Discussion around common parental concerns.
Once kids go online, their chances of finding cyberbullies, haters, and trolls is, sadly, quite high. Find age-specific guidelines, videos, and articles to help with tough conversations -- whether your kid is a bully or is being bullied. Explore answers to all your cyberbullying questions, age-appropriate advice, school resources, and more from parents and experts.
https://www.commonsensemedia.org/cyberbullying
Fourth graders made a model of an eye to find out why some people have blurry vision.
Fourth graders completed experiments today with crumpled paper and pencils to see if a robotic hand would work just like a human hand.
Fourth graders made a robotic finger to help explain how a real finger bends.
Fourth graders are dealing out 2-digit numbers and working on their multiplication skills.
Wikipedia.org is where millions of people stop first for information. Tools like it are what make the internet so valuable. But they also teach an important lesson, one you can start teaching your kids now: don’t believe everything you read.
Family Tip Sheet: bit.ly/OlyNMFR2
Website Update: The sites are now up and running! If you experience a warning page when navigating to your building's site, you can safely proceed past it. That issue will also be resolved soon. Thank you for your patience and we hope you find the new site beneficial!
Website down @ 12:00 PM.
We are doing a visual refresh of our website at noon today. There will be some downtime, but we should be up and running before long! If you would like a sneak peak and a tour of the new layout, checkout this video:
https://youtu.be/FTG2kREb3Cw
Fearless Fact Finding!
Check out this list of trustworthy resources to help you learn what's true (and what is not!) on the web. You can even use one of them to look back in time and what was on a website in the past!
Fake News & Media Messages Tip #5: Choose a Variety of Sources.
Show your children how you get news and information from different places, and explain how you make your choices. Use words like "credible," "trustworthy," "respected," and "fair." Ask them where they get their information, and if they think about those same words when choosing. As kids get older, introduce the ideas of bias, satire, and clickbait.
If a picture's worth a thousand words, do the words always tell a true story? One way to find out is through a reverse image search. Search with an image instead of a keyword and see what you discover!
Fake News & Media Messages Tip #4: Discuss Fact vs. Opinion
Play around with ideas and decide which are facts and which are opinions. Ask: How tall are you? What's the best food in the world? Do rocks sink or float? Do you like dogs? Point out that both facts and opinions show up in the news, but opinion is usually labeled.
What a great way to start the day in 4th grade! Thank you Mrs. Castleman for being the guest reader.
Pay close attention to those news articles and be a Deceptive Detective!
5th graders met with Commander Libby today to learn about constellations ⭐️
Fake News & Media Messages Tip #3: Explore Different Sides of a Story!
Use real-life examples to help kids understand how people can view the same situation with totally different perspectives. One child might experience a game on the playground as fun, while another might feel like the rules are unfair. Sibling conflict can be a great example of how two people can have wildly different opinions about the same event. With older children, talk through controversial subjects and take turns arguing for different sides to help kids understand various viewpoints.
Kids find and read news in lots of different ways. But studies show they're not very good at interpreting what they see. How can we help them get better? Teaching your students about the structure of online news articles is an important place to start.
Video: bit.ly/OlyNMV1
Family Activity: bit.ly/OlyNMFR1
Fake news is nothing new. Check out this timeline to learn about some ways it has been utilized throughout history to influence society. Ask your family about other examples that you know of and why they were used!
Fake News & Media Messages Tip #2: Play "Spot The Ad"
When you see advertising on TV or on a billboard, ask your children to figure out what the ad is selling. Sometimes it's obvious, and sometimes it's not. Help them explore why certain pictures, sounds, or words are used to sell certain products.
Filter Bubble Trouble!
When we get news from our social media feeds, it often only tells us part of the story. Our friends -- and the website's algorithms -- tend to feed us perspectives we already agree with. Show students ways to escape the filter bubble and make sure their ideas about the world are being challenged.
https://youtu.be/mh1dLvGe06Y - BBC
