Week of February 13

The Panther Post

News & Updates from Gum Springs Elementary School

Week of February 13-17, 2023

News & Updates

Our next two weeks are short ones! Remember, there is no school for students on Friday, February 17th; Monday, February 20th; and Tuesday, February 21st.
We are looking forward to celebrating Valentine's Day this week! As a reminder, GSES will not be accepting deliveries of flowers, balloons, etc. for students. Thank you for understanding!
Parents - Please help our district and school by taking a brief survey about our school. Your feedback is important to Jackson County Schools as we are always looking for ways to improve and ensure we are providing the best for our students. We appreciate your time and dedication to our school! Click HERE to complete the Georgia Parent Survey by February 25th.

Thank you for helping us show the LOVE in this year's Kids Heart Challenge. We are wrapping up our campaign with 417 students registered and $20,082.16 raised for the American Heart Association! As a thank you to our school, we also earned almost $2,000 to spend on PE equipment. Thank you for helping us show our kids the importance of helping others.
Friday, March 3rd will be Book Character Dress-Up Day, as we wrap up our "Read Across America" Week celebration. Get your costumes ready! We can't wait to see our favorite book characters come to life in the GSES Book Character Virtual Parade!
Pre-K Registration for the 2023-24 school year is open through February 28th. Students are selected for the limited spots in our Pre-K program through a lottery drawing that will be held on March 14. Specific information about our Pre-K program and the application and registration process can be found at https://www.jacksonschoolsga.org/prek. Applications may be picked up at GSES. If you know of a family in our school district with a rising Pre-K student, please help us spread the word by letting them know this important information. (Kindergarten registration will be in March, and information will shared later about that process.)

This Week's

After-School Clubs

Monday: Science Olympiad Team (pick-up at 4:00)

Thursday: Science Olympiad Team (pick-up at 4:00)

Secret STEM Club (pick-up at 4:00)

Drama Club Cast, Ensemble, and Crew (pick-up at 4:30)

Upcoming Events

February 17-21: No School for Students

February 27-March 3: Read Across America Week

March 3: Book Character Dress-Up Day

March 20-31: Parent Conferences

March 22: Early Relase Day (School dismisses at 11:30, and there is no After-School Program.)

SCHOOL SPOTLIGHTS

Science olympiad team wins 1st

On Saturday, February 11th, our GSES Science Olympiad team was one of five schools who participated in a practice Science Olympiad tournament, sponsored by the Jackson County School System, and they brought home the FIRST PLACE Award! Students competed with partners in seventeen different events, and our GSES teams won first or second place in fifteen of those events. Congratulations to the following students:

Ellie Rankin and Allie Duncan, 2nd place in Weather or Not
Liam Selby and Olivia Bennett, 1st place in Starry, Starry Night
Isabella Soto and Lukas Hullings, 1st place in Simple Machines
Parker Hamrick, and Charleigh Kayumova, 1st place in Rock Hound
Kaleb Martin and Lane Peevy, 2nd place in Paper Rockets
Silas Black and Carson Powers, 1st place in No Bones About It
Jonah Black and Sophie Thomas, 2nd place in Mystery Architecture
Parker Hamrick and Hudson Herring, 1st place in Grab a Gram
Silas Black and Allie Duncan, 1st place in Disease Detectives
Parker Wilson and Ellie Rankin, 1st place in Deep Blue Sea
Mason Bray and Silas Black, 2nd place in Data Crunchers
Lukas Hullings and Kaleb Martin, 1st place in Crime Busters
Charleigh Kayumova and Isabella Soto, 1st place in Bridge Building
Liam Selby and Will Roland, 1st place in Barge Building
Coralie Keith and Sophie Thomas, 1st place in Backyard Biologists

The team has one month of practice left before they head to their big event--the Northeast Georgia Regional Science Olympiad competition on March 11. Congratulations Science Olympiad Team! You made us Panther Proud!

STEM Night Success

We loved having so many families POP IN for STEM Night this week! We enjoyed many movie-themed activities, including launching stomp rockets from INCREDIBLES 2, making our own FROZEN snow and using it to build snowmen, searching for MADAGASCAR'S hidden animals around the school, cracking HARRY POTTER'S CIPHER CODES and writing with invisible ink, building and racing MOANA's boats, building the strongest-possible SPIDERMAN web, coding constellations with PETER PAN and Tinkerbell, and tackling a TOY STORY Claw-building Challenge. Check out some of the fun we had in these pictures, and visit our Facebook page to see lots more!

dental health month

February is National Children's Dental Health Month, and this week our kindergarten students enjoyed a visit from Sweet Maple Pediatric Dentistry to discuss dental health and hygiene. Students also received dental health bags and sugar-free lollipops.

Our friends at Howell Orthodontics in Jefferson also supplied students with toothbrushes and shared a virtual visit from the tooth fairy, who helped them learn about good dental health. Parents, thank you for helping our students practice at home what they have been learning about at school as they start developing great dental health habits at a young age.

a "SUPER" time to learn!

Kindergarteners in Mrs. Cash and Mrs. Forrest's class geared up for the upcoming Super Bowl game with lots of football-themed activities this week. They enjoyed a sound identification literacy game called Flag on the Play and a math game of Football Bingo that put player's addition and subtraction skills to the test. Students also made cheerleaders and football players and wrote their predictions of who would win the big game. It may be win or lose for the Eagles and Chiefs, but it's winning-only around here when learning is this much fun!

FFA friends visit GSES

Thanks to our friends and alumni from West Jackson Middle School FFA who came to read to our students this week as part of their National FFA Week celebrations. We love having guest readers visit our classes, and it really makes us proud when some of them are former students too!

Stop for Safety

Thanks to the Jackson County School System Transportation Department for conducting Bus Safety trainings with all of our students this week. Between daily transportation routes and field trips or special events, all of our students will be bus riders at some point. We appreciate the Transportation Department's help making sure students know how to safely exit in an emergency and stay safe while riding the bus.

Bringing the past to the present

Recently, 5th grade students in Mrs. Childs' and Mrs. Tinnell's classes had an opportunity to "show what they know" about World War II through self-selected projects. Projects included trading cards, informational alphabet books, timelines, realistic interviews and news articles, designed and delivered expert lessons, artistic collages, and even an original music composition! Students shared their incredible work with peers and parents.

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