral bacteria, and dietary carbohydrates (sugar and starch).

Parents: Managing your Child’s Lunch Account

Here are some friendly reminders to help your child with the Cafeteria experience.

Each day, our Cafeteria offers treats (ice cream, cookies, popcorn) to students in Grades 1-6 to purchase in addition to their lunch. Kindergarteners are not allowed to purchase treats at this time.

FAQ’s about lunch accounts