​​If you want to expose students to specific Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) Disciplinary Core Ideas (DCIs), pick and choose areas of greatest student need and frame classroom conversations accordingly.  Click on any of the colored NGSS codes below to go to the NGSS website for a deeper look at each standard.  This week's lessons can help you address the following topics. ​

Day 5: What's Eating You?  This game-based lesson provides a great opportunity to address the following kindergarten and second grade standards.  Take time to discuss the relationships during and after game play.  The game is essentially creating a simplified, but dynamic model.

• K-LS1-1. "Use observations to describe patterns of what plants and animals (including humans) need to survive.  Examples of patterns could include that animals need to take in food but plants do not; the different kinds of food needed by different types of animals; the requirement of plants to have light; and, that all living things need water."
• K-ESS3-1. Use a model to represent the relationship between the needs of different plants and animals (including humans) and the places they live. Examples of relationships could include that deer eat buds and leaves, therefore, they usually live in forested areas; and, grasses need sunlight so they often grow in meadows. Plants, animals, and their surroundings make up a system.
• 2-LS4-1. Make observations of plants and animals to compare the diversity of life in different habitats. Emphasis is on the diversity of living things in each of a variety of different habitats.

Day 6: Tiger Tracks Depending on the variations you choose and the way you frame discussion, this lesson provides a pathway to exploring either of these second grade DCIs.

• 2-PS1-4. Construct an argument with evidence that some changes caused by heating or cooling can be reversed and some cannot. Examples of reversible changes could include materials such as water and butter at different temperatures. Examples of irreversible changes could include cooking an egg, freezing a plant leaf, and heating paper.
• 2-LS4-1. Make observations of plants and animals to compare the diversity of life in different habitats. Emphasis is on the diversity of living things in each of a variety of different habitats.
  

This week Data Dog uses his Photon Collar to make a hard light copy and brings something amazing back to the house!  What would your students bring to class if they had a Photon Collar?  I wish I could hear THAT discussion!

PreK: Focus on feelings!

• Read my face!  PreK children are often learning to read non-verbal communication including facial cues!  Try this game with your students.  Hide your face behind a scarf, large book, or other barrier.  Make an expression (happy sad, surprised, angry, etc.) then reveal your face to the class.  Can they describe your face?  How do people usually feel when they make a face like you did?  Now try it with the comic.  Find the faces, then discuss how the character probably feels.
• Inferring Feelings Take the activity to the next level and ask students to share their thinking about WHY each character might have that expression.  Why do students think the characters feel a certain way?  Relate this back to their own experience.  Ask them to look at your face again.  Can they tell how you are probably feeling?  Why do they think you feel that way?

Kindergarten: Focus on medial sounds.

• Oh My!  Vowels can be tricky!!!  While most kindergarten students are focusing on learning short vowel sounds, they are likely already noticing that vowels do not always make the same sounds.  Take the letter "o" in panel 2, for example.  We have the sound effects woof, zop, and cooo.  The "o" is doing something different in each word.  Cooo has a long oo sound like zoom and boosh!  Woof has a short oo sound as in book.  Zop is a short o word like dog.  Challenge students to make up a fun name for the two double o sounds (such as "spooky oo" and "cookie oo") then challenge them to find all the double o words and sort them!
• Middle Sound Mix Up  This week we have the sounds effects zop and zup.  Create a short vowel die using a foam or wooden cube or design one on tinker cad!  Roll the die and practice saying the short vowel sound revealed.  Then try substituting the vowel in zop to create new sound effects!  You can do this for many beginning and ending consonants.  My favorite team is /b/ _ /g/ as it makes a real word you can show or act out each time.  Word of warning test out new teams first so you don't end up with something you'd rather your students NOT say.

Grades 1 and 2: Focus on multiple modalities.

• Partner Reading  Since the comics have multiple reading levels in a single document they are an ideal text for cross level or even cross grade reading buddies.  We often pair students of a similar ability for partner reading but try pairing students with vastly different reading levels on occasion too.  
  
• Choral Reading  Having larger groups read simultaneously helps all readers but especially struggling readers and ELL students.  You can create a group reader's theater situation so that part of the class reads a specific character.  The key is to keep it fun and mix it up.
• Re-Reading  Finally, give students the opportunity to interact with the same text multiple ways over the course of the week: in a guided reading group, with a partner of a similar and different ability, as part of a choral reading activity, and independently.  This is known as Fluency Oriented Reading Instruction (FORI) and can yield some great results!

I love, love, LOVE using play dough in combination with 3D printing.  Both reinforce learning in three dimensions but in such different ways!

Nearly 100 years ago, Lev Vygotsky wrote about the importance of play.  We've long known that play is an essential component in healthy child development.  Yet, too often, I hear about schools that are eliminating recess or removing dramatic play props from kindergarten rooms.  In 2015 my edu-pal, Scott Bedley, helped launch Global School Play Day to shine a light on the importance of play..  That year over 65,000 students participated.  Last year, that number had grown to over a half million and this year, they hope to have a million kids participating on February 5th 2020!  Check out their website for more info and to get involved!

We have the opportunity to go visit an elephant sanctuary!  We've listed some basic pros and cons on a T chart to discuss with your students, but thought you might like a bit more background information.  Elephants were once widely used for farming and forestry work in Thailand, but increasingly people are using mechanized means (tractors) to do this work.  This means domestic elephants are not needed. ​

We've added a few new files to the 3D printed wonders collection for Mission: Tigers!  We found a cool collection of realistic,  life-size animal sculptures and Curtis was able to scan them.  Just like the tiger we shared last week, these files seem to print best with linear supports.  We recommend using a raft when printing the banteng. The models look a bit angular in our slicer, but printed smoothly.

