Welcome to the webpage for Mrs. Alvarez's Gifted Class! I will be updating this site frequently with information that will be helpful to you as well as content and curriculum we will be covering.
What does it mean to be gifted?
What students are considered gifted?
Isn’t everyone gifted in some area?
Florida Statute 6A-6.03019 identifies gifted
students as those with a need for special
program, a majority of characteristics of
gifted students and superior intellectual
development as measured by an individually
administered standardized test of intelligence.
The term “gifted” does not demote
a person who is talented in a particular
area: it is not intended as an elitist label.
It is a legal term.
October
1st and 2nd Grade
Core Knowledge- Early Civilizations: Asia
Students will specialize in Ancient India, Ancient China, or Modern Japan and learn the geography, history, and basic cultural elements from the Core Knowledge sequence. We will do a more in-depth study of one country, during which economics concepts from state curriculum will be included. Knowledge and concepts will be taught through: read alouds and tell alouds of non-fiction trade books, reference materials, and online resources, and retelling of folk tales; small group research, reports and projects exploring culture.
Students will compare daily life in the past and present, demonstrating an understanding that while basic human needs remain the same, they are met in different ways in different times and places.
Students will demonstrate map skills by: identifying and locating continents, oceans, India, China, Japan, landforms and bodies of water.
Students will explore artistic expression from Asia and practice modern applications, such as haikus, Rangoli (Indian floor painting), Chinese New Year boxes, and silk production.
Literature:
One Grain of Rice, The Blind Men and the Elephant, Tikki Tikki Tembo, Seven Chinese Brothers
Concluding Sideways Stories From Wayside School by Louis Sachar
*Needed items*- craft beads to decorate Indian elephants!
3rd Grade
Core Knowledge- Human Body – Code Blue Simulation
Students will become doctors by passing their board exams. They will create their own clinic and see patients. Case studies will be given for students to figure out what is wrong with their patients. They will use books and the internet to research.
Students will research and apply comprehension of different body systems as they “study for the board exams” and work towards a license to practice medicine.
Students will utilize books and the internet to research information in order to make a diagnosis about their patient.
Students will utilize their knowledge of the skeletal, muscular, and nervous systems to diagnose patients and recommend a course for treatment.
**Necessary Items: Any books about the Human Body, diagrams of the body systems
4th Grade
Core Knowledge- Geology - Shake, Rattle, and Roll Simulation
This unit is designed to be a hands-on, interactive study of rocks and minerals. The unit activities will include scientific inquiry labs, cooking, and writing.
Students will classify types of rocks- igneous, metamorphic, and sedimentary, and their origins.
Students will determine relevance of rocks and minerals in our everyday lives and how they give us clues to our past.
Students will create a narrative essay following the rock cycle and its various stages through personification.
Students will apply the scientific method to identify their mystery mineral/rock samples and use the terminology learned throughout the unit.
Books:
Holes by Louis Sachar; Shake, Rattle, and Roll by Spencer Christian; Rock by Chris Oxlade; Simply Science: Rocks by Alice K. Flanagan
**Necessary Items for Experiments:
- 4 Regular Sized Chocolate Bars,
- 3 Slices Wheat Bread, White Bread, and Rye.
- 4 Sandwich baggies with sand, gravel, or pebbles
- Any rock/mineral samples we can investigate
5th Grade
Renaissance Simulation Objectives:
Students will take a journey through the Renaissance. They are time travelers from NASA whom are asked to retrieve important artifacts from the Renaissance that are stuck in a weird time zone. They will research important people, inventions, and events of the time in order to save the Renaissance.
Students will develop an appreciation for the greatness of human achievement during the Renaissance.
Students will explain where and when the Renaissance flourished, who the people of the times were, and what everyday life was like.
Students will explore what artistic, scientific, and technological treasures we inherited, and how the events of this period affect us today by linking the past and present.
Books:
The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart
A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare
*Needed Items- If you can donate a 1.5 inch durable binder for our group portfolios for simulations, it would be greatly appreciated. Also, any clear page protectors would be super. Thank you!
September
In the month of September, classes will participate in introductory and team building activities to help us get to know new ones and get reacquainted with old classmates.
We will begin Core Knowledge Units of the following topics:
1st and 2nd Grade: Map Skills
3rd Grade: Explorers of North America
4th Grade: Geography
5th Grade: Mayan Civilizations
Supplies
All students should have:
*A 3 Subject Notebook
*A folder with prongs to be transported to and from home and gifted class