Upcoming Dates
April 15 - 19 - Scholastic Book Fair AND Sister School Book Drive
April 17 - Spirit Day - Wear purple to support our military families!
April 18 - Diversity Showcase (World Fair and Art Show)
April 30 - 6th Grade Reading SOL
May 2 - 3rd, 4th, and 5th Grade Reading SOL
May 3 - Orthodox Good Friday (Student Holiday)
Click here to view the 2023-2024 school year calendar.
Click here to view the 2024-2025 school year calendar.
Click here to read last week's GFES newsletter updates.
NEXT WEEK is our Amazing Diversity Showcase
Come join us for GFES's Diversity Showcase on Thursday April 18th, from 6-8pm. This year’s theme is Our Shared Stories - Celebrating Together!
Families will get to experience a museum filled with their child's artwork and then work their way into the World's Fair to explore various cultural exhibits and watch cultural performances! Let’s raise our voices, open our hearts, and celebrate the beautiful intersections that enrich our culturally diverse school!
Interested in setting up a booth, putting on a cultural performance, and/or participating in a fashion show parade? Please sign up HERE
Tickets will be $5 per person. Purchase your tickets online HERE
There will be a face painter, live performances and more!
There will also be food and drinks for purchase!
Scholastic Spring Book Fair, April 15-19
Students and teachers can shop April 15-19 in our school library. Students are scheduled to shop as follows:
Assigned by homeroom teacher name *
| Monday, 4/15 |
Gray, Keane, Levetown, O'Brien, Zilberman |
| Tuesday, 4/16 |
Donohue, Farnum, Martin, McColley, Monheim, Nickels, Smock |
| Wednesday, 4/17 |
Fitzharris, Gingrich, Kuster, Scott |
| Thursday, 4/18 |
N. Crotty, Pannell |
| Friday, 4/19 |
Baloy, Couch, T. Crotty, Gould, Harvey, and make-up shopping
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* 3rd and 4th graders will shop as Library classes, not by homeroom
PAYMENT OPTIONS
Students can shop using cash, check (made payable to "GFES PTA"), or eWallet. eWallet gives students an easy, cashless way to shop in-person at the Book Fair or at Scholastic's online store. Learn more and setup an eWallet account HERE. When funding your eWallet, be sure to transfer any balance from past eWallets so those funds can be used during the Fair.
Although cash is accepted, we highly recommend that students use eWallet to avoid carrying and losing cash.
SUPPORT OUR SCHOOL
Help build our classroom libraries by giving to our Teacher Wish List Fund. Funds will be equally distributed for any K-6 teachers who create book wishlists, and we suggest a donation of $5 per family. And remember – all purchases help Mrs. Botha enhance our school library, and additional profits support our PTA programs!
Sister School Book Drive, Also April 15-19, 2024
The annual Sister School Book Drive starts next week! We are collecting new and gently used books to donate to students at our sister school – Glen Forest Elementary.
Donations will be collected from Monday, April 15-Friday, April 19.
The collection boxes will be located outside the main entrance to the school and in the main lobby. We are looking for book donations for preschool-6th grade readers. Books open minds and opportunities!
Share the gift of reading with a student from Glen Forest Elementary.
Every donation makes a difference! Thank you for your generous support.
Teacher & Staff Appreciation Week!
Teacher & Staff Appreciation Week is coming up next month with a fun theme! During the week of May 6th-10th we plan to show our amazing GFES staff that there is NO ONE BATTER!
We have an amazing week planned, and need help from our families to pull off a successful week - Please visit our Sign-Up Genius HERE to see all the ways you can help!
Additional information and detailed flyers for the week will be shared in the coming weeks!
Thank you in advance to all of our generous families for helping us make this week a huge success!
Parent University with GFES Mental Health Team
Our school's mental health team hosted the first Parent University on April 5th.
If you were not able to make it, be sure to review the presentation of helpful information HERE.
