Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Learning Environments Curriculum looks awesome!

I just received the overview of DS8s third grade year and it looks amazing!

For math (his least favorite subject) he's going to be doing Beast Academy. He'll be doing the grade 3 books but his BF is doing the grade 4 books already and is loving them. His buddy's buy in will definitely motivate him. He'll also be doing logic problems and extra math fact practice.

For science they're studying biomes, ecology, food webs, and animal classification. Lots of really interesting projects DS is already excited about. There are built in expansion activities for kids who want to go further in a topic for every lesson.

In history the first semester will cover our state and includes the history of the local tribes. The second semester is civics covering all forms of government - past and present.

They're doing campaigns and elections, mock trials, writing stories, making movies and maps and going on lots of field trips.

He's doing MIchael Clay Thompson for LA with an add in for literature. They'll also be reciting poems every month and doing reader's theatre where they do dramatic reading in a group. He loves that. He'll also have a weekly spelling test and some practice with the words each day.

Art, cooking and music tie into the seasons/holidays or the curriculum each week. They'll have gymnastics once a week and the whole class is working on keyboarding and cursive.

They're are only eleven kids in his class with two teachers so I think they'll get a lot done too.

Gotta pass those state math and reading tests!

We talked about the state test. The school doesn't participate but if parents want their kid to take it they'll make arrangements for it. I think we'll pass for now.

WOW. Great!

The thing that really impresses me is it isn't just that the kids are going to be able to match terms to definitions for advanced concepts. They're actually covering advanced concepts in depth.

For example for just part of what they're doing on totalitarianism, they're covering Stalin's rise to power, reading the short story The Composition by Antonio Skarmeta and discussing how life would be different for the characters in the USA and reading and discussing Ray Bradbury's The Pedestrian. It is a mix of past, present, and a dystopian future.

I might've colored some pilgrims at Thanksgiving for third grade history. I didn't have anything like this until high school.

KJP can you indicate which state/city yours kids go to school?

We are in the Puget Sound region of WA.

My son is also in 3rd grade and this curriculum sounds amazing! I assure you that most schools are not doing anything close to this. I was just taking to a friend who is at my son's old public school and she was lamenting the fact that 3rd grade math has started off with reviewing single digit addition, and that math homework was to do 10 minutes of single digit addition flash cards each night. And it's been a month into the school year and science hadn't started yet. As in, the kids have yet to do any science. At all.

His first day went well. He likes Beast Academy and worked on it with his friend. He enjoyed a logic problem involving pigs. He learned about animal classification. This included a discussion of humans being classified as primates. That's about all I got out of him in response to "how was school?"

DS5 is in the classroom next door. He learned about biomes and worked on multiplication. Not bad for his first official day of kindergarten. 😀

I'm drooling.

That curriculum sounds like a dream! What a wonderful opportunity. Can I ask, how did you find the school? I do not know of anything at all like that around us, but considering we are not far from the nation's capital, I would think it is possible there are great schools I don't even know about yet.

Are you sure you are not on some other planet?! The kindergarten story sounds too far fetched for anywhere in the U.S. ;-)

(Actually, they did some stuff like that at ODS' Montessori in his K year. Didn't know how good he had it then.)

The school is a Montessori but it didn't really start out "drool worthy" six years ago. In fact we pulled DS out for a while in preschool because it was such a poor fit with a teacher he had at the time. What they mostly offer is commitment to their students and flexibility. They don't believe any one approach is best for all students. They're willing to listen to students, parents, and try new things.

I recommended Beast Academy and MCT. They looked at them and said "Sure! This looks great. We'll do this." We talk all the time about the kids and what's working and what's not.

There is nothing in this school's marketing that would make it seem like such a good fit for gifted kids. It isn't a fancy high priced private school at all. If you're trying to find something similar, I'd look for something small and flexible.

But yes, it is pretty awesome. Differentiation is automatic. Acceleration is easy. Both kids were accelerated into the next class level at their request. All this stuff about a kid not getting to read books at a certain level? Not an issue. They walk to the public library and get what they want. DS8 is reading a herpetology field guide for independent reading.

Ok, officially drooling over the KG class. DS asked me the other day, "When am I going to get to develop *real* skills." It's my view that the social aspect is a set of important skills for him, but I wouldn't say no to a generous dose of content in class.

There is built in motivation for the teachers to challenge the kids. Basically there is a work period and once a student completes their work they have free time to do something else. Free time is the incentive. During free time they can read, do little chores, build with blocks, color, or have a snack. Some of these choices are distracting so they want all the kids to finish around the same time. If one kid finishes in fifteen minutes they deal with a "free agent" roaming the room. DS5 was doing a lot of this until they adjusted his assignments. Now he has to work as hard and for as long as everyone else.