Welcome Back Grizzly Families! 

I look forward to seeing all of you and hearing all about your mini-break!  My time away was a very relaxing week with family and friends that included some great experiences: plays in the city, movies, hikes, and crafts.  I hope we all feel rested and ready for school to begin!

Read Across America

This week all grade-levels will be celebrating Read Across America in different ways.  Read Across America is celebrated annually on March 2nd. This amazing day is also Dr. Seuss’s birthday and a wonderful way to encourage the love of reading.  Schools across the U.S. will participate in read-ins, special guest readers, or, perhaps, like our own Gardner Grizzlies, celebrate our budding authors!   Please join us Thursday, March 2^nd at 6:00 pm to celebrate over 70 Grizzly authors and see their “published” books.  Expect a very special guest author -- Gennifer Choldenko – who will join us to read to students and share her experience of writing beautiful children’s books.  

For more information on how your family can celebrate reading please visit Scholastic’s Parent website at: http://www.scholastic.com/parents/blogs/scholastic-parents-raise-reader/5-ways-to-ring-read-across-america-day-home

I encourage your family to read a Dr. Seuss book together, and here is a cute video that should help get you going! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2KRkR8HaR9c

Engineering Week 

Gardner Bullis STEM Lab is celebrating Engineering Week February 27th – March 3rd by creating a Pasta Building Challenge for all students in K–6. Your challenge, if you choose to accept it, is to build something completely out of pasta that is freestanding. You may use glue to hold your creation together. Build your creation during STEM Lunch Club or build one at home! Bring your creation to school to display in the STEM Lab the morning of March 3, 2017 for everyone to see. Please create signage with your name and teacher to sit next to your creation. Your sign should be no bigger than an index card and your creation must be smaller than 1ft by 1 ft. Can you meet the challenge?

Ability Awareness Week

Attention Parents!  This is your chance to sign-up to volunteer during our Ability Awareness Week!  March 22nd-24th will be three days packed with fun-filled activities that will teach our students empathy, inclusion and acceptance.  We will focus on what it means to be a happy Gardner Grizzly.   Happiness is...being a Grizzly.  Happiness is...being empathetic.  Happiness is...treating others as you want to be treated.  Happiness is...

To sign up, please go to this link:  https://goo.gl/forms/T9jv67UqYVx877M52

Vision Statement Update

This year we have worked on our mission and vision statements and through many conversations we understand who we are, why we exist, and what we must become. After discussing our vision statement with stakeholders during Coffee with the Principal meetings, PTA meetings, and most recently our School Site Council meeting, the staff and I took the feedback to heart and made a slight adjustment.  

• Before:  Empowering students to be leaders of tomorrow.
• Updated Vision Statement: Empowering students to be creative and collaborative life-long learners. 

It is our collective belief that this vision represents what we must do at Gardner Bullis to accomplish our purpose.  We thank all of those who participated in the conversations and gave input.  

iReady Results

T2 iReady results will be sent home later on this week along with information on how to interpret the results.  Please stay tuned. 

Enjoy your week and happy reading!

Nadia Oskolkoff, Principal