As the school year comes to a close the GT cuties are happily & energetically wrapping up projects!  Every student is working their hardest to put the finishing touches on their work.  With so many special events and happenings this month I wanted to make sure you got the following dates onto your calendar.

IMPORTANT EVENTS:
5th grade Parents come to 5th grade GT:  Wednesday, May 17 (Carol Reese will visit to tell us all about middle school GT)
4th grade Great Paper Airplane Contest:  Monday, May 22 (4th grade parents meet us in the cafeteria at 8:00)

LAST DAY OF GT:
Kindergarten:  Thursday, May 18
1st grade:  Thursday, May 18
2nd grade:  Thursday, May 18
3rd grade:  Tuesday, May 23
4th grade:  Tuesday, May 23
5th grade:  Monday, May 22

With summer break approaching I thought you might find the following article of interest.  Your children thoroughly enjoy playing games like these in GT class.  I know they would benefit from playing at home too!


Ten Games for Gifted Children
By Carol Bainbridge
Updated December 02, 2016Gifted children enjoy many of the same games, like Monopoly, that other children enjoy, but their love of learning and need for challenge means that they will enjoy games where they can learn, show off their knowledge, and be challenged. Whether your gifted child loves dinosaurs or space, language or logic, or anything in between, you can find the perfect game. Here are ten great games for gifted kids that the whole family can play.

SET
Set is an all-time favorite of gifted kids. The object of the game is to find sets of three cards by following specific grouping rules. Each card has one of three shapes on it (a squiggle, a diamond, or an oval). The card can have one to three of those shapes on it and the shapes will be one of three colors displayed with one of three patterns. Gifted children are usually quick to pick out the sets from the twelve visible cards. It is a great game for the whole family.

Cranium Cadoo for Kids
This board game is a 2001 Parents' Choice Gold Award Winner, and it's no wonder it received that award. It combines elements of some traditional favorite games like Charades, Name-That-Tune, and Trivial Pursuit, and adds elements of drawing and sculpting too! Players draw cards which tell them what task they must complete before the musical timer goes off. The game is fun for the entire family, from the youngest to the oldest. Any number of players can join the fun starting with at least two.



Apples to ApplesAnother multi-award winning game: Family Fun Toy of the Year Award and Mensa Select Award, among others. This game is for four to ten players, with a recommended age of 12 and up. Cards have either a noun or an adjective and players must match one of each card. A judge then decides on the "best" match, but throughout the game, players take turns being the judge! Some younger gifted children could play the game, but there is also a children's version. It's fun for the whole family!



Mad Gab Game
Mad Gab is a hilarious language game based on sounds and pauses in speech. Players have to read a phrase from a card and their opponent must guess what the "real" phrase is. While the sounds are basically the same in each phrase, the sounds are broken up with pauses in between different sounds! "Dew Wino Hue," for example, is actually "Do I know you?" The game is for 2 or more players aged ten to adult. Gifted children who enjoy language love this game.



Spy Alley Board Game

What do you get when you cross Monopoly with Clue? The game Spy Alley! Players in this game are assigned secret spy identities, which they try to protect and which other players try to guess. The goal of the game is to complete your mission, which includes collecting various items such as a password and a disguise, and then landing on your country's embassy. It's a game the whole family can play and enjoy.

DaVinci's Challenge Game
This is a game of strategy and ancient symbols. The game board is a pattern known as the Flower of Life, a pattern made of ovals and triangles. A player's goal is to create specific symbols by placing oval or triangle pieces on the corresponding shapes on the board, while preventing his or her opponent from creating symbols. The whole family will enjoy this challenging game, although if there are more than two players, they will have to play as teams. The game is for ages seven to adult.



Chaos Strategy Board Game
This fun and challenging board game consists of 24 beautifully crafted wooden disks that players must stack up on a 10" square board. It's not as easy as it sounds, though. Stacks of four disks topple over. The disks are redistributed and the players continue taking turns stacking the disks. The winner is the one who gets all his or her disks on the board, ending the chaos. Players must carefully plan moves that will force their opponent to take his disks.
For 2 players ages 8 and up.



