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6th Grade - Nov 18
6th Grade - Nov 18
Today we had a small but mighty group of five 6th graders in class today (with one sick student who video called in.) We started the day by coming up with a list of questions to ask the North Junior High and Treasure Valley Math and Science students who visited up later in the day. The crew then got back to work on their special interest projects. While the Lowell students attended their math class, the student who was left continued work on their project. After the math hour, the students held a 30 minute discussion with three junior high students and asked them questions about everything from the lunchroom to electives to homework. Thanks so much to these students for sharing your experiences! The day ended with project work, reflections, presentations, and a bit of Choice Time.
The 6th graders only have 2 more GATE classes! The next one will be our field trip on Monday December 9th. I can cover the price of the students' lunch from the class donation fund, but if students would like ice cream at Stella's they will need to bring money to pay on their own. I'll send out a pre-order form the week prior to our trip. The last day will be our final reflection and celebration on Monday December 16th.
5th Grade - Nov 19
5th Grade - Nov 19
This week 5th graders practiced annotated reading as they dug deeper into the difference between extroversion and introversion. The article (linked in the slideshow) helped the students determine how much they agreed with the results of their initial personality test. (I also linked the version we used in the slideshow for whoever is interested!) We then reviewed Kandinsky's abstract art style, and students stretched their brains to adapt the style to reflect their extroversion, introversion, or ambiversion. We were able to get bit ahead of schedule and also got an introduction to the next abstract art style the 5th graders will be using, De Stijl/neoplasticism. You may not be familiar with it by name, but when you see the bold primary colors, rectangles and squares, and black and white lines, you'll start thinking about the 5th graders' next creative challenge... adapting De Stijl to to the next letter pairing in the MBTI.
4th Grade - Nov 20
4th Grade - Nov 20
This week, the 4th graders had their favorite type of GATE day, a project work day! Randomly assigned teams of 3 are working together to create a giant poster that includes a brace map showing the whole-part relationships of the human brain, functions of the parts of the brain, a diagram of the brain, and other fun bonus sections such as brain morphemes, fun facts, trivia, and more. The students were super self-directed and engaged with this work and they made my job easy!
3rd Grade - Nov 21
3rd Grade - Nov 21
Today was the final big prototype work day for the 3rd grade inventors. They were all able to complete an initial prototype/model of their invention, and some students were able to reflect and redesign their work. Students are welcome to take their work home for the break, but they are not required to work on them outside of GATE class.
Some students were hesitant to upgrade or redesign their initial prototypes, but we talked about how that is an important step in the invention process. Inventers practice grit and determination and keep striving to improve their inventions. After each prototype completion, students are filling out this form to track their thoughts.
2nd Grade - Nov 22
2nd Grade - Nov 22
Today the 2nd graders had two main tasks, they problem solved with a team to build a giant spider web that could catch pipe cleaner bugs, and they created (and learned about) concrete poems that represented their learning about spiders and artists. You can find summaries of their work in their 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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