Our District
For Students
For Parents
For Staff
Careers
Skip to content
Informational Links
Good Day to All,
I hope everyone is well. As we move into this online at home learning, I know that engaging and developing the talent of the gifted student is difficult. So, maybe as educators, parents, and care-givers of these gifted students, let us use this period to foster the inquisitiveness that so characterizes gifted students. Once their school work is completed, encourage your gifted student to explore topics that are of interest to them. This can be an opportunity for the gifted student to delve deeply into topics, outside of the standard curriculum, they find interesting, create a project, learn to code; the opportunities are endless. The beauty of this independent learning is that it is free of grades, free of stress, and is student-driven.
In this newsletter, you will find links to a variety of websites to help your student explore their passion. Additionally, I have provided links to a couple of articles on the psychological impact of this crisis on children. Again, I hope everyone is well and safe. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact any of us.
Sincerely,
Katrina Turbyfill
District AIG Coordinator
For Parents:
NAGC Resources for Educators and Parents. This extensive list covers everything from curriculum to social-emotional support.
New Information from NCDPI
AIG Resources- you will see: REMOTE LEARNING RESOURCES FOR AIG LEARNERS: K-12 ADVANCED LEARNING LABS - the lessons here are listed by grade and subject level. They are short documents that really provide extension lesson ideas for gifted learners. If you scroll to the next section: VIRTUAL ENRICHMENT AND EXTENSION RESOURCES FOR STUDENTS. This is a great resource of curated websites - organized by subject/interests/ and grade level
Coding:
Learn to code online! Code.org provides free K-12 computer science lessons and games to help students learn how to code at an earlier age. Code.org is supported by tech company donors, including Amazon, Facebook, Google, Microsoft and many more.
New, free, live instructor-led webinars that teach girls (and boys!) in Grades 3-8 how to code and invent. Offered every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday from 3-4 p.m. EST’
https://booleangirl.org/full-stem-ahead/
The Hour of Code started as a one-hour introduction to computer science, designed to demystify "code", to show that anybody can learn the basics, and to broaden participation in the field of computer science. It has since become a worldwide effort to celebrate computer science, starting with 1-hour coding activities but expanding to all sorts of community efforts.
MIT’s Scratch program is completely free and completely awesome. Scratch is a coding platform that allows users to create, share, and remix any number of projects. (I have even used this in my history class!)
Science/Math
The Smithsonian Learning Lab offers teachers and parents access to millions of digital resources from across the Smithsonian's museums, research centers, libraries, archives, and more. Includes pre-packaged collections that contain lessons, activities, and recommended resources made by Smithsonian museum educators. Includes self-directed learning modules for teens and tweens.
https://learninglab.si.edu/openaccess
https://learninglab.si.edu/#sll-discover
Ranger Rick. The National Wildlife Federation has opened all articles behind its paywall through June 30. This includes Educator’s Guides and Ranger Rick, Jr. Parent Reading Guides in English and Spanish.
How Stuff Works is a comprehensive articles-based site that introduces and informs on a variety of topics like culture, science, money, technology and more. Games, quizzes, and videos are also available to supplement the articles. Great for older students!
NEW! NASA STEM @ Home for Students Grades K-4 NASA is helping inspire the next generation of STEM professionals with these free, at-home, hands-on Build It! Solve It! Launch It! Play It! Color It! Read It! Projects.
https://www.nasa.gov/stem-at-home-for-students-k-4.html
What could be cooler than learning about animals? On National Geographic Kids, students of all ages can enjoy science experiments, animal watch cameras and a ton of activities to keep them busy for hours.
https://kids.nationalgeographic.com
Peer reviewed articles on environmental science issues, curated just for kids.
https://www.sciencejournalforkids.org/
Exploratorium (yes, the same one as the museum in San Francisco) has a website that teaches students about science and art. Help your students go far into the galaxy or deep down to the bottom of the ocean on this site.
https://www.exploratorium.edu/
CoolMath Games provides a variety of games and puzzles.
https://www.coolmathgames.com/
CoolMath4Kids is appropriate for ages 3 through 12 - games and lessons. https://www.coolmath4kids.com/
CoolMath offers online math games that help students ages 3+ with basic math lessons, including addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, decimals, money and more.
Arts, Literature, Poetry
Good Books for Bright Kids -
https://cty.jhu.edu/resources/cty-reading-list.html
Kennedy Center Artist-in-Residence Virtual Workshop Join beloved children’s book writer and illustrator Mo Willems virtually in his studio for a free live, bite-sized lunch doodle session each weekday at 1 p.m. EDT, focused on doodling, drawing, and writing. Appropriate for all ages.
https://www.kennedy-center.org/education/mo-willems/
Find poetry lesson plans, essays about teaching, a glossary of poetry terms, and other educator resources on our Materials for Teachers page. Visit our Poetry for Teens page to find more selections of poems tailored to a high school audience.
Beautiful artwork to make you forget about the Crisis -
The Metropolitan Museum of Art: https://www.metmuseum.org/
The National Gallery of Art: https://www.nga.gov/
The Met for kids: https://www.metmuseum.org/art/online-features/metkids/
Websites with lots of different resources
100 Resources for Gifted Kids (From the Arts to the Sciences and Everything in between) This site is well organized by topic and a short description of the website - well worth looking at:
https://www.notsoformulaic.com/resources-gifted-kids/
Virtual Field Trips: 25 wonderful field trips from the zoo to Volcanoes: https://www.weareteachers.com/best-virtual-field-trips/
List of about 10 links to various resources:
https://gifted-studies.com/this-week-in-opportunities/
20 Online Learning Resources to Get You through Coronavirus School Closures -
A nice listing of some of the stalwarts of kid-friendly websites.
Based on TED Talks these videos on a myriad science and humanities topics encourage students to explore and understand.
Continuing Online Summer Opportunities
DUKE TIPs eInvestigations
Parents with a student in the Duke TIPs Program can now sign up for the online based eInvestigations. Some courses fill quickly, so apply early in the registration period. There are two summer terms: May 28–June 28 and July 16–August 16. All students enrolled in the 4th–6th Grade Talent Search are eligible to apply.
See eInvestigator cases here:
The Perplexing Pestilence
The Field Trip Fiasco
The Mountaineer's Malady
The Ominous Outbreak
The Shipwreck Cipher
The Combustible Costume Prosecution
The Etruscan Excavation
The Abdominal Pain Conundrum
Duke TIPs eStudies
Parents with a student(s) in the Duke TIPs program in grades 7-10 can now sign up for the online- based eStudies. The seven-week program runs from June 4-July 24 with a variety of topics. First round of applications are accepted through April 5 and the final application deadline is May 8th.
Age of Empires: Rise of Ancient Kingdoms and Modern Corporations
From Dream to Business Reality: Foundations of Entrepreneurship
Worlds of Wonder: Writing Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror
National Association for Gifted and Talented
North Carolina Association for Gifted and Talented
Davidson Institute for Gifted and Talented