Cogno: The Alien Adventure GamePlayers take on the identity of an alien who must travel through the galaxy which contains, among other things, black holes and mystery planets. To move around the board, players must answer questions about how the universe works. The game doesn't provide simple answers to those questions, but full explanations in an accompanying book. What space-loving gifted child wouldn't love this game? The whole family can play this game, which is for ages seven to adult.



Dinosaurs & Things Board Game
This sturdy board game is perfect for dinosaur lovers. Players must make their way through the various eras, like the Jurassic, collecting dinosaur cutouts as they go. The cutouts that are placed like puzzle pieces over a picture of the dinosaur's skeleton. Players make their way around the board by answering questions about dinosaurs. However, multi-level play makes the game fun and challenging for dinosaur lovers of all ages. It's for two to four players, ages 8 to adult.

Risk Godstorm GameThis strategy game is a twist on the classic Risk game. In this version, players enter the ancient world of mythology and attempt to control five ancient cultures: Greek, Celtic, Babylonian, Norse and Egyptian. Gods can be summoned and battles can be fought in the underworld. For those who love mythology and strategy games, this game is ideal. The recommended ages are twelve and up, so families with older children will enjoy playing this game together.





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The GT cuties have made excellent progress in their projects this week!  Each grade level is working on a different challenge, but all of the GT students come to class with similar energy and focus.  They are ceaselessly motivated to take on new projects, and their positive learning attitudes consistently make the learning environment pleasant and inspiring.
The kindergartners enjoy working with tangrams.  The tangram is a dissection puzzle consisting of seven flat shapes, called tans, which are put together to form shapes. The objective of the puzzle is to form a specific shape using all seven pieces, which may not overlap.  The GT cuties like to solve puzzles posed to them, but they are currently using critical and creative thinking to generate their own shapes.  Each student is working on a Tangram Alphabet Book.  They are using all of the tangram pieces to form each letter of the alphabet.  Because they are capturing their work using their iPads, we can transform pictures of their letters into a book once they finish.
In 1st grade GT the students are making dramatic progress on the bridges they are building using drinking straws.  At this point the bridges have proper span, but the support systems are not yet strong enough to hold the weight of the can of beans.  The students were given six paper towel rolls to help support their bridges.  We hope that by the end of next week the bridges are complete and ready to test and retest with a variety of objects.  Students will be making a video about their bridge once it is complete.
Origami is all around us!  The 2nd grade GT cuties learned that lesson this week as we watched an amazing video about a physicist and origamist Robert Lang.  This fascinating video shows us how real life scientists benefit from origami techniques.  Check out the video here:  https://youtu.be/DJ4hDppP_SQ   The 2nd graders are growing more confident at origami each day, and they are challenging themselves to take on more and more difficult folds.
Using recyclables to build is one of the funnest parts of GT!  In 3rd grade the cuties are happily designing and building marble mazes using materials you may find in the recycling bin.  Working independently on a project like this means you get to make all the decisions; it also means that you have to solve all the problems!  The students are using strong problem solving skills and perseverance as they attempt to make their ideas reality.
The Great Paper Airplane Contest has inspired our class!  The 4th grade GT cuties have split into two companies:  "Imagine Airlines" and "Paper of the Future."  This week they made a company slogan and logo.  They also chose job titles from the following list:  President, Vice President, Treasurer, Marketing Director, Research and Development Director.  Organizing the company is a very important first step.  Each person must know the company's overall message and mission.  Plus, each person must know their role in the company.  Next week we will begin to learn about, and plan for, the auction we will hold to sell materials for the project.
There are three teams of 5th grade GT cuties - all of them are working towards the same goal.  The goal is making a permanent piece of art for the GT classroom.  The winning design is Snoopy laying on his doghouse.  The doghouse will be decorated with the students' names.  The first team to meet was the design team.  They made a scale drawing/plan of the artwork.  They included specific measurements as well as ideas of how to connect the different pieces of it.  Next, the design team shared the plan with the house team.  That team is responsible for making the doghouse and roof.  The Snoopy team met with the designers also, so they could hear and see all the details of the Snoopy and Woodstock they will be making.  Next week the building of the artwork will begin!