Re: what should a kindergarten gifted curriculum look like

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This will be a minimalist response, because you're going to
need more, and it will be a bit tricky, since he's learning how
to be a student in a school, in addition to academics. As you
say, you can't send a little person to do independent research
and expect it to work out.

One idea might be to investigate the PETS curriculum (I think
there are four authors--one is Dodie Merritt). There is a
specific K PETS book (Primary Education Thinking Skills), as
well as the standard red one (which could be used in K, 1, or
2), and two other books designed for older students. If I were
the gifted specialist, I would push-in to that child's
classroom to do the group PETS lessons, in addition to the
lessons designed for smaller pull-out groups. That solution
only addresses thinking skills (evaluative, generative,
spatial, deductive, classification, etc), but it would provide
a positive group experience. In other words, he can get more
of what he needs without removing him from his peers, and his
peers will benefit from the instruction, too.

Math Rules (published by Pieces of Learning) has some great
books with exercises from all different math strands. Math
Analogies for Kids is another good title that might be helpful.
Maybe he could replace some regular work with that and meet
with a teacher or even an older student to discuss his work on
a regular basis, depending on how comfortable he is doing
different work than his peers. I had one student who did the
same work at school, but did her "special" math at home and
then brought it in to review.

Good luck!

On 9/04/11, Jennifer wrote:
> Please share your thoughts on what a gifted kindergarten
> curriculum should look like in a regular classroom. There
> is a chid in the 99th%tile in a regular kindergarten
> classroom. We are going to make some adjustments in the
> next few weeks with regards to his curriculum. He can read
> around a 2nd grade level already (we have had 6 days of
> school so far) and his math skills and understand of
> concepts is terrific! I would say his math is much stronger
> than his reading at this point in his development. He loves
> technology. His parents don't want him on technology all
> the time as enrichment but they are okay with technology
> being used on and off throughout the day. If given an
> independent project to read and research, he won't be
> fostering a love for learning. (After all, this is
> kindergarten. Kids need to be engaged.) So I'm looking for
> more in-depth hands on projects to the curriculum,
> technology, puzzles, Any ideas, suggestions??

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