The Panther Post
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News & Updates from Gum Springs Elementary School
Week of March 20 - March 24, 2023
News & Updates
Don't forget that this Wednesday, March 22 is an Early-Release Day for JCSS elementary students. School dismisses at 11:30, and there is no after-school program. We know that transportation arrangements may be different than usual, so please make sure your child's teacher is aware of any changes.
Calling all FUTURE PANTHERS! Kindergarten Registration for the 2023-24 school year is now OPEN! Having an accurate count of rising kindergarteners is very important to help us make staffing and resource decisions for the upcoming school year. Please help us spread the word to friends with rising kindergarteners by tagging them in our posts on Facebook or Instagram or sharing this newsletter link. (If your child is already enrolled in JCSS Pre-K, he/she will be automatically enrolled in kindergarten, so you do not have to complete any of these steps. We will send home more information with all GSES enrolled Pre-K students.) Once you have completed online enrollment at https://www.jacksonschoolsga.org/Page/223 (Look for the big orange button!), sign up for an appointment with a kindergarten teacher at https://tinyurl.com/GSKdg2023 on March 27th or 29th. We are excited to meet our new families soon!
LAST CHANCE! Our Original Works art fundraiser ends THIS WEEK on Wednesday, March 22. Don't forget to place your orders for custom products featuring your child's original artwork from Original Works at https://store.originalworks.com/gallerylogin/. To order, you will need the school code "Gum" (case sensitive). The other access codes you will need are unique to your child's artwork and can be found on the brochure your child brought home. (If you have misplaced your info, you can contact Mrs. Hannifin at khannifin@jcss.us.) Feel free to share the link and access codes with any friends or family who might like to order a special keepsake too. Orders will be delivered shortly after Spring Break--just in time to make great gifts for Mother's Day or Father's Day.
Some of our proud Panthers will be participating in the Jackson County Spring Special Olympics soon! If you'd like to show your support to our GSES participants, you can order shirts for $10 at https://tinyurl.com/2023SOshirts. Online sales close on April 3.
Last week was School Social Worker Week in Georgia, but no matter what week it is, we are so lucky to have Mrs. Rachel Duke as part of our GSES family! Mrs. Duke is always responsive and willing to do whatever it takes to support our students, staff, and families. She goes above and beyond to advocate for the needs of our school community, and we are so thankful she is part of our team!
This week was Board of Education Appreciation Week. Thank you to our Jackson County School System Board of Education who is so encouraging and supportive of our school system. We are proud to have these cooperative leaders guiding our system! Thank you Mr. Hollett, Mrs. Wheeler, Mr. Sanders, Mr. Clack, and Mr. Johnson.
This Week's
After-School Clubs
Monday: Tech Club (pick-up at 4:00)
Thursday: Drama Club Cast, Crew, & Ensemble (pick-up at 4:30)
Upcoming Events
March 20-31: Parent Conferences
March 22: Early Relase Day
March 22: Original Works Art Sale deadline
March 27 & March 29: 2023-24 Kindergarten Registration Appointments
April 3: Deadline for Special Olympics T-shirt orders
April 3-7: Spring Break: No School for Students
April 6: Last Day for School Delivery Yearbook Orders
SCHOOL SPOTLIGHTS
AMAZING ARTISTS
We were honored to showcase the work of 59 talented GSES artists in this year's Jackson County School System Juried Art Show, which opened on Thursday, March 16th. Congratulations to two GSES Panthers, whose designs were recognized as system-wide winning entires! 5th grader Bryn Hawk won 2nd place in the 3rd-5th grade Drawing category, and 4th grader Gavin Vaniscak won 2nd place in the Mixed Media category. We are proud of all of our artists for their excellent work and so thankful for our amazing art teacher Mrs. Hannifin who inspires and encourages them. The JCSS Art Show exhibit is open to the public and on display through March 30th at Empower College and Career Center.
GSES HEART HEROES
Congratulations to this year's winners in the American Heart Association Kid's Heart Challenge fundraiser. Our top 12 fundraisers got the chance to SILLY STRING COACH WHITLOCK on Friday. He was a great sport to take on 24 cans of silly string at one time! Scroll the images above to meet this year's Top 12 fundraisers and winning classes.
