From the Principals’ Desk
Reflections from September:
- Supervision begins each morning at 8:20am. Please help bikers and walkers plan their timing, as we’ve had many students arriving too early.
- Students have done a great job following the new expectations for personal electronic device usage. The morning announcement slide below provides a few points of clarification, especially around smartwatches. We appreciate your partnership in helping to create a focused and connected learning environment!
Dates to Remember:
- Wednesday, Oct 7th - Full School Day
- Thursday, Oct 8th - Picture Day
- Friday, Oct 9th - No School, Professional Learning Day
- Monday, Oct 12th - No School, Indigenous Peoples Day
- Wednesday, Oct 14th - Full School Day
Sincerely,
Carol MacArthur. Principal
Shannon Peterson, Assistant Principal
Attendance Matters!
Thank you for partnering with us during Attendance Awareness Month in September! As we move into October, we want to focus on how regular attendance builds your child’s foundational skills.
Each day a student is absent, they miss explicit classroom instruction, which research shows is critical for vocabulary learning and word recognition (Sopris West, 2009). When students are absent, they miss the rich, interactive word exposure and real-time, face-to-face feedback that directly expands their reading comprehension.
To support these essential daily breakthroughs, we kindly ask that you plan family trips and appointments around the school calendar whenever possible. Every morning matters, and your child’s presence keeps our entire classroom community moving forward together!
Look at that September bar! Thank you for prioritizing your child's presence and helping us meet our 96% community goal!
Office Reminders
- Student arrival begins at 8:20 AM.
- School begins at 8:50 AM. If your child arrives after that time, they are tardy and need to check-in at the office before going to the classroom.
- You can report absences, communicate transportation plans or make general inquiries by calling the main office at 829-4815 or emailing [email protected].
We greatly appreciate your attention to these procedures, as they help to ensure that our routines run smoothly and efficiently.
Lost & Found
Cool mornings bring cozy outer layers. Warm afternoons leave unclaimed items on the playground. Help us help you! Remind your child to do a quick check of what they came to school with when they are packing up for dismissal. Writing your child’s name on those often left behind items allows us to return them to their owner before they ever land in the growing Lost & Found. If you know your child is missing something, feel free to ask them to check the Lost & Found or you may do so yourself any time you come into the building.
News From Food Services
Free and Reduced Meal Application
The state of Maine requires families of eligible students to update their free and reduced meal applications every three years. MSAD 51 is required to have applications updated this year.
Filling out this form, or not filling out this form, does not impact your students eligibility to obtain free breakfast and free lunch.
If you think you meet the guideline, and are not already enrolled in SNAP or Maine Care, please fill out this form.
If you need a paper copy sent to your house, please email Jon Carlson [email protected]
Household Application for Free and Reduced Price School Meals
Income Guidelines with Reimbursement Rates
Community Corner
What is SEL??
As we settle into 4th and 5th grade, we want to orient you to some of the work we do here at Greely Middle School 4/5. We work hard to address SEL, or Social Emotional Learning, in everything we do. We believe that developing these skills is an important part of school and helps students to thrive. From math, to reading, to cafeteria and recess time, to working through tricky situations with friends, we are always learning new skills and practicing what we've learned. This link will take you to a short video introducing Social Emotional Learning, or SEL. Please take a moment to watch it.
We are looking forward to a terrific year of growth and learning together with you and your child!
Katie Campbell, School Social Worker
Ali Waterhouse, School Counselor
Emma Klein, School Social Worker
A Look Into Literacy
4th and 5th grade literacy classrooms have been busy diving into personal narratives in their first CKLA unit. They are transitioning from readers to authors as they discover how to bring their own real-life stories to life on the page!
4th graders are learning how to “show, not tell” by incorporating sight, sound, touch, taste, and smell into their writing to make readers feel like they are right there in the moment. Students are mapping out their experiences with a clear beginning, middle, and end, focusing on settings, character reactions, and resolutions. Finally, they are practicing how to write realistic dialogue and format quotes with correct punctuation and paragraph breaks when new speakers talk. Next week, 4th graders will learn firsthand from author Cynthia Lord as she shares what it’s like to be a writer and walks them through her creative process! Be sure to ask your child about this fun day.
