Primary Education Thinking Skills
(PETS)

 

Primary Education Thinking Skills (PETS) is a systematic enrichment thinking skills program for 1st and 2nd grade students.  Its purpose is to help primary aged students develop higher level thinking skills.  PETS follow the taxonomy of thinking skills outlined by Benjamin Bloom, presenting lessons in analysis, synthesis, and evaluation. 



Students are introduced to Dudley the Detective - Deductive Logic, Yolanda the Yarnspinner - Creative Thinking, Isabel the Inventor - Inventive Thinking, Max the Magician - Mental Manipulation of Shapes, Sybil the Scientist - Analytic Thinking, and Jordan the Judge - Evaluative Thinking.  Each character introduces a higher level thinking skill used in his or her job.  Each character guides students through a story and a series of activities to introduce and reinforce their type of thinking.  Imaginative memory triggers are included with each introductory lesson.

 

1st Grade PETS

All 1st grade students participate in the PETS program.  Lessons are set up on a rotating basis.  First, there are two whole class lessons that everyone participates in.  Students exhibiting the skill being practiced are then pulled-out for two small group sessions focusing on that skills.  For example, the first lessons feature Dudley the Detective and deductive logic.  So for weeks one and two, everyone learns about deductive logic.  Then for weeks three and four, small groups of students who exhibited deductive logic thinking skills are pulled out for more in-depth work.

Enrollment in the small groups is fluid.  Attending one pull-out session does not guarantee attendance in all pull-out sessions just as not attending a pull-out session does not guarantee that the student will never attend a pull-out session.  

2nd Grade PETS

Students scoring at or between the 83rd percentile and the 96th on a nationally normed ability test will be served in the 2nd grade PETS Program.  Students attend PETS once a week for 30 minutes.  The 2nd grade PETS curriculum takes students deeper into the thinking skills that were studied in the 1st grade PETS program. 

PETS concludes at the end of 2nd grade.  Students must participate in the testing process again and achieve a qualifying score in order to continue receiving Gifted & Talented services.