In January, we celebrate the life and work of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. If you could change something about the world, what would you change?

Spark your thinking!

1.  Set up your Early Enrichment Mini Spark recording page: #61: Martin Luther King, Jr.

2. Read these informational points. On your recording sheet record all of the bold words.

• Martin Luther King Jr.’s father was a pastor at the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia.
• Martin was a very smart student and earned several university degrees.
• He wanted to be a minister, and he gave his first sermon at his dad’s church when he was just 18 years old.
• In December 1955, Rosa Parks, a Black woman, was arrested in Montgomery, Alabama, for not giving up her bus seat to a white man.
• Martin Luther King Jr. became the president of the Montgomery Improvement Association, which organized a bus boycott, where people stopped using the buses to make a change.
• The bus boycott lasted 381 days, and in the end, the U.S. Supreme Court decided that segregation was not allowed anymore.
• Martin believed in peaceful protests, but he faced many dangers, including having his house bombed and being arrested multiple times. Sadly, he was shot and killed at the age of 39 in Memphis, Tennessee.
• His famous speech, “I Have A Dream,” was heard by 250,000 people, and now Martin Luther King Jr. Day is celebrated as a public holiday in the USA on the third Monday of January.

3. Watch Kid President tell the story of Martin Luther King, Jr.  On your recording page, tell us how will you celebrate and honor Dr. King.

4. Share your Early Enrichment Mini Spark recording page with your teacher or EY Coordinator.

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.”

Spark your thinking!

1. Set up your early enrichment mini spark recording page #59: Fables vs. Fairy Tales

2. Watch a video about the differences and similarities of Fables and Fairy Tales. On your recording page, write an example of a fairy tale and an example of a fable.

3. Click on the video below to hear a story.  Record the name of the story on your recording page.

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

5. Share your early enrichment mini spark recording page with your teacher/EY coordinator.

Check out the Folktale Fun Badge at the EY Website.

Jesse Owens, son of a sharecropper and grandson of a slave, achieved what no Olympian before him had accomplished.

Spark your thinking!

1. Set up your early enrichment mini spark recording page #58: Who was Jesse Owens?

2. Read this information and make a mini timeline. You can print this timeline or make your own on your recording page.

Who was Jesse Owens?  Track-and-field athlete Jesse Owens won four gold medals at

the 1936 Olympic Games. His achievements were important for himself and for many other people at the time. The Games were held in Berlin, Germany. Nazi leader Adolf Hitler was in power there. Nazi banners draped the sports field. The Nazis believed white athletes were best. But Owens proved that they were wrong.

James Cleveland Owens was born in Oakville, Alabama, on September 12, 1913. His family later moved to Cleveland, Ohio, in search of better opportunities.

Jesse became a track star at a young age. In 1928 he set track records in the high jump and the running broad jump (long jump). In 1933, while he was in high school, he broke three other records. He then went to Ohio State University.

In the 1936 Olympics Owens won gold medals for the running broad jump, the 100- and 200-meter races, and the 4 × 100-meter team relay. He also set new Olympic and world records.

Owens graduated from college in 1937 and worked for the Illinois Athletic Commission. He later got involved in guidance activities for young boys. He also made goodwill visits to countries in Asia for the U.S. government. Owens died in Phoenix, Arizona, on March 31, 1980.

3. To learn more about Jesse Owens, watch the video below.  Record 1 idea you would like to remember, 2 words to describe Jessie, and 3 facts.

4. What is the most important thing you learned about Jesse Owens? Add this to your recording sheet.

5. Share your Early Enrichment mini spark recording page with your teacher/EY coordinator.

Halloween only comes once a year.  It is sad, except that you probably have a lot of candy at home to cheer you up for a few weeks! For this early enrichment mini spark you are going to sort your Halloween candy in different ways! Talk with an adult to see if you are allowed to try out this project.

Spark your thinking!

1. Set up your early enrichment mini spark recording page #57: Halloween Candy Sorting

2. Watch this video to remind you how to set up a bar graph. On your recording sheet make a tiny bar graph as practice.

3. Decide how you would like to sort your candy. Look at the choices and record your decision on your recording page.

• size
• type
• beginning letter
• color of wrapper
• size (big and small or small, medium, large)
• chewy/crunchy
• chocolate/not chocolate
• like/not like

4. Sort your candy and take a picture.

5. Create a graph of your sort on your recording page. Use this graph as a guide.

6. Share your Early Enrichment mini spark recording page with your teacher/EY coordinator.

Did you know that there are awards for funny photographs of wildlife? The free competition, open to wildlife photography experts and beginners, celebrates the funniness of our natural world and highlights what we need to do to protect it. From a surprised otter to an angry turtle, Comedy Wildlife’s photographs bring a smile to everyone’s face.

Spark your thinking!

1.  Set up your Early Enrichment Mini Spark recording page #56: Funny Wildlife Photos

2.  Visit the site and browse through the winning pictures. Choose 3 favorites. On your recording page describe each one with ONLY 3 words.

Before you share a book with a friend, it helps to share a quick, ‘handy’ book review. Learn how in this mini spark.

Spark your thinking!

1. Set up your mini spark recording page: #59: 1 hand book review

2. Read over these instructions and write down the 5 sentence starters on your recording page.

3. Choose a book that you have recently read and enjoyed. Write the title on your recording page.

4. Open this sheet and read it. You can print it if you want. You will use this as a guide to writing your own.

5. Create your own script on your recording page.

6. Choose at least two people and read your 1-hand book review to them.

7. Share your early enrichment mini spark recording page with your teacher/EY coordinator.

A trip to the zoo becomes a magical unicorn quest in this colorful picture book.

Spark your thinking!

1. Set up your early enrichment mini spark recording page: #53: How to Catch a Unicorn

2. Listen to the book How to Catch a Unicorn. On your recording page, write the name of the trap idea you liked the most from the book and the one you liked the least.

3. On your recording page, make a drawing of your own plan for a unicorn trap.

4. OPTIONAL: Design a unicorn-Include a description about where it live, what it looks like, what it eats, and its powers. Include a picture of your unicorn in its habitat. Make a pic collage about your unicorn and its features.

5. Share your language arts mini spark recording page with your teacher/EY coordinator.