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Learning At Home Schedule – May 2021

Take advantage of this month’s Learning at Home broadcast schedule – great for students engaged in hybrid or distance instruction, and families looking to spend some extra, quality time together!

After watching these fascinating programs, explore the PBS LearningMedia and web resources to learn more.

Monday, May 3

12 PM: Let’s Learn – Can you Hear the Long “a” in Rainbow?

“Let’s Learn” helps children ages 3-8 with at-home learning. One-hour programs feature instruction by educators and virtual field trips. Explore rhythms using food, identify hexagons, read “Black is a Rainbow,” review long a.

1 PM: PBS American Portrait: “I Dream”

In the first episode of PBS American Portrait, self-shot stories explore the meaning and state of the American dream. From the desire for homeownership to ambitions for higher ed or career success, they show the hard work, opportunities and barriers that come with pursuing this ideal today.

2 PM: Summoned: Frances Perkins and the General Welfare

The first woman appointed to a U.S. Presidential cabinet, Frances Perkins created the social safety net that continues to shape the lives of Americans today. In her 12 years as Labor Secretary under President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Perkins created the Social Security program, a federal minimum wage, the 40-hour work week and unemployment compensation, and ended the legal use of child labor. Summoned: Frances Perkins and the General Welfare tells the story of Perkins’ life through rare archival recordings of her voice, and interviews with Nancy Pelosi, George Mitchell, David Brooks, Lawrence O’Donnell and Amy Klobuchar.

Tuesday, May 4

12 PM: Let’s Learn – Can you Hear the Long “o” in Bold?

“Let’s Learn” helps children ages 3-8 with at-home learning. Learn about proportion and mixing tints, read “The Hips on the Drag Queen Go Swish,” blend and decode long i and o.

1 PM: PBS American Portrait: “I Work”

In the second episode of PBS American Portrait, everyday people share self-shot stories about their jobs and careers as they navigate the changes they’re experiencing and the goals they’re working towards. From teachers to truck drivers, they explore what it really means to work in America today.

2 PM: And Then They Came for Us

Seventy-eight years ago, Executive Order 9066 paved the way to the profound violation of constitutional rights that resulted in the forced incarceration of 120,000 Japanese Americans. Featuring George Takei and many others who were incarcerated, as well as newly rediscovered photographs of Dorothea Lange, And Then They Came for Us brings history into the present, retelling this difficult story and following Japanese American activists as they speak out against the Muslim registry and travel ban.

Wednesday, May 5

12 PM: Let’s Learn – FL and Y make FLY!

“Let’s Learn” helps children ages 3-8 with at-home learning. Compare using “fewer than” and “same as,” read “The Boy and the Bindi” and “We Are the Dinosaurs.

1 PM: PBS American Portrait: “I Keep”

In the third episode of PBS American Portrait, people film themselves as they try to preserve or change traditions in their lives and communities. From struggles to protect culture to eliminating toxic legacies, it’s an intimate look at the practices we’ve inherited and the ones we’ll pass on.

2 PM: Chasing Voices

From 1907 until his death more than 50 years later, ethnologist John Peabody Harrington crisscrossed the U.S., chasing the voices of the last speakers of Native America’s dying languages. Moving from one tribal community to the next, he collaborated with the last speakers to document every finite detail before their languages were lost forever. Chasing Voices chronicles Harrington’s work and traces the impact of his exhaustive research on Native communities working to restore the language of their ancestors.

Thursday, May 6

12 PM: Let’s Learn – What Sounds Do You Hear in Write?

“Let’s Learn” helps children ages 3-8 with at-home learning. Sing with solfege, read “Pout Pout Fish” and “When Sophie Gets Mad,” learn about silent letters kn and wr.

1 PM: PBS American Portrait: “I Rise”

In the fourth episode of PBS American Portrait, go inside the lives of people working to create an antiracist American future. They film themselves doing the hard work, confronting the obstacles and achieving the small victories that could add up to real change in the movement for racial justice.

2 PM: Greta Thunberg: A Year to Change the World – Part 2

This revealing series follows Greta Thunberg as she steps from behind the podium and onto the front lines. Over the course of the three episodes, Greta explores the science as she travels to extraordinary locations across the globe, meeting leading climate scientists, witnessing first hand the consequences of climate change and confronting the complexity of what is required to make change happen.

