Mensa for Kids Lesson Plans

Intensities (sometimes called Overexcitabilities) provide a useful tool to analyze content because they resonate with many learners, particularly the gifted. Inviting students to recognize themselves in content deepens understanding and provides motivation for stronger analysis.

As this topic is generally neglected in textbooks, this unit creates a useful introduction to American Literature that compliments the non-fiction and short story pieces normally found in the curricular resources.

The Fantasticks is the longest running musical in history, yet most students are unfamiliar with it. An examination of the play affords students the opportunity to explore it in both a scholarly and artistic way, and it builds their cultural awareness.

Although it’s a space object, it’s more accessible to children because of its dependability and proximity. Through this short unit, children will develop a deeper understanding of the moon.

Students develop their own storytelling talents, apply the techniques of storytelling, create storytelling guides, and perform a story for an audience. Each lesson is quite short, and they can easily be combined.

Understanding shapes will enable students to be more in tune to the world around them and see the connections between objects, as well as being better able to appreciate artistic works.

Fibonacci numbers are an interesting mathematical idea. Although not normally taught in the school curriculum, particularly in lower grades, the prevalence of their appearance in nature and the ease of understanding them makes them an excellent principle for elementary-age children to study.

Meta-cognition (thinking about thinking) often fascinates gifted learners, and quotations are an accessible and time-effective way to introduce this in the classroom. Quotes lend themselves easily to critical thinking skills, and they are as useful in the home as conversation starters as well.

Strong readers make the "movie" of a book in their minds. This lesson guides children through the fundamentals of format required to write an actual movie screenplay.

This guide is designed to help you become a strong book reviewer, a reader who can read a book and then cook up a review designed to whet the reading appetites of other book lovers.

Advertisers spend billions of dollars every year targeting kids. By learning the techniques marketers use to try to get them to buy products, youth can become more informed consumers of products and information in general.

Genetics is a subject that can occupy an entire lifetime of study. This lesson plan will introduce children to the basics of heredity in an approachable way.

This lesson explores some fundamentals of probability and its application in the "real" world.

In addition to being a core requirement of science standards across the country, the study of ecosystems is interesting to students, creating an arena in which complex ideas become accessible to learners.

The study of hurricanes rewards the young scholar with the ability to understand more about the forces that shape our world.

The heroic archetype features prominently in literary analysis at the high school level. A clear understanding of, and the ability to manipulate and apply, this idea is critical to any approach to world literature for the high school student.

Color and color theory form the foundation of art as well as design. Gifted children are often tuned in to the aesthetic nature of things at an early age and can appreciate the nuances of color, as well as the way colors are blended, tinted and shaded.

The Writer's Toolbox is a collection of resources for students and educators that will assist in the writing process. The toolbox consists of six components.

This is an entire unit on literary elements that should be taught over an extended period of time. It is most effective broken down and connected to literature the students are reading.

A study of the geography and issues of Africa prepare students to better understand its richness and significance. This lesson is designed to give students a fundamental understanding of the physical and human geography of Africa, as well as the opportunity to explore issues facing it.