All posts by Katie Sindt

Early Enrichment #61: Visit Dry Tortugas National Park!

Almost 70 miles west of Key West lies Dry Tortugas National Park. This 100-square mile park is mostly open water with seven small islands.  You can only get there by boat or seaplane! The park is known all over the world as the home of magnificent Fort Jefferson, beautiful blue waters, lots of coral reefs and marine life, and the tons of bird life that visit the area!

Click the link below to go on a virtual field trip to this amazing place!

https://artsandculture.withgoogle.com/en-us/national-parks-service/dry-tortugas/near-little-africa-tour

Once there, click the “Play” button. Make sure you have headphones so you can listen to the narrator! Click and drag to explore! Dive the Windjammer Shipwreck! Swim through a coral reef!

Comment below: What was your favorite part of this field trip?

Click HERE if you want to learn even more!

Social Studies Spark #52: A Virtual Tour of The Acropolis!

What is the Acropolis of Athens, Greece?

Ancient cities were often built around a fortress on top of a hill. When a city spread to the area below, the high part came to be called the acropolis, which means “city at the top” in Greek. The best-known acropolis is in Athens, Greece. It was designated a World Heritage site by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in 1987.

The buildings of the Athens Acropolis were made mostly of white marble. Parts of some of the buildings, including a temple called the Erechtheum, are still standing today. The Erechtheum had a porch with marble columns in the shape of female figures.

The most famous surviving building is the Parthenon. The Parthenon was built almost 2,500 years ago and was dedicated to the goddess, Athena. Athens was later ruled by Christians who made the Parthenon a church. In the 1400s, Turkish forces took control of the Acropolis and made the Parthenon an Islamic mosque. In 1687, during a war, some gunpowder stored there exploded, destroying the middle of the building.

You can take a virtual field trip to the amazingly historic place! Click the link below to explore parts of all of The Acropolis! Click “Begin” and then note the color coding to click on your chosen spot on the map. Click “go” and have a look around! Make sure to read the descriptions and learn all about this awesome place without actually going there yourself!

https://www.acropolisvirtualtour.gr/

Source: https://kids.britannica.com/kids/article/Acropolis/351394#:~:text=Ancient%20cities%20were%20often%20built,acropolis%20is%20in%20Athens%2C%20Greece.

Social Studies Spark #51: Ancient Adventures Creative Writing Contest!

Which era or person will get your creativity flowing? Watch the video above and get  inspired to write with history!
Take the excitement of history and mix it with your imagination to create ancient adventures!
You can pick any person, place or event from history to inspire your mini-saga, a story told in just 100 words that must have a beginning, a middle & an ending. It MUST be original! You can be inspired by other stories, but your mini-saga must be written in your own words. HERE are some examples of other students’ mini-sagas! Go check them out!
From discovering a pharaoh’s tomb, or a soldier in the trenches, to being a president or an explorer it’s a great way to tie in creative writing with history to have a bit of fun, and to create an original short story.
Write your mini-saga on GOOGLE DOCS and then share it with your school’s EY teacher. Share your doc by MONDAY, FEBRUARY 20TH!!
Use THIS LINK to download a graphic organizer to help you get started!
Click HERE and HERE for more information!
We can’t wait to read your stories! Good luck!

Early Enrichment #60: What Are You Thankful For?

Next week is Thanksgiving! As we get ready, let’s take a look at some fun facts about the holiday:

  • The first Thanksgiving was celebrated in 1621 over a three-day harvest festival. It included 50 Pilgrims and 90 Wampanoag Indians. It is believed by historians that only five women were present.
  • Turkey wasn’t on the menu at the first Thanksgiving. Venison, duck, goose, oysters, lobster, eel, and fish were likely served, alongside pumpkins and cranberries (but not pumpkin pie or cranberry sauce!).
  • President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed Thanksgiving a national holiday on October 3rd, 1863. Sarah Joseph Hale, the woman who wrote “Mary Had A Little Lamb”, convinced him to make Thanksgiving a national holiday after writing him letters for 17 years!
  • There are 4 towns in the United States named “Turkey”. They can be found in Arizona, Texas, North Carolina, and Louisiana.
  • The average number of calories consumed on Thanksgiving is 4, 500!
  • The tradition of football on Thanksgiving began in 1876 with a game between Yale and Princeton. The first NFL games were played on Thanksgiving in 1920.