​​If you want to expose students to specific Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) Disciplinary Core Ideas (DCIs), pick and choose areas of greatest student need and frame classroom conversations accordingly.  Click on any of the colored NGSS codes below to go to the NGSS website for a deeper look at each standard.  This week's lessons can help you address the following topics.  

Day 3: Camera Trap 
If your first grade students need an opportunity to explore how an animal's external body parts capture and convey information, this lesson is a great way to begin that investigation!

• 1-LS1-1. Use materials to design a solution to a human problem by mimicking how plants and/or animals use their external parts to help them survive, grow, and meet their needs. 

You can expand this lesson to create a design challenge to meet any of these K-2 standards.  We do have several other lessons in this mission that also address engineering practices so this lesson might be a good mini introduction.

• K-2-ETS1-1. Ask questions, make observations, and gather information about a situation people want to change to define a simple problem that can be solved through the development of a new or improved object or tool.
• K-2-ETS1-2. Develop a simple sketch, drawing, or physical model to illustrate how the shape of an object helps it function as needed to solve a given problem.
• K-2-ETS1-3. Analyze data from tests of two objects designed to solve the same problem to compare the strengths and weaknesses of how each performs.

​Day 4: Recycling Truck
Learning how to reduce human impact on the environment is important far beyond meeting a kindergarten standard.  This lesson is a great way to start or continue those important conversations.

• K-ESS3-3. Communicate solutions that will reduce the impact of humans on the land, water, air, and/or other living things in the local environment. Examples of human impact on the land could include cutting trees to produce paper and using resources to produce bottles. Examples of solutions could include reusing paper and recycling cans and bottles.

This lesson is also a great way to investigate properties of matter to address these second grade standards!

• 2-PS1-1. Plan and conduct an investigation to describe and classify different kinds of materials by their observable properties. Observations could include color, texture, hardness, and flexibility. Patterns could include the similar properties that different materials share.
• 2-PS1-2. Analyze data obtained from testing different materials to determine which materials have the properties that are best suited for an intended purpose. Examples of properties could include, strength, flexibility, hardness, texture, and absorbency.
• 2-PS1-3.  Make observations to construct an evidence-based account of how an object made of a small set of pieces can be disassembled and made into a new object. Examples of pieces could include blocks, building bricks, or other assorted small objects.

Things get pretty exciting in the comic this week!  Here are some ways you can use this high-interest text to support literacy instruction!

PreK: Focus on directionality.

• Where Next?  Look at the 9 panel comic with your students.  If possible project it so the whole group has a great view!  Call on a volunteer to point the first panel in the comic, then read it as the volunteer points to it.  Repeat for each panel with a new volunteer.  What do students notice?  How did they know which box would be next?
• Which Way Words!  Build on directionality within each panel, text box, speech bubble or sound effect.  Can a volunteer show where to start reading in a panel?  Does anyone notice that we always read in the same direction?  I love thinking aloud as a way to model talking about observations!  Such as, "Wow!  Did anyone notice that we started here and read like this in this speech bubble?  That reminds me of how we decided which panel came next!  Cool!"  
  

Kindergarten:  Focus on distinct vowel pairs.

• Oo!  Look at that!  Challenge your students to find all the words with /oo/ in them.  If you are working on a large or projected page you can even have your students turn these repeating letters into eyes by adding a dot to the center of each o!  Encourage them to make the /oo/ as in boo sound each time they find and label "oo."  
• Does it rhyme?  Write each of the /oo/ words students find on a separate card.  Boosh, woosh, voom, roo, roop, zoop, and zoom.  Talk about how words that rhyme sound the same at the end.  Can they name any rhyming words?  Next turn all seven cards face down for a quick memory matching game.  Turn over two cards.  Do the words rhyme?  If so, remove them from the play space.  If not, place them face down again.  After you find all the matches ask students if they can name the one word (still facedown) that remains.  Roo!  How do they think the baby Gigantopithecus would have made that sound?

Grade 2: Focus on facts.

• Science AND Fiction After reading, discuss this week's comic.  Did they know Curtis researches and writes all the comics?  They are FULL of facts!  Which elements of the story do they think are facts and which are fiction.  Ask them to support their claims with evidence!
• Text Panel Facts  This week's text panels are full of details based on the most current scientific research.  Curtis LOVES to read about science!   Challenge students to find some of the facts Curtis included about ancient animals.

We'll be searching for many types of evidence on Mission: Tigers!  This field research adventure will require students to think not only about the quantity of evidence but also the quality.  Unlike calculating a relative abundance ratio as we did with kangaroos in Australia or carnivores and herbivores in Namibia, this hypothesis leaves a bit more room for interpretation.  The answer may not be clear cut and we think that's AWESOME!

This mission will push students to talk to each other and explain their reasoning.  What evidence supports their position?  Why might they consider some evidence more significant?  Students can record individual thoughts and observations in their journals through writing, drawing and dictation.  They might make short videos on classroom tablets.  Ultimately, however, the group will need to come to a consensus.  

One student might be convinced that seeing scratch marks in one place means tigers are making HKK their home.  A classmate might point out that one set of scratch marks could be made by a tiger passing though, but if there are scratch marks AND spray it could be stronger evidence.  Conversations like these are essential to the process of science!  Your students will essentially be engaged in peer review.