Category Archives: Learning Opportunities

#36: Alexander Hamilton

Social Studies Enrichment

If you watched “Hamilton” on Disney+, or are lucky enough to have seen it in-person, you know that Alexander Hamilton was an important founding father who probably doesn’t get enough credit for his role in our history.

Spark your thinking!

1. Set up your social studies mini spark recording page: #36: Alexander Hamilton

2.  Watch this video to learn more about Hamilton in history. Record 4 of the roles he played outlined in the video.

3. Read this article. There are information sections listed about Alexander Hamilton. Choose 3 of them and them on your recording sheet.

4. Go back to the article and study the two graphics.  Make a tiny timeline on your recording page showing 5 dates from his life or make an argument as to why there should be a dedicated monument honoring Alexander Hamilton.

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

#75 Make Anything into Math

Learning Opportunities, Math Mini Sparks

You know, you can think of almost anything as a math problem!

Spark your math thinking!

1. Set up your math mini spark recording page: #75 Make Anything into Math

2. Check out this video
~Ms. Fibonacci from Math Curse https://vimeo.com/44966140

3. Take a snapshot of anything that reminds you of a math concept/problem.

4. Create a pic collage or another visual of your choice with your picture and a math problem goes along it. Create an answer key as well.

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

Early Enrichment #45 Improve Our School

Early Enrichment, Early Enrichment Badges

Design Challenge: Improve Our School

You will need to collect a small quantity of three types of materials .

Here are the items you will need

Your job is to imagine and build a prototype of something that will make our school a better place.

A prototype is a model that represents an idea. It does not have to be built to scale or actually work.

The purpose of the activity is to dream and imagine new solutions. 

You only have 10 minutes of work time. 

Afterward your timer goes off, make a pic collage and present your prototype and describe what they chose to build and why it will help our school.  Share your idea with your teacher. 

Post idea: Ann Gadzikowski

#49: Descriptive Writing

Reading Enrichment, Uncategorized

The primary purpose of descriptive writing is to describe a person, place or thing in such a way that a picture is formed in the reader’s mind. Capturing an event through descriptive writing involves paying close attention to the details by using all of your five senses.

Spark your thinking!

1. Set up your language arts mini spark recording page: #49: Descriptive Writing

2. Watch this Ted-Ed Video. Watch this video. Record the sentence from Hurricane Fever on your recording sheet. Explain how the words are chosen to help the reader connect with the story with their senses.

3. In the video, the narrator describes the characteristics of descriptive writing and gives several examples. Read these 4 reminders and summarize each one on your recording sheet.

  •  Good descriptive writing includes many vivid sensory details that paint a picture and appeals to all of the reader’s senses of sight, hearing, touch, smell and taste when appropriate. Descriptive writing may also paint pictures of the feelings the person, place or thing invokes in the writer.
  • Good descriptive writing often makes use of figurative language such as analogies, similes and metaphors to help paint the picture in the reader’s mind.
  • Good descriptive writing uses precise language. General adjectives, nouns, and passive verbs do not have a place in good descriptive writing. Use specific adjectives and nouns and strong action verbs to give life to the picture you are painting in the reader’s mind.
  • Good descriptive writing is organized. Some ways to organize descriptive writing include: chronological (time), spatial (location), and order of importance. When describing a person, you might begin with a physical description, followed by how that person thinks, feels and acts.

4. Give it a try! For the following sentences, rewrite it using rich descriptive language. Keep the five senses in mind. You can use the following and rewrite each OR use one as a prompt and write a descriptive paragraph or stort story. Record all work on your recording sheet.

  • Sight – The girls went to the city park.
  • Sound/Hearing – We went to the stadium to watch our favorite team.
  • Smell – The waitress brought our food to the table.
  • Taste – My grandma made us cookies.
  • Touch – I walked to school this morning not knowing they had called a snow day.

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

#35: Olympic Medal Designer

Full STEAM Ahead, Mini Challenges

Every two years, a selection committee creates the medals that symbolize triumph at that year’s Olympic Games. They must adhere to certain guidelines while also having the creative freedom to design medals that reflect the true essence of the Olympics.

Spark your math thinking!

1. Set up your math mini spark recording page: #35: Olympic Medal Designer

2. Watch this video and record 5 ideas about the process of creating medals for the Olympics hosted in Japan on your recording sheet.

3. View the history of Olympic Medals.  Pick 3 different years and compare the medals from those years (designer, composition, diameter, and mint).  Display your findings in a creative manner and add a picture to your recording sheet.

