Category: Elementary

The Electric Company Returns to PBS

The Electric CompanyI was a big fan of the The Electric Company as a kid. It was full of cool music (Such as Silent E), skits (Remember Easy Rider?), cartoons (like Letter Man narrated by Joan Rivers) and Spider-Man. The Electric Company is the reason I became such a big fan of Spider-Man. He was so cool.

Take a look.

And who could forget these fun segments…

Yes, that is Morgan Freeman’s silhouette on the left in the above video.

I was excited to learn that The Electric Company is returning to PBS. We’ll no longer have to mine through YouTube to find the videos to help teach our children how to read (Our kids really enjoy watching the “old show that [I] watched when [I] was a kid.”). The new version debuts today on PBS. Check your local listings for times.

The revamped Electric Company…bears little resemblance to the old show. The new program aspires to be as culturally clued-in as its predecessor was. It’s imbued with a hip-hop sensibility, deploys cutting edge graphics and drops allusions to touchstones like 24 and Indiana Jones. But instead of a series of sketches that have little to do with one another, each new episode has a cohesive narrative built around the antics of the Electric Company, a team of four singing and rapping wordsmiths who use the power of reading to defeat the nefarious Prankster gang…There is also a new stable of celebrity guests: in the debut episode, Sean Kingston contributed a song about the two different sounds the letter C makes. Pete Wentz, Jimmy Fallon, Wyclef Jean, Ne-Yo and Common all pop up in the first season. (Source)

Discussion
What was your favorite part of the 1970s version of The Electric Company?

Teaching Keyboarding to Elementary Children

I posed the following question to the members of my personal learning network (PLN).

Advice Requested

I received lots of good advice and suggested resources. I wanted to share the information hoping that others would find it helpful, too.

Here are the responses from my Plurk buddies…

Typing Advice from Plurk Buddies 01

Typing Advice from Plurk Buddies 02

…and these are the replies from my Twitter friends.

Typing Advice from Tweet Friends 02

Typing Advice from Tweet Friends 01

Please Share
I invite you to please share your ideas, teaching strategies and resources, too. You can post a text, audio or video reply in the comments to this post or you can send me a message via Plurk and Twitter.

Together we all learn more.

WOW Your Students

Here’s a video that I think can be integrated with just about any curriculum. This is pretty amazing!

Educational Connections

As with most things on this blog I would like for us to talk about the educational uses of this video. I’ll share a few curricular connections that I’ve considered and then I ask that you add your ideas, too.

  • Science – Ecosystems, ants, and food chain (circle of life), just to name a few
  • Math – Calculations, estimations, units of measurement, and more
  • Social Studies – Archeology, societies, social structures and systems, etc.
  • Language Arts – Response journals, presentations, debates, and develop informational pamphlets
  • Physical Education – Compare the strength of ants with that of humans (More math and science connections)
  • Art – Works of art of paint, pottery, and papier-mache come to mind.

Please share your ideas, too. 🙂

Webcast: Writing to a Prompt with Kidspiration

(NOTE: I received this announcement via email from Inspiration.)

Kidspiration

Graphic organizers are an effective tool to support students as they learn how to write to a prompt. Join us on January 15th to see how your students can learn to write on demand using Kidspiration®. Lucy Belgum, our Education Development Manager for Language Arts, will host a complimentary 45-minute webcast demonstrating how to:

  • Use visual techniques to plan writing that is mindful of audience, purpose and form
  • Engage students in the process of writing paragraphs that contain supporting details
  • Target, plan and write to the components found within the various modes of writing using graphic organizers

Date: Thursday, January 15, 2008
Time: 12:00-12:45 p.m. Pacific Time, 3:00-3:45 p.m. Eastern Time

Register Today!

If you are unable to join us, don’t worry – the webcast will be archived and available to you shortly after the event concludes.

View our archived webcasts!

Favorite Theo. LeSieg Story

I recently mentioned that while building My Google Library I decided to identify my very favorite Dr. Seuss story. It didn’t take me long to narrow the list down to Too Many Daves (from The Sneetches and Other Stories) and Wacky Wednesday. Wacky WednesdayBoth of these stories grabbed my imagination as a child and hold fun memories. While agonizing over which of these tales I treasured the most (I’m exaggerating a bit.) I was thrilled to realize that Theodor Seuss Geisel (better known as Dr. Seuss) had actually authored Wacky Wednesday under the pseudonym Theo. LeSieg. This realization spared me the dilemma of choosing which of these two beloved stories was my favorite Dr. Seuss tale. I admit it’s a technicality but it works in my favor, so I’ll take it (hahaha).

I’ve included Wacky Wednesday in my library because… well, because it’s wacky. It’s all about a boy’s zany adventures on a far-from-normal Wednesday. My friends and I would sit in the library trying to find all the wacky details in the illustrations. We were exposed to figurative language, creativity, word play, imagination, and so much more without even realizing it. Perhaps the best thing I can say about Wacky Wednesday is that I’ve read it over and over – and isn’t that the greatest testament of a good book?

Favorite Dr. Seuss Story

I decided to begin building My Google Library so that I can:

  • Share my favorite books with our own children.
  • Easily access books, images, citations, etc. during class, presentations, workshops, etc.
  • Share and suggest resources with other educators

When it came time to add my favorite Dr. Seuss books to my library I realized that I would have to add most of them, so I decided to try and narrow it down to my very favorite book. It took some reflection and deep soul searching (I’m exaggerating.) but I was able to identify my very favorite (Thanks to a technicality that I’ll share in another post.) Seuss story.

The Sneetches and Other StoriesI remember the first time I read Too Many Daves (from The Sneetches and Other Stories). I was sitting at a table in my elementary school library with two of my friends. I read the book silently and the ridiculousness of one naming all 23 of her children the same thing just sent my imagination spinning. It remains one of my favorite poems all these years later. I’ve included the poem below in case you’re unfamiliar with it. Unfortunately, I can’t also include the artwork because it really sales the story – as is typical of all of Seuss’ work.

Discussion
What is YOUR favorite Dr. Seuss story? Why?

—————

TOO MANY DAVES
From: The Sneetches and Other Stories
By: Dr. Seuss

Did I ever tell you that Mrs. McCave
Had twenty-three sons, and she named them all Dave?

Well, she did. And that wasn’t a smart thing to do.
You see, when she wants one, and calls out “Yoo-Hoo!
Come into the house, Dave!” she doesn’t get one.
All twenty-three Daves of hers come on the run!

This makes things quite difficult at the McCaves’
As you can imagine, with so many Daves.
And often she wishes that, when they were born,
She had named one of them Bodkin Van Horn.
And one of them Hoos-Foos. And one of them Snimm.
And one of them Hot-Shot. And one Sunny Jim.
Another one Putt-Putt. Another one Moon Face.
Another one Marvin O’Gravel Balloon Face.
And one of them Zanzibar Buck-Buck McFate…

But she didn’t do it. And now it’s too late.

Writing Letters to Santa: A Lesson Plan

English: Santa Claus with a little girl Espera...
Image via Wikipedia

Teachers can take advantage of the holiday season to help learners practice writing personal letters since many children are excitedly waiting on Santa’s arrival. Here are a few suggested resources to help you with this lesson.

It would also be a good idea to teach the students about writing thank you letters once school resumes after the holidays.

Please also consider being a part of The Challenge.

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The Powerful Link between Creativity and Play

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