5th graders are currently working on surprise narratives in literacy class. Building on the “show, not tell” strategy, they are focusing on enriching their dialogue with descriptive verbs and sensory adjectives. Students are also exploring how to establish tone in their stories. To deepen their understanding, they are reading and analyzing a variety of mentor personal narratives.
Conversation starters:
- Ask your 4th grader to share a favorite family memory. Prompt them with sensory questions: “What did it smell like?” or “What sounds do you remember most?”
- Ask your 5th grader about a story they are working on and encourage them to explain why that memory is meaningful to them.
- Have your child read a draft of their narrative out loud to you. Reading aloud is a great way for young writers to spot missing punctuation or parts that don’t make sense.
Janet Giguere, Literacy Specialist
Math! Sumthing to Talk About 📐
Explore what our 4th and 5th graders are learning, discover tips for building math fluency at home, try out our monthly riddle, and play an engaging math game with your family!
💡 Math Fact Fluency
In 4th and 5th grade, math fact fluency becomes essential for student success in grade-level content. When students can recall basic facts with ease, tackling complex problem-solving becomes much smoother. For example, knowing 6 - 2 = 4, 6 × 2 = 12, 12 ÷ 2 = 6, or 12 ÷ 6 = 2 allows students to focus their cognitive effort on understanding and solving the problem rather than retrieving basic facts.
What Can You Do About It?
KenKen Puzzles: KenKen posts a puzzle of the day, similar to sudoku. Not only must students retrieve basic facts, but they also get to solve a fun, engaging puzzle along the way!
🧩 Monthly Math Riddle
I am a number between 30 and 60.
I am a multiple of 6.
My digits add up to 9.
If you divide me by 3, you get an even number.
What number am I?
🏠 Math At Home
Game Spotlight: Multiplication Top-It
📦 Materials Needed: A standard deck of playing cards.
How to Play:
- Shuffle and Stack: Shuffle the cards and stack them face down in the center.
- Draw and Multiply: Each player turns over two cards from the top of the deck and calculates the product (multiplies them together).
- Call Out: Each player states or calls out the product of their two cards.
- Win the Round: The player with the greatest product wins the round and collects all the played cards.
- Handle Ties: If there is a tie for the highest product, tied players draw two more cards, calculate their new products, and the highest product wins all cards from both rounds.
- End the Game: Players continue until there are not enough cards left for everyone to draw. The player with the most cards wins!
Kayla Billings, Math Specialist
Library News
4th graders are learning how to navigate the GMS Library and find books in which they're interested. Next week they'll see how to log into their account in the online catalog (Destiny) to check due dates, checkouts, and holds.
Speaking of checkouts & due dates... we're always hoping that books make their way back 'home,' no matter how long they've been out! Please help your student look for items they haven't returned (from either MIW or GMS) and send them in (or send in a replacement copy/$ if the item is truly lost).
All students are encouraged to read nominees from this year's Maine Student Book Award (MSBA) list! The library has multiple copies, including large print & audio formats, of each title and the nominees span all genres & types- there's something for everybody! Prince Memorial Library has copies as well as the electronic services Sora & the Cloud Library/Libby.
Dorothy Hall-Riddle, 4-8 Librarian
PE News
This month in PE, students are diving into flag football, and it is about so much more than just learning how to throw a touchdown pass!
At this crucial developmental age, learning flag football skills offers incredible benefits for your child:
- Boosts Athletic Development: Running, cutting, and catching build essential agility, hand-eye coordination, and cardiovascular endurance.
- Encourages Strategic Thinking: Students learn to read the field, understand basic positioning, and make quick, smart decisions under pressure.
- Teaches Teamwork & Inclusion: Flag football relies heavily on communication and cooperation, giving every single student a chance to participate and contribute to their team's success.
- Builds Confidence: Mastering a new skill—like throwing a spiral or making a flag pull or a clean catch or taking kickoffs—is a massive confidence booster for upper elementary students.
Best of all, it's non-contact, safe, and a fantastic way to burn off energy while learning the value of good sportsmanship! Ask your child tonight what position they played today.
Art News
PORTRAIT OF A CHICKEN
Created by Mrs. Cook’s Art Class
Line, color, and personality come together in our 5th-grade Chicken Portraits! Using oil pastels, students experimented with high-contrast shading and textural strokes to capture the quirky charm of their feathered subjects. Take a look at the rich color layering and dynamic details that bring each barnyard portrait to life!
