Special Guest...Mr. Morrow Visits GATE!

4th grade group 1 had a special guest today...Courtney's grandfather!  Mr. Morrow, a retired art teacher, spent a couple of hours in GATE today.  He brought gourds that a friend had shared with him.  He also brought many art supplies that the students would need to create their painted gourds.  The students had a great time designing each individual gourd.  We had polka dots, monograms, bats, sports teams, and even a dinosaur gourd!

Thank you, Courtney, for sharing your grandfather and his artistic talent with us!  Another fun fact about Mr. Morrow...his wife is our AES librarian, Mrs. Armorette Morrow!  We all had a great time and look forward to another visit from him again soon!

Please enjoy this slideshow of today's painting.

Mrs. Reed Visits GATE!

What a treat!  4th grade GATE students had a special guest visitor this week.  Mrs. Kathryn Reed was MY preschool and kindergarten teacher at Kiddie Kollege.  The students were amazed that Kiddie Kollege was old enough for ME to have gone there!  My three years attending Kiddie Kollege were great days.  I vividly remember the 2 classrooms, many of our activities, playing outside, my fellow preschool classmates, and especially my teachers.  Mrs. Reed and her mother, Mrs. Rains, were wonderful teachers!  I think anyone who had Mrs. Reed as a teacher at Kiddie Kollege would agree!  Mrs. Reed was also a teacher at McCord Elementary, principal at Big Spring Lake Kindergarten, and worked in the central office as a curriculum specialist.  Even though Mrs. Reed is retired from the field of education, she is active with First United Methodist Church, The Greenlawn Garden Club, the Albertville Museum, and many more community groups.

Three 4th grade girls have chosen to research the history of the Williamsburg Garden located behind the Albertville Public Library.  To help with their research, we contacted Mrs. Reed.  She visited with these girls (that we now affectionately call "The Flower Girls") and provided them with a lot of information, newspaper articles, and even a map of the garden.  "The Flower Girls" will create a brochure about the history of the garden and will also include information about how a person can host an event at the garden.  We hope to be able to provide the Albertville Public Library with copies of the brochure for visitors.

Thank you, Mrs. Reed for visiting our class and sharing about the Williamsburg Garden.

WWII German Soldier (reenactor) Visits G.A.T.E.

Randy Brandon, a German WWII Reenactor (and also Adyson's dad), visited 4th grade G.A.T.E. a few weeks ago.  He has quite a collection of WWII German war uniforms, weapons, and other items a soldier might have used.  Mr. Brandon shared a little about WWI and WWII.  He spoke about the 4 branches of service and about political parties.

As part of his hobby, Mr. Brandon has learned to speak German and even has a soldier's wallet for his reenactment adventures.  He is known as Randolph Brandt in his reenactments and holds the rank of Unteroffizier.  He brought different uniforms made from different types of fabrics that were indicative of the material used at different times and also the temperature of the places they were worn.  We learned that there were different types of camouflage with different patterns.

Probably one of the students' favorite things he brought was a machine gun (non-firing, of course!).  Other accessories he brought were binoculars, a canteen, a bread bag, map carrier, compass, and dark goggles.

To see more of the items Mr. Brandon brought, please watch this slideshow.  Thank you, Mr. Brandon, for sharing your Friday afternoon with 4th grade G.A.T.E. students. We ALL learned more about history and WWII that day!

Author visits GATE!

On Monday, November 14th, Alice Duckett ( who was MY gifted teacher in 6th - 8th grades at Alabama Avenue Middle School ) spoke to GATE kids about writing.  Mrs. Duckett is celebrating the one year anniversary of her children's book, One Step at a Time, with a book tour.  We were stop #8 on her tour!  She came complete in costume with safari hat and hiking boots!  Mrs. Duckett told my students about her writing process and how she began writing her first novel in the 6th grade.  She told the students that  you never know what you might be doing now that can become a career or hobby even as an adult.

Her first book was a workbook for kids and families to use to "dig through attics and basements" to find their family history.  When I was in her class in 7th grade, we researched about our families and studied genealogy.  I still have that notebook!  She encouraged the students to sit down with their grandparents and great grandparents during this holiday season and hear the stories about when they were children or about family memories and write them down!  Great idea!

The children's book she brought is about a centipede and includes factual information and a glossary in the back.  The illustrator is a lady who also lives in the Anniston area.  Mrs. Duckett brought actual chalk drawings that were used for the illustrations of the book to show.  

While she was with us, I reflected on several projects in my GATE class with her (we called it "resource" back then).  We had two 7th grade classes in resource.  During an archaeology unit, our class created a "country" with our own language, artifacts, customs, and traditions.  We actually rode in cars out to someone's farm and BURIED our box of "treasures" for the other class to find.  They had to follow our treasure map to find our box then figure out what it all meant.  We did the same with their treasures!  That was a great way to study archaeology!  I remember it so well!  Mrs. Duckett recalled another of our class events from my 6th grade year.  We went CAMPING for 3 days and 2 nights!  I had never been camping.....and she remembered how my tent sagged a little in the middle.  We did a little orienteering, journal writing, hiking, and storytelling during that trip. What an experience!  I hope that my GATE students can look back at our class memories when they are 42 and remember our class with the fondness that I remember my gifted class in middle school!

Thank you, Alice Duckett, for volunteering to speak to our students!