Grass Valley Charter School

An Expeditionary Learning Mentor School

Staff Appreciation Week

May 6th, 2016

On behalf of the Grass Valley Charter

staff Id like to extend a huge thank
you to the parents of our great kids!
The teachers truly felt your love and
appreciation this
week. From
fabulously decorated
doors, to endearing
poems, to
extravagant lunches, and then finishing the week
with a sundae bar! It was an amazing week of our
school community demonstrating gratitude for the
hard work of our teachers. Each day this past week
was filled with coffee, snacks, decorations, and kind
words. Thank you so much for all your efforts! It
was a true demonstration of CREW mastered by the parents. We at
GVCS are truly grateful for the sentiments youve shared with us.

VALUE CARD CONTEST IS HEATING UP!!

Our final fundraiser of the year is in full swing and we need your help!
Remember those Value Cards that came home with you at Teacher
Conferences? The cards that can save you big bucks all over town and
support our favorite local businesses like Caroline's, Miner Moe's,
Mountain Recreation, Olive Vitale and much more? Now is the time to
turn in your money and have your child's crew qualify for the grand
prize! Past prizes include throwing slime, whipped cream pies or water
balloons at Mr. Martinez. Mr. Maddock will give expert demonstrations
for the winning class! It's a great chance to raise funds for EL
Education and earn a fabulous party for your crew! Our contest will
run until May 17th, so there's still plenty of time to sell as many cards as
you can. Please sell your cards or kindly return them!

GVC Mountain Bike Club

A note from Olivia Pritchett

The GVCS mountain bike team was well represented in race 1 of the 3
YBONC Dirt Classic Series.
It was held on private property off Osborne Hill.
Eli Washburn, Grayson Garton, Lucas Kleinhaus,
Anthony Pritchett & Jake Sainsbury raced the grueling
and technical 5 mile course. There was 700ft of
climbing, sharp rocks, berms,
roots and even a car to ride
over! Eli took the top podium,
Anthony finished 2nd and
Grayson stood at third. Congrats
to all racers!
The mountain bike club has been enjoying a lot of
great spring riding on Tuesday afternoons and
once a month Friday rides. The turnout of parents and kids has been
great with lil shredders ranging from 2nd to 8th grade! Keep on
riding!

GREAT Summer Youth Program

The GREAT Summer Youth Program, hosted by the Grass Valley Police
Department, is coming to our campus! The camp is taught by Officer
Zack LaFerriere, who will inspire and empower your student with lifeskills as well as community minded youth leadership skills.
Lessons include, anger management, decision-making, communication,
overcoming peer pressure, active listening, empathy and much more.
Students will also take part in fun fieldtrips (the pool, 49er fun park,
tour of GVPD, ect...), skits, games and other fun camp activities.
If youd like more information about this opportunity please visit
www.GreatSummerYouthAcademy.com. Remember, the camp
application deadline is Friday May 13th 2016.

Sierra Harvest Farm to School Program

A note from Liz Peterson
Vining plants, root veggies, herbs, flower and
more!...We had plants of all shapes and sizes at our
spring plant starts sale through our Sierra Harvest
farm to school program and it was a terrific
success! We hope you enjoy all the beautiful plants
and seed packets you picked up from the Garden cart
this last week. May your sunshine and rain be
plentiful and your plants bear abundantly!

The Force is Strong with Crew 7!

Crew 7's third graders were letting the FORCE
be with them on Star Wars
Day on May the 4th. Yep,
"May the Fourth Be With
You!". The Jedi's participated
in 4 learning stations that
allowed them to make LED
light sabers, modeling dough
BB8's, they tested the force of air physics in the Huff and Puff Yoda
station and learned to draw the perfect R2D2 step by
step. Parent volunteers helped to make this day so
special and even provided Crew 7 with Star Wars
cupcakes and fruit snacks to keep the energy at "space
level"! Crew members posed in a mock photo booth
with Star Wars props and showed their school spirit by
dressing up in out-of-this-world costumes for the day's
events! The FORCE was definitely with this crew!

Building Bridges OR Whatever Floats Your Boat

Last week I had an opportunity to stop
by Crews 7 & 8 to
check out what
theyve been
working on within
their expedition.
As they explore
physics in their science expedition students were
tasked to first build something that could float.
Next, students how to build a bridge and get over it! Well, maybe they
themselves didnt have to get over it but it did have to
meet a weight-bearing standard of stacks of pennies
and bags of marbles. Thankfully,
no students lost their marbles in the
building of these amazing bridges.
I do have to hand it to these young
engineers. They had boats built from supplies Id find
plenty of in my own home! There were bridges built
of popsicle sticks, wood, metal, cups, all kinds of stuff!
There was even one young man who built his out of
marshmallows! In all, there were many amazingly built bridges and
boats. Students clearly used a high level of craftsmanship in this splice
of their expedition.

And because they were so amazing, here is a picture

montage of the doors decorated by parents celebrating our
fantastic teachers!

Reading Mountain
Keep climbing to new heights with Reading Mountain! Reading
Mountain is a reading incentive program created as a
service project by students from Crews 9 & 10. All
students in grades k-3rd are invited to participate and
earn cool, customized dog tags after reaching a reading
summit. This year you get to pick the color dog tag you
would like! The reading challenge is a fun way to become
a better reader. The Reading Mountain program is in full
swing now and end on May 29th. For more information,
come visit the Reading Mountain information table in the morning
before school.

FREE FAMILY MOVIE NIGHT AT GILMORE!

The Grass Valley PTC (parent/teacher club)
will be hosting a free movie night this Friday, May 13th from 6-8pm in
the Gilmore gym. The evening will feature The Peanuts Movie, free
popcorn and lots of fun! Bring a blanket and wear your PJ's!