May / June 2018

Not Very Diverse

For further context, explain to students that in the time of Apollo 13, astronauts were exclusively white men. Towards the end of the 1970s, people of color and women started to join NASA.

Hidden Figures

Along these lines, read aloud Hidden Figures: The True Story of Four Black Women and the Space Race, the kids’ version of the story about the women who played an integral role in NASA’s history.

We Love Tod!

Our contest prize is a book by Tod Olson called Lost in Outer Space. Tod is a writer for Storyworks Jr. Check out his story “Volcano of Doom” in our March/April issue—and have your students practice their writing by entering our contest!

Animals in Space

Do your students know that many animals—including mice and monkeys—have been launched into space? Show them this infographic!

Change of Perspective

To see the world from an astronaut’s point of view, check out these beautiful photos from astronaut Scott Kelly.

Headquarters All Over

The space center in Houston is just one of several NASA space centers and research facilities throughout the U.S. Show your students this map, which links to sites for each facility. 

Mentor Text

When this story ran in Storyworks, it included a writing contest prompting students to write a conversation between Heather and Risa in which Heather apologizes. Read an outstanding winning entry here—it’s a great companion to the story, and can serve as a mentor text!

Character Analysis

Go deeper into character analysis with this great activity from the Storyworks Ideabook.

Good Deeds Day

April 15 was Good Deeds Day, a global movement to inspire people around the world to perform good deeds for others and the planet. If you’re on Twitter, search #GoodDeedsDay to check out some of the incredible deeds that were done all around the world!

Sisterhood and Service

Your students may be familiar with Girl Scouts, but they probably don’t know the extensive history of scouts’ community service, which dates back to the early 1900s. This timeline highlights some of the most impressive examples—including troops running a bicycle courier service during WWII!

Braille DIY

If your students are curious about whether blind people can read, you can tell them about braille. Braille is a code made up of raised dots that blind people can “read” using their fingers. Check out this braille translator—you can translate a message into braille and see how it would look. For an extra activity, print the braille message and put a dot of glue on each dot. When it dries, you can feel what “reading” braille is like.

Fit For a President

Share with your students a bit of presidential ice cream history: George Washington was a big fan, and had an icehouse on his farm in Virginia. That way his cooks could whip up his favorite ice cream treats all summer. And when James Madison became president in 1809, his wife Dolley became famous for serving ice cream at White House dinners.

Ice Cream Today

For a look at how ice cream is made today, check out this video from inside the Ben & Jerry’s factory! Be sure to stop it at the 8:00 mark, which is the end of the ice cream segment and also right before a minor curse word.

Ice Cream from Scratch

If you want to make ice cream with your class, check out this simple recipe—no major kitchen equipment needed!

Fresh Food? Gee-whiz!

To drive home to students just how revolutionary the concept of keeping food fresh with a refrigerator and freezer was, show them this 2-minute 1956 commercial from Frigidaire!

Further Reading

“Henry’s Freedom Box” by Ellen Levine makes for a great read-aloud, or independent reading for your struggling readers.

Henry, the Showman

Our play ends after Henry arrives safely in Philadelphia in 1849. Your students will be fascinated to hear that he later developed a stage show about his experience, and then moved to England to perform it. He stayed in England for the next 25 years, where he remarried and had another daughter. They all returned to the U.S. and Henry performed as a magician. Part of his stage act: coming out of the original box in which he’d been shipped to freedom. Henry’s last known performance was in Canada in 1889.

Teaching the Underground Railroad

Want to give your students a deeper understanding of the Underground Railroad? Scholastic offers a full set of lesson plans connected to the topic for grades 3-5.

Visualizing the Railroad

For a visual representation of the Underground Railroad, display this map from National Geographic. Explain to students that this map is not exact, because the Underground Railroad had to be kept largely secret.

Looking for Relatives

If you want to further explore the concept of family members who were separated due to slavery as Henry’s was, consider this site. It contains original newspaper ads placed by freed slaves looking to find their relatives after slavery ended. In several instances, the ads were successful and families were reunited.

Interesting Hypothesis...

Over time, humans have come up with many theories as to why we yawn. An interesting one from ancient times: yawning meant that evil spirits were trying to get inside you. Yikes!

Further Reading

For more info on yawning (and sneezing, hiccuping, and more) and a fun read-aloud, check out Why I Sneeze, Shiver, Hiccup, and Yawn by Melvin Berger. It skews a bit young but is full of fascinating facts!

A Silly Challenge

Here’s a fun task for your class: Have them watch this 45-second video of people yawning and challenge them not to yawn. Keep track of how many can’t resist!

Out of Control

Interesting fact: in 1923, a British neurologist named Sir Francis Walshe noticed that his patients who were paralyzed still yawned. This shows that yawning isn’t something we can control!

Snakes in Action!

To see the brown tree snake in action, check out this short video.

Guam...Where Is It Exactly?

Give your students an idea of where Guam is by exploring it with Google maps. Zoom out to show students just how small Guam is, and where it is in relation to the U.S.

Teaching Essay Structure

Reverse engineer Paragraph Power and use it as a mentor text to show your students essay structure with this teacher’s genius idea!

Can't Get Enough Snakes?

For another story about invasive snakes, go back in the Storyworks Jr. archives and check out the nonfiction feature from our September 2016 issue: “The Snake That’s Eating Florida.“

Teacher Approved!

For an inspiring way to teach Storyworks Jr.debates, check out this teacher’s detailed 5-day plan!

Child Labor

There’s a fascinating opportunity to connect this debate to the play from your October/November 2017 issue: “The Dangerous Life of Harriet Hanson.” It’s the true story of a 10-year-old girl who, like many young children in the early 1900s, had to work long hours in a factory under dangerous conditions. These children were paid next to nothing for this risky work.

Ages and Abilities

This printable chart outlines which chores kids should be able to handle at various ages. It could spark a fun discussion in your class!  

Chores Around the World

Kids around the world have all kinds of different chores. In Japan, kids are taught to be self-reliant at a young age. That means riding the subway and running errands on their own! In Spain, there is an actual law requiring kids to do their share of the housework. See how other kids help out here!

Google Classroom Tips

Check out our Ideabook post about using Google Classroom to teach our debates. The post uses a Storyworks article as an example, but all of the advice applies! 

Photographic Inspiration

Here’s what poet Beverly McLoughland told us inspired her to write this poem: “The poem began with my looking at a photograph of the Earth against the blackness of space. It always amazes me that we can actually see our little planet  floating out there in space - and how beautiful and lonely it looks. Then I began to think about what it must be like for an astronaut in space to see not a photograph, but our actual little planet floating in the distance. I started imagining what this experience must feel like to the astronaut, and then it just felt right to put my imaginings into the form of questions.”

Celebrate Poetry All Year!

National Poetry Month is wrapping up, but there’s no reason not to keep celebrating poetry after April is over! A fun end-of-year activity is to collect all 6 poems from this year’s issues of Storyworks Jr. and have students vote on their favorite and discuss they they liked it.

Solo in Space

It may be lonely to be an astronaut up in space, but don’t worry—the U.S. hasn’t sent an astronaut into space alone since 1963. Find other cool facts about the final solo flight in this article!