1. Set up your math mini spark recording page: #105: Shared Birthdays
2. Watch this video. Explain the birthday paradox to someone who has not heard of it before. Use at least 3 sentences.
4. Carefully, read this article at Wonderopolis. Take the wonderword challenge and the did you get it quiz after reading.
5. Advanced option-Do this lesson at Math is Fun. Record details as you work through the lesson.
The concept of this math mini spark is straightforward. The probability of an event happening is the number of times you expect that event to happen out of many tries. Probabilities always fall between 0 and 1.1. Set up your math mini spark recording page: #104: Probability
2. Make a chart like this on your recording page.
| Event | Probability→ Fraction | Probability→Decimal |
| P (yellow) | ||
| P (green) | ||
| P (not red) | ||
| P (green or orange) | ||
| P (blue) |
3.Watch this intro video. Pause the video @ 3:40 and record the probability of each of the events on the chart on your recording page. You can use a calculator for the decimals.
4. Copy this chart in your notebook. 
5. Number your recording page from 1-5. Read each example and record if it is experimental or theoretical. Scroll down to the bottom of this post to check your work. Add a star if it is correct or add in the correct answer.
Probability Puzzles: Theoretical or Experimental?
6. Share your math mini spark recording page with your teacher/EY coordinator.
Combinatorics is a branch of mathematics which is about counting – and we will discover many exciting examples of “things” you can count. You can use combinatorics to calculate the “total number of possible outcomes”. 1. Set up your math mini spark recording page: #103: Combinatorics
To do this mini spark you need to know a little about factorials. Steps 2 and 3 will review them for you.
2. The factorial function (symbol: !) says to multiply all whole numbers from our chosen number down to 1. Example: 4! = 4 × 3 × 2 × 1 = 24.
Complete these two problems so that they look similar to the example:
Example: 6! = 6 x 5 x 4 × 3 × 2 × 1 = 720
5! =
9! =
Scroll to the bottom of this post to see if you are correct. If you got it correct, add a star. Add the correct answer if needed.
3. Watch this short video that show you how to divide factorials. Don’t worry. It isn’t hard. Do the problems with the teacher on your recording page.
4. Study the first two columns of this teaching page. Write the type of the formulas and the formulas on your recording page.
5. Watch this video. Do the first two math problems with the teacher on your recording page. Try the last problem by yourself on your recording page. The answer is at the end of this post.
Advanced: Check out this teaching page. Each of the sections has a mini lesson, a practice problem, and a solution. Read each lesson and try the problem on your recording page. Check your work. If you complete this, talk with your EY teacher about using this as a badge option.
6. Share your math mini spark recording page with your teacher/EY coordinator
5! = 5 x 4 × 3 × 2 × 1 = 120
9! = 9 x 8 x 7 x 6 x 5 x 4 × 3 × 2 × 1 = 362,880
50 people are in a race. How many ways can gold, silver, and bronze be awarded?
Students in grades K-12 from Nebraska and Iowa are invited to submit works of poetry on the theme of Neighborhood. Selected poems will be set to music and premiered during a public concert in May, 2025.
The Opera Omaha Poetry & Music Project is a statewide program run in partnership with the Nebraska Writers Collective to amplify the voices of youth poets, both urban and rural, across Nebraska and Iowa. Last year, over a hundred poems were submitted to the Poetry & Music Project. These poems varied in topic, but one thing was very plain to see and that is the young writers in our region have both immense talent and unique perspectives.
This year, we want to see poems that explore how even though we all may be Nebraskans or Iowans, where we come from still has a profound effect on who we are. We want to see poems about your neighborhood, we want you to think deeply about what community means to you and how it is formed. We know that it doesn’t matter if you grew up in Beatrice or Benson, McCook or Millard, Cedar Bluffs of Council Bluffs, we are only ever a collection of the places that we reside in, and our stories of these places help paint the full picture of what it means to be from the Midwest.
The following prompts will help you explore your neighborhood and hopefully inspire you to write something that a composer can bring to life and shine light on wherever it is that you call home.
A community is a group of people living in the same place and having common experiences. We want you to bring the people of your community alive. Make a list of all the people that come to mind when you think about “Your Neighborhood” even if you don’t know them that well. Who is well known and who isn’t? How do these people interact with you on the day to day? How are these people the same as you and how are they different? Explore all of these things and share the stories of the people in your vicinity and share their stories.
If you get stuck maybe look at this poem “Neighbors” by James Crews in which the poet chronicles all of the people he is likely to encounter while talking a stroll through his community. Think about the people in your neighborhood and write a little about what you know about them. Explore how these people are the same and how they are different or how they fit or don’t fit into your neighborhood. Tell the good, bad, strange, and otherwise funny things that you notice about these people.
