Greenbriar West PTA - January 2012

Happy New Year! My best wishes to you and your family for a prosperous year full of much health, happiness and success. Thank you to everyone who contributed to the SCA Food Drive in December. The food benefited many families in our community during the holiday season.

In mid-November, our School Improvement Planning Team met with the Cluster VII Assistant Superintendent, Linda Burke, and Cluster Director, Eric McCann, to review our 2011-2012 School Improvement Plan. This living document is updated each year and focuses on plans that our school and community are implementing to support high levels of student achievement, social learning, and our school’s commitment to the community. You are welcome to view our school improvement plan on the GBW school website at http://www.fcps.edu/GreenbriarWestES/. We hope you will take time to read this document and learn all about the wonderful things going on here at Greenbriar West.

With winter upon us, be sure to stay informed by checking Blackboard for the latest information about your child's schoolwork. You may also obtain the latest school emergency information, such as delayed openings or early closings by:

Going to www.fcps.edu and click on “Emergency Announcements," or
Checking your email for a “Keep in Touch” message. Please make sure all of your email and phone information is current with your child’s school, or
Listening to the local radio or TV stations.

Sincerely,
Mrs. Cleveland

Message from the GBW President

January 2012

Happy New Year! We hope everyone had a fun and safe Winter break.

Looking back into December, the Geography club had their big event, the Geography Bee. Thanks to Melanie Read for chairing this active club. Please see Melanie's article for Bee highlights and winners! We also started December with the annual GBW Variety Show. This event never fails to entertain! Thanks to Raj Tress for organizing this year’s show.

AAP News

Happy New Year! Students in General Education classrooms are enjoying a variety of AAP lessons, which are correlated with SOL/POS Standards. These lessons teach thinking strategies such as: Fluency and Flexibility, Open-Ended Thinking, Point of View, Encapsulation, PMI (Plus, Minus, Interesting), Visualization, Questioning, Analogies, Originality and Socratic Seminar.

Artists in Action

1st graders – Mrs. Lawler's class painting Grant Wood influenced landscapes.

Art in School

Counselors’ Corner

Happy New Year! January’s the time to finish strong for the 2nd Quarter, so let your resolution be to renew your determination to work hard, and reach for success!

kids around table The theme for January Guidance Lessons is, “Be Cooperative, and Solve Conflicts Peacefully-Getting Along with Others”. Our lessons will focus on conflict resolution, listening to other’s ideas, sharing ideas in positive ways, and including everyone’s strengths.

ESOL News

From the end of January to the middle of March, all ESOL students will be taking their annual WIDA Access for ELLs test to determine their English proficiency levels. These levels are important since they are a key piece of information that teachers, parents, and students use to see the progress that has been made in a child’s English language development. Even though students do not need to study for the test, it is a good idea for parents to talk with their child about the test so they understand why they are taking it and allow them to focus on doing the best they can.

—Jeremy DePalma and Stacey Franzen, ESOL Specialists

Winter Happenings

Foo Drive

SCA Giving Tree and food collection boxes for December food drive.

Safety patrols – enjoying warm hot chocolate on a cold day.

General Music News

On Thursday, January 25, our Fifth grade students will present their grade-level musical performances. Performances will take place in the GBW gym at 9:30 am (student audience) and 7:00 pm (parent performance). The performance titled United We Sing is a multicultural program featuring songs from around the world. Fifth grade parents should plan on joining us for this musical event.

In general music classes our lower grade students will be learning about the concepts of loud/soft, fast/slow, and high/low. We will also explore various locomotor movements to music and make connections between music and math/science. Our upper grade students will be learning about musical notation and musical form. We will begin learning about and playing chords to accompany our grade level songs.

—By Laurie Barber and Bene’ Dodd

Holiday Music Performance

1st grade – holiday music performance

1st Grade Music Concert

Winter Concert

6th grade students perform at Winter Music Concert

Winter Concert

¡Hablemos Español!

Everything is going great in the Spanish FLES classrooms at Greenbriar West. We work to create connections between the vocabulary students are learning in their regular classrooms and the vocabulary we are learning in FLES classes. Be sure to visit our Spanish word wall in the cafeteria!

Library Link

Thanks again to all of our fantastic parents, students and teachers who supported our GBW Fall Book Fair. Our fair was a success in getting books into the hands of children for reading at home, in our school library, and in many classroom collections. Thank you for making this event a financial success as well. With the proceeds from the book fair, we were able to purchase almost $4,000 in new books, DVD’s and AV equipment for our library and raised enough library funds to support the curriculum needs of our GBW students! This is fabulous!!!

Energy Zone January 2012

Tips for Families:

EAT RIGHT	EXERCISE
Choose healthy foods. Increase whole-grain foods. Eat fruits and vegetables especially dark green and orange. Include calcium-rich foods such as lowfat dairy products. Select lowfat meat, chicken, turkey and fish. Avoid foods and beverages with sugar as the first ingredient.	Be an active family. Exercise 60 minutes per day Include physical activities at family celebrations. Limit TV and computer time.

Graphing Healthy Eating

Introducing healthy eating — students taste fruits and vegetables and then graph their favorites.

Fruits and Vegetables

National Geographic Bee Comes to Greenbriar West Elementary

The Geography Club has been working hard this fall practicing for the National Geographic Bee. This year the Bee was broken into two parts. The Preliminary Round consisted of 46 students and was held on December 8th. From that, 10 Students then advanced to the Championship Round of the Bee on December 15. The 11 finalists were Dheeraj Bandaru, Manu Bulusu, Aneesha Goodala, Catlinh Nguyen, Vinh Nguyen, Ryan Puxley, Max Read, Vaishnavi Visveswaran, Rohan Voddhi (who was unable to participate in the final round), Rahil Shah, and Revanth Vejju.

2012 GBW Scripps National Spelling Bee

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

Chess Club News

Session 2 starts Jan. 2012 – Registration deadline is Jan. 18th 2012. Registration details and the forms can be downloaded from the chess club website http://www.gbwchessclub.com, or by contacting Anand Dommalapati ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. ; (703) 627-5314). Please Note that Session 1 students MUST not Register Online without checking with the Chess Club Co-ordinator due to the limited availability.

Volunteers Needed for GBW International Night

Thursday, January 19, 2012
6:30 - 8:00 pm

We need parents, friends and family to come share their love of country and culture. We need volunteers to do displays for a country of your choice. In past years we have had wonderful displays for India, Korea, Afghanistan, England, Denmark and many, many more. We will also have a few group performances throughout the evening. Please contact Katherine Virdi, 703-626-4598 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. for more details.

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