Category Archives: Learning Opportunities

#63: All About Axolotls

Reading Enrichment

Axolotls are really cool creatures!  These fun little animals are often pink or white and have feathery gills that stick out from their heads. Let’s dive into the amazing world of Axolotls and discover more about their unique traits and habitats!

Spark your thinking!

1. Set up your language arts mini spark recording page: #63: All About Axolotls

2. What do you know about axolotls?

3. Read the species profile page and answer these reflection questions on your recording sheet.

What new information is most interesting to you?

Axolotls are an endangered species. What types of things could be done to help the species survive and thrive?

4.  Did you know that Axolotls have an incredible ability to regenerate? Watch the video below to learn more!  Record 5  details on your recording sheet.

 

5.  Create! Show us what you learned about axolotls in a creative way. Choose from one of the following options.

  1. Social Media Post – Using this templates create a post from the perspective of an Axolotl.
  2. Minecraft Habitat – Design an ideal habitat or underwater playground for the Axolotl using Minecraft. You will need to complete this option at home. Take a photo or screenshot and send to your EY Coordinator so it can be added to your recording page.
  3. PicCollage- Explain the process of regeneration. What other amphibians have the ability to regenerate? Create a PicCollage that shows us what you discovered.

6. Share your language arts mini spark recording page and any other pages you made with your teacher/EY coordinator.

#62: Literary Device Lesson-Simile

Reading Enrichment

Spark your thinking!

1. Set up your language arts mini spark recording page: #62: Literary Device Lesson-Simile

2. What is a simile? Write the official definition of a simile on your recording page

a simile is a noun that means: “a figure of speech involving the comparison of one thing with another thing of a different kind, used to make a description more emphatic or vivid.”

3. Watch this word girl video. Record 3 similes that you hear.

4. Come up with a funny scenario for each simile and write it on your recording page.

Example: as sly as a fox-Hillary was as sly as a fox as she to gingerly placed the fruit bat into her backpack.

  • Easy as ABC
  • Like two peas in a pod
  • Straight as an arrow
  • Wise as an owl

5.  Watch and listen to the book, “My Dog Is As Smelly As Dirty Socks”. Write about your favorite page on your recording page.

 

6. Write a “Simile Me”.

  • First, jot down five words you would use to describe yourself.
  • Use your five words and make comparisons to something else, writing your own version of a “Simile Me”

Here is my example:

1 – busy                                                                                                                                 

2 – creative

3 – hardworking

4 – happy

5 – sleepy

I’m as busy as a timer,

As creative as a stained glass window,

As hardworking as an elephant,

As happy as a well-loved dog,

And as sleepy as a pillow.

7. Use an app of your choice to create a fun illustration/visual of your “Simile Me”

8. Share your language arts mini spark recording page and your final project with your teacher/EY coordinator.

#46: A Raindrop’s Journey

Social Studies Enrichment

Have you ever thought about the journey a raindrop takes? This mini spark shows you that path through the United States that a raindrop will follow to get to the sea.

Spark your thinking!

  1. Set up your social studies mini spark recording page #46: A Raindrop’s Journey
  2. Read these 3 paragraphs. Write a summary of a raindrop’s journey using 5 bullet points.

You may think every drop of rain falling from the sky, or each glass of water you drink, is brand new, but it has always been here, and is a part of the water cycle.  At its most basic, the water cycle is how water continuously moves from the ground to the atmosphere and back again.  As it moves through this cycle, it changes forms.  Water is the only substance that naturally exists in three states on Earth – solid, liquid, and gas.

Over 96% of total global water is in the ocean, so let’s start there.  Energy from the sun causes water on the surface to evaporate into water vapor – a gas.  This invisible vapor rises into the atmosphere, where the air is colder, and condenses into clouds.  Air currents move these clouds all around the earth.

Water drops form in clouds, and the drops then return to the ocean or land as precipitation, often rainfall.   When it rains, the raindrops fall to the ground, and run off into a lake or river, which flows back into the ocean, where it starts the process again.

