# data[].attributes.body
News about technology

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
EdSurge - Education Technology News and Resources

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
EdSurge is an independent education technology information resource and community. Find K12 and HigherEd Edtech News, Research, Jobs, Products and Events.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The education technology news magazine for K-12 district leaders, IT personnel, and administrators

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Kimmytraub (kimmytraub) - Profile | Pinterest

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
See what Kimmytraub (kimmytraub) has discovered on Pinterest, the world's biggest collection of ideas.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Read 445 reviews from the world's largest community for readers. The definitive refutation to the argument of The Bell Curve. How smart are you? If that q...

# data[].attributes.body
pace interactive lessons

# data[].attributes.body
create links from hotspots placed on images - exploration/interact

# data[].attributes.body
build spatial awareness- see the world

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Stock 360° Panoramic Images and Videos for VR and More | 360Cities

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
360Cities is the leading source of 360° panorama / VR media for education, publishing, advertising, film, and mobile apps & games. Become a 360Cities contributor and start creating, publishing, sharing, and earning money from your 360° panoramas and videos.

# data[].attributes.body
measurement book

# data[].attributes.body
Incorporate student voice

Find the best solutions for YOUR space

Make it easy to be independent

Teach and enforce procedures early and often

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
How to Create Makerspace Procedures that Work

When we set up our libraries and classrooms, we create procedures to help keep things running smoothly. In the same way, we need to create makerspace procedures that help our students understand how to utilize and participate in our spaces. It can be tricky to figure out the perfect procedures.

In my latest post for AASL Knowledge Quest, I delve into the topic that can often cause stress and problems in makerspaces - creating procedures. Makerspace procedures are much like classroom procedures, yet they can be tricky to figure out and establish. My post goes into some of the lessons I've learned while creating and establishing my makerspace at Stewart for the last three years.

Check out the post to learn more about how you can:

Incorporate student voice

Find the best solutions for YOUR space

Make it easy to be independent

Teach and enforce procedures early and often

After that, I go over a few examples of some types of procedures to create when setting up your space. By creating effective procedures, we can help things to run more smoothly and give our students a more effective makerspace experience.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
How to Create Makerspace Procedures that Work - Renovated Learning

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
When we set up our libraries and classrooms, we create procedures to help keep things running smoothly. In the same way, we need to create makerspace procedures that help our students understand how to utilize and participate in our spaces. It can be tricky to figure out the perfect procedures.

# data[].attributes.body
Teach students to become makers.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Design Ideas for a School Sensory Garden & Play Area for Children

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
A school sensory garden encourages child development through 'hands-on' activities. Read our plant & design ideas for creating a children's sensory garden.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Anyone can learn computer science. Make games, apps and art with code.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The only thing more fun than hands-on science is taking it outside! These outdoor science activities are perfect for taking advantage of sunny days. Fly kites, dissect flowers, experiment with sound and water, and so much more! There is something on our list for everyone from adults all the way down to toddlers. You'll only need simple supplies for most of these, so any teacher or family can head out to learn about chemistry, biology, physics, and more.

(Just a heads up, WeAreTeachers may collect a share of sales from the links on this page. We only recommend items our team loves!)

1. Gaze at the clouds

Look up and take some time to admire the clouds. Craft this cute "cloud viewer" and find a cloud in the sky. Then, identify what type it is, and learn more about how clouds form.

Learn more: Cloud Viewer-Little Bins for Little Hands

2. Fly a kite

You can learn a lot about physics when you make and fly your own kite. Experiment with different designs to see whose kite flies the highest or the longest.

Learn more: Inner Child Fun

3. Wrap a watermelon in rubber bands ...

You've probably seen videos of this making the rounds online, so why not try it out yourself? This is one of those outdoor science activities that's easy to do, but make sure you wear safety equipment like goggles.

Learn more: 123 Homeschool 4 Me

4. Assemble a nest

Birds build intricate nests, and they make it look easy. Can you do the same? Gather some materials outdoors, and try to make your own nest.

Learn more: Views From a Step Stool

5. Explore 1 square foot

There's an amazing amount of life in every square foot of nature. Grab your magnifying glasses or microscope, and take a closer look at the ground you walk on every day.

Learn more: One Square Foot-Little Bins for Little Hands

6. Explode a DIY seed pod

Find out how some plants spread their seeds far and wide with this cool balloon experiment. Fill it with seeds and air, then pop it outside on a breezy day and watch the seeds fly!

Learn more: Around the Kampfire

7. Send a soda geyser sky-high

This is one of those outdoor science activities that simply can't be done anywhere other than outdoors. Kids will marvel at the chemical reaction that sends diet soda shooting high in the air when Mentos are added.

Learn more: Soda Experiment-Scholastic

8. Compost food scraps in a bottle

Food waste is a big problem, contributing to much of the material that winds up in landfills. Teach kids how to compost with kitchen scraps in a plastic bottle, and use the compost to feed your plants.

Learn more: Busy Mommy Media

9. Grow a carbon sugar snake

If you're looking for outdoor science activities that are sure to excite your students, try this eye-popping chemical reaction demonstration. You only need simple supplies like sugar, baking soda, and sand, but the element of fire makes this experiment best done outdoors.

Learn more: KiwiCo

10. See the greenhouse effect in action

Climate change can be a contentious topic, so start by teaching kids about the greenhouse effect, which is easy to see and understand using this simple experiment. Then, urge them to explore data collected by scientists so they can learn to make informed decisions about topics like global warming.

Learn more: Teaching Science With Lynda

11. Construct a dirt battery

This outdoor science project is similar to building a battery from a lemon, but you also get to dig in the dirt! Kids learn about electric currents and conductivity.

Learn more: Dirt Battery-Teach Beside Me

12. Test the power of sunscreen

We slather kids in sunscreen when they're playing outside, but do they understand why? Try this fun little experiment, which demonstrates how sunscreen protects from the sun's harmful rays.

Learn more: STEM Sunscreen Experiment-JDaniel4's Mom

13. Build a solar oven

Explore the power of the sun when you build your own solar ovens and use them to cook some yummy treats. The link below has complete instructions.

Learn more: Desert Chica

14. Forecast the weather with pine cones

Fun fact: Pine cones open and close according to the weather in order to protect or disperse the seeds inside. Use that fact to your advantage and create a pine cone weather station in your backyard.

Learn more: Pine Cones-Science Sparks

15. Construct a LEGO waterwheel course

Are you looking for outdoor science activities for kids who love to build with LEGO? Explore the power of water with a cool homemade LEGO water course that includes a dam and a water wheel. This engineering project is fun to play with when you're done.

Learn more: LEGO Course-Frugal Fun for Boys and Girls

16. Blast off with bottle rockets

A simple adapter kit lets you turn an empty plastic bottle into a soaring rocket. Kids learn about pressure and Newton's third law of motion with this perennially popular outdoor science project.

Learn more: Bottle Rockets-Science Sparks

17. Put together a simple microscope

This DIY microscope isn't very powerful, but it does magnify small objects so you can see details. It's also really simple to make. (Looking for a stronger microscope you can take on the go? Try this portable model that hooks up to your cell phone.)

Learn more: Mini Microscope-Childhood 101

18. Create nature discovery bottles

Stroll through the great outdoors and have kids collect interesting natural objects. Use recycled soda or water bottles to display their specimens.

Learn more: Discovery Bottles-Little Bins for Little Hands

19. Make sun prints

You'll need to buy special paper for this outdoor science project, but it's easy to find. Kids will love creating their own patterns and experimenting to find which objects work best.

Learn more: PBS for Parents

20. Assemble an anemometer

Scientists use anemometers to measure wind speed. Build this DIY version and do some weather science with your class.

Learn more: Pi'ikea Street

21. Find the best soap bubble solution

It's easy to mix your own soap bubble solution with just a few ingredients. Let kids experiment to find the best proportion of ingredients to blow the longest-lasting bubbles with this fun outdoor science activity.

Learn more: Science Buddies-Bubble-ology

22. Blow the biggest bubbles you can

Bubbles are part of many fun outdoor science activities. Once you've blown the longest-lasting bubbles, move on to creating the largest bubbles you've ever seen! Kids learn about surface tension as they engineer these bubble-blowing wands.

Learn more: Giant Bubbles-Scholastic

23. Launch Ping-Pong balls with a catapult

Young kids will simply adore building this basic catapult and watching Ping-Pong balls soar! Older kids can experiment by changing the position of the fulcrum, the length of the board, and the objects being flung.

Learn more: Catapult-Buggy and Buddy

24. Brew some elephant toothpaste

Speaking of foamy messes, elephant toothpaste (OK, it's not really used by elephants) creates a huge exothermic reaction that will blow kids away.

Learn more: Science Bob

25. Play a game of Nature Bingo

Give your nature walk more direction by giving students specific items to seek out. You can make your own boards, or hit the link below for free printables for every season.

Learn more: Massachusetts Audubon Society

26. Test out parachutes

Gather a variety of materials (try tissues, handkerchiefs, plastic bags, etc.) and see which ones make the best parachutes. You can also find out how they're affected on windy days or find out which ones work in the rain.

Learn more: How To Make a Parachute-Inspiration Laboratories

27. Start a nature journal

Nature journals are a great way to partner writing and outdoor science while building kids' observational skills. You can use any sturdy notebook or check out the link below for free printable journal pages and a fun DIY carry-along journal project.

Learn more: Nature Journal-Edventures With Kids

28. Make and plant DIY seed bombs

Use recycled materials to create "seed bombs." Then plant them in the schoolyard or send kids home to use them in their own gardens. Students learn about ecology, recycling, and plant life cycles.

29. Experiment with limestone rocks

Kids love to pick up rocks, and there are plenty of great science experiments you can do with them. In this one, you pour vinegar over a rock to see if it bubbles. If it does, you've found limestone!

Learn more: Limestone Rocks-Edventures With Kids

30. Contribute to citizen science

Use a cell phone to snap pictures of everything you find on a nature walk, then report those sightings to Project Noah. This citizen science project is dedicated to documenting every living thing on Earth! ( Teachers, get ideas for using Project Noah in your classroom here.)

Learn more: Project Noah

31. Turn a bottle into a rain gauge

All you need is a plastic bottle, a ruler, and a permanent marker to make your own rain gauge. Monitor your measurements and see how they stack up against meteorology reports in your area.

Learn more: NurtureStore

32. Learn about plant transpiration

This simple project demonstrates how plants get rid of excess water they don't need, a process known as transpiration. The supplies and method are simple enough for anyone to try it.

Learn more: Transpiration-Teach Beside Me

33. Swing a glass of water to learn about centripetal force

When you do this experiment right, you won't make a mess at all. But while kids are still getting the hang of swinging glasses of water around their heads, you'll probably want to make this an outdoor science activity.

Learn more: Sick Science!

34. Learn to identify trees

Give trees a closer look and learn to identify them by their leaves and seeds. These jars preserve the leaves and seeds for future study too.

Learn more: Identify Trees-Edventures With Kids

35. Go on a nature scavenger hunt

Take kids outdoors to use their five senses with this free printable scavenger hunt activity. They'll hone their observation skills and learn so much about the world around them.

Learn more: Nature Scavenger Hunt-Childhood 101

36. Help monarch butterflies

You may have heard that monarch butterflies are struggling to keep their populations alive. Join the fight to save these beautiful insects by planting your own butterfly garden, monitoring monarch populations, and more. Get all the info you need at the link.

Learn more: Monarch Watch

37. Count tree rings to explore dendrochronology

Your students might know you can count tree rings to find out how old the tree is, but do they know why that's true? Students will undoubtedly get a kick out of exploring dendrochronology.

Learn more: Tree Rings-Edventures With Kids

38. Seek out signs of birds

Have you ever noticed that birds can be difficult to spot, even though signs of them are all around? This free printable scavenger hunt helps you find evidence that birds live nearby. Just look for nests and food sources and listen for their sounds.

Learn more: Inspiration Labs

39. Attract birds with a DIY bird feeder

Bring all the birds to the yard with this easy recycled bird feeder project. Kids can learn to identify common backyard birds in your area. Visit The Cornell Lab of Ornithology's educators' resource page for more ideas.

40. Identify birds with an app

Some birds are easy to identify, but others stump even longtime bird-watchers. If you're looking for outdoor science activities for kids who love feathered friends, check out the free Merlin Bird ID app. Snap a pic, answer a few questions, and the app will provide you some probable identifications, just like that.

Learn more: Merlin Bird ID

41. Become a human sundial

Choose a sunny day and grab some sidewalk chalk-your students are about to become sundials! They'll practice measuring skills and learn about the movement of the sun across the sky.

Learn more: Rhythms of Play

42. Harness the power of the wind

Wind turbines have become common sights in some parts of the country as we explore alternative energy sources. Build your own to learn how they work with this outdoor science experiment.

Learn more: Build a Wind Turbine-Frugal Fun for Boys and Girls

43. Explode plastic baggies (and make a big mess)

Vinegar and baking soda experiments are always a big hit with kids, and this one is no exception. They'll love seeing the bags pop from the chemical reaction, and you'll be glad the mess is outside.

Learn more: Kids Activities

44. Estimate the height of a tree

Kids work in pairs to estimate the height of a tree in this project that puts the M in STEM. Get a free printable at the link below to walk you through the process.

Learn more: From ABCs to ACTs

45. Build a light box

Kids can entertain themselves for hours with a big empty cardboard box. Channel that energy by turning a box into a place to learn about light refraction and reflection, using colored water in plastic bottles.

Learn more: True Aim Education

46. Float a baking-soda-powered boat

Here's another experiment using the classic baking powder and vinegar reaction. This one uses it to power these cute little DIY boats! A kiddie pool is the perfect spot for this outdoor science project.

Learn more: The OT Toolbox

47. Conduct an egg drop

Here's another classic outdoor science project you won't want to move inside-the egg drop. Challenge kids to engineer a container that will protect an egg from a long fall (this is especially fun to do from upper-story windows).

Learn more: Egg Drop-Buggy and Buddy

48. Slide into friction science

Head out to the playground, gather up a variety of objects, and hold races to see which ones make it down the slide first. This is a fun introduction to friction and inclined planes.

Learn more: Friction Science-Buggy and Buddy

49. See water pollution in action

Learn about the challenges of cleaning up polluted water sources like rivers and lakes with this interesting outdoor science activity. Pair it with a visit to a local water treatment plant to expand the lesson.

Learn more: Water Pollution-JDaniel4's Mom

50. Test your local water quality

Once you've "cleaned up" your water, try testing it to see how clean it really is. Then head out to test other types of water. Kids will be fascinated to discover what's in the water in their local streams, ponds, and puddles. Water-testing kits are readily available online- try this set available on Amazon.

Learn more: The Homeschool Scientist

51. Set up a musical science pool

This project is equally fun as a sensory experience and as a science experiment. Fill a kiddie pool with water, then place inside metal mixing bowls of different sizes. Finally, let kids experiment with different combos of waters, bowls, and drumsticks (i.e., wooden spoons).

Learn more: And Next Comes

52. Paint a shadow with homemade chalk paint

Head outside and have kids trace the outlines of their shadows. Then mix up some homemade chalk paint and let kids get creative painting their shadows.

Learn more: Rhythms of Play

53. Get in some unstructured outdoor time

While this video isn't a specific experiment, it advocates for kids getting outside and having a chance to explore. Kids can gather things that catch their eye and then sort leaves, flowers, shells, etc., by pattern, shape, or anything else they wish.

54. Create a rainbow

Is there anything prettier than a rainbow? Your students will undoubtedly love seeing that they can make one themselves!

55. Make a homemade zip line

This experiment could be done inside too, but we think it would work even better with more space outdoors. Give kids a wide variety of materials so they can work diligently to build something to transport a plastic Easter egg safely across the zip line.

Learn more: The Secret Life of Homeschoolers

56. Dissect a flower

Your students will be so fascinated to learn just how much is hidden under the exterior of their favorite flower. Have some magnifying glasses on hand so your students can get a closer look at all the different parts of the flower and even the pollen.

Learn more: Elemental Science

57. Make and melt frozen oobleck

You'll need cornstarch, water, a bowl, a spoon, and ice cube trays to make this oh-so fun sensory science experiment. If you really want to get wild, include some food coloring and glitter since kids will enjoy personalizing their oobleck. Once the oobleck is frozen, bring it outside and let it melt. As it melts, have students study the consistency changes.

Learn more: Inspiration Laboratories

58. Create lightning in a bottle

This experiment is best suited for older kids or perhaps as more of a demonstration for younger kids. This is a great lesson on static electricity and it will certainly leave your students stunned!

59. Create tree bark rubbings

As far as outdoor science activities go, this one is so simple yet such a fun way for the tiniest learners to discover nature and trees in particular. Grab some tape, peeled crayons, and paper, then head outdoors!

60. Float beach balls in the air

Want to amaze your students while also teaching about Bernoulli's principle? The basic idea is that fast-moving fluids have lower pressure than slow-moving fluids. Balance a beach ball in just the right spot above the leaf blower, where the forces of gravity and air pressure are equal. This will result in a floating ball!

Learn more: Fizzics Education

Plus, get all the latest teacher tips and tricks, straight to your inbox, when you sign up for our newsletters!

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
60 Wet and Wild Outdoor Science Projects and Activities

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The only thing more fun than hands-on science is taking it outside! These outdoor science activities will appeal to kids of all ages.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
By converting our sims to HTML5, we make them seamlessly available across platforms and devices. Whether you have laptops, iPads, chromebooks, or BYOD, your favorite PhET sims are always right at your fingertips.Become part of our mission today, and transform the learning experiences of students everywhere!

# data[].attributes.body
topics to spark interest

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Planning for engagement with important science ideas

Here we describe three linked planning practices for designing a unit of instruction. Important ideas in science are about the relationships between a natural phenomenon and a causal explanation that helps us understand why something in the world unfolds the way it does (phenomena are events or processes- things that happen). Studying events or process rather than "things" or abstract ideas really interests students and helps them develop deep and interconnected understandings of science concepts.

We encourage you to watch the video about this set of practices on the Getting Started page. It shows how teachers sort through their curriculum as well as the standards, in order to select which ideas to focus on during a unit. They then select a phenomenon to anchor their units of instruction and develop a rich causal explanation for that event or process. Finally, they use this explanation to sequence a set of learning experiences for students.

If you are interested in designing full units that are grounded in an anchoring event, then you will want to look at the tools we have for planning unit-length experiences for students. First you'll want to read the primer for "Planning for student engagement in big science ideas" (link is below and it explains much more about this practice, plus examples), and then try out the tool that will help you plan (also below).

Start with the video to get the big picture and examples too.
Planning for Engagement with big science ideas-the primer for learning more about it.
Planning for Engagement-the tool for designing your own units.

