What's New at The Gateway Lower and Middle Schools

 

Gateway Track Team!

             

 

Race Against Hunger!

Gateway students (Class C through 8th Grade) came together for our 2nd annual Race Against Hunger. Action Against Hunger (ACF International)  helped plan this unique service-learning initiative that unites students from around the world in the fight against hunger.  The morning was filled with a fun-run and educational activities like planting in recyclable cups, creating cheerleading posters and writing on inspiration boards. The Race Against Hunger allowed both Gateway students and parents to gain a more meaningful perspective on a critical global problem, understand their interconnectedness to the world, and ultimately act on their newfound knowledge. Thank you to all who donated, ran and volunteered! Still looking to donate? Click here to donate.

         

Lower School Grandparents & Special Friends Day!

Lower School students welcomed their grandparents and special friends to Gateway for a morning of classroom visits, OT gym and the Book Fair. Students actively showed their honored guests around their class, introduced them to their friends and showed off their school work. Thank you to all who visited Gateway. You brought smiles to us all!

      

Literacy Week

To promote literacy and a community-wide love of reading, Gateway hosted a Book Fair and planned several activities throughout the week for both Lower and Middle School students. There were many opportunities for students to learn about new authors, speak about their favorite books and share reading. See if you can guess these students' and teachers' favorite book characters based on their costumes!

     

Community Read 

Gateway launched our first Community Read Project at the Middle School Grandstand. The goal is for the whole school (as much as possible) to share in reading the book Wonder, by R.J. Palacio. It is a novel about a boy named Auggie who was born with a facial deformity that prevented him from going to a mainstream school until 5^th grade. As he starts middle school he has to convince his classmates that he is just an ordinary kid, even though he has an extraordinary face. It is a truly inspirational and touching story and sparked a world-wide movement called “Choose Kind”. Join our community by reading Wonder and pledging to be kind!

  

Gateway Basketball History!!!

8th grader and Captain, Alec (pictured below), scored his 1,000th point closing out Gateway's season with their 12th consecutive win. The Lions played as Champions gaining a 46-36 victory over Stephen Gaynor School.  With 5:02 remaining in his final quarter, Alec knocked down a free throw accomplishing this incredible feat. See the photo below of Alec with his proud coach Joel Perez and Head of School, Bob Cunningham.

Center Inventors Present their Rube Goldberg Project!

On Saturday, March 9^th, The Center Inventors attended their first competition of the year at the Cradle of Aviation Museum in Garden City! The team presented their complex Rube Goldberg contraption to a crowd of judges and participants. Their work was received with great interest, as the Center Inventors placed in the top 5 amongst middle school teams this year! Congratulations, Inventors!

 

 

PA Bowling Party

Thanks to the Parents Association for organizing a successful community event in February. Both parents and kids raved about the pre-Super Bowl fun! Special thank you to Hilary Fussteig & Paula Weiss for co-chairing this PA event. 

   

  

 

Lower School Wide Garden Project

Lower School Class EE studied composting with worms, recycling and plants. As the students internalized the learning, they were able to share their knowledge with the younger classes. Students in Class EE mentored those in Class B on how to plant and care for their seeds, until they sprout. Stay tuned for photos of their plants!

 

Congratulations to Mr. Perez and the Lions!

The Gateway Lions have clinched the 2012-13 MSAL Boys Basketball Championship with a 49-29 victory over City & Country.  With 8 games remaining in the season, just 1 is a league game, earning the Lions the title with last night's win.  The MSAL does not have a playoff tournament... The school with the best record in the league is considered the Champion. The team has much work to do yet... but I think that Gateway can still celebrate this accomplishment - the Schools' first sports championship!!! 

Center Robotics Team Wins Award

 

Out of 45 teams at the Center Robotic Engineers’ First Lego League NYC Qualifier, Gateway won the “Rising Star” award. This award recognizes a young team that the judges expect great things from in the future. Besides building, programming and completing robot missions, Gateway students also presented their research project for this year’s theme, “Senior Solutions”. The project was to come up with an Innovative solution to help seniors. The Center Robotics team presented an idea of smart phone app to assist seniors with poor vision.

   

Lower School Winter Festival

Lower School families came together for our Winter Festivals and holiday parties. Students recited poetry, played instruments and danced together. As a community, we are lifted and filled with the joy and beauty that music and art, in all its forms, bring to us. 