Allied Arts Collaboration!
Students in 4th and 5th grade celebrated International Dot Day which was held on Sept. 15th. In STEM the students read and discussed the book The Dot by Peter Reynolds. Students learned what a tessellation is and created a Dot Day tessellation using triangles and half dots. In Library students read the MSBA book The Five Sides of Marjorie Rice: How to Discover a Shape. The story is about a girl who solved the puzzle of five sides and tessellations.
Check This Out!
SOCKTOBER!
The students in Mrs. Gervais' and Mrs. Hinckley’s 5th grade classes are excited to be working on a service learning project. Socktober was created to raise awareness about homelessness and provide an opportunity to supply people in need with their number one needed item - socks. During the month of October these two classes will be collecting socks (new), hats, mittens, and gloves (can be new or gently used) which will then be delivered to Maine Needs, a local Maine organization that will coordinate distribution of the items to Maine residents in need. We appreciate any donations (both kid- and adult-sized) for this project. There will be donation boxes in all 4-5 classrooms or you can leave items in the GMS office. Thank you for your support.
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LESSONS IN CITIZENSHIP
Fourth Grade Students met Town Managers for both Cumberland and North Yarmouth, learned about what they do and met and learned about other employees for the town of Cumberland (Town Planner, Police, Firefighters, People in charge of elections)
Some great questions, why did you decide to become a town manager? What did you need to do to get your job? Do you like your job? Is your job fun? How many speed chases do you have? (that one got a laugh from adults only....)
They also got to get up close and walk through an ambulance, fire truck and sit in a police car.
They also were able to vote for their
1. Favorite Maine Adventure
2. Favorite Official Maine Icon
3. Favorite Local Community Spot
4. Favorite Maine Food
The Late Bus
In addition to regular, daily dismissal, a late bus is also available on Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday for students who stay for co-curricular activities or after-school academic support. Buses pick up students from GMS at 4:15pm and transport them home. Please be aware that depending on the number of students riding the late bus on a given day, your child's arrival time at home may vary. If you have specific questions about the late bus, please feel free to call the Transportation Garage at 829-4820.
Co-Curricular Activities
Monday:
5th grade Band Mr. Barry Saunders [email protected]
Tuesday:
Chorus - Mrs. Jennifer Caton [email protected]
Thursday:
Newspaper Club - Mrs. Melissa Fiess [email protected] (see below)
5th grade Ukulele Club - Mr. Barry Saunders [email protected]
5th grade Math Team - Mrs. Laurie Poissonnier [email protected] (see below)
During the School Day:
Green Team - Mrs. Monica Moore [email protected]
Civil Rights Team - Mrs. Jane Kilbride-Dupuis [email protected]
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Do you like to write? Do you like doing research? Are you free on Thursdays after school? If so, GMS 4-5 Newspaper Club might be for you!
The sign up for the fall/winter session of The GMS Newspaper Club is open now through Thursday, October 8th.
Meetings are weekly on Thursdays after school until 4:10 and begin on October 15th. The late bus will be available.
The fall/winter session runs until February break. The sign up for the winter/spring session will happen in early February.
There is a capacity limit of 18 members to ensure a quality experience for all. Please only sign up if you are passionate about the writing process and you are available to consistently attend meetings.
**If more than 18 students sign-up a lottery will be done with names.**
The sign up closes on Thursday, October 8th and Mrs. Fiess will be in touch with all families who fill out the sign up form on Friday, October 9th.
Contact Melissa Fiess at [email protected] with any questions.
**Link to sign up: Newspaper Fall/Winter Session Sign-Up
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Math Team is for students who love math and want to grow as a mathematician. It is an opportunity to practice math skills, learn new math skills and learn new problem solving strategies.
We will meet every Tuesday immediately after school in the STEM Lab until 4:10, starting October 20th. A late bus is available to those needing transportation home.
Participation will be limited to 24 students. There will be a lottery if more than 24 students sign-up. Parents and students will be notified by Oct. 16th if selected.
Click to go to the Math Team sign-up. The deadline for sign-up is Oct. 14th.
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