We invite you to join us in May (date TBD) for the second session and continued collaboration with the team on your students' social and emotional health.
We would like to hear from you and what topics are important to you, ones that we can address at future sessions. Please complete the survey via google form HERE.
We did it!
VERY Successful Celebrate Great Falls Auction
Thank You to everyone that participated in this year's auction to make it a HUGE success! This year CGFF Auction had over 250 participants who placed over 1,000 bids on OVER 325 items! As a team of volunteers, we were able to raise over $40,000 for the three local elementary schools.
And a BIG THANK YOU to Hana Kong, the GFES PTA Chair of the Auction, for all of her time and effort for this incredibly fruitful task for our PTA!
Thank you ALL for your continued support!
Time to stock up on GFES Spirit Wear!
There are so many great items and deals going on right now with our GFES Spirit Wear partner - check them out and stock up HERE!
These items make for great birthday gifts, holiday gifts, rewards... and oh so fun when you can match with friends and family!
Get more involved with the PTA for 2024-2025
Do you want to become more involved in the PTA? We are working on building a strong team of leaders for the 2024-2025 school year and need your help! Our nominating committee would love to hear from anyone interested in taking on any of the PTA committee chair positions! Serving on the PTA is a great way to meet other GFES parents and give your input on events, activities, and fundraising opportunities. Please reach out to schoolspiritvp@gfespta.com to learn about open positions.
Community Offering 1
Any students interested in theater ... there is an an opportunity to have lunch (on a Saturday) and speak with current Cooper Middle School students!
Details below:
Community Offering 2
Join us at the Optimist Club Annual Spring Children's Festival in Great Falls on 28 April! The festival is the largest fundraiser for our Club with proceeds benefitting children locally.
This year we are aiming bigger & better: Int’l food vendors, wine tasting and sales, art, craft, farmer market vendors along with our rides, rock climbing, auction, raffles, egg hunt, toddler games and lots more FUN!
See more info here: https://greatfallsoptimist.org/
Community Offering 3
An invitation from Arts of Great Falls!
We are so excited to have Ms. Mizell teaching with us this summer at Arts of Great Falls and we have an amazing variety of half day art camps that we are offering this summer for students ages 8 - 18.
A little bit about us, Arts of Great Falls is an amazing arts non-profit that has been offering art classes taught by nationally and internationally known professional artists for the past 15 years. We are a non-profit that was founded by artists with the goal of fostering the arts in the Great Falls community.
This summer we are offering the following classes in our Village Center location at 756 Walker Rd and our Old Forestville Schoolhouse location at 9812 Georgetown Pike:
-Mixed Media Artistic Journaling
-Paper Mache
-Weaving and Fiber Arts
-Classical Drawing
-Clay
-Painting Color Study
-Painting Landscapes
-Printmaking
-Anime Drawing
Below are the links to our summer camps that have dates and class descriptions.
-AM Summer Camps (for students ages 8 - 12)
https://www.artsofgreatfalls.org/school-of-art?category=5f032b4f-a7ba-40f8-9324-3ef9064a9734
-PM Summer Caps (for students ages 13 - 18)
https://www.artsofgreatfalls.org/school-of-art?category=6f3efb8a-ff36-4317-9b42-e356e85d56ab
Community Offering 4
Summer Volunteer Camp, Session 2, June 24-28, 9:30-12:30
Christ the King Lutheran Church, 10550 Georgetown Pike
Summer Volunteer Camp is a great opportunity for children aged 6-12 to discover how they can make a difference in our community. Kids will participate in volunteer service projects, meet nonprofit leaders, work in teams, use their creativity, play games, and more.
Volunteer service projects will be announced closer to the date but may include:
- Making toys for an animal shelter
- Making meals for families who are food-insecure
- Preparing art kits for children in foster care, and more.
Registration is limited to 24 children.
Fees: $160/one child; $300 two siblings; $400 three siblings.
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