Projects for Gifted Students

Gifted and talented children need to be challenged to prevent boredom, underachievement and social problems.

Keeping these gifted kids challenged and excited about learning, needs to begin early.

You need to pro-actively work with gifted children and prevent social and educational problems - before they begin!

One way to do this is to create interesting projects for your young gifted student. Even gifted toddlers can learn—and they can learn fast! Creating independent learning centers or learning stations in your home is an easy way to create interest in learning.

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Learning Center Activities

When I taught 3rd grade, I set up little independent work stations for my students. When students finished their assignments, they could visit the work stations to explore a topic that they found especially interesting. The kids loved the stations and they viewed being able to visit them as a reward for finishing their work promptly.

Here are some possibilities that you might consider for your younger gifted and talented children. These projects for gifted students encourage very young children to learn practical tasks.

Encourage your child to do these things in the real world as well. For example, your child could read the menu and order, himself.

• Restaurant Center - with a tablecloth, dishes, napkins, menus, order pad and pencil, aprons for the waiter or waitress. Children's can play at taking orders and reading menus.

• Travel Center - could include brochures, maps, tickets, wallets with play money and credit cards, and a suitcase. The children could play being a travel agent or a customer and write itineraries. Your children might even want to create some brochures of their own for their own town.

• Veterinarian's Office - could include posters of animals (with names), bottles of medicine with labels, and an old prescription pad (or a pretend one). Children get to discuss the poor sick stuffed animals and write down directions for taking care of it. They can also read and write prescriptions.

• Banking Center - could include play money, play checks, deposit slips, signs, ads, and receipts. This is a great learning center for math!

• Supermarket Center - with food packets and boxes, plastic fruit, price stickers, play money, grocery bags, marking pens, ads, and coupons. Gifted children can pretend to make a shopping list, go shopping, go through the check out line and pay for the groceries.

These gifted student learning centers don't have to be dedicated corners of the house. Why not place the supplies for a center in a plastic tote? When it's time to set up a learning station, have your child get the tote and "set up" the pretend area.

So, the next time your child is bored...have them help you gather the items you need to create one of the learning centers! You'll both have a lot of fun with these projects for gifted students and help them improve their reading at the same time.

Projects for Gifted Students to Childrens Books