This week, the 6th graders started the day with a seminar focused on the following questions:
Does your family make-up affect if you are introverted or extroverted?
Would you rather be introverted or extroverted?
Does American society value introverts or extroverts more?
The students did an awesome job diving deep into these questions, and the conversation seemed to flow more naturally than last week.
After the seminar, the students continued on their Study of the City work. We were able to get our first two trip activities in the books! We will be getting a presentation at Freak Alley from the gallery curator, and we will get a tour of Boise High from two Brave high school students! Next week, the students will finish planning our trip, the following week presentations will be given, and on the 30th, the class will be set loose in the city! (Sort of...)
The classroom is out of shared snacks for students that need but don't bring a snack on their GATE day. These are especially important for our 4th grade class that doesn't have lunch until 1:00pm! Individually-wrapped, low-mess snacks like chewy granola bars seem to work best. Thanks for any donations!
The Lowell GATE Community is blessed with lots of generous families who donate to our program allowing me to purchase virtually any basic (and some extravagant!) supplies needed to run an exciting and enriching program. Over the past couple years, I've been able to purchase thousands of Lego bricks, a sewing station, chess sets, Rubik's cubes, craft supplies, microscopes, drones, and so much more thanks to these generous donations.
Unfortunately, all pull-out GATE programs do not have these same opportunities, largely due to the fact that they serve populations with less abundance than ours. The district provides a handful of materials to each of our classrooms each year, but most of the GATE budget is allocated to testing materials since gifted services are not currently funded by the State of Idaho.
If you are interested in helping other GATE programs that struggle to afford even simple project supplies, please feel free to donate to the PIERCE PARK/GATE/ALEXANDER,LEONA Foundation account or to the GARFIELD/GATE/TUCKER,KATIE account, or check out their Amazon Wishlists here and here, respectively.
Thank you for considering a donation to help make our GATE programs more equitable!
As we begin our school year and face new challenges, we are seeking new ways to enrich your child's education. A big purchase, I have my eye on is a set of classroom cameras for the 3rd grade photography unit and to help other students with self-expression and documenting the progress of their project work.
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. I upgraded and added a ton of classroom supplies this summer with donations from last year, so thank you so much for those donations! [LOWELL/GATE/GABRIELLI,AUDREY]