On November 11th, the third and fourth grade GATE classes will have their Discovery Day at the Lakeway Learning Center. Fourth grade will be gone from 9-11:45 and third grade will be gone from noon until 2:30.  They will be working with other third and fourth graders from around the school district doing teamwork activitities.

The fifth and sixth grade GATE students will be at the ropes course from 12:15 to around 3 or so on October 22nd. Please feel free to stop by and watch if you have time!

4th grade will be doing rock puns soon. They need to bring rocks of all sizes to school if they can.

5th grade is working on their eminent person project. They can bring a small display board or they can use file folders from my room to make a display. We also will be making biography bottles. The students will be creating their eminent person from 2 liter plastic bottles. Each student will need to bring a bottle for the body and a styrofoam ball for the head. They need to bring anything else they may need to create their person.  My goodies are always available for them to use as well. The biography bottles will be made here at school.

6th grade Let's Have Pun night is Monday, October 28th! It will be at the Ready 4 Learning Center from 6-7.  6th grade students in GATE from around the district will have 3D puns to share and the community gets to guess what they are! Please come and enjoy!

Students may bring items from home to creat their pun, but their pun will be made here at school.

5th and 6th Discovery Day!

On October 22nd, the 5th and 6th grade GATE students will be going to the ropes course.  I will be sending information home about it as well as a permission slip.  The permission slip needs to be signed in order for your child to participate.  I would like the slips back by October 18th at the latest. Sooner would be even better.  Please contact me if you have any questions.

Gate and Enrichment Classes

GATE classes will begin next week. Activties such as swimming, Mallo, and MAP testing will be going on as well, so some GATE classes this month may be missed on occassion.

Some enrichment classes will start this month and some will begin next month. Please contact me if you have any questions.

Welcome Back!

Welcome Back!  I am the GATE and Enrichment teacher here at Conestoga.  I want to explain a little bit about our GATE and Enrichment program.  First of all I want to clarify the difference between GATE and Enrichment.  

   GATE:

   GATE stands for gifted and talented education.  This program is for third through sixth graders.  Students qualify for the program by demonstrating advanced language, math, and reasoning abilities and skills.  The evidence of a student’s abilities comes from classroom performance and test scores.  The first score I look at is the Kingore Observation Inventory score.  This is a score gathered from all second grade students through an in-class, open ended lesson.  The lesson is designed to evaluate creative thinking.  The next score I consider is the second grade Measure of Academic Progress or MAP score.  I will consider additional testing for any student whose score is in the ninetieth percentile.  In other words, the student’s score when compared to one hundred other students’ scores would be better than ninety of them.  Finally, I request permission from you, the parent, to give your second grade child the Cognitive Abilities Test.  This test has nine tests.  Each test takes about fifteen minutes to complete.  The nine tests are divided into three sections.  One section is language.  One is math.  The third is a non-verbal reasoning section.  In order to qualify for GATE services the student must have a score of one hundred twenty or higher.  

   I will continue to gather information about students in the third grade through the sixth grade to see if any may benefit from the GATE program.  If a student demonstrates a need for the program.  I will request permission to administer or re-administer the Cog AT.  Any time a parent or teacher requests a test or re-test, I look for evidence to justify a test and then administer the test if it will benefit the student.  Once a student qualifies for the GATE program, I will work with him or her for a minimum of 3 hours each week in grades 4-6 and for 2 hours each week in 3rd grade.

   ENRICHMENT:

   We also offer enrichment classes.  Students qualify to participate in enrichment through their classroom performance, teacher recommendation, and MAP scores.  I will work with students with above average ability who did not qualify for the GATE program for 30 or more minutes each week in language arts and/or math.

Please contact me if you have any questions.

  Thanks!

Kari McLaughlin

Gifted and Talented/Enrichment Teacher

Conestoga Elementary