Elementary Gifted Programs

Click Here for a Video Overview of Our Gifted Programs

SEARCH for K-3 Students

Grades K-1 - 25-minute, biweekly, hands-on SEARCH lessons focus on the five thinking keys - perceiving, reasoning, connecting, creating, and evaluating. 

Grades 2-3 - 50-minute biweekly SEARCH lessons build and expand on the five thinking keys (perceiving, reasoning, connecting, creating, and evaluating). Lessons are frequently tiered for increased challenge while maintaining accessibility for all learners. 

FUSION for Identified 4th-5th Students - Two Hours Weekly 

Two hours of pull-out enrichment for 4th and 5th grade students who have been formally identified for gifted services. FUSION, formerly FUTURA, bolsters critical thinking, creativity, and communication skills through collaborative, exploratory, real-world activities.

FUSION alternates annually between two themes: Innovation and Leadership. For SY23-24, the theme is leadership, so will be ivestigating leaders, learning about leadership skills and traits, and being leaders in our school community.

FUSION students also receive 2 hours weekly of math and language arts enrichment.

DCI - Differentiated Classroom Instruction - for Identified 4th-5th Students

Weekly enrichment for 4th and 5th grade students who, during the gifted identification process, exhibited advanced performance in Language Arts or Math.  The gifted resource teacher meets with DCI students to provide extension or enrichment options to differentiate instruction for them in their area of strength.  These activities are designed to provide additional opportunities for rigor and deeper learning in language arts and/or mathematics.

EDGE-Empowering Diversity through Gifted Education 

The EDGE program is designed to nurture and challenge students with advanced academic potential from groups historically underrepresented in LCPS advanced academic and gifted programs. The program provides additional academic challenges for students designed to develop students' individual potential. Classroom teachers and gifted education resource teachers work together to nurture academic potential in young learners and prepare them for more challenging and rigorous academic pathways. This program does not necessarily lead to a gifted education designation for future grade levels for the student, but is there to nurture and challenge the student. 

Click here to visit the LCPS Gifted Education Website.

Lisa.Schmidt@LCPS.org

Gifted Screening

Click here for an overview of the evaluation process:

23-24 Gifted Evaluation Process (students grades 3,4,5)

Important Updates and Timelines

5th grade and new 4th grade students

Please contact Lisa Schmidt if you are interested in eligibility referral for your child.  Referrals are being accepted now thru Oct 2, 2023.  Please note that students who were LCPS students in grade 3, cannot be reevaluated until January 2024. There is a 1 year calendar limit on referrals.

Current 3rd grade students

LCPS conducts universal screening of all 3rd grade students across all schools in the spring.

Here's a deeper look into the concepts and ideas that will be presented to your child throughout the school year.  The SEARCH curriculum is problem solving based and spirals developmentally through five components: perceiving, reasoning, connecting, creating, and evaluating. Each grade level learns about each component at increasingly more complex and abstract levels.

Perceiving is understanding and learning with one’s senses. Concrete spatial and visual activities are provided and students are encouraged to look at objects in many different ways. Pattern recognition and prediction skills develop and are used along with reasoning skills.

Reasoning is using information to find answers that can be proven, are logical, and make sense. Reasoning activities begin at the simple level of recognizing, labeling, classifying, and comparing attributes of concrete objects. As students mature, reasoning activities become more abstract as students use analysis and logic to solve problems.

Connecting means linking information and ideas to see how they fit together. At the basic level, students identify and extend patterns using concrete objects. More abstract problem solving involves interpreting and extending numeric patterns, determining relationships between concepts, and making generalizations. Students make connections between cause and effect 

Creating is putting ideas, information, or objects together in a new or different way. Students learn to be flexible and fluent in their thinking with familiar objects as well as unusual and/or real life problems. Original ideas are elaborated with humor and/or beauty to provide clarity and completeness. Student products may be visual, verbal, spatial, or kinesthetic. 

Evaluating is using information to make a decision. Students begin evaluating by determining what the facts are and what considerations are important in making a decision. Students learn to develop criteria and rank solutions or choices according to the criteria when making decisions.