Or consider “Neighbours” by Benjamin Zephaniah where he compares and contrasts what people think about him when they first see him and the things that people come to understand once they get to know him. Who is unlike you in your neighborhood? How are they unlike you? What is something you previously thought about them that you no longer believe? What is something that you think people would miss about this person upon meeting them? Set up a comparing and contrasting poem for one or multiple people around you.
One of the things that makes your neighborhood distinguishable, regardless of how big or small, is the landmarks. The corners, and parks, and playgrounds, and stores you grew up going to largely shape who you are and are full of nostalgia because many of them have been around for longer than we have been. Think about all the places you hang out or that people congregate in your neighborhood. Write a poem that is a love letter to these places. You can share their history or what they mean to you and your family/friends. You can use your own specific memories to create a timeline of this place or just pick one specific moment to write about but make sure you describe the space and its meaning in as much detail as possible.
If you need inspiration check out “Good Hotdogs” by Sandra Cisneros. She vividly remembers her favorite hotdog shop in town and how she would frequent it as often as possible. She describes the hot dog in detail but also, she describes the shop and how this food memory still resonates with her all those years later. Do you have a favorite restaurant? Or Snack shop? Or vending machine? Or place to take your food to eat it? Write a “five senses” poem using all five senses to describe what this place looks, feels, smells, tastes, and sounds like.
Or perhaps this “What It Looks Like To Us and the Words We Use” by U.S. Poet Laureate Ada Limon which explores not just an individual place but rather the open space we occupy. Think of the nature around your neighborhood; think of the trees, the grass, the parks, the skies, the clouds, all thing things that occupy this place. Think about these things influence how your neighborhood looks or how you’ve interacted with your space. Explore what is missing or how the passage of time changes these things from season to season or year to year.
Sometimes our neighborhoods can feel like they are too big to navigate and sometimes they are too small, and we want bigger adventures. We take souvenirs home from vacation and put them on our shelves to remind us of these times. Think of your neighborhood like a vacation, step outside how you see it every day and think about the things someone would want to collect from it if they came to visit for the first time. What item or items best represent where you are from? Would it be a souvenir cup? A random rock? A trinket from a store that you know well? Pick an item and write a poem from its perspective of your neighborhood. Think about how this object will travel to see new places but it will always remember where it came from.
The poem “POT (MUSEUM ARCHIVE“) from Shamshad Khan describes a piece of pottery in a museum and the author tries to explore its back story and how it must have gotten from wherever it was from to here. She uses the pot to describe so many people’s stories of relocation and how moving from place to place changes us. If you can’t decide what to write, pick something from your neighborhood and explore how it got there like Shamshad does in this poem.
Please reach out to the EY coordinator in your building if you would like any assistance with your poem or with your submission.
3. Watch this video about the story spine. Write the story spine prompts on your recording page.
4. Use a story you have just read or a story suggested by your teacher. Use the story spine template and fill it in for your story.
5. OPTIONAL: Create your own story idea using the story spine prompts.
6. Share your language arts mini spark recording page with your teacher/EY coordinator.
Check out the Pixar in a Box badge on the EY website
1. Set up your language arts mini spark recording page: #81: Origin Myths-Fire
2. Read these two paragraphs.
Native American or Indigenous peoples of North America do not share a single, unified body of mythology. Each of the many different tribal groups has developed their own stories about the creation of the world, the appearance of the first people, the place of humans in the universe, and the lives and deeds of deities and heroes.
Despite the great variety of Native American mythologies, certain common mythic themes, characters, and stories can be found in many of the cultures. Underlying all the myths is the idea that spiritual forces can be sensed through the natural world—including clouds, winds, plants, and animals. Many stories explain how the actions of gods, heroes, and ancestors gave the earth its present form.
On your recording sheet answer these two questions. What is the purpose of myths? What are some common elements in myths?
3. You will use a chart for the step 4. You can create one on your recording page, print out this PDF, or make your own digital copy to add to your digital recording sheet.
4. Listen to or Read these 4 myths about how fire was created. Fill out your chart for each story.
The First Fire – Cherokee
Coyote Brings Fire to the People – Shoshone
Fire Race- Karuk
How Beaver Stole Fire – Nez Percé
5. For the last task, decide which two origin stories that are the most similar. On your recording page record the titles. Make a bulleted list of 5 ways the stories are the same and then list 5 ways that the stories have differences.
6. Share your language arts mini spark recording page with your teacher/EY coordinator.
Source: https://kids.nationalgeographic.com/celebrations/article/day-of-the-dead
1. Set up your social studies spark recording page: #61: Dia de los Muertos
2. Read the following information and record 8-10 pieces of information on your recording page.
Day of the Dead combines the ancient Aztec custom of celebrating ancestors with All Souls’ Day, a holiday that Spanish invaders brought to Mexico starting in the early 1500s. The holiday, which is celebrated mostly in Mexico on November 1st and 2nd, is like a family reunion—except dead ancestors are the guests of honor. Day of the Dead is a joyful time that helps people remember the deceased and celebrate their memory.