Other tools that can help you plan for units of instruction:

Card-sorting activity for unit planning
One of the activities you'll have to do in this set of practices is unpack the curriculum topics you will address. Unpacking topics like "earthquakes," "solubility," or "cellular respiration" begins with identifying all the big and not-so-big ideas mentioned in the curriculum. It means seeing how they relate to one another, then figuring out which ideas are at the heart of really understanding the topic. We have a basic practice we use to do this, it's called the card sort. This activity is best done, of course with colleagues.

Explanation-to-activity tool for unit planning
One of the final steps in the "Planning for engagement with big ideas" practice is to identify an anchoring event, develop an explanation for it, and then use that explanation to develop a sequence of activities, readings, and investigations for your students. The explanation-to-activity tool will help you organize this work.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Planning for engagement with important science ideas

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Here we describe three linked planning practices for designing a unit of instruction. Important ideas in science are about the relationships between a natural phenomenon and a causal explanation that helps us understand why something in the world unfolds the way it does (phenomena are events or processes- things that happen).

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Let’s Rock Math! Watch the world’s best math music videos completely ad-free. NUMBEROCK Math songs are for elementary teachers and students in grades K-6.

# data[].attributes.body
math support and apps

# data[].attributes.body
Health curriculum ideas by grade

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Evidenced-based, comprehensive health education for students and their families in grades Pre-K through Middle School, for physical, social, emotional, and mental health.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.keywords[]
components of the whole school whole community whole child (wscc)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Components of the Whole School, Whole Community, Whole Child (WSCC) | Whole School, Whole Community, Whole Child (WSCC) | Healthy Schools | CDC

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
This page provided information on the components of Whole School, Whole Community, Whole Child (WSCC).

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Kimberly Traub's books on Goodreads (73 books)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Kimberly Traub has 73 books on their all shelf: Firestar's Quest by Erin Hunter, Moonrise by Erin Hunter, Sunset by Erin Hunter, Dawn by Erin Hunter, and...

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Lots of things around the house can be poisonous if used in the wrong way or found by kids. By knowing the risks you can help keep kids safe. Store all medicines - prescription and nonprescription - in a cabinet using a safety latch.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Child behavioral expert Dr. Jennifer Cross explains why screen time should be limited for kids and why some screens are better than others.

Consider this: Nearly half of all children 8 and under have their own tablet device and spend an average of about 2.25 hours a day on digital screens, according to Common Sense Media.

What is all this screen time doing to kids' brains?

This week, a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association Pediatrics found that screen time may be associated with delayed development in young children. The findings were based on parent reports of screen time use at 1 year and developmental skills at ages 2 and 4 years from a group of nearly 8,000 young children. According to data, using a validated screening tool, 1-year-olds who were exposed to more than four hours of screen time per day showed delays in communication and problem solving at ages 2 and 4. Also, more screen time for 1-year-olds was associated with developmental delays in fine motor and personal and social skills at age 2.

This research supports several previous studies that have shown a correlation between the amount of screen time among young children and the presence of developmental delays particularly in communication and problem-solving skills. A landmark National Institutes of Health (NIH) study that began in 2018, for example, found that children who spent more than two hours a day on screen-time activities scored lower on language and thinking tests, and some children with more than seven hours a day of screen time experienced thinning of the brain's cortex, the area of the brain related to critical thinking and reasoning.

"There is emerging evidence that there may be some structural brain changes associated with greater exposure to screen time as a young child," says Dr. Jennifer F. Cross, attending pediatrician and a developmental and behavioral pediatrics expert at NewYork-Presbyterian Komansky Children's Hospital. "If young children spend most of their time engaging with an iPad, smartphone, or the television, all of which are highly entertaining, it can be hard to get them engaged in non-electronic activities, such as playing with toys to foster imagination and creativity, exploring outdoors, and playing with other children to develop appropriate social skills."

Health Matters spoke with Dr. Cross, also an assistant professor of clinical pediatrics at Weill Cornell Medicine, about the impact of screen time on kids' developing brains and what parents and caregivers can do.

We know that kids have easy access to screens, now more than ever. But how do screens affect early childhood development?
For young children, especially those under the age of 3, development is happening rapidly. Young children learn by exploring their environment and watching the adults in their lives and then imitating them. Excessive screen time may inhibit a child's ability to observe and experience the typical everyday activities they need to engage with in order to learn about the world, leading to a kind of "tunnel vision," which can be detrimental to overall development.

When I see children walking with a parent or being pushed in a stroller, they are often playing on a smartphone or a tablet and not paying attention to anything else around them. They will not learn about the world around them if all they're doing is looking at a smartphone. This will not just affect their ability to learn new things, but also how they interact with others and how language develops.

How does screen time impact a child's ability to learn?
To a young child everything is new. Children need to explore their environment using all their senses to learn about the world, so it is very important that they can interact with three-dimensional spaces and activities. This provides so much more information than watching a two-dimensional picture on a screen.

Studies have shown that children under 2 learn less from a video than when learning from another person, and it appears that although children will watch the TV screen by 6 months, understanding the content does not generally occur until after age 2. It's not that they won't be captivated by what's on the screen, but they're not learning from it.

A child will not learn to stack blocks by watching it on a screen. They will learn by touching the blocks, feeling the texture and weight of different materials, and using trial and error to get one to balance on another. This is early problem solving. So, in addition to limiting screen time, it is important to encourage a child to get involved in experiential learning through play with toys because that fosters early problem solving and creativity.

Language development expands rapidly between 1½ to 3 years of age, and studies have shown that children learn language best when engaging and interacting with adults who are talking and playing with them. There is also some evidence that children who watch a lot of television during the early elementary school years perform less well on reading tests and may show deficits in attention.

"There is also some evidence that children who watch a lot of television during the early elementary school years perform less well on reading tests and may show deficits in attention."
- Dr. Jennifer Cross

Tell us more about how screen time affects language and communication.
Research shows that talking with children in a reciprocal dialogue is extremely important for language development and social interaction. It's that back-and-forth "conversation," sharing facial expressions and reacting to the other person - in real life, rather than "passive" listening or one-way interaction with a screen - that improves language and communication skills in young children.

What age is appropriate to introduce screens?
The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommends avoiding screens for children younger than 18 to 24 months, except when video chatting with family. The AAP also recommends limiting screen use for preschool children, ages 2 to 5, to just one hour a day of high-quality programming (think Sesame Street or PBS).

When something needs to get done around the house, it can be helpful to have a young child otherwise engaged and entertained. My advice then to parents is to turn on a short TV show like Sesame Street or Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood - something educational and fun that shows characters interacting and playing cooperatively to model good social skills - rather than giving their child a tablet or a phone. And, if possible, it's best to watch the educational programming with the child so you can actively engage with them about what they're watching and learning.

Suggested Screen Time Use By Age

18 Months and Younger
Avoid use of screen media other than video-chatting.

18 - 24 Months
Parents of children 18 to 24 months of age who want to introduce digital media should choose high-quality programming, and watch it with their children to help them understand what they're seeing.

2 - 5 Years
Limit screen use to 1 hour per day of high-quality programs. Parents should co-view media with children to help them understand what they are seeing and apply it to the world around them.

6 - 12 Years
Place consistent limits on the time spent using media and the types of media, and make sure media does not take the place of adequate sleep, physical activity, and other behaviors essential to health.

12 Years and Older
Designate media-free times together, such as dinner or driving, as well as media-free locations at home, such as bedrooms.

How might screens impact a child's sleep?
As humans, our circadian rhythms and our production of melatonin - the sleep hormone - kicks in when the sun sets. But the blue light from screens inhibits melatonin, which can delay sleep. And watching TV or playing games also keeps our brains and bodies more alert and activated and less ready for sleep. (Tablets and smartphones will suppress the melatonin more than TVs because the screen, and that blue light, is closer to the face.)

According to one study, infants 6 to 12 months old who were exposed to screens in the evening showed significantly shorter nighttime sleep than those who had no evening screen exposure.

For preteens and teenagers, excessive use of screens late at night will affect their sleep, and keeping screens out of the bedroom is advised. Too much time spent on social media as well as lack of sleep can affect behavior and cognitive performance in school and interfere with learning. It has also been shown that excessive screen time and sleep deprivation are linked to obesity, which in turn can affect self-esteem and lead to social isolation and more screen time.

How addictive can digital screens be for young kids?
The problem with mobile devices is that they draw you in, and as we all know it's easy to waste time surfing the internet. They are also so portable and ubiquitous that we cannot manage without them. As adults, we understand some of the drawbacks and make a conscious decision to put the phone down, but for 2- or 3-year-olds, who don't have any understanding of these concerns, if they have been exposed to the phone/tablet since infancy, it becomes their norm and they want to do more of it.

We should also be careful of relying on using screens to distract a child from a problem rather than having them figure it out and learn to resolve it themselves. Using a favorite song to distract a young child who has just fallen and scraped their knee might be OK, but having the parent comfort and cuddle with the child and talk to them is better. Using screen time to distract young children who are having trouble sharing a toy will not help them learn how to share and take turns in the future, although it may be a quick fix in the short term.

Are some screens worse than others?
Television isn't as bad as it was once perceived to be as it can be controlled more easily and stays in one place. Tablets and smartphones are much more accessible because they're portable. You can take them anywhere and use them at any time.

I believe YouTube is generally bad for young children. If left to their own devices, children are often better than their parents at finding their favorite videos that link to other videos and can lead to hours of watching endless clips. The largely unregulated nature of the site allows children to watch almost anything; at best there is little educational value, and at worst it can be violent or inappropriate content. Again, the best course of action is to watch with the child so the parent is engaged in finding content that is appropriate and educational.

What tips do you have for parents to limit screen time for kids?
1. Co-watch whenever possible. If children are going to have screen time, the best thing you can do is to watch the show or game with them to help them understand what they're seeing. Comment on things you notice, ask questions about what is happening, if someone on a show is singing a song, sing along with your child. Engage with them and repeat concepts after the show is over so they're more likely to retain that information.

2. Choose media wisely. Look to organizations like Common Sense Media for reviews about age-appropriate apps, games, and programs to guide you in making the best choices for your children.

3. Keep bedtime, mealtime, and family time screen-free. Don't use screens in the car except for long trips, and consider setting a curfew or an agreed-upon time when your family shuts off all screens. Balancing online and offline time is extremely important.

4. Limit your own phone use. Kids will do what they see their parents doing. At a young age, their parent(s) is the most important person in their life, so they will model whatever behavior they are seeing. If they see that you're behind a screen all day every day, then they'll see that it's acceptable and will want to do the same.

5. Emphasize the big three: sleep, healthy nutrition, and exercise. All three are essential to optimal brain growth and development and health and wellness for children and adults alike. And excessive screen time can impact all three. Children who spend more time in front of screens have been shown to eat more fast food and less fruits and vegetables and get less sleep and exercise. Therefore, it is very important to incorporate healthy lifestyle choices as part of the daily routine, as well as limiting screen time.
Read more on children's health. See tips on how to develop a Family Media Use Plan.

Jennifer F. Cross, M.D., is an attending pediatrician at NewYork-Presbyterian Komansky Children's Hospital and an assistant professor of clinical pediatrics at Weill Cornell Medicine. An expert in the diagnosis and management of children with developmental disabilities, Dr. Cross is board-certified in developmental and behavioral pediatrics.

At A Glance

Featured Expert

Consult an Expert

Find a Doctor or call
877-697-9355

Get The Latest Health and Wellness News

Keep in touch with NewYork-Presbyterian and subscribe to our newsletter.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
What Does Too Much Screen Time Do to Kids' Brains?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Dr. Jennifer Cross, developmental and behavioral pediatrics expert, explains the harmful effects of too much screen time on early childhood development.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
It is a critical time for children and teenagers to learn the importance of taking care of themselves and their communities. Self-care can help kids of all ages become more introspective and aware of their physical and emotional needs. It can also prepare them to effectively handle future stressors. Even small acts of self-care and self-help can decrease stress, improve relationships, and promote wellness of the body and mind. Keep reading to learn more about self-care for kids by age from ChildSavers therapist, Holly Jones, LCSW.

How to explain and role model self-care to kids

Parents, educators, and caregivers can teach their children healthy self-care habits at any age. Adults can do so by helping children schedule self-care breaks/check-ins throughout the day, enacting daily or weekly check-ins throughout the day/week, and role modeling.We can model self-care by acknowledging your own needs as a parent. Kids often learn more from what parents do rather than what they say!

Mindful parent moment: What small step can you take towards caring for yourself today? For example, drinking a glass of water, reminding yourself of something you are grateful for, or pausing to enjoy the sound of birds chirping outside.

Helping children explore self-care

We must remember that parents' ideas about self-care might look different than their children's ideas. Notice how your child responds to suggested self-care activities (examples listed below). Trying a variety of wellness exercises will support kids in discovering what fits their needs best.

Sometimes, it can feel easier during a stressful moment to take the reins and complete a task for your child. When this happens, children miss an opportunity to build self-confidence and problem-solving skills. If a child asks you for help, consider if it is a task they could try on their own or with limited support. It might help to share an affirmation that lets them know you will be there to support them. Consider saying something like, "I believe in you. I'll be here if you get stuck, but you try it first."

Praise the child for trying something new on their own, even if it didn't go as you had hoped! Though this might be more time-consuming than completing it for them, the energy you put into this will help that child feel more confident and prepared next time.

First steps: helping kids start self care practices

Remember to start small. When it comes to encouraging kids to explore self-care on their own, consider their age and developmental level. For younger children, see if they can blow their nose, brush their hair, or get their own drink. Make sure they can access the necessary items to complete the task. If they are having a difficult time, try breaking the task into smaller steps. For middle schoolers and teenagers, see if they can wake themselves up in the morning, prepare a meal, or care for a family pet.

Movement and creative activities can provide an emotional outlet and foster connection. Activities like painting, coloring, or molding clay are less likely to feel like a chore. Music and dance can have huge positive impacts on your child's cognitive development, self-awareness, and physical health. As your child moves their body to the music, their brain releases endorphins to promote well-being and improve mood. Consider playing background music to try to balance your child's mood; if they are struggling with anxiety or frustration, play softer or more uplifting music.

Don't be afraid to get silly! Offer to let your child be the expert and have them teach you a new dance move. Sometimes families need to share a laugh together. Play a game, make a pillow fort, watch a funny movie, or try a puzzle together. Try your best to put away distractions and truly be present in the joyful moments. Having fun together helps families feel more connected and also lets you learn more about your children's likes and dislikes.

Examples of self-care for kids by age

Self-Care for Elementary Schoolers

It is important for families to carve out space for quiet time. A few minutes of singing to your child, reading a book together, or listening to a kid-friendly YouTube meditation can strengthen your connection. Particularly for younger children, consider incorporating a "slow down" time in your family's routine; this will also help train their brain to make mindful choices.

Some children respond well to having their own "calm-down box". Include items that are soothing to the senses, i.e. fidget toy, stuffed animal, lollipop, stress ball, bubble wrap, plastic snow globe, scratch & sniff stickers. When you observe them on the verge of a meltdown, encourage the child to utilize the items in the box to help regulate their emotions. It can be helpful to think of these items as "special tools" rather than for normal play. Make sure that you are encouraging the child with positive language rather than making it part of a consequence. The goal is for the child to eventually recognize on their own situations where they could use the box to calm down!

Practice your breathing by blowing on a pinwheel.

Review a few things you're grateful for that day together.

Help your child(ren) label emotions - these cards can help!

Help them understand their needs as introverts or extroverts.

Helpful self-care video: How to Create A Calm Down Box in 5 Minutes

Calm down boxes can help kids and adults of all ages regulate their bodies and minds. Katy Reynolds, LPC, CTRP-C, shows us what to put in a calm down box for toddlers and adapt the box for children of all ages.

Self-Care for Middle Schoolers & High Schoolers

'Leave it at the door' self-care exercise: Every time you enter a doorway in your home, take the opportunity to have a positive mental shift. Remind yourself to leave the past behind and stay focused on the present.

During or after a stressful event, practice a three-step, self-compassion break with your adolescent or model it for them to practice on their own. The first step is to acknowledge this is a difficult moment (i.e. "This is stressful"). The second step is to acknowledge that stress and suffering are parts of life (i.e. "Other people feel this way; I'm not alone"). The last step is to ask yourself, what can I do to be kind to myself? It might help to think about what a loved one might tell you (i.e. "May I accept myself as I am; may I be strong").

Engage the senses without a screen (phone or computer). Examples include: Lighting a candle, listening to music, playing with sand/play dough, baking something, meditating, going for a walk/run, stretching or yoga, playing a sport, eating something healthy, creating art just for YOU, etc.

Making something nice for someone else, like a friend, teacher, or family member. Sometimes doing something for others and taking the focus off of ourselves can help us like who we are as people.

Helpful Self-Care/Breathing Exercise for Middle and High Schoolers

Learning to regulate our breath and calm our bodies can be a game changer! ChildSavers therapist, Brie Jordan-Cooley, LCSW, RPT, walks us though a quick breathing exercise for kids to use throughout during stressful moments.

Additional Tools for Children's Self-Care

In addition to the activities above, we recommend exploring the following videos and resources from ChildSavers:

Every family is different. There is no one right way to practice self-care for kids by age - see what works for you. The earlier children can practice healthy self-care habits, the easier it will be for them to integrate these practices in their future lives and manage whatever stressors come their way.
Holly Jones, LCSW is a clinician on ChildSavers' School-Based Services team. She started as an intern with ChildSavers in 2016 and has provided mental health services for the past four years in outpatient, school, and community-based settings. Holly is passionate about the importance of the arts and socio-emotional learning in education. She is particularly interested in the benefits of movement, using her background in dance to assist clients in the therapeutic process. In her spare time, she enjoys exercising, cooking, and caring for animals.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Self-Care for Kids by Age: Everything You Need to Know - ChildSavers

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
It is a critical time for children and teenagers to learn the importance of taking care of themselves and their communities. Self-care can help kids of all ages become more introspective and aware of their physical and emotional needs. It can also prepare them to effectively handle future stressors.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
What Are Social-Emotional Skills?

Social-emotional skills are essential for connecting with others! They help us manage our emotions, build healthy relationships, and feel empathy.

Some examples of social-emotional skills in use are:

Recognizing if someone is sad, and asking if they're ok

Expressing yourself with your friends in a different way than with your parents

Understanding your thoughts and feelings, and being able to relate to others

While these skills may sound complex, social and emotional development begins at a very young age.

Watch to see more about baby's social-emotional development:

Social-Emotional Skills: Know the Basics

When does social and emotional development begin?

Babies start learning these skills from birth! As soon as they begin interacting with the people who care for them, they begin to develop an understanding of feelings.

How do parents impact social-emotional development?

Parents help to nurture social-emotional skills so kids develop healthy relationships with friends and family members. Even as a baby, your little one is picking up on how you respond to their social and emotional needs. They feel safe at home and in your presence. They learn how to empathize, respond to the emotions of others, and say "I'm sorry" by following your lead.

What do social-emotional skills help kids do?

