Creative students can and must be serviced within the regular classroom. KIDTRACTS will give these students opportunities to integrate subjects they study with thinking skills programs currently on the market that stress brainstorming, fluency, flexibility, originality and especially Bloom’s Taxonomy and multiple intelligences theory. KIDTRACTS are specifically designed to provide that experience.

KIDTRACTS provides a full range of activities for grades 4-8+. They can be used as independent study projects, incentive reward for finishing work early, task cards, starting points for research projects or part of home schooling

KIDTRACTS focuses on Bloom’s six levels of high order thinking:
Knowledge – the ability to know
Comprehension – the ability to understand
Application – the ability to apply knowledge to new situations
Analysis - the ability to break down into parts
Synthesis – the ability to create, design, invent
Evaluation – the ability to judge

KIDTRACTS will develop students’ ability to engage in self-initiated research. Students may work alone, with another student, or with a group. The suggested activities may develop into self-initiated projects and a desire to work independently. Education is about allowing children to think about the problems of the world. We want them to be able to determine new and different ways to solve problems that will be part of their future. The goal, we hope, will be transference from these activities to solving problems of everyday life.

All the activities in this book can be used in classroom learning centers as supplemental material to existing curriculum, or as individualized projects for students. Assessment sheets are included so that students play an active role in their learning experiences. Students should be given choices for sharing their knowledge. If they have worked diligently on their projects, they can present their new knowledge to an audience. For presentations, the following are all acceptable.

poems
short plays
song lyrics
journals
diaries
memoirs
travelogue
newspaper or newsletter
advertisements
new story-endings
posters
cartoons
charts
time-lines
maps
graphs
paintings
board games
multimedia presentations
treasure hunts (with clues about topic)
simulations
collection of objects pertaining to project
a play
role-play lecture
a dance based on historical event

These are suggestions. Add other types of presentations that you think are appropriate for your students. Students must learn to do in-depth work on a topic of interest to them. They could use some of the following while researching:

fiction and non-fiction books
books and other materials on tape
word processing and internet searches
painting materials
field guides and science resource materials
biographies
interviews
newspapers
magazines

We hope that the KIDTRACTS books will become a part of your classroom program.