Principal's Message

Dear Greenbriar families,

Our Family BINGO Night was a blast! It was great to see our community come together for some fun and we heard such excited chatter from the kids leading up to, and after, the event. HUGE thanks to our PTO for organizing such a great event and to everyone who volunteered, donated prizes, and attended!

Parents of 2nd-5th graders, be on the lookout for an email from Data Specialist Dustin Anand this afternoon that will include your student(s)' NWEA Measures of Academic Progress (MAP) report. The report will show your student(s)' results as well as the district averages in reading and math from the winter testing window. The MAP tests provide helpful information for families to monitor the growth of their child, for teachers to continue to understand student learning, and for the district to measure overall performance and alignment to learning standards. Please visit the Northbrook 28 website for additional details regarding the MAP assessment.

Have a great weekend,

Ginny

A 1st grader high fives our mascot, Flash! Photo credit K.S.

Greenbriar students eagerly anticipate the next BINGO number!

A kindergartener shows off his winning BINGO card and prize! Photo credit M.S.

ERIN'S LAW PRESENTATIONS

As we shared via email on Wednesday, we will be collaborating with Victor Pacini and his team for presentations related to Erin's Law and child sexual abuse prevention. Victor and team will be at Greenbriar on Wednesday, March 8th to present to all students. Here's the letter that was sent to all families.

SPANISH UPDATE FOR 1st-5th

Our students in grades 1-5 get to go to Spanish class for 30 minutes each day, and you would be so impressed with all that they are doing! Much of their work is shared for you to view on Seesaw, with Señora Cabrejo (grades 1-3) and Señora Kus (grades 3-5) commenting and sharing information through the app. Want to be notified when new posts or messages are shared in Spanish class? View Seesaw's directions on how to allow notifications, or watch this video to learn how to enable text notifications. To ensure notifications come through, we also recommend checking your device's notification settings in addition to your settings in your seesaw account. If you have any questions, do not hesitate to contact your student's Spanish teacher for assistance! 

MORE INFORMATION FOR PARENTS ABOUT SEL

As we have shared previously, we have been focusing a great deal on social-emotional learning (SEL) throughout this year. I wanted to share the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL) framework including the five competencies that drive our SEL instruction. As with all subjects, children learn these skills over time and each will develop differently, but we thought it would be helpful to share the overview with families. Curious to learn more? Check out CASEL's website. We also recommend a couple of books, Yardsticks and Choice Words if you'd like to learn more about how to support your child's social emotional development.

GAZETTE FEEDBACK

Thanks to everyone who took time to offer feedback on the timing of the weekly Gazette. We had more than 60 responses with 75% preferring the current timing of Friday mornings (or the last school day of the week) so we will plan to stay with the current schedule. I also appreciated the additional suggestions which we will take note of including:

• Placing district news relating to placement, etc. and reminders for upcoming spirit wear and other school-wide events higher in the newsletter
• Adding more photos when possible
• Continuing to repeat some information for multiple weeks with the *repeat* tag

GREENBRIAR GUARD HOUSES WANTED (formerly Block Parents) *repeat*

We are looking for families who may be willing to serve as Greenbriar Guard Houses (formerly known as Block Parents). These families would put a green sign in a street-facing window to indicate that they're a safe house for kids to go to in the event of an emergency when they may need adult assistance. We're specifically looking for volunteers who typically have an adult at home between 8:00-8:30 and 3:15-3:45 when students are coming to and from school. If you're willing to serve as a Guard House for the remainder of this year, please fill out this form and we will provide volunteers with signs.

INTERNATIONAL MATH DAY - March 14, 2023 - PARENT HELP NEEDED *repeat*

Do you have a passion for math? Would you be willing to help us continue to foster a love of math in our students? If so, we would benefit greatly from your time and expertise in sharing how you use math in your job and/or everyday life via a video recording. This will assist our students in connecting what they are learning to the real world. The videos will be shared each day on the announcements. Please keep the video to roughly 2 minutes or under in length and upload it to the International Math Day Folder. You can also email videos to Rachael Miller at [email protected].

WATERWAYS - FULL SERVICE CAR WASH SALE

After these long winter months, who doesn't love a clean car? We are currently fundraising with waterways. 50% of all money raised will go back to the PTO to help support field trips, student activities, and staff appreciation. Coupons are $24.00 each and never expire. Sales can be found on the PTO website & are available until March 22nd. All coupons purchased will be sent home in students' green home folders the week of April 3rd. Buy today for your family, friends, and/or gifts for teachers!

DID YOU KNOW? DISTRICT 28 SPONSORS SISTER SCHOOL IN KENYA

We wanted to share this post as we expect to hear more in the future about this amazing relationship with our sister school in Kenya. More information to come, but enjoy reading a little more about it on the District website.

FAMILY SERVICE INITIATIVE *repeat*

Join the Greenbriar community in our annual event to come together and give back! This is a wonderful opportunity to talk to Greenbriar students about the power of sharing with those in need, and caring for our community in a variety of hands-on ways.

This year’s projects will be a combination of at-home projects as well as at-school collections.

• Quilt squares kits are available for a $10 donation per kit. Quilt square kits will be sent home in your child’s backpack. More information and purchase process on Paperless PTO: https://www.greenbriarpto.com/Grt/index.cfm
• Bernie’s Book Bank Collection: Students are encouraged to collect their gently loved, no-longer-read children’s books (birth through sixth grade), to share with kids across Chicagoland. Book donation guidelines can be found here.
• Cradles to Crayons Collection: Families can get a head start on spring cleaning by donating gently used everyday essentials for children newborn to age 12. See here for what Cradles to Crayons Chicago needs most now.
• Canines 4 Comfort Collection: Canines 4 Comfort – rescue and training organization of everyone’s favorite canine buddy, Krieger – is collecting new or gently used blankets for many rescue dogs, in partnership with The Penny’s Purpose, which provides blankets to rescue dogs, veterans, and people facing illness or surgical recovery. To donate, please check out these online wishlists.
• Amazon Smile wishlist can be found here.
• Chewy wishlist can be found here.

Collection bins for Bernie’s, Cradles and Canines donations will be in the Greenbriar vestibule from February 21–March 10.

SCIENCE NIGHT, MARCH 15TH *repeat*

Calling All Scientists!! We are very excited for Science Night to come back to Greenbriar.  Join us for Science Night, Wednesday March 15th from 6-7pm at Greenbriar's gymnasium. Come and see all of the great projects completed by our Greenbriar scientists!

Not sure if you ordered pizza or a treat? *repeat*

To double check your orders, click on this link, log into the PTO website, and look under "my account" and then "my orders."

IMPORTANT LINK

Greenbriar PTO: https://www.greenbriarpto.com/

As always, please reach out to Lori or Shelly should you need anything at [email protected].

District 28 invites local non-profit organizations and community government agencies to promote events for families and children. Each week, some event are highlighted in the newsletter. View the complete list of events on the Virtual Backpack web page. To submit an event, please email the web-friendly flier to Terry Ryan, Communications Director. All fliers are subject to approval.

Jr. Football & Cheer Registration Open

Registration is now open for Northbrook Jr. Spartan Football and Cheer Spring 2023 programs, including 7-on-7, Co-Ed Flag, Girls Flag, and Cheer. Learn more by visiting Jr. Spartan website.

Greenbriar School | Dr. Ginny Hiltz, Principal | 847-498-7950 | [email protected] | Website