We are IB art students looking for materials to create a big sculpture of the Loch Ness Monster. If you have any of these materials and are able to donate them, please bring them to the front office:
newspaper
lightweight flexible wood
tissue paper
glue
paint (purple, cyan, baby blue)
Thank you,
Lavender, Leo, and Zak
Make sure your student(s) gets a chance to try our great school lunches before the end of the year! The herb roasted chicken and mashed potatoes are a hit.
Pre-Ordering
We ask that parents pre-order all meals for their student(s). It is important for us to have accurate numbers for ordering ingredients, and to minimize waste. Orders are due by the Wednesday before the following week. For example, on April 24th, orders for April 29th - May 3rd are due.
Pricing
Meal pricing is as follows:
Box breakfasts are $2.10.Hot lunch entrees are $5.
Regular, vegetarian, and vegan sandwiches are $5.
Gluten-free sandwiches are $6.
Side salads are $2.
Did you know?
Students can still receive school lunch, even if their account balance is zero or negative. We won’t turn away hungry kids! Students will be billed in EZ Lunch, and we ask that parents are prompt in paying any charges in EZ Lunch. For more information about how to use EZ Lunch, see below.
Paper Menus
If it is easier for your family to order on paper instead of in EZ Lunch, there are paper copies of the menu available at the Front Desk and in the Café. Please fill out one form for each student in your family.
Questions
If you have any questions about the lunch program, please feel free to email lunch@greatriverschool.org.
More Information about Using EZ Lunch
Here is a 5-minute video tutorial for how to use EZ Lunch.
If you prefer to read, more tutorials for EZ Lunch can be found here:
How To Set Up Your EZ School Lunch Account
How to Add Another Student to a Parent Account
How to Pre-Order Meals and Add Money
How to Add a Credit Card
How to See Transaction History
A reminder that in order to reschedule conferences for students, we plan to hold an alternate day for conferences on Wednesday, April 24th, 2019.
There will be no school for any students grades 1-12. (11th - see below for ACT information!) Big Canoe will offer childcare for that day 8am-5pm. Sign up here!
There will be conference slots available from 11am-7pm, to allow for students and families to meet with teachers and have students present their work.
All families and students can sign up for a makeup conference on April 24th here.
For 11th grade students, the ACT will still be administered. 11th grade students should plan to arrive at Great River School at normal time and no later than 8:45am for the ACT. For students without accommodations, the test will be complete by 1pm.
Thank you for your flexibility with us as we have all been impacted by the winter that would never end!
Summer Camp is back at Great River School in 2019 and here to lead the charge is Brent Cummins! He has been running summer camps and outdoor education programs for about 15 years and has a masters in Outdoor Recreation Administration. Brent is excited to bring summer camp back to Great River School and meet all of our wonderful families. He is married to Ellen who have two boys (Zander and McCai) and a dog (Stella) who love to travel, play sports, get dirty and explore the great outdoors. Here is a quote from Brent about summer camp: “Camp, no matter if you are in the Northwoods or in the city, is a place for kids to use their hands, explore, learn and meet new people. Camp culture, similar to Great River School, is all about being inclusive and welcoming to all, creating new relationships, trying new things, getting outside and having fun! I’m happy to be part of the GRS community and excited to meet all of our campers and families this summer!” If you have any questions about camp, email Brent at bcummins@greatriverschool.org. Also, please check out our brochure here and help spread the word through your contacts and networks. We hope to see you this summer!
If you’re looking for a way to contribute something to Great River School, consider pencils (aka Ticonderoga) or facial tissue (aka Kleenex). No brand names endorsed here though!
As a Montessori environment, we practice care for our materials, and students take great measures engaging independently in their work. Sometimes, this means that we are learning to ask for what we need. This year, it’s a need for pencils for writing and tissue for noses!
Donations can be dropped off at the front office! Thank you all!
Greetings Families!
In order to reschedule conferences for students, we plan to hold an alternate day for conferences on Wednesday, April 24th, 2019.
There will be no school for any students grades 1-12. (11th - see below for ACT information!) Big Canoe will offer childcare for that day 8am-5pm. Sign up here!
There will be conference slots available from 11am-7pm, to allow for students and families to meet with teachers and have students present their work.
For 11th grade students, the ACT will still be administered. 11th grade students should plan to arrive at Great River School at normal time and no later than 8:45am for the ACT. For students without accommodations, the test will be complete by 1pm.
