Which came first? The chicken or egg?
What’s making all that noise in the pond?
What do YOU do when you’re upset (or ANGRY!)?

This month’s videos challenge young learners to think, question and develop strategies to find answers.

Watch the videos.
See the notes underneath for learning extensions.

Chicken and Egg
Kindergaretn & Grade 1 inquiry into the life cycle through chickens and eggs:

Pond Life
What creatures make ALL THAT NOISE?!
Inquiry with literacy / creative writing links.

Self Regulation
“Look what happened! … it was an accident!”
Strategies for kinders and primary students for when things go wrong…

See all the videos including:
• Investigation of capacity (approximately Grade 3 math).
• Tadpoles and frogs – life cycle.
• Creative writing / storytelling prompt.

We’re always looking for ideas to support Kindergarten, Grade 1, Grade 2, Grade 3 learning with links to the Ontario curriculum and appropriate for homeschoolers and Forest School fans!

Subscribe and share!

In my part of the world non-essential services have been ordered to close due to the Corona virus pandemic. However, liquor stores are considered essential and remain open.

I was surprised. 
Liquor? Essential? Really?

I dug deeper.

And I realized I had caught myself (quietly, in my head) judging people’s hidden challenges. 

… Some people are quietly dependent or overtly addicted to alcohol. If their supply is quickly cut off it would be bad for them. Anxiety. Witdrawl. Physical and mental health challenges. Deaths. And if alcohol became unavailable, it would be bad for society by placing an additional strain on the health care system and community.

Hidden challenges can include biases from painful pasts, fallout from mental health challenges (OCD, depression, addiction) or invisible visual/auditory impairments that create ‘unusual’ behaviours when observed by another person. 

Hidden challenges affect many people (but can be completely invisible to others.)

Including Tara Westover, who did not attend any school until she was 17 years old. Despite years of adversity, she excelled, graduating with a PhD from Cambridge University 11 years later. 

Her hidden challenges included physical and emotional adversity – abuse, neglect, trauma. She often suffered from misplaced judgment – after genuinely asking, for instance, what the Holocaust was during a college lecture.

Because of a series of hard work, support and fortunate events, she overcame hardships – including judgment and misunderstanding – that would have crippled most.

She shares her experiences in ‘Educated,’ depicted above.

People are doing their best.
Everyone has hidden challenges.
Be kind.

Your plane crashed in the wilderness...
You’re the only survivor. You walk for 3 days with no food other than the few blueberries you find. You’ve only drunk water from creeks and swamps (that you hope is clean.) You have blisters on your blisters. You’ve slept poorly – shivering under your ripped plastic sheet and frightened by the midnight scufflings – you hope they are just raccoons and skunks. You’re alone. You’re scared about the other passengers’ families who are not as lucky as you.

You finally get to a road. Someone stops to help.
They offer you four choices:
• food and clean water.
• a hot shower and fresh, warm dry clothes.
• a dry, safe, indoor bed where you can sleep, uninterrupted, for 8 hours.
• a math lesson on geometry.

My guess is you do not choose the math lesson first.

Abraham Maslow developed a theory in psychology – the hierarchy of needs –  that suggests people are motivated by base needs (survival) before pursuing more lofty goals like education. The hypothetical plane crash illustrates your desire for basic needs before academic advancement.

And so it is with school children.

Some children in our schools are not ready to learn because:
• they haven’t eaten enough today, this week or this year.
• they’ve lost someone close to them.
• they’re frightened of their neighbours, the bullies, or a family member (who is violent, abusive or suffers from mental illness).
• they keep having to move because they can’t afford rent.
• they wake up with nightmares every nght about what they experienced last year.
• they’re quietly suffering from a hidden illness – OCD, depression, cancer.

Children are good at hiding uncomfortable truths. If they are pre-occupied by a lack of food, shelter, safety, love they will not be able to soak up (or pay attention to) school lessons.

The causes for their inattention may be their ‘normal.’ Some kids (and adults) are not ready or able to absorb the education offered at our world-renowned public schools. They’re too busy trying to process or access more basic necessities – food, shelter, love and belonging, safety.

What can be done?
• Recognize a red flag. This can be tough. The challenges can be well hidden or disguised.
• Once a challenge is flagged, investigate the root of the behaviour (unexpected low academic scores, falling asleep at school, unexpected behaviour…) That can require support from other teachers, administrators, parents, multidisciplinary team (psychologists, social workers, etc.) It starts by building a relationship in the classroom. This step can be perplexing and require detective skills, compassion and empathy…
• Develop a support plan. This can involve social services, breakfast club, food bank, counseling, interpreters, doctors, and financial aid.

