Explore educational resources and activities from PBS with their library of Activity Packs. Each one focuses on a curricular theme and includes links to great PBS resources and supplemental activities. Packs are available for The Arts, Health & Fitness, Reading & Language Arts, Science & Technology, and Social Studies.
Check out this list of packs in the Science & Technology unit:
Today at 11:00am -11:30am, WGBY will air the national premiere of “You Are Special,” an all-new Valentine’s Day episode on Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood, the new, highly rated pre-school seriesinspired by the original Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood. Known to be a great fan of Fred Rogers, singer-songwriter Jason Mraz will sing the opening and closing songs – “It’s a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood” and “It’s Such a Good Feeling” – with their messages of happiness, love and acceptance. At Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood website you can find games, video and printables, and at the teachers’ site, more about early childhood activities and the show’s learning goals.
At an older and much beloved program, Arthur, what better way to open children’s eyes to a celebration of love than poetry? There’s a Valentine’s Day poem by Eloise entitled It’s Valentine’s Day at Fern’s Poetry Nook as well as Happy Valentine’s Day episodes and fun activities . And Arthur’s Poetry Club has even more with poetry videos, poems and activities for writing poems.
The PBS Teacher Innovator Awards recognize innovative PreK-12 classroom educators, media specialists, technology coordinators, and home-school educators who use digital media to enhance student learning. Entrants submit a short video or PDF with text and images that showcases their work. Entries can be a demonstration of a unique teaching technique or the outcome of influence on a student work.
Maximum award: all-paid, week-long “Innovation Immersion Experience” at The Henry Ford in Dearborn, Michigan in August 2013; free professional development from PBS TeacherLine.
Eligibility: preK-12 classroom educators (public, private, or charter school), library media specialists, technology specialists/coordinators, home-school educators, and Head Start or licensed daycare teachers.
If you love Fred Rogers and his life’s work on behalf of children, families and educators, then you’ll be delighted that Daniels Tiger’s Neighborhood, the new preschool series inspired by the classic Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood, will premiere on Monday, September 3, at 11:00am and 1:30pm on WGBY.
The program features Daniel, the son of Daniel Striped Tiger, as a shy but brave and imaginative four-year-old tiger who lives in the Neighborhood of Make Believe with the next generation of original characters from Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood. Each episode integrates music and includes two stories that focus on common early learning themes.
Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhoodinteractive website features educational online games and activities such as a ride through the Neighborhood of Make Believe on the always popular Trolley. At its teachers’ site you can watch a premiere, meet the characters and see the show’s learning goals. The parents’ site also offers great resources, including Fred Roger’s Timeless Wisdom.
August is Connected Educator Month and the New York Times blog The Learning Network asked those who had written a guest post to answer the question: “What one person, group or organization would you recommend every educator add to his or her Personal Learning Network?” Latin teacher Jessica Lahey answered, “Good ol’ PBS Teachers has rescued, inspired and educated me more times than I can count.”
To connect you to the best of PBS resources, PBS Teachers is one place we go for multimedia resources and professional development for prek-12 educators. If you want to check it out for yourself, you’ll find resources such as PBS KIDS in the Classroom, PBS Education News, and PBS EcoInvestigators, designed to get students in grades 3-5 engaged, excited, and prepared to take on and solve environmental problems in their community and beyond. You’ll even be connected to the PBS Teachers Facebook page where you’ll find still more resources, including links for NASA’s Curiosity rover on Mars!
When students learn about how their brains work and develop, research reveals that they are motivated and work harder, showing improvements in learning mathematics. When you go to www.pbsteachers.org, the PBS site for teachers, and search “the brain,” you’ll find lesson plans such as the following to motivate students to use their brains:
The Wonder Pill: Placebo – 1: (Grades 3-5, 6-8) From awarding-winning PBS science series Scientific American Frontiers, this lesson allows students to investigate how the brain can be fooled into incorrectly processing sensory information. They’ll conduct an experiment to fool someone into thinking they’ve touched his or her hand in a bizarre illusion that thoroughly confuses the brain.
