Gullett Gazette - November 2, 2023

Charting Our Course in the 2023-2024 school year!

Principal's Post

Dear Caregivers,

November is here and I can hardly believe it! This month begins a very busy time of year for many of us-the nights are sometimes late, and the activities are many! Schedule changes can sometimes be a challenge for kiddos. You can help us by making sure that your child still gets to bed on time, eats a healthy breakfast, and has some down time to allow for regulating and decompressing. Daylight Savings Time changes this weekend which can also impact your children and their sleep. Setting those clocks back an hour will bring on dark mornings. If your child walks or bikes to school, please remind them of safety practices on their route, such as biking with the flow of traffic, looking both ways before crossing the street, and having reflectors when biking. Additionally, please be sure that you do not allow your child(ren) to wait outside alone. The school doors don’t open until 7:15 am each morning in the cafeteria and 7:30 in the classroom. If you are here before 7:30 please send your child to the cafeteria. Remember that the tardy bell rings at 7:40 am and students should be in their classroom at this time.

Additionally, you may have noted the fencing that has been making great progress! The gates and locks should be added soon. The fencing will increase our overall safety which is wonderful, but will also increase the challenges of navigating our campus during pick up, drop off and during the day for visitors/checking out students. One of the biggest impact areas will be changing the front entrance of the school. The new entrance is on the other side of the office, and you can buzz in as always. Eventually this will be where our security vestibule will be built. We have added 4 visitor spots to the parking lot near the door. Should those be full, please use available parking spots in the Northwest Rec Lot. Please do NOT park on Hunt Trail. Please review the attached flyer to note which gate entrances will be open for drop off and pick up. As staff is out there to remind you of these changes, please continue to treat them with respect as nobody likes to be the “bad guy,” but it is important for all of us to learn these new safety procedures. Finally-a plug for our car line for drop off and pick up. It is pretty efficient and works great for bad weather! A flyer with more details is linked here.

A note about our Thanksgiving luncheon on November 16th - The window for tickets to buy adult lunches has closed-we sold 204 tickets! If you did not pre-purchase a ticket, you can still join us, but you will need to bring your lunch instead. Lunch times and locations have been adjusted as well and are attached. Siblings will not be able to leave class and eat at another time. I realize that this may make for an extended visit for caregivers and I thank you for your patience. Finally, all visitors on campus MUST present a driver’s license or valid photo ID to get a sticker to be on campus for this event. Entrance to this event will be in the same place

On Monday, November 6, 2023 at 5:30 in the library I will be providing an overview of the Human Sexuality and Responsibility curriculum. Permission slips to opt into the curriculum will be sent out afterwards and the lessons will be taught in December. We must hear back from every child one way or another so that we can plan accordingly. The detailed lesson for your child’s grade level can be found on the AISD website. Click here to review the curriculum. Our PTA meeting will follow the presentation. I encourage you to stay and join us!

As I reflect on the many things I am grateful for here at Gullett, one of them is being part of a community filled with so many people willing to do something to make Gullett a special place. Whether it is taking on big projects like Book Fair or Carnival, helping regularly with animal care or gardening, coming to school to be a guest reader or share about a special holiday, or making sure your child comes to school ready to learn and be a part of our classroom community, everyone contributes to our amazing school. Special events this month to be on the look out for are Fall Carnival, Veteran’s Day Performance, and Thanksgiving lunch. After our fall break, we will come back and host our school wide “Gullett Heritage Fair.” Please see Konstella for all the information on each of these special events and how you and your family can be a part of them.

As always, thank you for your partnership and support. We have an amazing community of staff and parents making Gullett a school like no other place!

Sincerely,

Tammy Thompson

Proud Principal, Thomas A. Gullett Elementary

Donate to the Gecko Fund

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Counselor Spotlight

October was packed with meaningful conversations! Students participated in National Bullying Prevention Month, including Unity Day on October 18; Red Ribbon/Love Your Brain week was filled with opportunities to show our school spirit; and Middle School of Choice Recruitment opportunities prompted conversations about the transition from 5th to 6th grade!