Kids with healthy social-emotional skills are more likely succeed in school, work, and life. Social-emotional skills help kids:

Make friends and keep friendships

Gain confidence

Resolve conflicts

Manage stress and anxiety

Learn social norms

Make appropriate decisions

Resist negative social pressure

Learn strengths and weaknesses

Gain awareness of what others are feeling

How long does it take to develop social-emotional skills?

Social-emotional growth takes time. Early experiences with family, caregivers, and peers greatly impact social and emotional development, but throughout our lives we will continue to be shaped by our experiences! These experiences can include meeting new people, overcoming difficult situations, or even raising children.

Social-Emotional Abilities

Is your child meeting their social-emotional abilities?

Be on the lookout for these abilities as your child grows. They are encouraging signs that your child is making progress in their social and emotional development.

Developing social-emotional skills can boost your child's confidence and help them succeed in school, work, and life.

Missing one or two abilities should not cause alarm, as every child develops differently. However, if they are missing multiple abilities, be sure to talk with your healthcare provider.

Social-Emotional Tips

What you can do to help your child's social-emotional development

Be a model of the emotions and behaviors you want your child to show. You are your child's first teacher and they look up to you as a role model.

Be responsive to your child's emotions and behaviors. Responding will help to develop trust between you and your child.

Ask open-ended questions, such as "What would you do?" to help develop problem-solving skills.

Use stories to talk to your child about different social situations and how each person might be feeling.

Encourage kids to try new things and learn how much they can do.

Play games to teach kids how to take turns, win and lose, share, and negotiate. Ask yourself these questions when choosing a game for family game night.

Ask your child questions when they are upset. These questions can be about why they are upset, or offering alternatives to understand the root of their unhappiness. For example, "Would you like to brush your teet h or take a bath first?"

Sit with your child when using a screen (not recommended before 18 months) and make it a social activity, e.g. asking them questions or playing turn-taking games.

Social-Emotional Activities

What to Watch For

How to address social-emotional issues and delays

The sooner your child receives help in developing their social-emotional skills, the better off their health and well-being will be. Your healthcare provider may be able to help you address the issue or refer you someone who can help.

Here are a few examples of specialists who may be able to help your child:

Child psychologist

Social worker

Neuropsychologist

Psychiatrist

Occupational therapist

Speech-language pathologist

Developmental and behavioral pediatrician

Visit Understood.org or Child Mind Institute for more information and resources on social-emotional development.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
What Are Social-Emotional Skills? | Child Development Skills

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Learn how develping social-emotional skills help us manage emotions, build healthy relationships, and show empathy and understanding.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Mindfulness Exercises for Kids in the Classroom - Waterford.org

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Use these 51 mindfulness activities to help children recognize and manage their thoughts, emotions, and actions—all important SEL skills.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.embed_code
51 Mindfulness Exercises for Kids in the Classroom

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
In order to continue enjoying our site, we ask that you confirm your identity as a human. Thank you very much for your cooperation.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Why These Child Psych Books From the 1980s Are All Over Parenting Facebook Groups Today

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Louise Bates Ames’ advice may seem “old-fashioned,” but experts say much of it remains worth heeding.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
​​​​​​​​​​Sleep is just as important to your children's development and well-being as nutrition and physical activity. The amount and quality of sleep we have can affect our safety, how alert we are, as well as our memories, moods, behavior, and learning abilities. Establishing good sleep practices while your children are young will not only benefit you, but it will help them for many years to come.
Visit our section on Baby - Sleep for articles specific to ages 0 to 12 months.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.keywords[]
sleep~ bedtime~ nap~ rest~ child sleep~ sleeping~ nighttime~ nightmare~ curfew~ sleep method~ big kid bed~ bunk bed~ crib~ toddler sleep~ teen sleeping~ depression and teen~ too much sleep~ tired~ amount of sleep recommended~ aasm

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
​​​​​​​​​​Sleep is just as important to your children's development and well-being as nutrition and physical activity. The amount and quality of sleep we have can affect our safety, how alert we are, as well as our memories, moods, behavior, and learning abilities.

# data[].attributes.headline
19 must read books for kids to understand their emotional and mental health

# data[].attributes.subject
19 must read books for kids to understand their emotional and mental health

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
It's shocking what you find in some of the children's books from other generations - even from our own when we were little. Some tell your child it's not okay to cry, others tell them that girls can't do this because it's a "boys" thing, some tell little ones that all it's okay to go with a stranger as long as it's an adult, and that's only to name a few. The potential danger is immense, not only to their physical health but to their emotional health as well. So, we've done our research to find the best children's books about mental health to ensure your bedtime stories are just as powerful as they are enjoyable.

We were quite disappointed to see that there are very few children's book about mental health or that teach them a valuable lesson. However, the ones we did find are amazing and we highly recommend adding the following children's books about mental health into your bedtime routine.

1) You Should, You Should

Written and illustrated by Ginny Tilby

We love You Should, You Should so much that we have added it into our summer Kid's Calming Krate (which is still available for sign ups). This children's book is about peer pressure, where all the other animals want the main character to do things that are harmless, but that the main character simply doesn't want to do. It's about staying true to who you are and doing what you think is right.

2) The Very Cranky Bear

By Nick Bland

Scholastics has a wide range of children's books about mental health, with this one being one of our favorites. The Very Cranky Bear is about helping other's cheer up when they're not feeling so happy. Not only does it teach your little one about being unhappy but it also teaches them about helping others who are struggling.

3) Glad Monster, Sad Monster

By Ed Emberley and Anne Miranda

If you're looking for an interactive way to teach your little one about emotions, Glad Monster, Sad Monster is it as it walks you and your child through all the moods of little monsters (and kids!).

4) Taking a Bath with a Dog and Other Things That Make Me Happy

By Scott Menchin

This children's book about mental health tells the story of a little girl who is feeling sad, but who turns her mood around by doing things that make her happy. It's a great book that helps your child recognize that they do have control over the way they feel.

5) Mouse Was Mad

By Linda Urban and illustrated by Henry Cole

Mouse Was Mad is great for parents struggling with an angry child, as it shows the different ways they can express anger, whether it's stomping like a bear or being silent like a mouse.

6) The Way I Feel

Written and illustrated by Janan Cain

A wonderful children's book about mental health is, The Way I Feel. It helps children understand their emotions and also places an emphasis on the fact that it's okay to feel that way.

7) My Many Colored Days

By Dr. Seuss

You can't go wrong with a Dr. Seuss children's book about mental health. My Many Colored Days is great for children learning about their emotions and it can be used as they grow to open up communication about the way they feel.

8) When Sophie Gets Angry...Really, Really Angry

By Molly Bang

Here's an oldie but a goodie! When Sophie Gets Angry... Really, Really Angry is a powerful book about anger and frustration, whether its surrounding siblings, sharing or many things in between.

9) Sometimes I'm Bombaloo

By Rachel Vail, illustrated by Yumi Heo

Sometimes I'm Bombaloo is all about a little girl who is typically a well-behaved girl but who sometimes loses her temper. It teaches your little one some good coping methods that can be beneficial for the entire family.

10) Llama, Llama, Mad At Mama

By Anna Dewdney

The Llama Lama series is an excellent collection of books, and this one in particular explores feeling angry and how to overcome it.

11) Can I Catch It Like a Cold?

By the Center for Addiction and Mental Health, illustrated by Joe Weissmanin

If there's any children's book about mental health that you should get, it's Can I Catch It Like a Cold. It was made in partnership with The Centre for Addiction and Mental Health and discusses what depression is and how it is treated, and helps ease a child's anxiety about being around others who are mentally ill.

12) Listening to My Body

By Gabi Garcia, illustrated by Ying Hui Tan

Listening to My Body is great children's book that helps your little one make a connection between their emotions and body sensations. We highly recommend this one for children with anxiety.

13) How Are You Feeling Today, Baby Bear?

By Jane Evans, illustrated by Laurence Jackson

For children living in a home that is a little stormy, How Are You Feeling Today Baby Bear is definitely a must-have book. It takes the child on a journey towards exploring and naming their emotions, with side notes for adults looking for ways to open up communication about the way the little one is feeling.

14) A Terrible Thing Happened

By Margaret M. Holmes, illustrated by Cary Pillo

A Terrible Thing Happened is a powerful children's book for little ones who have witness traumatic event, whether it was abuse, bullying, natural disasters, suicides, etc. It also provides you, the adult, with ways to help traumatized children overcome these dark days.

15) The Sad Book

By Michael Rosen

The Sad Book is a beautiful book that explains sadness and depression to children. It also branches into grief and loss, and offers children ideas on ways to cope.

16) When Worries Get Too Big

Written and illustrated by Karl Dunn Buron

When Worries Get Too Big is a great children's book about mental health. It provides them with useful relaxation techniques and strategies to help alleviate anxiety and worry.

17) The Princess and the Fog

By Lloyd Jones

The Princess and the Fog is one of the best children's books about mental health. It tells the story of a little princess who had everything until "the fog" came, which helps children learn about their depression and the many ways they can deal with difficult feelings.

18) The Huge Bag of Worries

Written by Virginia Ironside, illustrated by Frank Rodgers

An excellent book for children with anxiety is The Huge Bag of Worries, as it is all about this little girl who has a big blue bag of worries that follow her and more importantly, what to do about it.

19) What to Do When You Worry Too Much

Written by Dawn Huebner, Ph.D., illustrated by Bonnie Matthews

What To Do When You Worry Too Much is probably one of the most recommend books for children with anxiety, from both the Anxiety Gone team and our audience. It's an interactive story that helps children and parents learn useful techniques to alleviate anxiety and of course, to understanding what is going on.

The next time you're reading a bedtime story, think about the messages the words are actually telling your child. You'd be shocked. So, avoid them altogether by replenishing your book shelf with these children's books about mental health.
This post was originally published on Anxiety Gone.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
19 Must-Read Books to Help Kids Understand Their Emotional and Mental Health

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
It's shocking what you find in some of the children's books from other generations - even from our own when we were little. Some tell your child it's not okay to cry, others tell them that girls can't do this because it's a "boys" thing, some tell little ones that all it's okay to go with a stranger as long as it's an adult, and that's only to name a few.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Focusing on a task for a long period of time can be difficult for adults, let alone kids. Enter: brain breaks. Brain breaks are short, physical activities that, when interspersed with periods of academic work, can help improve students' attention, efficiency, enjoyment, creativity, and retention of information.

These breaks can be as simple as doing a set of jumping jacks or high knees before diving back into schoolwork-at home or at school. Let's take a look at why children may benefit from including brain breaks in their own homework routine.

Why Brain Breaks Work

Taking a pause for the mind while activating the body enhances learning. Research shows that periodic brain breaks can vastly improve kids' ability to stay engaged during more focused work. Plus, short, frequent bursts of instruction are more effective for many students than fewer, longer lessons.

In the classroom, your child's teacher might use brain breaks from a kids' fitness program like GoNoodle or HOPSports. These short physical activity videos, which are often set to upbeat music, encourage kids to move around and re-set their brains so that they can engage more effectively with their studies.

In other words, brain breaks "get the wiggles out." In addition to the physical benefits, brain breaks are good for your child's mental health. Periodic bursts of exercise can reduce stress and school-related frustration, clearing the way to get back to learning.

Using Brain Breaks at Home

At home, you can use brain breaks in much the same way as teachers do. If your child is struggling with homework, whether this is due to trying to comprehend challenging material or simply staying on task, have them do one or two of these activities.

They're a simple way to fight frustration and boredom while improving focus. Plus, brain breaks can help fulfill your child's daily need for physical activity.

Brain Break Strategies

While school-based programs often use videos to set the scene and demonstrate moves, none of the activities below require screens. For some kids, it's easy to get sucked in and try to avoid returning to their task.

However, if online-led activities work better for your family and/or prove more engaging for your child, they are still an option and there are many to choose from. Aim to create a reliable schedule with timed activities that won't take up too much time meant for academics.

Tell your child in advance how long the brain breaks and chunks of schoolwork will last. This system gives your child structure and can make learning and play activities more fun and exciting, a strategy that works well for competition-driven kids.

Research shows that shorter blocks of instruction are more effective for many kids, with younger kids maxing out after about 10 minutes and older kids lasting up to a half-hour or more.

But finding the right balance will vary from student to student. Aim to tailor activity break timing to your child's specific needs, attention span, and learning style.

Perfect Timing

Involve Your Child

Depending on your child's age and interest level, you can decide to dictate what the brain break activities will be, allow your child to choose from a set menu of options, or let them come up with their own brain break ideas. It's great to get buy-in from your student-but don't let overly complex or unfeasible activity break ideas derail getting back on track with studying.

If your child is coming up with their own brain break options, be sure to set up specific parameters for how long the activities can last, where they occur, what supplies are needed, and how simple they should be. Make sure kids have enough space available for the desired activity.

Indoor Brain Breaks

Kids can do these inspiring brain break ideas. Be sure they have enough space to move freely.

Try jumping jacks, jumping rope, high knees, or other jumps. Challenge your child to do a certain number of several kinds of jumps, or ask them to see how many jumps they can do in 60 seconds. Repeat several times with the aim of beating their record. Add in classic jump rope rhymes for extra complexity.

Shadowbox. If your child is interested in martial arts or boxing, have them try out varying series of jabs, uppercuts, hooks, cross jabs, and other punches. They can also try out kicks, such as sidekicks, front kicks, and roundhouse kicks. If they are unfamiliar with these moves, there are many free tutorials available online.

Take a spin with a hula hoop. Get out a hula hoop and time how long your child can keep it going. From there, they can progress to incorporating various advanced skills, such as moving the hoop up or down their body-and back again.

Play "keep-it-up" with a beach ball or balloon, or play another quick balloon game. These activities may be more fun with a partner but can also be modified to play by oneself.

March, run, skip, grapevine, bear crawl, high-step, or any other move of their choice around the house or down a hallway and back. Again, you can use a timer to motivate your child to complete a set course at increasing speeds. Another option is to make a mini obstacle course or circuit for your child to complete, such as hop on one foot around the sofa, shimmy under the dining room table, leap over the backpack, skip to the kitchen sink, and crab crawl back to the start.

Shoot baskets on an indoor, over the door hoop. These easy-to-install baskets come with soft, inside-safe balls but kids still get the fun of basketball.

Do push-ups, planks, downward dogs, or stretches. Your child can come up with their own series or switch off with your child on leading a mini-workout or yoga workout. You might also consider doing a family plank challenge.

Bounce or jump on a mini-trampoline (or on the bed). Few activities get out the wiggles and get the heart pumping more effectively (or enjoyably) than jumping.

Play a round or two of ping-pong. If you have a ping pong table, great. If not, you can play on any table or flat surface; you just need paddles and balls. For added fun, set up a family round robin, tracking wins over the course of a week or more, with a small prize for the victor at the end.

Set up a mini putting green by putting a golf ball into a cup or box. Decide on pre-determined goals, such as increasing the distance or number of strokes allowed to make it into the cup, to add to the challenge.

Have a mini dance party. Pick a couple of songs and rock out. Alternatively, sing a few songs or try karaoke. Many karaoke versions of popular songs are available for free online.

Create a brain break jar, with a range of activities, variations, and places on paper slips. Choose a few and perform the task, like "hop 10 times / on one foot / in the kitchen."

Go treasure hunting. Tell your child to go find "something soft and purple" or "something that can play music" and bring it back to you.

Take a balance test. Put a paper or plastic plate on your child's head and have them walk across the room while keeping the plate in place. Make it trickier by adding something to the plate, like a small beanbag (easy), a handful of green beans (medium), or a ping pong ball (challenging).

Go on an imaginary roller coaster ride. In a chair, have your child mimic putting on a harness, lean back (as the coaster climbs up a hill), lean side-to-side (as the coaster twists and turns on the track), and raise their hands up high (as the coaster plunges down a hill). They can even add unhooking the harness and stumbling off of the coaster at the end.

Breathe and move. Have your child stand and add a movement to each breath. They might raise one leg to a bent-knee or tree pose position, for example, while inhaling (lift) and exhaling (lower). Alternatively, raise arms to the sky for the inhale, then slowly lower hands to the toes for the exhale. Do several different moves to challenge balance and regulate breath.

Outdoor Brain Breaks

If the weather and your location permits, taking brain breaks outside gives your child a change of scenery, a dose of fresh air, and often, more room to move.

Walk or run around the block to get the blood pumping. Bring your dog if you have one. For added motivation, time each lap and have your child work towards beating a specific time.

Bike, scoot, skateboard, or in-line skate around the block. To make this efficient, be sure to have their chosen mode of transportation ready. Don't forget the helmet.

Play fetch with your dog. Playing ball with a pup raises the heart rate and provides instant stress relief. Then, spend a few minutes petting or cuddling your pet-the perfect cool-down transition back into academics.

Play catch with a parent, sibling, or friend. Alternatively, dribble a soccer ball or basketball, or shoot baskets if you've got a basketball hoop nearby.

Draw a hopscotch court with sidewalk chalk and play a game or two. Then, for kids who benefit from a longer break and/or less physical activity, do some sidewalk drawings before returning to schoolwork.

Play on the swings. Or a slide, play structure, or climber, if one is handy.

Play a quick game of tennis or badminton. If you've got the necessary equipment accessible, get a game going or just volley with a partner. Alternatively, your child can hit a tennis ball against a backboard or wall.

Play the 7-up game. All you need is a smooth, flat surface (a wall or a floor) and a bouncy ball.

A Word From Verywell

Instead of arguing over schoolwork, instituting brain breaks can have the positive impact you want (kids learning and getting homework done) without the stress (or the yelling). Plus, the above suggestions are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to brain break options.

Use your imagination-and your child's interests-to guide you in finding the best activity options for your child. And you can join in on the brain break fun, too. Your kids will enjoy their activity breaks more if you participate with them, and you'll get the physical and mental health benefits of a break as well.

Doing the breaks together also models the engagement you want to see in your child-and is a great way to bond, showing your child that you are in this together.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
What are brain breaks? They are short, fun activities that help kids recharge and refocus when school or homework is stressing them out.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
42 Ways To Make Your School and Classroom More Green

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Put sustainability first with these top tips.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
PBS LearningMedia | Teaching Resources For Students And Teachers

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Inspire your students with thousands of free teaching resources including videos, lesson plans, and games aligned to state and national standards.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Welcome to LessonPlanz.com, the lesson plans search engine.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Support for Schools and Families - Action for Healthy Kids

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
We help create healthier schools by bringing all the members of a school community together and equipping them with the tools and resources they need to make change happen.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Serve water at every snack and meal, and make sure it is available throughout the program day.

Water is the best drink for children in out-of-school-time programs. It is calorie-free, hydrating, and low-cost!

Serve water at every snack, and make sure it is available throughout the program day. Encourage children to drink water whenever they are thirsty.

