I have the go-ahead to bring in materials of my choice for DS to use during independent work time in K. This is something like a 70-minute block, so it's significant. The materials will go in reading and math boxes to be shared with rest of the class (free choice), but if I know DS, he will definitely pick the ones intended for him. He can follow directions nicely as long as they're not, you know, written in stupid teacher-English ("Underscore the leftmost apple.") For reading, so as not to freak anyone out and be inclusive of other students who are ahead, 1st or 2nd grade or something "ungraded" would be best. I have a Math for the Gifted Student workbook. Lollipop Logic? What else?

His writing is not that great yet (late K/early 1st at best), so is something to work on, but not to the point of frustration. He can do short short answers. Reading *comprehension* is excellent. He loves maps and geography.

His teacher is really, really great and has been very open to our suggestions, but I don't want to go crazy just yet and intro things that are way above grade level. She has already acknowledged that he is gifted and is working with a gifted resource teacher to help him, so books designed for gifted enrichment would not be an issue.

anyone know this series?

http://www.amazon.com/Mind-Benders-...77778571&sr=1-18&keywords=math+analogies

or, some kind of "math analogy" series?

UM
Is this meant as work time for him rather than choice time? - for DS's class choice time was the fun educational stuff - when they got to use laptops or iPads. Were you specifically asked for school type worksheets or workbooks? DS's K gifted class had all sorts of other things for choice time - their leveled book boxes - they always had books at DS's level despite it being 4 or 5 levels ahead of others. They could always read during choice time. For math activities they had soduku and other math game type things. But they also had puzzles, math rods, and all sorts of games. They could color or do crafts. Choice time was for the fun things. Or is this to have a box of things to replace the work they are doing when they are working - like giving him different work sheets? With DS I found that K was backfill, things he might have missed when he leaped ahead. But they moved so quickly thru them and switched activities so he wasn't THAT bored. For him K wasn't learned material - he actually said at the time he learned at home - 1st grade was better, not much but better.

DeHe

They don't have laptops or iPads.

It is work time, but slanted more towards fun. Not coloring, not crafts, but yes, things like math rods or math games. I got the impression that there are various worksheets and workbooks as well as other educational items in the boxes. DD9 also has math boxes in her classroom and it works a lot like that. I don't think this is reading time--I believe that is a different part of the day.

It may be that she will also use this to replace other activities for him. NOt sure. She basically said I should send in whatever I thought would be helpful and that she was going to try to find ways to differentiate however she could, so heaven knows I want to jump on that. DS nearly lost his mind in academic pre-K last year, so we know he is not likely to cruise through K contentedly unless something is done to help him out.

He does like Sudoku. I thought about physical games, like some ThinkFun stuff, but I wasn't sure. He loves Rush Hour, but that would be tempting to play with and might get wrecked.

If anyone can think of mathy games, though, that would be appropriate for K kids but also stretch for kids like DS, and not TOO easy to destroy/lose pieces from, I am open. I am quite willing to spend some money on all of this, though obviously I don't want to go completely crazy and turn DS's classroom into the Fancy Classroom with all the Stuff while the other K classrooms have nothing. The school is drastically underresourced.

Tangrams and pentominoes are easy to make, and you can buy very inexpensive plastic sets. You'll find tons of shadows and worksheets online that you can print and laminate, so it's easy to add more and more puzzles throughout the year.

for tangram patterns:
https://sites.google.com/site/polandbulldogmath/home/printables

for pentominoes:
http://www.scholastic.com/titles/chasingvermeer/pentominoes.pdf

I buy plastic manipulatives from Didex http://www.didax.com/, but you can find them at other online retailers and at most teacher supply stores if you have one near you.

These were 2 things I thought of right away - definitely Sudoku! Also a good maze or dot to dot book. Tangrams would be fun too.

At that age we liked the Brain Quest books and flip card sets. I like the idea of the logic book you mentioned and this might be a good time to introduce some kiddos to analogies too with a basic workbook or even a simple word scramble workbook.

A simple set of dominoes would be good and along the lines of Rush Hour - how about Quirkle.

That is all I can think of for now. I may have more for you later.

He is over dot-to-dots. He is at this point pretty much only interested in really hard mazes (like the really hard ones at krazydad.com). Like, he and my 9yo do the same ones. (Takes him a bit longer.)

We have BrainQuest and he has "used up" the 2nd grade set. I don't think I want to bring in 3rd grade. I could try the workbooks; has anyone used those? They look kind of different from the flip cards, which we like.