All families and students can sign up for a makeup conference on April 24th here.
Thank you for your flexibility with us as we have all been impacted by the winter that would never end!
Dear Families of 8th Year Students,
High School at Great River is an award winning program that seeks to emphasize responsibility and independence within the structure of an academically supportive, innovative, challenging, and inclusive environment. As you consider how your 8th year student is prepared for high school, know that we have engaged your adolescent in skills that are applicable to any environment, and especially that we see students do well at Great River in 9th-12th grade.
You are invited to an information night on April 23rd! We will describe the details of our Adolescent program, our 9th year focus for 2019-20, and the ways students can expect to learn and be in community. We will also touch on how your family can best anticipate and prepare for our adolescent program in 9th year.
Our adolescent information night for 9th year programming will begin at 5:45pm at Great River School.
Items we will cover:
Goals of the adolescent program
Specific focus of the 9th year adolescent program
What to expect for academics
Preparing for the year
Ways to partner families and school in the Adolescent program
Typically, the school internally arranges partial day, structured experiences and visits for current 8th year students to visit the 9th year program. If your family wants to arrange for a different type of experience that involves a full day, please email enroll@greatriverschool.org
In anticipation of the information night, please complete this short survey about what you’d like to learn about 9th year programming: http://bit.do/parentSurvey
Please send any other questions you have regarding the information night to office@greatriverschool.org.
We look forward to seeing you there on April 23rd!
Regards,
Sam O’Brien
Head of School
Are you interested in helping support biking and walking initiatives in our community? Please join us for a Walk! Bike! Fun! Ambassadors training Thursday, April 11 from 4:30-8:00 p.m.
Walk! Bike! Fun! is a free training program and educational resource for community members, parents, and volunteers. This training will give participants a general overview of walking and biking activities, and more insight into some of the specific activities GRS is hoping to add this spring, such as a walking school bus and a bike rodeo/skills workshop. A light supper will be provided.
Reminder that spring conferences are this week! We’ll be keeping a close eye on the weather, but conferences are expected to continue as planned. For more information on conference logistics, click here.
Tomorrow, Wednesday April 10th, is a half day of school. Students will be dismissed at 11:45am. Bussing families, please check your email for bus time tables.
While in the building, make sure to check the Lost & Found tables! Any remaining items will be donated after conferences end on the evening of Friday, April 12th. Adolescent lost & found items are on a table in the north entry (by the cafe) and elementary lost & found items will be on tables in the elementary hallway.
Greetings Families!
Please sign up now for conferences!
If you have more than one student and want to secure conferences close together, sign up as soon as you can. If you have flexibility in your schedule, please leave the evening conferences for families that cannot make it during the workday.
Conference times are:
Thursday, April 11th noon-8pm
Friday, April 12th 8am-4pm
Students in grades 5-12 are with the student and parent(s)/guardian, the student's advisor or classroom guide
Students in grades 1-4 are with parent(s)/guardian and the teacher only.
7th-9th grade Special Education students should sign up with their Special Ed Case Manager (Sarah Lawrence-Lupton, Brooke Derrickson, or Danny Ross). Their advisor will join the meeting as well.
11th and 12th grade students are welcome to schedule a separate meeting with Teresa Hichens-Olson to discuss college planning.
If you do not know your student’s advisor contact office@greatriverschool.org.
Multiple Households/Families - if your child splits time between two households and both parents want/need to attend the conference, please schedule it together. If this is not possible, exceptions may be made if time slots are available. For an exception, email the program director at your level.
Jean Peters - Elementary Program Director
Tami Limberg - Lower Adolescent Program Director (includes 6th Bridge, and 7th-9th grade)
Andrea Christensen - Upper Adolescent Program Director (10th-12th grade)
If you have specific concerns that you want to discuss with a guide who is not your student's advisor, please contact them directly to discuss via phone or email, or set up a meeting before or after conference days. All guides will be able to talk with you about students' overall academic standing. Guides will be booked all day on both days in conferences with their own advisees. Check our Staff Directory for Office Hours.
“Spring” conferences to continue as scheduled:
With the winter storm forecast coming for this week, we do still plan to hold conferences this week. Conferences run from 12-8pm on Thursday, March 11th and from 8am-4pm on Friday, March 12th. If there are travel concerns on conferences day, we will provide instructions on how to still connect with your student’s teacher or advisor.
