Weekly Update: May 3, 2019
Weekly Update: May 3, 2019
Dear Board of Education, Staff, Families and Friends:
Happy May! Happy Friday! I hope that you will have an opportunity to enjoy the warmer weather this weekend. This is a very busy time for many families and students. Please encourage your student to remain focused on academic work as we head into the final weeks of the school year. Yes, I said it! Final weeks! This year has gone rather quickly. It has been an interesting weather year for all of us. Let’s hope that the 2019-20 weather will be kind to us!
Please take a look at our weekly update! There are many important updates and student features that we enjoy sharing with our community.
Community Meeting Facilities:
This past week, the ADHOC facilities committee welcomed several community members to share the process and engaged in discussions centered around facilities planning. We will be hosting another session on Monday, May 6 at the Drake Community Library beginning at 6:00 PM. We hope you will join us to learn about the progress of the committee.
School Board Recognition Month:
I would like to thank our School Board of Directors for volunteering their services to our school community! Thank you Helen Redmond, Meg Jones Bair, Stephen Sieck, Barbara Brown, Emily Guenther, Laurel Tuggle Lacina, and Dustin Smith for your service! This has been a wonderful group to work with over the year! Please join me in thanking them on May 8, 2019 at our School Board Meeting beginning at 6:00 PM in the GHS Board Room.
Kindergarten Round-Up is Monday, May 6.
This is a chance for incoming kindergarten students to meet kindergarten teachers and experience a "day in the life as a kindergartner". Mrs. Seney and Mr. Smith will be visiting community preschools to answer questions that parents may have about kindergarten. They will also be available the morning on May 6. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact the principals at sarah.seney@grinnell-k12.org or josh.smith@grinnell-k12.org.
Class lists will come out in June and parents will be notified of their child's teacher then.
Technology in the classroom:
Students working with Mr. Meints were learning about and developing personal budgets in his 6th Grade Social Studies class. They were using interactive graphs and tables with a template in the Numbers application on their laptops.
6th grade students in Ms. Link's General Music class were rockin' some original tunes using Garageband and a keyboard. They could either use their computer keyboard or a piano keyboard connected with a USB cable.
Sergio Perez-Valentin built himself a working trombone out of PVC tubing, a funnel, and custom-designed 3D printed parts, including the mouthpiece. This was a project for his Physics class with Mr. Comisky. Mr. Dressler says that's it a little out of tune, so you probably won't see it in a halftime show this fall.
Senior Lexie Townsend was a participant yesterday in the World Food Prize--Iowa Youth Institute at Iowa State University. She wrote and presented a paper on the desertification of Nigeria to a panel of students and experts, participated in a workshop on food science and at lunch, sat and chatted with the director of the Iowa Department of Education. She was also awarded a $500 scholarship to ISU. The Iowa Youth Institute was started by Norman Borlaug, Iowa native and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, and is a fabulous opportunity for students interested in addressing world food scarcity issues.
Guest speaker Calvin Tang from Hong Kong presented to 5th/6th grade reading enrichment group. Calvin is a third year physics and music student at Grinnell College. Calvin is with Grinnell College's Cultural Attaché program. His presentation included an introduction to Hong Kong and the cultural practice of eating Dim Sum. Students tried Chinese tea and learned to use chopsticks. In the next few weeks, students will complete a mini-unit on popular Chinese folklore.
Middle School Concert Highlights:
The students in grades 5-8 Choir performed for families this week!
Go Green Grinnell: GHS Student Council News and Effort to Partner with Community:
Each minute, one million plastic bags are thrown away worldwide—that's 500 billion bags per year. Americans are the worst offenders: the EPA estimates that every American tosses over 24 pounds of plastic bags each year. You can make a difference by swapping plastic for reusable bags! GHS Student Council is selling "Go Green Grinnell" Reusable Bags to promote sustainable shopping in our community. Order bags and find more details here:
The concern of finding solutions for issues happening to our planet Earth prompted second graders and ninth graders to be that audience for each others' opinions on how to help the Earth. Second graders at Fairview from all three sections, were learning reading skills such as; problem /solution, cause/effect, and how to use their ipad to do research while creating a presentation on their topic. Ninth graders in Mr. Plaggee's Global Studies course, then were paired up to work on a similar topic with a more global outlook. All students came together to present their project to each other May 1st. Students were very intrigued by each other's opinions concerning their topic.
Poster Contest Winners:
April was attendance month for the Grinnell-Newburg School District.
Grinnell High School held a challenge for which class could achieve the best attendance percentage first period for the whole month. Ms. McDonough's Spanish 1B class edged out Mr. Plagge's Global 1 class 94.73% to 94.13%. Students enjoyed their prize (breakfast pizza) this morning.
Upcoming Events:
Friday, May 3
Large Group Music Festival @ GHS
3:30 JV/V Girls Golf @ Westwood Golf Course - Newton
Saturday, May 4
9:00 JV/V Boys Golf @ Tama Toledo Country Club
9:00 JV/V Boys Soccer @ Bondurant-Farrar
12:00 Varsity Baseball Scrimmage @ Home
Monday, May 6
9:00 JV/V Boys Conference Golf Meet @ Indianola
9:00 Varsity Girls Conference Tennis Meet @ Home
4:45 JV/V Girls Track Meet @ Caldwell Park
4:45 JV/V Boys Track Meet @ Pella
6:00 Community Facility Update Meeting @ Drake Library
Tuesday, May 7
9:00 JV/V Girls Conference Golf Meet @ Warrior Run Golf Course
4:15 Varsity Girls Tennis @ Dike New Hartford
4:30 Middle School Girls Conference Track Meet @ Home
4:30 Middle School Boys Conference Track Meet @ Newton
5:30 Varsity Girls Soccer @ Ahrens Park Soccer Field
6:00 JV/V Boys Soccer @ Norwalk
Wednesday, May 8
6:00 School Board Meeting GHS
8:00 Varsity Boys Tennis @ Knoxville
9:00 JV/V Boys Golf @ Amana Colonies
6:00 Cheerleading Parent Meeting @ HS Media Center
Thursday, May 9
4:00 JV/V Boys & Girls State Qualifier Track @ Benton
4:15 JV/V Girls Golf @ Grinnell College Golf Course
5:30 JV/V Boys Soccer @ Boone
Have a wonderful weekend!
Janet