GMS Parents, Guardians & Students:
This week marks the halfway point of Quarter 3. Progress reports will be available in Plusportals on Friday afternoon. On Monday, students will once again be starting in new rotations of Unified Arts classes. Academic classes are working to prepare students to be successful on this year’s MCAS tests. The dates scheduled for these tests and examples of the types of questions students will be asked to answer can be found further down in this newsletter.
As a reminder, students should come to school with a refillable water bottle, a fully charged Chromebook and their charging cords.
Dates to be aware of:
March 4th- Q3 Progress reports
March 8th- 5th Grade Band Concert at 6:30 pm
March 9th- 6th & 7th Grade Band Concert at 6:30 pm
March 11th- Half-day, 10:30 am dismissal
March 15th-5th Grade Chorus Concert at 6:30 pm
March 16th- 6th & 7th Grade Chorus Concert at 6:30 pm
March 29th & 30th- Grade 5 ELA MCAS tests
March 31st- Grade 7 Class Picture taken (8:00 am)
Free Weekly At-Home COVID Tests for Families
Last month Dr. Pellegrino sent out communication regarding the availability of free COVID tests for GPS families. Please read the letter linked below and sign up if you are interested in receiving these tests.
Free Weekly At-Home COVID Tests for Families
GMS Band and Chorus Concerts
After two years, the Band and Chorus program is back to having concerts! These will be held over four evenings, all beginning at 6:30PM, in the GMS Gymnasium. All students in the ensembles are expected to be in attendance to perform, barring emergencies. Currently, only two family members per student will be allowed to attend. Please continue to check your emails for updates from Mr. Schmidt and Mr. Zuaro!
March 8 (Tues) - 5th Grade Band
March 9 (Wed) - 6th and 7th Grade Bands
March 15 (Tues) - 5th Grade Chorus
March 16 (Wed) - 6th and 7th Grade Choruses
2021 Department of Elementary and Secondary School Report Card for GMS
Families and communities are critical partners to a school's success. Just as a student's report card shows how they are performing, the school report card shows how a school is performing in multiple areas. It shows the school's strengths and the challenges that need to be addressed to ensure the school is meeting the needs of all students. Please use this LINK to access specific information about our school.
Cover Letter English
Cover Letter Spanish
School and District Report Card Quick Facts and Glossary- English
School and District Report Card Quick Facts and Glossary- Spanish
Girls on the Run
Girls on the Run is a physical activity based positive youth development program that runs for 8 weeks. This is open to students in grades 3-5. If interested, please see the flier linked below.
Girls on the Run
Gardner Public School’s Dinner Program
The Gardner Public School’s Dinner program is available Monday thru Friday in the cafeteria at Gardner High School from 2-4 pm. This is a free program for any Gardner Public School student. Please see the flier linked below for further information.
GPS Dinner Program flier
News from SEPAC
Gardner Public Schools Special Education Parent Advisory Council (SEPAC) is always looking for new members. Please reach out to Special Education Team Chair for GMS Tasha Gamble if you are interested in joining.
SEPAC will be hosting a speaker on March 23, 2022 from 7-8 pm. Please see the flier linked below for more information
SEPAC- March 2022
MCAS Testing Dates and Information
ELA Grade 5 March 29 & 30th
ELA Grade 6 April 5th & 6th
ELA Grade 7 April 12th and 13th
Math Grade 5 April 27th & 28th
Math Grade 6 May 3rd & 4th
Math Grade 7 May 10th & 11th
STE Grade 5 May 17th & 18th
Recent classroom walkthroughs have shown that many teachers have already been hard at work preparing students for the rigor and perseverance required of them on the MCAS.
To help support this, we have a schoolwide plan in which all students and staff participate.
Some elements of the plan include:
Reviewing and using the MCAS Master Vocabulary
On demand writing (RACE response) after observing a thought provoking picture
Wittzle Wednesdays
Incentivizing student to show their best effort in all tasks
Test simulation
Motivational posts
Mindfulness practice
Shared reading with targeted questions
Our teachers have also spent time with students individually reviewing their Link-It benchmark data and class work and assessments to help students to set achievable goals for themselves on this year’s tests. We believe that all students should be comparing themselves to their past performances and not to others in the classroom. As such, the percentage of growth students have made this year, as evidenced by benchmark assessments, has also been shared and incorporated into their goal setting.
Below are some sample questions students will be tasked with answering on the MCAS tests for English Language Arts later this month.
Read the sentence from paragraph 9 below.
They discovered that most of the modern Pueblo peoples of Arizona and New Mexico, including the Hopi and the Zuni, count the Anasazi among their ancestors.
Based on the passage, which claim is best supported by the sentence?
A The Anasazi relocated and became members of other tribes.
B The Anasazi returned to the region and became a tribe of builders.
C Those related to the Anasazi were unable to explain what had happened to the tribe.
D Those related to the Anasazi had invented stories that made determining the fate of the tribe
difficult.
In paragraph 35 of The View from Saturday, what does the word lulls most likely mean?
A times of sadness
B moments of beauty
C rare instances of kindness
D temporary periods of calm