3rd grade GATE students visit the Birmingham Museum of Art

Third grade GATE students visited the Birmingham Museum of Art on April 8, 2015.  Students had studied works of art in the permanent collection at the museum prior to the trip.  While at the museum, students participated in the Color My World tour led by fantastic docents!  Students learned about line, texture, and color and were able to see IN PERSON several of the works of art we had studied!

Docents led students in an interactive, fun approach to see and "experience" the art through movement and music.

Andrew posed in front of one of our favorite pieces of art from the 1400s!  Doesn't he look so handsome?!

Levi had the opportunity to experience some of the hands on exhibits in the kids' area at the museum.  If any of our families have a chance to go back, this area is a MUST SEE for the kids!

Lukas found a mannequin made of beautiful supplies in the lobby of the museum.

Our students were entertained at lunch by Mr. Marvis who shared rules of etiquette, served a fabulous lunch, and made us laugh with his witty sense of humor!

This was a "bird's eye view" of our etiquette luncheon in the lobby of the museum.  Boys pulled out the chairs for the girls, napkins were in laps, and polite conversation was heard as we enjoyed our delicious lunch prepared by Mrs. Krystal, Mr. Marvis, and Mr. Tripp from Oscar's at the Museum!

Please enjoy this slideshow (1.5 minutes) of our 3rd grade field trip!

Regional Technology Competition was a SUCCESS!

On March 13th the AES Technology Team competed in the Regional Technology Competition held at North Alabama Community College in Rainsville.  The photo above is of most of the members of the team.  Students have worked diligently for months doing research, taking notes, and organizing their information into Keynote presentations, Video Productions, brochures, Prezis, websites, and Scratch computer programming projects.  Students compiled a notebook of required information sharing the steps in the process.  Judges interviewed students and learned about their research and how they created each of these projects.

I was so proud of EVERY STUDENT that day!  Each had a high quality project and each student shook hands, made eye contact, and talked to adults in such a professional manner.  It was a great day for all of us!   Thanks to NACC for hosting such a well organized event!

AES had a few winners that day:

1st place Website Design - Evan and Courtney

1st place - Multimedia - Lily

1st place - Video Production Individual - Emilee

1st place - Video Production Group - Ainsley and Victor

2nd place - Computer Programming - Ethan P.

2nd place Multimedia Group - Will and Cameron

2nd Place - Website Design Group - Ethan W. and Brandon N.

(Somehow these young men escaped getting a picture at the competition...)

2nd Place - Website Design Individual - Ken

3rd place - General Applications Individual - Jacob

3rd Place - General Applications Group - Adriana, Olivia, Belinda

3rd place - Multimedia Group - A.J., Brandon J., Caroline

Proud Mom moment....my daughter, Emilie (on the Evans Tech Team), won 1st place in the IT test and 2nd place in General Applications.

CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!!

All 1st place and 2nd place projects are eligible to advance to state competition on April 25th!  Good luck to all!!!

INSPIRE Art Contest Winners Announced!

Congratulations to the following students for placing in the Inspire Art Contest sponsored by Marshall Medical Center Foundation!

1st place - Victor Reyes Ventura

2nd place - Belinda Franco

3rd place - Michele Cerrillo

4th place - Brandon James

5th place - Lily Laverty

6th place - Olivia Brothers

Foundation Award - Courtney Morrow

Foundation Award - Kailyn Boman

These student artists will be honored with a reception on Thursday, April 30th at Marshall Medical Center South- Women's Hospital at 5:30.  The winning art will be displayed for one whole year in the Women's Hospital.  Congratulations to these talented students!

Inspire Art Contest 2015

All 3rd and 4th grade GATE students had the opportunity to enter a piece of art in a Youth Art Month contest sponsored by Marshall Medical Center Foundation.  Students designed each piece of art and chose their medium:  watercolors, acrylics, collage, colored pencils, markers, or crayons.  We had about 60 pieces of art which were so colorful, happy, and creative.  Judges looked over each piece of art and selected the 15 pieces that would represent AES in the MMCS contest.  These 15 were submitted this week and we hope to have some winners from our school (results should be in around the first week of April).

