Check out this week’s Learning at Home highlights below! Watch these great programs and explore the PBS LearningMedia and web resources with your family to learn more.
Monday, May 4, 12 PM
Poetry in America: I cannot Dance Opon my Toes
“I cannot dance opon my toes,” Emily Dickinson writes—“no man instructed me.” Join host Elisa New, actor Cynthia Nixon, cellist Yo-Yo Ma, dancer and choreographer Jill Johnson, and poet Marie Howe in an exploration of the challenges of art and audience across time, space, and artistic medium.
PBS LearningMedia related resources:
- Elements of Poetry – In this interactive lesson, discover how literary techniques like figurative language, imagery, and symbolism contribute to the overall meaning of a poem.
- Primary Source Set: The Poetry of Emily Dickinson – This collection uses primary sources to explore the poetry of Emily Dickinson. Each set includes an overview, ten to fifteen primary sources, links to related resources, and a teaching guide.
- Storytelling: Performance and Art – Students explore how stories can be told without words, such as through performance and art. This is one of four storytelling lessons.
Wednesday, May 6, 1 PM
Rise of the Mammals
Learn how the diversity of plant life in the forest ecosystem changed following the dinosaur extinction and discover which kinds of animals would have thrived during the pathway to recovery.
PBS LearningMedia related resources:
- Exploring the “Systems” in Ecosystems – In this media-rich lesson, students use a systems thinking approach to explore the components and processes of ecosystems.
- Dinosaur GPS – A paleontologist experiments with using Landsat spectral signatures to find fossils.
- Fun with Fossil Lesson Plan – In this lesson, students create their own fossils, and then use multimedia resources to learn how real fossils form and what scientists can learn from them.
Thursday, May 3, 4 PM
Shakespeare’s Tomb
Historian Dr. Helen Castor explores the mysteries surrounding Shakespeare’s burial place. Will the first-ever scientific investigation discover why his tombstone’s only inscription is a curse against any man who “moves my bones?”
PBS LearningMedia related resources:
- Supernatural Shakespeare and Macbeth | Shakespeare Uncovered – In this lesson from Shakespeare Uncovered, students will explore how William Shakespeare uses supernatural elements in Macbeth.
- Romeo and Juliet: Teens Act It Out – Use these videos to show how modern teenagers can practice and connect with the language of Romeo and Juliet in this lesson from Folger Shakespeare Library and Shakespeare Uncovered.
- The Mystery of Shakespeare – Shakespearean experts examine a recently discovered work that may have been penned by Shakespeare.
Friday, May 8, 11 AM
SciGirls: City Chickens
SciGirls hatch a plan! Alexa and her friends design and build a chicken coop for an urban farm in Denver, Colorado, by recycling a donated structure into a new home where the birds can thrive.
PBS LearningMedia related resources:
- Habitat Basics – This video segment from IdahoPTV’s Science Trek presents the 4 basic requirements for a good habitat: food, water, space and shelter.
- Habitat: Animal Homes – Learn about how animals utilize what’s in their habitat to build their homes—and how they construct their shelters to stay alive in this video from NATURE: Animal Homes.
- SciGirls: Home Sweet Home – A habitat is the natural home or environment of a plant, an animal, or other organism. A habitat provides an animal with food, water, and a place to live. Sometimes animals cannot live in their natural habitats, and humans must build habitats for them. To meet the animals’ needs, people try to mimic their natural habitats as much as possible.