Our primary grades learned how kindness prevents bullying. We considered how hurtful words and actions can “wrinkle a heart,” and The Recess Queen by Alexis O’Neill and Laura Huliska-Beith reinforced the act of being inclusive. Students will practice using the SAFE strategy whenever they witness bullying behavior:

S - Say Something

A - Ask for help from a trusted adult

F - Find a friend

E - Exit

2nd grade students read Each Kindness by Jacqueline Woodson, and students shared about their own acts of kindness as they dropped a pebble into a bowl of water. We acknowledged the ripple effect of how “each kindness makes the world a little better.”

Trudy Ludwig’s book, Just Kidding, prompted a 3rd grade discussion about teasing. They discovered how we create a safer environment for everyone when we are mindful of our words, gestures, and physical actions.

4th grade students used technology to gather information about bullying prevention, resulting in an infographic or flyer. Several students submitted Google Slides presentations filled with infographics about bullying prevention!

5th grade lessons targeted the skill of being an upstander rather than a bystander in a potential bullying situation. They participated in an activity to identify the risks of being an upstander, as well as how we, as a school community, support each other in choosing to be upstanders.

Family Resources:

Captain Compassion

Pacer Kids

Figure 8 Breathing Exercise

~ Ms. Mahan

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Library Letter

Book Fair is in full swing!!! Make sure you stop by! You can see the Book Fair site and upcoming library events in the library newsletter.

~ Mr. Temple

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Music Monthly

Hello, Gullett Musicians!

What a month! Congratulations to 3rd grade on their excellent performance. For those unable to make it, they sang in 3 different languages, did a hip hop movement feature, sang songs written both 5 and 500 years ago, and rocked out to this jam from Moana. Be there next year!

We are still collecting funds for recorders for 3rd-5th grade. Please see School Cash Online, or send $4 cash/check per student and expect a receipt. The sooner we have payment, the sooner we can order and start playing instruments!

Here are some upcoming music events:

11/10: Veterans Day Assembly (All)
12/16: All-City Choir (5th via audition)
12/18-12/20: Share Day! (All)

As always, please email us with any questions!

~ Will Jurgens and Marc Sustaita (Mr. S)

Gullett Music Staff

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The "Art"icle

Congratulations to Mrs. Luecke on her wedding last month!

K-1 is heading into Unit 5 Pattern and Texture. We have been having an amazing time using centers to explore the elements of art along with our projects and can't wait to keep adding more into the lessons!

2nd - 5th grade Units are starting over again with "Artists, Artworks, and Art Techniques" and will continue to cycle through units that sound identical to the first 4, but they just reflect the artmaking process, and we do different things each unit to explore that process.

2nd grade is wrapping up their comic book inspired cityscapes and will head into a study of Greek Pottery soon.

3rd-5th is deep in their study of contemporary artists from the North American Continent and are making choices around the artists who inspire them, the content of their art and the media they are creating in.

Classroom Wishlist for Ms. Leatherwood and Ms. Luecke
Artsonia: Connect a parent account to your student
Contest Folder for Art Contests!

~ Ms. Leatherwood and Ms. Luecke

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P.E. Press

Thank you!

Our PE team, school, and community wanted to take a moment to say THANK YOU to everyone who was able to make it out to CATCH night! What a successful evening learning about all things' health, wellness, and fitness! I hope you enjoyed yourself just as much as we did and were able to build connections along the way. Thank you for helping keep our geckos healthy!

What we are learning

We are currently in our Basketball Unit where students will review and practice a variety of dribbling, passing, and shooting skills. For wellness, we are learning about Nutrition which includes GO, SLOW, and WHOA foods as well as the MyPlate food groups.

~ Coach Rose, Ms. Garcia (and our newest Gecko Baby Sophia!!), and Coach Victor