Do not serve sugar-sweetened beverages (like soda, fruit drinks, sports drinks, and fruit-ades) during your programs; these drinks provide a lot of sugar and calories that children's bodies don't need. Children do not need sport and energy drinks because most sports drinks are designed for endurance athletes who exercise for hours at high intensity. Sports drinks contain lots of sugar and calories.

Create an account for your program-it's quick and easy-then assess how closely your program environment and practices align to the OSNAP goals and create a customized plan for water-promotion practices and policies at your program.

Find ideas on how to engage staff and children in drinking water at your program every day.

Clearly lay out your program rules for promoting water consumption.

Find some activities to help you encourage kids to drink water!

Communicate with families about drinking water.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.keywords[]
serve promote water snack children s out-of-school afterschool program

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Water is the best drink for children in out-of-school-time programs. Serve water at every snack, and make sure ...

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Main portal for the Washington State Department of Health. Links to all other content and information about DOH programs.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Banishing Brown Bag Boredom

Watch and Learn

Overcoming Childhood Diabetes

Pairing nutrition with an active lifestyle and educating our children on those values can change the face of the disease for the future.

Find Nutrition Experts

Need serious help making a plan? The nutrition experts in our professional membership are ready to help you create the change to improve your life.

Find a Nutrition Expert

Find Nutrition Experts

Need serious help making a plan? The nutrition experts in our professional membership are ready to help you create the change to improve your life.

Find a Nutrition Expert

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Watch and Learn Pairing nutrition with an active lifestyle and educating our children on those values can change the face of the disease for the future. Need serious help making a plan? The nutrition experts in our professional membership are ready to help you create the change to improve your life.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Nemours KidsHealth - the Web's most visited site about children's health

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
KidsHealth is the #1 most-trusted source for physician-reviewed information and advice on children's health and parenting issues. For parents, kids, teens, and educators, in English and in Spanish.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Following the decision in State v. Blake, if you were convicted of drug possession prior to February 2021, you may be eligible to have your conviction vacated, your sentence reduced, or your court fees refunded.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Following the decision in State v. Blake , if you were convicted of drug possession prior to February 2021, you may be eligible to have your conviction vacated, your sentence reduced, or your court fees refunded.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
To use the sharing features on this page, please enable JavaScript.

Read about symptoms, causes, treatment and prevention for over 1000 diseases, illnesses, health conditions and wellness issues. MedlinePlus health topics are regularly reviewed, and links are updated daily.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Information on symptoms, causes, treatment and prevention for over 1000 diseases, illnesses, health conditions and wellness issues.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
1. Track gratitude and achievement with a journal. Include 3 things you were grateful for and 3 things you were able to accomplish each day.

2. Start your day with a cup of coffee. Coffee consumption is linked to lower rates of depression. If you can't drink coffee because of the caffeine, try another good-for-you drink like green tea.

3. Set up a getaway. It could be camping with friends or a trip to the tropics. The act of planning a vacation and having something to look forward to can boost your overall happiness for up to 8 weeks!

4, Work your strengths. Do something you're good at to build self-confidence, then tackle a tougher task.

5. Keep it cool for a good night's sleep. The optimal temperature for sleep is between 60 and 67 degrees Fahrenheit.

6. "You don't have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step." - Martin Luther King, Jr. Think of something in your life you want to improve, and figure out what you can do to take a step in the right direction.

7. Experiment with a new recipe, write a poem, paint or try a Pinterest project. Creative expression and overall well-being are linked.

8. Show some love to someone in your life. Close, quality, relationships are key for a happy, healthy life.

9. Boost brainpower by treating yourself to a couple pieces of dark chocolate every few days. The flavonoids, caffeine, and theobromine in chocolate are thought to work together to improve alertness and mental skills.

10. "There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside of you." -Maya Angelou. If you have personal experience with mental illness or recovery, share on Twitter, Instagram and Tumblr with #mentalillnessfeelslike. Check out what other people are saying here.

11. Sometimes, we don't need to add new activities to get more pleasure. We just need to soak up the joy in the ones we've already got. Trying to be optimistic doesn't mean ignoring the uglier sides of life. It just means focusing on the positive as much as possible.

12. Feeling anxious? Take a trip down memory lane and do some coloring for about 20 minutes to help you clear your mind. Pick a design that's geometric and a little complicated for the best effect. Check out hundreds of free printable coloring pages here.

13. Take time to laugh. Hang out with a funny friend, watch a comedy or check out cute videos online. Laughter helps reduce anxiety.

14. Go off the grid. Leave your smart phone at home for a day and disconnect from constant emails, alerts, and other interruptions. Spend time doing something fun with someone face-to-face.

15. Dance around while you do your housework. Not only will you get chores done, but dancing reduces levels of cortisol (the stress hormone), and increases endorphins (the body's "feel-good" chemicals).

16. Go ahead and yawn. Studies suggest that yawning helps cool the brain and improves alertness and mental efficiency.

17. Relax in a warm bath once a week. Try adding Epsom salts to soothe aches and pains and help boost magnesium levels, which can be depleted by stress.

18. Has something been bothering you? Let it all out...on paper. Writing about upsetting experiences can reduce symptoms of depression.

19. Spend some time with a furry friend. Time with animals lowers the stress hormone - cortisol, and boosts oxytocin - which stimulates feelings of happiness. If you don't have a pet, hang out with a friend who does or volunteer at a shelter.

20. "What lies before us and what lies behind us are small matters compared to what lies within us. And when you bring what is within out into the world, miracles happen." - Henry David Thoreau. Practice mindfulness by staying "in the present." Try these tips.

21. Be a tourist in your own town. Often times people only explore attractions on trips, but you may be surprised what cool things are in your own backyard.

22. Try prepping your lunches or picking out your clothes for the work week. You'll save some time in the mornings and have a sense of control about the week ahead.

23. Work some omega-3 fatty acids into your diet -they are linked to decreased rates of depression and schizophrenia among their many benefits. Fish oil supplements work, but eating your omega-3s in foods like wild salmon, flaxseeds or walnuts also helps build healthy gut bacteria.

24. Practice forgiveness - even if it's just forgiving that person who cut you off during your commute. People who forgive have better mental health and report being more satisfied with their lives.

25. "What appear to be calamities are often the sources of fortune." - Disraeli. Try to find the silver lining in something kind of cruddy that happened recently.

26. Feeling stressed? Smile. It may not be the easiest thing to do, but smiling can help to lower your heart rate and calm you down.

27. Send a thank you note - not for a material item, but to let someone know why you appreciate them. Written expressions of gratitude are linked to increased happiness.

28. Do something with friends and family - have a cookout, go to a park, or play a game. People are 12 times more likely to feel happy on days that they spend 6-7 hours with friends and family.

29. Take 30 minutes to go for a walk in nature - it could be a stroll through a park, or a hike in the woods. Research shows that being in nature can increase energy levels, reduce depression and boost well-being.

30. Do your best to enjoy 15 minutes of sunshine, and apply sunscreen. Sunlight synthesizes Vitamin D, which experts believe is a mood elevator.

31. "Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new." -Albert Einstein. Try something outside of your comfort zone to make room for adventure and excitement in your life.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
1. Track gratitude and achievement with a journal. Include 3 things you were grateful for and 3 things you were able to accomplish each day. 2. Start your day with a cup of co­ffee. Coff­ee consumption is linked to lower rates of depression.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
You can download this article as a PDF ( English, Spanish).

Many children and adults spend hours in front of a screen. They watch TV or videos, play games, send and receive text messages, use apps and social media, browse the Internet and more. This can be fun and, in some cases, educational, but make sure it doesn't take too much time from other activities or expose your child to harm.

What Is Wrong With Too Much Screen Time?

Too much screen time can:

Take away from time talking and playing with family and friends

Take the place of physical activity and lead to weight gain

Interfere with developing a good self-concept and body image

Affect reading skills

Cause attention span problems

Make violence look normal

Expose children to adult behaviors, such as sex, alcohol, tobacco and drug use

Media Use Guidelines by Age

For children younger than 18 months, avoid use of media other than video-chatting. If parents want to introduce media for children ages 18 to 24 months, select high-quality apps your child can interact with and use them with your child. Rather than using screens, choose activities that promote good brain growth, such as talking, playing, singing and reading.

Limit screen time to 1 hour per day for children ages 2 to 5. Choose high-quality media and view or play it with your child when possible. Avoid fast-paced programs and apps. Slower-paced content used along with an adult might help children learn.

Children ages 6 and older benefit from consistent limits on time spent using media and guidance with choosing media. Allow plenty of time for active play, sleep, interacting with peers, homework and time with family.

Visit HealthyChildren.org/MediaUsePlan to create a family media use plan that is right for your family.

Screen Use Tips

Involve your child in setting guidelines for choosing TV shows, games and computer activities. Use guides and ratings to help you, but beware of claims that a program is educational. Oftentimes, there is no evidence to back such claims.

Use the social media apps your child uses, and follow or friend them.

Keep the TV off and keep all screens away during meals.

Avoid using screens 1 hour before bedtime and keep mobile devices out of your child's bedroom at night.

Keep TVs and computers out of children's bedrooms. Keep them in a central place instead.

Set certain blocks of time or days as media-free, and plan other fun things to do.

Avoid using screen entertainment as a reward or as a way to calm or soothe a child.

Turn off the TV when a chosen program is over. Record shows to watch later, and skip the ads.

Watch or use media with your child. Talk about what you see and how problems can be solved without violence.

Use a kitchen timer or app to set limits on screen time.

Listen to music, books on tape or podcasts instead of looking at a screen.

Be a good role model and limit your own screen use.

If your family is trying to cut back on screen time, take small steps and make it clear to your child that it's not a punishment.

Teach children the purpose of advertising. Talk about unrealistic messages in ads.

On TVs made after January 2000, use the V-chip to block out shows with sex and violence. If you have cable, use the cable company's parental control settings.

Use a filter to block sites you don't want your child to see. However, these aren't foolproof - you still need to supervise.

Explain that people your child may meet online are not always who they say they are. Tell your child that what they read may not be true and what they write or send may not be private.

Teach Children To:

Never use a credit card or give out personal information unless you say it's OK. This includes name, home address, phone number, age, race, family income, school name or address or friends' names.

Never share their password, even with friends.

Log out of social networking sites when away from the computer or device.

Never meet face to face with someone they "meet" online, unless a parent goes with them to a public place.

Tell a parent or another adult if they get messages that make them feel uncomfortable. Never answer those messages.

Never use bad language or send mean messages online.

Never post or send photos that they wouldn't want their parents or teacher to see.

Never copy information and claim it's their own or copy software unless it is clearly marked "free."

Know what kinds of sites you allow and why. Make sites off-limits if they are obscene, pornographic, violent, hate-filled, racist or offensive in other ways.

Set strong privacy and security settings and understand that nothing online is ever truly private.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Many children and adults spend hours in front of a screen. They watch TV or videos, play games, send and receive text messages, use apps and social media, browse the Internet and more.

# data[].attributes.body
Lease said this was a great resource

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
A large assortment of free graphics including inquiry cards, posters, screening tools and graphic organizers for all the crosscutting concepts and science and engineering practices.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
World-class resources on art and cultural objects for learners from around the globe

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Learning for Justice seeks to uphold the mission of the Southern Poverty Law Center: to be a catalyst for racial justice in the South and beyond, working in partnership with communities to dismantle white supremacy, strengthen intersectional movements and advance the human rights of all people.

We support this mission by focusing our work with educators, students, caregivers and communities in these areas:

1. Culture and Climate

2. Curriculum and Instruction

3. Leadership

4. Family and Community Engagement

Since our founding as Teaching Tolerance in 1991, we have had a strong foundation of providing educational resources, and we are building on that foundation with expanded engagement opportunities for communities, especially in the South.

Our free educational resources-articles, guides, lessons, films, webinars, frameworks and more-help foster shared learning and reflection for educators, young people, caregivers and all community members. Our engagement opportunities-conferences, workshops, and school and community partnerships-provide space where people can harness collective power and take action.

Through this continual cycle of education and engagement, we hope that we can build and maintain meaningful relationships with communities and we can all move from learning for justice to creating it.

You can learn more about the reasons for our name change here and read the announcement of our new name here.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Learning for Justice seeks to uphold the mission of the Southern Poverty Law Center: to be a catalyst for racial justice in the South and beyond, working in partnership with communities to dismantle white supremacy, strengthen intersectional movements and advance the human rights of all people.

# data[].attributes.body
Section 1: Humanizing Pedagogy & STI: Decolonizing the Social Studies Curriculum and Pedagogy:

These readings help you to consider ways you are decolonizing the curriculum, providing a counter narrative, an accurate portrayal or history, and affirming and honoring students individual and collective identities.

Humanizing Pedagogy Resources shared with my teaching team at the Xito Institute:
(Links to an external site.)

Spring, Joel.  Deculturalization and the Struggle for Equality: Ch One
Download One,  Ch Two
Download Two, Ch Three
Download Three, Ch Four
Download Four, Ch Five
Download Five

Toward an Ethnic Studies Pedagogy: Implications for K-12 Teachers.
Download  Toward an Ethnic Studies Pedagogy: Implications for K-12 Teachers.

Freire, Paulo - Pedagogy of the Oppressed Ch.1
Download Freire, Paulo - Pedagogy of the Oppressed Ch.1

Regeneration and Transformation
Download Regeneration and Transformation

Counter-storytelling and Decolonizing Curriculum
Download Counter-storytelling and Decolonizing Curriculum

Talk to Teachers, James Baldwin
Download Talk to Teachers, James Baldwin

En Comunidad suggests these text examples in their sample scripted lessons
(Links to an external site.).  Consider using some of these texts in your unit and lesson planning work.  The overarching essential questions from En Comunidad are also helpful ways to think about designing a culturally relevant Scope and Sequence of units. En Comunidad authors also visited us last quarter, watch their visit here
(Links to an external site.)!

Howard Zinn Project
(Links to an external site.)

Lies My Teacher Still Tells: Developing a Critical Race Perspective Toward the Social Studies
(Links to an external site.)

New NCSS Position Statement
(Links to an external site.)

Check out Decolonizing SS resources from: National Council for the Social Studies
(Links to an external site.) + C3 Framework - (Inquiry Arc
(Links to an external site.) page 16)

Check out Decolonizing SS resources from:  Washington State Social Studies Website
(Links to an external site.)

Street Data - A Pathway Toward Equitable Schools
(Links to an external site.)

Since Time Immemorial Curriculum from OSPI
(Links to an external site.)

Slides from STI Training for our class
(Links to an external site.)

Recording from the STI Online Training Feb. 2nd
(Links to an external site.)Access Passcode: t#^J8arD

Here are more materials from the STI trainings here,
Download here, here
Download here, here
Download here and here
Download here

STI work in an Inquiry Based C3 Model
Download STI work in an Inquiry Based C3 Model

3-5th grade Textbook: "The State We Are In" - chapters integrate in STI concepts, free download
Download 3-5th grade Textbook: "The State We Are In" - chapters integrate in STI concepts, free download

Free Webinars about Teaching about Native American cultures from Smithsonian
(Links to an external site.)

Bellingham Public Schools ongoing work with STI curriculum and partner with Lummi and Nooksack communities
(Links to an external site.)

Example Land Acknowledgement
(Links to an external site.)

The Salmon People Project
(Links to an external site.)

American Indian Perspectives on Thanksgiving
(Links to an external site.)

Five Critical Orientations to Teaching Indigenous Studies Curriculum
Download Five Critical Orientations to Teaching Indigenous Studies Curriculum

Collection of Indigenous Curriculum Resources for Mini-Units
(Links to an external site.)

Teaching Native and Indigenous History in Washington State
(Links to an external site.)

NCSS Statement on SS Education that Respects and Affirms Indigenous People's and Nations
(Links to an external site.)

Resource for Indigenous People's Day
(Links to an external site.)

Additional One Note Link to Indigenous People's Day Resources
(Links to an external site.)

Honoring and Supporting Native Students
(Links to an external site.)

Native and Indigenous Picture Book List
(Links to an external site.)

Treaty Day Resource
(Links to an external site.)and Amplifier Campaign
(Links to an external site.)

Teach about Race, Racism, Racial Justice and Black Lives Matter Principles and Embed into Ongoing Units

BLM Principles Starter Slides for Teachers for BLM in Schools Week
(Links to an external site.)

Art strategies/lessons
(Links to an external site.)

BLM Principles in sign language
(Links to an external site.)

BLM Posters, activities and language
(Links to an external site.).

Family Communication
(Links to an external site.)

Picture Books: Our Skin
(Links to an external site.) and Something Happened in our Town
(Links to an external site.)

Shared Read resource for lesson plan
(Links to an external site.)

Stamped from the Beginning for Younger Kids
(Links to an external site.) with Reading Guide
(Links to an external site.)

Amplifier Art – BLM
(Links to an external site.)  - see art lesson from BLM in Schools

Alvin Ailey - Revelations
(Links to an external site.)

Jason Reynolds: Your Dream Is
(Links to an external site.)

ELMO explains Black Lives Matter
(Links to an external site.)

Sesame Street Teaches about Racial Justice
(Links to an external site.)

Will.i.am sings What I Am
(Links to an external site.)

They're not too young to talk about race
(Links to an external site.)

Paper Plate portraits
(Links to an external site.)

BLM resources
(Links to an external site.)

Lessons for BLM
(Links to an external site.)

Black Lives Matter Lessons
(Links to an external site.) (includes lesson on Something Happened in Our Town)

BLM Minilessons
(Links to an external site.)

Reading with the Lens of Power and Perspective Padlet
(Links to an external site.)

Power and Privilege Unit Plan Idea
(Links to an external site.)- Teachers College

Inventory Classroom Library Representation with Students
(Links to an external site.)

Sesame Street Town Hall on Racism and White Privilege
(Links to an external site.)

Lets Talk! Facilitating Critical Conversations with Students
(Links to an external site.)

Different Colors of Beauty
(Links to an external site.)

Learning for Justice -  Social Justice Standards
(Links to an external site.)

Teaching about Reconstruction
(Links to an external site.)

Learning for Justice Article: A New Set of Rules - check out the many resources/articles from their site
(Links to an external site.)

Learning for Justice Diverse Text Selection Tool
(Links to an external site.)
Download Learning for Justice Diverse Text Selection Tool (Links to an external site.)

Teacher Selection Diverse Text Brief Tool
(Links to an external site.)

Culturally Responsive Curriculum ScoreCard for Evaluating Curriculum
(Links to an external site.)

Who Can Stay Here?  Documentation and Citizenship in Children's Literature
(Links to an external site.)

800,000 Reasons to Teach About DACA
(Links to an external site.)

Using Latino Children's Literature to Situate Social Studies Education
Download Using Latino Children's Literature to Situate Social Studies Education

Section 2: Planning Inquiry & Research

The heart of inquiry
(Links to an external site.), is supporting students in asking GENUINE, authentic questions.  For your unit plan for this course please attempt to plan with the Inquiry Unit template from our Unit Planning resource page.

