Book Order

Our October book order is now online. If you are interested in ordering, please send your child's order to school by Friday or make your purchase online by Friday evening. To order online, go to www.scholastic.com/bookclubs .

If you've not ordered online yet this year, you will need to register by clicking on the “Don’t have a user name or password?” link. When prompted, enter our one-time Class Activation Code GLZQC. This unique code ensures that your order is sent to me. Then, simply choose the books you'd like to order and checkout using your credit card. Your order will be sent to me at school with the rest of our order.
If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask.

Glenbrook October Newsletter

I hope everyone has been enjoying the wonderful weather that we have had the past few days. It's so nice to see the sun again.

The Glenbrook October newsletter is now online. Follow this link Glenbrook Oct Newsletter to view. Please remember that paper copies of our school newsletter will no longer be going home as the district is working to "Go Green". If you would like a paper copy, please contact the Glenbrook office to make arrangements.

Just a reminder that there is no school this Friday

as it is a staff development day.

On a classroom note, I am beginning to meet with students individually for reading. When your child brings home their plastic reading envelope, please have them read their book to you and then sign the reading log taped to their envelope. Thank you!
My goal is for all students to be bringing books home by the end of next week. I am a firm believer in taking baby steps now so we can take leaps and bounds later. Students are learning MANY new routines to make this time happen and I want them to feel confident and comfortable with what I am asking them to do independently.
As always, if you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask.
Mrs. Malchow

permission slips and more

Your child should have brought home their permission slip on Friday  for our trip to Delzer's Pumpkin Farm. Please be sure to sign and send this back as soon as you can. Again, there is no cost for your child to attend this trip as we are utilizing PTO and popcorn monies to pay for the trip. We'd love to have you come along and chaperone our trip as well. You are welcome to ride the bus with us or meet us there. Cost for chaperones is $3.50, the cost of admission to Delzer's which also includes a pumpkin to bring home (PTO monies are for students only). An approved background check must be on file to attend this trip with us.

Also, are you interested in helping out in our classroom? I will be sending home parent volunteer letters later this week. I'd love to have you come in and read with students, help us out with projects, etc. If you're interested, please fill out the form when it comes home and return to school in your child's DOG binder. Please remember that an approved background check must be on file before you may help out in our classroom.

If you have any questions about either of these topics, please don't hesitate to ask.
Have a PAWSitively great week!!
Mrs. Malchow

Our 1st bday of the year

Happy birthday E.J.!!  I hope you had a wonderful birthday today! We had fun learning about our birthday routine today. Ask your child about secret birthday taps, budding in line and our special treat jar.


We've also been working hard on becoming confident writers this week. We have been working on several strategies including spacing and stretching words out. We had fun learning to stretch words out like bubblegum and even used bubblegum to help. Today your child was given their very own, lifetime supply of invisible, stretch-it-out bubblegum in their favorite flavor. We had some interesting requests for flavors including macaroni and cheese flavored gum and chocolate flavored gum. Ask your child to show you how we used our gum to stretch words out. This is a very easy, hands-on approach that you can easily utilize at home with your child. If you're up for a little fun, do it with real gum. It's a bit sticky but boy is it motivating!
Happy writing!!

Our trip to Delzer's Pumpkin Patch is still scheduled for October 8th. Field trip permission slips are being finalized and should be coming home by the end of the week. Sorry for the delay but we needed to work out a few final details. If you are interested in chaperoning, PLEASE be sure you have a completed background check on file as this is needed before you can join us.

Another busy week

What a great couple of weeks we've had. We've made leaps and bounds over the past week in learning and applying the many routines associated with first grade. Our class has a few extra routines due to the fact that we are located in a different part of the building than the other 1st grades, but we  have adjusted just fine and make tweeks to our routine to make everything flow just a bit smoother this week. Hopefully you are also finding your child to be more of their normal self this week. I know at our house we are slowly returning to a happy household again (overtired children make for interesting evenings as I am sure you are all aware).

Our current classroom newsletter was emailed out this evening and is also available online on our class website. This link to our site is in the right hand column.
Also, please remember that  Glenbrook is joining the other schools in our district to use an online family newsletter format in an effort to reduce the cost of monthly newsletters. The September newsletter was the only newsletter that you will reeive in hard copy format. From now on, we will post the monthly newsletter on our school website at http://connect.pulaski.k12.wi.us/glenbrook/gb_news.cfm. If you do not have access to the web, please send a note to our office so that we can provide you with a printed copy.

