See you at the next Davanni's Night!

The next "Grainwood Night at Davanni's" will be held Monday May 3rd from 4- 8 PM. Our February night raised $138.00 and the kids had a great time working. Come out and see your classmates and help raise money for Grainwood while eating great food. Please print the Davanni's coupon posted on the PTC website and bring it with you to Davanni's.

Summer School

Westwood Elementary will be hosting an academic summer school program for Westwood, Grainwood, and students attending Kids' Company at Westwood and Edgewood this summer.


If you received a flyer home this week from your student, your child was identified by one or more of the following criteria: teacher recommendation, test scores, or participation in special programs at Grainwood, such as Title I, English Language Learners and/or Special Education.


Summer school dates are July 6th - August 5th and is being offered at no cost. Transportation is available for a small donation of $20.00. Applications are due in the Grainwood office as soon as possible.

Grainwood Day at Edelweiss Bakery

MARK YOUR CALENDARS NOW! Grainwood Elementary invites family members and friends to Edelweiss Bakery for “Grainwood Day at Edelweiss.” 10% of all in-store sales of any menu items purchased on Saturday, May 7th will be donated to the Grainwood Elementary Activities Fund.

Come out and see classmates and Grainwood families while enjoying the delicious Edelweiss bakery goods. A big thank you to Mark and Julie Bowles, owners of Edelweiss, for their support!

Family Access

Dear Parents,
The Prior Lake-Savage School District is moving towards a paperless system of providing information to our families. We would like your help to verify the e-mail addresses of parents and guardians of our Grainwood students. Recently, you should have received an e-mail from the Prior Lake-Savage district office with your Parent Access code and password. If you did not receive this e-mail, please contact our office at 952-226-0300 and we will check the address that we have on file.

Beginning this August, student bus information will no longer be mailed home. We encourage you to use the login information to access your account and verify student’s contact information.

The "Family/Student Access" link can be found on the district website under the "Quick Guide" or click on the link to get to the login page. https://skyward.priorlake-savage.k12.mn.us/scripts/cgiip.exe/WService=wsSkyward/fwemnu01.w

If you have any questions or need to update your contact information, please contact the Grainwood office.

Junior Naturalists

At the April meeting, the GW Junior Naturalists learned about bird characteristics, listened to different bird sounds and then observed birds outside.

Kindergarten Early Entrance

Applications for early entrance to kindergarten are due on or before April 30th. Forms are available in the elementary school offices as well as the district office.

RSS Feed! Check it out!

With the ability to link the Grainwood Gab to your Google, Yahoo, MSN or other reader accounts, please view the video below as a tutorial on RSS Feeds. I was introduced to this video, and others like it on youtube, as a quick way to educate myself about social media. For those of you who are tech saavy, you already understand. But for the many more of us learning something new each day, it is necessary to share our learning resources. Enjoy!

Guys and Dolls Musical

Prior Lake High School Theatre Presents:

Guys and Dolls Spring Musical

Thursday, April 22, 2010 at 7:30 p.m
Friday, April 23, 2010 at 7:30 p.m.
Saturday, April 24, 2010 at 7:30 p.m.
Sunday, April 25, 2010 at 2:00 p.m.


Ticket cost is $10.00 adults and $7.00 for students
and are available at the door

Earth Month Activity

A grid of fun Earth Month activities was sent home on a half sheet of paper. Please have your child do at least 5 of the activities. After each one is completed, a parent signs that box. When 5 or more are done, your child brings it back to school and they may sign the big bulletin board in the main hallway - "The Wall of Fame".

Mark your calendar for the first Grainwood Environmental Day

Grainwood is having our first Environmental Day on Monday, June 7th. We are in need of parent volunteers for the full day or half day. Please contact your classroom teacher if you are interested in helping out!

Spring Dress Code

We take pride in the appearance of our students at Grainwood. Most likely, the school’s standards for acceptable attire are nearly identical to parents. Therefore, we only have problems when students come to school wearing clothing that their parents would also find unacceptable or inappropriate. With the Spring approaching, please be aware of what your son or daughter is wearing to school each day. If you would like to review our specific guidelines, please view our Family and Student Handbook found on the Grainwood website (just click the Grainwood symbol on the blog; it is a link to our website). Students who come to school dressed inappropriately will be asked to call a parent for a change of clothing. Thanks for your help in this matter.

Weather awareness week

Minnesota's Severe Weather Awareness Week is April 19-23, 2010. The statewide Tornado Drill will be hosted on Thursday, April 22nd with 2 drills happening throughout the day. The first drill, at approximately 1:45 PM, gives schools the opportunity to do their annual severe weather drill and test their NOAA weather alert radios. The second drill, offered at 6:55 PM in participating counties, gives families a chance to practice sheltering in their homes.

"Helping Hands Make the World Go Round"

Reminder to RSVP for the VOLUNTEER CELEBRATION!
Please join us for juice, coffee and muffins, along with a performance
by Grainwood's Kid's Company students on Wednesday, April 21.

When: Wednesday, April 21, 2010
Where: Grainwood's Cafeteria
Time: 7:45 - 8:15

Send in your RSVP as soon as possible.
Hope to see you there!

The Grainwood Book Fair is coming

The Grainwood Book Fair is coming. It is a 50% off fair, so stock up on some excellent reads for summer vacation!

