GEMS Family Newsletter

• Mon. April 15 - Fri. April 19 - GEMS Scholastic Book Fair
• Wed. April 17 - Thurs. April 25 - OST Math Assessments - 3rd-8th Grades
  
• Fri. April 19 - Groovy Gryphon Friday
• Sun. April 21 - GEMS Family Crew - Spring Playground Cleanup - 3:00-4:00pm
• Wed. April 24 - Enrollment Information Session - 6:00pm
• Thurs. April 25 - Spring Disco Dance - 6th-8th Graders
• Fri. April 26 - No School - PD Day
• Mon. April 29 - Thurs. May 2 - OST Science Assessments - 8th Grade
• Mon. May 6 - Fri. May 10 - Teacher and Staff Appreciation Week
• Tues. May 7 - Thurs. May 9 - MAP ELA Assessments - K-8 Grades
• Wed. May 8 - Enrollment Information Session - 6:00pm
• Fri. May 10 - Celebration of Learning and Better World Day - 5:00-7:00pm
• Mon. May 13 - Wed. May 15 - MAP Math Assessments - K-8 Grades
• Thurs. May 16 - Fri. May 17 - No School - PD Days & Student-Led Conferences/Passages
• Thurs. May 23 - End of Quarter 4
• Fri. May 24 - Last Day of School
• Tues. May 28 - Fri. May 31 - No School - PD Days
• Wed. May 29 - Enrollment Information Session - 6:00pm

• Breakfast Menu - April

• Lunch Menu - April

• Academic Calendar 23-24
  
• School Year Office Hours - 7:45am-4:30pm - office@gemsschool.org
• School Day Hours - 8:30am-3:15pm

We look forward to having your student continue to be enrolled at 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.

This year we are using PowerSchool to complete the online registration forms. A letter was mailed home before spring break that included log-in information and step by step instructions on how to create an account. Click here (https://ps-tge.metasolutions.net/) to log-in to your PowerSchool account, then go to the forms page and complete each section under General.

If your forms are completed by Friday, April 19, your student will be entered into a prize drawing! Every student whose annual registration forms are completed by May 10 will get a GEMS t-shirt!

Please contact Alisha Porter at records@gemsschool.org or 614-253-4000 with questions.

We ask all families to contribute $35 per year, per student to help keep our classrooms equipped with basic supplies. You can pay with cash or check at the Front Office or visit the GEMS School Store to pay with a credit card. Thank you for your support!

• Spring Playground Cleanup - Sunday, April 21, 3-4pm
  

• Teacher and Staff Appreciation Week - May 6-10

Check out the available positions for the 2024-25 school year!

Click here for GEMS

Click here for TGS

Click here for TCS@ODU

In Expedition, students are continuing to study living and nonliving things with a focus on Trees. They each picked a tree to be an expert on and will complete more research to showcase at the Celebration Of Learning. Students have been diving deep into ten frames and making addition and subtraction equations to match! In skills block, we have learned all of our letter names and sounds and are now blending them together to make words. We also continue to build our skills in phonemic awareness to help us become readers.

In expedition we finished Mystery Bird Riddles and are ready to present them at our Celebration of Learning. Unit 4 covers how we can take care of the birds around us. As we are learning about birds we will have special feathered guests come visit our classroom. In math we are getting close to the end of Unit 4 that will cover working with numbers between 1-99. After this we will move on to Unit 5 which will cover Adding Numbers from 1-99.

In expedition we are learning about pollinators and pollination. We are learning about bees, beetles, and butterflies, and focusing on what plants they are attracted to. We will use this information to write our informative paragraph about pollinators in the next few weeks. In math we are focusing on adding and subtracting within 1,000. This is a step up from our last unit about place value and will build on that knowledge as we get to even bigger numbers.

In Unit 3, students revised scenes of Peter Pan and they made a presentation explaining how and why they revised their scene. They analyzed a model revised scene from Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens. They then select a scene to revise from Peter Pan, using the reasons they wouldn't recommend the text, generated in Unit 2, and determine why they wanted to revise their chosen scene. They then mapped out the original scene on a Narrative Planning graphic organizer and determined which parts of the scene could be revised without changing the outcome. Students then drafted their revised scene before revising dialogue and description, possessives, word and phrase choices, and temporal words and phrases. For the mid-unit assessment, students revised a new scene from Peter Pan, following an already completed Narrative Planning graphic organizer. Now completed we are creating our set designs and preparing to record our movie.

In Expedition, students are discovering the lives of Phillis Wheatley, Crispus Attucks, Boston King and many more Black heroes from the American Revolution. We will continue learning about Black and Indigenous people’s lives during this time period. We will be writing persuasive essays as we also explore the events leading up to and during the American Revolution. What side of the war will your child choose?

