Thinking Outside the Bean: Demonstrating the Process of Integration With Conceptual Themes Using the Mexican Jumping Bean

Have you ever had a unit or activity you wanted to implement in your classroom, but it didn t fit the theme of your grade level or school? What did you do? Did you file it away and save it for next year? Did you use the activity anyway and not tie it to the theme? Or, did you modify the activity and bring it in as a part of the theme?

This unit takes a look at incorporating ideas that arise during the school year into existing universal themes. This book contains more than 100 activities to do with Mexican jumping beans. Activities include experiments, poetry, art, music, and more! All activities are based on the universal concepts of wonders, patterns, changes, relationships, systems, and structures.

Debbie Keiser is author or coauthor of more than two dozen books, including Solving the Research Puzzle, Earth Central, Ph.D.: Doctor of Sciences, and several titles in the popular Differentiated Curriculum series. She was the cofounder of former publishing house, McGee-Keiser Academic Enrichment Programs, based in Plano, TX.

Brenda McGee is an experienced, award-winning teacher and published writer. She has taught in public and private schools in kindergarten through eighth grade. She was the cofounder of former publishing house, McGee-Keiser Academic Enrichment Programs, based in Plano, TX. She is the author of several previous books, two of which have won awards for outstanding curricula for gifted and talented students from the National Association for Gifted Children.

Mary Hennenfent is a full-time gifted educator in the Francis Howell School District in St. Charles, MO. She has 23 years of classroom experience; 14 years in science and 9 years in gifted education. Hennenfent received her master's degree from Lindenwood University and her Ed.D. from California Coast University. Hennenfent is active in science fairs at the regional and international levels. She also speaks at state and national gifted conferences. She loves reading, traveling, and all things Disney. She resides with her husband, Greg, and her daughter, Samantha, in O'Fallon, MO.

Charles Nusinov has been a school administrator for more than 5 years working with students and teachers in grades K–8. He has worked at integrating math curriculum across the other core areas and focused on the success of high-achieving students. Currently, he is on a pilot committee of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg School District in Charlotte, NC, to bring inquiry-based standard math curriculum into the school's elementary classrooms. Nusinov was a math teacher for grades 3–12. He has taught basic math skills through AP Geometry in both public and charter schools. He assisted in bringing math into the community with Saturday events in the Mecklenburg Math Club, and assisted in the University of North Carolina Middle Grades Math research and development opportunities with the North Carolina Department of Instruction. His classroom time led him to win the North Carolina Presidential Award for Mathematics Teaching, NCTM Teacher of the Year, and the NCPTA Educator of the Year. During his time teaching, an opportunity arose to edit and write math curriculum for gifted learners. Nusinov has edited and published more than a dozen pieces of work to inspire teachers to make students reach further.

Sarah Wolfinsohn is coauthor of Thinking Outside the Bean: All You Ever Wanted to Know About Mexican Jumping Beans and More and several titles in Prufrock Press' Differentiated Curriculum and Multiage Curriculum series.

Angie Harrelson is the coauthor of Ph.D.: Doctor of Sciences, Thinking Outside the Bean: All You Ever Wanted to Know About Mexican Jumping Beans and More, and several titles in Prufrock Press' Differentiated Curriculum and Multiage Curriculum series.