Tips for Modifying Lessons for Distanced and Remote Learners! Each week, we provide two new lesson opportunities. Some will be very easy to adapt to a distanced classroom setting while others may require a bit more thinking. Remember, you can skip any lessons you choose and still provide your students with a great mission experience. Even under normal conditions, it is rare that a class does EVERY lesson associated with a mission, so be kind to yourselves. I'll add to this page weekly so you can find adaptation ideas for the lessons you DO choose to do. Day 1: To Namibia
Day 3: Big Babies
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Share content though your learning management systemEach week, we'll post links to field videos on this page so you can push them to student devices or post to your learning management system without having to set up accounts or passwords for your students. You can also send parents here to collect the links or copy and paste them and share via the platform of your choice. The videos are also visible by clicking on the video thumbnail. To ensure kids' safety, we advise teacher and parents not to share this page directly with your young students if they are unsupervised. Children should also be supervised if watching videos or livestreams directly on the site.
Fun Suggestions for Building Literacy Skills!
If you need to share comic videos directly with students you can use these safe video links to do so:
Week 1
First Grade: Young readers benefit from working on reading inflection. Reading with feeling increases comprehension and it's FUN! Equip your students with copies of the comic and have them highlight and color code ending punctuation (e.g., all periods yellow and all question marks orange). Then challenge them to read just a single sentence with feeling to a partner. Their partner should close their eyes and listen. At the end of the sentence the listener must try to identify the punctuation of the sentence they just heard! Second Grade: Print the comic in little book form for this activity. We've included more challenging words in the text boxes this week. Have students mark the ones they find tricky, then write those on the back cover to create a mini glossary! They can add definitions after they consult with friends or other resources to determine the meaning. Week 2
short vowels; pop, zop, zup, gulp, pip, sniff, gag oddballs: boing, arf What's left? "Woof" where does your class think it belongs? Why? You can build on the vowel work last week! You can take this further and sort the short vowel words by sounds too. Sorting and classifying helps children internalize language patterns and helps them be better readers AND spellers! First and Second Grades: As they year progresses, we've increased the reading challenges in the comic. Many of the tricky words will be familiar by the end of the mission but may seem a bit daunting now. Empower your readers by taking a moment to go on a big word hunt. Arm your eager word hunters with highlighters and set them loose! You call out a big word such as "herbivore" and challenge students to find it in the comic. You can narrow the hunt by working with a single frame or increase the challenge by expanding to a full row or even the whole comic. Continue with more words before reading the comic. By previewing some of the tricky words, your students can have more confidence as they read the latest episode! Need to share livestream archives with students?This is the place! At the end of each livestream day, we'll select one session to archive and post it on our Livestream Archive page AND post safe links here. If your students are working remotely and you need to share our livestream archives with them, simply grab the link and share it through your learning management platform. Each bit.ly link takes students to a video.link (formerly Safe YouTube) version of the archive. This version eliminates related content and other possible distractions. If you need an alternate format, please drop us a line at Curious@Go2Science.com and we'll do our best to accommodate!
Help direct the mission!Etosha National Park is big! Beth and Curtis will sample the wildlife population by looking in some areas of the park. They are counting on YOU to decide where they should go to do their surveys.
Distance Learning Help!If you choose to use our google form with your students, be sure to MAKE A COPY and not send the link shared via our button or your responses will be viewable by all and you won't be able to easily see your student answers. If you need directions about how to make a copy of the google form, check out the bottom of our previous blog post (click here) for step by step directions!  Mini Curtis, bingo boards, animal cards, and more all in one spot!Investigating a Go2Science hypothesis can be a simple as watching the 3-5 minute hypothesis video, then watching and discussing the twelve 5-6 minute field videos. However, we provide loads of ways to take learning farther. Our lessons, livestream, voting, 3D printing, comics, music videos, and publishing live right on the the Go2Science website. However, our BONUS content can only be found on this page!
Join us for some awesome stories!We are a bit sad that our work in Borneo is done but you can continue the adventure with a pair of books about Borneo! We also heard from many of you that Go2Science has been the hook to lure your students into your remote classrooms during COVID 19 school closures. Curtis and I found some books in Borneo we thought your students would enjoy . So we've created some virtual read-aloud sessions for you to share with students and keep them engaged for a few more weeks of distance learning. Enjoy!
We are THRILLED that the folks at The Innovation Press granted permission for us to share one of their beautiful books with you as a virtual read aloud! FUNGUS IS AMONG US! is a great tie in to our recent Biodiversity mission in Borneo. I love that it spotlights a real mycologist, Dr. Sara Branco! (Yes, I followed her on twitter!)
If you joined us for the Kenyan Groundwater mission, this story is for you! The main character is from Sudan, but her plight is very similar to the water challenges they had at HIP Academy.
Need to share livestream archives with students?This is the place! At the end of each livestream day, we'll select one session to archive and post it on our archive page AND post safe links here. If your students are working remotely and you need to share our livestream archives with them, simply grab the link and share it through your learning management platform. Each bit.ly link takes students to a video.link (formerly Safe YouTube) version of the archive. This version eliminates related content and other possible distractions. If you need an alternate format, please drop us a line at Curious@Go2Science.com and we'll do our best to accommodate!
