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Social Justice: Fifteen titles to address inequity, equality, and organizing for young readers | Great Books
Social Justice: Fifteen titles to address inequity, equality, and organizing for young readers | Great Books
These titles elevate the voices of young activists, inspire calls to action, and explain complex issues such as racism, sexism, environmentalism, and immigration. Get started here.
Calling all Middle School students! Come to the Innovation Hub! Click on any of the logos in the bookcase to start tinkering!
Join Poet and Award-Winning Author Kwame Alexander For His At-Home Video Series!
Kwame Alexander, author of The Crossover, Rebound, and The Undefeated, which won the 2020 Caldecott Medal and is a Newbery Honor, is here to give writing advice in a fun and practical way! Click here to begin your writing journey with Kwame!
CALLING ALL FAMILIES! FAMILY GAME NIGHT IS HERE!
Cards Against Humanity (CAH), the very funny and very popular get-together game, has just released a family-friendly version for FREE here. Download the cards, print them out, and get ready for belly laughs. Or... play with other friends and families over Zoom! Simply have other households print out the cards, too, to follow along for endless hours of laughter.
Middle School Challenge #8
Calling all paper airplane folding pros!
Do you love folding the perfect paper airplane? Can you make it aerodynamic? Check out this collection of paper airplane templates from The Smithsonian Museum (instructions and colorful paper included!) to get your projects off the ground and in the air!
Want to dig deeper?
Read more about how gravity works here.
Then sign up to create a digital paper airplane to have your aircraft take the distance challenge. How far can it travel? Can it fly farther than the others?
Middle School Challenge #7:
Looking to give something in your house a new life, a new purpose, or a new usage? Upcycling is the process of taking used goods to produce something unique, and often better than the original.
From now until May 10, Goodwill Industries is seeking submissions for your upcycled creations! The more creative and unexpected, the better!
How to enter:
Find an item inside your home and use it to create a completely different item, with a completely different purpose.
Take one photo of your completed project.
Entries must be submitted between Thursday, April 23, 2020 to Sunday, May 10, 2020.
Fill out the form at the bottom of this page with your full name, address and email, along with a short description of your upcycled item; describing the materials you used, and the finished product. Include one photo of your completed project. JPEG and PNG files will be accepted. Please keep your descriptions short, in order to ensure your photo is fully visible once the voting round begins.
Ten winners will be chosen alongside second, third, and fourth place winners! Good luck!
Post Office mail box, 1911/12 - Now
Middle School Challenge #6: Essential Services -- Then and Now
Working from home, 1909 & 1924
Think of an essential service or worker or an industry that is still operating in this "shelter in place" environment (these are jobs that cannot be halted in times of crisis). Examples include doctors, nurses, pharmacists, building janitors, mass transit workers, and food and agricultural suppliers (grocery store workers, especially). These people play a crucial role in our community beyond just the pandemic, but what did these roles look like 100 years ago? 150 years ago? How can you compare the services we have now (same-day Amazon delivery) to how life looked like back then?
You can begin your comparison by looking through photographs, drawings, or prints in The Library of Congress's Free To Use Collection here.
What do you notice about how these essential services have changed or stayed the same over time?
Please email us your findings.
Open Library
This is an incredible source for children's books. You can find the book you want to read and share. Plus, it's free to sign up! Check it out here.
As you know, we are huge fans of Jason Reynold's work, and you might be, too (who isn't -- is there anything he can't do?) Reynolds, in collaboration with The Library of Congress, is hosting his “Write. Right. Rite" -- a “GRAB THE MIC: Tell Your Story” video bi-weekly series and newsletter. Learn all about "get-you-going" brainstorming activities, authentic storytelling, building connection, and harnessing creativity. This one is not to be missed!
Interested in the natural world and your place in it? Join The National Museum of Natural History for a series of live webinars on how we can shape a more sustainable world.
Middle School Challenge #5: Digital Escape Rooms
1) Dog Man is trying to escape from a locked room. Use the clues, videos, photos, and texts to free both of you here.
2) Next, step up to the challenge of breaking out of Hogwarts!
You can complete this escape room individually or with your family at home. You can compete against friends and try it multiple times. Have fun! Let us know if you broke out!
Middle School Challenge #4: Blackout Poetry
How does it work?
Grab a page from an old book on your shelf (I leafed through one discarded book to make the four examples).
Lightly circle or underline words that interest you.