Book Fair dates and times:
Tuesday, April 20 8:00 am - 3:00 pm
Wednesday, April 21 8:00 am - 3:00 pm
Thursday, April 22 8:00 am - 3:00 pm

Students will shop at the Book Fair during their Media special time and will have additional opportunities to visit during the day with teacher permission.
Please note: MN sales tax will be charged on all Book Fair purchases.

If you have any questions, please contact the Media Center at 952-226-0369. See you at the Fair!

2 hour early release

Reminder - Wednesday April 14th is an early release day. Students will be released at 1PM.

Please plan accordingly.

News from the phy-ed department

Grainwood PE classes recently finished up with Jump Rope for Heart. A big thank you to all students who helped raise money for the American Heart Association. It was an enjoyable day of jump roping and all worked hard at improving their skills.

The 4th and 5th grade floor hockey tournament finished up with champions from Room 263 in 4th grade and Room 265 in 5th grade. The games were fun and exciting with some going into overtime. The GW gym was rocking during the championship games, along with staff having the chance to face each champion in an additional game. Thanks everyone for your participation.

April will start with Dance, Dance, Revolution (DDR). Students at all levels will have their chance to show what they can do on the pads. When not on the game pads, students will be practicing on the practice pads.

As we look ahead to May, we will need to see how the field recovers from its surgery last summer (with the implementation of the bio-retention wall in SW corner of the school's property). This could affect participation on the field this spring. The 5th Grade will be having its All-District Track and Field Day at the High School track, with a tentative date set for May 28th. In general, we will try hard to be outside (weather permitting) as much as possible playing base games, doing fitness testing, frisbees and bocce ball up to year’s end.

Remember your tennis shoes on gym days and dress for the weather. Keep your eye on the Grainwood web site for additional PE pictures added periodically to the teacher’s web page.

Have a great spring!

John Larson

Mill City Museum field trip

GW third graders went on a field trip to the Mill City Museum in Minneapolis on April 8th. They learned about the importance of the waterfall on the Mississippi River, about the growth of Minneapolis and the history of the flour mills. They also learned about the steps in taking wheat and turning it into bread. Thank you parent volunteers for coming along with us!

April is Earth Month

April is Earth Month! As an all school activity, students are being challenged to sign our "Wall of Fame" bulletin board in the main hallway by completing at least 5 environmental activities on a bingo board that will be sent home by April 12th. As your child completes an activity, initial that space. When 5 are completed, have them bring it back to school and they may sign the bulletin board. Environmental Education is a commitment of Grainwood Elementary and we appreciate your support to help promote a healthy Earth for our children.

The MCAs are Coming!

The Minnesota Comprehensive Assessments (or MCAs) are a major focus of this month for students in grades 3-5 at Grainwood. Students in 5th grade will take their reading and math tests next week, the week of April 12-16. Grades 3 and 4 will test the week of April 19-22. The 5th grade will also take their Science Test the week of April 26. Good breakfasts, a lot of sleep, encouragement from family members, and NO APPOINTMENTS OR VACATIONS causing missed days are greatly appreciated. Thanks for your support!

Family Survey

Please take a few moments and fill out the attached survey from our PTC. With changes looming based on expected budget reductions, the Grainwood Leadership Team and PTC would like your input on how to best utilize funding for next school year. The survey will stay live until noon on Monday, April 12, and the results will be shared at the PTC meeting on Tuesday, April 13. Thank you for your time!

http://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?formkey=dHRDMFUtN1dPYW1UMFY2VUJzRUlReVE6MA

PTC News!

Next PTC meeting scheduled Tuesday, April 13th
Childcare provided - see PTC website for updates

Saturday, April 17th noon-6pm
Prior Lake High School
Don't forget to turn in your silent auction basket donations no later than April 8th to your classroom.

The PTC Carnival committee is in need of more volunteers. Grainwood needs at least 35 parents, and at this time, we only have 5 who have committed. The Carnival is a huge fundraiser for the PTC and it takes about 500 total volunteers. If you are interested in volunteering, please send back the volunteer form send home with your child by Wed, April 7th. If you prefer to send an email, please email Kris Bartusek at: kristine.j.bartusek@pjc.com, by Wed, April 7th, along with your name, number of volunteers, adult or child, phone number, the number of shifts you are willing to work and what shifts you prefer to work.

Thank you so much for helping to make the carnival a success.

Picture Day is April 7th

Spring pictures will be taken at Grainwood on Wednesday, April 7th. Prepayment is not required for spring photos. Instead, all students will be photographed and a proof sheet with order information will be sent home. Families may pick and choose which pictures they would like to purchase and order pictures online or call Herff Jones to place an order.
Kindergarten students will be photographed for graduation in a cap and gown.
If your child is absent on that day, we will not be offering a retake day.

Launching of the Grainwood Blog!

Check out our new communication tool for Grainwood families! The Grainwood Gab blog replaces our traditional school newsletter as our primary communication. Posts will be made weekly, if not daily, about the happenings at Grainwood. (Check out the multiple posts below...we've been practicing!)

Throughout April, we will be emailing families to remind them to go to our blog. A link to our blog will also be posted on each teacher's newsletter for your reference.

If you use a "Feed Reader" (an RSS through Google, Yahoo, MSN etc.) and subscribe to other favorite blogs, just add our blog's URL address: www.grainwoodgab.blogspot.com to your reader account to receive notification each time a new post has been added.

Thanks for supporting Grainwood's effort to move forward with a new, 21st century tool! Be sure to check out my video below. Let us know what you would like to see included in the blog: pglynn@priorlake-savage.k12.mn.us