Inquiry in the Social Studies powerpoint.
Download Inquiry in the Social Studies powerpoint.

Inquiry Arc Page 12 from C3 Framework
(Links to an external site.)

Inquiry UNIT PLAN template
(Links to an external site.)

C3 Teachers Website  - Hub of Resources!
(Links to an external site.)
(Links to an external site.)

Edutopia Inquiry video
(Links to an external site.)

Inquiry in Education
(Links to an external site.)

Writing Essential, Compelling or Enduring Questions
(Links to an external site.)

Section 3: Teaching Current Events and Supporting Civic Discourse

Teaching about Civic Engagement, Voting Rights!

Lesson we taught in BPS in response to King Family Call to Action : Voting Rights
(Links to an external site.)

Voices and Voting from Learning for Justice
(Links to an external site.)

Vote for our Future NEA Resource Guide
(Links to an external site.)

Fun VOTE GO NOODLE video
(Links to an external site.)

A Day On - Voting Rights MLK
(Links to an external site.)

Bellingham School District - Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Blog Resource Page
(Links to an external site.)

A Cartoon History of Voting Rights
(Links to an external site.)

Mock Election Tool Kit
(Links to an external site.)

History of Voting in the US
(Links to an external site.)

Amplifier Art - Voting Rights
(Links to an external site.)

Equality's Call Read Aloud
(Links to an external site.)

Virtual Visit from Author Pre-Recording
(Links to an external site.)

Lesson Plan ideas for Equality's Call
(Links to an external site.)

Keke Palmer Explains the History of Voting
(Links to an external site.)

Teaching About Controversial Issues - A Resource Guide
(Links to an external site.)

Suggestions and Sentence Stems for Engaging Families in Controversial Issues
(Links to an external site.)

Learning for Justice - Teaching About Controversial Issues
(Links to an external site.)

Should Teachers be Apolitical?
(Links to an external site.)

Teaching Tolerance Becomes Learning for Justice!
(Links to an external site.)

History teachers revisit their curriculum after the Capitol riots
(Links to an external site.)

Teaching About The Insurrection: Mt. Vernon Middle School advisory plans
(Links to an external site.) and other lesson slides here ,
(Links to an external site.)here,
(Links to an external site.)here
(Links to an external site.) , Pear Deck example here
(Links to an external site.)

Teach MLK in Connection with the Attack on the Capitol
(Links to an external site.)

Water Protectors - First Indigenous Author Receives Caldecott Award
(Links to an external site.)

Water Protectors Author, Carole Lindstrom reads aloud the book and shares her story
(Links to an external site.)

Teaching Amanda Gorman's Inaugural Poem Lesson Example from Mt. Vernon Lenguas y Literaturas team
(Links to an external site.)

Teaching about the 2020 Elections - PBS
(Links to an external site.)

Teaching during the Elections
(Links to an external site.)

Teaching During the Elections Resources from Mt. Vernon School District
(Links to an external site.)

Anti-Racist Teaching Resources - 2020 from La Venture Middle School
(Links to an external site.)

Section 4: Social Studies Podcasts to Listen and Reflect

Foot Soldier Podcast
(Links to an external site.)

Behind the Lies My Teacher Told Me
(Links to an external site.)

The Worst Thing We Have Ever Done
(Links to an external site.)

Sacred is Sacred
(Links to an external site.)

Visions of Education Podcast
(Links to an external site.)

Teaching Hard History Podcast - See Season 2
(Links to an external site.)

Stuff You Missed in History Class Podcast
(Links to an external site.)

Critical Literacy Podcast - Show 51
(Links to an external site.)

A House Divided by Immigration Status Podcast
(Links to an external site.)

Section 5: Planning for Effective Differentiated Social Studies Instruction for ALL Learners

Universal Design for Learning
(Links to an external site.)

Planning for Diverse Needs - Dr. Baker Potato
(Links to an external site.)
(Links to an external site.)

GLAD Cognitive Content Dictionary Strategy
(Links to an external site.)

Social Studies Lesson Planning and Multilingual Student Supports
(Links to an external site.)

The Danger of a Single Story
(Links to an external site.)

World Peace Game
(Links to an external site.)

Section 6: Planning for Interdisciplinary Social Studies Instruction

Integrating Arts & Social Studies

Arts Impact of Washington
(Links to an external site.) and Living Voices
(Links to an external site.)

Balancing SS and Literacy Instruction
(Links to an external site.)
(Links to an external site.)

NewsELA
(Links to an external site.) - non-fiction articles, leveled to match student's independent reading level

Section 7: Discussion  and Cooperative Learning Strategies
(Links to an external site.)

(ie. discussion protocols such as "what did you notice, what are the implications and what questions do you have?", chalktalk or silent conversation, fishbowl discussions, socratic seminars, developing discussion norms, think-pair-share/turn and talk)

Dialogue Stiflers in Class Discussions
Download Dialogue Stiflers in Class Discussions

Tredway article on Discussions
Download Tredway article on Discussions

What a Good (and Bad) Seminar Looks Like Discussion Article
Download What a Good (and Bad) Seminar Looks Like Discussion Article

Going Around in (Questioning) Circles Discussion Article
Download Going Around in (Questioning) Circles Discussion Article

Chapter 11.Student Directed Investigations.doc
Download Chapter 11.Student Directed Investigations.doc

Lecture or Direct Instruction
(Links to an external site.)

C3 Social Studies 2015 Conference Doodle Graphic by Linda Quinn
Download C3 Social Studies 2015 Conference Doodle Graphic by Linda Quinn

Section 8: Other Social Studies Strategies and Resources

Cult of Pedagogy - Teaching Social Studies Blog
(Links to an external site.)

SEE Chapter 9: Five Great Teaching Strategies from the required text: Social Studies in Elementary Education: Concepts, Inquiry, Skills, Questioning, Cooperative Learning Groups.

Check out the many resources on the Open Educator Resources OER Hub from the OSPI website.
(Links to an external site.)

Check out Bruce Larson's Instructional Strategies book in the library
(Links to an external site.)

Elementary Civics You Decide Example CBA
Download Elementary Civics You Decide Example CBA

National Curriculum Standards for Social Studies - Themes
Download National Curriculum Standards for Social Studies - Themes

OSPI Suggested SCOPE and SEQUENCE
Section 1: Humanizing Pedagogy & STI: Decolonizing the Social Studies Curriculum and Pedagogy:

These readings help you to consider ways you are decolonizing the curriculum, providing a counter narrative, an accurate portrayal or history, and affirming and honoring students individual and collective identities.

Humanizing Pedagogy Resources shared with my teaching team at the Xito Institute:
(Links to an external site.)

Spring, Joel.  Deculturalization and the Struggle for Equality: Ch One
Download One,  Ch Two
Download Two, Ch Three
Download Three, Ch Four
Download Four, Ch Five
Download Five

Toward an Ethnic Studies Pedagogy: Implications for K-12 Teachers.
Download  Toward an Ethnic Studies Pedagogy: Implications for K-12 Teachers.

Freire, Paulo - Pedagogy of the Oppressed Ch.1
Download Freire, Paulo - Pedagogy of the Oppressed Ch.1

Regeneration and Transformation
Download Regeneration and Transformation

Counter-storytelling and Decolonizing Curriculum
Download Counter-storytelling and Decolonizing Curriculum

Talk to Teachers, James Baldwin
Download Talk to Teachers, James Baldwin

En Comunidad suggests these text examples in their sample scripted lessons
(Links to an external site.).  Consider using some of these texts in your unit and lesson planning work.  The overarching essential questions from En Comunidad are also helpful ways to think about designing a culturally relevant Scope and Sequence of units. En Comunidad authors also visited us last quarter, watch their visit here
(Links to an external site.)!

Howard Zinn Project
(Links to an external site.)

Lies My Teacher Still Tells: Developing a Critical Race Perspective Toward the Social Studies
(Links to an external site.)

New NCSS Position Statement
(Links to an external site.)

Check out Decolonizing SS resources from: National Council for the Social Studies
(Links to an external site.) + C3 Framework - (Inquiry Arc
(Links to an external site.) page 16)

Check out Decolonizing SS resources from:  Washington State Social Studies Website
(Links to an external site.)

Street Data - A Pathway Toward Equitable Schools
(Links to an external site.)

Since Time Immemorial Curriculum from OSPI
(Links to an external site.)

Slides from STI Training for our class
(Links to an external site.)

Recording from the STI Online Training Feb. 2nd
(Links to an external site.)Access Passcode: t#^J8arD

Here are more materials from the STI trainings here,
Download here, here
Download here, here
Download here and here
Download here

STI work in an Inquiry Based C3 Model
Download STI work in an Inquiry Based C3 Model

3-5th grade Textbook: "The State We Are In" - chapters integrate in STI concepts, free download
Download 3-5th grade Textbook: "The State We Are In" - chapters integrate in STI concepts, free download

Free Webinars about Teaching about Native American cultures from Smithsonian
(Links to an external site.)

Bellingham Public Schools ongoing work with STI curriculum and partner with Lummi and Nooksack communities
(Links to an external site.)

Example Land Acknowledgement
(Links to an external site.)

The Salmon People Project
(Links to an external site.)

American Indian Perspectives on Thanksgiving
(Links to an external site.)

Five Critical Orientations to Teaching Indigenous Studies Curriculum
Download Five Critical Orientations to Teaching Indigenous Studies Curriculum

Collection of Indigenous Curriculum Resources for Mini-Units
(Links to an external site.)

Teaching Native and Indigenous History in Washington State
(Links to an external site.)

NCSS Statement on SS Education that Respects and Affirms Indigenous People's and Nations
(Links to an external site.)

Resource for Indigenous People's Day
(Links to an external site.)

Additional One Note Link to Indigenous People's Day Resources
(Links to an external site.)

Honoring and Supporting Native Students
(Links to an external site.)

Native and Indigenous Picture Book List
(Links to an external site.)

Treaty Day Resource
(Links to an external site.)and Amplifier Campaign
(Links to an external site.)

Teach about Race, Racism, Racial Justice and Black Lives Matter Principles and Embed into Ongoing Units

BLM Principles Starter Slides for Teachers for BLM in Schools Week
(Links to an external site.)

Art strategies/lessons
(Links to an external site.)

BLM Principles in sign language
(Links to an external site.)

BLM Posters, activities and language
(Links to an external site.).

Family Communication
(Links to an external site.)

Picture Books: Our Skin
(Links to an external site.) and Something Happened in our Town
(Links to an external site.)

Shared Read resource for lesson plan
(Links to an external site.)

Stamped from the Beginning for Younger Kids
(Links to an external site.) with Reading Guide
(Links to an external site.)

Amplifier Art – BLM
(Links to an external site.)  - see art lesson from BLM in Schools

Alvin Ailey - Revelations
(Links to an external site.)

Jason Reynolds: Your Dream Is
(Links to an external site.)

ELMO explains Black Lives Matter
(Links to an external site.)

Sesame Street Teaches about Racial Justice
(Links to an external site.)

Will.i.am sings What I Am
(Links to an external site.)

They're not too young to talk about race
(Links to an external site.)

Paper Plate portraits
(Links to an external site.)

BLM resources
(Links to an external site.)

Lessons for BLM
(Links to an external site.)

Black Lives Matter Lessons
(Links to an external site.) (includes lesson on Something Happened in Our Town)

BLM Minilessons
(Links to an external site.)

Reading with the Lens of Power and Perspective Padlet
(Links to an external site.)

Power and Privilege Unit Plan Idea
(Links to an external site.)- Teachers College

Inventory Classroom Library Representation with Students
(Links to an external site.)

Sesame Street Town Hall on Racism and White Privilege
(Links to an external site.)

Lets Talk! Facilitating Critical Conversations with Students
(Links to an external site.)

Different Colors of Beauty
(Links to an external site.)

Learning for Justice -  Social Justice Standards
(Links to an external site.)

Teaching about Reconstruction
(Links to an external site.)

Learning for Justice Article: A New Set of Rules - check out the many resources/articles from their site
(Links to an external site.)

Learning for Justice Diverse Text Selection Tool
(Links to an external site.)
Download Learning for Justice Diverse Text Selection Tool (Links to an external site.)

Teacher Selection Diverse Text Brief Tool
(Links to an external site.)

Culturally Responsive Curriculum ScoreCard for Evaluating Curriculum
(Links to an external site.)

Who Can Stay Here?  Documentation and Citizenship in Children's Literature
(Links to an external site.)

800,000 Reasons to Teach About DACA
(Links to an external site.)

Using Latino Children's Literature to Situate Social Studies Education
Download Using Latino Children's Literature to Situate Social Studies Education

Section 2: Planning Inquiry & Research

The heart of inquiry
(Links to an external site.), is supporting students in asking GENUINE, authentic questions.  For your unit plan for this course please attempt to plan with the Inquiry Unit template from our Unit Planning resource page.

Inquiry in the Social Studies powerpoint.
Download Inquiry in the Social Studies powerpoint.

Inquiry Arc Page 12 from C3 Framework
(Links to an external site.)

Inquiry UNIT PLAN template
(Links to an external site.)

C3 Teachers Website  - Hub of Resources!
(Links to an external site.)
(Links to an external site.)

Edutopia Inquiry video
(Links to an external site.)

Inquiry in Education
(Links to an external site.)

Writing Essential, Compelling or Enduring Questions
(Links to an external site.)

Section 3: Teaching Current Events and Supporting Civic Discourse

Teaching about Civic Engagement, Voting Rights!

Lesson we taught in BPS in response to King Family Call to Action : Voting Rights
(Links to an external site.)

Voices and Voting from Learning for Justice
(Links to an external site.)

Vote for our Future NEA Resource Guide
(Links to an external site.)

Fun VOTE GO NOODLE video
(Links to an external site.)

A Day On - Voting Rights MLK
(Links to an external site.)

Bellingham School District - Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Blog Resource Page
(Links to an external site.)

A Cartoon History of Voting Rights
(Links to an external site.)

Mock Election Tool Kit
(Links to an external site.)

History of Voting in the US
(Links to an external site.)

Amplifier Art - Voting Rights
(Links to an external site.)

Equality's Call Read Aloud
(Links to an external site.)

Virtual Visit from Author Pre-Recording
(Links to an external site.)

Lesson Plan ideas for Equality's Call
(Links to an external site.)

Keke Palmer Explains the History of Voting
(Links to an external site.)

Teaching About Controversial Issues - A Resource Guide
(Links to an external site.)

Suggestions and Sentence Stems for Engaging Families in Controversial Issues
(Links to an external site.)

Learning for Justice - Teaching About Controversial Issues
(Links to an external site.)

Should Teachers be Apolitical?
(Links to an external site.)

Teaching Tolerance Becomes Learning for Justice!
(Links to an external site.)

History teachers revisit their curriculum after the Capitol riots
(Links to an external site.)

Teaching About The Insurrection: Mt. Vernon Middle School advisory plans
(Links to an external site.) and other lesson slides here ,
(Links to an external site.)here,
(Links to an external site.)here
(Links to an external site.) , Pear Deck example here
(Links to an external site.)

Teach MLK in Connection with the Attack on the Capitol
(Links to an external site.)

Water Protectors - First Indigenous Author Receives Caldecott Award
(Links to an external site.)

Water Protectors Author, Carole Lindstrom reads aloud the book and shares her story
(Links to an external site.)

Teaching Amanda Gorman's Inaugural Poem Lesson Example from Mt. Vernon Lenguas y Literaturas team
(Links to an external site.)

Teaching about the 2020 Elections - PBS
(Links to an external site.)

Teaching during the Elections
(Links to an external site.)

Teaching During the Elections Resources from Mt. Vernon School District
(Links to an external site.)

Anti-Racist Teaching Resources - 2020 from La Venture Middle School
(Links to an external site.)

Section 4: Social Studies Podcasts to Listen and Reflect

Foot Soldier Podcast
(Links to an external site.)

Behind the Lies My Teacher Told Me
(Links to an external site.)

The Worst Thing We Have Ever Done
(Links to an external site.)

Sacred is Sacred
(Links to an external site.)

Visions of Education Podcast
(Links to an external site.)

Teaching Hard History Podcast - See Season 2
(Links to an external site.)

Stuff You Missed in History Class Podcast
(Links to an external site.)

Critical Literacy Podcast - Show 51
(Links to an external site.)

A House Divided by Immigration Status Podcast
(Links to an external site.)

Section 5: Planning for Effective Differentiated Social Studies Instruction for ALL Learners

Universal Design for Learning
(Links to an external site.)

Planning for Diverse Needs - Dr. Baker Potato
(Links to an external site.)
(Links to an external site.)

GLAD Cognitive Content Dictionary Strategy
(Links to an external site.)

Social Studies Lesson Planning and Multilingual Student Supports
(Links to an external site.)

The Danger of a Single Story
(Links to an external site.)

World Peace Game
(Links to an external site.)

Section 6: Planning for Interdisciplinary Social Studies Instruction

Integrating Arts & Social Studies

Arts Impact of Washington
(Links to an external site.) and Living Voices
(Links to an external site.)

Balancing SS and Literacy Instruction
(Links to an external site.)
(Links to an external site.)

NewsELA
(Links to an external site.) - non-fiction articles, leveled to match student's independent reading level

Section 7: Discussion  and Cooperative Learning Strategies
(Links to an external site.)

(ie. discussion protocols such as "what did you notice, what are the implications and what questions do you have?", chalktalk or silent conversation, fishbowl discussions, socratic seminars, developing discussion norms, think-pair-share/turn and talk)

Dialogue Stiflers in Class Discussions
Download Dialogue Stiflers in Class Discussions

Tredway article on Discussions
Download Tredway article on Discussions

What a Good (and Bad) Seminar Looks Like Discussion Article
Download What a Good (and Bad) Seminar Looks Like Discussion Article

Going Around in (Questioning) Circles Discussion Article
Download Going Around in (Questioning) Circles Discussion Article

Chapter 11.Student Directed Investigations.doc
Download Chapter 11.Student Directed Investigations.doc

Lecture or Direct Instruction
(Links to an external site.)

C3 Social Studies 2015 Conference Doodle Graphic by Linda Quinn
Download C3 Social Studies 2015 Conference Doodle Graphic by Linda Quinn

Section 8: Other Social Studies Strategies and Resources

Cult of Pedagogy - Teaching Social Studies Blog
(Links to an external site.)

SEE Chapter 9: Five Great Teaching Strategies from the required text: Social Studies in Elementary Education: Concepts, Inquiry, Skills, Questioning, Cooperative Learning Groups.

Check out the many resources on the Open Educator Resources OER Hub from the OSPI website.
(Links to an external site.)

Check out Bruce Larson's Instructional Strategies book in the library
(Links to an external site.)

Elementary Civics You Decide Example CBA
Download Elementary Civics You Decide Example CBA

National Curriculum Standards for Social Studies - Themes
Download National Curriculum Standards for Social Studies - Themes

OSPI Suggested SCOPE and SEQUENCE
Download OSPI Suggested SCOPE and SEQUENCE

Depth of Knowledge Increases Rigor
(Links to an external site.)

