Tongue twisters are a great way to practice and improve pronunciation and fluency. They’re not just for kids, but are also used by actors, politicians, and public speakers who want to sound clear when speaking.

Spark your thinking!

1.  Set up your Early Enrichment Mini Spark recording page: #41: Spooky Halloween Tongue Twisters

2. Look over this list of Spooky Halloween Tongue Twisters.  Write down you favorite one.

• Creepy crawly critters crawl through creepy crawly craters.
• Dracula digs dreary, dark dungeons.
• Ghostly ghouls gather gleefully to golf on ghostly golf courses.
• Gobbling gargoyles gobbled gobbling goblins.
• Horribly hoarse hoot owls hoot howls of horror in Halloween haunted houses.
• If big, black bats could blow bubbles, how big of bubbles would big black bats blow?
• If two witches would watch two watches, which witch would watch which watch?
• Professional Pumpkin Pickers are prone to pick the plumpest pumpkins.
• Transylvanian Tree Trimmers are trained to trim the tallest Transylvanian trees.
• Several spooky, slimy spiders sulkily spun by the sea.
• The ochre ogre ogled the poker.
• Which witch wished which wicked wish?

3. Learn to say your tongue twister. Set you timer for 3 minutes and practice reading it aloud over and over. Start slowly. Work on saying each word carefully and clearly. Work up to being able to say your tongue twister quickly.  As an adult to listen to you and initial your recording page.

4. Now that you’re an expert at saying one, write your own alliterative tongue twister.

• Pick a consonant.
• Write down as many words as you can think of that start with that letter. The more alike they sound, the better.
• Make up a sentence that uses as many of your words as possible.

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

You may have heard the nursery rhyme “Mary Had A Little Lamb,” but you probably didn’t know this was based on true story! Learn about the history behind this nursery rhyme in this early enrichment mini spark.

Spark your thinking!

1.  Set up your Early Enrichment Mini Spark recording page: #40: Mary DID Have a Little Lamb

2.  Sheep are amazing farm animals that have been helping humans for thousands of years! Let’s learn some cool facts about these woolly friends.

What Makes Sheep Special

• Sheep have excellent memory and can remember up to 50 different sheep faces
• Baby sheep are called lambs
• Female sheep are called ewes
• Male sheep are called rams
• A group of sheep is called a flock

Sheep Superpowers

• They have rectangular pupils that help them see almost all the way around them
• Their wool grows forever and needs to be cut (sheared) regularly
• One sheep can produce 2-30 pounds of wool each year
• Sheep have great balance and can climb mountains
• They can smell water from far away

How Sheep Help Us

• Wool for warm clothes
• Milk for cheese
• Meat for food
• Help keep grass short in fields
• Their wool can be used in carpets and rugs

Fun Facts

• Sheep don’t have top front teeth
• They can make at least 40 different sounds
• Most sheep live 10-12 years
• Sheep are very social and like to stay in groups
• They can recognize human faces and voices

Did You Know?
Sheep are one of the first animals that humans kept as farm animals. They have been helping people for over 10,000 years!

3. The nursery rhyme, Mary Had a Little Lamb, which was was first published in 1830, is based on an actual incident involving Mary Elizabeth Sawyer, a woman born in 1806 on a farm in Sterling, Massachusetts. Listen to the original nursery rhyme. On your recording page write about what your reaction would be if there was a lamb in your classroom.

4. Read the history about Mary and her lamb.

In 1815, Mary, then nine, was helping her father with farm chores when they discovered a sickly newborn lamb in the sheep pen that had been abandoned by its mother. After a lot of pleading, Mary was allowed to keep the animal, although her father didn’t hold out much hope for its survival. Against the odds, Mary managed to nurse the lamb back to health. And, yes, the lamb would indeed follow her wherever she went and did have a fleece as white as snow.

