This Week @ Gates
March 11, 2018
Upcoming Events

Monday, 03/12/18:  Gates PTO Meeting
Saturday, 03/17/18:  Math Bee
Saturday, 03/17/18: T he Gates School Chorus Spring Concerts at 7pm
Sunday, 03/18/18:  T he Gates School Chorus Spring Concerts at 2.30pm
Tuesdays:  Not Your Average Cause Program at NYAJ

The Second Annual Gates Math Bee

Please join us on Saturday, March 17th from 9:00 am - 12:00 pm for the Second Annual Gates Math Bee at Gates School. Students will be placed by grade and the multiple choice test will be 60-90 minutes long. New this year, we are introducing a special Math Bee for the Kindergarteners. For full details, as well as registration information, please see the Gates Math Bee Flyer .

If you are interested in helping us pull this event together or have a middle or high schooler that would be interested in helping out with the Math Bee, then please sign up here. Please email any questions or concerns to the Math Bee Co-chair Irfan Syed.

A Message From the Gates PTO

Our next Gates PTO meeting is at the Gates Library on Monday, March 12th at 7:30 pm. We highly encourage parents to attend the Gates PTO meeting to learn about important topics and events at Gates School. Special guests Jon Benson and Roland Bourdon from Finn Comm will be the presenting the FY19 point of view on the town financial status, upcoming expenses, concerns, and recommendations.

The Gates School Parent Teacher Organization (PTO) is a dynamic parent/teacher group that creates and delivers programs and events to support student enrichment and foster community among the families and staff at Paul P. Gates School. If you are interested in either the Senior or Junior co-chair positions on the Gates PTO for the 2018-2019 school year, please contact Naomi Phaneuf.

Wear Some Gates Spirit Wear This Spring

Help foster a sense of community and pride at Gates School by wearing our branded apparel. Simply go to the Paul P. Gates School Store powered by Squadlocker and add the items you want to purchase to your cart. 10% of the cost of the item will be donated to Gates School.

Support Gates School and Eat at Not Your Average Joe's!

We are happy to report that Gates Elementary School was selected again for the Not Your Average Cause Program . Not Your Average Joe's chose Gates School because they believe in the value we bring to the community and they want to contribute to our success.

Here is how it works. Every Tuesday during the month of March Gates families are invited to dine (or carry out) at Not Your Average Joe's and they will donate 15% of your total purchase to Gates School. Simply present this certificate to your server on March 13th, 20th and 27th and verbally state your affiliation. The more Gates Elementary supporters who participate, the more money Not Your Average Joe's will donate!

  Gates Students Participate in All State Treble Chorus

From left to right: Nitin Vijay, Ben Perkins, Maria Paunescu, Yolander Yang, Maddie Primiano, Lina Lawande
 
On Saturday, March 3, six students from Gates Elementary School performed at the Massachusetts Music Educator's Association Conference at the Seaport Hotel in Boston. Nitin Vijay (fifth grader), Maddie Primiano, Maria Paunescu, Ben Perkins, Lina Lawande, Yolander Yang (sixth graders) were chosen to sing in the 2018 All State Treble Chorus.

The chorus is made up of 200 students, in grades 4, 5 and 6 from across Massachusetts. All students submitted a recorded audition and were chosen among 600 other students. They sang the Treble 2 parts at the concerts.  The concerts were conducted by Dr. Janet Galvan. Dr. Galvan is a professor at Ithaca College.
The All State Chorus sang 6 songs sung in 3 different languages. The concert began with a piece in Latin by the Baroque composer, Antonio Vivaldi. This was followed by "Fairest Lady" composed by local composer Nick Page. "Three Quotes by Mark Twain" was composed by Andrea Ramsey. "One Voice" by Tom Shelton was sung in 3 part harmony. This was followed by an American folk song "Banjo Sam" accompanied by banjo. The concert finished with a song in Swahili called "Kusimama" (Stand Tall) composed by Jim Papoulis.
            
All six students are members of the Gates School Chorus conducted by Kim Ward, Gates music teacher. The Gates School Chorus will be performing their Spring Concerts at Gates Elementary School on May 17 at 7pm and May 18 at 2:30pm.
Congratulations to all students for their exciting participation in the All State Treble Chorus.

Hello from the Health Office

We're pleased to report that the illness trends have been much lower since our return from February break. We've had sporadic reports of Influenza and expect that to continue, but overall, the reported cases are down. We ask that families continue to be vigilant for symptoms and report illness to us at the Health Office.

In the first week of April, we are conducting postural screenings for 5th and 6th graders during their physical education classes. We'll be sending a note later in the month as a reminder. If your child will be opting out of screening, please contact the Health Office.

Thanks,
Diane Spring RN and Victoria Reierson RN

Sixth Grade Glee Club 

 
Fridays at 8:00a.m. in the Music Room
Beginning March 16, 2018
 
This group will be learning 3 part singing, popular and classic song,
a cappella style, and show tunes.
 
Concerts: 
         Thursday, May 17 at 7pm in the Gates cafeteria
         Friday, May 18 at 2:30pm in the Gates cafeteria
         Grade Six Graduation in June











Shop and Support Gates

Donelan's Receipts for Education
Donelan's Supermarkets proudly sponsors the Register Tapes for Education Program to make a difference in local communities. Simply collect Donelan's receipts and deposited them in the collection center outside the Gates school office. These receipts are then converted into points and redeemed for equipment and supplies for Gates School.


AmazonSmile
Shopping on AmazonSmile is a simple and automatic way for you to support Gates school. Just sign up at AmazonSmile and register Paul P. Gates School PTO as your designated charity. Then every time you shop, AmazonSmile donates 0.5% of your purchase price to the Gates PTO. Don't forget to bookmark the website.

Box Tops for Education
The Box Tops for Education program is an easy way to earn cash for Gates school. Simply clip Box Tops on hundreds of products at your local grocery store and place them in the collection box outside of the Gates school office. For each one, Gates receives 10 cents and it really adds up.

"This Week at Gates" is distributed at the beginning of each week. If you have a submission you'd like to have included in the weekly email, please be sure to email it to the Senior Co-chair Naomi Phaneuf by noon on Wednesday. 
This newsletter was created solely for the purpose of communicating school related events to parents and students.