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!

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. 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 then reconstruction. 

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!

Source: https://www.scholastic.com/teachers/blog-posts/john-depasquale/blackout-poetry/

Did you know that Khan Academy just released the first version of reading comprehension practice on Khan Academy? And, it is grouped by grade level:

• 2nd grade
• 3rd grade
• 4th grade
• 5th grade
• 6th grade
• 7th grade
• 8th grade

Khan Academy recommends starting at your grade level and doing 1-2 practice sets per day (or 10 practice sets per week). This should take about 10-20 minutes per day.  If you find it difficult, completely okay to start at an earlier grade level. Likewise, if you find the passages and questions to be easy, feel free to move to higher grade levels. 

Khan Academy also has a grammar section: https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/grammar

Khan recommends starting by taking the course challenge a few times to figure out what you know and don’t know.

This is a great way to practice reading comprehension & grammar while you’re learning at home!  Challenge yourselves! Enjoy!

Source: https://www.ducksters.com/biography/martin_luther_king_jr.php

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

• Occupation: Civil Rights Leader
• Born: January 15, 1929 in Atlanta, GA
• Died: April 4, 1968 in Memphis, TN
• Best known for: Advancing the Civil Rights Movement and his “I Have a Dream” speech

Biography:

Martin Luther King, Jr. was a civil rights activist in the 1950s and 1960s. He led non-violent protests to fight for the rights of all people including African Americans. He hoped that America and the world could become a colorblind society where race would not impact a person’s civil rights. He is considered one of the great orators of modern times, and his speeches still inspire many to this day.

Where did Dr. King grow up?

Martin Luther King, Jr. was born in Atlanta, GA on January 15, 1929. He went to Booker T. Washington High School. He was so smart that he skipped two grades in high school. He started his college education at Morehouse College at the young age of fifteen. After getting his degree in sociology from Morehouse, Martin got a divinity degree from Crozer Seminary and then got his doctor’s degree in theology from Boston University.

Martin’s dad was a preacher which inspired Martin to pursue the ministry. He had a younger brother and an older sister. In 1953 he married Coretta Scott. Later, they would have four children including Yolanda, Martin, Dexter, and Bernice.

How did he get involved in civil rights?

In his first major civil rights action, Martin Luther King, Jr. led the Montgomery Bus Boycott. This started when Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a bus to a white man. She was arrested and spent the night in jail. As a result, Martin helped to organize a boycott of the public transportation system in Montgomery. The boycott lasted for over a year. It was very tense at times. Martin was arrested and his house was bombed. In the end, however, Martin prevailed and segregation on the Montgomery buses came to an end.

When did Dr. King give his famous “I Have a Dream” speech?

In 1963, Martin Luther King, Jr. helped to organize the famous “March on Washington”. Over 250,000 people attended this march in an effort to show the importance of civil rights legislation. Some of the issues the march hoped to accomplish included an end to segregation in public schools, protection from police abuse, and to get laws passed that would prevent discrimination in employment.

It was at this march where Martin gave his “I Have a Dream” speech. This speech has become one of the most famous speeches in history. The March on Washington was a great success. The Civil Rights Act was passed a year later in 1964.

How did he die?

Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated on April 4, 1968 in Memphis, TN. While standing on the balcony of his hotel, he was shot by James Earl Ray.

Interesting Facts about Martin Luther King, Jr.

• Dr. King was the youngest person to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964.
• Martin Luther King, Jr. Day is a national holiday.
• At the Atlanta premier of the movie Gone with the Wind, Martin sang with his church choir.
• There are over 730 streets in the United States named after Martin Luther King, Jr.
• One of his main influences was Mohandas Gandhi, who taught people to protest in a non-violent manner.
• He was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal and the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
• The name on his original birth certificate is Michael King. This was a mistake, however. He was supposed to be named after his father who was named for Martin Luther, the leader of the Christian reformation movement.
• He is often referred to by his initials MLK.

Think you’ve got it? Take a quiz to see how much you learned about this great man!

