3rd Quarter Newsletter

Oneco Elementary’s Gifted Program
“ We are a laboratory, NOT a factory!”

_________________________________________________________

       

Dear Parents,
  It has been another wonderful and exciting quarter!! As more students have qualified for gifted services, the schedule did have to be adjusted a bit to meet our growing needs. Our new schedule has Kindergarteners coming by themselves on Monday and Tuesday afternoon and this adjustment has made a world of difference.  

 

We started Round 18 of Rock Our World (ROW)  in March. During ROW we are making music using GarageBand and video conferencing with classes from around the world. Another component of Rock Our World (ROW) is a Challenge Based Learning (CBL) challenge around a specific assigned topic. We were assigned hurricanes and will be required to make a Public Service Announcement that will be part of the UStream broadcast in May. Along with that we will be authoring a chapter on hurricanes for an iBook that this Round of ROW is publishing.

Our assigned CBL topic for ROW  goes along with what we have been working through with our natural disaster CBL challenge with a few classrooms across Manatee County that we started in January.   Different groups had different topics and their CBL solutions will be working toward helping others know what to do before, during and after; a hurricane, a lightning/thunderstorm or a wildfire.
 

Also, the intermediate students (grades 3-5)  are reading books on their reading level, writing reading responses, completing a Literature Circle Job and discussing the book with their peers who are also reading a particular book. In the end, there will be an “Book Battle”, which teams of students will answer questions related to the book they have read. Depending on time I may also  have teams create some sort of advertisement for the book they have read.
 

As always our laboratory has an open door policy so please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions or concerns.
                            

                                                   Thank you for the support!
                                                   Frances M Snyder (Francie)
                                                   Educator of the Gifted
                                                   Oneco Elementary School