GEMS Family Newsletter

• Tues. May 2 - Wed. May 3 - K-4 ELA MAP Test
  
• Wed. May 3 - Enrollment Information Session at 6:00pm
• Wed. May 3 - Thurs. May 4 - 5-8 ELA MAP Test
• Tues. May 9 - Wed. May 10 - K-4 Math MAP Test
• Wed. May 10 - Thurs. May 11 - 5-8 Math MAP Test
• Fri. May 12- Celebration of Learning & Better World Day - 5:00-7:00pm
• Wed. May 17 - Enrollment Information Session at 6:00pm
• Thurs. May 18 - Fri. May 19: Passages and SLC Presentations, No school for students
• Wed. May 24 - 8th Grade Graduation - 7:00pm at Indianola Church of Christ - 2141 Indianola Ave (just north of Lane Ave and only ½ mile from GEMS)
• Thurs. May 25 - Kings Island Trip - 6th-8th Graders
• Fri. May 26 - Last Day of School/End of Quarter 4
• Tues. May 30 - Fri. June 2: PD days, no school for students

• Breakfast Menu - April

• Lunch Menu - April

• Breakfast Menu - May
  

• Lunch Menu - May

• Academic Calendar 22-23
  
• GEMS Office Hours - 7:45am - 4:30pm - office@gemsschool.org
• GEMS School Day Starts at 8:30AM, building opens at 7:45am
• GEMS Dismissal Starts at 3:15PM, building open until 4:30pm

GEMS office hours are 7:45am to 4:30pm, however the office is closed each day from 3:00-3:35pm to help with a smooth dismissal process. If you arrive after 3:00pm to pick up students, please proceed to the appropriate pick up line instead of the front office. Thank you for your support.

If your student will be absent or tardy, please send an email with the information to office@gemsschool.org. If they are absent/tardy because of an appointment, please provide an excuse from the office/clinic. Any absences NOT documented are considered unexcused and marked in our attendance records accordingly.

Our front office associates do not have access to real-time information about buses. GEMS can help with general information about route assignments, but for questions about the location of the bus, or how late it is running, particularly in regards to morning routes, please call CCS at 614-365-5074.

We look forward to having your student continuing to be enrolled at Graham Elementary and Middle School (GEMS) next year, however, your student's spot for next school year is NOT guaranteed until all Annual Student Registration forms have been completed and are received by the school.

Please use our online system to complete Registration forms: https://gems.esvportal.com/

If you already have an account in the online eSchool/OneView system, use the same login you used for the 2022-23 school year. If you did not create an account last year, you will need to create an account using the invite code. You should have received an e-mail and letter with the invite code. Please contact us via email at: office@gemsschool.org or call 614-253-4000 with any questions.

1. As you set up your account you will be asked to create your own PIN.

2. After your account is created, select 'Manage My Students' on the Enrollment Student Dashboard to link your students to your account. You will enter the Invite Code.

3. Next, select View Online Forms, and under 2023-24 Back to School Forms you'll see 'Annual Student Registration'. Information should be pre-populated into the forms. Double check that the pre-populated information is correct. To update the information, choose Yes or No at the beginning of each section. Make your updates. Complete all fields, and then submit. Check each Section.

4. Once you have completed all seven parts, select Save and Return THEN Save and Submit to District.

Click here to review the OneView How To for what you'll see when you enter the eSchool site. This answers many of the Frequently Asked Questions. Please contact us via email at: office@gemsschool.org or call 614-253-4000 with any questions.

Check out the available positions for the 2023-24 school year!

Click here for GEMS

Click here for TGS

Click here for TCS@ODU

Mark your calendars for our 8th grade graduation which will take place on Wednesday, May 24 at 7:00pm at Indianola Church of Christ - 2141 Indianola Ave (just north of Lane Ave and only ½ mile from GEMS).

Grades 6-8 will be going to Kings Island on Thursday, May 25. There is no school for 6th-8th graders on Friday, May 26 as we will be returning GEMS late on Thursday night. More information about the Kings Island trip is below! Students are only permitted to attend if they have an 85% positivity rating on Kickboard during Quarter 4. Families will be responsible to pay $25 per student to attend which will be collected starting after Spring Break.

GEMS is enrolling students for next year! Would you be able to display a yard sign to tell the community about our wonderful school? Stop by the front office and pick up a GEMS yard sign today!

Join us for Enrollment Information Sessions to talk about high school. The Graham Family of Schools comprises GEMS, The Graham School, and The Charles School at Ohio Dominican University. However, an application must be summited before a GEMS student may be enrolled in either high school. Please join us:

• The Graham School - Tuesday, May 2 at 6:30pm - Please e-mail Pam Boseker at pboseker@thegrahamschool.org to RSVP for the in-person session or with questions about the virtual session.
  
• The Charles School at Ohio Dominican University - Wednesday, May 3 at 6:00pm - RSVP is required for in-person sessions. Please contact Gail Collins at collins.5@thecharlesschool.org to RSVP.