Looking towards next year:
We’ve been receiving many parent questions about next year’s school calendar. We expect the 2019-2020 school calendar to be approved by the board on April 24th and will share widely then. We do know that our first day of the school year will be Tuesday, September 3rd.
We need your help to make the spring book fair a success! Please sign up for a short two-hour shift here. It's an easy and fun way to help fulfill the 20 hours of volunteer time the school asks of each family. And it's a HUGE benefit to our elementary classrooms, because every sale means free books for GRS!
Are you interested in developing our playground/ outdoor space at GRS? Please join other passionate folks in design and implementation! I'm Hadley Musselman, mom of Wiley Sparks in Minnehaha Creek Classroom and an Educational Assistant to GRS, and this is something of a passion project for me.
We're in the preliminary stages of improving our outdoor space and need your input and help. I'd love to see more large motor opportunities (climbing, sliding, balancing, swinging, etc) and a beautiful garden on the elementary side that will grow food for our lovely new kitchen. As a recess supervisor I'm out there everyday. Many of our kids are asking for a "real" playground with their words or through rough physical (albit imaginative!) play, and relational/peer aggression. With an enriched outdoor/ recess environment, I know that our kids will have a much improved educational experience as a whole and a more positive relationship with the outdoors and each other. A necessary win-win-win in my book.
So let's get creative and dirty! With your help, we can save thousands of dollars in labor once it's time to install the new elements.
Add your e-mail address, thoughts, ideas and inspirational pictures/ links in this document! We'll start meeting in May for design finalization and implementation planning.
Are you interested in helping support biking and walking initiatives in our community? Please join us for a Walk! Bike! Fun! Ambassadors training Thursday, April 11 from 4:30-8:00 p.m.
Walk! Bike! Fun! is a free training program and educational resource for community members, parents, and volunteers. This training will give participants a general overview of walking and biking activities, and more insight into some of the specific activities GRS is hoping to add this spring, such as a walking school bus and a bike rodeo/skills workshop. A light supper will be provided.
Don't forget! Lunch orders for April 8th-12th are due on April 3rd at 11:59pm.
If it is easier for your family to order on paper instead of in EZ Lunch, there are paper copies of the menu available at the Front Desk and in the Café. Please fill out one form for each student in your family.
If you have any questions about the lunch program, please feel free to email lunch@greatriverschool.org.
More information about using EZ Lunch below:
Here is a 5-minute video tutorial for how to use EZ Lunch.
If you prefer to read, more tutorials for EZ Lunch can be found here:
How To Set Up Your EZ School Lunch Account
How to Add Another Student to a Parent Account
How to Pre-Order Meals and Add Money
How to Add a Credit Card
How to See Transaction History
Thank you all for attending this years GRS fundraiser! Thanks to all of your generosity, we have raised over $35,000 so far! There are still open spots in the Great Gatherings and an opportunity to donate to this year’s Fund a Need for our exciting outdoor projects - playground area, elementary gardens, outdoor classroom & greenhouse. Click link to sign up:
https://www.auctria.com/ev?site=7e8ddff9-9536-4ffc-958f-5a385585bf0f
If you won or purchased an item at the bash you should have received an invoice to pay or a receipt. If you have not yet paid please use the link at the bottom of your invoice. All paid items are at the front desk with Holly and can be picked up during school hours. If you have any questions, comments or concerns about this years fundraiser email us anytime at blueheronbash@greatriverschool.org. Thank you for your support!
A reminder that next week, April 1-5, Great River will be closed for Spring Break!
We're looking for parents to help staff the spring conference book fair! The book fair supports the development of elementary classroom libraries. Families can purchase books directly for the classrooms from teacher wish lists, or they can purchase books for themselves, and a 50% credit goes to GRS for new books. The fair will be held during the two days of conferences, Thursday and Friday 4/11 and 4/12, and our Usborne Books representative will be on-site to support volunteers. Please consider signing up for a slot here to help support this important initiative that will directly impact elementary classrooms!
Volunteers needed for lunchtime taste tests! During the week of April 15-19 students will have the chance to taste samples of food from the new lunch program and provide feedback, and we need parent volunteers to help! This will be a fun activity, a great way to learn more about the delicious food being served, and another great opportunity to be in classrooms during the school day. Sign up here for an 11:30am-1pm shift.