Gearity PDS

Greetings Gearity Families:

Progress Reports Coming! Teachers have until 11:59 on September 23rd to enter progress reports. You will be able to view the progress reports in Infinite Campus. Mrs. Blade will mail the reports home by the end of the week.

We will have Parent Teacher Conferences from 1-7 pm on October 22nd and from 8:15 - 11:30 on October 23rd. Teachers will reach out to their families to schedule meeting times. Students will not come to school either day as teachers will be completing quarter 1 grades or participating in professional development sessions when not meeting with parents.
You can schedule a teacher conference at any time in the year by reaching out to your student's teachers. We want to partner with out families to support each student in mastering grade level standards and look forward to collaborating on your child's success.

PAWS Assemblies and PAWS Store: We acknowledge students who are meeting our PAWS expectations the 4th Friday of each month. Every homeroom teacher is able to give a PAWS certificate to four students and a Character Strong certificate for the monthly theme at the ceremony. Please celebrate as a family if you student is recognized! Students earn PAWS points daily for meeting our school expectations. We will have our PAWS Store the same say as the assembly. Please note that your children can spend their points in the PAWS store and may bring home a school prize.

PTA Meeting September 30th: Due to the heat day last month our first PTA meeting was moved to virtual. We will have our September meeting in person from 6:15 - 7:15 in the media center. We were excited to welcome new members and would encourage anyone who would still like to join to attend the upcoming meeting. Our next major PTA event is the Fall Book Fair the week of November 16th. Please consider volunteering for a shift so we can support families in building their home library.

Picture Day October 1st: Mrs. Smith has sent home the flyer for ordering pictures. You can see the digital code for our picture day linked below if the flyer did not make it to your house. Use this url. https://lifetouch.com/order-pictures/ to access the digital ordering platform. If you do not like your pictures we will have a retake day on November 2nd.

Home Coming Is October 2nd: Our theme this year is A, B, Cs to Alumni! We are hoping you and your children will be able join us when we march in the parade. Students will get a mortar board (Graduation hat), black and gold grad beads, and will pass out smarties to the crowd. A parent has volunteered to let us decorate her truck and we will be dancing to the Jackson Five hit ABC. Next week I will send home a permission slip that interested families should complete so we know how many people will be in our group. Let me know if you have any questions.

Teaching and Learning Update: I hope the brief literacy videos I have shared have have been beneficial as you work with your children at home. We all know that math instruction is different than what we did as children. Today's instructional practices rely heavily on the use of visual models to support your students in developing a conceptual understanding of foundational math concepts. I am sharing a brief video that shows the types of models our teachers use and you can replicate the strategies at home.

Have a great weekend,

Mr. Mc Nichols

Principal, Gearity Professional Development School

Cleveland Heights-University Heights City School District

What did my child learn at school this week?

Dear Families,

Here is a snapshot of what students are learning across grade levels, along with simple ways you can support learning at home.

🌟 KINDERGARTEN

Students are practicing letter and sound recognition, listening for sounds in words, and retelling stories by identifying important events and details. Students are also working on writing complete sentences. Students are building number sense by counting, comparing quantities, and solving simple addition and subtraction problems.

🏠 Try It at Home!

Read a story together and ask, “What happened first, next, and last?”
Practice letter sounds using objects around your home.
Have your child write one sentence about their day.
Count toys, snacks, or household objects. Ask, “What happens if we add one more?”

🌟 FIRST GRADE

Students are practicing phonics and reading words while describing story characters, including their actions, feelings, and experiences. Students are writing personal narratives about experiences from their own lives. Students are learning about two- and three-dimensional shapes and describing shapes by their characteristics.

🏠 Try It at Home!

Ask, “Who is the character? What did they do? How did they feel?”
Have your child tell and write a story about something they experienced.
Go on a shape hunt around your home.
Describe shapes using words such as sides, corners, flat, and curved.

🌟 SECOND GRADE

Students are identifying the lesson or message of a story and describing how characters respond to important events. Students are writing realistic fiction with characters, settings, and events that could happen in real life. Students are practicing addition and subtraction strategies and solving problems involving unknown numbers.

🏠 Try It at Home!

Ask, “What lesson did the character learn? What makes you think that?”
Create a realistic story about a school, family, or neighborhood experience.
Practice addition and subtraction using cards, dice, or household objects.
Create simple story problems for your child to solve.

🌟 THIRD GRADE

Students are describing characters and their actions and explaining how events contribute to the story. Students are writing personal narratives with a clear beginning, middle, and end. Students are practicing multiplication, division, and mathematical problem-solving while explaining how they reached their answers.

🏠 Try It at Home!

Ask, “How did the character’s actions affect what happened next?”
Tell a family story with a clear beginning, middle, and end.
Practice multiplication facts through games or real-life situations.
Ask your child to explain how they solved a problem.

🌟 FOURTH GRADE

Students are using evidence from texts to answer questions, identify important ideas and lessons, and describe characters and events. Students are writing opinion essays supported by reasons and evidence. Students are working with multi-digit numbers, multiplication, measurement, and problem-solving.

🏠 Try It at Home!

Ask, “What evidence from the book supports your answer?”
Choose a family topic and have your child write an opinion with at least two supporting reasons.
Practice multi-digit addition, subtraction, and multiplication.
Measure objects around the house and compare their lengths.

🌟 FIFTH GRADE

Students are analyzing characters, events, and story structure, including how chapters and sections contribute to a story. Students are writing opinion essays with clear claims, reasons, and evidence. Students are working with multi-digit numbers and fractions, including performing operations and explaining relationships between fractions.

🏠 Try It at Home!

Ask, “How has the character changed because of what happened?”
Discuss why an author organized a story into particular chapters or sections.
Have your child write an opinion and support it with evidence.
Use cooking or measuring to practice fractions.
Ask, “How do you know your answer is correct?”

Important Links!

School Supply Lists: Gearity Elementary

Food Service: You can see the monthly menus by clicking on this link.

Registration Information: New student registration can be completed online or in person. Find instructions, required documents, and contact information here. Please share the registration link with new neighbors or friends who may need help getting their children registered for the start of the school year.

Student Code of Conduct: Link to the Student Code of Conduct and Anti-Bully forms.

District Plan for Communications with Persons with Disabilities

The District has adopted a plan for communications with persons with disabilities, which is available at the following link: Communication Plan. The plan establishes procedures to ensure that the District's communications with persons with disabilities, including applicants, participants, members of the public, and companions with disabilities, are as effective as its communications with others.