This presentation provides strategies for incorporating creativity into core content areas to engage gifted students. It discusses varying instructional approaches, including allowing student choice in process and products. Examples are given of creative lesson plans that integrate arts, challenge higher-order thinking, and consider individual student needs and abilities. Strategies are also shared for showcasing student work to parents through presentations and interactive activities.

1. CREATIVITY COUNTSCREATIVITY COUNTS
PRESENTERPRESENTER
Stephanie MalcomStephanie Malcom
GT Coordinator Jessieville SDGT Coordinator Jessieville SD

2. This interactive session will present strategies
that challenge students to use productive
thinking and problem solving together with
creativity in the core content areas. Let the
arts enrich learning experiences, stimulate the
senses and tickle the interest of advanced
learners. Process and product choice will
motivate students to take ownership in their
own education. Varying instructional approaches
and using combinations of content, process, and
products will allow for adaptations that
consider the needs, abilities, and interests of
individual students.

3. What is “gifted”?
• THERE IS NO FEDERAL
DEFINITION
• Varies by state
RENZULLI's
3 Ring Model
GIFTED

4. Albert Einstein
Was he gifted?
• Above Average Intelligence
• Task Commitment
• Creativity

5. Different Learners
Learn Differently

6. Many Gifted Students are
Visual–Spatial Learners
• Visual-spatial learners think in pictures rather than in
words.
• They learn best visually. They learn all-at-once, and
when the light bulb goes on, learning is permanent.
• They do not learn from repetition and drill. They are
whole-part learners who need to see the big picture
first before they learn the details.
• They are non-sequential, which means that they do not
learn step-by-step. Creativity allows them to develop
their own learning process.

7. Visual–Spatial Learners
• May have difficulty with easy tasks, but
show amazing ability with difficult, complex
tasks.
• Tend to be organizationally impaired and
unconscious about time.
• They also are very creative, dramatic,
artistic and musical.
You can tell you have one of these children by
the endless amount of time they spend doing
advanced puzzles, completing mazes,
counting everything, building with any
materials at hand, designing scientific
experiments, or taking everything apart to see
how it operates.

8. You may find that
gifted students
will finish their
work early, and
after becoming
bored, disrupt
other class
members who are
still working.
Gifted students need challenge &
creativity to keep them engaged!

9. Multiple Intelligences
• Linguistic – Highly
developed verbal skills
• Logical/Mathematical –
Steps, patterns
• Spatial – Artistic, visualizes
• Naturalist – Sensitive to
natural phenomena
• Bodily kinesthetic –
Excellent body/motor
control, drama
• Musical – rhythms, beats
• Interpersonal – High ability
to understand other
individuals
• Intrapersonal – High ability
to understand one’s self
GARDNER'S
Theory of MULTIPLE
Intelligences

10. School is often not receptive
to the highly gifted!
• Einstein was four years old before he
could speak and seven before he could read.
• Isaac Newton did poorly in grade school.
• When Thomas Edison was a boy, his teachers told
him he was too stupid to learn anything.
• A newspaper editor fired Walt Disney because he
had ‘no good ideas.’
• Winston Churchill flunked the 6th
grade.
• Louis Pasteur was rated as mediocre in chemistry
when he attended the Royal College.
Studies show that 20% of H.S.
dropouts are gifted students.

11. From Theory to the
Classroom
• Showing Our Funnybone
– Fingerprint comic strips
– Kreative Komix Comic Book Maker
• Mr. SLIF
• Artwork that Measures Up!
Creative lesson ideas

12. Showing Our Funny Bone
Gifted Frameworks: Creativity, Critical Thinking, Self-Awareness
Multiple Intelligences: Visual/spatial, verbal, intrapersonal
Interdisciplinary Connections: History, Science, Forensics
Materials: long strips of white paper, ink pads, colored pencils,
wet wipes for easy clean-up
Instructions:
1. Fold paper into fourths, separating equal sections with a vertical
pencil line
2. Press thumb lightly and evenly on ink pad and transfer print onto a
section
3. Repeat process as desired
4. Use prints to create cartoons
Use as a follow-up lesson after
teaching fingerprint types,
careers in forensic science,
historical political cartooning
or propaganda.