The artists whose work will advance to the contest:

Evan Patterson          Levi Hester               Ethan Williams         Olivia Brothers
Lily Laverty              Caroline Godwin      Victor Reyes             Ainsley Stephens
Destiny Thomas        Courtney Morrow     Belinda Franco         Ethan Pratt
Michele Cerrillo        Kailyn Boman           Brandon James

Please check back later in April to see if we have any AES winners.

Below is a slideshow of the students creating their artwork and also the finished products.  Enjoy this happy, kid-friendly art!

GATE kids at the theatre!

Congratulations to some of our 3rd and 4th grade GATE students for their recent participation in the Whole Backstage Children's Theatre's production of The Little Mermaid!  JoAnna, Yukina, and Ava all did a magnificent job as seaweed and an eel.  Being on stage teaches kids how to "become" a character, about poise, how to project your voice, improve singing and acting skills, and they make friends, too! I am so proud of these students for their participation and wonderful acting, singing, dancing skills!  It was a great show!

The Little Aggies Theatre sponsored by the Albertville City Schools Foundation will present the FIRST PERFORMANCE of The Lion King, Jr. in Alabama!  What a great honor to be the first school system in Alabama to bring this production to the stage.  Show dates are June 12-20 at the Albertville Fine Arts Center.  Please bring your friends and family to support these student actors and our school system!  The Albertville City Schools Foundation sponsors classroom grants, supplies and services needed by students, and a variety of other sources that support teaching and learning in Albertville.  Congratulations to these AES GATE students in the Lion King:  Yukina Hamai, Gracyn Spicer, and Ainsley Stephens.

 

Tech Gadgets Arrive in G.A.T.E.!

Want to make a teacher feel like a ROCK STAR?  Let her use these awesome tech gadgets in class!  I can honestly say I felt like a "COOL TEACHER" for at least one day!  The students and I have been anxiously awaiting our tech gadgets....and WOW!  They are fun!  Third grade G.A.T.E. students have had the chance to experience Ollie and Sphero (iPad controlled robots of fun), Osmo (REALLY COOL iPad learning games with tangrams, word puzzles and science controlled pinball!), and elementary engineering kits called Little Bits.  Whew...it was a couple of whirlwind days in GATE, but, oh boy, it was fun!

These girls are learning about math, technology, problem solving...and having a great time!  Osmo is a great interactive way to manipulate these shapes into tangram puzzles.  The Osmo has a mirror that somehow magically works with the camera on the iPad to project every move on the iPad.  FUN!!

Little Bits engineering kits...

A few of our students made a doorbell and attached it outside our classroom!  

If you come visit our class, please ring our doorbell! 

(How super cool is that!?)

Other groups made flashlights, electric spinners, fans, and more!

Ollie and Sphero

We are learning how to control these robots with our iPads.  

They have some crazy dance moves and stunts as they jump the ramps!

We've had a blast with our new IQ Fit games, too.  They aren't robotic or electronic, but are great THINKING puzzles for problem solving and are FUN, too!

I LOVE being a gifted teacher!  I am learning new things about technology each day!

Taste of Albertville

G.A.T.E. students shared a little creativity with the city of Albertville.  Our city will be hosting the Taste of Albertville event on Thursday, February 26th from 5:00 - 7:30 p.m. at the Crossroads Mall.  Organizers of the event asked if our students could create art with a "food" theme.  Our art will be on display for silent auction or door prizes.  Part of the proceeds of this event go to Meals on Wheels in Albertville.  If you visit this event, please look for our G.A.T.E. "food art!"

This color collage of cupcakes is really cute, isn't it!?

All G.A.T.E. students created a cupcake from "pretty papers."  These were made into two pieces of art:  the one above for the Taste of Albertville event and one that will stay at AES.

I love it!

Yukina, 3rd grade, created the art above and Ava, 3rd grade, created the art below using a bunch of CELERY to paint the flowers and OKRA to paint the stems and leaves.  

Fourth grader, Lily, created this HUGE HAMBURGER collage.  Yum!

Michele, 3rd grade, created the fruit bowl above using oranges, limes, and okra as paintbrushes.  This precious torn paper watermelon was created by Sam, 3rd grade.

All of this art will be on display at the Taste of Albertville!  Hope to see you there!