ABOUT MEADOW BROOK’S GIFTED AND TALENTED PROGRAM
Welcome to the G&T Program at Meadow Brook School! Meadow Brook School serves East Longmeadow students in preschool through second grade.
The G&T program at Meadow Brook is designed to be a “push in” program. All children enrolled in kindergarten, 1st and 2nd grade participate. Each class meets once a week for about an hour. Currently, there are eight kindergarten classes, eight first grade classes, as well as nine second grade classes, approximately 540 students.
The G&T program at Meadow Brook is designed to be a “push in” program. All children enrolled in kindergarten, 1st and 2nd grade participate. Each class meets once a week for about an hour. Currently, there are eight kindergarten classes, eight first grade classes, as well as nine second grade classes, approximately 540 students.
The Goals of Meadow Brook School's Gifted and Talented:
• To provide enrichment for all students through high levels of engagement and the use of enjoyable and challenging learning experiences that are constructed around students' interests, learning styles, and preferred modes of expression.
• To focus primarily on social studies and science. The children learn a particular subject area in depth depending on the needs and interests of the children.
In order to differentiate the curriculum, lessons are presented in a wide variety of ways using Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences. This theory of multiple intelligences comes out of psychology and is based on the idea that people have very different kinds of intellectuall strengths and that it is very important to create opportunities where the strengths can be fostered.
• To focus primarily on social studies and science. The children learn a particular subject area in depth depending on the needs and interests of the children.
In order to differentiate the curriculum, lessons are presented in a wide variety of ways using Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences. This theory of multiple intelligences comes out of psychology and is based on the idea that people have very different kinds of intellectuall strengths and that it is very important to create opportunities where the strengths can be fostered.
In planning the curriculum and activities, many of the ideas put forth in the approach of Reggio Emilia municipal early childhood programs of Northern Italy have been adapted and applied.
Some of the principles of Reggio are:
Some of the principles of Reggio are:
- Young children are encouraged to explore their environment and express themselves through all their natural languages or modes of expression including words, movement, drawing, painting, building, sculpture, collage, dramatic play, and music.
- Learning is multimodal.
- Learning is not linear but an open-ended spiral.
- The use of emergent curriculum (you plan general educational objectives but do not formulate the specific goals for each project or each activity in advance. The objectives are flexible and adapted to the needs and interests of the children).
The use of documentation provides children with a concrete and visible memory of what they have said and done in order to serve as a jumping off point for the next steps in learning. It provides educators with thee tools for research and a key to continuous improvement and provides parents and the public with detailed information about what happens in the schools as a means of eliciting their reactions and support.
Documentation typically includes samples of a child's work at several different stages of completion; photographs showing work in progress transcriptions of children's discussions, comments, and explanations of intentions about the activity.
Other ways to provide information about what happens in the G&T program is through newsletters that are sent home with the children and can be found on our school website. It provides a summary of what the children are learning as well as resources (books, websites, and places to visit) to extend the learning at home.
Other ways to provide information about what happens in the G&T program is through newsletters that are sent home with the children and can be found on our school website. It provides a summary of what the children are learning as well as resources (books, websites, and places to visit) to extend the learning at home.
Also, School/Home Extension Activities are sent home regularly that connect with what the children are learning in class that week. Some of these activities are family activities which are sent home so that everyone can participate. For example, prior to introducing the concept of REUSING materials in our study of the environment, bags were sent home with a poem attached for the children and a letter for the families to explain that they could go treasure hunting for materials together to be used later in our classroom.
There is an effort to get the community involved by doing some service activities such as the Earth Day Groceries Project. MB students designed paper bags that convey their ideas of environmental messages that are important. The bags were distributed at local grocery stores on April 22nd, Earth Day.