Welcome to the 2018-2019 School Year!

Dear Parents and Guardians of Gifted Students,

Welcome to the 2018-2019 school year! We hope you had a wonderful and restful summer. The two lead gifted teachers will be Kamini Ramirez and Joseph Haas. Mrs. Ramirez has been at Chimney Lakes for many years. She got her start in the STAR program where she worked with at-risk students. She later moved to fifth grade where she taught language arts. Mr. Haas is returning for his third year in the program. We’re both very excited to begin this new school year!

There have been several changes to the program that will impact students this year. The biggest change comes with the way in which some students receive their gifted services. The inclusion program, known as GATE, has been expanded to Grades 3, 4, and 5. The GATE program is only for gifted students at Chimney Lakes. Instead of leaving the classroom one day a week to receive their gifted services, their services will be provided by the regular classroom teacher five days a week. This change does not impact students in Kindergarten, 1^st, and 2^nd grades or any students from our feeder schools. As the gifted lead teachers, we are responsible for both the traditional gifted pull-out program as well as the new inclusion program. This change will drastically reduce the size of our gifted classes. We will continue to roll out the new curriculum this year. We will be focusing heavily on teaching students problem-solving strategies as well as providing in-depth research lessons. Finally, we will be continuing the tradition of field trips in gifted. However, we will be focusing on quality over quantity. Please remember that you must be an approved volunteer if you wish to be a chaperone on one of our field trips.

The first week of Gifted will begin on August 20^th. Please see the weekly schedule and supply list below. We will be updating the blog regularly as well as sending out important information through the Bloomz communication app. The directions for signing up for Bloomz can be found here. As always, feel free to email at any time. Thank you for all your support. It’s going to be a wonderful year!

Sincerely,

 Mrs. Ramirez and Mr. Haas

Gifted Pull-Out Resource Weekly Schedule

Monday	Kindergarten & 1st Grade
Tuesday	3rd and 5th Grades
Wednesday	GATE
Thursday	4th Grade
Friday	2nd Grade

Supply List

We ask that all students please bring the following items, plus the item listed by grade level:

Folder with pockets and prongs

1-inch binder

Pack of Copy Paper

Grades 4-5: Thumb Drive/USB

K/1st	Gallon Ziploc Bags
2nd	Color Pencils
3rd	Markers
4th	#2 Pencils
5th	Elmer’s School Glue

Teacher Wish List

Notebook Paper Aluminum Foil Q-Tips Plastic Straws Craft Sticks Foam Sheets