March 28, 2025

Gearing Up!

We hope everyone had an extraordinary Spring Break! Our return from the break has us gearing up for STAAR and finding a rhythm to guide us through the rest of the year. The goal, as always, is to ensure we maintain solid effort, but we also want to do what we can to make the time they have left outstanding. While we have STAAR around the corner and will take time to help prepare our students for it, we will be working to avoid students hyper-fixating on it. This is a time of year when having the right balance is critical. We will continue to lower student anxiety about STAAR before they take it.

As we progress closer and closer to the end of the year, we want to reflect on the growth we've seen. However, we know that sometimes the looming weight of STAAR can lead to students forgetting how far they've come, not to mention the nerves that often accompany the transition to middle school. Therefore, when discussing STAAR with your kiddos, we usually frame our thinking around it, as each test is only one day out of an entire school year. Those three days do not cancel out all the other days. We have had challenges to overcome all the other days, requiring even more perseverance. We want students to realize they put in far more work every day preparing for the next part of their journey, which is middle school. We continue to be incredibly proud of the work your kiddos put in day after day.

Save the Date

Friday, March 28th

-Play it Safe programs

Friday, April 4th

-GLOW DAY! - wear your field trip shirt and neon/clothes that will GLOW in blacklight!

Glow Day - Wear Your Field Trip Shirt!

For Glow Day, all students at Glenhope are being asked to wear their field trip shirts, as they were specifically designed this year to glow under black light! The 5th-grade field trip shirt is dark grey and has a wolf on the back wearing neon green sunglasses :-)

Photos Needed for 5th Grade Graduation Slideshow

The 5th Grade Committee is working hard to prepare an amazing graduation for our 5th Grade Gators. A tradition during graduation is for the graduation slideshow to include a baby picture, a kindergarten picture, and a 5th-grade picture of EVERY student. To make that happen, we need help from all our parents. 

You can upload the necessary pictures of your Gator in the Google form below. Please ensure you are only filling out ONE form per student, so, Mom, if you fill it out, let Dad know not to and vice versa. 

We will also need you to label each picture with your student's name and what picture it is (e.g., "Sam Cross Baby Picture," "Sam Cross Kinder Picture," and "Sam Cross 5th Grade Picture.") There are 112 5th graders, which means hundreds of pictures, and having them labeled is the only way we can make sure every student is included.

Individual 5th Grade Grad Photos

The second Google form is for group pictures. Parents may send in up to 3 group pictures to include in the slide show as well. Pictures must have been taken ON campus or at a school sponsored event (field trip or camp) and they must be submitted by April 4. If they do not meet these criteria, they will not be included. 

Group 5th Grade Grad Photos

If you have any questions please reach out to Melissa Cross at 5thcommittee@glenhopepta.org

Teacher Emails

Should the need arise for you to contact one of your child's teachers for academic questions/concerns/comments, or anything else, here are their email addresses:

6th Grade Accelerated Math (@iUPrep) - chad.baker@gcisd.net

5th-Grade Math- ashley.carter@gcisd.net

Science/Social Studies - christi.robertson@gcisd.net

ELAR - rion.wahpekeche@gcisd.net

Please do not hesitate to contact us. Our goal is to respond the same day if possible, but it may be the following morning before we can. 

Curriculum 

ELAR:

• Next week, we will continue to review our reading and writing skills in preparation for STAAR.

Math: 

• I can use concrete objects and algorithms to apply the formula for the volume of a rectangular prism, including the special form for a cube.

• I can solve problems by calculating single-step and multistep customary length conversions. 

• I can solve problems by calculating single-step and multistep metric conversions.

Science: 

• Next week, we will begin reviewing for our upcoming Science STAAR test.

Social Studies:

• I can identify the goals the Progressive Movement worked toward and was able to achieve.

• I can explore the cause-and-effect events that led to the war.

• I can describe the effects of the Treaty of Versailles.

Feedback

We know we aren't perfect. Please click the link below and give us feedback on the first two weeks of school. We'd love to improve, and we'd appreciate your feedback. Thanks in advance!

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfoE_vXWi42rGbnGON6X8uq5rLuCOsINgrfBgzyQa9kozcBrA/viewform?usp=sf_link