Listen, support and follow-up.

Life can be tough.
Making positive change is easy.
Or is it?

I spoke to a veteran teacher recently about the idea of making positive changes.

Me: “Change is tough.”

Other Teacher: “It’s just a decision people have to make.”

This was a tough discussion for me.
Change is easy, technically. Instead of A you choose B.

But overcoming entrenched barriers and obstacles takes more than a flick of a switch. Change is harder to overcome if life has been traumatic or decades of obstacles have become entrenched.

How you approach the obstacles has a significant impact on your success at getting around them. Recognizing the need for, and accessing, support is another piece of the puzzle.

Obstacles will always be there. Some will be tougher than others.
Growth mindset – along with support – can make the difference to create change.

Fixed Mindset:
The way is set. It’s always been this way. It will always be this way.
“I’ve never done well at ________ (school, love, interviews, tests…) That’s the way it is.”
With a fixed mindset obstacles turn into barriers that become insurmountable.

Growth Mindset:
The past has been set. But it can change. Anything is possible.
“So far, my success at ________ (school, love, interviews, tests…) has been limited. How can I get better?”
With a growth mindset, obstacles turn into puzzles that become possible with perseverance.

It’s true, some people have innate abilities that make (some) tasks or changes easier. And some people have external negative influences that increase the challenges.

But, with a growth mindset, the outcome is a challenge or puzzle that just needs to be navigated for success. Anything is possible. Nelson Mandela said “It always seems impossible until it’s done.” 

Listen to Carol Dweck speak about the power of yet.

Finding effective mentors or support for those with a history of recurring obstacles or entrenched barriers will also be one important key to success and positive change

Back to my discussion with my teacher colleague…
Change is tough. History can repeat itself unless you make the decision to choose a growth mindset – perhaps with support – to allow the change to happen.

School’s out!
Summer is in full swing.
Yeehaw!!!!!

That doesn’t mean literacy and math learning need to stop.
It also doesn’t mean you need to pull a chair to a desk and do some worksheets.

Let the learning continue – but hide it in summer activities! See some literacy/numeracy learning ideas below:

Summer Literacy
These games are geared to elementary children and can be played anytime there’s some downtime, not just on roadtrips:

• I spy literacy games– “I see something beginning with t and ending in e.” … “TREE”… “What letters go in that word?”

• Story circle– Each person adds a sentence, verbally, to an ever-growing story. The story will be silly but reinforces communication and connections.
Person 1… “We arrived at the beach and jumped in the water when suddenly…”
Person 2… “a submarine floated up beside me.”
Person 3… “The submarine opened and out came 26 cats…”
Person 4… “…Who did not like getting wet!”
Person 1… “My Dad rolled his eyes and said ‘Why are cats driving a submarine?!’”
Person 2… “We HAVE to help the cats!”
Person 3… “But, how?!…”
etc…

• Visit your library! There is hours of adventure found in a library. There’s still time to join the TD Summer Reading Club.

• Read to your children. Anytime, anywhere. Research supports that reading to your children is a very good idea.

Summer Numeracy 
• “Who wants some money?!”
My son’s day camp had a cantina. He wanted $2 for a treat. I gave him my loose change jar so he could collect the $2 himself. With a little support and guidance you have a motivated mathemetician!

•“Who wants cookies?!”
Bake some cookies (or anything!) with your children. Get them to read and measure from the recipe = literacy and numeracy (and cookies!) Motivated mathematician strikes again!

• Tables turned…
Get children to try to stump YOU with their hardest math questions.

Hehe… Who likes to stump their moms and dads?! Their questions may be silly and not illustrate perfect math. This math inquiry offers a chance to build on their math curiosity and engage math ideas and interest:

Child: “What’s a billion times a gazillion?”
Mom/Dad: “Yikes, that’s a tough one! A boozillion?”
Child: “No, a gabillion!”
Mom/Dad: “Wow, that’s big! How big is a million?… Do you have a million hairs on your head?… Do you have a thousand hairs on your head?… etc.” 

Their ideas and curiosity can be more important than a perfect answer. 

• Hiking math
Plant some math inquiry into hiking (or whatever you are doing.):
“How far have we gone?”
“How old is that tree?”
“How many bugs are in that tree stump?”
“How did you figure that out?…”

Again, the math ideas and discussion can be more valuable than perfect answers… Keep the math conversations going.

Science, art, social studies, physical activity, can all be disguised as fun activities, too.

Summer (hidden) learning will keep them sharp!
Keep it up.