Great Falls Celebration of Lights
Great Falls Celebration of lights is this Sunday, December 5 on the Village Green. Our chorus students will perform at 4:00pm. Also, the Post Office will now have an antique postal truck at the event with a table for kids to write letters to Santa, and Sexton Christmas Trees will be collecting donations for Cornerstones (coffee/tea/hot chocolate/cider, toiletries, and gift cards are especially in need).
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Computer Science Education Week
December 6-11 is national Computer Science Education Week! It’s never too early to start introducing kids to basic computer science concepts. They learn mathematical and logical thinking skills while playing and building enthusiasm for learning to code. Whether you’re a programmer yourself or learning alongside your student, you can have fun exploring some of these games and resources with your child:
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Hour of Code Activities--includes offline activities as well as games for all grade and skill levels
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Scratch--for older or more experienced coders, the possibilities are endless with this block coding program from MIT
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TinkerCad--students can create circuits, create 3-D printable designs, and block coding in this fun program. There are video tutorials to help them (and you) get started!
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Compute It--a fun and quickly challenging game that introduces students to basic coding structure
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Sixth Grade and Fifth Grade String Ensemble
We are very excited to announce that our strings students will be presenting a live, streamed Winter Concert on Tuesday, December 7th from 10:00-10:15 AM.
We are very excited to be performing our first concert in two years, and we would like to invite GFES community to watch the live stream! The concert will be recorded and can also be viewed at a later time.
Here is the link for the concert. We hope you'll join us!
GFES and the Positivity Project
This year, we continue with our MARK and Positivity Project work during morning meetings. The Positivity Project (P2) is dedicated to empowering America’s youth to build positive relationships by recognizing the character strengths in themselves and others. The vision is to help schools and families cultivate citizens and leaders who will enhance our communities and our country.
For the month of November, our students will focus on the following traits:
November 28: Kindness
December 5: Other People Matter Mindset - Knowing my words and actions
December 12: Self-Control
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Covid Diagnostic Testing
Starting this week, students may obtain COVID-19 diagnostic testing at six drive-through sites in Fairfax County. Diagnostic testing is provided for anyone who has symptoms or is identified as a close contact of someone who has been diagnosed with COVID-19.
COVID-19 testing helps us reduce the virus’ spread and keep our schools safe places for all students to learn. I encourage you to utilize our new diagnostic testing services as needed.
Appointments are not required for diagnostic testing but families must register in the secure online portal. When you register and provide consent for your child to be tested, they will also be added to Great Falls ES's screening testing pool. If you do not wish for them to be part of the weekly screening testing pool, simply log back into the online portal after your child’s test is complete and withdraw consent.
More information about diagnostic and screening testing, including site locations and schedules, is available on our website.
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Student Pictures
Student pictures (including retakes) are now available to view/purchase online- including those photographed at make-up sessions. It's not too late to order or re-order pictures. Please visit: https://vando.imagequix.com/g1000874541
Use your students' ID when prompted for the online code.
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STEAM Lab Update: October-November
As the leaves changed colors, our budding scientist and engineers expanded their knowledge from Sir Isaac Newton's discovery of the concept of Gravity while sitting under an apple tree to photosynthesis, the essential needs of plants, and the importance and role of cellulose. Ask your child the meaning of the Greek word "Chlorophyll" - our JIP students will give you the Japanese translation, too!☺️
Our students are very excited about sending a Letter to the President of MIT requesting a graft cutting of Newton's tree to transplant in our very own Great Falls Elementary garden. The Great Falls Garden Club and the Great Falls Citizens Association have both responded enthusiastically to help us make this effort "bear fruit."
We've been very busy with these projects:
- From cellulose to cells, we learned how Robert Hooke studied cork under a microscope to discover the smallest component of living organisms, and how Democritus, the laughing philosopher of Greece, named the smallest building block of Matter (at the time!) - Atomos - when he studied the most "indivisible" part of a shell.
- We designed cup rockets to demonstrate Newton's Laws of Motion; we recycled our cup rockets as planters for crocus bulbs to underscore the basic needs of plants.
- We made organic slime to describe non-Newtonian fluids and discuss properties of matter. We conducted a walking water experiment to show capillary action and studied how primary colors interact to make secondary and tertiary colors.
- STEAM Lab introduced the students to Inventors of the rubber band, the paper towel, and the designers of the Barbie and Chatty Cathy dolls, Hot Wheels cars, and the iconic Coca-Cola bottle.
As we complete another orbit around the sun, the sky is the limit, literally! Thank you for sharing your eager, energetic, enthusiastic young engineers with us. The future is very bright with these shining stars!
Holiday Cards for BrightView Senior Living
Do you want to brighten the day of a resident at BrightView Senior Living in Great Falls?
Create handmade cards and place them in the collection box in the Great Falls ES front office beginning Monday December 6th through Friday December 17th.
For the safety of the residents, we ask that there are no small pieces that could fall or be ripped off the cards. A PTA representative will deliver them to BrightView to be distributed safely by their staff. Please help us spread holiday cheer throughout our community!
Staff Holiday Gifts
Since the winter holiday season has begun, we've received several questions from GFES families about gifts for teachers and staff. As always, individual families are welcome to show their appreciation for their teachers however they choose. The PTA also organizes a holiday breakfast for teachers and staff prior to the break and presents each staff member with a gift card.
Our goal is to collect enough funds to provide a $25 Amazon gift card to each member of our GFES staff of approximately 75 dedicated teachers, administrators, specialists and support staff.
If your family would like to donate towards the purchase of gift cards for GFES staff members, please see your options below. In order to reach our goal, we are suggesting a $20 donation but any amount is appreciated. Thank you in advance for helping us make our teachers and staff feel special over the holidays!
How to Donate -
GFES parent Grace McDaniel has graciously offered to organize the collection of funds.
Venmo (preferred) - @grace_mcdaniel00 (last 4 digits of cell # for verification if requested 2585)
PayPal - grace.mcdaniel@gmail.com
Please kindly make your donations no later than December 12th.
If you have any questions, please contact president@gfespta.com or grace.mcdaniel@gmail.com
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