Cassidy Gifted & Talented News
Week of February 27
Announcements
Many teachers are now using Choice Boards and Genius Hour projects to meet the needs of PTP and GT students in their classrooms. Here are some examples of what those might look like in case you hear your children talking about this:
Choice Boards
Genius Hour
Choice Boards
Genius Hour
Reading
All Grade Levels: We are continuing our unit on comprehension strategies. We are moving from fiction text to non-fiction text and students are starting Collaborative Strategic Reading (CSR) groups where they are reading non-fiction texts, applying their comprehension strategies, and engaging in discussion around the ideas presented in the text.
Math
All grade levels: In all grade levels, students are working on solving higher order thinking questions through Problem of the Week. For example, first graders had to try to figure out if there were rectangles that could have the same area and perimeter (with different units of measure). Students are also applying what they are learning in math through problem based learning projects. For example, third graders had to apply what they learned about multiplication and fractions to modify recipes to triple them, double them, or half them depending on how much the recipe made and the number of guests they were cooking for.
Leadership
In leadership, we are continuing to learn about the characteristics of good leaders and to plan community service projects. 5th grade has decided to Adopt a Grandparent at a local nursing home. We will plan a time to go and visit with our adopted grandparents and engage in fun activities with them and do some things around the nursing home (plant flowers, play games, etc.).
General Intellectual
We have been working on critical thinking skills. Critical thinking is thinking about your thinking, while you're thinking, in order to make your thinking better. Critical thinking skills involve questioning, reasoning, and evaluating. Thus far, we have explored questioning and are now working on reasoning. All students have been exploring Scratch or Tynker, computer programming websites that engage them in reasoning/logic/problem solving to design a program. All students can access these programs for free from home.
Art, Creativity, Music, Dance, and Drama
2nd and 3rd Grade Art, Creativity, Music, and Drama group: We are working on creating a musical. Thus far, we have developed our storyline and we are in the process of creating our script, as well as our costume and set designs. This will be a long term, on-going project. We will have a performance of our finished product in the spring. I have contacted the theater department at Transylvania University to see if there are some opportunities for collaboration there as well, so we are making some plans for that!
5th Grade Art: We have been working on self-selected, independent projects involving research on technique or art history combined with the creation of a piece of artwork. I have contacted the art department at Transylvania University to see if there are some opportunities for collaboration there. The students have requested to learn about photography, clay, and painting so if you engage in one of these art forms or know someone that does who would like to come work with these students, please let me know.
Contact Information
Angie Madden
Gifted and Talented Teacher
Cassidy Elementary
859-381-3018 ext 21252