GT LEADers in Action

January II edition

Special Programs Expo - YOU DON'T WANT TO MISS THIS! February 16

From engineering challenges to advanced academics to language immersion and early childhood education, GCISD offers a world of opportunities for students. Families are invited to learn more about these opportunities at the Special Programs Expo on Tuesday, February 16 from 5:30 - 8:00 p.m. at Cross Timbers Middle School. The expo will feature stations showcasing our STEM programs, ASPIRE Academy and Dual Language programs. New to the Expo this year, families may also learn about the proposed tuition-based Pre-Kindergarten program, iUniversity Prep and Collegiate Academy. In addition to program stations, presentations focusing on the instructional components and benefits of these programs will be delivered in the lecture hall and Student Activity Center (SAC).

Attention Parents in Grades 1-4 interested in referring your GT LEAD child for the Aspire Academy for the 2016-2017 school year:
There will be a parent meeting to discuss the identification process and program services this Thursday, January 28 and/or February 2 at 6:00 pm at the PDEC (Professional Development Education Center) at 5800 Colleyville Boulevard, Colleyville 76034.  The two meetings are offered to better accommodate family schedules.  Each meeting will discuss the same content.

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Here's what we've been up to in class:

Kindergarten has been working on making connections to form relationships between two and three very different items (forced connections). We have also been practicing our fluency as we toss the brainstorm ball back and forth to generate new and original ideas.

1st grade practiced sharing their creative stories on stage.  They even used the microphone to project their voice to the world!  Their next challenges in class will be to observe, identify and classify attribute blocks.

2nd grade has been very messy and busy on their design challenges.  They were faced with creating a structure that could solve a specific problem, and it had to have at least one moving part.  Infomercials will be written next to get their ideas marketed.

3rd grade had a blast with snap cubes as they changed their two dimensional figures into three dimensional ones.  Drawing accurate depictions of this is not easy, but they loved it.  Their study continues this week as they focus on the nets of packaging boxes by translating a 3D shape into a 2D net, which requires a lot of spatial visualization.

4th grade elevated their vocabulary by writing monumental inscriptions, once construction was completed.  We took a virtual field trip through the internet to observe appropriate terminology and text of monuments across the nation.  Scholars had to write a concise, yet richly accurate inscription of their own critical attributes...what makes them unique and special.

5th grade got to solve problems that mixed up Sudoku, a list of clues, and a 3X3 grid....Tic Tac Toe Logic.  The mathematicians were chomping at the bit to challenge themselves with more!  Meanwhile, our SPARK talk research focused on POMS (Points of Most Significance).

HAVE A GREAT WEEK, EVERYONE!