WordGirl, My Hero!

 

One of my favorite super heroes of all time has entered the scene just in the last decade -- WORD GIRL!  She battles horrible grammar but in the form of ugly crime ridden punks like Lady Redundancy Woman and Nocan the Contrarian.   She knows EVERY word in the dictionary and appears out of no where to save the day by pausing the clock, wreaking havoc to crusade for justice and save the day!

This holiday season, WORDGIRL premieres a new It's a Wonderful Life-inspired episode "A World Without WordGirl" on PBS KIDS GO!.  Blowing out her birthday candles after one too many superhero interruptions, Becky wishes for a world without WordGirl. She realizes her wish has come true and Chuck has become a king who has imposed strange rules. Will Becky find the last piece of enchanted birthday cake so that she can wish for the return of WordGirl and make things go back to how they were before? "A World Without WordGirl" premieres on Friday, December 16 at 3:30 pm on Channel 8!

Dig deeper with your students in PBS Learning Media by searching for national and common core state standards based activities to support your curriculum to continue to the good fight!  WordGirl and Captain Huggie Face will be ready and armed with fantastic resources to assist. 

Create your FREE account on PBS Learning Media and do a keyword search for wordgirl to find various interactives and videos similar to the one  above designed to reinforce definitions, pronunciations, syllabications and parts of speech of the vocabulary words used in the show in sentences.   

Contact asset@asu.edu for more information and free professional development on on this online collection of over 17,000 videos, lesson plans, interactives, and other resources for educators with local outreach efforts generously supported in Arizona by CenturyLink.

"Nature Trackers Week" on Dinosaur Train

“Nature Trackers Week”

November 14-18^th on Dinosaur Train

Four New Episodes!

Get outside, get into nature and make your own discoveries! That’s the ideas behind an exciting new nature Trackers initiative launching as part of season two of Dinosaur Train on PBS Kids. In the first of four new episodes, premiering the week of November 14, Buddy and his sibling build a beachside clubhouse. Shiny thinks that a clubhouse needs a club, and the “Nature Trackers” club is born!

The Jim Henson Company is also encouraging real life kids to join the club! Beginning in November 2011, the Dinosaur Train website at pbskids.org/dinosaurtrain will feature a downloadable Nature Trackers activity book kids can do with their families. Once the activities are completed, kids can send in proof of their participation to The Jim Henson Company and receive a free dinosaur Train Nature Trackers reward in the mail celebrating their outdoor achievement! Families can also sign up to receive a Nature Trackers e-newsletter with a new outdoor activity challenge each month.

Check out some lesson plans

Where Soldiers Come From

Premiers

Thursday 11:00pm

November 10^th, 2011

From a snowy, small town in northern Michigan to the mountains of Afghanistan, Where Soldiers Come From follows the four-year journey of childhood friends who join the National Guard after graduating from high school. As it chronicles the young men’s transformation from restless teenagers to soldiers looking for roadside bombs to 23-year-old combat veterans trying to start their lives again, the film offers an intimate look at the young Americans who fight our wars, the families and towns they come from — and the way one faraway conflict changes everything

Find out more info about the soldiers in this film.

Find out more about the town these soldiers come from.

The Fabric of the Cosmos

A new four part Nova Series

Wednesday night at 9pm

Channel 8

"The Fabric of the Cosmos," a four-hour series based on the book by renowned physicist and author Brian Greene, takes us to the frontiers of physics to see how scientists are piecing together the most complete picture yet of space, time, and the universe. With each step, audiences will discover that just beneath the surface of our everyday experience lies a world we’d hardly recognize—a startling world far stranger and more wondrous than anyone expected.

Watch a Preview http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/physics/fabric-of-cosmos.html

Classroom Activities

Black Hole Activity “Monster of the Milky Way” - http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/teachers/programs/3314_blackhol.html

Detecting Life on other Planets - http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/teachers/evolution/detecting-life.html

Solar Paint Your Roof - http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/teachers/tech/solar-paint-roof.html

Sid the Science Kid "Spooky Science Special"

October 31st 11:00am

Bats, cats, spiders, and skeletons abound as Sid and his friends dress up in the spookiest and scariest costumes possible for Halloween! When teacher Susie comes to school disguised as a silly mad scientist, she helps the kids discover that Halloween can be spooky and scientific! The kids investigate how bats catch pesky mosquitoes, spiders are expert web engineers, cats are leaping aerial acrobats, and skeletons help hold up our bodies!