Thanksgiving is a time to be THANKFUL! Watch a video below to see what Kid President is thankful for!

Comment below to let us know what YOU’RE thankful for!!

Social Studies Spark #50: All About Thanksgiving!

Next week is Thanksgiving! Did you know that Thanksgiving always falls on a Thursday? Thanksgiving has been an annual holiday in the United States since 1863. However, the First Thanksgiving was celebrated in 1621. Here are five things we know about the First Thanksgiving!

1. More than 100 people attended
The Wampanoag Indians who attended the first Thanksgiving had occupied the land for thousands of years and were key to the survival of the colonists during the first year they arrived in 1620, according to the National Museum of the American Indian. After the Pilgrims successfully harvested their first crops in the fall of 1621, at least 140 people gathered to eat and partake in games, historians say. No one knows exactly what prompted the two groups to dine together, but there were at least 90 native men and 50 Englishmen present. They most likely ran races and shot at marks as forms of entertainment, Wall said. The English likely ate off of tables, while the native people dined on the ground.

2. They ate for three days
The festivities went on for three days, according to primary accounts. The nearest village of native Wampanoag people traveled on foot for about two days to attend. It took them so long to get there that it didn’t make sense for them to turn around and go home after the meal.

3. Deer topped the menu
Venison headlined the meal, although there was a healthy selection of fowl and fish, according to the Pilgrim Hall Museum, which cited writings by Plymouth leaders Edward Winslow and William Bradford. There was a “great store of wild turkeys” to be eaten, as well as ducks and geese, wrote Bradford, who was the governor. Winslow said Massasoit, the leader of the Wampanoag people, contributed five deer to the dinner.

4. It wasn’t called Thanksgiving
There’s no evidence that the 1621 feast was called Thanksgiving, and the event was not repeated for at least a decade, experts say. Still, it is said to be the inspiration behind the now traditional annual gathering and a testament to the cooperation of two groups of people.

5. The peace was short-lived
Early European colonizers and Native Americans lived in peace through a symbiotic relationship for about 10 years until thousands of additional settlers arrived. Up to 25,000 Englishmen landed in the New World between 1630 and 1642, after a plague drastically cut the native population by what’s believed to be more than half. The arrival of new settlers prompted a fight for land and rising animosity. War exploded in 1675, years after Massasoit and Bradford died and power fell to their successors. Many Native Americans have long marked Thanksgiving as a day of somber remembrance.

Click the link below to play a game that explores Wampanoag life prior to European settlement and the year leading up to the 1621 harvest feast, today known as the “First Thanksgiving.” The game investigates the interactions between the Wampanoag people of Patuxet and the earliest colonists known as the Pilgrims by exposing players to archaeological artifacts from the museum’s collections, primary source documents, and oral stories told from generation to generation.

CLICK HERE TO EXPLORE AND PLAY! 

Source: https://time.com/4577425/thanksgiving-2016-true-story/

Crazy Creatures Writing Contest!

Watch the video above & get excited to participate in the Crazy Creatures Writing Contest! All students in grades K – 6 can participate!
To enter this contest, you must write a MINI-SAGA featuring a crazy creature! What is a mini-saga? A mini-saga is a story told in UP TO 100 words that must have a beginning, a middle & an ending. It MUST be original! You can be inspired by other stories, but your mini-saga must be written in your own words.
Write your mini-saga on GOOGLE DOCS and then share it with your school’s EY teacher. Share your doc by MONDAY, DECEMBER 19TH!!
Use THIS LINK to download a graphic organizer to help you get started!
Here’s a WORD BANK that might help you, too!
Click HERE for more information!  GOOD LUCK!