When you have chosen words that fit together, circle or box those words with a marker.
Blackout every other line on the page, or use the rest of the page to create a drawing to emphasize the words of your poem. I used a thick sharpie to create the effect!
Here's a link to a beautiful Haggadah for your Passover Seder.
Want to explore the Wizarding world of Harry Potter? Click here to enter Hogwarts from Home!
CHALLENGE #3: Take a Photo Collage Walk (either inside your home, building, or a short distance outside your home -- 100 ft. or just around the block).
Using just yourself and your phone, look for:
-A circle
-Something blue
-A pattern of some kind
-Something old
-Something simple
With just these cues, see if you can snap some inspiration and collage them together. To create a digital collage, I used the Layout app from Instagram. Scroll up to see the finished result!
We'd love to share out your photo walks with others! You can send these to us at anytime:
Have fun! BE creative! BE Inspired!
Building a small town or scene with your "empties."
In my household, we are accumulating so many recyclables, from empty pasta boxes and milk cartons to paper towel rolls. We also have so many odds and ends (glue, questionable veggies, felt, yarn, paint, rocks, etc.)
Here's the finished result! We first painted the boxes, made some blue slime, added a solar panel, a candle chimney, felted a rainbow and a cat, and searched for old, leafy things in the fridge.
Pie Paperweight!
My daughter and I ran out of air-dry clay (I am a huge fan of Crayola clay), so we decided to make our own. We let these dry for about three days before we painted them. Here's a recipe for easy, no-cook air-dry 3-ingredient clay, using everyday kitchen staples:
Large mixing bowl + measuring cups
2 cups flour
3/4 cup salt
3/4 cup warm water
Ziploc bag (to store any leftover clay)
In the mixing bowl, measuring and add all three ingredients. Use your hands to knead the dough for about 2-3 minutes. If the clay becomes dry while you're making art, simply add a bit of water. You can store any unused clay in a Ziploc bag.
To make the pie paperweight: Simply roll your clay and cut a triangle (we used clay tools for this part). Add a strip on the top of the triangle for the crust. Next, roll as many balls of clay as you'd like, varying the sizes (you can do cherries or blueberries or even apples!). Lastly, cover your pie in more clay strips, overlapping them in a criss-cross to look like real lattice work! Let dry for 3 days - week before painting. Clay will turn a bright white as it dries. This is a good thing! You can achieve that "glossy" kiln-fired look by using Mod Podge as a sealant after your paint dries.
CHALLENGE #2: Self-Ethnography
In years to come, the documentation of your time at home will be a valuable resource. This week, use yourself as your subject for documentation. Document in detail all of your movements, activities, behaviors, and conversations throughout the course of a week, include date, time, and place OR you can choose one specific aspect of your day to document (ie: determine how many steps you take on a daily basis).
You can email your responses to us, your librarians:
Ms. Citrin
rcitrin@bernardzell.org
Ms. Townhouse
atownhouse@bernardzell.org
PARENTS! TEACHERS! Need great ideas to help in your work with your homebound students? Check out this selection of helpful resources chosen by expert Library of Congress staff:
Experience all of Frida Kahlo's artwork here.
Ted Talks for Middle Schoolers!
Challenge #1: Become a Citizen Historian
You are now a historian. Starting on Thursday, March 19th, keep a digital journal detailing what you are seeing in the news; how the world, the nation, your friends, neighbors, and family are responding to this pandemic.
You can also use one of your other talents as you see fit (drawing, poetry, songwriting, etc.)
Try to document each day.
You are creating a primary source that that can be used by people in the future to learn about our lives during this crisis from your unique perspective.
Be authentic. Be honest. Be reflective.
Sample Guiding Questions:
You can write anything you like about your experiences.
The following is a list of potential prompts you can respond to.
1) What did the government announce/declare implement today?
-Does it make sense?
-Does it impact your life? Why or why not?
-How did your family respond?
2) What is open in your neighborhood? What is closed?
3) What does your neighborhood look like? Are people walking around?
4) How is today different from yesterday for you, your family, our nation, the world?
5) Did you see anything today that gave you hope? Anxiety?
6) What do you need that you might not have, have enough of, or have no access to acquire?
7) How do you think this extended time away from school is changing you?
You can email your responses to us, your librarians:
Ms. Citrin
rcitrin@bernardzell.org
Ms. Townhouse
atownhouse@bernardzell.org
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