Looking for a spooky, fun, and different Halloween activity to do in the classroom? Check out this Spider Web Investigation. . .

Halloween Worksheets

Slime Time!

Humanity Festival - Eight's Events!

Saturday October 22, 2011

Civic Space Park

424 N. Central Ave, Phx

9am-6pm

FREE!!!

9-10am Can We Skip Lunch and Keep Writing?: Collaborating in Class and Online, Grades 3-8

Presented by Julie D. Ramsay

Through Julie’s inspiring stories, participants will begin to develop ideas for encouraging innovation, creative problem solving, and productive citizenship in young people. Join Julie in this exclusive “Arizona Humanities Festival only” Classroom 2.0 interview hosted by Dr. Peggy George.

noon-1pm, 2-3pm Professional Development Hours for the AZ Humanities Festival! Extend Your Learning

Presented by Mark Becker AZ

Put your learning to use in your classroom. What have you attended today at the festival? How can you apply it to your curriculum and embed it in your teaching practice? Combine it with digital resources from PBS that are available online and extend what you have done today.

PBS Learning Media provides instant access to over 14,000 classroom-ready, digital resources including video, interactives, audio, images and detailed lesson plans. You can search, save and share easily. Stop by the ASSET-Eight Educational Outreach Computer Lab for a hands-on demonstration. If you attend, you can create a free account and begin searching for classroom resources. (session repeated)

Check out these great resources on Writing in the Classroom

http://www.nwp.org/cs/public/print/resource/3663

Follow us on Twitter! http://twitter.com/#!/ASSETEducator

Check out our Facebook page! http://www.facebook.com/azpbslearningmedia

Sesame Street's Growing Hope Against Hunger

Growing Hope For Hunger

Preview

Many families may find it difficult to pay for—or get access to—nutritious foods. In such situations, they may find it especially hard to make healthy choices. As a provider working with families, you can help them know that they can eat well. And you can help them do so no matter their budget or time constraint.

On the following provider guide you will find family workshops with video clips and key messages on how to combat hunger, one-on-one tips that you can offer when counseling individuals, and caregiver instruction group ideas. Also are included are even more resources that can help you help families combating huger.

Provider Guide

PROHIBITION starting Oct. 2nd on PBS

The wealth of themes explored in PROHIBITION offers an extraordinary educational opportunity for your classroom. The lessons and activities on this web site explore topics such as the role of the government in the lives of private citizens; a study of the Constitution and the amendment process; the immigrant experience and the evolution of American identity; and the impact of the nation's shifting demographics on politics and the exercise of power. Website: http://www.pbs.org/kenburns/prohibition/educators/

Through multiple learning plans and various activities like The Music of Prohibition and Prohibition’s Characters, your students will learn the benefits, consequences, and how this nation changed in the process of this experiment.

MISSION US is recruiting 10 Educators for Research Efforts

As part of an evaluation of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting’s American History and Civics Initiative, the Mission US project is recruiting 10 teachers from Grades 6–9 to use the MISSION US: For Crown or Colony? digital game and activities for 3–4 consecutive days in their classes between now and February 28, 2011.

Participating teachers will have the game and materials they need to teach about the Boston Massacre and political tensions that led to the American Revolution. They can be used before, during, or after a unit on the Revolution (for example as, assessment). Participating teachers must have access to two different groups of students. One group will use the MISSION US game and one will not. Teachers who use the game with students and submit all materials will receive a $250.00 stipend.

INTERESTED PARTIES MUST email asset@asu.edu BY JANUARY 13, 2011.

If you are interested, please contact asset@asu.edu with your first and last name, grade level taught, school name, number of students, district name, school mailing address and best contact phone number so we can provide you with additional information.