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6th Grade - Nov 4+11
6th Grade - Nov 4+11
The 6th graders finished presenting their career study projects and *almost* finished their field trip planning for December 9th. This week, they started a 2-week mini special interest project that will take them until the Thanksgiving Break. There is no GATE the week after Thanksgiving due to district-wide cognitive testing for 1st graders. Then the 6th graders just have their field trip on December 9th and their final reflection and celebration day on December 16th!
Please reach out if you are interested in joining our field trip on December 9th!
5th Grade - Nov 12
5th Grade - Nov 12
Today, the 5th graders started their study of personality and abstract art. We hope to finish this work before the winter break, but we may stretch it into January depending how into the art interpretation the students get.
We started the day with students working on teams to create graffiti-style walls representing "What is personality?" The students then galley walked and held a discussion analyzing and interpreting the art work. Next, everyone took a Myers-Briggs-based personality test to get a baseline for their personality. We discussed and watched a video talking about the use and limitations of personality tests. We all found it super interesting to compare the popularity of the different personality types globally to those in our class.
After lunch, the students tried their hand at using and interpreting the Elements of Art to convey abstract, intangible concepts. They played a game where they drew and guessed the meanings of abstract drawings. We finished the day with an introduction to Wassily Kandinsky's abstract paintings. Kandinsky will be the first abstract art style that we study and apply to the personality traits of extroversion, introversion, or ambiversion.
4th Grade - Nov 13
4th Grade - Nov 13
Question of the Day: How can you help yourself have a good day?
Today the 4th graders added a new morpheme to their list: "post" meaning "after". They reviewed the anatomy and function of the parts of the brain by playing some Blooket quizzes for 20 minutes before learning about how brace maps can be more complex than they have previous learned... they can grow to the third iteration and beyond!
After recess the students got strips of paper with 20 different parts of the brain. They were challenged to organize the parts into a giant brace map. These maps will be the foundation of giant brain posters that the 4th graders will create with teams next week.
3rd Grade - Nov 14
3rd Grade - Nov 14
This week was action packed for the 3rd grade inventors! They worked on finishing their patent drawings and building their first iteration prototypes! I had to leave in the middle of the day for an emergency trip to the dentist (so fun!) but they also read and reflected on the book The Most Magnificent Thing and made a big (creativity-fueled) mess in my absence. 😅 I didn't mind. Next week, students will reflect on how to improve their prototypes. Students are welcome (but not required) to work on their inventions at home as long as all help is minimal and documented. Photos are great!
2nd Grade - Nov 15
2nd Grade - Nov 15
Today the 2nd graders got in the mindset of an artist. After their daily discussion questions and an on-the-fly lesson on how to hold a polite conversation where bot sharing and listening occur, we headed out to our graffiti alley to reflect on how artists make choices. They then watch and participated along with an awesome video that introduced the methodology of famous abstract artists Wassily Kandinsky. Next we played a game where students created two abstract drawings that represented two state emotions, They considered line, shape, and color and had to guess and explain their artistic choices and their partner's choices.
After all this work, the students were ready to create an abstract drawing that reflected at least 4 important moments in their life. They used line, shape, and color to convey these moments. You can find video and written explanations on their digital portfolios linked below.
Donation Link & Amazon Wishlist
Donation Link & Amazon Wishlist
If you would like to help fund our tech needs, supplies for students, brain puzzles, etc, please click on the link below to donate to my Boise Foundation Account. You can also check out our Amazon Wishlist.
A Special Note
A Special Note
Some of the district's other pull out GATE programs serve higher-need communities and aren't able to secure many funds for their programs due to the nature of voluntary donation systems. These teachers regularly pay for project supplies out of their own pockets. If you feel led to donate, please consider blessing these deserving students and teachers by giving to their programs. A few Lowell families donated to these programs last year, and they made a huge difference! Lowell family donations were actually the ONLY donations Garfield received last year. Thank you so much!
The programs most in need are [GARFIELD/GATE/TUCKER,KATIE], [PIERCEPARK/GATE/ALEXANDER,LEONA], and [MOUNTAINVIEW/GATE/WELLER,LYNNETTE]
Secure quick link to the class Foundation Account donation page
Parent Lending Library
Parent Lending Library
The Boise School District has a Parent Lending Library to help educate, inform, and support parents as they raise gifted children. If you are looking for my information related to parenting gifted children, please reach out to Helga Frankenstein, GATE Supervisor, (helga.frankenstein@boiseschools.org) for more information.
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