Friday, May 7

12 PM: Let’s Learn – Can You Hear the Long “i” in Time?

“Let’s Learn” helps children ages 3-8 with at-home learning. Learn about how animals stay healthy, practice more/less/same, read “Skip Through the Seasons,” review long I, o.

1 PM: Articulate | Kyle Abraham, Maggie Nelson, Ruth Slenczynska, Saya Woofalk

The works of choreographer Kyle Abraham feel like a memoir. Nelson is one of her generation’s most celebrated writers and critical thinkers. As a child, Ruth Slenczynska studied under Rachmaninoff. At age 92, all she learned can still be heard in her music. Woolfalk’s imaginary world is populated by mutants, governed by utopian values.

1:30 PM: Poetry in America: You and I Are Disappearing

Poet Yusef Komunyakaa went to the Vietnam War as a journalist but came home a poet. This episode explores how things experienced during war can still burn in memory and on the page decades later. Former Secretary of State John Kerry, film and theatre director Julie Taymor, composer Elliot Goldenthal, a chorus of Vietnam War veterans, and Komunyakaa himself discuss the awful mix of beauty and horror in war—and the challenge of making art from it.

2 PM: Artbound | Artist and Mother

While matriarchs may hold enormous symbolism in art history, women taking on motherhood may be the last taboo in contemporary art. Mother artists Kenyatta A.C. Hinkle, Tanya Aguñiga, Rebecca Campbell and Andrea Chung confront the stakes while exploring the realities of art and motherhood.

Monday, May 10

12 PM: Let’s Learn – Can You Hear the Long “u” in Unique?

“Let’s Learn” helps children ages 3-8 with at-home learning. Learn about plants and shapes, read “All the Ways to Be Smart,” blend/decode long u, e.

1 PM: American Masters | Amy Tan: Unintended Memoir

An intimate portrait of the groundbreaking writer that interweaves archival imagery, including home movies and personal photographs, animation and original interviews to tell the inspiring story of Tan’s life and career.

Tuesday, May 11

12 PM: Let’s Learn – Can You Find the Long “e” in Here?

“Let’s Learn” helps children ages 3-8 with at-home learning. Make bouncing bubbles, play “traffic jam,” sing traveling music, read “How a Seed Grows,” practice long u and e sounds in words.

1 PM: Ancient Skies⎪Gods and Monsters

With breathtaking CGI, beautiful landscape footage and some of the world’s most important astronomical artifacts, Ancient Skies looks at the cosmos through the eyes of our ancestors, charting our changing views of the cosmos throughout history. In this episode we explore the origins of our relationship with the skies. From our earliest ancestors we discover how we used the skies to navigate and tell time, and how we gave religious significance to the things we saw in it. We finish on the cusp of a revolution that gave birth to modern science.

2 PM: Stories in Thread

Stories in Thread focuses on Hmong Pa Dau or Story Cloths. The traditionally hand-made textiles are integral to what it means to be Hmong in America. Despite this significance of Pa Dau to identity and cultural survival, the art form is disappearing. The perspective of the elder generation, the fighters and refugees from Laos, is expressed in their own Hmong language and their fear of cultural loss is immediate and painful. The story of Hmong Pa Dau is the story of identity change and perseverance, it is an exploration of the refugee and immigrant experience, and also a commentary on contemporary minority issues in America.

2:30 PM: Nobody Dies: A Film About a Musician, Her Mom, and Vietnam

San Fransisco-based indie singer-songwriter Thao Nguyen journeys to Vietnam for the first time and brings her mother ⎯ who hasn’t been back since the fall of Saigon. The trip causes Thao to reflect on her upbringing in the United States, her extended family in Vietnam, all the while unraveling like a love letter to her mom.

Wednesday, May 12

12 PM: Let’s Learn – Can You Hear the Soft “g” in Page?

“Let’s Learn” helps children ages 3-8 with at-home learning. Make a heart map, explore rhythm/beat, identify solid figures, read “Book Fiesta,” read words with soft g.

