Greensneakers

This is a reminder that Grainwood School is still collecting new or gently used sneakers now until April 22nd. There are bins in the front lobby available for drop-off. Please connect the shoes together either with a string, a ziptie, tied together or put together in a plastic bag. There should be no large rips or holes and the soles must be intact. The shoes need to be the kind of shoes a student could wear to a Phy Ed class. The shoes will be shipped around the world to kids and adults in need of footwear. We are grateful to have collected 57lbs so far! Please keep our Greensneakers collection in mind over break as you begin your spring cleaning or when visiting relatives! Thank you very much for your generous donations!

In-District Transfer Requests

For those families whose children attend Grainwood through an In-District Transfer Request, please be aware that you do not have to fill out a new request for the coming year. Requests in place will be honored through the 2013-2014 school year. Families that might be requesting a change for next year, possibly due to a daycare change, will have to fill out a new In-District Transfer Request form. These forms are available in the Grainwood office. Please call 952-226-0300 for assistance. All new requests are due by April 1 in any of the Prior Lake-Savage Area Schools.

Report Cards for Third Quarter

The third quarter ends on Thursday, March 28th.  Student Report Cards will be posted online and available through Family Access on Monday, April 8th late morning.  Please go to the Prior Lake-Savage website where you can review and print your child's third quarter report card.

Follow these steps to access your child's report card:
1. Go to http://www.priorlake-savage.k12.mn.us/plsas/site/default.asp
2. Go to the Family Resources drop down menu.
3. Select Family/Student Access.
4. Click on Enter Family/Student Access towards the bottom of the page.
5. Enter Login & Password.
6. Select Report Cards from the left-hand column under General Information.
7. You can open or save the report card as a PDF for viewing or printing.

If you need help accessing your username or password there is a link to assist you.  Families without computer access will be sent home a hard copy on Monday, April 8th.

If you have any questions, please contact your classroom teacher.

Thank you!

Nature Photo Contest

Nature Photo Contest:  

To help celebrate Earth Month in April, GW is again asking for students to take pictures of outdoor nature scenes (plants, trees, sky, water, scenery), but no animal photos this year. Photos must be taken by the student. We can only accept one submission per child. 

Students should submit a  3 X 5 or 4 x 6 picture  before April 24^th to Ms. Kufrin or Ms. Floden, and remember to put your name and room # on the back.

Reminder

Thursday, March 28th is a 2 Hour Early Release Day for Students.  Students will be released at 1:00.  

There will be no school on Friday, March 29th.  

Spring Break is the week of April 1 through April 5th. There is no school during Spring Break.

Classes resume on Monday, April 8th.

2nd Grade Skype!

Second graders have been writing back and forth with pen pals from Wisconsin since the fall of this school year.  All students were matched up with a student from the other school and have been getting to know their pen pal through letter writing.  It’s been a fantastic experience for the students to get to know another person through written communication.  They look forward to receiving letters and can’t wait to reply as soon as they arrive! 

After exchanging a few letters we decided to “meet” our pen pals.  So it was arranged that we would Skype with them on Thursday, March 21^st.  Students in both schools prepared questions they wanted to ask each other.  They exchanged their questions and then prepared to answer the questions their pen pals asked them.

The meeting went really well!  The students had huge smiles on their faces, waved at their pen pals, and did a great job of asking questions and responding to questions asked of them.  It was a blast to see everyone through the webcam and hear their voices for the first time.

Now that our meeting is over, it’s time to continue chatting… through our next letter!

Karen Kennedy

Susan Anderson

Mary Jo Luethmers

2^nd Grade Teacher

Grainwood Elementary

Community Education

Spring Pictures

CARES Heroes of the Week!

Green Sneakers

 


This is a reminder that Grainwood School is collecting new or gently used sneakers now until April 22nd. There are bins in the front lobby for drop-off. Please connect the shoes together either with a string, a ziptie, tied together or put together in a plastic bag. There should be no large rips or holes and the soles must be intact. The shoes need to be the kind of shoes a student could wear to a Phy Ed class. The shoes will be shipped around the world to kids and adults in need of footwear. We have collected 34lbs so far! Thank you very much for your generous donations!

CARES Students of the Week!

Grainwood and Bully Prevention Efforts

Dear Grainwood Families,

This past year, our CARES Heroes have worked to set the scene educating our staff and students about bullying. As a PBIS (Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports) School, a designation we received last spring from The Minnesota Department of Education, it is our commitment to keep improving our school environment, educating our students and families, and making Grainwood the safest school possible.

Bullying is a hot topic in education. Even now, the legislature is working on improving the standard for how schools address it. First and foremost, bullying will not be tolerated at Grainwood and any incidents of bullying will be dealt with according to our district policy.  

There is no doubt students and families (and even staff) interpret bullying and bully-like behavior differently. Therefore, our first objective is to establish a common language around bullying and define it for Grainwood.

So what is bullying? Here are few definitions and some rationale that our PBIS Committee reviewed over the past few months. Authors Lester Laminack and Reba Wadsworth share this information in their book Bullying Hurts.

The American Psychological Association (2012)- “a form of aggressive behavior in which someone intentionally and repeatedly causes another person injury or discomfort. Bullying can take the form of physical contact, words, or more subtle actions…The bullied individual typically has trouble defending him or herself and does nothing to ‘cause’ the bullying.”   

Beane (2009)- "There is an imbalance of power.”

Barbara Coloroso (2011)- "Bullying is not about anger. Rather it arises from feeling superior and seeing no value in selected others. It is about contempt-a powerful feeling of dislike toward someone considered to be worthless, inferior or undeserving of respect. Bullying is arrogance in action. Once kids believe that someone is 'less than them’ they can harm that child without feeling any empathy, compassion, or shame.” 

A more kid friendly definition of why bullying occurs...(PBS Kids 2009)- “The reason why one kid would want to bully another is this: when you make someone feel bad, you gain power over him or her. Power makes people feel like they’re better than another person, and then that makes them feel really good about themselves. Power also makes you stand out from the crowd. It’s a way to get attention from other kids, even from adults." 

Moving forward, our PBIS Committee used the above and other resources to craft our own kid-friendly definition for Grainwood:  Bullying is mean words or actions, done on purpose, to hurt people and their feelings. A bully does these things to one person over and over.  

We are taking the time to introduce our definition to our students and staff slowly through school-made videos that model examples of what bullying is and what it is not. (I am sure you have heard about our CARES Heroes videos; we showed our newest versions at this past February's Family Fun Night.) Overall, I imagine it will take 1-2 years for full implementation to establish a solid understanding of bullying and to speak its common language. As a school, we plan to gauge student learning through an annual survey. The first survey was administered to our grades 3-5 students this past January and we started incorporating their feedback into our future CARES planning and instruction.  

How can you help? If you are concerned that your child is being bullied, please contact your child's teacher or the principal. We rely on families to report behavior that would fit the definition above, so we can deal with it immediately and appropriately. 

Education, whether academic or social, is a partnership between the home and school. Thank you for contributing to Grainwood's success!

Principal Glynn

Student Placement Forms

A Student Placement Form is available for parents who wish to inform the school as to how they view the learning styles and issues for their child in preparation for the 2013-2014 school year. The form does not allow for the request of a specific teacher. You can pick up the Student Placement form in the Grainwood office. The deadline for submitting the form is Friday, April 19th.