3. This website allows for you to click anywhere on the map to drop a raindrop and follow its journey to the Gulf of Mexico, the Atlantic or the Pacific Oceans! Once you click, you’ll get a bird’s eye view of the path the raindrop takes!

Try it out! Set your timer for three minutes and spend time exploring the site. At the end of the three minutes, write two sentences about what you noticed about the raindrop’s journey.

4. In the top right corner of your search, you are able to see the actual distances that the raindrop is traveling, and along what path.   Choose a location to drop your raindrop, look at the data in the top right corner, and record all of the waterways and the distances on your recording sheet.

 

 

5. Find 3 spots on the map where the raindrop makes a journey to different ending point: Gulf of Mexico, the Atlantic or the Pacific Oceans. Record these three starting locations on your recording page.

6. Share your social studies mini spark recording page with your teacher/EY coordinator.

#56: Funny Wildlife Photos

Early Enrichment

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.

3. Look at these 3 winning animal photographs. Your job is to write something funny to go along with each photo!

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

Check out the Caption this Badge at the EY Website.

 

#61: Caption This!

Reading Enrichment

Even if a picture is worth a thousand words, it still needs a caption. Captions are easy to write if you begin with the basics.

Spark your thinking!

1. Set up your language arts mini spark recording page: #61: Caption This!

2. Caption:  A caption is text that gives additional information about a picture or illustration. Record this definition on your recording page.

3. Look over this example. Add one more sentence to the caption that includes an adjective.

4. Look over these steps on how to write your own caption and record them on your recording page.

Step 1-Begin by brainstorming Who, What, When, Where, Why and How from the picture and writing down those details.

Step 2- Write a caption that gives these details and some additional information

5. Record this Caption Writing Checklist on your recording page.

  • describe the picture
  • provide additional information
  • written in complete sentences
  • include adjectives and additional details

6. Choose one of these pictures. First, brainstorm on your recording page.  Then, write your own caption your recording page.  Finally, look at the checklist to make sure you did all 4 items.

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

Check out the Caption This! Badge at the EY Website.

 

Teachers: Ask your EY Coordinator for this 65 page resource (PDF), would be great for warms ups and exit tickets to help students practice caption writing!

 

 

#86 Football Roster Math

Math Mini Sparks

There is a plethora of data when it comes to sports!  Whether you’re looking at individual player stats, team rankings, or just want to see the breakdown of a particular game…MATH IS EVERYWHERE IN SPORTS!

Spark your math thinking!

  1. Set up your math mini spark recording page: #86 Football Roster Math
  2. This Mini Spark has you looking at the 24-25 Westside High School Junior Varsity Football Roster.  Download and print a copy of the worksheet and roster by clicking the links below.

Click here for the 24-25 JV roster

Click here for the 24-25 JV problems

3. Add a picture of your finished worksheets to your math mini spark page.

4. Share your math mini spark recording page and your worksheet with your teacher/EY coordinator.

Check out the Roster Math badge at the EY website.

#60: 1 word sentences

Reading Enrichment

Is it possible to make a complete sentence using just one word over and over? Complete this mini spark to find out.

Spark your thinking!

1. Set up your language arts mini spark recording page: #60: 1 word sentences

2. ‘Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo’ is a grammatically correct sentence. How? Emma Bryce explains how this and other one-word sentences illustrate some lexical ambiguities that can turn ordinary words and sentences into mazes that mess with our minds. Record 3 details from the video on your recording sheet.

3. Try figuring out the meaning to these sentences. Record your ideas on your recording sheet.

Police police Police police police police Police police.
Will, will Will will Will Will’s will?
Rose rose to put rose roes on her rows of roses.
If it is it, it is it; if it is it is it, it is.

4. After thinking about the sentences above check out this  guide which will have clues for you and a few more example. Write about your favorite example from this page.

5. To wrap up this mini spark, use this info page to find words to help you create your own silly sentence using one word. Record your sentence of your recording page.

