August 27th, 2021

As you may have heard, this week of GATE Pull Out for 1st and 2nd graders presented us with a lot of challenges, starting with the buses for both the 1st and 2nd grade program being almost an hour late due to staffing shortages at the bus company. Luckily, our new and improved schedule will alleviate the extra burden of mid-day busing AND give us more time for GATE programming! Please check your email for a message about the updated schedule and reach out to Ms Gabrielli with any questions.

With the little bit of time we had together on Friday, we were able to get introduced to the GATE classroom, the school, and each other. 1st Graders tried a very difficult challenge of building a tower using only paper (no adhesives, scissors, or any other materials!) Some of our groups were able to create designs that were over 2 feet tall!! Most of our older students also tried their hand at this challenge, but incredibly, I saw what I think is the most ingenious solution in our 1st grade group! Our 1st Graders were also able to have a fun group photo taken by our classroom drone.

2nd Graders read a book called Two Bad Ants and then drew pictures from the perspective of a tiny ant. It was fun to think about how something that seems small and normal to humans can be enormous and foreign to a creature as tiny as an ant. The Word of the Day for the 2nd Graders was "peculiar," which really came in handy on our very peculiar GATE day. Unfortunately, we were so busy and so short on time, I didn't capture any photos of our 2nd Graders on Friday. I'll have to get double photos next Thursday as they join up with their new 3rd grade classmates!