Governor's Mansion Christmas

GATE students have been busy elves making Christmas ornaments!  Students will be able to take these ornaments home to decorate at their homes this holiday season....but we made extra ornaments to share with Governor Robert Bentley and his wife, Dianne, at the Governor's Mansion this year.  Heather Hannah who works with Mrs. Bentley is a former Albertville GATE student.  She sent an email to school systems in Alabama asking for handmade ornaments from students to decorate the trees in the mansion and in the John Blue Hill House next door to the mansion.

GATE students have made "BLUE DOG" ornaments inspired by the artist George Rodrigue.  Rodrigue, a Louisiana artist, is famous for his paintings of his BLUE DOG.  GATE students drew their own BLUE DOGS as well as painted dog bones blue...with blue glitter, of course....and hand-stamped "dog tags" with GATE 2012 on a "blue dog" collar.  Each student will take home their Blue Dog ornaments in BLUE tissue paper for their families to enjoy.  Our ornaments for the Governor's mansion were mailed to Montgomery today.  The Governor's mansion will be open for Christmas tours on Dec. 3, 10, 17 from 5:00 - 7:00 p.m. and admission is free.

Our GATE students along with the GATE students at Evans will be decorating the Christmas tree at the Albertville Board of Education office wishing everyone a "Merry BLUE DOG Christmas!"  Our tree will have blue lights, blue tinsel, and our blue dog ornaments!

Mrs. Dianne Bentley, the First Lady of Alabama, visited the Albertville Museum last spring.  Pictured with her are Betsey Adams, Lynn Ayer, Mrs. Bentley, Gayle Cribbs, and Dianna Adams.

Gifted Teacher Share Fair 2012

On Friday, November 16th, Mrs. Mary Shurett (the GATE teacher at Evans) and I hosted gifted teachers from all over North and Central Alabama for this year's Gifted Share Fair. As teachers arrived, they were met and escorted to the media room at AES by AES Ambassadors.

Twenty eight teachers from different school systems came for a day of meaningful professional development.  Each teacher brought a concept-based unit, lesson plan, or idea to use in the gifted classroom.  As each unit was shared, a copy of that unit was passed out to everyone in attendance.  By the end of the day our large notebooks were packed full of great ideas, lessons, units, and resources to use with our gifted students.  Mrs. Shurett and I were happy to be able to share a little bit of the Albertville City School System with the teachers.  Dr. Ayer, Mrs. Bishop, Mrs. Wilson, Mrs. Sheets, Mrs. Robinson, Dr. Sims and Mrs. McCulley welcomed our guests at the beginning of our great day of sharing.  We are thankful that Albertville was able to host this year's event and look forward to a great day of sharing next year in Piedmont.

Zentangle

If you have seen your child "doodling" at home or talking about "tangles".....I have to say GATE is responsible for that conversation!  We are experimenting with a new type of art/doodling/stress reliever called Zentangle.  Students have learned different "tangles" to use in their art and some students have even designed their own tangles!  We have ordered the "official apprentice kit" and will begin using it in class as soon as it arrives.  The students and I are having a great time learning the art of systematic doodling!

Pumpkin Walk 2012

The AES Fall Festival would not be the same without our famous Pumpkin Walk!  Thanks to all GATE kids and parents who sent pumpkins to our class.  Students used their creativity to paint and decorate pumpkins.  We had Alabama/Auburn pumpkins, cats, ghosts, funny faces, polka dots and glitter, farm pumpkins, and more!  Students and guests of our AES Fall Festival enjoyed walking for pumpkins with winners selecting their favorite pumpkin to take home.

Please enjoy this slideshow of 3rd and 4th grade GATE students creating their pumpkins!

iPads in the Classroom!

Christmas in August??? That is what it felt like when Dr. Slivka told me that our GATE classroom would have a brand new iPad cart with 15 iPads for students to use in class!  We are learning how to add and use apps and, of course,...we are having fun!  Students have enjoyed learning how to navigate the iPads and use apps such as Dragon Dictation, Puppet Pals, iBooks, Flow, Crazy Copy, Origami, and Math Ninja.  We will be using our iPads to learn new apps and create cool technology projects in class this year.  How neat is it to see pictures of kids using iPads at school!?

Red Ribbon Week

Students decorated classroom doors in October to recognize Red Ribbon Week and our Say NO to drugs week!  Our door stated, "Drugs SCARE us!"  Scary-faced pumpkins just in time for Halloween! We all wore our "shades" to SHADE OUT DRUGS!

Glue Pastel Portraits

Fourth grade GATE students created this year's self-portraits out of large black construction paper, glue, and pastels.  The end product is FABULOUS!  I absolutely LOVE these portraits!  These works of art will be hung in the AES hall and in the media center for several weeks then will be sent home for families to enjoy.  Children's artwork is so special and unique.  It makes me happy and I hope it does you, too!  Below are a couple of photographs of the art and a slideshow of students creating these masterpieces!  Enjoy.

Hats Off to Mahala!

AES and APS students and teachers joined together this week in support of a friend!  Mahala, a 5th grader at Evans, was one of our students for the past four years at APS and AES.  These two schools hosted "Hats Off to Mahala!" on Halloween day!  Any student or teacher who brought a dollar donation was able to wear a hat to school.  Students and teachers wore a wide variety of hats:  witch hats, team caps, cowboy hats, toboggans, fancy hats, etc.  Everyone was happy to know that their donation would help a friend!  Between the two schools, we were able to donate $1617.70 into the Mahala Lowery Fund at Vantage Bank.  Our thoughts are with Mahala and her family in hopes that her treatments go well and she is able to come home soon!  We love you, Mahala!

AES WinSouth Credit Union is Open!

AES 3rd and 4th graders have an opportunity to open a real bank account and save money each week.  AES WinSouth Credit Union is open every Tuesday morning at 7:45.  Interested students may ask Mrs. Adams for an application to open their very own account.  GATE 4th graders are the "employees" of our credit union.  GATE students have an opportunity throughout the year to work as a teller greeting customers and taking deposits or a runner going class to class to escort students to the credit union.  Several teachers and central office personnel save with us on Tuesdays, too.

Jackson greets Mrs. Wilson, special education coordinator

Our first BIG deposit this year!

Opening day of AES WinSouth