One School One Book

We officially kicked off our One School One Book program on Friday with students! Your child should have brought home a packet that has the welcome letter, reading calendar, and trivia slips. Each family received a copy of the book (oldest child should have it) unless otherwise noted as being purchased or not needing a copy. 

Each morning on KGES we will share the answer to the trivia question from the previous evening and we will draw a few trivia slips for students to win prizes. 

Join Remind

Are you getting our campus Remind texts? You should automatically get them if your phone number is up to date in Skyward and NOT marked as private. If you aren't receiving messages, you can join by sending @gesgcisd to 81010. 

Play it Safe

GCISD offers the "Play It Safe" program for all students in grades PK-5. The GCISD School Health Advisory Council (SHAC is a volunteer council comprised of parents and community members that reflect the values of the district and community) has previewed and recommended these programs for all GCISD elementary schools. The curriculum and presentations are aligned with district philosophy. This program is a personal safety program and does not address human sexuality. Play It Safe is a child abuse prevention and awareness program that incorporates individual grade level, age-appropriate scripts and movies to teach children how to reduce the risk of sexual and physical abuse, and sexual assault. It teaches them to recognize potentially abusive behavior, provides the tools to respond to threatening situations, and encourages them to report abuse to a trusted adult. 

GCISD ofrece el programa de ¡Jugar Seguro! ("Play It Safe!") para todos los estudiantes desde PK-5. El Consejo de Asesoramiento para la Salud Escolar (SHAC, por sus siglas en inglés: School Health Advisory Council) de GCISD (SHAC es un consejo de voluntarios compuesto de padres de familia e integrantes de la comunidad que reflejan los valores del distrito y de la comunidad) ha visto de antemano y recomienda estos programas para todas las escuelas primarias de GCISD. El plan de estudios y las presentaciones se alinean a la filosofía del distrito escolar. Este programa es un programa de seguridad personal y no aborda el tema de la sexualidad humana. ¡Jugar Seguro! es un programa de prevención y de conciencia sobre el abuso infantil que incluye texto apropiado para cada nivel de grado individualmente para su edad, películas para enseñarles a los niños cómo reducir el riesgo de abuso sexual y físico, y de asalto sexual. Les enseña a reconocer un comportamiento que potencialmente sea abusivo, les provee herramientas para responder a situaciones amenazantes, y los motiva a reportar el abuso a un adulto de confianza.    

The Women's Center of Tarrant County, Inc., uses trained employees to present a fact-based personal safety program for students. The presentations are classroom-based so that children are in a familiar environment, and feel comfortable to interact with the trainer. A video is shown, followed by a question and answer time.

El Centro de Mujeres del Condado de Tarrant, Inc. tiene empleados capacitados para presentar un programa a estudiantes que trata sobre los temas de seguridad personal. Las presentaciones se hacen en el salón de clases donde los alumnos se sienten en un ambiente familiar y sienten la confianza de interactuar con la persona que está dando el entrenamiento. Se muestra un video y a continuación habrá tiempo para preguntas y respuestas.

We must have your permission in order for your child to participate in this program. Please indicate OPT IN if you would like your child to participate. We need parents to provide an OPT IN or OPT OUT for their child. Click here to view instructions on how to Opt In/Out from your Family Access.

Debemos tener su permiso para que su hijo participe en este programa. Indique SÍ “OPT IN” si desea que su hijo/a participe. Necesitamos que los padres escojan SÍ “OPT IN” o NO “OPT OUT” para su hijo/a. Haga clic aquí para ver instrucciones sobre cómo participar o no en Skyward Family Access.

Participation Consent Form Deadline is 1 week prior to campus presentation date /  La fecha límite del formulario de Consentimiento de Participación es 1 semana antes de la fecha de presentación en la escuela

 Your child's school will be showing Play It Safe to students on Tuesday, January 30th.

We are hosting a parent preview TOMORROW, January 9 at 10:00 AM via Zoom. This presentation will be recorded and posted on the GCISD website for parents to watch at their convenience.
Estamos organizando una vista previa para padres el 9 de enero a las 10:00 a.m. a través de Zoom. Esta presentación se grabará y publicará en el sitio web de GCISD para que los padres la vean a su conveniencia.

Videos and scripts will be available for parents to preview from 1/03/2024 to 1/31/2024.  https://vimeo.com/showcase/7889498 Password: GC24

Los videos y textos estarán disponibles para que los padres los vean desde el 1/03/2024 hasta el 1/31/2024. https://vimeo.com/showcase/7889498 Contraseña: GC24

If you are unable to view the videos or the parent preview, but wish to view the material, please contact The Women's Center of Tarrant County, Inc. at 817-927-4040 and ask for the Play It Safe department.  