PAWSitively yours,
Mrs. Malchow

Updates

The results are in and 3rd grade has officially one the 1st (annual?) Penny War competition.  Enough money was dropped in the buckets to purchase a SMARTboard for 5th grade (all 5th grade teachers will now have one) and for a 4th grade teacher. Our PTO is planning to purchase one for each grade level as monies are earned. 3rd grade will be next, then 2nd and so on. As a teacher who is fortunate to have a SMARTboard in the room already, I can tell you that this is a WONDERFUL gift that our PTO is providing. The uses for a SMARTboard are endless and it is amazing how much more interactive it can make lessons.

As of today, our lunch program has implemented a small change.

The district has decided that students can choose either chocolate or white milk for snack break.  In the past only white milk was offered.  Today our entire class decided to take milk, most of which was chocolate.  I just wanted everyone to be aware and talk with your child if you have specific opinions about what they should be taking.  Whatever you and your child decide is fine with me.  This is just a change that I thought you should be aware of.

As usual, if you have any questions, don't hesitate to contact me.

Friday afternoon peny war results

The results are in for Friday afternoon's Penny War competition... drum roll please....
1st---Grade 1- WOW!!! Way to go 1st grade

2nd—Grade 3 (563 points behind Grade 1)
3rd—Grade 5 (1,809 points behind Grade 1)
4th—Grade 2 (1,922 points behind Grade 1)
5th—Grade 4 (2,717 points behind Grade 1)
6th—K (16,884 points behind Grade 1…sorry)

What fun this has been! We actually had a few students bring rolls of pennies on Friday. It will be interesting to see what the final results are after the money is counted from Friday night's Rockin' Picnic. Needless to say, I'm not holding my breath as it seems that whoever is in 1st place usually get hammered the worst. I did hear that 1st grade had a million dollar bill in their jug! Good thing it was counterfeit or we'd really have been in a hole! Kudos to whoever came up with that one! What a hoot!

Once the final results are in I'll be sure to post them to the blog. Win or lose, we had a lot of fun and it's the spirit of the game that counts.

On a side note, at this point enough money has been raised to purchase 2 SMARTboards for Glenbrook! WOW!!!!!!!!   Way to go Glenbrook!!!!!!

Thank you to those that were able to attend Friday evening's Rockin' Picnic. We had wonderful weather and a nice turn-out. I know my boys had a good time singing, dancing, and yes, even throwing a little grass too!

Wednesday's Penny Wars

For those that are curious... here are the Penny War total as of Wednesday after school. 
1st grade has moved up to 2nd place!!! Yahooo!!!!! Keep those pennies and silvers coming!!!!!

1st place: 5th grade
2nd place: 1st grade (1040 pennies behind 5th)
3rd place: Kindergarten (1699 pennies behind 5th)
4th place: 2nd grade (3902 pennies behind 5th)
5th place: 4th grade (4674 pennies behind 5th)
6th place: 3rd grade (5548 pennies behind 5th)

On a classroom note- we are working hard to start getting our schedule in place and are have started working with our math journal. Today we got our Tool Kits and our pattern block templates. The kiddos got a chance to experiment with them and made some very cool pictures. We also played a game called Monster Squeeze which is helping us to review the concept larger than and smaller than. Your child is bringing home a copy of the game to play at home with you. Enjoy!

Penny War Update

Here are the latest totals as of today, Tuesday, September 7th.

1st place: 2nd grade -$3.42

2nd place: Kindergarten -$5.36
3rd place: 1st grade -$6.47
4th place: 5th grade -$12.05
5th place: 3rd grade -$26.86
6th place: 4th grade -$46.68

We've definitely made some progress. Let's see if we can bump those 2nd graders down a little and get 1st grade to the top. Remember, pennies give us points, but silvers and dollars take points away from other teams.
First grade rocks!!!

1st day!

I'm happy to report that we all made it through the first day! We were busy putting away supplies, learning new routines, meeting new friends, and trying out some of our new supplies. Unfortunately, we did not get through everything I had hoped to day and for that reason, your child will not be bringing home their DOG (their take home binder) We will work to get that routine in place tomorrow. :-)
That being said, be sure to ask your child about their day. Ask them about "Pass the Pooch" or about who they sat with at lunch and if they made any new friends. We have 2 new friends to Glenbrook right in our class. 
I'm sure your child will be tired tonight- I saw a few friends start to fall asleep during our story this afternoon. These first few days are long after having all summer off. Hang in their and be sure to get your child to be a little earlier tonight.
As always, if you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask!
PAWSitively yours,
Mrs. Malchow