1 PM: Ancient Skies⎪Finding the Center

Episode two of this landmark series delves further into our ancient understanding of the skies above. After exploring the mysterious creatures living at the edge of the world, we follow the story of our earth as it takes shape and a place in the cosmos in the minds of great astronomers and scientists including Ptolemy, Copernicus and Galileo.

2 PM: Human: The World Within⎪Pulse

Explore the incredible universe inside each and every one of us. An examination of diverse personal stories from around the world reveals how our lives, passions and goals are powered by the amazing systems that define our biology as a species. In this episode, dive into the world of an ice climber, a bus driver, a woman in labor and a senior dance club to show how the human heart and the circulatory system power our physical and emotional lives and create the pulsing rhythm of our world.

Thursday, May 13

12 PM: Let’s Learn – Map Rhymes With Clap!

“Let’s Learn” helps children ages 3-8 with at-home learning. Learn about animal homes, sing forte and piano, read “The Favorite Book,” rhyme and review long u and e sounds in words.

1 PM: Ancient Skies⎪Our Place in the Universe

In Episode 3, Our Place in the Universe, we complete the puzzle of our ancient skies, collecting the missing pieces required for an accurate model of our universe. We break through the spheres that defined our skies for millennia, abandon the long-held idea of circular orbits, discover new neighbors in our solar system, and begin to comprehend the enormity of our ever-growing universe.

2 PM: Greta Thunberg: A Year to Change the World – Part 3

This revealing series follows Greta Thunberg as she steps from behind the podium and onto the front lines. Over the course of the three episodes, Greta explores the science as she travels to extraordinary locations across the globe, meeting leading climate scientists, witnessing first hand the consequences of climate change and confronting the complexity of what is required to make change happen.

Friday, May 14

12 PM: Let’s Learn – Can You Hear the Long “e” in Cheer?

“Let’s Learn” helps children ages 3-8 with at-home learning. Learn how animals have fun, create sets of objects that have the same number, read “Fire! Fuego! Brave Bomberos,” blend/decode long e sounds in words.

1 PM: Articulate⎪Christian Scott Adjuah, Tommy Pico, Ron Nagle, Sidney Hutter

Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah is leading the charge into jazz’s next chapter. Tommy Pico designed his epic poetry for a thoroughly modern medium. Ron Nagle’s hit songs and ceramics are born of dedication to harmony and craft. Sidney Hutter’s plate glass creations have pushed the boundaries of his medium.

1:30 PM: Poetry in America: This is Just to Say

Written in the form of an apology note stuck to a refrigerator door, “This is Just to Say” is a plum of a poem – one that has caused as much disagreement among readers as between any ordinary husband and wife. Is the poem merely the apology it claims to be? Is it an apology at all? Join actor John Hodgman, poet and physician Rafael Campo, poet Jane Hirshfield, and a chorus of couples as they consider what may or may not lie beneath the surface of William Carlos Williams’s brief tribute to marital relations – and the savor of plums.

2 PM: Artbound | The Art of Basketweaving

Native American basketry has long been viewed as a community craft, yet the artistic quality and value of these baskets are on par with other fine art. Now Native peoples across the country are revitalizing basketry traditions and the country looks to California as a leader in basket weaving revitalization.

Monday, May 17

12 PM: Let’s Learn – Speak and Green Both Have Long “e”!

“Let’s Learn” helps children ages 3-8 with at-home learning. Meet dinosaurs, explore melodies, read “Green is a Chili Pepper,” practice the long e sound.

1 PM: Forces of Nature | Shape

“Forces of Nature” illustrates how we experience Earth’s natural forces, including shape, elements, color, and motion in each of its four episodes. We can’t directly see the forces that govern Earth, but we can see their shadows in the shapes of nature that surround us. If we understand why these shapes exist, we can understand the rules that bind the entire universe.

2 PM: Life From Above | Moving Planet

Cameras in space tell stories of life on our planet from a brand new perspective. Our planet is constantly on the move; from individual animals to powerful weather systems. Follow an elephant family struggling through drought and marvel as thousands of Shaolin Kung-Fu students perform in perfect synchronicity.

