*Please note that all students attending Lowell GATE may receive free breakfast and lunch on their GATE day.

This week the 6th graders eased their way back into the GATE classroom. Today's question of the day was "What will make this school year successful?" The students worked independently, with a small group, and as a whole class to discuss this topic. While the Lowell students were at their Compact 7/8 Math class, the other students read an article about effective academic discourse and summarized the key points. These points will be referenced through the semester as we hold Question of the Day discussions and other discourse opportunities. 

The students built off of their "success" discussion and examined their values and goals for their 6th grade year. This led each student to pick One Word to drive their year. They made a bracelet or keychain with that work so they can carry it with them all year. 

We also spent a good amount of time planning our main unit of study for the student's last semester of GATE. I gave the students the required and preferred elements for the unit, they shared their hopes, and we put together a pretty excited project that will involve connecting with local professionals, creating interesting and challenging projects, and practicing leadership skills while planning a field trip and possibly a community service project.

At the end of the day, we had fun checking out some of the new Choice Time options that I purchased with generous donations to the class Foundation Account! Thank you so much!

Next week, we will start our official leadership curriculum and continue preparing for our first full unit study.

Students will be bringing home a copy of the GATE Student/Parent/Teachers Contract to be signed and returned.

Daily Class Slideshow Link

*Please note that all students attending Lowell GATE may receive free breakfast and lunch on their GATE day.

This week the 3rd graders started the day by noticing and wondering about new things in the classroom. This helped our new and veteran classmates get acclimated to our learning environment and how things may have changed. We also played some good old Human Bingo to get to know each other and learn new things about our classmates. 

After these introductory activities, we got started on our first Question of the Day for the year. Today's question was "What will make this school year successful?" The students worked independently, with a small group, and as a whole class to discuss this topic. The district is placing a lot of focus on academic discourse this year, so I'm glad this practice was already established last year! I anticipate the 3rd graders making a lot of progress in this skill this year; today's discourse had quite a few long pauses for thinking and building bravery to share. 😅

After our Question of the Day refresh, the students built off of their "success" discussion and examined their values and goals for their 3rd grade year. This led each student to pick One Word to drive their year. They made a bracelet or keychain with that work so they can carry it with them all year. 

We finished the day with Choice Time where students were able to try out many of the new materials I purchased using generous donations to the classroom Foundation Account. Thank you!

Before lunch, we worked through the Student/Parent/Teachers Contract so students know what their expectations and right are regarding their time spent at GATE and out of their regular classrooms. Students will be bringing home a copy of the GATE Student/Parent/Teachers Contract to be signed and returned.

I use donation money to purchase snacks for the class, but you are always welcome to send a snack with your 3rd grader, send in snack donations, purchase snacks from our class Amazon Wishlist, or donate to the Foundation Account linked near the bottom of this page. Thanks!

Next week, we will be starting our first unit of the year that connects to this year's theme of Transformation.

Daily Class Slideshow Link