The Panther Post
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News & Updates from
Gum Springs Elementary
December 4-8, 2023
News and Updates
The holidays are here, and we are excited to celebrate with some great books and festive holiday cheer! Mark your calendars to join us!
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.
We are excited to see this year's 2nd grade Christmas musical, "A Bugz Christmas!" GSES students will be able to see the show during the school day on Friday, and a public community performance for friends and family will be taking place on Thursday evening at 6:00 P.M. Students who are performing in the show should be in Mrs. Cooper's classroom dressed and ready for the stage by 5:30 P.M. on Thursday. 2nd grade performers should also wear their costumes to school on Friday morning. We are looking forward to a great show!
We have two BIG competitions for our GSES students taking place this week. Send all the good vibes to our Panthers who have worked so hard to prepare!
The Gum Springs Gizmos LEGO Robotics Team will be competing in the FIRST LEGO League Regional Tournament on Saturday. We know they will do a great job!
Good luck to the 3rd-5th grade GSES Student Technology Competition winners who advanced to the JCSS District Technology Competition. They will be competiting on Friday. We know they will represent our school well!
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.
Click HERE to sign up for lunch times with your child in December.
This Week's
After-School Clubs
Monday: GS Gizmos (pick up at 5:00 P.M.)
Tuesday: GS Gizmos (pick up at 5:00 P.M.)
Thursday: Science Olympiad Team (pick up at 4:00 P.M.)
Thursday: Stock Market Club (pick up at 4:00 P.M.)
Upcoming Events
December 7: 2nd Grade Christmas Musical, 6:00 P.M.
December 7: GSES Spirit Night at Chick-Fil-A, Braselton
December 8: Good Luck to students representing GSES at the JCSS District Technology Competition!
December 9: Good Luck to our Gum Springs Gizmos competiting at the FIRST LEGO League Regional competition!
December 11-20: Holiday Book Theme Days (See graphic for details)
December 14: GSES PTO Spirit Night at WNB Factory
December 14-19: Holiday Shop open for students
December 15: Book Blast delivery
December 18-20: Hoilday Parties
December 20: 5th Grade CHAMPS graduation, 9:30 A.M.
SCHOOL SPOTLIGHTS
Queen of the Bee!
After 11 rounds of intense competition, 4th grader Rithvicka Purushothaman was crowned this year's GSES Spelling Bee Champion! Her winning word was an often-confused homonym, "flea." Our second place winner and GSES school alternate in this year's competition is 4th grader Cadence Crawford. We are very proud of the 22 students who represented their classes in the event after first winning their class bee. Rithvicka will represent GSES Congratulations to Rithvicka and all of our spellers!
You Can't Catch Me...I'm the Gingerbread Man!
This week, Mrs. Duke's Pre-K class had a surprise pop-in visit from the Gingerbread Man! Students didn't manage to catch him, but they did get to enjoy lots of fun gingerbread-themed learning activities in his honor. They read books about the Gingerbread Man, did gingerbread science experiments, and even practiced following directions by creating their own gingerbread house snacks.
Leaderboard Legends
Our Fun Run top prize winners began to cash 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 Gavin took over Mr. Todd's job as Principal, and Pre-K student Ella got to teach her own class, as she took over her teacher Mrs. Lyle's job. "Mr. Vanischak" and "Miss Foley" both did a great job! Visit our school Facebook page to read more about their exciting days, and stay tuned to hear about more prize winners' opportunities over the next month.
Aspiring Ag Teacher Visit GSES
Mrs. Thomas's 4th and 5th grade agriculture students had a wonderful guest teacher on Thursday, Miss Shelby Pruett. She is a junior at Jackson County High School and is the Vice-President of our FFA program and a leader among her peers. Shelby plans to become an Agriculture teacher. As part of her SAE project, she practiced her skills by teaching students about Georgia's chicken industry, which contributes millions of dollars to the Georgia economy. Shelby did an amazing job and students truly enjoyed the experience.
Family Fiesta
Our GSES staff members had a great time on Friday evening bringing their families together for our first GSES Family Fiesta. We love working together, and it was fun for our staff to have a chance to meet one another's families and enjoy some great company. We'll be spotlighting many local businesses over the next few weeks who supported the event and provided door prizes for our staff. Thanks tp our local community for stepping up to help us build community among our staff!
All Aboard for Science
We enjoyed having the STEAM Bus at GSES this week, as our kindergarten and 5th grade classes got to enjoy their first visits. STEAM bus lessons integrate literacy with hands-on science investigations. Kindergarten students enjoyed experimenting with sinking and floating or pushes and pulls, while 5th graders had a hair-raising good time using a Van deGraff generator to explore the difference between natural and human-harnessed electricity. Thanks to Mrs. Tinnell and Mrs. Brooksher who make these visits so much fun for our students. The STEAM Bus is a JCSS literacy initiative, and we look forward to its stops at our school every six weeks.
Pre-K and 4th Grade Book Buddies
Mrs. Lyle's Pre-K Pals and Mrs. Suggs' 4th grade class love their time as Book Buddies. They enjoyed seeing their friends and sharing great stories together this week.
PANTHER SUPPORTERS
Kiwanis Spreads Kindness
We enjoyed a special visit this week from the Kiwanis Club of Jefferson. Twenty lucky students were treated to a surprise party with Kiwanis Club members. They enjoyed a special read-aloud, cookies and lemonade, and receiving an amazing gift—the gift of books! Each child received a basket of 24 wrapped books, one to open every day in the month of December leading up to Christmas. What a treat to be able to unwrap a new surprise book to read every night! Thank you to our local Kiwanis members for their special efforts to fundraise, organize, deliver, and give back to our community. Your generosity will help create magical memories this holiday season for our students. What an important reminder this is for all of us to remember the joy that comes in GIVING this holiday season!
Packing Bags of Love
Several of our kindergarten team members and their families recently volunteered to help iServe Ministries pack over 300 Bags of Love. Local school families facing weekend food insecurity take these backpacks home each Friday. We appreciate the support of local organizations like iServe who provide this generous support to our Panther families. Thank you to our kindergarten team for volunteering their time to help this great cause! Click HERE to learn more about how you can volunteer as well or to provide donations that help support the Bags of Love program.
⬅️ If you're looking for something fun to do with your kids next Saturday, check our LKMS's Blizzard Bash community event. Purchase your tickets HERE.
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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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