Zaretta Hammond's Ready for Rigor Framework
(Links to an external site.)

The Content-Free Social Studies Classroom: James Kendra
(Links to an external site.)

15 Ways to Make Social Studies More Exciting
(Links to an external site.)

More Social Studies Instructional Strategies
(Links to an external site.)

(Links to an external site.)
(Links to an external site.) RUBRICS

Using Rubrics
(Links to an external site.)

Single Point Rubrics - Cult of Pedagogy
(Links to an external site.)

Designing Rubrics
(Links to an external site.)

KNOWING YOUR STUDENTS / Classroom Culture

A New Set of Rules: Making a Classroom Constitution
(Links to an external site.)

Developing Positive Relationships with Students
(Links to an external site.)

The Power of Positive Relationships
(Links to an external site.)

The Power of Being Seen

Download OSPI Suggested SCOPE and SEQUENCE

Depth of Knowledge Increases Rigor
(Links to an external site.)

Zaretta Hammond's Ready for Rigor Framework
(Links to an external site.)

The Content-Free Social Studies Classroom: James Kendra
(Links to an external site.)

15 Ways to Make Social Studies More Exciting
(Links to an external site.)

More Social Studies Instructional Strategies
(Links to an external site.)

(Links to an external site.)
(Links to an external site.) RUBRICS

Using Rubrics
(Links to an external site.)

Single Point Rubrics - Cult of Pedagogy
(Links to an external site.)

Designing Rubrics
(Links to an external site.)

KNOWING YOUR STUDENTS / Classroom Culture

A New Set of Rules: Making a Classroom Constitution
(Links to an external site.)

Developing Positive Relationships with Students
(Links to an external site.)

The Power of Positive Relationships
(Links to an external site.)

The Power of Being Seen

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Explore reading basics as well as the key role of background knowledge and motivation in becoming a lifelong reader and learner. Watch our PBS Launching Young Readers series and try our self-paced Reading 101 course to deepen your understanding.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
What if... What do you think... What...misc. How... I wish... When... Which...

Which quality best describes your life-exciting, organised, dull-and why?

Which quality do you dislike most about yourself-laziness, selfishness, childishness-and why?

Which place would you most like to visit-Africa, China, Alaska-why?

Which holiday has the most meaning for you-Canada Day, Thanksgiving, Valentines Day-and why?

Which is least important to you-money, power, fame-and why?

Which is most important to you-being popular, accomplishing things, being organised-and why?

Which is your favourite Star Wars character (or other movie/book/t.v. show, etc.)? Why?

Why... Misc...

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Writing Prompts/Journal Topics - CanTeach

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
What is… What is something you dislike about yourself? What is something you do well? What is your favourite room in your home and why? What is a good neighbour? What is the worst thing parents can do to their … Continue reading →

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.keywords[]
science universe space "black hole" life virus climate history education evolution biology humanism

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Animation videos explaining things with optimistic nihilism since 12,013. We're a team of illustrators, animators, number crunchers and one dog who aim to spark curiosity about science and the world we live in. To us nothing is boring if you tell a good story.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Advancing media through exploration and experimentation.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
ClassDojo helps teachers, parents, and students build amazing classroom communities.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Social Stories are a social learning tool that supports the safe and meaningful exchange of information between parents, professionals, and people with autism of all ages. The people who develop Social Stories are referred to as Authors, and they work on behalf of a child, adolescent, or adult with autism, the Audience.

Authors follow a defined process that begins with gathering information, discovering a topic that 'fits' the Audience, and the development of personalized text and illustration. Most frequently associated with short, simple Stories, there are also Social Articles for use with older or more advanced individuals. The Social Story Definition and ten defining characteristics (The Social Story Criteria) guide the development of every Story and result a patient, respectful, and unassuming quality that is the hallmark of the approach. It is that quality that distinguishes genuine Social Stories from social scripts, skill checklists, or 'social stories' that do not meet the current the definition.

What is a Social Story? presentation

There is only one definition for the term 'Social Story':

A Social Story accurately describes a context, skill, achievement, or concept according to 10 defining criteria. These criteria guide Story research, development, and implementation to ensure an overall patient and supportive quality, and a format, "voice", content, and learning experience that is descriptive, meaningful, and physically, socially, and emotionally safe for the child, adolescent, or adult with autism.
Additional Social Story Information:
Where did Social Stories come from?
The History of Social Stories

Check your knowledge of Social Stories
The Social Story Quiz and Answers to The Social Story Quiz

Is THIS a Social Story?
It is NOT a Social Story if... An initial screening instrument

How the Social Story Criteria keep pace with experience and research
Social Stories 10.0 - 10.2 Comparison Chart

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
What Is A Social Story? - Carol Gray - Social Stories

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Social Stories are a social learning tool that supports the safe and meaningful exchange of information between parents, professionals, and people with autism of all ages. The people who develop Social Stories are referred to as Authors, and they work on behalf of a child, adolescent, or adult with autism, the Audience.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Contact Us

Use the form on the right to contact us.

You can edit the text in this area, and change where the contact form on the right submits to, by entering edit mode using the modes on the bottom right.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Use the form on the right to contact us. You can edit the text in this area, and change where the contact form on the right submits to, by entering edit mode using the modes on the bottom right.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Printable math worksheets from K5 Learning

Our free math worksheets cover the full range of elementary school math skills from numbers and counting through fractions, decimals, word problems and more. All worksheets are printable files with answers on the 2nd page.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Free kindergarten to grade 6 math worksheets, organized by grade and topic. Skip counting, addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, rounding, fractions and much more. No advertisements and no login required.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Search for a Worksheet | Free - Distance Learning, worksheets and more: CommonCoreSheets

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The best source for free math worksheets. Printable or interactive. Easier to grade, more in-depth and 100% FREE! Kindergarten, 1st Grade, 2nd Grade, 3rd Grade, 4th Grade, 5th Grade and more!

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Vol. 79

No. 4

Abstract

How Does Anxiety Affect Engagement?

Where Engagement Starts (or Stops)

Working With Inaccurate Thinking

Shifting to Independent Engagement

A Matter of Skill Building

For students with anxiety, the path to engagement requires both accommodations and skill building.

Credit: EMMA HANQUIST / IKON IMAGES

Abstract

How Does Anxiety Affect Engagement?

Where Engagement Starts (or Stops)

Working With Inaccurate Thinking

Shifting to Independent Engagement

A Matter of Skill Building

Juan asks to go the bathroom for the third time during math. Sue Lee gets easily frustrated and weepy when the teacher redirects her to a writing assignment. Sam has their head down and appears to be sleeping again during science. What do they have in common? Disengagement: one of the most common challenges educators face. When a student fails to participate, initiate a school task, or complete a task, it can halt a lesson, consume educators' time, and further demoralize both the educator and student. Students who are chronically disengaged are at risk for academic failure, behavior issues, social isolation, and other poor outcomes.

Many of these students struggle with the executive functioning skills required for task initiation, attention, planning, and organizing. However, addressing these skills with well-known executive functioning strategies alone can fall flat unless another aspect of disengagement is addressed: student anxiety. Anxiety has doubled in children and adolescents during the pandemic (Racine et al., 2021) and can cause weaknesses in these crucial areas of executive functioning, as well as in accurate thinking and independence. Left unaddressed, this volatile mix can play a major role in increasing disengagement.

The path to engagement, therefore, requires a focus on (1) anxiety-reduction, and (2) a combination of explicitly taught accurate thinking and executive functioning skills.

How Does Anxiety Affect Engagement?

When a student's anxiety increases, several other skills are negatively affected, including working memory (the ability to hold information and retrieve it as needed); self-regulation (the ability to adapt, emotionally and behaviorally, to the current situation); executive functioning skills (the ability to visualize future goals and complete the steps to achieve them); and accurate thinking (McEvoy et al., 2019; Moran, 2016).

There are several types of inaccurate thinking that are commonly associated with anxiety: "thinking on the downside" (assuming the worst will happen, which further escalates anxiety); all-or-nothing thinking ( I am terrible at math! rather than I am just struggling with long division); and catastrophic thinking ( If I fail this quiz, I'll need to repeat 8th grade). When these overwhelming thoughts flood an anxious student, executive functioning strategies alone (such as graphic organizers or rubrics) won't be enough to help them initiate an activity. These pervasive negative thoughts can also lead to problematic behaviors such as avoidance, disengagement, arguing, and shutting down.

Many students suffering from anxiety can get caught in a debilitating cognitive cycle: Poor executive functioning can cause a student to be anxious in school, and anxiety can cause poor executive functioning and inaccurate thinking, which in turn causes disengagement. By incorporating strategies to reduce inaccurate thinking and increase executive functioning skills, we can help students become more engaged.

But where exactly do we begin? With the simple process of starting and ending a task.

It's difficult for an anxious student to stop a preferred activity, let alone initiate a dreaded one. It's like jumping into cold water.

Where Engagement Starts (or Stops)

By asking anxious students to start an activity or persist on a task, we may be asking them to do something they don't have the skills to execute. Engagement requires support at each stage of readiness. Here we will break down the components of a transition to illustrate the different skills required to stop, shift, or initiate a task and prescribe strategies that can help students gain the necessary skills to engage in work independently. Here's the flow:

Setting up for engagement ⟶ Stopping the first activity ⟶ Making a cognitive and physical shift ⟶ Initiating and engaging in the activity

Setting Up for Successful Engagement

Students sometimes balk when asked to start an assignment, but there's a common factor in this resistance that we can actively address. The most difficult transition we can ask of students is from a preferred activity to a non-preferred activity (e.g., "Recess is over. It's time to take your math quiz!") and this process can almost guarantee a problematic response (Minahan, 2014). It's difficult for the student to stop a preferred activity, let alone initiate a dreaded one. It's like jumping into cold water, and it's a set-up for resistance.

Instead, when we know a transition will be a challenge, we can ease students in gradually by adding an intermediate step: "Come in from recess and you can draw." Once the student is drawing at their desk, they are engaging in most of the variables you need for them to do math: sitting in a chair, holding a pencil, and touching a piece of paper. Now, you are only asking them to shift to a different piece of paper. That behavioral momentum can allow them to transition smoothly.

First: Stopping the Initial Activity

The typical transition warning in classrooms is the five-minute countdown: "Five more minutes and then we need to stop reading and put our books away!" We assume that it's an adequate prompt, but we also know that, inevitably, several students will not actually stop reading in five minutes. Judging time, pacing, and making a plausible plan to be accomplished in five minutes is quite difficult, and the simple countdown prompt doesn't support the development of these skills.

In order to stop, students need a plan (Minahan, 2014). Students may need explicit instruction about how to find a stopping place and pick an activity that is a good match for the time allotted. Check-ins ("What's your five-minute plan?") can illuminate a student's inaccurate plan ("I will finish the book") and help the student recalibrate: "Actually, in five minutes you can only get to the end of this chapter. That is a good stopping plan." We can also give directions that include an action plan: "Five more minutes, which means finish the math problem you are on-don't start another one." This level of specificity increases the likelihood of a smooth transition and improves the student's ability to make an effective five-minute plan in the future.

Another strategy for ending an activity is to use the word pause instead of stop (Minahan, 2014). The word stop itself is an all-or-nothing term that can elicit all-or-nothing thoughts: the student can hear "stop" as "this needs to be completed and perfect," making it hard for them to stop when this isn't the case. However, they can typically pause without distress or misunderstanding.

We can also make time visible. Visual strategies, such as drawing the beginning and end times on an analog clock with a dry erase marker, can help students visualize time goals. As opposed to a countdown timer, which can spike anxiety, seeing the available volume of time on an analog clock facilitates metacognitive thinking about how to use the time available (Ward & Jacobsen, 2014a). You can also place sticky notes on the clock with goals for each chunk of time (see Figure 1). Students can use these time markers to track their progress, self-monitor, and know when they need help.

Second: Cognitively and Physically Shifting to the Next Activity

Before transitioning physically to the next activity, students must make a mental shift: They have to stop thinking about science, for example, and start thinking about math. They then must visualize the items needed ( For math I need a calculator, my math journal, and a pencil on my desk) and physically gather those materials. Teachers often verbally walk students through this process, which helps the students get ready for class but doesn't build the skills they need to do it independently.

Instead, try a visual approach: Take an aerial photograph of a student's desk labeled "ready for math journals" that displays, from first person view, where the pencil, calculator, and math notebook are placed (clip art and visual picture schedules are poor substitutes for photographs). Project this to the class when you give the direction, "get ready for math journals." Students can simply arrange their desk to match the photograph, taking out their materials without adult support. Over time, with repetition of the same photograph and prompt pairing, the routine will become encoded into students' long-term memory storage (Ward & Jacobsen, 2014a; Minahan, 2014).

Third: Initiating and Engaging in the Next Activity

Anxiety and executive functioning challenges significantly affect the ability to initiate an activity. In this third step on the path to engagement, we need to provide accommodations and teach the necessary skills to reduce inaccurate negative thinking associated with anxiety and increase the mental imaging skill of task execution. As always, we should start with supportive accommodations.

When a child learns to ride a bike, we provide training wheels until they can ride independently. Similarly, we should provide accommodations to support students to initiate while explicitly teaching new skills. To encourage independent initiation, educators will need to begin by providing accommodations to compensate for the student's inability to initiate, while explicitly teaching strategies to allow them to become independent. If we remove the accommodations before the child has built the skills they need, they'll crash.

Accommodations for initiation need to address both executive functioning skill deficits and inaccurate or negative thinking associated with disengagement. One accommodation that supports executive functioning skills in students is the Get Ready*Do*Done strategy (see Figure 2).

We like to tell students, "Plan your work then work the plan!" But to explicitly teach the executive functioning process of "planning backward to move forward" for completing tasks and assignments, this multisensory method does the trick (Ward & Jacobsen, 2014b). Students start by asking the following questions when looking at the Get Ready*Do*Done planning template:

1. What will it look like when I am "done"?

2. What steps do I need to take or "do" to match my done image?

3. What materials and/or strategies will I need to "get ready"? Are there any obstacles or time robbers I can anticipate? What's my plan to prevent those obstacles?

When students engage in this visualization, they break down tasks into required steps to achieve the envisioned goal. Having a specific place to start can be less overwhelming and help them initiate. This process is first modeled by the teacher; but gradually, students will learn to assist in and create their own assignment plans.

Another go-to strategy to use for helping students initiate and engage in the next activity is to create a "future sketch" (see Figure 3) of what an open-ended or complex multistep assignment will look like. In the example shown, students were directed to: "Create a poster with a title and five pictures. Be sure to include captions for your pictures."

This strategy can help students visualize the outcome and sequence the steps, allowing them to more accurately size up a task and preventing them from shutting down at first glance of the directions (Ward & Jacobsen, 2014b).

Working With Inaccurate Thinking

Negative and inaccurate thoughts can derail initiation altogether, causing an anxious student to be unable to engage in schoolwork for reasons that are invisible to others. When we suspect that negative thinking is at work, it should be measured-not assumed-through data gained from interviewing the student about their thoughts and perceptions of the task difficulty, and their ability to be successful with the task. Students can even express this information independently through personal thought journals.

Two accommodations in particular can help anxious students change the thoughts that are preventing them from initiating a task. The first is "Rating the Difficulty." Because writing is difficult to initiate for many anxious students, we will use writing as the example-but these strategies can be applied to any activity. First, have your student use a scale of 1-5 to rate the difficulty of a writing assignment (5 being very difficult) before and after the activity (Minahan, 2014). In the "before" column, the student might rate it "5-very difficult" due to his anxiety-fueled perception. When you ask again, hours after the assignment is completed, the student is more likely to have an accurate perception and rate the assignment as "2-not too difficult." It's important to use the rating sheet for five or more assignments so even if one day the student's pre-assignment rating is an accurate assessment, the overall pattern of inaccurate thinking will be revealed. Showing the student the rating sheet that includes several ratings (5-7 ideally) can help him realize his initial assessment is often off base and can guide him to more accurate thinking about future assignments.

The second accommodation to support the initiation step for anxious students is to "ask students to continue, not start." Teachers often hand out blank paper, explain an assignment, and ask students to begin, only to notice a few minutes later that a student hasn't started the assignment ... again. During those six minutes, their anxiety is rising, all-or-nothing thoughts are surfacing, and the required skills are decreasing. Consider reordering this process: Help them start long before they are anxious.

Pull the student aside in the morning, preview the assignment, and have them write the first sentence or do the first math problem and then start the next one, stopping mid-sentence or 2/3 of the way through the math problem. You are leaving a dangler on purpose! Then, when the assignment is handed out to the class, you hand the student the previously started paper-essentially asking the student to continue, not start. Instead of the student having an all-or-nothing thought ( I have to write three pages!), the thought, I only have to finish the sentence is much more approachable, and students will often then be able to engage without their inaccurate thinking taking over.

These strategies can give students a more realistic, less overwhelming view of tasks, and most important, teach them to think accurately about future assignments.

Shifting to Independent Engagement

The best way to get students to use these stopping, shifting, and initiation skills and strategies independently is to build their ability to self-monitor-to assess what they need and choose a strategy that will help, without relying on the teacher. Once again, a visual is a great way to move the student along the continuum. In Jessica's December 2017/January 2018 Educational Leadership article " Helping Anxious Students Move Forward ," a sample self-monitoring strategy sheet is included that can help students independently initiate a task. If you build your own self-monitoring outline for students, incorporate the executive functioning strategies from this article and try to avoid omitting strategies that seem obvious-some students need to be taught tools that others use easily (such as chunking or positive thinking).

This self-monitoring sheet could be kept on a student's desk or as a classroom wall chart, allowing the teacher to point to the visual prompt and say, "I see you are having trouble initiating. What strategy would you like to use?" (For example, a strategy for initiation might be starting the assignment the day before, leaving a dangler, or using the Get Ready*Do*Done template.) Stating that the problem is only initiation supports accurate thinking because it emphasizes that a student is having trouble with one small aspect of the assignment, not the whole subject. Eventually, the student will be able to use the chart, and strategy, without prompting.

Finally, because we get more of what we reinforce, we must reward students' strategy use or skill practice, rather than just work production (Minahan, 2014). "Catching" students using engagement strategies, such as giving them points on an activity when they use a strategy from the chart, promotes independence and application of task engagement skills, allowing teachers to increase learning time for every student in their diverse classrooms.

A Matter of Skill Building

The path to student engagement requires an understanding of the impact of executive functioning deficits and anxiety on students' abilities-and a focus on providing accommodations and skill building. When we give students the supports and skills they need, they can engage in school independently while gaining confidence and self-knowledge.

Reflect & Discuss

What transition during the school day most often causes your anxious students to disengage? What strategy outlined by the authors could help?

How have you seen inaccurate thinking interfere with a student's ability to initiate, persist in, and/or stop an activity?

