Dear GES Families,

Our school will be embarking on a special project for the third year: a whole school book club called One School One Book. Every GES family will receive a copy of the same book on Friday and be asked to read it aloud with their children at home from January 5 through February 2nd. Some families opted to purchase a personalized copy of the book in advance. It is included in your child’s envelope. We are personally asking you to make the time in your schedule in the coming month so your family can participate in this special activity. We will ask for the borrowed books to be returned to GES following the program for use in future learning experiences. 

Reading aloud at home is valuable because it better prepares your child to be an effective reader. But it is also a fun, worthwhile family activity. With the One School One Book program, we aim to build a community of readers at our school. Everyone - students, parents, teachers, principals - will be participating, and we can all reap the many benefits.

We will have a school-wide Webex on January 5th to kick off our One School One Book program following our KGES announcements. This is when the book title will be announced to students. Your family (oldest students) will receive a copy of the book that day unless you indicated on the form that you do not need one. The reading calendar, which will show which days we will read each chapter, will come home with the book so you can make sure your child is on track. Generally you will be asked to read a chapter or 2 per night aloud to your child, Monday through Friday. This will take about 10-15 minutes per night. 

After reading, your child will be invited to answer daily trivia questions to encourage and reward great listening skills. The slips can be found in the packet that will be coming home with your child on Friday. Students will complete a trivia slip each evening to submit in the foyer the next morning for the opportunity to win prizes. You will soon find that your child will take pride in knowing and anticipating the details of the story. In class, there may be various activities that discuss or explore the book. You will want to make sure your family keeps up so your child can be included. Throughout the month, everyone will be talking about the book.

Each evening, we will send a Remind text to families with the reading for the night, the trivia question, and a link to listen to the assigned chapter. While we hope you will find time to read aloud with your child, we know that sometimes family hardships can make it difficult to sit down together. 

One School One Book is a unique program because GES students at all grade levels will all be listening to the same book. This will stretch our students’ learning because reading professionals recommend reading material out loud that is beyond a child’s own reading level. We also believe that you can and should continue reading chapter books with your older children, even when they are able to read by themselves. We have selected a title that can be followed and understood and enjoyed by younger students, but that will still interest our older children. 

We hope that families will embrace this opportunity to have fun and explore reading together. With your help, we can build a strong community of readers at Grapevine Elementary!  

All my best,

Nancy Hale        

New SRO

I wanted to let you know about a change on our GES campus for the second semester. Officer Cartwright has accepted a new job in a city closer to his family. We will miss Officer Cartwright and we are so appreciative of the time and effort that he dedicated to our school. We wish him all the best in his new role.

Fortunately, we have been able to secure a permanent replacement for Officer Cartwright. Officer Weber is joining the GES family beginning January 4, 2024. Officer Weber comes to us with 29 years of experience in law enforcement, 27 of those in Grapevine. We look forward to getting to know him. 

Please join me in welcoming Officer Weber to our GES family.

January Lunch Sign-up

If you would like to come visit your child during lunch and eat with them in our cafeteria or on our front patio picnic tables, please reserve a time on our January Sign-up Genius HERE. You will always find the current month sign-up at the very bottom of this Monday Message for easy access. 

Federal Report Cards

The Texas Education Agency (TEA) has released the 2023 Federal Report Cards at the State, District, and Campus level with information as required by federal law. The Federal Report Cards do not contain 2023 State Accountability Rating information. 

To view our district and campus federal report cards, please visit our Accountability webpage for a link to search on TEA's site or click on the red "Archived State and Federal SRCs" button the bottom of our district's Accountability page.