Ā The Panther Post
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News & Updates from
Gum Springs Elementary
August 28-31, 2023
News and Updates
As a reminder, there is NO SCHOOL FOR STUDENTS this Friday, September 1 and next Monday, September 4. Enjoy your break!
This Friday, JCHS will host Central Gwinnett at Panther Stadium at 7:30 P.M. JCHS is donating 4 FREE TICKETS to elementary Spirit Contest winners for each home game. Their spirit theme for this week is "USA-AMERICA-OUT." Since we don't have school on Friday, this week's Spirit Contest Day will be on Thursday. Show your red, white, blue, and Panther Pride this Thursday for a chance to win this week's tickets! This week's game is also Rec Sports and Youth Night. All students wearing their rec football jersey or cheer uniform get in free and get to participate in pre-game festivities.
GSES is grateful to have a large network of dedicated volunteers. If you did not sign up at Open House and would like to be notified of GSES volunteer opportunities, please complete THIS FORM to get added to our volunteer mailing list. One of the ways this group is most helpful to our staff is by being part of our weekly Copy Crew. If you are available to commit time on a Monday, Wednesday, or Friday to help with making copies, our teachers are very appreciative! We have an open spot for THIS WEEK on Wednesday. If you can fill the need or would like to sign up for other days to volunteer for the Copy Crew, click HERE.
Do you wonder what your Pre-K student does on a typical day at school? Our Pre-K team would love to share with you a day in the life of our Pre-K Pals! Please plan to join us at GSES on September 7th at 5:30 P.M. as we discuss information about parent conferences, snacks, field trips, attendance, and much more. Donāt miss this wonderful opportunity to visit your childās classroom and meet other parents.Ā
The Jackson County School System will be hosting a Community Engagement Session, as part of its Strategic Planning process, on Thursday, Sept. 21, at 6:00 P.M. inside the Student Center at the Empower College and Career Center. The event is open to all community members who want to provide valuable input into the future of the school system. RSVP by scanning the QR code or clicking HERE.
Upcoming Events
August 28-31: Kdg. Color Days Continue
August 29: GS Gizmos Meet After School (pick-up at 4:30)
August 31: USA-AMERICA-OUT for JCHS Spirit Contest: Wear your Red, White, Blue, and Panther Gear!
September 1: Staff Work Day; No School for Students
September 1: Rec Sports & Youth Night at JCHS Football Game
September 4: Labor Day; No School for Students or Staff
September 7: Pre-K Parent Orientation, 5:30 P.M.
September 7: First PTO Meeting; 6:30 P.M. in the GSES Cafeteria
September 19: Girl Scout Sign-Ups, 6:30 P.M.
September 21: Jackson County School System Community Engagement Meeting, 6:00 P.M. (Please RSVP)
SCHOOL SPOTLIGHTS
Staff Shout-Out!
On Friday, we were excited to announce and celebrate this year's GSES Teacher of the Year and Support Person of the Year! Congratulations to Teacher of the Year Mrs. Kasey Sheridan, STEM Teacher, and Support Person of the Year Ms. Kaycie Rogers, Instructional Coach. They are great examples of the wonderful team of staff members supporting our GSES students! Join us in congratulating Mrs. Sheridan and Ms. Rogers!
How Hot Does it Have to be to Melt a Crayon? Look What We Found Out!
It's been SUPER HOT the past few days, but our smart teachers took advantage of the opportunity to plan a special science investigation. Each of our amazing Specials teachers chose a different material such as canvas, particle board, glass, etc. and attached crayons to their selected surface. They placed the crayons all around campus on asphalt, concrete, metal railing, in a car, and in a flower bed. Students checked temperatures throughout the day finding that most had a starting point of around 82-91 degrees Fahrenheit by 8:30 A.M. Temperatures climbed steadily throughout the day and most ended upwards of 120 degrees and above by 1:00 P.M.Ā Student scientists observed that many of the crayons began melting around noon when thermometers read around 110 degrees and above. Great discussions happened surrounding the varying temperatures of concrete, soil, etc. as well as why different colors melted at different times. By far, the favorite was Mrs. Landers' crayons that completely melted in her car in just under 40 minutes! Temperatures were so hot that the thermometer even burst! Aren't our Specials teachers just the coolest (or should we say HOTTEST in this case?!) for planning such interesting learning experiences?! Check these before and after pictures!