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/GrahamElementaryandMiddleSchool

Instagram -

https://www.instagram.com/gemscolumbus/

Have been working hard to write books of their own during our expedition time. Students wrote and illustrated a book about how people can enjoy trees in their community. We are taking what we have learned about trees, life cycles, and living things out onto the playground. If you want to learn cool facts about worm poop, rings on a tree, or how to find a roly poly bug, just ask a kindergartener!

In expedition we just finished our Expert Bird Packets and are preparing to draft our Mystery Bird Riddles. We will have these Mystery Riddles ready to go by our Celebration of Learning . We are having chicken eggs brought in very soon and they will be hatching over the coming weeks. In Math we will continue with Unit 4, understanding place value for numbers up to 99. We will work more with addition and subtraction of tens with double digit numbers.

Are learning so much in math! We started our unit about fractions, shapes, money and how to tell time. We will go to the library later in April for field work, students will be able to check out their favorite books! In expedition, we are beginning our final project, making seed packets for our pollinators. We are very excited to show off our hard work in Celebration of Learning.

Are doing big things! Our CATCO partnership production was Monday April 24th at 2:15pm in the auditorium. In expedition we are planning our revised Peter Pan scenes, designing and creating props for our Celebration of Learning Movie premier. Teamwork is our theme!

In Expedition, students are starting a new topic for 4th quarter: women’s right to vote! We are reading The Hope Chest a historical fiction book about two girls’ journey to Washington D.C. at the height of the National Women’s Party’s push to pass Susan B. Anthony’s Amendment. Students are working on making educated guesses about unfamiliar words using context clues, suffixes and affixes, punctuation, and -tion, -sion words in ALL Block.

In math, we completed our decimal unit on addition, subtraction, and multiplication. We start our next mini unit on a coordinate plane after the Ohio State Tests are done. In science, we will be ending our unit on the solar system with a mini project on debunking misinformation.

In math we are finishing our data analysis unit. We will be moving to our final unit of personal finance. Students will apply the math skills we have been focusing on all year to real-world budgeting scenarios and situations. In science we are wrapping up our unit on cells. We will be doing a mini-unit on engineering and working on applying our scientific knowledge to some real scientific problems!

In math, we finished our probability unit and moving onto learning about statistics. We will be creating research questions, collecting data, and learning about how we can visualize the data.

In math, students are completing their work on slope and functions. Students will create a drawing that represents them and analyze the lines in the drawing with math vocabulary.

4th grade is working hard to finish loom weavings, while 3rd grade and 1st grade have completed radial weavings. 2nd grade is studying butterflies in expedition and have practiced printmaking our beautiful butterfly designs and will move on to other types of pollinators. Kindergarten will be learning about collages as we experiment with nature as our media.

We're starting our soccer unit this week. Students will learn basic soccer skills before learning how to play a soccer game such as dribbling, passing, shooting, and proper offense/defense tactics. Please make sure your student is bringing proper gym shoes to class, so that they can participate safely.

GEMS is accepting applications for K-8th grades for the 2023-2024 school year. Please share this newsletter with anyone who is interested in learning more about GEMS. Please e-mail Wesley Owens at owens.2@gemsschool.org with questions.

Kroger

Go to: www.krogercommunityrewards.com or call 1-800-837-4483 to enroll in the program. Add GEMS to your Kroger card. You can search for GEMS by name or use our school code: FD086. Shop! Every time you shop and use your Kroger Rewards Card GEMS gets rebates. Kroger totals those rebates and sends GEMS a check.

Our partnership with EL Education empowers our teachers to unleash the potential of their students. EL Education is built on ten design principles that reflect the educational values and beliefs of Kurt Hahn, founder of Outward Bound and co-founder of EL Education. These principles also reflect the design's connection to other related thinking about teaching, learning, and the culture of schools. The 10 design principles are: The Primacy of Self-Discovery, The Having of Wonderful Ideas, The Responsibility for Learning, Empathy and Caring, Success and Failure, Collaboration and Competition, Diversity and Inclusion, The Natural World, Solitude and Reflection, Service and Compassion.

GEMS is a School-wide Title 1 program, enabling us to receive Federal Funds to ensure that our students receive the support they need to reach and exceed grade level goals particularly in reading and math. We welcome parent involvement in planning, review and improvement of Title 1 programs. Please contact Debbie Addison at addison.2@gemsschool.org with any questions. Follow this link to the Parent Pact.

Per House Bill 21 community schools are required to perform a monthly review of student files and randomly select families for residency verification. Please contact the school immediately in case of an address change. Proof of residency must be submitted within two weeks of an address change. If evidence is not provided, requests for additional documentation or a home visit may occur.

Office Hours - 7:45am-4:30pm

Email: office@gemsschool.org
Website: https://www.thegrahamfamilyofschools.org/gems_home.aspx
Location: 140 East 16th Avenue, Columbus, OH 43201, USA
Phone: (614) 253-4000
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Graham-Elementary-and-Middle-School-109578509098428