First, people set up a candlelit altar in their homes so spirits can find their way back to their relatives. The altar also offers some of the favorite foods of the deceased—just in case they get hungry. Items that were important to the ancestors when they were alive, such as a favorite book or musical instrument, are placed on the altar as well.
Then it’s off to the graveyard for a big party. Families bring a huge feast to eat while they clean tombstones, sing songs, and talk to their ancestors. Parents might even introduce a baby to a grandparent who died before the baby was born.
And don’t forget the skeletons. During Day of the Dead, life-size papier-mâché skeletons and miniature plastic or clay skeletons are everywhere. Why? Mexicans honor their ancestors on Day of the Dead, but they’re also reminding themselves that death is just a part of life. Hanging out with skeletons reminds people that one day they will be skeletons—but not for a very long time!
The skeletons are posed doing all sorts of wacky things, such as playing guitar, taking a bath, or making tortillas. Apparently people aren’t the only ones who get to have fun on Day of the Dead!
3. Look over the pictures at National Geographic Kids. Choose one of the pictures and describe it in detail using 3-5 sentences.
4. Some of you may have seen the Disney movie, Coco! Click on the video below to see how Coco honors Dia de los Muertos. Watch the clip carefully. Write down 3 things you liked about the clip. Explain why you liked each thing. Write 2 suggestions for how the clip could be improved.
5. Share your social studies mini spark recording page and visual with your teacher/EY coordinator.
Dinosaurs are a group of reptiles that have lived on Earth for about 245 million years. In 1842, the English naturalist Sir Richard Owen coined the term Dinosauria, derived from the Greek deinos, meaning “fearfully great,” and sauros, meaning “lizard.” Dinosaur fossils have been found on all seven continents!
Did you know that dinosaurs are related to birds? Or that the biggest dinosaurs had hollow bones?
There are all kinds of fun facts about dinosaurs! And, there are so many types of dinosaurs scientists are learning about! If you like to read more facts about dinosaurs, click here: https://kids.nationalgeographic.com/animals/prehistoric
Or, if you’d rather watch and learn fun facts about dinosaurs, click on the video!
Did you that there’s a digital badge about dinosaurs?
It’s called….Dinosaur Discoveries!
Click on the link below to print out and complete this badge! Turn in your work to your classroom or EY teacher!
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1e-YLDluyvUPg11Np-VBTA2dnHCxpj3Jf/view?usp=sharing
“Hidden Figures” is a biographical book about four African American women who worked as mathematicians at NASA during the Space Race and played pivotal roles in the Apollo program. Their contributions were essential in advancing America’s space exploration efforts, particularly during the historic Apollo missions to the Moon1. Set up your social studies mini spark recording page: #60: Hidden Figures
2. Record the names of the mathematicians you will learn about in this mini spark on your recording page: Dorothy Vaughan, Mary Jackson, Katherine Johnson, and Christine Darden.
3. Listen to Hidden Figures: The True Story of Four Black Women and the Space Race. For each of these dates you hear in the story, pause the story and write a phrase about that date.
1943, 1945, 1951, 1953, (1950s), 1957, 1961, 1962, 1967, 1969
4. In 3-5 explain how Dorothy Vaughan, Mary Jackson, Katherine Johnson, and Christine Darden participated in some of NASA’s greatest successes. Use details from the story. Add your response to your recording page.
5. Read more about Katherine Johnson at this Wonderopolis page.
6. Share your social studies mini spark recording page with your teacher/EY coordinator.
Check out the Mission to Mars badge and Space traveler badge at the EY Website.
Friendly numbers are a special type of number that have a unique connection with other numbers. To understand this relationship, we will add up all of the factors of a number and then we look at the index of a number and compare it to the index of another number. Check it out in this mini spark.1. Set up your math mini spark recording page: #102: Friendly Numbers
2. Review factors. Read this paragraph and when you are done write the factors of the number 40 on your recording sheet.
Factors are numbers you multiply together to get another number. A factor of a number divides the number evenly, with no remainder. What are all the factors of the number 8? 1 2 4 8 What are all the factors of the number 24? 1 2 3 4 6 8 12 24
3. Scroll down to the bottom of this page to see if you have the correct numbers for step 2. If you do put a star on your page. If you do not, add the correct numbers.
4. Look over these 6 questions before your start watching the video.
5. Share your math mini spark recording page with your teacher/EY coordinator
Answers for step 3
Factors of 40 are 1, 2, 4, 5, 8, 10, 20, 40