Learning Two Languages at Glenbrook

Did you know that School District U-46 has an award winning Dual Language Program?  Glenbrook is a site for the Dual Language program and we love it!  It amazes me everyday to watch and hear our youngest students becoming bilingual, bi-literate and bi-cultural in Spanish and English.

  

Mrs. Miro uses a puppet to engage her kindergartners and to support their language development. It's much easier to focus and listen when students are excited to learn!  Behind her is a "smart board" which she often uses to display objects, pictures, videos and other fun things which help students to be able to "see" the language and link new vocabulary with the ideas that they may already know.

In first grade, Mrs. Rodriguez models lessons and uses sentence frames to help students when they are learning to write.  This supports the students in both their first and their second languages.

It's also important that teachers put labels around the room and across the building to support both the English and Spanish language. Labels help build vocabulary as well as to show children that both languages are equally valued.

Here in Mrs. Vargas' 2nd grade class you see students working in a cooperative group to sort animals into classifications.  Notice that again they have pictures to support the vocabulary. Together the students work together as they  create ideas about their work.  This cooperative work helps students to better understand concepts as well as supports their oral language development.

Mr. Chavez, the Dual Language 3rd Grade Teacher, uses hands on materials, charts, hand motions and cooperative grouping to experiment and give children real life experiences. These practices help the students better understand math and science concepts.

Mrs. Reza celebrates The Day of the Dead, or  Dia de los Muertos with her 4th graders. 


           They enjoyed creating these traditional sugar skull masks.   

     Mrs. Reza's 4th graders love science, just like the 3rd graders. The more hands on, real life experiences they get, the better they will be able to link English and Spanish vocabulary to 

understand both languages.

                       

                                                    

 The 5th and 6th graders in Mrs. Diaz-Blanco's class do a lot of research, writing and speaking in both English and Spanish.  These children have become quite fluent with both languages and are learning to communicate effectively using a variety of ways.

                    

D.A.R.E

Drug Abuse Resistance Education

D.A.R.E. is a nationwide program, which we are very fortunate to have at Glenbrook Elementary. Did you know that the Village of Streamwood is one of the few villages that still supports the D.A.R.E. program?  THANK YOU STREAMWOOD!!!!! We are so happy to have Officer Matt Stastny at our school!

One component of D.A.R.E. is to educate youth about the dangers of drug and alcohol abuse.  More importantly, it gives our children the skills they need to make informed choices throughout their lives.  The power of INFORMED DECISION MAKING!!!! 

Daren the lion is a great companion.

 5th graders love spending time with Officer Matt Stastny, their D.A.R.E. instructor. Each Tuesday he teaches them an important lesson and maybe even does a little bit of dancing!

The students enjoyed a visit from some Peer Mentors from Streamwood High School. The mentors shared their success stories as well as their struggles.

The 5th graders were excited to ask questions of the Streamwood High School Mentors.  They were excellent questions too. "How do you avoid the wrong kids?"  How do you choose your friends?" Who do you admire and why?" Do you enjoy school?"  The high school mentors gave some great advice which will stay with our young people for a long time!

Each year the D.A.R.E. students do a Community Service Project. By the end of the year we hope to have filled  this garbage can filled with aluminum pop tops for
Ronald McDonald House Charities.  

 This year our first grade students  are also having their own D.A.R.E. program!  Office Matt Stastny joins each classroom weekly for 15 minute lessons on "keeping safe" at home, school and in the community.  The students love having a personal relationship with Officer Matt. He will  be in their classrooms for the next 6 weeks. 

The students can't take their eyes off of Officer Matt Stastny. It's so exciting to have a
 real police officer visit the classroom.

Here the students are helping Officer Matt name all of the things
that make him look like a police officer.  How can they tell he is a police officer?

Halloween Bash

         It's very important to all of us at Glenbrook that we build a strong sense of community. One way we do this by holding many fun and engaging events for families to join together to celebrate and interact. Our annual Halloween Bash is one of the most popular events that our Parent Teacher Association (PTA) sponsors each school year.  This year, due to its growing popularity, we held the bash at Canton Middle School.  Over 500 guests came out to dance, eat, decorate pumpkins and enjoy each others company.  

The cafeteria was filled with families, friends and "bears"
enjoying some delicious pizza. 

Our 6th graders have enjoyed many Halloween Bash parties. They'll
never forget their last one!  Maybe they'll join us next year as volunteers!

"Pirate Brothers" have to eat too!

Hey Packman!

I bet you can't figure out who this is?

 Spiderman holds his pumpkin creation.

Land Shark!!!!!

Math, Math and More Math!

So often we hear from adults, "I'm not good at math!" or "I just don't like math!" Well at Glenbrook we don't hear that often at all. This year, with the full implementation of Eureka Math and the new and very rigorous Illinois Learning Standards, math is more fun than ever!  

 Even in the very early grades of Kindergarten
and first grade, our students are learning using
hands on and critical thinking skills.  They are making patterns, graphing and using everyday
concepts to learn mathematics.

 Students look at numbers in a variety of ways in order to better understand number concepts.  Here students are comparing and breaking down numbers using number bonds as well as pictures and number sentences. Notice how the addition sentences are sometimes leading with the totals.

Students learn to use a variety of strategies and tools to solve problems in all grade levels. (Yes, sometimes even their body parts!!!)  This practice helps the students to "see" math and conceptualize it rather than just memorize facts without truly understanding the concepts. 

Another important element of math is learning how to "explain your thinking."  With the new standards, students are now required to explain in words how they arrived at their answers.  With the Read, Draw, Write strategy, we are helping students learn how to pick out key words while problem solving prior to answering questions. They also learn how to better explain their thinking in words.

To help students with the Read, Draw, Write and the difficult math concepts, we spend a lot of time with key vocabulary.  Teachers often use picture, language and other  visual supports to help students form a better understanding of these important mathematical terms and expressions.  

 Glenbrook teachers want their students to take part in their learning as much as possible.  Research shows that when students set goals for themselves they are more likely to reach the growth targets.  Here you see how the 5th grade students have set their math goals based on their fall MAP testing. You can see that they know exactly what skills they need to work on, no secrets!