Tuesday, May 18

12 PM: Let’s Learn – Can You Hear the Short “e” in Head?

“Let’s Learn” helps children ages 3-8 with at-home learning. Be a plant and feelings detective, read “Saving Granddaddy’s Stories: Ray Hicks, The Voice of Appalachia,” learn about short e.

1 PM: Forces of Nature | Elements

The forces of nature make Earth a restless planet, but they also turned our ball of rock into a home for life. How did our planet’s ingredients, the chemical elements, come together and take that first crucial step from barren rock to a living world?

2 PM: The Ito Sisters: An American Story

The Ito Sisters captures the stories of three Japanese American sisters, interviewed in their 80’s and 90’s, as they recount how their immigrant parents struggled to make a life in America at the beginning of the 20th century. The family’s chronicle is set against the backdrop of the anti-Japanese movement in California, a 60-year campaign by politicians, journalists, landowners, labor leaders and others that culminated in the evacuation and incarceration of more than 120,000 Japanese Americans from the West Coast during World War II. The Ito Sisters is written, directed and produced by Antonia Grace Glenn, the granddaughter of the middle of the three sisters.

Wednesday, May 19

12 PM: Let’s Learn – Heat Rhymes with Repeat!

“Let’s Learn” helps children ages 3-8 with at-home learning. Learn how animals stay warm and cool, explore your identity, read “Phyllis Wants to Go to School,” review long e.

1 PM: Forces of Nature | Color

Earth is painted in stunning colors. By understanding how these colors are created and the energy they carry, we can learn the secret language of the planet.

2 PM: Human: The World Within | Fuel

Through the worlds of a religious faster, an ultra-marathon runner, a farmer and a young girl beating allergies, go deep into the world of the human gut, which processes the fuel our bodies need to keep going.

Thursday, May 20

12 PM: Let’s Learn – Can You Hear the Long “a” in Way?

“Let’s Learn” helps children ages 3-8 with at-home learning. Explore shapes and patterns, read “Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush,” and “María La Súper Ayudante/ María The Super Helper,” blend and decode long a.

1 PM: Forces of Nature | Motion

The forces of nature have kept Earth on the move since it was formed billions of years ago. Though we can’t feel the motion, we experience the consequences, from tidal bores surging through the Amazon rainforest to the ruinous power of hurricanes.

2 PM: American Experience: Mr. Tornado

Mr. Tornado is the remarkable story of the man whose groundbreaking work in research and applied science saved thousands of lives and helped Americans prepare for and respond to dangerous weather phenomena. Ted Fujita was a Japanese-American engineer turned meteorologist. He immersed himself in research on tornadoes and introduced the “Fujita Scale”, a six-point scale to classify degrees of tornado intensity.

Friday, May 21

12 PM: Let’s Learn – Brain and Same Both Have Long “a”!

“Let’s Learn” helps children ages 3-8 with at-home learning. Use brain powers, create sets that have 1 more, read “Max and the Talent Show,” practice long a.

1 PM: Articulate | Allora & Calzadilla, Balliett, Stevens, Levitin

Allora & Calzadilla are one of the art world’s most dynamic power couples. Doug Balliett has created a career as diverse as his own musical talents. Veruschka Stevens uses polymer clay to create joyful statement jewelry. Levitin’s lifelong love of music has served him in recordings and on the page.

1:30 PM: Poetry in America: Leaves of Grass

In 1855 Walt Whitman declared “The United States themselves are essentially the greatest poem.” Poetry In America celebrates the 200th anniversary of Walt Whitman’s birth with Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan, playwright Tony Kushner, hip hop artist Nas, composer Matthew Aucoin, baritone Davóne Tines, poets Joshua Bennett, Marilyn Chin, Christina Davis, Mark Doty, Linda Hogan, and Adrienne Raphel, a chorus of National Student Poets, and others discussing Whitman’s powerful and timeless work.

2 PM: Hippocrates Cafe: Reflections on the Pandemic

Hippocrates Cafe combines performing arts and medicine. It is a live show that uses professional actors and musicians to explore healthcare topics through story and song. This special focuses on performances by local artists that explore the impact of Covid-19 through music, art, animation, photography, story, poetry and dance. A co-production with the University of Minnesota Medical School’s Center for the Art of Medicine. Hosted by Dr. Jon Hallberg and Dr. Renee Crichlow.