One day, Mary was heading to school with her brother when the lamb began following them. The siblings apparently weren’t trying very hard to prevent the lamb from tagging along, even hauling it over a large stone fence they had to cross to get to Redstone School, the one-room schoolhouse they attended. Once there, Mary secreted her pet under her desk and covered her with a blanket. But when Mary was called to the front of the class to recite her lessons, the lamb popped out of its hiding place and, much to Mary’s chagrin and to the merriment of her classmates, came loping up the aisle after her. The lamb was shooed out, where it then waited outside until Mary took her home during lunch. The next day, John Roulstone, a student a year or two older, handed Mary a piece of paper with a poem he’d written about the previous day’s events. You know the words (except maybe for the 3rd verse):

Mary had a little lamb;
Its fleece was white as snow;
And everywhere that Mary went,
The lamb was sure to go.

It followed her to school one day,
Which was against the rule;
It made the children laugh and play
To see a lamb at school.

And so the teacher turned it out;
But still it lingered near,
And waited patiently about
Till Mary did appear.

5. Your task is to write your version of a 4th stanza. Your poem should be 4 lines long. Try to model the rhyming pattern.

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

Spark your thinking!

1.  Set up your Early Enrichment Mini Spark recording page: #39:Hello, Baby Panda!

2. Baby Pandas are so cute!! Read this fact page about about a baby panda.  Write a description of a baby panda on your recording page.

3.  Watch this video about pandas. What are the important differences between pandas and other types of bears? Add this to your recording page.

4. Bamboo is a type of grass. It can grow as tall as a tree and can look more like forest than grassland. Read more about bamboo at Britacanna Kids.   Look for these three words while you are reading: culms,  rhizome, and scaffolding. Write the meaning of these three words on your recording page.

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

There are so many cool facts about sharks to learn.  There are also so many rules for sharks to follow at school. What!? Sharks at school? Get out your notebook and dive into this mini shark lesson.

Spark your thinking!

1. Set up your Science Mini Spark recording page: #37: A Shark at School
2. Read this article and answer these questions. If the link does not work you can read the article here.

• How many teeth do sharks have?
• What happens when sharks lose teeth?
• How quickly can sharks replace teeth?

 3. Listen to the book Clark the Shark. Write down all of the rhymes that Clark creates in your notebook.

You should have at least 4 of Clark’s rhymes written in your notebook when you are done.

 4.  Create 3, 4 or 5 of your OWN rhymes that would teach Clark how to behave at school and follow school rules.

5. Share your early enrichment mini spark recording page with your teacher or EY Coordinator.

Check out the Shark Study Badge at the EY website.

Did you know that you are not the only person that gets to do enrichment activities?

Animals do too!

At our very own Henry Doorly Zoo, zookeepers make fun activities for animals to do! Hear from our zookeepers to learn about animal enrichment.

https://safeshare.tv/x/Kb01iML5SQI (Link to video above)

 Checkout some of the fun activities animals get to do at the zoo.

It may look like they are just playing or eating, but these activities actually challenge the animals brains and get them moving around. Make a ChatterPix to share what you learned about an animal and what they do for enrichment.

Share with your teacher and the EY Coordinator at your school.

The Quirkles are 26 imaginary scientists that love to read and to experiment. Learn about each scientist, and what they love to learn about by clicking the photo below. 

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Then try some experiments!

Colorful Caroline’s Exploding Colors

Wanda the Melting Witch

Kitchen Chem. Kal’s Armpit Fudge

Mary Motion’s Plummeting Egg

Ciao! 

This week, we are head off to look for some adventure in ITALY!

Learn more about the country by watching the following three videos (in playlist)

Check out these wonders and articles about the country: 

1. Who Invented Pizza?
2. What is Gelato?
3. Italy – TIME for Kids
4. Italian Numbers

Share what you have learned by commenting below! 

Creative writing is a type of story telling where the author’s purpose is to:

• entertain
• foster artistic expression
• explore the functions and values of writing
• stimulate imagination
• clarify thinking
• search for identity
• learn to read and write

This week, we are going to be practicing our creative writing skills, by telling some important Thanksgiving stories. Choose a prompt below and get creative! 

Disguise a Turkey

How to Cook a Turkey  

Turkey Trot