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

#85 Spreadsheets and Mean Absolute Deviation (MAD)

Math Mini Sparks, Uncategorized

Mean Absolute Deviation (MAD) is how far, on average, all data values are from the middle. To find the MAD of the you can follow 3 easy steps:

  1. Find the mean of the values.
  2. Find the distance of each value from that mean (subtract the mean from each value, ignore minus signs which is also the absolute value)
  3. Then find the mean of those distances

For this Math Mini Spark, you’ll be finding the MAD on a spreadsheet.

Spark your math thinking!

  1. Set up your math mini spark recording page: #85 Spreadsheets and MAD
  2.  Calculate the MAD of this data set: 3, 6, 6, 7, 8, 11, 15, 16 
    1. Find the mean of the values.
    2. Find the distance of each value from that mean (subtract the mean from each value, ignore minus signs which is also the absolute value)
    3. Then find the mean of those distances

  3. Look over the first part of this post from Math is Fun that outlines the steps. Make sure that each of the steps you did were correct.
  4.  Make a Copy of this spreadsheet by clicking the link: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1ndcgCZ1EeVcKausxtkmBkONVfCeilbQNE6ukdUCWYk8/copy
  5.  Watch the video and complete the steps shown in the video on your own spreadsheet.

 

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

NOTE:  This mini-spark can be used as 1 spreadsheet lesson for the Spreadsheet Superstar Badge.

 

Social Studies Spark #45: Map for Time Travelers

Social Studies Enrichment

                                                                          Source: IFL Science

The Internet has a new favorite interactive map system!

ORBIS, the Stanford geospatial network model of the Roman world, allows you to check how long it would take you to travel from location to location during Roman times.

It’s customizable too! In the unlikely event that you were transported back to 200 BCE and yet somehow the 4G network traveled back in time with you, thanks to these maps you’d be able to calculate how long it would take you to get from Londinium to Corinthus by ox, or Augusta Treverorum to Alexandria as part of a military march.

As well as time, the map, which is of course based on historical evidence, shows you how much each journey would cost.

“Conventional maps that represent this world as it appears from space signally fail to capture the severe environmental constraints that governed the flows of people, goods and information,” Stanford wrote at the time of the release of the first version of ORBIS. “Cost, rather than distance, is the principal determinant of connectivity.”

We thought we’d have a look at how long it would take us to get from Londinium to Ierusalem, to ask them a few questions about what made them eventually change the I in their name to a J.

We gave the parameters that we would be traveling by donkey (as well as boat where necessary) and during the winter. According to Google, if we floored it and didn’t need things like sleep, we could arrive by car in 52 hours, or a much nicer 6-8 hours by plane. But, we know that that the journey would take a lot longer in Roman times:

“The Fastest journey from Londinium to Ierusalem in January takes 53.5 days, covering 5,433 kilometers [3,375 miles]. Prices in denarii, based on the use of a faster sail ship and a civilian river boat (where applicable), and on these road options:

Per kilogram of wheat (by donkey): 22.74
Per kilogram of wheat (by wagon): 27.45
Per passenger in a carriage: 1897.51″

If you were to select the cheapest route, it would take you 98.4 days to complete a 6,129-kilometer (3,303-mile) journey. However, you would save yourself nearly 1,000 denarii per passenger, and 7 denarii per kilogram of wheat. And is it really a holiday if you aren’t shipping a wagonload of wheat back with you as a souvenir?

Check out the map for yourself, it’s pretty cool to play with!

In the comments below, let us know what you discovered!

#84 Doodling in Math Class

Math Mini Sparks

What?  Did that say DOODLING?  Yes!

Have fun learning about math while doodling from one of my favorite mathematicians/doodlers…Vi Hart!

Spark your math thinking!

  1. Set up your math mini spark recording page: #84 Doodling in Math Class
  2.  Watch both of the Vi Hart videos.
  3. Create a doodle page or ½ page  for each showing what you learned.
  4. Share your math mini spark recording page with your teacher/EY coordinator.