Qirkle--I don't have this game. Is it playable by average Ks? Can you play alone? Are pentominoes the thing where you recreate the shape with the little flat unit shapes? That's a great idea, though, something like that. We have a set like that and he's outgrown it, but there must be a harder vesion out there. He liked it a lot before he outgrew it.

The nice thing about Qwirkle is that the tiles are well-made and thick enough that you can just play with them like blocks, or you can play the game.

uh. someone tell me what to buy for pentominoes?

Amazon.com has Quirkle and Quirkle Cubes. The actual game is for 2-4 players, but like ElizabethN said you can also play with them by yourself. I believe it is rated for 6 and up. Pretty much anything by MindWare is good! As far as that goes anything by ThinkFun, the makers of Rush Hour is also good.

I just checked - Amazon.com also has Pentominoes and they are as you described above - reminds me of Tetris. I also just saw this which is sort of similar.
Katamino - http://www.amazon.com/Gigamic-8051-Katamino-Game/dp/B0009H9SUC/

Tantrix are also a bit like Pentominoes - flat tiles with colored squiggles. You can try to match your tiles to a specified shape or play a game with other kids where you take turns playing your tiles while matching the colored squiggles to form a puzzle.

We liked the flip cards of Brain Quest better than the books. The books are more like workbooks compared to the Q/A of the cards.

There are "extreme" dot to dot and maze books, which was what I was thinking when I mentioned those - probably like what is on the site you mentioned.

Ooh, if we're talking games, how about Tsuro?

Uh, now this is getting way too fun. In my cart:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0009H9SUC/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A2Y7JET69Q6TGZ

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1593630468/ref=ox_sc_act_title_3?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0009W22QE/ref=ox_sc_act_title_4?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A1Q661ZU0XF2OZ

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0032UKQFO/ref=ox_sc_act_title_5?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER
(chess is taught at his school starting in K)

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007BQBQIQ/ref=ox_sc_act_title_6?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0894558730/ref=ox_sc_act_title_7?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A3IQ5E8MTVFLWN

Uh, no math books. I do have the Math for the Gifted Student one. And no reading/writing ones. But I have a teachers' supply store nearby...I find that with those, I often need to flip through them.

"Uh, no math books. I do have the Math for the Gifted Student one. And no reading/writing ones. But I have a teachers' supply store nearby...I find that with those, I often need to flip through them."

My kids love love love the Buki Books Calc-u-color (or colour). Unlike so many math coloring sheets, it's actually hard to tell what the picture is until it's colored. The one available in the US has pretty hard 2-digit arithmetic with parentheses, but I got a set of 3 from Australia that are at different levels. The lowest has only addition and subtraction less than 15. Maybe first grade level? Probably beyond the other kinders, but a fun kind of worksheet if that's what the rest of the class is doing.

Buki has a variety of math+art+puzzle books that might suit your purpose. Some educator's shops have a good selection.

The Solitaire Chess looks interesting! We may need that!

We do like the Life of Fred books if you don't already have those and want to spring for some. They would be reading and math combined.

You can get a single set for $2.50 at this link or click on the group set on the page for a tub of 72 for $14.95:
http://www.didax.com/shop/productde.../StartRow/1/ShowAll/No/ItemNo/2-4151.cfm

You can purchase cards or books like these that present outlines where the kids have to find the correct pentominoes to fill in the outline or create the shape:
http://www.amazon.com/Pentomino-Pat...d=1377905431&sr=1-2&keywords=pentominoes

http://www.amazon.com/Pentomino-Puz...d=1377905379&sr=1-1&keywords=pentominoes

Or you can search for pentomino worksheets to find and print worksheets like these and laminate them:
http://coekate.murraystate.edu/media/professors/files/gierhart/pentominoes.pdf

Also what about mad libs - grammar and writing, and so silly and fun.
Stack the states games
Top Secret from highlights has a lot of word search, find things directed toward solving a whodunit and very geography oriented with counting and reading and writing in the games

Fun to think of this stuff. I was talking with a bunch of moms with kids younger than mine who I don't know well and they never met DS, I mentioned the top secret and something else, and one mom said wow you're so educational - and I immediately stopped contributing and thought whoops, wrong crowd, because I couldn't tell if she thought I was nuts or good.

Critical thinking are awesome if you want workbooks
DeHe

http://www.mindware.com/MyAccount/RequestCatalog/RequestCatalog.aspx

Their printed catalog is easier to read than their online catalog which you can access here:

http://www.mindware.com/CustomerService/DigitalCatalog.aspx

Anyhow, they have tons hot games and workbooks:

http://www.mindware.com/c/brain-teaser-games-for-kids/3
http://www.mindware.com/c/educational-games-for-young-children/11