January 24, 2025

Growing Through What We Go Through

New Year, renewed determination to keep pushing, growing, and learning from our mistakes. Our goal for your kiddos is to help them feel more confident about what lies ahead: STAAR, middle school, or the rest of 5th-grade. We've had conversations about having a growth mindset and how frustrating it can be to maintain that type of mindset. Dory from Finding Nemo wasn't wrong when she sang, "Just keep swimming," we are actively trying to teach our students to do just that. This mantra will be important in the coming months because we have interim assessments in about a month, and we will continue preparing ourselves for STAAR in April and May.

The second half of the year can be tricky to navigate because students know STAAR gets closer each day, and they often feel that time is moving much faster, bringing a unique sense of pressure. Therefore, we will focus heavily on building our stamina as the year's second half progresses. This means we will provide students with ways to work through frustration and stress to ensure we can avoid a breakdown in learning. For some, it might be as simple as focusing on their breathing; others may take a short walk to help clear their head, and sometimes it may lead to us taking brain breaks. More than anything, we want your kiddos to feel supported through anything and everything that may come up.

Save the Date

Tuesday, January 28th

-Math Interim Assessments

Wednesday, January 29th

-College Spirit Day

-Science Interim Assessment

Thursday, January 30th

-Spinal Screenings for 5th Girls

GHES 5th Grade to CTMS

This year, the district has initiated a field trip for all 5th graders, where they will visit their feeder middle school for a tour and to receive more information. The day chosen for Glenhope 5th grade was Tuesday, February 5th. We will depart school at 9:30 a.m. and arrive at CTMS by 9:45 a.m.. From 9:45 to 11:45, students will participate in rotations, such as meeting with counselors, fine arts, AVID, etc. At 11:45 we will depart CTMS and plan to be back at Glenhope no later than noon. 

A packet was sent home this week with three required forms that need to be filled out for our trip. Please fill them out, sign where needed, and return them no later than Monday, February 3rd. If the packet somehow didn't make it home with your child, we have linked it below:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ooHWn91qd2mQ_N_4lzhm_Ws8Xz1pMT36/view?usp=sharing 

Plastic & Glass Jars/Containers Needed

We have a few 5th graders doing a coin drive to raise money for wildfire relief in California. They hope to get enough plastic and glass containers to put one in every Glenhope teacher's room. If you have a container you feel would work for this, please send it in ASAP!

After our field trip on February 5th, students will receive their course selection papers. They will fill those out and then submit them to their homeroom teachers by February 10th. Mrs. Canafax and the 5th-grade teachers will review them to check that everyone has signed up for appropriate courses, then the week of February 17 Mrs. Canafax will meet with all 5th grade students to guide them through entering their course selections in Skyward. The Middle school counselors will give parents an opportunity to review what students have entered in Skyward before summer break. 

If you are interested in your child applying for the AVID program, you are encouraged to attend the AVID Family information night on January 29th at 5:30 pm in the GCISD Professional Development and Education Center.  Check out the AVID website to learn more about the AVID program! 

Check out our 5th to 6th grade transition website for more information about everything related to moving from elementary to middle school! Bookmark this site, as the elementary and middle school counselors will add more to it as information becomes available.

Questions? Please reach out to lauren.canafax@gcisd.net. 

Interim Testing

Next week, we have two more interim tests (practice STAAR). Please be sure that your child has had a good night's sleep, has a snack, and has a charged device when they come to school, along with their charger (just in case). The dates of testing are below:

• Tuesday 1/28 - Math Interim Assessment

• Wednesday 1/29 - Science Interim Assessment

5th Girls - Scoliosis Screening

Scoliosis screening for all 5th-grade girls is scheduled for 1/30/25. If you wish to exempt your child from participation, please complete the exemption form. The forms, along with additional information, were emailed to parents on 1/15/25. For questions, please contact Nurse Liz at 817-251-5710 or via email at elizabeth.giblin@gcisd.net.

Yearbook Artwork

This year, the yearbook theme is “Gators Glow.” Draw Spike (our mascot) among glow sticks or surrounded by neon lights. Create a "dance party" scene that features silhouettes of students with glowing accessories or use abstract shapes and lines that look like they are glowing, with gradients transitioning between colors. Consider incorporating geometric patterns that resemble neon signs and lights. Make sure your picture is drawn on 8 ½ x 11” white paper, you may use color. You can add backgrounds, but no tiny details. Please put your name and teacher’s name on the back. Your picture is due by January 31st  to your homeroom teacher. Feel free to fill out the information below and attach to the back of your picture, but it is not required (you can simply write your information on the back of your illustration).

Note: One piece of art per class will go into the yearbook. Students in each class will vote on the artwork they would like to have illustrated on their homeroom’s yearbook page.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1a0ItUJ8VHw2cvrixHB3kg959jRxZvAxE1N5_imIzmKs/edit?tab=t.0

Information on Math Telescoping

Parents interested in telescoping information in the spring or summer can find the district dates at this site.

GCISD Math Acceleration Testing

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:

• I can explain the use of sound devices and figurative language and distinguish between the poet and the speaker in poems across a variety of poetic forms.

• I can edit drafts using standard English conventions, including prepositions, and I can identify prepositions in sentences and use them correctly in my writing.

Math: 

• Reviewing Unit 6

• 5.4F simplify numerical expressions that do not involve exponents, including up to two levels of grouping.  

• 5.4B represent and solve multi-step problems involving the four operations with whole numbers using equations with a letter standing for the unknown quantity.  

• 5.4(E) describe the meaning of parentheses and brackets in a numeric expression.  

• Unit 6 TEKS check Thursday 

Science: 

• I can explain how the Sun and ocean affect weather.

Social Studies:

• I can explain how free enterprise promotes industrialization and mechanization of agriculture.

• I can explain how life in the United States changed with new technological advances in agriculture, the building of the Erie Canal, and the use of steam power.

• I can explain how industrialization highlighted the sectional differences in the United States.

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