With winter comes cold, snow, and ice! Sometimes, that cold, snow, and ice can lead to a snow day for students! What do you like to do on a snow day?
Go to Wonderopolis to read the article, “What’s the Best Thing to do on a Snow Day?”. Then, in the comments below, write what you like to do best on a snow day.

After you’re done with Wonderopolis, click on the video at the bottom to listen and read along with The Cat in the Hat to see what Sally and her brother do on a rainy day!

Halloween’s origins date back to the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain (pronounced sow-in). The Celts, who lived 2,000 years ago, mostly in the area that is now Ireland, the United Kingdom and northern France, celebrated their new year on November 1.

This day marked the end of summer and the harvest and the beginning of the dark, cold winter, a time of year that was often associated with human death. Celts believed that on the night before the new year, the boundary between the worlds of the living and the dead became blurred. On the night of October 31 they celebrated Samhain, when it was believed that the ghosts of the dead returned to earth.

In addition to causing trouble and damaging crops, Celts thought that the presence of the otherworldly spirits made it easier for the Druids, or Celtic priests, to make predictions about the future. For a people entirely dependent on the volatile natural world, these prophecies were an important source of comfort during the long, dark winter.

To commemorate the event, Druids built huge sacred bonfires, where the people gathered to burn crops and animals as sacrifices to the Celtic deities. During the celebration, the Celts wore costumes, typically consisting of animal heads and skins, and attempted to tell each other’s fortunes.

When the celebration was over, they re-lit their hearth fires, which they had extinguished earlier that evening, from the sacred bonfire to help protect them during the coming winter.

By 43 A.D., the Roman Empire had conquered the majority of Celtic territory. In the course of the 400 years that they ruled the Celtic lands, two festivals of Roman origin were combined with the traditional Celtic celebration of Samhain.

The first was Feralia, a day in late October when the Romans traditionally commemorated the passing of the dead. The second was a day to honor Pomona, the Roman goddess of fruit and trees. The symbol of Pomona is the apple, and the incorporation of this celebration into Samhain probably explains the tradition of bobbing for apples that is practiced today on Halloween.

Based on this information, you can see that traditions cover centuries and adapt to the changing times.

What Halloween or Fall traditions does your family practice?
Share in the comments below!

Source: https://www.history.com/topics/halloween/history-of-halloween

With apple-picking adventures happening this month in orchards around and in Omaha, you might hear about the legend of Johnny Appleseed.

Who was this man? And, did he really exist? Read below to find out!

Johnny Appleseed was a folk hero and pioneer apple farmer in the 1800’s. There really was a Johnny Appleseed and his real name was John Chapman. He was born in Leominster, Massachusetts in 1774. His dream was to produce so many apples that no one would ever go hungry. Although legend paints a picture of Johnny as a dreamy wanderer, planting apple seeds throughout the countryside, research reveal him to be a careful, organized businessman, who over a period of nearly fifty years, bought and sold tracts of land and developed thousands of productive apple trees.

His adventures began in 1792, when John was eighteen years old. He and his eleven-year-old half brother, Nathaniel, headed west, following the steady stream of immigrants. In his early twenties, John began traveling alone, which is how he spent the rest of his life. Nathaniel stayed behind to farm with their father, who had also immigrated west.

John continued moving west to Pennsylvania. From there he traveled into the Ohio Valley country and later, Indiana. He kept ahead of the settlements and each year planted apple seeds farther west. He always carried a leather bag filled with apple seeds he collected for free from cider mills. Legend says he was constantly planting them in open places in the forests, along the roadways and by the streams. However, research suggests he created numerous nurseries by carefully selecting the perfect planting spot, fencing it in with fallen trees and logs, bushes and vines, sowing the seeds and returning at regular intervals to repair the fence, tend the ground and sell the trees. He soon was known as the “apple seed man” and later he became known only as “Johnny Appleseed”.