The Scholastic (Try Your) Hardest Math Problem Contest!! Grades 5 – 8!

The 2022 Contest is now OPEN!

ABOUT THE CONTEST

The Hardest Math Problem Student Contest is an annual competition presented by Scholastic, The Actuarial Foundation, and the New York Life Foundation that challenges grades 6–8 students to solve multistep, grade-appropriate math problems with real-world situations and engaging characters. Plus, 5th graders are eligible to participate by reaching to a higher grade level! This year’s theme is food access.

Enter Challenge 1! – Click HERE to download the entry packet!

Challenge #1 is due on or before December 5th!

Puzzle It Out!

Writing a Math Argument

Practice, practice, practice explaining clear math reasoning so you can show other people how you found your solution!

Why is this important? Many people use math in
their jobs. For example, an actuary uses complicated
math to help businesses make decisions, so they
have to be able to clearly explain their calculations
to people who aren’t math experts.

Click HERE to practice your math arguments!

Click HERE & scroll all the way to the bottom to view past questions & answer keys!

**Turn your completed entry form into your EY teacher at your school on or before December 5th!** 

 

 

Early Enrichment #59: Fables vs. Fairy Tales

Click on the image above to watch a video about the differences and similarities of Fables and Fairy Tales.

Fables are stories that are passed down, with a good lesson or moral to be learned, and are about animals, plants, or forces of nature that are humanlike. Fairy tales are stories that often involve magical characters, have good and evil characters, and generally start with “once upon a time.”

Click on the video below to hear a story. After you’ve listened to the story, scroll down to answer a couple of questions.

Answer the following questions in the comments below (don’t forget to include your first name and last initial and your school):

  1. Was this a fable or a fairy tale?
  2. How do you know? Use reasons from the 1st video.

Social Studies Spark #49: The Museum of the Fur Trade

This summer, my family & I took a trip to western Nebraska and visited the Museum of the Fur Trade in Chadron, Nebraska! I learned so many things about the Fur Trade!

If you’re not familiar with the fur trade, watch this quick video:

https://www.pbs.org/video/fur-trade-aqnxgy/

The Museum of the Fur Trade was created in Chadron, Nebraska because it is located on the original James Bordeaux trading post, which is an important historical site. This trading post (pictured above) was established in the fall of 1837 as a site for the American Fur Company to conduct business with the Native Americans who spent their winters in the area.

The trading post was reconstructed on its original foundation in 1956 & formally opened to the public later that year.

Learn more about the Museum of the Fur Trade by watching this video:

Finally, go check out the museum itself by clicking this link: https://www.furtrade.org/

What history did you learn about this summer?

Insert your experiences in the comments below!

2022-23 EY Challenge #1

What Melts in the Sun?

This summer was HOT!! There were even stories about eggs frying on a sidewalk. This makes you think….what ordinary items might melt in the sun?

Task: Ask your parent’s permission first!! Then, find a muffin tin and 12 ordinary household items that make you ask….”Does this melt in the sun?”

Write those items down on a piece of paper and then divide that paper into 2 columns: 1 column for predicting and the other column will be your results. It can look like this:

Choose a day where the temperature is at least 85 degrees. Put your muffin tin with the items in the full sun and wait at least 20 minutes.

I know it’s hard to wait 20 minutes, but you can do it!!! After the 20 minutes is up, go check on your results! Fill in the column with the results of your experiment.

Now, for the most important step:  CLEAN UP AND PUT THINGS BACK!

Finally, take a picture of your paper with your predictions & results and email it to your EY teacher!

We can’t wait to see it!

Lesson adapted from: https://frugalfun4boys.com/simple-science-experiment-for-kids-what-melts-in-the-sun/