Courtesy EGSD
Great Happenings at East Grand Schools the week of Jan. 30.
• Granby preschoolers in Ms. Tinna and Ms. Mary’s class have completed the Raising a Reader program. Raising a Reader is a proven and researched-based family engagement and early literacy program for children ages 0-8 that helps families develop, practice and maintain home-based literacy routines necessary for school success. For 12 weeks families took home different Red Book Bags with a set of different books each week to read together. The preschoolers visited the Granby Library once a week for story time during the 12 weeks. As a celebration of completing Raising a Reader program, families met at the Granby Library to sign up their child for their own library card and took home a Blue Book Bag. Granby Preschool would like to thank Mountain Parks Electric for providing program funding and families for participating and sharing the love of reading.
• As we get more traffic, we are averaging two to three bus runners per week. For the safety of our kids and the sanity of our bus drivers, please follow all traffic laws and drive slowly and safely when buses are present.
• Friday school is starting up again today. LuLu McCay will be facilitating the program. A flyer was sent out to parents this week. If you have students who might be interested, call the school office to sign up.
• Fourth-graders at the Fraser Valley Elementary School learned a bit about being radio DJs while sharing their love of reading. Several students will have their “one-minute book reviews” broadcast on KFFR 88.3, Grand County’s Community radio station. The students chose a favorite book or author, wrote a script, and recorded their book reviews using a mobile microphone. Volunteers at KFFR produced the radio spots. Steve Skinner, the station manager, encourages youth radio projects and is enthusiastic about partnering with the local schools. Parents and community members can hear the radio book reviews locally on their radios at 88.3 FM, or streaming online at kffr.org.
• On Jan. 11, the East Grand Middle School brain bowl teams competed at the Central Regional Optimist meet in Denver. They competed against 16 other big public and charter schools. The seventh grade team placed sixth and has qualified for the state meet on March 7. The sixth grade team placed first and also qualified for the state meet.
• All students at GES participated in cross-country skiing during PE classes for the last three weeks. The first week, students completed dryland training and then spent two weeks outside in Pollhamus Park across the street from the school skiing a course created by the town of Granby. Thank you, Peter Butrimovich. This amazing opportunity could not have happened without the hard work of GES teacher Maggie Keller, countless volunteers from the community, parents at our school, and the volunteers from Snow Mountain Ranch. The Snow Mountain Ranch Nordic Center has been instrumental in funding and helping with this one of a kind opportunity for our students at GES. Thank you, Bill Pierce and his team of volunteers. The GES parent organization (VIPs) sponsored a Ski-a-thon Wednesday and Thursday to encourage students to take all the learning and practice from the last few weeks to accomplish a schoolwide goal of 2,000 laps while also raising money for our school. The results will be tallied and announced next week to determine if students will earn a pajama day next month.
• GES fifth-graders have been learning about the impressionist painter Claude Monet. With the kind donation of acrylic paint and canvases from PEO Chapter IX, they are working hard on trying to create their own impressionistic style paintings. The fifth-graders are learning color theory as they are mixing their own colors. Even more so as they are learning how to darken colors without using black paint.
• East Grand fourth, fifth and sixth grade artists participated in the Winter Park Ski Patrol Ski Safety Poster Contest. Student’s used the National Ski Areas Association Ski Safety Code to create slogans and illustrations for their posters. Poster winners get to spend a day on the hill with the WP Ski Patrol. Ski Patrol members spoke to students about ski/boarding safety on the hill. They also brought one of their mountain dogs, Biscuit. The ski safety code is something everyone who goes to the hill should know. Poster winner’s include (creativity category) Georgia Harvey, Owen Lee and Scarlett Tighman; and (best message category) Mazie Giberson, Karli Ormiston and Jessica Heid.