Mysteries of the Senses – Smell (Grades 6-8, 9-12) In this activity from PBS NOVA, students can understand how the sense of smell has strong connection to the limbic region of the brain and experience how the brain associates smells with memories and emotions.
How Alzheimers Affects the Brain (Grades 9-12) is one of three lessons on a disease that students are likely to know something about. This lesson introduces students to the ways in which Alzheimer’s disease damages the brain. They’ll see visual examples of how brain changes affect behavior and how damage to neurons and neural connections progress.
This series of activities are designed for students in grades 3-5. Two or three book suggestions are included in each activity. The first book in the list is at a lower reading level than the second or third. You also may choose other books in order to adjust the activities to your students’ reading level.
Each activity is accompanied by additional online resources to explore The Civil Rights Movement deeper. Here’s just one activity that explores the power of speeches:
Have students read and/or listen to the following speeches (either in small groups or as a class):
In a previous post we introduced you to Wilson and Ditch, the two funny, energetic and talkative gopher brothers who travel America in their eco-powered van. By following the signposts at Wilson & Ditch Digging America, you and students can travel to places as wide-reaching as Philadelphia, San Francisco Miami and the Grand Canyon to learn about geography and each location’s unique stories and facts.
This month visit the town of Sleepy Hollow, New York on Halloween with Wilson and Ditch for trick-or-treating and fun scares. They’ll discover that the legend of the Headless Horseman of Sleepy Hollow originates from Washington Irving’s story rather than an historic event. This short, fun video for grades K-2 and 3-5 is a motivating reading/language arts and social studies’ resource that provides a chance for students to learn about Halloween lore and share their own trick-or-treat experiences and plans.
The multimedia project, CYBERCHASE, shows kids that math is everywhere and everyone can be good at it! The series and supporting web games, lesson plans, and activities encourage kids to see, think, and do mathematics in their world. In addition to being tons of fun, shows and activities have been carefully designed to support math education and reflect the curriculum standards of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics.
At the Cyberchase site are lesson plans appropriate for grades 3-5 (or ages 8-11) to meet classroom and after school needs. For example, the lesson A Different Point of View addresses the NCTM Standard on geometry and is great for students returning from summer break. They’ll practice concentrating in the classroom as they observe, draw and identify the outline shapes of simple objects from different viewpoints and name the geometric shapes they see. As aresult, they’ll grasp the lesson’s “Big Idea”that what they see depends on their point of view and that different people looking at the same objects can see them differently and disagree about what they are seeing.
Explore this award-winning, researched-based adventure series and website to find more lessons as well as games and other activities that help kids develop strong math and problem-solving skills!
Multi-media tools are integral to the MA Framework, with the Literate Person of the Twenty-first Century described as needing “to be ready for college, workforce training and life in a technological society . . . In like fashion, research and media skills and understandings are embedded throughout the Standards rather than treated in a separate section.”
For your tool box of Early Childhood Assessment & Curriculum Resources, you’ll be delighted with parent and educator materials like the weekly science investigations, games and activities designed for PBS Kids’ Sid the Science Kid. Here’s a quick clip of the show to demonstrate how Sid and his friends explore the concept of measurement:
At the Sid the Science Kid Activities Index, you’ll find multi-media, hands-on lessons such as these on the important theme of change and transformation:
Frozen FruitonChange Caused by Cold (From “My Ice Pops!”)
Apple Sauce on Change Caused by Hot (From “The Perfect Pancake!”)
Other themes on topics such as Tools and Measurement, Senses, Health and Simple Machines also have video clips, activities, games and more to enhance your lessons/units or to use in conjunction with Sid episodes, which are available on the site or at WGBY’s Lending Library. For education resources on all PBS Kids programs, visit the spinning wheel at www.pbskids.org.
