GCES Parent Center
Welcome Back - August 2020
What is Title I?
Title I funds aim to bridge the gap between low-income students and other students. The U.S. Department of Education provides supplemental funding to local school districts to meet the needs of at-risk and low-income students.
What is the Parent Center?
The Parent Center offers a diverse lending library, many community resources, and an individualized educational support system for parents and their learners. Certified staff members are available assist throughout the school day. Research shows involving families and communities in their local schools improves academic and social success of children. Therefore, the mission of The Parent Center is to impact the academic achievement of each student by creating an environment that strengthens parental involvement and provides resources for parents.
Learning at Home
Free Websites for Elementary School
Smart videos for curious minds of all ages.
Mystery Science
To help educators during this time of coronavirus, Mystery Science has pulled their most popular science lessons and are offering them for anyone to use for free. No account or login is needed.
Duolingo
Learning with Duolingo is fun and addictive. Earn points for correct answers, race against the clock, and level up. Their bite-sized lessons are effective, and they have proof that it works.
Scratch (by MIT)
With Scratch, you can program your own interactive stories, games, and animations — and share your creations with others in the online community.
Shake things up by hopping across the pond and engaging with materials from the BBC. Over the coming days and weeks they will be providing daily content to help you with your education and wellbeing.
28 Days of STEM Activities and STEAM Activities for Kids (Left Brain Craft Brain)
60+ Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, & Math projects that will get young people excited about learning.
Your Guide to Enjoying Art at Home (by Caroline Velazquez)
An art educator from Virginia shares a table of ideas for enjoying art at home including: art contests, virtual museum field trips, art games, digital art experiences, and other art-at-home opportunities.
25 sources of free public domain books (Ebook Friendly)
Want to load your e-reader or tablet with free ebooks, legally? Check out this list of sites that offer free public domain books in electronic and audio format.
Audible
For as long as schools are closed, Audible is open. Starting today, kids everywhere can instantly stream an incredible collection of stories, including titles across six different languages, that will help them continue dreaming, learning, and just being kids. All stories are free to stream on your desktop, laptop, phone or tablet.
40 Science Websites to Keep Kids Engaged and Entertained at Home (Bored Teachers)
Science is all about exploring how things work. It’s often best learned through hands-on experiments and observation. This makes it a fun and easy subject area for kids to dive into while at home.
STEM @ Home (Pitsco Education)
Hands-on, minds-on learning for all ages interested in exploring STEM subjects they can explore at home.
FabuLingua
Magical stories that teach kids Spanish. Fabulingua is temporarily providing their product for free during the pandemic.
Scholastic Learn at Home (Scholastic, for ages 4-12)
Even when schools are closed, learning continues with these special cross-curricular journeys. Every day includes four separate learning experiences, each built around a thrilling, meaningful story or video. Kids can do them on their own, with their families, or with their teachers.
Epic! the Leading Digital Library (Epic!, for ages 12 and under)
Unlimited award-winning fiction, non-fiction, STEM, biographies, graphic novels, DIY, and more.
50 Inside Activities to Burn Kid’s Energy (Paper Heart Family)
A long list of activities for parents and guardians with high-energy kids.
A nonprofit with the mission to provide a free, world-class education for anyone, anywhere.
Virtual Museum Tours (by Google Arts & Culture)
A Google Arts & Culture team has collaborated to create virtual tours and online exhibits of some of the best museums in the world, and they’re available with just a few clicks.
The 15 Most Amazing Virtual Field Trips (by Early Childhood Education Zone)
Since virtual field trips aren’t limited by travel time and budgets, children can enjoy more fun, informative, and inspiring exposure to the world outside their homes than ever before.
TedEd (by Ted Talks)
Library of lessons from the creators of Ted Talks. Watch videos and unpack the conversations with young people, educators, siblings, and parents.
Free STEAM and Creativity Activities (by Destination Imagination)
This is a group of science, technology, engineering, mathematics, arts, and creativity activities that can be done as a family, as a group, or individually. The activities use the unique learning pedagogy of Destination Imagination and will help children express their creativity, interests, and strengths.
How to Create a Good Study Space for Online Learning
First and foremost, if you are experiencing a change to your normal routine, try to stay calm and keep as much to your regular routine as possible. This means:
- Get up and dressed at the same time each day.
- Have the same types of food (breakfast /lunch) you normally would.
- Take the same breaks you are used to in a day (remember, at school you get an exercise break between each subject as you change classes).
Your Space
Each learning space will be slightly different, but try to make sure your space has these characteristics:
- In a well-lit place (natural light is great if you can do it)
- Comfortable sitting and table top height (avoid sitting at the living room coffee table)
- Near a power outlet if computer access is required
Meals During Virtual Learning
- Menus are still being finalized, but you can expect some favorite entrées from our normal cycle menu during the school year
- Meals will also include a variety of fresh fruits and vegetables and a choice of milk
- Meals will be available via weekly bus delivery
- Breakfast meals will be FREE to all students
- Lunch meals will be $3.00 each for paid students, $0.40 for reduced students, and $0.00 for free students
- A week’s worth of lunch meals (5) will be $15.00 for paid students, $2.00 for reduced students, and $0.00 for free students
- Money can be added to student accounts via MySchoolBucks.com
- Meal applications can be filled out online at https://www.myschoolapps.com
- Prior year meal application status is good through September 30, 2020
- Students must have a valid student ID # to pick up meals
- Parents/guardians can pick up meals, as well, with their child’s valid student ID # if the child is not able to