PANTHER PLAYOFFS:
SPECIALS-EDITION!
We have seen such great improvement in student behavior this quarter with implementation of our new ticketing system. On Friday, we were excited to celebrate it with our Quarter 3 Panther Playoffs! Students enjoyed a "Specials-Edition" version of Playoffs last Friday. They were given the opportunity to choose the station where they most wanted to celebrate their success!
In P.E., students participated in Field Day practice stations, along with Ultimate Dodgeball. They absolutely loved trying out the new Roller Racer Scooters!
In Ag, students created beautiful Plant Mosaic artwork.
In music, students enjoyed playing "Just Dance," where they got to dance and sing to lots of great music. Some of their favorites were "YMCA," "Happy," and "That's What's Makes You Beautiful" to name a few.
In ASL, students could choose to play any of the math games they have learned this year, complete number puzzles like Sudoku or hundreds-board challenges, or build 3D shapes out of different manipulatives. The crowd favorite was definitely Giant Uno!
STEM students had fun with Minute-to-Win-It style challenges where design thinkers were given several engineering tasks. Students had one minute to plan and four minutes to build using flexible thinking, as they were given different materials with each challenge.
At the art station, Pre-K-2nd grade students made tie-dyed baby wipe shamrocks, and 3rd-5th graders made coffee filter butterflies, flowers, and shamrocks by spraying markers with water to create different effects. They also created large floor drawings of their choosing and completed leprechaun word searches and shamrock pictures while spending time with their friends from other classes.
LUCKY LITTLE LEARNERS
We sure are LUCKY to have such great students and staff at GSES! Many classes enjoyed special activities on Friday to celebrate St. Patrick's Day. No one could catch him, but it seemed some pesky little leprechaun was wreaking havoc all over our building!
Mrs. Cofer's 2nd graders built traps to try to catch him! They used their engineering skills to plan, create, and test their traps. However, the traps all failed and the leprechaun wrecked their classroom! Oh no!
Mrs. Goodrick's 3rd grade class tackled a Novel Engineering challenge. They read a character's problem from a book and tried to solve it. Engineers create and then evaluate to see how to make their solution better, so Mrs. Goodrick's students helped the characters in the book catch a leprechaun by building a better trap. No luck there either!
Mrs. Duke's Pre-K class created leprechaun traps as well. They did a science experiment to make their own rainbows, hoping that would lure him to their classrooms. They just missed him there too!
Too bad that silly leprechaun didn't stop by Mrs. Gordy's class during math; he could have found his favorite snack! Her students were doing some yummy St. Patrick’s day data analysis. They enjoyed sorting, graphing, and answering questions about Lucky Charms.
A leprechaun would have been a great new school mascot (especially for the green Geronimo tribe!), but apparently they're just too hard to catch. Oh well! We did some great thinking and great learning on Friday trying to make it happen! There's always next year...
Cofer's Catchers
Goodrick's Engineers
Duke's Scientists
Gordy's Mathematicians
Mrs. Brunen’s 3rd grade writers have been working on opinion writing all quarter, and last week they celebrated their success with a St. Patrick’s Day-themed publishing party. Students enjoyed leprechaun sundaes and cupcakes before they read their friends’ opinion writing pieces. They moved from table to table reading all about important issues at our school, and what they can do to make a difference. They also took the time to write purposeful comments on their peers’ compliment rainbows. Great job, authors!
Mrs. Chandler's kindergarten class has been learning about the different types of soil. This week, students enjoyed a fun project to help them understand why soil is such an important part of nature. Students worked together as beaver teams and used mud (Play-doh), leaves, sticks, and pine straw to create lodges. These busy beavers are really enjoying scientific explorations!
Mrs. Ellis' 4th grade class headed west on the Oregon Trail this week! Students worked with their wagon team to pick essential supplies and stay within a budget. Then they faced different scenarios that could set back their journeys. If they were wise about what they purchased, they may have had an advantage over other wagon teams. Students also enjoyed sampling cornbread (Thanks, Mrs. Carney!) and even made their own butter to go with it. Our 4th graders love social studies!
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