GT Newsletter
May 2018
Thank you!
Forever...
Events
Second Grade – Game Day – Tuesday, May 8th, 7:45-8:30 a.m. (GT Classroom)
Third Grade – Invention Celebration - Thursday, May 10th, 12:00-12:30 (Cedar Creek Elementary – Commons Area)
Fourth Grade – DIG – Tuesday, May 8th, 9:00 -10:00 a.m. - Please note the date change due to weather
Kindergarten
My friends in kindergarten continue to bound into class ready to learn! They have been focusing on a variety of thinking skills through books, games and building/drawing activities. Some of the key messages have been being ok with who you are, being ok with thinking differently and being ok with failing.
They especially enjoy learning new games. One of their favorite games is "Preferences", deciding what they would prefer to be (sun or moon) and giving a reason. The game focuses on forced analogies and stating their thinking for a choice. Too often we are impressed by what a gifted child says and do not push to have her/him explain why.
One of their favorite activities recently was making pictures using just 12 toothpicks and a dot! After they made each picture, they used their iPads to take photos! You can do this one at home.
First Grade
We had a grand reopening of the zoo! The zookeepers worked very hard to create the exhibits and practice their speaking skills. I think they were most proud of the variety of enrichment ideas they created for the animals. Thank you, also, to the parents who helped with the zoo exhibit construction. You can see a slide show of photos from the opening at http://bcegiftedprogram.weebly.com/more-photos.html.
After their in-depth study of how zoos have changed and the pros and cons of zoos, all of them thought we should continue to have “good” zoos in our world.
The children will spend a couple of weeks exploring some exercises in stop motion animation since I have a subscription to Animating Kids that I was using with my older children for the Eanes Film Festival. It will be a creative and fun way to end the year together.
Second Grade
The children are working diligently to create their final games to play with you on Game Day, Tuesday, May 8th. This process of designing, testing and the redesigning has been a great experience in perseverance. They like to get ideas quickly and have them work and in game design that usually does not happen. Most experimented for over a week before settling on a game board design and an initial set of rules. After fine-tuning the rules by testing out the game with friends they are ready to write the final set of rules and drawing of the game board. A special thank you is extended to Andy's mom for picking up the pizza boxes and to Austin Pizza on Cuernavaca for donating the pizza boxes for our games.
Near the end of the year the children will bring home their final games and a folder with all the games we learned this semester. This should provide hours of fun and thinking for family members!
Third Grade
The inventors have been very busy! They enjoyed creating “magnificent things” for the friends they will meet at the Invention Celebration. I was so impressed with the types of ideas they generated! The children used Google Classroom to communicate with the friends.
As soon as their final inventions arrive, the children will share and then practice speaking skills to prepare for the celebration. The inventors will be ready to share with you and their friends at Cedar Creek on May 10th, 12:00-12:30, in the Cedar Creek Commons Area. We hope you can attend. My favorite part of the event is when they share with the friends they made “online” and then have lunch together. The children will also present their new friends with the “magnificent thing” inventions that they made in class.
Fourth Grade
The children absolutely loved making their archaeological spoofs about “A School of Mysteries” using iMovie. They shared the movies in class this past week. I loved their sense of humor!
They have also been preparing for the DIG, set for May 8th, 9:00-10:00 a.m. The date has been moved by one day. Due to rain this week, we will not bury artifacts till next Monday, the 7th. Each team created artifacts and murals to give clues to the other team about the imaginary culture. During the DIG each child will rotate through specific jobs, led by crew chiefs for each team. This is a great opportunity to develop leadership skills and team skills. After the DIG, the archaeologists will attempt to reconstruct the key universals of each other’s culture and then debrief the other team. I can’t wait to hear their conclusions!
Fifth Grade
Barton Creek will be represented by teams from our fifth-grade class at the Festival de Eanes Film Festival final competition this year. The three teams will be invited to the Alamo Drafthouse for the showing of the 16 finalists from the district. I am so proud of all the teams who participated in developing films for the contest.
We had a short, but informative visit Mrs. Reese at WRMS. She does such a wonderful job of helping the children feel relaxed about the transition to middle school GT.
I absolutely loved visiting with the children as they worked on their “Me Collages”. Their imagination and problem solving shined as they used a variety of materials from the craft center in unique ways. They are currently sharing the instant challenges that they designed for the class. Teams of 3 each developed a challenge for the class and then “teaches” the class for a day. It has been my pleasure to work with this amazing group of children over the years! They are caring, creative and fun!