We are recruiting parents to serve on the district Gifted and Talented Advisory Council (GTAC) for the 2022 - 2023 school year. This council is made up of district staff and parents who work together to ensure quality services are provided for gifted students and their families. GTAC will meet two times this year from 4:45 to 6:00 pm on November 8, 2022 and April 4, 2023. If you are interested in serving as a representative, please contact your child’s principal as soon as possible. Each school can have up to one member.

Other Important Parent Meetings:

2/15/2023 at the Kimbro Building at Kyle Elementary:

G/T Parent Meetup: Summer Opportunities

Last semester our students spent their time learning how to research and complete a project lead by their teacher in small groups or whole class. This semester students will be beginning the journey of selecting topics for their own project and completing the research and production process of their projects. All projects will be research based and they will use that research to create. These projects will be presented afterschool in April.

More information to come but I wanted you be aware this will be beginning this semester. You can take a look at some of the projects from last year below.

Mrs. Monita's students have been working as detectives to solve a serious of mysteries through the P.E.T.'s curriculum during our WIN GT group. Additionally, students have been diving deep into their learning through choice boards for both WIN, ELAR stations, and Math Stations. Some of the choices include imaginative writing and comic book developing.

Our 2nd Grade GT students had fun this nine weeks creating board games to review 2-D and 3-D shapes. Players have to answer questions about 2D and 3D shapes, such as names of shapes, and number of vertices, sides, edges, and faces as they move along the board game. GT students enjoyed seeing their vision come to fruition and teaching their classmates how to play their game.

Students also collaborated to write an alphabet story problem book. Each student picked a letter and an object that started with that letter and wrote a story problem with that object. Story problems are a combination of joining and separating problems, with the unknown number being the result, the change, or the start. Students are still working on completing a problem for each letter of the alphabet, but once complete, it will be placed at a station for the class to use.

In Mrs. Joneses room we are having extension daily in our WIN time. My GT students are using problem solving puzzles called Mindware. In these puzzles they use clues to solve questions using a story. They have to eliminate and figure out the answer using many strategies. We also use Scratch your Brain which has all kinds of puzzles that have to be completed using higher order thinking. They work together in teams or pairs to support each other. It has been a great way for them to learn and help each other. I love hearing them discuss and struggle through how to come up with the answers.

My students are also working on research of different subjects that interest them. They write responses to the books they read both on paper and on their devices.

In addition, we are starting Thinklaw this semester, it is a program that is provided by our school district that encourages creativity and great thinking skills. The students have to take a side on a subject and then defend why they think a certain way.

In the second nine weeks, gifted and talented students in Mrs. Prunty's and Mrs. McGrath's classes have worked on independent projects, including foldables with information on topics of interest. Some students have turned this research into haiku poetry and short videos.

In Mrs. McGrath's ELAR class, students chose projects from a choice board which focused on the common theme of teamwork. Student projects integrated multiple subject areas, such as writing, presentation skills, interview skills, technology, and creative processes. Student projects included: creating and/or performing dramatic literature after researching the Acerra brothers, creating a movie of their own on a sport, creating a game and rules to go along with it, and writing questions to interview peers who have been successful in P.E. or recess.

Mrs. Prunty has utilized math choice menus to engage students in multiplication and division problem-solving. Some students have participated in scavenger hunts around the school, finding arrays of real objects and calculating their areas. Students will continue to use these math choice boards and Kiwi Co projects in science.

Our fabulous fourth graders have had so much fun! In science, they were given the chance to figure out how to build a circuit flashlight, and then be teacher helpers and help the rest of the class build theirs. These flashlights lit up almost as bright as their eyes and smiles. They also got the chance to create an insulator and test which one insulated the best. They researched, built, tested, made adjustments, and tested again. They had a blast!! In math, they also had a lot of fun creating our problems of the day based on what we’d learned the previous week or weeks. Their excitement to read and solve these problems made our math block even more fun!