Si no puede ver los videos o la vista previa, pero desea ver el material, favor de ponerse en contacto con el Centro de Mujeres del Condado de Tarrant, Inc. marcando el 817-927-4040 y preguntar por el departamento de ¡Jugar Seguro! 

STAAR Interims

State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR®) Interim Assessments online assessments that align to the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) and that help educators monitor student progress and predict student performance on STAAR.

Students in grades 3-5 will be taking STAAR Interims on January 10th (Science, 5th grade only), January 16th (Reading) and January 18th (Math). Please help us ensure that your students are present on those days and have a healthy breakfast and good sleep the night before. 

Report Cards Post

2nd Nine Weeks Report Cards post to Skyward on Wednesday. Please take time to review your child's progress and electronically sign their report card. We appreciate you taking the time to view your child's progress. 

GES Spelling Bee

Our GES Spelling Bee is scheduled for Friday, Jan. 12th at 8am. Our 3rd-5th grade students will watch our top 22 finalists compete to see who our GES Spelling Champion will be! Only the families of our finalists are invited to attend. Fourth and fifth grade students who were interested in qualifying took a test back in October. They have been studying and preparing for the big day. We wish all our contestants the best of luck! 

GT Testing

We had over 130 students nominated for GT testing in grades K-5. Mrs. Ganus will be working throughout the month of January to pull students for testing, as each student is required to take specific tests based on their grade level. Homeroom teachers have the current testing schedule if you're curious when your child might be pulled. Results will be sent directly to parents later this spring. 

No School Monday, Jan. 15 

Just a friendly reminder that there is no school this coming Monday, January 15th in observance of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. Enjoy a day off with your loved ones!

Technology Check

Have you checked your child's Chromebook or iPad lately? Do they still have working headphones? This is a great time of year to take inventory and make sure that your child has working items coming into testing season. You can submit a help ticket at help.gcisd.net if your child's device is broken, cracked, or not functioning properly. Please check with your child to ensure that their headphones are working properly. These are an essential learning tool to have in class each day and they do break throughout the year and need replacing. 

January Character Quality -- PERSEVERANCE

GES will host guidance lessons regarding PERSEVERANCE throughout this month, as well as some classroom Circle Up conversations. PERSEVERANCE can be defined as pushing yourself to work through challenges and obstacles. Please consider partnering with GES by reviewing the Purposefull People Family Connection Newsletter, and discuss ways to demonstrate PERSEVERANCE at home and at school. Homeroom teachers will nominate a student that has shown the most growth in PERSEVERANCE or demonstrates it in a big way at the end of January.

Morning Drop-off

Please use the car lines for dropping students off in the morning OR park and walk with your child to the crosswalk. Please do not drop off students in the parking lot in the morning or in the traffic lanes to walk alone. This is very dangerous and actually slows down the process for everyone else. Our resource officer is going to be standing out in the morning to help us reinforce these safety procedures. Thank you for doing your part to assure the safety of our students.

Lunch Visitors

Lunch guests will sign-in through our secure vestibule with a valid ID, stop by the front office to check-in and receive a visitor badge, and then meet their GES star at the entrance to the cafeteria. Families will have the option to sit outside in the picnic table area for lunch or in our cafeteria at an empty table near the windows. Parents are welcome to bring in outside food when having their lunch with their child. We ask that you please be courteous to the rest of the community and limit lunch visits with your child to no more than one per month so that all families have the opportunity to visit. We appreciate your cooperation. 

Each family needs only 1 slot reserved. For example, Mom, Dad, and sister may all come eat lunch with Nancy. Only Mom needs to be registered as 1 visitor to reserve 1 picnic table together. When it asks for quantity of visitors, please select just 1. Lunch visitors may only eat with their child or student. You may not invite friends to sit with you when coming for lunch. 

You can sign-up for lunch from January 4-31 HERE.

Volunteering

We LOVE our volunteers at GES! This year we are encouraging all families who plan to come to campus and interact with students to go ahead and complete the background check. Volunteers must complete this EACH YEAR beginning in August! It can take 1-2 weeks for your background check to clear. If you plan to be a guest reader, volunteer at a class party, chaperone a field trip, volunteer with PTA, open car doors with our Dad's Club, etc. you will need a completed Background Check!  

The following link takes you to the online Volunteer Handbook and background check: https://www.gcisd.net/o/gcisd/page/volunteer-background-check 

In order to volunteer at GES, or around GCISD, all volunteers must:

1. read the Volunteer Handbook (this replaces the previous face to face volunteer trainings held on campus)

2. watch the appropriate video included in the handbook

3. electronically sign the verification Google form for each campus you plan to volunteer

4. complete the volunteer background check. A link is included in the handbook.

When you are ready to volunteer at GES, feel free to call the front office at 817-251-5735 to verify that both of the required steps have been recorded as completed. We appreciate your support as you complete these steps and volunteer to work with our GES students.