Kindergarten Buddies

Every class at Hough has been assigned a reading buddy class! Our 3rd-grade class and Mrs. Henning's kindergarteners will be reading buddies this year! Reading to younger students will help the 3rd graders develop a love of reading and a greater motivation to read. Younger students will also read to their older buddies each time, as this allows younger readers to feel a sense of accomplishment while they build fluency. Students often become more positive about their ability to read and may also improve their reading skills. Ideally, our buddy visits will be ongoing, and older and younger students will become familiar with one another and nurture a mutual interest in reading.  Here are some pictures from our first two visits! 

Is My Child "Gifted?"

Just as every child is unique, no two gifted children are exactly alike.  Psychologists, researchers, and experts who study giftedness have identified several formal and informal indicators to help determine if a child is gifted.

Barrington 220's process for identification and program information can be found on the district website. If you have question, please contact Barrington's director of Extended Services (contact information found on the link above.)

Following are common questions often asked when trying to determining if an individual is gifted:

• Does my child exhibit the characteristics and traits of giftedness?
• Are their specific domains  or levels of giftedness?
• Should my child take a test or assessment to determine if he or she is gifted?
• How is a gifted child identified?

Common Characteristics of Gifted Individuals

Because gifted children are so diverse, not all exhibit all characteristics all of the time. However, there are common characteristics that many gifted individuals share:

• Unusual alertness, even in infancy
• Rapid learner; puts thoughts together quickly
• Excellent memory
• Unusually large vocabulary and complex sentence structure for age
• Advanced comprehension of word nuances, metaphors and abstract ideas
• Enjoys solving problems, especially with numbers and puzzles
• Often self-taught reading and writing skills as preschooler
• Deep, intense feelings and reactions
• Highly sensitive
• Thinking is abstract, complex, logical, and insightful
• Idealism and sense of justice at early age
• Concern with social and political issues and injustices
• Longer attention span and intense concentration
• Preoccupied with own thoughts—daydreamer
• Learn basic skills quickly and with little practice
• Asks probing questions
• Wide range of interests (or extreme focus in one area)
• Highly developed curiosity
• Interest in experimenting and doing things differently
• Puts idea or things together that are not typical
• Keen and/or unusual sense of humor
• Desire to organize people/things through games or complex schemas
• Vivid imaginations (and imaginary playmates when in preschool)

Reproduced by permission from: Webb, J., Gore, J., Amend, E., DeVries, A. (2007). A parent's guide to gifted children. Tuscon, AZ:  Great Potential Press, www.greatpotentialpress.com. 

What to know more? Here is a list of resources for you:

Join National Association for Gifted Children to learn more about how to support your advanced learner. There are several parent resources available. Visit www.NAGC.org to sign up!

The following books are available on amazon or for KINDLE download:

Rigor for Gifted Learners: Modifying Curriculum with Intellectual Integrity by Bertie Kingore

This book explains the continuous learning needs of high-ability learners and offers research-based, high-yield instructional strategies, curricular modifications, assessments, and social-emotional interventions that effectively enhance gifted students’ success. 

 Psychological Foundations of the Arts: Understanding and Encouraging Artistic Expression in the Early Grades by Erin Morris Miller and Rachael Sloan.                                                  

This book provides an introduction for classroom teachers to the psychological study of the arts and how they can use this knowledge in their classroom.   

The Social and Emotional Characteristics of Gifted Students by Tracy Missett            

Presents the overall picture of positive social and emotional health for many gifted students in terms of self-perceptions, motivation, supportive relationships, and resiliency, and how high intelligence may protect against emotional challenges.

Top 10 Books on Parenting Gifted Learners

1. You Know Your Child Is Gifted When...

The subtitle of this book is "A Beginner's Guide to Life on the Bright Side." It is definitely a beginner's guide to living with bright kids. Chapters are organized around some characteristics of gifted children, such as curiosity. Each chapter is then broken down into little chunks of information, often as bulleted lists, which includes the pros and cons of the trait and what parents can do for and about it. It is a simple and often humorous overview, and is not intended to provide depth. 

2. Keys to Parenting the Gifted Child

This book by Sylvia Rimm is another beginner's guide, but with more depth than You Know Your Child is Gifted When.... It covers issues of gifted children at home, such as sibling rivalry and relationships with the extended family as well issues at school, such as testing and homework. It also covers other issues, such as perfectionism and peer pressure. It can't cover the issues of gifted children extensively, but it is a good place for parents to start understanding their gifted children. 

3. The Survival Guide for Parents of Gifted Kids

This short book answers some common questions parents of gifted children have, questions like "How hard and how far should I push my child?" It covers characteristics and behaviors at school and how to handle them. It also covers advocacy, providing suggestions on how to advocate successfully for your child with teachers, school boards, and even state legislators. It provides a brief history of gifted education and discusses some myths of giftedness. It's primary focus is on school-age kids. 