4. Imagine you are part of the Olympic Medal Design committee! Design your own Olympic medal that pays tribute to the world’s top athletes in a distinctive manner. Answer these questions on your recording sheet

  • Which Olympic Games will your medal represent — an upcoming event or a fictional one?
  • Will you concentrate on the Summer or Winter Olympics?
  • Will you maintain the classic design features on one side of your medal, or will you opt for innovative concepts?
  • What figures, locations, or symbols will you choose to celebrate on the front of your medal?

5. Do some planning and research. Add ideas to your recording sheet

6. Design your medal on paper or digitally. Add a picture of your design to your recording page.

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

Idea adapted from https://kid-museum.org/maker-playground/olympic-medals/

#34: Animal Robots

Full STEAM Ahead, Uncategorized,

While the word “robot” can conjure up an image of a cyborg human with lights for eyes and super powers, animal-inspired robots are accomplishing tasks in all kinds of medical, military and rescue work. These anibots perform tasks that would be difficult and often dangerous for mere mortals, or even human droids, to accomplish

Spark your thinking!

1. Set up your STEAM mini spark recording page: #34: Animal Robots

2.   Pneupard is a robot that is designed to be agile and fast like cheetahs and other cats. Pneupard has artificial muscles made from rubber tubing that are covered in nylon and filled with air. The pneumatic muscles have lifelike skills that allow the bot to replicate the range of motion and strength of a real cat!

3. On your recording sheet define Pneupard.

4. Watch this video about Pneupard. Record 5 details from the video on your recording page.

5. Answer the following questions.

  • How are these engineers using robots to learn about nature?
  • Why are cheetah’s ultra complex to recreate?
  • What did the engineers learn when the were in the park
  • What animal would you choose to recreate as a robot? What part or parts of this animal would be ultra complex to recreate?

6. One modern robot flier is called ornithopter. Ornithopter looks and flies much like a real bird. One sweet little ornithopter is used as a nano-spybot, equipped with a tiny camera.

7. On your recording sheet define ornithopter.

8. Watch this video about Ornithopter and write a summary of the video on your recording page.

9. On your recording page, answer these questions.

  • What materials are used to make this robot?
  • What other material come to mind that might work?
  • Have you ever seen a servo motor? If not where else might it be used? If you have seen one, what was its purpose?
  • What is visually interesting to you about this robot? What woud you change?

10. Share your STEAM mini spark recording page with your teacher/EY coordinator.

#48: Literary Device Lesson-Flashback

Reading Enrichment

For this mini-spark, we will focus on the literary device Flashback. Flashbacks in literature are when the narrator goes back in time for a specific scene or chapter in order to give more context for the story. Oftentimes, we see flashbacks in books where the past greatly impacts the present or as a way to start a story off on an interesting note.

Spark your thinking!

1. Set up your language arts mini spark recording page: #48: Literary Device Lesson-Flashback

2. Record this definition on your recording page- A flashback is when the author reveals something that has happened to a character prior to the time the story is taking place. In a flashback, present action in a story is temporarily interrupted so the reader can witness past events; it usually takes the form of memories, dreams, or a story within the story.

3. Watch this clip from Ratatouille where food critic, Anton Ego flashes back to his childhood. Write 2 sentence explaining the flashback.

4. Think about what Anton Ego experienced while having a flashback. Write about a time your tasted or smelled something and experienced a flashback.

Note: If you can’t think of anything, your can write about Anton’s experience in the video clip. What did we learn about in this flashback? How did it help develop his character?

5. Complete this flashback activity. You can print it or put your responses on your recording sheet.

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

#47: Blackout Poetry

Reading Enrichment

Blackout poetry is when you take a piece of text from a book, newspaper, or magazine and blackout words to create your very own poetry

Spark your thinking!

1. Set up your language arts mini spark recording page: #47: Blackout Poetry

2. A blackout poem is when a poet takes a marker (usually black marker/Sharpie) to already established text–like in a newspaper–and starts redacting words until a poem is formed. The key thing with a blackout poem is that the text AND redacted text form a sort of visual poem. When only the chosen words are visible, a brand new story is created!  Define blackout poetry on your recording page.

 

 

 

3. Blackout poems can be created using the pages of old books or even articles cut from yesterday’s newspaper. Using the pages of an existing text, blackout poets isolate then piece together single words or short phrases from these texts to create lyrical masterpieces. Where can you find a page to use for a blackout poem?

