I am new to Gifted & Talented this year and I have no idea where to start. Coming from a general ed background where there was a specific curriculum and pacing we had to follow- I feel overwhelmed with ideas and need help narrowing it down.

Our program is a pull out program. I have decided to start off with some Stem activities with my second and third graders. I have decided to do a unit on scientific investigations/experiments with fifth grade but not sure what to do with my fourth graders.

I am deciding between a unit on inventions or a Project Based Learning project.

What did you guys start off your year doing? Any ideas would be helpful. Thanks in advance!

[Mrs.Lilbit]

I also teach pullout. My district has teacher-created units designed especially for our gifted and talented program. Some of the fourth grade studies my district uses are a book study of The Phantom Tollbooth, Greek mythology, architecture, speleology (caves), sustainability, Einstein, The 7 Wonders of the World, and mysteries and enigmas. I think there is enough information out there about these topics that you could find lots ideas and activities for them (google, TPT, etc).

Most of these would be appropriate for either 4th or 5th grade. You might even think about teaching both grades the same unit to reduce the amount of planning you have to do. I teach first and second grade GATE and I always teach them both the same study so I don't have to plan two different units. I scaffold the activities to make them slightly easier for first and more challenging for second. I have about 8-10 studies that I use consistently, and teach 4-5 one year and the other 4-5 the next year so they don't get the same study two years in a row.

Thanks so much for responding! Those are definitely great ideas I will be adding to my plans.