Over the years, his frequent visits to the settlements were looked forward to and no cabin door was ever closed to him. To the men and women he was a news carrier; to the children he was a friend. He was also very religious and preached to people along the way. His favorite book was his Bible. He made friends with many Indian tribes and was known to have learned many Indian languages well enough to converse. He lived on food provided by nature and he never killed animals.

Though appearing poor, he was not a poor man. He accumulated more cash than he needed by selling his apple trees and tracts of land. He never used banks and relied instead on an elaborate system of burying his money. He preferred to barter and trade food or clothing rather than collect money for his trees. It was more important a settler plant a tree than pay him for it.

Johnny Appleseed is described as a man of medium height, blue eyes, light-brown hair, slender, wiry and alert. Folklore has also described him as “funny looking” because of the way he dressed. It is said he traded apple trees for settler’s cast-off clothing. He was known to give the better clothing to people he felt needed it more than he. This could be why legend says he wore only coffee sacks with holes cut out for his arms as clothing. He rarely wore shoes, even during the cold of winter. It is said he could walk over the ice and snow barefooted and that the skin was so thick on his feet that even a rattlesnake couldn’t bite through it. Another legend says he wore a mush pot on his head as a hat. This is unlikely since pots of the time were made of heavy copper or iron, but it is more likely he wore someone else’s castoff hat or made his own out of cardboard. He rarely sought shelter in a house, since he preferred to sleep on bare ground in the open forest with his feet to a small fire.

In 1842, Johnny made his last trip back to Ohio after spending 50 years walking throughout the countryside. While there, he moved into the home of Nathaniel, the half brother with whom he began his remarkable journey. On March 18, 1845, he died of pneumonia at the age of seventy-one. He was visiting his friend, William Worth, in Indiana. Legend says it was the only time he was sick in his whole life. He is buried in an unmarked grave near Fort Wayne, Indiana.

Click the link below to print out a crossword puzzle with words from this story. Turn it into your school’s EY teacher when you are finished!

johnnyappleseed_printout

Enjoy riding your bike? Fiona Kolbinger from Germany sure does! She just won the ultra-endurance Transcontinental Race on August 6, 2019! The cancer researcher from Germany outrode 225 men and 39 women to complete the approximately 2,485 mile-race from Bulgaria to France in 10 days, two hours, and 48 minutes. Even more impressive, Kolbinger crossed the finish line almost 11 hours ahead of the second-place winner, Ben Davies of the United Kingdom.

Watch the video below to find out more about the Transcontinental Race, then click on the link below the video to read the entire article about Fiona’s amazing win!

https://www.dogonews.com/2019/8/12/fiona-kolbinger-is-the-first-female-cyclist-to-win-the-grueling-transcontinental-race

Finally, play the game at the bottom of the article!

In the comments below, write a note to Fiona, including what you found most impressive about her win!

For many years, the heart was a mystery.  What did it do?  What was it there for?  Let’s learn all about this muscle.

Video

This TEDed lesson will help you investigate how the heart keeps you alive.

Reading

 Years ago, people thought emotions came from the heart!  Read this article to find out more about how the heart works.

Show What You Learned

 Choose one of these prompts and respond with 3-5 sentences.

What are some ways to keep your heart healthy?

What are the four chambers of the heart called, and what does each chamber do?

Why was it so difficult for scientists and doctors to figure out what the heart was for?

Take It a Step Further

Create a visual explaining how the heart works.  Include as many details as possible.  Please share this project with your teacher.

Learn about the interesting Upside-Down Catfish by completing the following…

Start by watching a video about them:

https://www.kqed.org/science/1922038/the-mystery-of-the-upside-down-catfish

Show what you learned by choosing three of the prompts to complete.  Post your response as a comment or email your response to the EY coordinator at your building.

• Using many details, explain why an Upside-Down Catfish swims upside-down.
• How is this fish camoflaged?
• What part of the video was most interesting to you and why?
• What other questions do you have about Upside-Down Catfish?

Take it a step further by conducting research to find another animal that has camoflage.  What part of the animal is camoflaged? How does this help the animal?