13. Showing Our Funny Bone!
• Gifted Frameworks: Critical thinking,
creativity, technology
• Multiple Intelligences: Visual/spatial,
verbal
• Interdisciplinary Connections: History,
science, creative writing
• Materials: Kreative Komix software
http://www.kreativekomix.com/
Titles: Science, US History, Dinosaurs, Science Fiction, Fairy Tale, Super Hero
Tell a story, invent characters,
make your own graphic story,
print or play on screen

14. Mr. SLIF
• RESEARCH
• CREATIVITY
• SELF-AWARENESS
Gifted Frameworks
Multiple Intelligences
•Kinesthetic
•Naturalistic
•Interpersonal
•Musical BONUS: WE USED
RECYCLED
MATERIALS

15. Mr. SLIF Room 206
Types of Bones
• Short (wrists, ankles)
• Long (arms, legs)
• Irregular (spine, face)
• Flat (skull, ribs, chest)
There are 206 skeletal bones in
the human body.
Without our skeletons, we
would be shapeless mass,
just like a jellyfish.
Interdisciplinary Connections:
Students learn the scientific
names for the bones that
comprise the human skeleton,
the types and number of human
bones, and functions of bones
with the assistance of Ron
Clark’s CD The Essential Raps!

16. $15.55 at
www.Amazon.com
The Essential Raps! By Ron Clark
Multiple
Intelligences:
Integrates music
into the classroom
to appeal to
musical/rhythmic
learners.

19. Artwork that Measures Up!
Big Idea: Interdisciplinary connections between
art and standard measurements
Art Element: Lines and basic geometric shapes
K.I.S.S. – Keep It Simple Students
Fast Fact: Henri Matisse used simple lines
and designs to create paper collages

20. Artwork that Measures Up!
Gifted Frameworks: Creativity, Critical Thinking, Self-Awareness
Multiple Intelligences: Logical/Mathematical, Visual/Spatial, Kinesthetic
Interdisciplinary Connections: Art techniques and history, standard units of
measurement, motor skills
Materials: colored construction paper, rulers, scissors, pencils
Instructions:
1. Choose 2 colors of construction paper and get 2 of each color
2. Mark off the short side for every one inch
3. Slide ruler to other side and repeat step 2 (sliding the ruler ensures your marks
are perfectly aligned)
4. Connect the dots making long one inch stripes
5. Repeat with other 3 sheets of construction paper
6. Cut one of each color along the lines creating colored strips
7. Paste colored strips on other two sheets, alternating colors in a pattern (red, blue,
red, blue…)
8. You now have 2 sheets of construction paper with alternating colored stripes. On
the back of one, draw large simple figures. (REM: Keep It Simple Students)
9. Cut out figure(s)
10. Align figure(s) to the other sheet matching ends to opposite colors on the sheet
(EX: the red lines on the figure aligns with the blue lines on the sheet)
11. Secure figures with glue
Integrate this activity into the Bones
Unit by having students draw things that
help build strong bones, such as healthy
foods or exercise.

21. Student Showcase
• Display research and projects in the
classroom or outside the door
• Present student work to parents
– During parent/teacher conference
– Invite parents for a lunch visit
– Have parents drop by during the GT pull-out time
• Collaborate with Home Economics teacher or
cafeteria to have students prepare snacks to
serve to parents.
– This hands-on activity will have students poking
parents to come!

22. Cookie Ingredients:
1 cup butter, softened
1 cup powdered sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup sliced almonds
2 tablespoons Icing Glue
Icing Glue Ingredients:
1/4 cup powdered sugar
1 teaspoon water
Preparation
1. In a large mixing bowl, beat the butter until smooth
and creamy.
2. Add the sugar, egg, and vanilla extract and mix well.
3. Add the flour, baking powder, and salt and beat
until completely mixed.
4. Cover the dough and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
5. Preheat the oven to 325°F.
6. With your hands, roll a heaping tablespoon of dough
into a finger shape for each cookie. If the dough
gets sticky and hard to work with, put it back in
the refrigerator for a little while. Place fingers on
an ungreased cookie sheet about 3 inches apart.
7. Use a butter knife to make knuckle marks on the
finger cookies. Slightly flatten the front of the
finger to create a nail.
8. Bake 20-25 minutes, until fingers are slightly
golden. Remove from the oven and let cool.
9. Meanwhile, prepare the Icing Glue. Mix together
powdered sugar and water in a small bowl until the
consistency is similar to that of a paste.
9. Attach almond slice fingernails to the tips of the
fingers with Icing Glue. Let glue dry for about 30
minutes.
Finger Food Cookies