Miller’s Minute – Week of December 15
· 🐯 Miller’s Minute – Welcome Back & Happy New Year! 🎉
· Hello Gulf Gate Families,
· Tomorrow we officially welcome our students back to campus, and we couldn’t be more excited to start the new year together. We hope you had a restful, joyful Winter Break, and we wish all of our Gulf Gate families a happy and healthy New Year! ✨
· As we jump back into learning, here are a few important updates and celebrations to share:
· 📘 FAST Reading & Math Testing
· This week, students in Kindergarten through Grade 2 will participate in FAST Reading assessments:
Wednesday: Grade 2
Thursday: Grade 1
Friday: Kindergarten
· Next week, we will assess FAST Math:
Tuesday, 1/13: Grade 2
Wednesday, 1/14: Grade 1
Thursday, 1/15: Kindergarten
· Please help your child do their best by ensuring a good night’s sleep, a healthy breakfast, and a positive mindset. We are so proud of their hard work! 🌟
· ⭐ Important Information for Grade 5 Families
· As we prepare for our exciting transition to a K–8 model, we ask our current 5th grade families to please complete the 6th Grade Enrollment Interest Survey for the 2026–2027 school year:
👉 6th Grade Enrollment Interest for 2026-2027 School Year – Fill out form
· Your input is incredibly important, as this information directly helps guide staffing and planning. We truly hope you will choose to remain part of the Gulf Gate family-the longer we can keep our Tigers with us, the better! 🐯
· Additionally, we invite you to learn more about what next year will look like for our new 6th graders at our Grade 5 Parent Informational Meeting:
📅 January 8th at 🕔 5:00 p.m. in the📍 Media Center
· 🍦 Academic Growth Celebration – Friday, January 9
· This Friday will be a special celebration day for students in grades 3–5 who showed growth on their AP2 assessment.
Some students will earn a special ice cream treat 🍨
Others will earn the treat plus an extra 15 minutes of recess 🏃♀️🏃♂️
· We love celebrating our students’ effort, perseverance, and growth!
· 🏆 Quarter 2 Awards Ceremonies – Coming Up
· Next week, we will host our Quarter 2 Awards Ceremonies. If your child earned an award, they will receive an invitation in their backpack.
· Please be sure to complete the form included and return it to your child’s teacher no later than Thursday, 1/8, so we can plan appropriately for family attendance.
· 💪 January Resiliency Focus: GRIT
· Our resiliency focus for January is GRIT — the ability to keep going when things get hard, try again after mistakes, and not give up on goals.
· Families can help build grit at home by:
Encouraging effort over perfection
Talking about challenges and how to work through them
Celebrating persistence and progress, not just outcomes
· Together, we can help our Tigers grow into confident, resilient learners! 🐅
· Thank you for your continued partnership and support. We are excited for all that 2026 has in store for our Gulf Gate community. Here’s to a great start to the new year! 🎆
· 💛Principal Miller
Phone: (941) 361-6499
Email Michelle Miller
