This document provides a list of summer activity ideas for gifted children, including strategy games, puzzles, word games, quantitative thinking games, engineering and design projects, art, research, science activities, websites, apps, day trips, and book recommendations. The activities are intended to engage children's minds through challenges that develop critical thinking, problem solving, creativity, and learning.

1. Summer Ideas for your
Gifted Child

2. Strategy Games
 Chess
 Mastermind
 Mancala
 Battleship
 Blokus
 Checkers
 Risk
 Chinese Checkers
 Jenga
Puzzles
 Tangrams
 Shape by Shape
 Pentominoes
 Rubiks Puzzles
 Rush Hour
 Jigsaw Puzzles
 Squzzles
 3D Slide Puzzles
 Rebus

3. Critical Thinking Games
 SET
 Plexars
 Q Bitz
 Blink
 Spot It
Word Games
 Quiddler
 Anagrams
 Cryptic Crosswords
 Scrabble
 Word Searches
Quantitative Thinking Games
 Tangrams
 Tessellations
 Pentomino Activities
 Probability
 Statistics
 Money
 Mental Math
If your life is free of failures, you are not taking enough
risks. -Unknown

4. Engineering and Design
Legos
Lego Mindstorms
Gears!Gears! Gears!
K’ Nex
ZoomTool
Block by Block (3D)
Brick by Brick (2D)
Marble Run
Kapla
Erector Sets
Straws and Connectors
Rube Goldberg Designs
If you give people tools, and they
use their natural abilities and their
curiosity, they will develop things
in ways that will surprise you very
much beyond what you might
have expected. --Bill Gates

5. Art
Seven Steps to Creativity
 Gather your information
 Sift the information
 Let the information bubble-
Try reading, listening to music,
go for a walk, while your mind
digests the facts.
 Let the ideas flow!
 Shape and develop your idea
 Share your idea
 Repeat- Keep it going, until you
have the best idea you can
come up with.
Great artist, writers and musicians
first learned from studying the
works of master craftsmen.
 Craft Idea Books
 Drawing Books
 Geometric Design
Books
 Cartooning Books
 Nonfiction books
filled with diagrams
and illustrations.
 Books with favorite
illustrators
 Music without lyrics
 Art Supplies

6. Research
Suggested Resources:
Assorted Reference Books
Magazines
Biographies
Newspaper articles
 Hobby Books
Nonfiction books
Internet
 Research Journal
If we knew what it was we were
doing, it would not be called
research, would it?
-Albert Einstein

7. Science Activities
 Microscopes
 Magnifying lens
 Magnets
 Circuitry
 Models to construct
 Simple Experiments
 Collections- Rocks,
Shells, Bugs
 Sketch paper
 Nature Field Guides
 Cross Section Books
 How Things Work-
David MacCauley
 Rubbings of leaves
 Eyewitness Books

8. Web Sites
 http://www.makebeliefscomix.com/
 http://wonderopolis.org/
 http://www.kerpoof.com/
 http://www.wordle.net
 http://buildyourwildself.com/
 http://themaninblue.com/experimen
t/Cubescape/new.php
 www.abcya.com
 http://www.inventionatplay.org/play
house_cloud.html
 http://www.juliasrainbowcorner.com
/html/funandgames.html

9. Apps for iPad
Qvoid Intro
Nback
Creationary
Clockwork Brain
Marble Park
Blokus
Sliding Tiles
ZONR
Mancala
Unblock Me
Dot Line
Parking Lot
Untangle
Tinkerbox
Family Car Games

10. Day Trips
 San Jacinto Monument
 Houston Museum of
Natural Science
 Blue Bell Creamery,
Brenham, Texas
 The Aquarium
 Brazos Bend State
Park
 Techno Chaos or
Bricks4kidz Lego
Workshops
 George Observatory
 Space Center Houston
 Sea Wolf Park,
Galveston
 Houston Fire Museum
 Museum of Fine Arts
 Holocaust Museum
 Paleontology Hall at
HMNS

11. Texas Bluebonnet List 2012-2013

12. Bluebonnet List Continued
http://texasbluebonnetaward2013.wo
rdpress.com/master-list/
All books include activities and
trailers.
Why Read?
Reading the works of really
good writers is one of the
best ways to develop our
abilities with words.
Modern and classic novels,
leading non-fiction books
and top quality newspaper
and magazine articles are
all important sources for
us. How often do you find
time to read poetry? Try
some new poems and re-
read old favorites for
inspiration.