4. Blackout poems, as I’m sure you can imagine, run the gamut from absurd to sublime because all of the words are already there on the page, but the randomness is all part of the fun!  We truly believe a poem lives within the words and lines of any page, and encourage you to uncover it. Creating a blackout poem involves steps that are all about deconstruction and then reconstruction.  Look up both of those words and write the meaning on your recording page. 

5. Get started on your poem. Talk with your teacher about finding a book page/newspaper/magazine page to use for this project. Gather other art supplies-pencil, markers, and so on.

Step 1: Scan (or cut out) the page or article first before reading it completely. Keep an eye out for an anchor word as you scan. An anchor word is one word on the page that stands out to you because it is packed and loaded with meaning and significance.  Starting with an anchor word is important because it helps you to imagine possible themes and topics for your poem.

Step 2: Now read the page of text in its entirety. Use a pencil to lightly circle any words that connect to the anchor word and resonate with you. Resonant words might be expressive or evocative, but for whatever reason, these are the words on the page that stick with you. Avoid circling more than three words in a row.

Step 3: List all of the circled words on a separate piece of paper. List the words in the order that they appear on the page of text from top to bottom, left to right. The words you use for the final poem will remain in this order so it doesn’t confuse the reader.

Step 4: Select words, without changing their order on the list, and piece them together to create the lines of a poem. You can eliminate parts of words, especially any endings, if it helps to keep the meaning of the poem clear. Try different possibilities for your poem before selecting the lines for your final poem. If you are stuck during this step, return back to the original page of text. The right word you are searching for could be there waiting for you.

Step 5: Return to the page of text and circle only the words you selected for the final poem.  Remember to also erase the circles around any words you will not be using.

Step 6: Add an illustration or design to the page of text that connects to your poem. Be very careful not to draw over the circled words you selected for your final poem!

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

 

Lesson idea from: https://www.scholastic.com/teachers/blog-posts/john-depasquale/blackout-poetry/

Check out the blackout poetry badge at the EY website. You can use your poem from this mini spark as task 6 on your badge if you want!

#46: CALLING ALL READERS

Reading Enrichment, Uncategorized

Are you an enthusiastic reader who likes to read current event articles from a variety of sources? Check out…………DOGO NEWS!

Spark your thinking!

1. Set up your language arts mini spark recording page: #46: CALLING ALL READERS

2. DOGO NEWS consists of daily news sites and includes text, photos, graphics, and audio and/or video materials prepared about current events, social studies science, and more! The main topics are at the top of the page.

3. Go to DOGO News and explore. Pick out 3 articles to read and complete step 4 for each one

4. For each article you choose to read follow these steps.

  • Put the name of the article on your recording sheet.
  • Record several of the bolded words from the article.
  • If there are videos included on the page, watch at least 1 and write one sentence about it
  • If there are maps, graphs, or infographics take the time to look at them and write one sentence about each one.
  • Summarize the article and type a question you have after reading the article

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

 

 

#35: The History of Pandemics

Social Studies Enrichment

The word “Pandemic” is a pretty scary word. It almost seems like it is something that no one else ever has before. But, that isn’t true. Pandemics have existed throughout history.

Spark your thinking!

1. Set up your social studies mini spark recording page: #35: The History of Pandemics

2. This a group of mask-wearing citizens, Locust Avenue, California, during the flu pandemic of 1918

Photograph: Raymond Coyne/Courtesy of Lucretia Little History Room, Mill Valley Public Library. © The Annual Dipsea Race.

Read about this pandemic at Kiddle. Look up and record the definitions of these words.

Influenza

Pandemic

Cytokine storm

Epidemiological

Antiviral

3. Scroll to the very bottom of this post and look over the definitions. Check with those that you wrote to make sure you were on track.

4. To learn about the history of pandemics, read the Time For Kids article.  Make a mini timeline with the pandemic dates from the article.

5. Read this information page about the bubonic plague that took hold of London in 1665. What caused the plague? When was the cause of the plague discovered? What were the two ways that the plague finally came to an end?

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

Influenza: a highly contagious viral infection that affects the respiratory system, causing symptoms such as fever, cough, and body aches.

Pandemic: an outbreak of a disease that occurs over a wide geographic area and affects a large proportion of the population.

Cytokine storm: an excessive immune response in which the body releases too many cytokines, leading to inflammation and damage to tissues and organs.

Epidemiological: relating to the study of how diseases spread and can be controlled within populations.

Antiviral: a type of medication that specifically targets viruses to treat viral infections, preventing them from multiplying and spreading in the body.