GRIMSRUD ELEMENTARY

Dear Families,

November starts a season that emphasizes gratitude and we certainly have a lot to be thankful for. Grimsrud has amazing teachers who want to keep learning and improving. Our students are doing a fabulous job at following expectations and coming to school eager to learn. If you are taking the time to read this very message- THANK YOU. It shows you care about being informed and staying connected with us.

Mandatory beginning-of-year testing is complete and teachers and students are now busy engaging in what they need to grow their current knowledge and skills. You will notice our amazing specialists take the time to provide you with ideas to do at home to support your child each month in this newsletter. Thank you for taking a few minutes to scan these each month and give them a try.

Sometimes the best school support at home is to take interest in their school day and engage in conversation with them- a true practice of reflecting, speaking, and listening, not to mention having that cheerleader at home to celebrate their learning and push them forward the next day! A 5- 10 minute distraction-free conversation with your kid can make huge gains in their language and vocabulary. With the increased time on screens (for both tools and toys), and overall less time spent socially interacting, this daily conversation is also powerful to build social skills and grow focus/attention. If your child is like either of mine, it is sometimes difficult to get a lot of information about just what they do all day at school! Each day as a mom I am met with shoulder shrugs, one word answers, and even an occasional eye roll 🙃) I'd like to share with you a couple tips I have found helpful over the next couple newsletters.

1. Ask open-ended questions. If you ask a question that can be answered with one word — yes or no — that’s what you’ll get. A one-word answer. Try asking open-ended questions instead.

Example: “What was the best thing you did at school today?” "What did you do for each recess?"

2. Start with a factual observation. Kids often have a hard time answering questions that seem to come out of the blue. Making an observation gives your child something to relate to.

Example: “I know you have a lot more kids in your class this year. What’s that like?”

The goal is to have many small conversations over time, and perhaps the multiple long weekends this month will lend themselves to great conversations with you and your child!

With warm regards,

~ Dr. Upton

If you need help providing winter gear for your child, please contact

Mrs. Schmidkunz at (701)934-0826 or follow the button below labeled winter gear.

The health and safety of your child will be the major consideration when making decisions about the appropriateness of going outside during extremely cold or wet conditions. Other considerations will be the need of children for fresh air, exercise, work breaks, and unstructured play time for social development. Students should come to school dressed appropriately to be outside during the weather expected that day. BPS Elementary Schools have jointly developed a guideline which states outdoor recess will not normally occur when the wind chill drops below -10 degrees Fahrenheit (based on National Weather Service Website). Keep in mind that actual time outside during recess breaks is generally limited to about 10-15 minutes. Based on the relative openness or protection of a particular school site, variations in this guideline will exist.

Click Here to View District Weather Policies

Letters to accept help went home last week that allows you to share likes, clothing sizes and such for your child(ren). If you would like the help please complete this and return to school by November 13th. If you didn't get this letter please reach out to your child's classroom teacher or follow the link below called Christmas Support to complete.

Dates to remember:

November 13th forms due to school social worker (***If we do not have information by this date we might not be able to assist you this year.)

Last week of December before Christmas break watch for notification that presents have arrived and are ready for pick up at Grimsrud.

Do you ever buy groceries from Sams Club or Wal-Mart online?? With just one easy step, you can earn money for our School!! Simply go to schoolstore.com and search for Grimsrud. Then search for the store you want to shop from under merchants, click continue on the pop-up message, and it will take you right to the store's website or the store app on your phone. You don't even need to log into your app! As long as you place your order from there, you will earn money for Grimsrud! It's that simple. Remember to go into SchoolStore every time you make an online purchase here or several other locations such as Kohls, Old Navy, Best Buy, CVS, DoorDash, Famous Footwear, The Children's Place, and more of the 300 merchants on the SchoolStore website.

• Notes: YOU HAVE TO OPEN SCHOOLSTORE AND SELECT GRIMSRUD AND THE MERCHANT EACH TIME YOU MAKE A PURCHASE, IT WILL NOT STAY LINKED if you click out of the store before you finalize the purchase.

Grimsrud will serve as a voting site for the upcoming election on November 5. While BPS is proud to participate in this important process, we also are committed to ensuring the safety of students and staff. We have carefully planned to implement a range of safety measures designed to minimize disruptions and make certain our students are in a secure environment throughout the day.

These measures include, but are not limited to:

• Increased supervision: Additional staff and supervision will be in the building to provide extra oversight and security.

• Modified schedules: Adjustments have been made to gym classes and other activities typically held in the voting area.

• Lunchtime modifications: We’ve arranged alternative schedules and locations as appropriate to accommodate any added traffic and minimize overlap with voting areas.

Arrival/Pick-Up: Parents can expect higher traffic volumes and limited parking during drop off and pick-up. Staff will be present during both times to support a smooth and safe routine. Please communicate with your child and the school any changes to getting home.

BLAST (after school program): Students in the BLAST program will be in the portable Monday 11/4 and Tuesday 11/5.

Lunch: Students will have only one option- sunbutter/jelly sandwich OR may bring a cold lunch from home this day.

Thank you for your understanding and support. Please feel free to reach out to administration if you have any questions or concerns.

That is huge success!! Thank you for taking the time to meet with our teachers and to those who are scheduled to come in this week.

We know as school staff and as parents our students attendance impacts their growth academically and social emotionally.

What data do we track?

At Grimsrud we track attendance in many ways from days absent and why to larger sets of data. One data point we track is Attendance percentage which measures how many students are present compared to the total number enrolled or expected to be present each day. We are excited to share that 96% of our students attend each day and 98% of our students arrive prior to our 8:35 am bell. A great goal is 95% and of course and even better is 100%, so keep up the great work and keep striving for growth!