References

McEvoy, P. M., Salmon, K., Hyett, M. P., Jose, P. E., Gutenbrunner, C., Bryson, K., et al. (2019). Repetitive negative thinking as a transdiagnostic predictor of depression and anxiety symptoms in adolescents. Assessment, 26(2), 324-335.

Minahan, J. (2014). The behavior code companion: Strategies, tools, and interventions for supporting students with anxiety-related or oppositional behaviors. Cambridge MA: Harvard Education Press.

Moran, T. P. (2016). Anxiety and working memory capacity: A meta-analysis and narrative review. Psychological Bulletin, 142(8), 831-864.

Racine, N., McArthur, B. A., Cooke, J. E., Eirich, R., Zhu, J., & Madigan, S. (2021). "Global prevalence of depressive and anxiety symptoms in children and adolescents during COVID-19: A meta-analysis." JAMA Pediatrics.

Ward, S., & Jacobsen, K. (2014a, August). Staying a beat ahead. Attention Magazine, 12-15.

Ward, S., & Jacobsen, K. (2014b). A clinical model for developing executive function skills. Perspectives on Language Learning and Education, 21(2), 72-84.

ASCD is a community dedicated to educators' professional growth and well-being.

Let us help you put your vision into action.

ASCD empowers educators to achieve excellence in learning, teaching, and leading so that every child is healthy, safe, engaged, supported, and challenged.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
What Can Teachers Do to Engage Anxious Students?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Vol. 79 No. 4 Abstract How Does Anxiety Affect Engagement? Where Engagement Starts (or Stops) Working With Inaccurate Thinking Shifting to Independent Engagement A Matter of Skill Building For students with anxiety, the path to engagement requires both accommodations and skill building. Credit: EMMA HANQUIST / IKON IMAGES Abstract How Does Anxiety Affect Engagement?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
By Adam Sanchez Illustrator: Nate Kitch One of the most common questions teachers ask at the end of a unit on the Reconstruction era is "Was Reconstruction a success or a failure?" And it's no accident. State and school district standards across the country ask students to, in the words of one Texas state standard, "describe and analyze the successes and failures of Reconstruction."

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
"Who Spent Two Months in Jail for Participating in the Freedom Rides?!"

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
By Erin Green Illustrator: Howard Barry In elementary school, the complex and dynamic history of the Civil Rights Movement is often boiled down to what the late civil rights activist Julian Bond described as "Rosa sat down, Martin stood up, then the white folks saw the light and saved the day."

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Classroom Storyline - Learning in Places

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
These learning engagements walk you through the Learning in Places Seasonal Field-Based Science Storyline, and are designed for use in learning environments such as classrooms, teacher professional development experiences, community based settings or outdoor educational settings.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
"I don't know what to write."

We were several days into our writing unit on personal narratives and Natalie was staring at a blank piece of paper. I went through the questions I ask students to try to help them generate ideas. Pets? Family celebrations? Learning to do something new? Memorable trips you have taken?

"I visit my grandparents in Idaho every summer."

That was the spark.

Natalie wrote about being Nez Percé and Lakota, her dress and shawl that her grandmother sewed for her, and the dances that bring her joy.

I shared her story with her parents at conferences and they were moved. Our school has a parent equity committee and throughout the year they create displays in the hallway cases. The week after conferences, I was pleasantly surprised that Natalie's parents had made a display case in the hall of the school to celebrate Native American Heritage. Included in it was a photograph of Natalie in the dress from her story, jewelry and pots, and a map of Indigenous land. The display also included information about the Dakota Access Pipeline protest at Standing Rock.

One day our class stopped at the display and I read everything to them. That's when the questions began and our climate justice study began in earnest.

"Why are they putting the pipeline there?" "How many pipelines are there?" "How many spills are there?"

I started by looking up a map of existing pipelines in the United States. I printed it out and hung it on the board. The crisscross of lines was so dense in the Southern states we couldn't make out individual lines. Students gasped.

Then I looked up oil spills in the United States and found Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration data on the Department of Transportation website. I printed out their list of Pipeline Failure Investigation Reports and it was more than six pages in a tiny font of pipeline failures spanning from 2003 to 2013. As I flipped page after page of spills, their shock grew.

"That is so many!" "I thought it was just a couple pages but it just keeps on going!" "Why do we put in more pipelines if there are so many spills?" "What happens to the water and animals that live there?"

I could see that my students were hungry to learn more but I am no expert. There is very little curriculum on climate change and I had to be willing to learn alongside my students. I wanted my students to start to understand the scope of change needed to deal with climate change as well as their own ability to push for that change. Fortunately, I had colleagues who felt just as passionately that our students deserve to explore their questions and concerns about our planet. We met frequently to plan and share resources in order to bring this learning to life in our classrooms.
Fossil Fuels
I started with fossil fuels.

I read Molly Bang's Buried Sunlight to the students, which explains how fossil fuels are formed and the many ways we use them. I read aloud books introducing the idea of the commons and our shared earth and resources, and I read aloud about greenhouse gases, global warming, and climate change. I created a wall chart by first drawing simple illustrations of the formation of fossil fuels and the greenhouse effect and transcribed student responses to questions I asked that included "How are fossil fuels formed? What are they made of? What are greenhouse gases? What makes carbon dioxide? Methane? Nitrous oxide?"

Next, I wanted students to explore the difference between individual actions versus ending our dependence on fossil fuels. I wanted them to understand our country's reliance on fossil fuels and that we would need to make big systemic changes in how we get our energy in order to break free from that dependence. Together we made a list of all the ways we use fossil fuels for energy. Students saw that we rely on oil and gas for most of our electricity and vehicle transportation needs.

"If we all shut off the lights when we leave a room or ride our bikes more, is that going to solve our problems with pipeline spills or drilling for more oil? Is that enough to end our dependence on gas and oil?" I asked.

"No!" they responded. "We still have all the cars!" "And we heat our houses with fossil fuels." "And our refrigerators and TVs."

I then posed other questions to them: "Could we stop using all fossil fuels tomorrow and still turn on our lights and heat our house? Do we have other ways to create electricity?"

In order to answer those questions, I knew students needed to learn about renewable, green energy sources - water, wind, solar. I checked out as many books about renewable energy from the library as I could find at various reading levels. I read some aloud to the students. I made charts for wind, solar, and water starting with simple drawings of how wind turbines, solar panels, and water turbines work that students could reference and replicate. Students shared what they learned from the read-alouds and helped to define key terms while I transcribed.

I then gave students papers with headings such as "What I Know About Fossil Fuels" and "What I Know About Solar Power" and asked them to show me everything they learned about the topics. Students worked individually, with partners, and in groups to read and write what they were learning about fossil fuels, global warming, climate change, and green energy. I wanted to see what they understood from the read-alouds, discussions, and books. This allowed students of all reading and writing levels to show their learning in words and pictures. They wrote and drew pictures of how solar panels and wind turbines worked. They learned about hydroelectric power. One student took it upon himself to organize the list of oil spills, state by state, to see where the problem was the worst.
Storyline and the Carson Environmental Oil Company
At this point in the year, each 2nd-grade class was deep into our neighborhood Storyline unit. Storyline is a method of teaching that starts with creating a place and characters that inhabit that space. As the story develops, incidents occur that are developed by the teachers, and the students, in character, must figure out how to respond. We were exploring neighborhoods by creating our own neighborhood with characters that live and work there. Some of our guiding questions were: What is community? What makes a family? What makes a home? Who gets to live where? What happens if you cannot afford a home? What would make a welcoming and inclusive neighborhood? What jobs might we have in our neighborhood? How do communities solve problems?

By now, everyone had a character with a home and a job, including me. As a class, students decided that businesses and services like a library, a public school, and a homeless shelter were important to creating a welcoming community. We built a wall map of our neighborhood. The school display case had inspired similar conversations in the other two 2nd-grade classes and my colleagues and I shared resources in all three classes to start to explore the answers to students' questions. As we started to ask questions about solving community problems and ways to make changes through elected office or civic engagement, my colleague, Christina Self, had a stroke of genius.

She wrote a letter from Mr. James Spencer, CEO of the Carson Environmental Oil Co., asking our three communities if we wanted an oil pipeline running through our towns.
Dear Mayors of Twilight City, Ocean Valley, and Happy Town, I am the CEO of Carson Environmental Oil Company. We are interested in building an oil rig off the coast of Twilight City and Ocean Valley. We would drill the ocean floor for much-needed oil to send out to surrounding communities. We would have to run an oil pipeline through Twilight City, Ocean Valley, and Happy Town in order to send our oil across the state. The pipelines would first go through land without buildings on it, such as forests and parks, and may have to cross the river in Happy Town. There are many benefits to us coming to your town to do this work. First, this will bring many new high-paying jobs to your area. Also, the town will receive a portion of the profits that can go to the improvement of the town. Of course, there will be a few negatives, but not many. We will have to cut down some of the trees in the forest or park and then drill below the river to place the pipe. We may need to buy some homes to tear down in order to lay down the pipeline. I know this might be difficult for some families, but we will pay homeowners so they can relocate. We think the benefits will far outweigh the negatives. Carson Environmental Oil is committed to safety and taking care of the environment. We will do our very best to keep all of the towns safe and to make sure the transport of the oil is safe and that there are no accidents that will harm the natural environment. We would like to begin working immediately, so please find a way to communicate and get feedback from the citizens of your towns. We look forward to a prompt response. Sincerely,
Mr. James Spencer
Our school secretary came in with the letter saying it was very important and I had to sign for it. With great surprise - "What could this possibly be?" - I opened the letter and read it to the class. I couldn't get through the letter before students started expressing their outrage. They couldn't believe that an oil company would even suggest putting a pipeline through our community. Suddenly it was all anyone could talk about in 2nd grade. The neighborhood communities they created were real to students and they felt invested in this place that lived somewhere between their imagination and the real world. The students talked about it on the playground. There were mayoral races in the neighborhoods and the pipeline became a key issue in the race. During the candidate speeches some students spontaneously created protest signs opposing the construction of the pipeline.

After the students elected a mayor, I advised them to call a town hall meeting so members of the community could give testimony about the pipeline.

"There could be an oil spill and it could go into our water!" "We won't be able to drink the water. We won't be able to catch fish and eat them." "They would have to chop down trees and what about the animals that live in the trees? It would harm wildlife." "Without trees, we can't breathe."
Remember Standing Rock
I then had students write persuasive letters to the mayor stating whether or not they supported the pipeline. We went through Mr. Spencer's letter and made a list of pros and cons. I used our persuasive letter writing unit to teach them how to write a strong argument with supporting details.

The mayors from all three communities met to read over the letters they received and talk about what to do. They held a vote in each neighborhood and students unanimously rejected the pipeline. But then I asked students to remember Standing Rock. They learned that another community had initially rejected the pipeline so it was rerouted, impacting a new community. I wanted students to explore the idea that to shift a problem away from us doesn't get rid of the problem, it simply makes a problem for someone else.

"Is it fair that this pipeline will now become someone else's fight?" I asked.

"No!" they responded. "No more pipelines should be built!"

"If communities still use fossil fuels for most of their energy, pipelines will be built to send oil and gas all over the country. What do we need to do to change that?" I asked.

"Solar panels!" "Green energy!" "Electric cars!"

I wanted them to reflect on their own agency and power to act right now. I wanted them to hear about youth inspiring climate action in communities all over the country so they felt empowered rather than defeated. We watched videos and read about Tokota Iron Eyes, who, with other Sioux youth created an online media campaign and petition to bring attention to the Dakota Access Pipeline. Many credit these youth with sparking the #NODAPL movement. The activists talked of respect and care for the environment, protecting the water and the land to sustain life for all living creatures, and leaving future generations a healthy planet. I read students the words of Tokota Iron Eyes: "This entire movement was started by the youth. It just started so small. And then, this entire camp was built."

We watched videos about the youth from Our Children's Trust, suing the United States government over the government's actions that cause climate change and fail to protect public resources. They learned about proposals in our own state to build a liquefied natural gas terminal through a video created by students at the Sunnyside Environmental School, a public school in Portland. This video helped students understand fracking and the amount of resources that go into extracting liquefied natural gas. It was aptly named "LNG: Just Another Dirty Fossil Fuel." At the end of the video, the youth filmmakers asked viewers to call or write our governor to ask her to put a halt to the proposed liquefied natural gas terminal.

I invited students to write to Oregon Gov. Kate Brown if they wanted to share their opinions about the proposed liquefied natural gas terminal. Students who chose to write were able to speak knowledgeably about fossil fuels, climate change, and global warming as well as their right to a livable planet. Many demanded not only a rejection of the liquefied natural gas terminal, but also of any further fossil fuel infrastructure. Instead, they called for investments in renewable, green energy. Their responses included:
"If you put the liquefied natural gas pipeline, that means cutting down animal homes. Instead we could make solar farms, wind farms, solar panels, and underwater turbines. California and Washington said no, that means we can say no! I do not want a dirty world. I want a clean future!" "I don't want to have those darn fossil fuels because it will go into the air and affect people that have asthma. If it continues it could kill them! We can say no even if we are 7. Also little kids have the right to say no. I want no fossil fuels." "I want a future with opportunities. I want a future with exploring the forest trees not a forest without trees." "I don't think we should have liquefied natural gas in Oregon. If we put the LNG terminal in Oregon, we will still be relying on fossil fuels. I think we should start relying on wind and solar power. Wind and solar power is renewable, unlike LNG. Also LNG is bad for the environment in many ways." "We would speed up global warming and the greenhouse effect. Why can't we use renewable energy like solar power? The future I want to live with is no fossil fuels and I want to live with renewable energy." "I know I'm a child. I'm saying we can stop global warming. We can say no." "We deserve a better future."
I learned two valuable things throughout our study of climate justice that have continued to shape my teaching. I learned how to take a student's interest or inspiration and follow the crooked path to make meaning together. I didn't have all the answers: Often I was learning as I researched and explored how to teach climate justice to students hungry to learn about it. Secondly, I learned just how capable young people are of grappling with what seem like complicated ideas. It was clear to them that our current dependence on fossil fuels is not only unsustainable, it is unjust. Educators have a responsibility to start teaching about climate justice at an early age and to teach our youth that they have an important voice that deserves to be heard. It isn't just about their future. They live here now. This is their world too, and the impacts of climate change are already being felt. In order to combat despair, students need the tools to think critically and creatively about how to respond to the most important issue of our lifetime.
RESOURCES
Bang, Molly and Penny Chisholm. 2014. Buried Sunlight: How Fossil Fuels Have Changed the Earth. The Blue Sky Press.

Bang, Molly. 1997. Common Ground: The Water, Earth and Air We Share. The Blue Sky Press.

Rockwell, Anne. 2009. What's So Bad About Gasoline?: Fossil Fuels and What They Do. Collins.

Rockwell, Anne. 2006. Why Are the Ice Caps Melting?: The Dangers of Global Warming. Collins.

"Voices from Standing Rock: Tokata Iron Eyes." Acronym TV. www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2uubENv6MU

"Stories from Standing Rock." Vogue. www.youtube.com/watch?v=QFjnudxcfv0

"LNG: Just Another Dirty Fossil Fuel." Hike the Pipe! www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8CQ9Qrei3c

"Pipeline Spills, 1986Ð2016." nittyjee. www.youtube.com/watch?v=ywCqqhkiq0M

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
How One 2nd-Grader's Story Inspired Climate Justice Curriculum - Rethinking Schools

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
"I don't know what to write." We were several days into our writing unit on personal narratives and Natalie was staring at a blank piece of paper. I went through the questions I ask students to try to help them generate ideas. Pets? Family celebrations? Learning to do something new?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Curriculum based measurement Probe Generator | Writing | Intervention Central|

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The Curriculum based measurement Probe Generator for writing is an important tool that can be included as part of a teacher resources network for classroom management

# data[].attributes.body
Realistic Fiction Writing Unit Plan

Day 1

Make sure all students are reading a Realistic Fiction book in class (not for 2022)

(part 1)Introduce Realistic Fiction Writing

https://youtu.be/HZuvk-leHgM

https://youtu.be/UkNCrBKi3ZY

As a class brainstorm a list of small moments we’ve written about this year (5 min) (make list on my computer and project

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1p0vjb_FdGoggZsjusCVsQgYKJdcZwVKkXM_TjUXIqUw/edit?usp=sharing

Then have students brainstorm a list of possible realistic fiction stories in their writing journal (5 min) (walk around and put a post it on the page they’re writing on)

Share out and add to list on a google doc, project

Tell students to keep thinking of ideas, they can add to their list. In the next few days they will need to choose their favorite idea and begin writing that story.

(part 2 if time) Introduce a Story Arc on doc cam. Have students make their own in their writing journal.

While watching Fireflies Story have students work to fill out story arc. Play story 2 times.

https://youtu.be/nHXABa21HJc

Then have students share arc’s with a partner and then fill out arc as class on doc cam.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/11btfNT8cB6j1r5JbnV2gQ0e1wjbZOMKDf6v2B91I5Oc/edit?usp=sharing

Day 2

Write on board:

How to find ideas for realistic fiction:

-Observe the world

-Re-read small moments from your writing notebook for story ideas.

- Ask “What books do I wish existed in the world?” What would make interesting character traits, struggles, actions?

- Think about an issue that is important to you and create a character who struggles with that issue

Have students open writing journal to brainstorm list of possible realistic fiction stories

Give students 5 minutes to brainstorm ideas and add to list

Have students circle the idea they are going to write about. Share out. Pick the most common theme to write a class story about.

Tell students we are going to co-write a realistic fiction story about the common story topic a lot of them want to write about.

Students silently brainstorm the arc for this story in their head. They may write notes in their writing journal. (3 min)

Students turn and talk and share their ideas (5 min)

Teacher walks around listening for strong ideas. As a class come up with the beginning, main event, main event, middle, main event, main event, end on a story arc. Vote if necessary.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/17C50SBfb_-g_NvCTvDxOtZLaGbOpYN5jWv5gmWWQyXg/edit?usp=sharing

Day 3

Co-Write Class story using arc. I type and project. Finish up to climax in class.

Character and Setting Development

What does your character want? Show what your characters want by putting examples into small moments called scenes.

External v. Internal

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1IrFf97DalyHRpP71qGe-EU4O_1tATzoVGhotx6agRxo/edit?usp=sharing

Project document and refer to it while co-writing beginning - middle of class story.

Day 4

Use Character Worksheet to type climax as a class

Students finish story mountain then fill out their own Character WS

Example class stories

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1qtzH9gndB_YOCgb99XDmWrykHQo1mFjMtdqNkcRlNfM/edit?usp=sharing

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1UtmDK8Ti-3IfgpCiYNDZN1Q_EHuLbGl6Po-6TvmKBe4/edit?usp=sharing

Day 5

“Today I want to teach you that when writers want to create a scene, they need to create drama with dialogue or by describing a small action. Write scenes not a summary. Page 60 in teacher manual.

