Category Archives: Uncategorized

Early Enrichment #60: What Are You Thankful For?

November 18, 2022Early Enrichment, UncategorizedKatie Sindt

Next week is Thanksgiving! As we get ready, let’s take a look at some fun facts about the holiday:

The first Thanksgiving was celebrated in 1621 over a three-day harvest festival. It included 50 Pilgrims and 90 Wampanoag Indians. It is believed by historians that only five women were present.
Turkey wasn’t on the menu at the first Thanksgiving. Venison, duck, goose, oysters, lobster, eel, and fish were likely served, alongside pumpkins and cranberries (but not pumpkin pie or cranberry sauce!).
President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed Thanksgiving a national holiday on October 3rd, 1863. Sarah Joseph Hale, the woman who wrote “Mary Had A Little Lamb”, convinced him to make Thanksgiving a national holiday after writing him letters for 17 years!
There are 4 towns in the United States named “Turkey”. They can be found in Arizona, Texas, North Carolina, and Louisiana.
The average number of calories consumed on Thanksgiving is 4, 500!
The tradition of football on Thanksgiving began in 1876 with a game between Yale and Princeton. The first NFL games were played on Thanksgiving in 1920.

Thanksgiving is a time to be THANKFUL! Watch a video below to see what Kid President is thankful for!

Comment below to let us know what YOU’RE thankful for!!

2022-23 Challenge #3

November 1, 2022Current Challenge, Uncategorizedlspady

It’s Fall Y’All and when I think of Fall, I think of FOOTBALL!

For this challenge, you will need to…

Build football goal posts out of materials you have around your house.
Fold a paper football (instructions linked below)
Design an experiment, create a competition, or come up with your own original idea to use what you built. Your project should include collecting some sort of data and analyzing it.
Share your project with your EY Coordinator.

Paper Folding Football Instructions: https://www.instructables.com/How-To-Make-A-Paper-Football/

Football Image Source: https://openclipart.org/detail/102853/football

Thinking Cap Quiz Bowl 7th & 8th Grade

March 28, 2022MS Learning Opportunities, Uncategorizedlspady

When: Friday, April 8 at 1:30 pm

Where: PAC at WMS

If you are interested in participating, please email Dr. Spady at spady.lynn @ westside66.net

image source: https://pixabay.com/vectors/buzzer-hand-button-press-ringing-158285/

Battle of the Books 2022-Volunteers Needed March 18 & 19

March 6, 2022MS Learning Opportunities, Uncategorizedlspady

Please click on the link below and sign up!

https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10c0e4caeaf28a6f94-battle6

2021-22 EY Challenge #5

November 26, 2021Current Challenge, Uncategorizedlspady

Get ready for Computer Science Education (CS Ed) Week!

CS Ed Week is December 6-12 and it is an annual event to inspire students to learn about computer science, advocate for equity, and celebrate the contributions of students, teachers, and partners in the CS field. https://www.csedweek.org/

Scroll to the bottom of https://www.csedweek.org/ to learn about the computer science careers of a robotocist, laser designer, data scientist and more! Make a pic collage showing what you learned.
Check out the BAM! Bitsbox coder badge at the EY website. You can also code the Submarine Explorer app in Bitsbox using these instructions: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1at8h00BAjAFPCxigFrE2y6peUF2vN8ib/view?usp=sharing
Try poem art at Code.org ( https://code.org/poetry) or Hello World (https://code.org/helloworld)

If you want to save your progress:

1. Sign in with google @ code. org

2. Go to course catalog on the top left

3. Scroll down and click on hour of code view more choices.

4. Take a screenshot of your certificate when your project is complete.

Language Arts Mini Spark #66: How to use a the semicolon

November 2, 2021Reading Enrichment, Uncategorizedlspady

It may seem like the semicolon is struggling with an identity crisis. It looks like a comma combined with a period. Maybe that’s why we toss these punctuation marks around like grammatical confetti; we’re confused about how to use them properly. This lesson offers some clarity and best practices for using the semicolon.

Watch the video. Pause the video as needed to record notes. Pay special attention to any words that are new to you, rules, specific examples and sample sentences. These items should all be included in your final note taking page.
Write two sentences of your own and include them on the note taking page.
Share this work with your teacher to earn this mini spark.

Lesson video by Emma Bryce, animation by Karrot Entertainment.

2021-22 EY Challenge #3

September 26, 2021Current Challenge, Uncategorizedlspady

Prosthetic Hands

Please follow these steps to complete this challenge:

1. Read the article and answer the quiz questions.

Lower Elementary Article Upper Elementary Article

2. Watch the video on 3D Printed Prosthetic Hands

3. Create a product based on your learning. Below are a few tutorials if you need an idea. NOTE: Always ask for adult permission/supervision when using tools like hot glue guns, scissors, etc.

Make a video of your product and/or take pictures of it in use. Upload your project to your drive and make it sharable. Copy the link and paste it in the Google Submission Form: https://forms.gle/YDo6t5MDXW8vA1q58

This challenge closes October 15.

Language Arts Mini Spark #64 Modifiers: What are they? Where do they go?

September 15, 2021Reading Enrichment, Uncategorizedlspady

Modifiers are words, phrases, and clauses that add information about other parts of a sentence—which is usually helpful. But when modifiers aren’t linked clearly enough to the words they’re actually referring to, they can create unintentional ambiguity.

Incorrectly placed modifier: Perched up high on a tree branch, I yelled at the cat to leave the sparrow alone.

Meaning: I don’t tangle with a tabby unless I am perched 10 feet up in the air.

Correctly placed modifier: Seeing a sparrow perched up high on a tree branch, I yelled at the cat to leave him alone.

Meaning: ohhhh….the sparrow is up in the tree. Watch out little sparrow!

#1 Read this teaching page to look over some modifier examples.

#2 Watch this TED Ed video and take detailed notes about modifiers and their placement and navigate the sticky world of misplaced, dangling and squinting modifiers.

#3 Make a visual explaining modifiers with examples of how they are used. Also include your own sentence with a misplaced modifier and then correct the sentence so that the reader understands the meaning.

Challenge: Do more research about misplaced, dangling and squinting modifiers. Include what you learned in your visual.

2021-22 EY Challenge #2

September 13, 2021Current Challenge, Uncategorizedlspady

Another Bitsbox Challenge

Thank you to those of you who tried the first EY Challenge of the year. If you did, this challenge is an extension of that. If you didn’t do the first challenge, no worries. This video should help you get started. Also, here are some basic steps:

1. Draw a picture on paper or using an app on your iPad. Start with something simple like an animal. I drew this cow using Drawing Pad. Take a picture of your drawing or take a screenshot.

2. Go to Safari and type in bitsbox.com and in the upper right corner select “kids sign in” and use your Westside Google Account to sign in

3. From there, the video below should walk you through the steps.

This code is in the video, but here is another copy of what you’ll be typing in on Bitsbox.

Don’t forget to submit your work!

This challenge closes September 24

EY Submission Form Link: https://forms.gle/h4BNyDpTESYrSjRK8

NewzBrain Civics Challenge

August 26, 2021MS Learning Opportunities, Uncategorizedlspady

NewzBrain provides a weekly online Civics Challenge covering a wide variety of topics. Check out a sample NewzBrain Civics Challenge by clicking the link below to see if it’s something you’d be interested in doing. https://newzbrain.com/StudentWeb/OnlineLeague/Demo