What do we do with this data?

These data pieces help us set goals and work to identify and meet needs. Weekly we have an attendance team that meets to review our students attendance data, identify letters to be sent out to families letting them know their child's attendance, and identifying families we follow up with to support. This team includes; our school social worker, counselor, and principal along with monthly our Police Youth Bureau worker also joins to support our team. Please know we are aware there are circumstances that are out of our families control, but we are also here to help. When our school team reaches out please know we are here to partner with you to help support our students getting to school and on time!

Click buttons below for needed support. These links will lead you to a quick form to complete that will reach out for the support needed. If you have other questions or needs please reach out to Mrs. Schmidkunz at (701)934-0826.

PTO would like to congratulate Miss McCulloch’s 5th grade class for winning the October box top challenge with 162 boxtops! They will be voting on a prize next week! We started the month with just over $47 in boxtops and ended with $197 so a big THANK YOU to all of you who have been scanning your receipts. If you still haven’t downloaded the app to start scanning, here is the link.

https://btfe.smart.link/c2jjdifkw?referral_code=KRCK8KBX

The next PTO meeting will be Tuesday, November 12th at 5:30pm. We will be going over how our fall events went and discussing upcoming events for 2025. There will be no meeting in December.

PS If you would be interested in a case of mint meltaways, we are still sitting on quite a few of them. Cases are $60 and contain 20 boxes of candy. We have a limited supply of the bigger prizes to hand out for anyone who’d like to pay for a case!

Saturday November 16th Bearscat SOUTH LOCATION ONLY (601 South 2nd Street) will be donating 25% of all purchases that day to Grimsrud!!

If you plan to place a large order for Saturday pick up, simply call ahead at 701.751.1828.

The winner of our November and May half Birthdays is.... Frankie in 3rd grade! She will be bringing a birthday cake kit home to celebrate with her family!

Cooking is a fantastic way to teach math because it combines hands-on learning with practical math applications! Here are some ways to bring math into the kitchen with your kids, especially in areas like fractions, measurement, multiplication, division, and even some early algebra concepts.

1. Measurement Conversions

• Cups, Tablespoons, and Teaspoons: Show how many tablespoons fit into a cup (16 tablespoons = 1 cup) or teaspoons in a tablespoon (3 teaspoons = 1 tablespoon). Let them measure the same ingredient using different tools to understand equivalent measures.
• Liquid vs. Dry Measurement: Demonstrate that dry ingredients need to be leveled in a cup, while liquids can be measured with a glass measuring cup with a spout. This can be a great chance to discuss volume.

2. Fractions and Ratios

• Recipe Scaling: Ask them to double or halve a recipe. If the recipe calls for 1 ½ cups of flour and you’re doubling it, how much flour will you need? This is perfect for practicing multiplying fractions and working with ratios.
• Using Fractional Measurements: Let them handle measurements like ¼ cup, ½ cup, and ¾ cup and add them up to make a whole. For example, if a recipe calls for 1 cup but you only have a ¼ cup measure, they’ll need to measure it four times to make a full cup.
• Proportion Activities: If you’re baking cookies and you want to change the size, talk about how the ingredient ratios might change. For instance, a larger batch of cookies might require increasing each ingredient proportionally.

3. Multiplication and Division

• Ingredient Doubling and Halving: Use multiplication to adjust ingredient amounts. For example, if the recipe calls for 2 eggs and you’re doubling it, ask how many eggs you’ll need.
• Dividing Portions: Practice division by figuring out portions. For example, if you make 12 muffins and there are 4 people, how many muffins does each person get?
• Group Multiplication: For recipes where ingredients are grouped, like 3 cups of flour and 2 cups of sugar to make 24 cookies, ask them to calculate the amount of each ingredient needed to make double (48) or half (12) of the original recipe.

Cooking together not only builds math skills but also creates shared experiences and life skills they’ll carry with them. Plus, the reward at the end—a tasty treat—helps reinforce the value of the learning process!

Happy Cooking! ~Mrs. O'Dell (Math Interventionist)

Nov. 1 - National Authors Day, National Family Literacy Day

Nov. 6 - National Nonfiction Day

Nov. 11-15 - National Young Readers Week

Nov. 15 - I Love to Write Day

Nov. 18 - High Five a Librarian Day

Nov. 18-24: - World Nursery Rhyme Week

• 1. Did you know that November is also Picture Book Month? To celebrate, read a picture book you’ve never read before!

• 2. Read a book about a family. Then talk to your family about how the book’s family is similar to and different from your own family.

• 3. Get in the spirit of World Kindness Day, November 13! Share a memory of when someone was kind to you. Then read a book about kindness and compassion.

• 4.Don’t let the cooler weather keep you from exploring the world! Read snuggled up in a blanket!

CLICK HERE! If you wish to read more about what's happening in the Reading Room!

-Mrs. Girodat, Title I Reading Specialist

Hello Grimsrud Families!

With a few months of school under our belt, everyone seems to be in the groove of things. I am grateful to be part of the grizzly family and be part of your child’s life every week. As the school counselor, I support students in their academic and social/emotional development. Here are some of the things your student may be learning in counselor this month:

• Active Listening
• Feelings in others
• Peer Pressure

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me at 701.323.1135 or ramona_westergren@bismarckschools.org

Email: grimsrud_secretary@bismarckschools.org
Website: https://www.bismarckschools.org/grimsrud
Phone: 701-323-4150