Student Example in teacher manual

Remind writing in 3rd person.

Project document and refer to it while co-writing the end. Have students share their ideas. Finish co-writing the story

Students finish their Character WS, story mountain, and then begin typing.

Day 6

Show rubric.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1F-mgxZM5TeZ7eAWlIXpGOf4KV-arxXEttgZ1xckQ9Ak/edit?usp=sharing

Students review story mountain, Character WS, and keep typing

Day 7

Show one more student example. Remind writing in 3rd person.

Students review story arc, character and scene worksheet, then begin typing story. Make sure your story begins with a strong lead; setting, action, dialogue, or a combination to create mood.

Day 8 Make a strong ending - maybe use dialogue, images, and whole story reminders to make a lasting impression. How was the main character feeling or what were they thinking?

Continue typing

Day 9 Read whole story. Fill in any gaps. Add detail where needed. Finish typing

Day 10

Review rubric

Self edit, Peer Edit, and I edit

Day 11, Author’s Party, Share stories :)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
In 2015, the Legislature passed Senate Bill 5433 modifying the original 2005 legislation, now requiring the Since Time Immemorial: Tribal Sovereignty in Washington State or other tribally-developed curriculum be taught in all schools. The use of the Since Time Immemorial curriculum has been endorsed by all 29 federally recognized tribes.

The resources below support the integration of tribal history lessons with your existing elementary curriculum.

Primary Elementary K-3

Pathway 1: Stories and Histories of Our Place
Pathway 2: Honoring the Salmon
Pathway 3: Giving Thanks: A Native American Cultural Tradition

Washington State History-4th Grade

Unit 1: Exploring the Pacific Northwest Prior to Statehood: Tribal Homelands
Unit 2: Living in Washington: Celilo Falls
Unit 3: Being Citizens of Washington: Salmon Recovery and the Boldt Decision

U.S. History-5th Grade

Unit 1: Encounter, Colonization, and Devastation: Tribal Homelands
Unit 2: Independence: Revolution and the U.S. Constitution in Indian Country
Unit 3: Legacy for Us Today: Elwha

Ancient Civilization History & World History Resources

The following resources help you integrate tribal history with your Ancient Civilization History and World History courses.

Essential Questions

1. How does physical geography affect the distribution, culture, and economic life of local tribes?

2. What is the legal status of tribes who "negotiated" or who did not "negotiate" settlement for compensation for the loss of their sovereign homelands?

3. What were the political, economic, and cultural forces consequential to the treaties that led to the movement of tribes from long-established homelands to reservations?

4. What are ways in which Tribes respond to the threats and outside pressure to extinguish their cultures and independence?

5. What do local Tribes do to meet the challenges of reservation life; and as sovereign nations, what do local Tribes do to meet the economic and cultural needs of their Tribal communities?

Elementary Outcomes

By the time Washington state students leave elementary school, they will:

Understand that over 500 independent tribal nations exist within the United States today and that they interact with the United States, as well as each other, on a government-to-government basis;

Understand tribal sovereignty is "a way that tribes govern themselves in order to keep and support their ways of life";

Understand that tribal sovereignty predates treaty times;

Understand how the treaties that tribal nations entered into with the United States government limited their sovereignty; and

Identify the names and locations of tribes in their area.

Alignment with Washington State Learning Standards

*Refer to unit overview page for standards alignment of specific Since Time Immemorial lessons.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
In 2015, the Legislature passed Senate Bill 5433 modifying the original 2005 legislation, now requiring the Since Time Immemorial: Tribal Sovereignty in Washington State or other tribally-developed curriculum be taught in all schools. The use of the Since Time Immemorial curriculum has been endorsed by all 29 federally recognized tribes.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The Social Studies K-12 Learning Standards, adopted September 17, 2019, consist of Essential Academic Learning Requirements (EALRs) and Grade Level Expectations (GLEs) that describe what students should know and be able to do in social studies skills, civics, economics, geography, and history.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Educational Games, Worksheets, and More for Kids

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Download, print, or work on activities interactively today!

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Based on "Ten Quick Ways to Analyze Children's Books for Racism and Sexism." Updated in 2013.*
Children's books continue to be an invaluable source of information and values. They reflect the attitudes in our society about diversity, power relationships among different groups of people, and various social identities (e.g., racial, ethnic, gender, economic class, sexual orientation, and disability). The visual and verbal messages young children absorb from books (and other media) heavily influence their ideas about themselves and others. Depending on the quality of the book, they can reinforce (or undermine) children's affirmative self-concept, teach accurate (or misleading) information about people of various identities, and foster positive (or negative) attitudes about diversity. Children's books teach children about who is important, who matters, who is even visible. Consequently, carefully choosing quality children's books is an indispensable educational and child-rearing task.

It is important to offer young children a range of books about people like them and their family - as well as about people who are different from them and their family. All of the books should be accurate and appealing to young children. Fortunately, there are some good anti-bias children's books, which are available as a result of the ongoing activism of many individuals and groups over many years. However, while choices have improved over past decades, the lack of quality multicultural kid's books currently being published has frustrated many communities. The number of children of color in the United States continues to rise, but the number of books published by or about people of color stays the same or even decreases.

Check the Illustrations

Look for Stereotypes: A stereotype is an oversimplified generalization about a particular identity group (e.g., gender, race, ethnicity, class, sexual orientation, ability/disability), which usually carries derogatory, inaccurate messages and applies them to ALL people in the group. Stereotypes dehumanize people. So, too, does misinformation. ( See Box 1 below for a list of common, harmful stereotypes).

Unfortunately, all of us absorb socially prevailing stereotypes about a range of people, even if we do not consciously subscribe to them. To alert you to stereotypes in children's books, as well as other media, it is useful to list all the stereotypes you know about various groups of people as precondition for critically reviewing children's books. The books you choose should depict people compassionately and as real human beings. Also consider if images depict all people as genuine individuals with distinctive (rather than stereotypical) features. Books containing stereotypes require you to engage children in critical thinking, but should probably be eliminated from your collection.

BOX 1: Common Harmful/Undermining Stereotypes

Strong, independent girls and women are "manlike"

Book-loving or nonathletic boys and men are "effeminate"

Latino men talk funny, are lazy, gang members, or wear oversize sombreros

Latina women are earth mothers or subservient

African American men are gang members, oversexed, or underemployed

African American women are too independent, oversexed, or "welfare moms"

Arab and/or Muslim men are terrorists

Arab and/or Muslim women are voiceless and passive

All Muslims are Arab / All Arabs are Muslim

American Indians live in teepees, carry bows and arrows, or are half-naked in winter

American Indians were only significant in the past (read)

Disabled people are not independent or are to be pitied

Disabled people must "overcome" their disabilities rather than just live with their disabilities

LGBTQ+ people are invisible

Poor people are invisible

Poor people are depicted as passively needing help from others

AAPI (Asian American Pacific Islanders) are depicted as the "model minority"

AAPI are exotic or their food is exotic/abnormal

All AAPI know martial arts or are meek and compliant

AAPI are portrayed with slanted eyes or just lines to represent eyes

Jewish people are all Zionists (read)

Jewish people are wealthy and yield undue influence in the financial and political world

Look for Tokenism: This is the "one only" message. Regularly seeing only "one" person of any group in a book teaches young children about who is more or less important. Examples of tokenism include books with only one African American child among many white children or having only one book about children with disabilities among many other books. Tokenism also becomes stereotypical. It only allows children to see one view of a group of people, rather than the diversity that exists among all groups.

Look for Invisibility: What children do not see in their books also teaches them about who matters and who doesn't in our society. Invisibility in their storybooks - as well as in textbooks as they get older - undermines children's affirmative sense of themselves and reinforces prejudiced ideas about people who are not seen (See Box 2 for examples of groups who tend to be invisible). The booklists on this website include a great variety of books with groups who are often excluded. (The titles are vetted by Teaching for Change.)

BOX 2: Examples of Groups of People Who Are Often Invisible in Children's Books or Mainstream Media

Families who live in rural areas

Blue-collar workers

Musicians, artists, and writers

Families with two dads or two moms

Single mothers or fathers

Homeless families

Families with an incarcerated parent

People of Middle Eastern descent

Families who practice Islam

Transgender adults and children

Check the Story Line and the Relationships Between People

Even if a book shows visual diversity, the story line may carry biases related to how it handles power relationships among people of various identities. Are whites or male characters the central figures with people of color or female characters in essentially supporting roles? To gain acceptance and/or approval does a child of color, a girl, or child with a disability have to exhibit extraordinary qualities or be the one to understand, forgive, or change? Are the achievements of girls and women based on their own initiative and intelligence, or are they due to their looks or relationship with boys/men?

Are people of color, women, low-income families, or people with disabilities depicted as needing help or in passive roles, while whites, men, and "able-bodied" people are in leadership and action roles? How are problems presented, conceived, and resolved? Who typically causes a problem and who resolves it? Your book collection needs a balance of different people in "doer" roles.

Look at Messages About Different Lifestyles

Do the lives of people of color or people living in poverty in the story contrast unfavorably with the norm of white, middle-class suburban life? Are negative value judgments implied about ways of life that differ from the dominant culture or economic class (e.g., people are to be pitied, or the story is about one person who "gets out" of the less desirable way of life)? Do images and information go beyond oversimplification and offer genuine insights into the lifestyle of the characters in the story? Does the setting reflect current life - or past assumptions about life? Does your book collection depict diversity among people within a specific racial/ethnic group, such as a range of family structures, living environments, socioeconomic conditions and types of work, and male/female roles within the family? (Remember that every racial/ethnic group has diversity, including people who self-identify as white).

Consider the Effects on Children's Self and Social Identities

In addition to specific books, also examine your book collection. Do your books reinforce or counteract messages that teach children to feel inferior or superior because of their skin color, gender, family income, able-bodiedness, or type of family structure? At school, will all of the children you serve see themselves and their family's way of life reflected in your book collection? Will all children of color, including those with mixed heritage, girls, and children from the many types of family structures, children living in poverty, and children with disabilities see one or more characters with whom they can readily and positively identify? If they are visible in your book collection, are the illustrations and information accurate and respectful? Does your overall collection balance the backgrounds of all the children in your program? Does it also show diversity within the social indentity groups to which the children belong (e.g., a range of ways to be female and male, families reflecting different kinds of jobs within a racial/ethnic group). Does your book collection also include a balance between diversity within your classroom and beyond your classroom?

At home, does your book collection reflect diversity among the groups to which your family belongs? Does it have stories about people like you who have contributed to creating a more just world? Does it also include a range of books showing diversity beyond your family and neighborhood?

Look for Books About Children and Adults Engaging in Actions for Change

To fully develop a strong sense of self and a disposition toward cooperation and fairness, children need to know how to stand up for themselves and others when faced with unfairness. They also need to know about people from all social identity groups who have - and are currently - working for justice for all. In addition to previous criteria, here are more items to consider: The story line should be about children and adults working together, rather than perpetrating the myth that change happens because of special, individual people who do it by themselves. Does your book collection include a balance of people who have made important and honored contributions to American life as well as the world community - and not just the traditional white, male "heroes?" Do some of your books about important people include struggles for justice? Do they show people who were/are poor or from racial/ethnic groups of color? Are people with disabilities engaged in these struggles for justice?

Consider the Author's or Illustrator's Background and Perspective

All authors write from a cultural as well as from a personal context. In the past, most children's books were by authors and illustrators who were white and members of the middle class. As a result, a single cultural and class perspective dominated children's literature. There are now excellent books by people of color from a range of backgrounds - although not nearly enough. Consider the biographical material on the jacket flap or back of the book. What qualifies the author or illustrator to deal with the subject? If the book is not about people or events similar to the author or illustrator's background, what specifically recommends them as creators of the book? What is the author's attitude toward her/his story characters? Are the images accurate and do the illustrators respectfully render the people in the story? Do you have books reflecting a balanced range of author and illustrator identities and experiences?

Watch for Loaded Words

A word is loaded when it in any way demeans or makes people invisible because of any of their identities. One example is the generic use of the word "man" to stand for women as well as men (although the opposite never occurs). This traditional terminology is now questioned by many because of its sexist implications. Here are some examples of ways to avoid sexist language: community instead of brotherhood; firefighters inserted of firemen; human family instead of family of man; ancestors instead of forefathers; chairperson instead of chairman. Examples of adjectives applied to people of color that carry racist messages include: "savage," "primitive," "superstitious," "backward," "inscrutable" and "treacherous." Always consider the context in which a word is used and to whom it applies.

Look at the Copyright Date

Copyright dates indicate the publication year, not the time of its writing, which might be two to three years before the copyright date. Although a recent copyright date is no guarantee of a book's relevance or sensitivity, copyright dates are useful information. More children's books began to reflect the reality of a pluralistic society and nonsexist and non-ableist perspectives in the 1970s. Since then, the range of accurate, respectful, and caring books reflecting diversity has increased significantly (unfortunately the diversity of books published in the United States still does not accurately reflect the actual diversity of the people living here). When considering new books for your collection, begin with most recently published ones and then continue with descending copyright dates.

Assess the Appeal of the Story and Illustrations to Young Children

Although these guidelines focus on the messages about diversity and equality reflected in children's books, it is also important to take quality into account. Be sure the book is a "good read." If children find the story or illustrations boring, a book will not hold their attention, even if the book adds a specific kind of diversity you need. Check for active, interesting story lines where different kinds of people are integral to the people in the story, not the main topic. For example, in A Chair for My Mother, a young child tries to save money to get a comfortable chair for her waitress mother. Although the book shows a single parent, working-class family, and a resourceful girl, it is not didactic. Also look for illustrations that are colorful and recognizable to young children. Although they enjoy a range of styles, illustrations that are too subdued or abstract may not hold their attention.

Check for age appropriateness. Most booksellers list any picture book as appropriate for early childhood even if the story line is really for primary grade children. Sometimes a book for older children will work if you simplify the story or "tell" the story rather than read it. In some cases, this is the only way to get books that present specific groups of children (e.g., stories with Cambodian children or children with learning disabilities). Some additional issues to consider:

Many children's books use animal characters instead of people and there are some excellent books that explore diversity with animal characters (e.g., And Tango Makes Three or A Coyote Solstice Tale). Children enjoy these. However, such books are not a substitute for exploring issues of diversity and anti-bias fairness with people as the main characters.

Some early childhood teachers wonder if it is necessary for every book in their collection to show diversity. Every book needs to be accurate, caring, and respectful. However, you will want individual books about specific kinds of people (e.g., a biracial family or a family with adopted children). Diversity becomes essential in the balance of your book collection, where you want to avoid invisibility or tokenism of any group.

Folk and fairy tales have long been a mainstay of children's literature. In the cultures from which they come, folk and fairy tales were used to teach important lessons and values related to their culture of origin. Children love them in their original versions - not their commercially sanitized adaptations. However, folk and fairy tales also carry messages that convey sexism, classism, and racism and must be used thoughtfully as part of introducing young children to diversity and anti-bias values of quality and fairness.

Overuse of folk tales to "teach" about a specific ethnic/cultural group leads to misinformation and confusion. They are about animals and occasionally people from a mythical past and are designed to teach core values and beliefs in their culture of origin. They are not about how people actually live in contemporary society - and that is what young children need to understand. Information and images about how people really live now is what enables young children to build connections to people who are from different cultures while countering stereotypes that children have already absorbed (e.g., how American Indians really live).

Finally there is the somewhat sensitive issue of what to do about "classic" or "well-beloved" children's books. Many of these are wonderful as children's literature, but unfortunately they often convey values of sexism, racism, ableism, or even colonialism. People who love the books that pose this dilemma argue that it is OK to use them because they "reflect their times," which they imply somehow excuses their biased messages. For example, I adored the Babar series of books as a young child and was unpleasantly shocked to realize as an adult how much the images and story lines reflected messages of European colonialism in Africa. I chose not to use them with my own children, wanting them to learn accurate information about how people in Africa really live. Not sharing childhood favorites may sadden some, but it is far better than the harm caused by reinforcing messages of racism and colonialism.
In a nutshell - as you choose books or critically examine your current book selection, always keep in mind the power of books - their words and their images - to nurture or, conversely, to undermine a child's sense of self, positive attitude toward others, and motivation to act for fairness.
Additional Resources

Louise Derman-Sparks is an internationally respected anti-bias educator and author (along with Julie Olsen Edwards) of Anti-Bias Education for Young Children and Ourselves. She has co-authored several additional books with Dr. Carol Brunson Day (Teaching/Learning Anti-Racism), the ABC Task Force ( Anti-Bias Curriculum: Tools for Empowering Young Children), Dr. Patricia Ramsey (What If All the Kids Are White?), and Dr. John Nimmo and Debbie Leekeenan ( Leading Anti-Bias Early Childhood Programs: A Guide for Change). She speaks throughout the United States and abroad, and served on the NAEYC Governing Board from 1998 to 2001. Louise has a lifelong commitment to building a more just society for all people. Her children Douglass and Holly, now grown, were her inspiration. A Pacific Oaks College faculty member for 33 years - when its mission and pedagogy reflected anti-bias education principles - Louise is now retired.
*In 1980, the Council on Interracial Books for Children published the book Guidelines for Selecting Bias-Free Textbooks and Storybooks. A shorter version of the book in pamphlet form, "Ten Quick Ways to Analyze Children's Books for Racism and Sexism," followed. One of the first guides written for teachers and families, it became an invaluable tool for hundreds of thousands of people. Both the book and pamphlet have been out of print for several years. Rethinking Schools published their adaptation of the original Guidelines in 1994.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Guide for Selecting Anti-Bias Children's Books - Social Justice Books

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
By Louise Derman-Sparks Based on "Ten Quick Ways to Analyze Children's Books for Racism and Sexism." Updated in 2013.* Children's books continue to be an invaluable source of information and values. They reflect the attitudes in our society about diversity, power relationships among different groups of people, and various social identities (e.g., racial, ethnic, gender, [...]

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
What is a Mentor Text? Mentor texts are books that model for students what good readers and writers do — the craft and skills involved in reading and writing. Mentor texts give children authentic, real-world examples of different kinds of writing from which they can learn. Or they can provide exampl…

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Primary Mentor Texts for Common Core Literature Standards

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
My ELA packs for Kinder, 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th Grade include three mini-lessons, printables, passages, interactive notebook activities, task cards, and an assessment. Some of these activities require the use of a mentor text grade level book.

# data[].attributes.body
use kimmytraub42@gmail.com

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
4 million free and priced teaching resources created by teachers for instant download including lesson plans, interactive notebooks, unit plans, novel studies, worksheets, printables, quizzes, task cards, math centers, projects and more. Join over 6 million teachers on the web's most vibrant collaborative exchange.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Open-and-go lessons that inspire kids to love science.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Mystery Science offers open-and-go lessons that inspire kids to love science. The hook, visuals, and activity have all been prepared for you. Less prep, more learning.