The Panther Post
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News & Updates from
Gum Springs Elementary
December 11-15, 2023
News and Updates
Congratulations to our Claw of the Month winner for November--the PURPLE CLAW! They earned 1,282 PAWS tickets in November. Collectively our students earned 6,639 PAWS tickets for showing positive behaviors during the month of November. Great job, Panthers!
The holidays are here, and we are excited to celebrate with some great books and festive holiday cheer! Mark your calendars to join us as our Holiday Book Theme Days kick off this week!
Families are invited to join your child's class for their holiday party. Add the dates below to your calendar if you want to join the fun!
Pre-K: Tuesday, December 19, 11:00-11:30 A.M.
Kdg: Wednesday, December 20, 11:15-11:45 A.M.
1st: Tuesday, December 19, 1:00-1:30 P.M.
2nd + Benkoski + Clark: Wednesday, December 20, 12:00-12:30 P.M.
3rd: Monday, December 18: 1:00-1:30 P.M.
4th + Hendley: Wednesday, December 20, 1:00-1:30 P.M.
5th: Wednesday, December 20, 8:30-9:00 A.M., followed by CHAMPS graduation at 9:30 A.M.
Lankford: Wednesday, December 20, 9:45-10:15 A.M.
Cope: Wednesday, December 20, 10:30-11:00 A.M.
Each year, our GSES PTO hosts a Holiday Shop during the school day where students can bring money to pick out gifts for their family members and have them wrapped to bring home as a surprise. It's one of our students' FAVORITE events of the year! There are several ways you can help us with this fun event:
Give TIME: Making the Holiday Shop happen requires lots of extra hands, and we'd love your help! It's a lot of fun and very rewarding to see how excited our students get to experience the joy that comes with giving to people they love. Please click HERE if you are able to sign up to help as a volunteer shopping assistant or gift wrapper.
Give MONEY: Generous donations also make it possible for each student to be able to purchase at least one gift, even if they can't bring money from home. If you'd like to contribute to helping us make that happen for all students, you can Venmo @gumspringspto and include "Holiday Shop Donation" in the memo.
Give DONATIONS: If you have extra gift bags, treat size bags, or tissue paper that you can donate for wrapping, please drop off or send to school with your child to help our elves add some holiday flair to each and every purchased gift!
Thanks for helping us make this holiday season a happy one for our special
students!
Your child's teacher will let you know what day your child's class will be shopping at the Holiday Shop. Students may bring cash or a check made out to GSES PTO. As a reminder, the Holiday Shop is open for students only, so we can surprise our families with gifts. Gifts range from $1-$20 and include a wide variety of options for all ages.
In an effort to continuously grow and improve as a school system, the Jackson County School System is requesting your feedback through a survey which will be instrumental in helping us continue on our path of growth and improvement. We appreciate your partnership as we strive for academic and extracurricular excellence at GSES and in the JCSS school system. Click HERE to share your feedback on the JCSS Family Input Survey.
Pre-Kindergarten lottery registration for the 2024-25 school year is now open. Families can register for the lottery through Friday, February 16. Please note this application does not guarantee admission into a Pre-K program inside the Jackson County School System, but is rather an application into the lottery. JCSS will hold a lottery drawing in March and families will be notified following the drawing. To register for the lottery, click HERE. Please help us spread the word to families in our JCSS community who have rising Pre-K students.
This Week's
After-School Clubs
Thursday: Science Olympiad Team (pick up at 4:00 P.M.)
Thursday: Drama Club Speaking and Singing Parts only--No Ensemble or Crew (pick up at 4:00 P.M.)
Thursday: Secret STEM Club (pick up at 4:00 P.M.)
Upcoming Events
December 11-20: Holiday Book Theme Days (See graphic for details)
December 12: Hometown Showdown: JCHS vs. EJCHS Basketball Game at EJCHS
December 14: GSES PTO Spirit Night at WNB Factory
December 14-19: Holiday Shop open for students (You child's teacher will share your class's specific shopping day.)
December 15: Book Blast delivery
December 18-20: Hoilday Parties
December 20: 5th Grade CHAMPS graduation, 9:30 A.M.
December 21- January 2: Winter Break
January 3: Students return to school after Winter Break
If you send out family holiday cards, add GSES to your mailing list! We'd love to display your family's holiday card with our school collection.
SCHOOL SPOTLIGHTS
GS Gizmos Shine at
Region Competition
The Gum Springs Gizmos LEGO Robotics Team had a great showing at Saturday's FIRST LEGO Regional Robotics competition. Of the 12 teams competing, only 4 were awarded trophies, and GSES was excited to claim one of them. The team won the Innovation Award, recognizing the work they did to create an innovative project based on this year's challenge. This year's theme "Masterpiece" challenged students to use a passion of their team to inspire others to learn and be entertained. They used their passion for gaming to create a space-themed escape room challenge for JCSS's STEAM Bus. The Gizmos look forward to making their idea a reality and having students try their game! In the coding part of the competition, the Gizmos did an amazing job, earning their highest score of the season on a perfect final run.
The team also competed in a local scrimmage last Wednesday to practice for the event, and they were excited to win both the Grand Champion Award and the LEGO Game Award (for highest points on the coding table) at that event.