Care Givers please remember to sign the permission form for our upcoming Empower Ed Ohio Sex Education program. This online class begins at the end of the month with topics surrounding Sexuality, Consent, Puberty, Pregnancy, Decision Making and Relationships.

In Math we continue to practice with Division as we speed towards the end of the year. We are reviewing test taking strategies and how our mistakes can help us fall forward and be a part of an amazing learning adventure! Geometry will round out our quarter. Can’t wait to celebrate with you all in May.

One more month to go! In math, students are continuing to work on place value and the power of 10. Students are working on a math project dealing with budgeting. In science, students learned about food chains and food webs. Students have also learned how one population change can drastically change the rest of the food web. Students will have a mini unit on invasive species while we work on our end-of-the-year science project.

In Humanities we just sent the book we created and illustrated for publishing, called “Save Us: Endangered Animals of the World”. Be on the lookout for our published book, as more copies will be available for purchase. Now, we are all preparing to share what we have learned at our Art and Craft Sale during Celebration of Learning next month! We will be raising money to support our local Ohio Department of Natural Resources and their efforts to protect and conserve nature and endangered species in our community.

Science: We started a new unit called Populations and Resources, and we will discuss the causes that lead to the increasing and decreasing of a population. How resources will affect the births and deaths in a population will also be covered.

Math: We ended our unit with circles. Students worked with both circumference and area formulas for circles. We are moving into our probability unit, and I am excited to see students apply their real world knowledge. The Ohio State Test in math will be April 29 and 30. We will spend the week before reviewing and getting familiar with the test on the computer by taking a practice state test. Keep encouraging your child to push themselves as we wrap up the year!

In math, students finished exploring graphing lines using slopes and y-intercepts. Students recently started investigating functions and what causes them to be linear or nonlinear. In a few weeks, students will use their knowledge of functions to create their own drawing on the coordinate plane. They will demonstrate their learning by analyzing a portion of their drawing.

In science, students started a new unit called Plate Motion. We will discuss how plates float above the crust and their motion, the connection between plate boundaries and earthquake frequency, etc.

Students in grades 6th-8th with an average of 85% KB positivity from Feb 26 - April 23 will be eligible to participate. Cost is $2 (turn in at the dance only)!

Seventh graders are working on a concept project called ‘An Imaginary Place-’ where they create an immersive and colorful world of their own. After this project, the students will start to learn the separate elements of portraiture to prepare them for their identity self portrait project next year in the eighth grade. Eighth graders are currently working on their identity self-portrait collages that go with their statistically speaking poems in humanities. After we complete these, we will be creating a large class “mural” out of combined canvas boards and spray paint. We are so excited for these culminating projects!

K-3 will begin to explore problem solving. 4th graders are working on exploring skills to be a better learner and with boundaries. 5th graders are continuing to work on the joint Art and SEL PSA project.

In middle school counseling sessions, students are learning and practicing mindfulness and using breathing exercises when they are feeling dysregulated. Students are learning why this exercise is important so they can reframe negative thinking that in turn, contributes to negative behaviors and actions.

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 submitted before a GEMS student may be enrolled in either high school. Please join us:

• The Graham School - Tuesday, April 23 at 6:30pm - *RSVP is required for all sessions. Please contact Sidney Leatherman, Enrollment Coordinator/Registrar at 614-262-1111 or sleatherman.1@mail.thegrahamschool.org with questions or to RSVP. Click here to complete an online application. Completing an online application does NOT commit the student to attend TGS.
• The Charles School at Ohio Dominican University - Wednesday, May 15 at 6:00pm - Please contact Amanda McCain, Enrollment Coordinator at amccain.1@thecharlesschool.org or 614-258-8588 with questions. Click here to complete an online application. Completing an online application does NOT commit the student to attend TCS@ODU.

GEMS is accepting applications for the 2024-2025 school year. Please share this newsletter with anyone who is interested in learning more about GEMS and suggest they attend an upcoming Enrollment Information Session. Click here to complete a New Student Online Application. Please e-mail Alisha Porter at records@gemsschool.org with questions.

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

Instagram -

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

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.

The Graham Family of Schools participates in the National School Lunch Program that allows for all families to apply for free or reduced meals. Lunch is available to all students. Should they choose not to participate in the school meal program, students may bring their lunch from home. NO OUTSIDE FOOD MAY BE ORDERED OR DELIVERED AS THIS DIRECTLY VIOLATES THE NATIONAL SCHOOL LUNCH PROGRAM POLICY.

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.

School Day Hours - 8:30am-3:15pm

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