The fun learning continued with them being able to research several Native American tribes, create a presentation, and an artifact on one of the tribes. In reading, students are working on choice board opportunities to enrich their vocabulary and, they are beginning to plan for their passion projects. Logic puzzles were still readily available for them to work on.

5th grade students are completing a "Holiday Dinner" plan. They're planning a party for 53 teachers. They're having to create a menu with a main dish, appetizer, and a desert. They're researching recipes and having to multiply fractions to find out how much they need for 53 people.

Students also worked hard on a engineering challenge to build the tallest igloo. They had to think about how to make their structure stand and how to gain height without tipping it over. They had a blast!

Mrs. Jurek has been working with our GT Student in the library on projects during their "What I Need Time" These kids have been having learning the steps to complete projects in a group setting. This will help them prepare for the independent projects coming up in the spring.

1st Grade

Students are researching a job that they want to be when they grow up. Reading books, learning about the job, and then drawing themselves into that career are just some of the awesome things they are doing in enrichment with Mrs. Jurek.

2nd Grade

With the help of Mrs. Jurek, our librarian, GT students worked together to research and write about Abraham Lincoln. The book even included a timeline. Another project led by Mrs. Jurek was story writing. Students wrote a story about Elliot and a crayon and then shared it with Chatter Pix. What fun!

4th Grade

Students have been working on the concept of "energy". First they had to design and build a fun house using a showbox and different materials that used different forms of energy. They had to present their house and explain how the energy was being used. Second they had to think about how to save energy. They were given the mission of "saving the popsicle": can they create a container that would keep a popsicle from melting? They had a blast trying to figure it out!

The 40 Book Challenge was created by Donalyn Miller, author of The Book Whisperer and Reading in the Wild. She says, ”Children who read the most will always outperform children who don't read much.” Research shows that a minimum of 20 minutes of daily independent reading has a tremendous impact on a child’s academic success. If a child reads 40 books over the course of a school year, they will have read on average 20 minutes daily.

Your student's goal is to read 40 Books and log a review of those books on our school wide program Biblionasium. They must finish the book to count it on their challenge. It is ok to abandon a book, but you may only count books read cover to cover. Books more than 250 pages count for two.

What kind of Books Should My Student Read?

The 40 Book Challenge fosters a growth mindset because it dares students to read outside their comfort zone and explore many different genres. We want students to enjoy what they are reading but they also need to be ABLE to read them. Finding a "Just right" book can be challenging. If you need guidance selecting books ask your student's teacher or Mrs. Jurek our librarian.

Here are some book lists that are also helpful in selecting books:

drum roll please..... Kristen Jurek!

Kristen has gone above and beyond to support classroom teachers in providing differentiation to our GT students. She has guided the third graders through researching their future career, connected students with professional to interview, and provided opportunities to conduct student-led experiments around their passions. Our second graders have been given a unique opportunity to research a chosen historical figure, created artistic representations from household materials and timelines about those people. Kristen has also supported the first grade team with the Create Your Own Planet. She guided the first graders through research of the solar system and gathered resources for the students to create their own unique planets.

Over the course of the year, Kristen has pulled GT students to work with them on projects relating to their interests. On one project in particular, she reached out to people within a specific career field that students were interested in so that they could interview them and gain more knowledge about the role they have within their jobs.

Kristen has pulled the GT kids this year and has done amazing extension activities during our WIN tims. It has been so helpful for me as a classroom teacher because there is limited time in our everyday activities. The projects she has created with them are wonderful and it has given my students a chance to shine. She has done all of this in addition to her library duties. She is the best!

Mrs. Jurek has created a wonderful makerspace in the library, as well as helps students with their GT projects. She has done an amazing job, above and beyond her librarian duties.

Email: rachel.greengold@hayscisd.net
Website: https://www.hayscisd.net/Page/9812
Location: 500 Blanco Street, Kyle, TX, USA
Phone: 512-268-3311
Twitter: @RachelGreengold