Fun Suggestions for Building Literacy Skills! Each week we'll share helpful hints on using the comic across the grade level span. I'll add each week's tips here so they are easy to find. If you are new to the comic, be sure to share the backstory of the characters with your students. You can read that at the top of the comic page or click here to read the backstory and get a pdf version to share with parents! If you need to share comic videos directly with students you can use these safe video links to do so:
One document, multiple levels! Each comic episode supports pre-readers to upper level second grade readers. The graphic format encourages all readers to stretch their abilities by tackling juicy words and big concepts!
First Grade: This is the time of year when some children start to zoom ahead in reading while others are taking their time with early reader books as they build a strong foundation at their own pace. Try using the comic for a readers theater! Those zoomers can read the text boxes, your foundation builders can do sound effect, kiddos in the middle can read the speech bubbles and EVERYONE can feel successful as they work on fluency and phrasing! Second Grade: You may notice we've snuck a few tricky words into the text boxes. Your students can begin to integrate their use of context cues to puzzle out some of that richer vocabulary! This is also a great way for those clever advancing readers to begin to work on making inferences! Why does Data Dog need to be careful? Why is there a smell of rotten eggs?
Kindergarten: Playing with words by substituting phonemes at the beginning, middle, and end of words helps both reading AND spelling skills. Before you introduce the comic, take a moment to play! Write "zoom" on a whiteboard. After children read it, erase the /m/ and challenge children to make other sound effects by adding different final sounds! You can follow the same protocol with "zup," this time changing the middle phoneme or vowel sound. Medial phoneme substitutions: /z/ /u/ /p/ to /z/ /o/ /p/ Final phoneme substitutions: /z/ /oo/ /m/ to /z/ /oo/ /p/ First Grade: Now that your students are more established readers, it might be a good time to focus on reading with inflection. Challenge students to notice the end punctuation in each speech or thought bubble. How would the character say those words? Using voices for each character can further reinforce this skill. Second Grade: Some of the text boxes give facts and information while others describe the action in the frame or something out of view. Have students identify which type of text is in each box. You can color code them and then have teams assigned for choral reading for a specific text type!
Kindergarten: Word keys can help unlock patterns in reading and spelling. Our sound effects this week provide a great springboard for exploring the /up/ /op/ and /ap/ keys. Create mini books for these word families using the corresponding comic pane for a cover. For example, use page 7 as a cover for a book about /op/ and have students illustrate rhyming words like: mop, top, stop, or hop to create a mini book! First Grade: Expand on last week's work with character voices and inflection by reading with voice effects! You'll notice that Data Dog has both speech and thought bubbles. When reading aloud, have students read the thought bubbles holding a cup in front of their mouths to give their voice a far away and thoughtful quality! It's not only fun, it helps increase attention to details in text. Second Grade: Go on an action word hunt! Armed with only a copy of the comic and a highlighter, challenge students to see how many action words they can highlight in the text boxes. Take it to the next level to see if they can brainstorm synonyms for those actions words. Does the sentence have the same meaning with their new words. How does word choice affect tone and meaning? It's a fun way to explore this writing concepts without the daunting task of revising their own original work! Week 5 Pre K: Have your students take turns acting out the comic as you read it! Students can make the sound effects of the different animals as they pantomime the action. The frigate bird says "ack." The penguins say, "hee haw." And the tortoise does not say much at all...though it can make quiet hissing and munching sounds!
Start the rhyming chain with one of the words from the list, e.g. zup. Continue the pattern and challenge students to add new words at regular intervals like this: {stomp, stomp, clap} cup {stomp, stomp, clap} mup {stomp, stomp, clap} pup {stomp, stomp, clap} flup {stomp, stomp, clap} sup. The rhyming chain brakes when the rhythm is interrupted or you run out of rhymes! Whoever broke the chain starts the next one!
Kindergarten: There's lots of pressure to get kids reading earlier than ever, often in direct opposition to what we know about child development. So what's the conscientious teacher to do? Work on skills in a way that honors the developmental needs of young children! A rhyming relay is one way to do that. Here's how to play:
Second Grade: Now that you have the full set of comics, you can set up a multimedia readers theater performance of the full story! Project each comic behind your readers and invite other classes or parents to come see your performance. Of course, no costuming is necessary in reader's theater, but if your class is so inclined they could even create simple props or costumes. You can give everyone a role by having multiple sea lion pups, tortoises, and penguins. All grades: Try your hand at drawing finches or other birds in your area! Be sure to notice tiny details and include them in your drawings. |
Meet Beth and Curtis!Presidential Award-Winning teacher and hula hoop fanatic, Beth loves bringing real world science to kids! Beth is fascinated by engineering challenges, technology, and outdoor learning spaces. After 25 years teaching kindergarten, she’s excited to share her passion and experience on-line with classrooms from around the world! Archives
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