Growing Great Readers
Over the last two weeks, our students have been visiting the media center for the first time this year for library orientation. This week our youngest students were so excited to visit the library for their very first time. They learned all about how fun the library can be, how to take care of their library books, and that they even get to take one book home for a whole week! Students had so much fun picking out their books and couldnāt wait to get home to read them!
Some of the students in Mrs. Harley and Mrs. Holmer's class even got to show their books off to our principal, Mr. Todd. We are excited to be growing great readers at GS!
Book Buddies
Many of our classes at GSES love participating in the Book Buddies program. During Book Buddies, students in an upper grade class are partnered with a Book Buddy in a lower grade class to be a reading mentor. They model what great reading sounds like, teach our younger students about great reading habits, and enjoy having the opportunity to be a special role model. It is a great way to help build reading confidence for both younger and older readers. Our Book Buddies look forward to their monthly visits together. This week, Mrs. Lyle's Pre-K students were excited to meet their Book Buddies from Mrs. Suggs' 4th grade class and share their first stories together.
Exploring Erosion
5th grade scientists are learning about the constructive and destructive forces that shape Earth's land. Along with learning about how natural disasters can change land, they have been exploring the power of wind and water and how it can slowly change land over time. Ms. Menard's class got to see how erosion and deposition happens in real time by exploring the effects of running water. They also tried to build erosion controls that would prevent damage to the land. Ms. Menard was impressed with the awesome scientific conversations that took place as students discussed the processes they observed.
Addition Action in 1st Grade
1st grade mathematicians are are learning about different addition strategies they can use to solve problems with sums up to 20. Mrs. Beecher's students enjoyed showing what they have learned by solving rainbow addition sentences highlighting their thinking strategies.
Map-Makers
Students in Mrs. Dunahoo, Hendley, and Silcott's 4th grade classes are geography experts (and amazing artists too)! Check out the final products of their 3-D maps featuring important geographical features in the United States!
5th grade teachers Mrs. Childs and Mrs. Swierczek proudly shared their Positivi-TEEs on Tuesday! Join us this and every Tuesday with yours too.
Science Olympiad Kicks Off
We were excited to have 67 students try out for this year's GSES Science Olympiad Team this week. At tryouts, they participated in 3 of the 18 events that are part of the Georgia State Science Olympiad competition, which our team will train for this year. In the Mystery Architecture challenge, students had to use a bag of miscellaneous items to build the tallest possible tower. During the Data Crunchers round, students practiced estimating then measuring distance, volume, mass, and temperature. In their final event, Rock Hound, students had to use a guidebook to help identify different rock and mineral samples. We were proud to see so many hard workers and great thinkers join the fun!
PANTHER SUPPORTERS
We are excited to welcome PLAYING IN MAKEUP BY YOLONDO as a new GSES Partner in Education. Thank you for your generous donation to support our students and staff!
Local restaurant Spirit Nights are a great way for you to support GSES! All you have to do is pick up dinner to-go, just like you usually might on a busy night, and GSES gets a percentage of sales. It's a win for our school, a win for a local business, and a win for you, since you don't have to cook dinner! šWe are partnering with several local restaurants who are offering monthly or quarterly Spirit Nights. Be on the lookout for dates here in the Panther Post. Thanks to everyone who joined us for Chick-Fil-A Spirit Night on Thursday. GSES brought in $2,577 in sales with 44 mobile orders and 55 counter or drive-thru orders, which brings $386.50 back to our school (15%). Thank you, Chick-Fil-A Braselton!
Want to know more about how you can support our school too? Click below for details.
High School Helping Hands
We had some great help on Saturday from GSES alumni and friends who are students at Jackson County High School and Empower College and Career Center. They volunteered to spend all morning helping organize lots of new decodable texts we are excited to have available to help our growing readers this year and do a few other Book Room organization projects. Thanks to Astrada, Jessica, Lauren, Alison, Andi, and Keira, as well as their service club advisors who helped make arrangements for them to assist us. We appreciate you!
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