    

Fiesta 

The day before Holiday Break, the whole school came together for our annual Fiesta celebration. Lower and Middle School students were chosen to hit and break the pinata to share the goodies inside. Students and teachers alike look forward to this event. Check out some students' great form!

         

Gateway’s Hurricane Sandy Relief Effort

The Gateway Schools truly came together to donate kids’ winter gear, blankets and more for families of PS15 downtown. Three math classes sorted and counted the enormous bags of donated items. All classes made graphs to reflect provide a mathematical representation. Gateway Center P.E.A.C.E. Team (People Engaging Actively in Community Exploration) coordinated the drive, creating flyers and posters, advertising in all homerooms and presenting in a Grandstand. Going forward, Students will have the opportunity to build a deeper understanding of the impact on the New York City area. Students will engage in active-problem solving through two half-day Service Learning workshops coordinated by the Center for Educational Enrichment over the next few weeks. Thank you to the entire Gateway community for your  generosity and support!

 

    

City Harvest Food Drive              

This year’s Thanksgiving Food Drive for City Harvest supported families suffering in the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy. Thank you to the Center P.E.A.C.E. team for sorting and bagging grocery items and to PA Community Service Chairs Virginia Ryan and Helen Brown for your dedication! We appreciate the  help provided by the 7/8 Math in carrying bags and boxes!

   

Middle School Arts Electives include fencing, yoga, poi, hip hop dance, dramatic improvisation, chorus, ceramics, band and puppet films.

        

 

Gateway Lions Track & Field

The Gateway Runnin' Lions had a fantastic season of races, long runs and improvements! 14 runners competed in events organized by New York Road Runners as well as the Ronald McDonald House Fun Run.  Thanks to all runners, parents, coaches and fans for a great season!

  

Gateway Election

This November, the three 8th grade Humanities classes held a mock presidential debate and conducted a school-wide election. In the debate, the Republican and Democratic candidates were represented by three eighth graders. Students responded in character as President Obama and Governor Romney when classmates asked questions about gun control, tax policy, gay marriage, and other issues. The debaters were well-prepared with specific data and made clear opening and closing statements. They also showed admirable flexibility by answering unexpected questions. Congratulations to all 8th graders for a fantastic debate and being amazing role models for Lower and Middle Schoolers! Special kudos to those  students who decorated, advertised and documented the event. Thank you to all students for participating in the debate and exercising their right to vote!

 

    

  

Special visitors to Gateway included the USA Olympic Fencing Team; Civil Rights legend, Ruby Bridges; research oncologist, David Hyman; Wild Planet Toys Founder, Danny Grossman, the Cassatt String Quartet; Supriya Banavalikar from The Hunger Project and Vertical Farm creator, Dr. Despommier.

 

The Lower School Winter and Spring Festivals were opportunities for lower school students to showcase song, dance, original poetry and composed pieces on the xylophone and drums to family and friends.  

“The Gateway Wonders”, a performance group made up from lower and middle school students captivated guests in Alice Tully Hall at the 2012 Gala Benefit Concert in a multidisciplinary performance. It was a demonstration of cooperation and confidence, incorporating beatboxing, dancing, singing and violins!

The Gateway Lions Softball team challenged teachers and staff once again in the 3^rd Annual Faculty Softball Classic.

Gateway Lower and Middle School students came together for an afternoon of fun and games in the sun for the Fourth Annual Field Day.

The Gateway Schools were honored when Head of School, Bob Cunningham, was named one of Huffington Posts’ 2011 Game Changers in Impact and Education. HuffPosts Game Changers are visionaries who are changing how we look at and live in the world. Though not surprising, it is a tremendous honor for Gateway that Mr. Cunningham is included among such notable innovators.  The Gateway Schools have been a leader in education for learning disabled students by providing multi-sensory instruction and helping students establish individual learning strategies. 

Gateway participated in the Race Against Hunger, a national project produced by the global humanitarian aid organization, Action Against Hunger | ACF International. Recognized as a leader in the fight against malnutrition, ACF saves malnourished children while providing safe water and sustainable solutions to hunger. 

 The Gateway School of Mumbai opened in August 2012. The Gateway Schools in New York City have been consulting with staff from Mumbai both in India and Manhattan to develop a program that best serves similar students in that area. The visits between Mumbai and New York Gateway colleagues will continue through the fall and next school year.

The Gateway Schools were honored to host NFL Head Coach Rex Ryan of the New York Jets, published in Time for Kids! Time for Kids circulates to approximately 4 million readers. Go Lions!