Interesting Choices

Zulu Children in Africa- An Interesting Choice of Topics

For the past two weeks, I had the pleasure of working with a terrific group of fourth grade gifted children at Bascomb Elementary School in Georgia.  They were enthusiastic to learn about interest projects and downright thrilled when they discovered each would get to choose his or her own topic.  I am always amazed by students' choices because of their varied subjects and how much their interests reveal about them.  To understand my point, here is a sampling of some recent interest project topics:

Neil Peart - A nine-year-old girl really chose the drummer for the rock band Rush as her topic.  Very interesting!

MIT - A boy thinking ahead to college chose the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

African Americans Living in Africa - One confused boy actually chose this and I had no idea what he meant.  After our one-on-one meeting, I discovered he wanted to research an African tribe, but didn't know the name of any and so wrote down African Americans living in Africa.  I tactfully explained that if they are from Africa and live in Africa, they are just Africans- not Americans.  I suggested several tribes and he chose the Zulu.

As I continue to share my curriculum with more schools, I will share more INTERESTING CHOICES.