The Gizmos team includes Mason Williams, Ali Duncan, Candler Chambers, Carson Powers, Elliel Guiterrez, Murphy McSwain, and Parker Hamrick and is coached by Mrs. Haley Meier and Mrs. Kasey Sheridan. They have been training for their competition season since August and have put in MANY hours of extra practices over the past few weeks to prepare. We are SO EXCITED to see these great thinkers and doers recognized for their hard work and great ideas. You make us Panther Proud!
We were proud to see 4 Gizmo alumni representing WJMS at the competition as well! Congratulations to Lane, Liam, Dylan and Jocelyn of the WJMS Bricketeers for a great showing Saturday!
We are also proud of 5th grader Hudson Hamrick who competed at the Regional competition as part of Jackson County 4-H's Clover Curators team. Way to go, Hudson!
A Bugz Christmas
2nd grade did an amazing job getting all of us in the holiday spirit with their performance of "A Bugz Christmas" this week. We had a packed house for their Thursday evening show, and students also performed the show two times on Friday for our GSES students to enjoy. Some cool 2nd grade teachers even made a cameo as "The Beatles" to close out the show! Under the direction of music teacher Mrs. Jackie Cooper, the show was a great success! Special thanks also go out to Mrs. Kelly Hannifin and Mrs. Jessica Anderson for their incredible set design that brought the show to life! If you missed seeing the live performance or want to share with friends and family, click HERE to see the show.
Top-Tech Panthers Tackle District Competition
Last Friday, thirty-one students represented GSES at the JCSS District Technology Competition. These students were previously selected as winners at our school-level event. They competed in twelve different categories ranging from graphic design and coding to website design, video production, animation, and more. Their work was truly impressive, and we loved the confidence and knowledge they showed as they presented their projects to multiple adult judges at the competition. We are eagerly awaiting the results this week! Tune in to next week's Panther Post as we spotlight these wonderful Panthers.
American Legion Jr. Oratorical Contest
This week we welcomed members of American Legion Post 56 to GSES to judge 4th and 5th grade students in the annual American Legion Junior Oratorical Contest. Four students from Mrs. Suggs’, Mrs. Childs’, and Mrs. Swierzcek’s classes were chosen as school finalists and presented their speeches before the panel of judges. The goal of the contest is for students to develop knowledge and appreciation of the U.S. Constitution. Students wrote about specific constitutional amendments and their importance. Congratulations to the following winners:
1st Place: Rocky Kale ($75)
2nd Place: Alex Isajewicz ($50)
3rd Place: Ava Autry ($25)
4th Place: Andrew Reeves ($15)
Congratulations to this great group of students!
Thanks to the American Legion for their support of this project and the generous prizes provided for our students.
Leaderboard Legends
Several more Fun Run top prize winners cashed in on their "Leaderboard Legend" prizes this week, where they got to take over the job of a staff member of their choice for a day. This week, 5th grader Rocky took over Mr. Todd's job as Principal, 4th grader Gianna took over Mrs. Stover's job as Assistant Principal, 5th grader Jonathan took over Mrs. Roberts' kindergarten class, 1st grader Kye took over Mrs. Rock's 1st grade class, and 3rd grader Olivia took over former teacher Mrs. Matovina's 1st grade grade class. Visit our school Facebook page to read more about their exciting days!
Blowing off "STEAM"
To celebrate the end of MAP testing, Ms. Hendley’s multi-age class created and played some STEM games to "blow off steam" after a busy week!
Panthers Hit the Court
Congratulations to the amazing Panthers in our multi-age classes who represented GSES so well at last week's Winter Special Olympics. Be sure to check out the pictures to see all the ribbons our students brought back to school (You can also view more on our GSES Facebook page). We loved seeing their hard work and great sportsmanship shine!
Ms. Unicorn visits Kdg!
For one of their Fun Run prizes, Mrs. Roberts' kindergarten class earned a special guest visit! Our AMAZING art teacher, Mrs. Hannifin, came by to lead their class in a reindeer directed drawing. She made it extra fun by dressing up and bringing along her large stuffed giraffe. It was a fun way to end the day on a Friday afternoon!
PANTHER SUPPORTERS
Thanks to DeLeon Collective for sponsoring a surprise Snack Cart for our staff this week. Our team really appreciated the pick-me-up during this busy season!
Thanks to all of you who supported our school for Chick-Fil-A, Braselton Spirit Night this week! We were excited that the Chick-Fil-A cow even showed up at school on Thursday to remind us all to come hang out that evening. Join us for Spirit Night this Thursday, December 14th from 5:00 to 7:00 P.M. at WNB Factory as well.
Thanks to The Howard Center for Women's Health for sponsoring lunch for our staff this week. We appreciate your generous donation.
Thanks to the many donors who made our recent Staff Family Fiesta a great success! We appreciate your donations!
If you want to join a great team, mark your calendars to visit the Jackson County School System Career Fair next month! Help spread the word to your friends in surrounding areas so we can recruit the best and brightest to the Jackson County School System!
Want to know more about how you can support our school? Click below for details. Feel free to contact Mrs. Hannah Freyre at hannah.freyre@jcss.us with questions.
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