4. Guiding the Gifted Child

This book is one of the classic books for parents of gifted children. While The Survival Guide for Parents of Gifted Kids spends much time on school, this books covers more personal issues. It has chapters on issues such as motivation, discipline, stress management, sibling rivalry, and depression, with each chapter providing tips on how parents can help their kids with these issues.

5. Parents' Guide to Raising a Gifted Child

When you're ready for more in-depth reading about gifted kids, this is the book to get. It is comprehensive and informative, but also readable and practical. It provides strategies for determining whether a child is gifted as well as ways to nurture a child's gifts and talents, and explains how gifted children can become bored, socially aggressive, and even underachieving if not appropriately challenged. It also provides tips for parents to help them cope with their own doubts and fears.

6. Parents' Guide to Raising a Gifted Toddler

This book is the sequel to Parents' Guide to Raising a Gifted Child. As informative and comprehensive as the first book, this one is geared more toward parenting toddlers, although some of the information is similar, for example, what can happen if a gifted child is not challenged. If you're the parent of a gifted toddler and you're looking for some in-depth information about gifted children, this book is an excellent choice.

7. Raisin' Brains: Surviving My Smart Family

If you want to learn more about gifted children (and other family members) and want a good laugh while you're at it, then this is the book to read. Karen Isaacson has captured the essence of the gifted family, with both its blessings and its curses and has done it with humor. The purpose of the book, however, is not simply to provide parents of gifted children with some much needed humor; it also contains plenty of information about raising and living with a gifted child.

8. Being Smart About Gifted Children: A Guidebook For Parents And Educators

Here is a comprehensive book that dispels many myths about gifted children as it explains how to identify these children. It covers a wide range of issues from testing to labeling, from social and emotional issues to learning problems. It also covers educational and enrichment programs, both in and out of school, as well as behavioral issues. This book will provide parents with the information they need to help them make good and informed decisions concerning their gifted child.

9. Parenting Gifted Kids: Tips for Raising Happy And Successful Children

Dr. Delisle provides tips to help parents with their gifted children at home and at school. He starts with an explanation of what giftedness is -- and is not, then moves on to discuss inclusion and other school issues affecting gifted children, perfectionism, and underachievement. He also gives advice on how to help a gifted child set and achieve life goals. With examples that most parents of gifted kids can relate to, Delisle presents his tips with a touch of humor parents of gifted kids need.

10. Grandparents' Guide to Gifted Children

While this book contains much of the same information as other parenting books, it presents it specifically for grandparents. It has additional information the other books don't have, such as the unique role a grandparent has in the life of a gifted child. It also discusses such practical matters as estate and financial planning fora gifted grandchild. It's a wonderful resources for any grandparent of a gifted child.

iMovie Small Moment Trailer

As part of the Lucy Calkins Units of Study Narrative Writing unit, we made iMovie small moment trailers! We used our small moment story mountains to help us create these masterpieces. So many important skills went into creating these trailers. The students followed a rubric, synthesized their stories, found pictures to match ideas, used show not tell, and finally prepared their pieces in an iMovie trailer. The students then created their own "movie poster" and learned all about QR codes. This was an incredible effort by all our 3rd grade students! Please stop by to scan your child's QR code (must download a QR code reader to your smartphone.) If you don't have a smartphone, you can ask your child to show you on their iPad. Enjoy!

Writer's Workshop

We are working hard to learn all the expectations of Writer's Workshop! We launched our workshop and we are learning that we all have important stories to tell. We use our precious tool, our writing notebook, to tell stories about our lives during our first unit on personal narrative! We are also learning about the writing and editing process. Part of writing is word study. We learn vocabulary, word parts, and grammar. We also are assessing our sight words in writing and looking for spelling transfer!

Smart Farm/Mindful Waste

Our citizen scientists enjoyed their field study at Smart Farm/Mindful Waste. We learned about pollination, farming, composting, and hydroponics. These are all connected to our current science unit, structures of life! Enjoy these scientists in action on the farm!

Kids Safe Search

Now that your child has an iPad to use at home, here is a list of some safe search engines. We have also added some tips that may help keep your child safe and help you control some of the time on the device.

Barrington 220 Database Passwords

Please click here to access Barrington 220's Database for Passwords. From this link, you can access the different subscriptions that the district has to offer! This is definitely a page to bookmark for future use. You can have your child screen shot the page so they have the passwords saved on their iPads!

Meet The Crayfish!!

This has been a busy week for us in Science! We adopted 12 crayfish and have been super busy getting to know them. Students have worked with partners to observe, notice, and wonder about the structures and functions of the crayfish and their habitats. One thing we learned is that there are male and female crayfish with different structures! Here are some fantastic photos of the crayfish and their caretakers. Enjoy!