Monday, May 24

12 PM: Let’s Learn – Can You Find the Apostrophe in “Let’s”?

“Let’s Learn” helps children ages 3-8 with at-home learning. Learn how animals communicate their emotions, change shapes into forms, read “The Thing About Bees,” focus on contractions

1 PM: Life at the Waterhole: Part 1

Explore the daily drama as African wildlife flock to a manmade waterhole rigged with cameras. Dr. M. Sanjayan and his team uncover the complex dynamic of this bustling oasis where elephants, lions, leopards and more meet and compete for water. Which animals find the waterhole, how do they use it, and will they share?

2 PM: Life From Above | Colorful Planet

From space earth is not just a blue planet but a kaleidoscope of color. Swirls of turquoise phytoplankton trigger an oceanic feeding frenzy, China turns yellow as millions of flowers bloom and at night the waters off the coast of Argentina are spotted with mysterious green lights.

Tuesday, May 25

12 PM: Let’s Learn – Can You Hear the Long “a” in Plane?

“Let’s Learn” helps children ages 3-8 with at-home learning. Make a little lava lamp, learn how to scat, read “Your Voice Is Your Superpower,” review long a sounds and contractions.

1 PM: Asian Americans | Breaking Ground

Asian Americans is a five-hour film series that chronicles the contributions, and challenges of Asian Americans, the fastest-growing ethnic group in America. Personal histories and new academic research will cast a fresh lens on U.S. history and the role Asian Americans have played in it. Episode one, Breaking Ground, describes an era of exclusion and U.S. empire, as new immigrants arrive from China, India, Japan, the Philippines and beyond. Barred by anti-Asian laws they become America’s first “undocumented immigrants,” yet they build railroads, dazzle on the silver screen, and take their fight for equality to the U.S. Supreme Court.

2 PM: NOVA: Hindenburg: The New Evidence

The cause of the infamous Hindenburg crash has baffled experts for over 80 years, with theories about the airship’s fire ranging from deliberate sabotage to a spark generated by the stormy conditions in which it landed. But new, never-before-seen amateur footage of the crash has surfaced, showing the airship’s final seconds from a fresh angle and in unrivaled clarity. Taking clues from the footage and other sources, NOVA leads a fresh investigation at a leading scientific lab with eye-opening experiments that point to a final solution of the mystery. 

Wednesday, May 26

12 PM: Let’s Learn – Can You Hear the Long “o” in Road?

“Let’s Learn” helps children ages 3-8 with at-home learning. Build a neighborhood, learn a song from Ghana, read “Ooko,” decode long o vowel teams.

1 PM: Asian Americans | A Question of Loyalty

An American-born generation straddles their country of birth and their parents’ homelands in Asia. Those loyalties are tested during World War II, when families are imprisoned in detention camps, and brothers find themselves on opposite sides of the battle lines.

2 PM: Human: The World Within | Defend

Look at a nature survivalist, rancher twins, a doctor who survived Ebola and the recipient of a cutting-edge cancer therapy to uncover the wildly advanced biology that keeps us alive against all odds.

Thursday, May 27

12 PM: Let’s Learn – Can You Hear the Long “o” in Know?

“Let’s Learn” helps children ages 3-8 with at-home learning. Dissect flowers, make a collage, read “Friend For Henry,” practice long o vowel teams.

1 PM: Asian Americans | Good Americans

During the Cold War years, Asian Americans are simultaneously heralded as a Model Minority, and targeted as the perpetual foreigner. It is also a time of bold ambition, as Asian Americans aspire for the first time to national political office and a coming culture-quake simmers beneath the surface.

2 PM: Asian Americans | Generation Rising

During a time of war and social tumult, a young generation fights for equality in the fields, on campuses and in the culture, and claim a new identity: Asian Americans. The war’s aftermath brings new immigrants and refugees who expand the population and the definition of Asian America.

Friday, May 28

12 PM: Let’s Learn – Can You Hear the Long “i” in Wide?

“Let’s Learn” helps children ages 3-8 with at-home learning. Compare by length and height, read “Daddy’s Arms” and “The Girl Who Never Made Mistakes,” learn rhythms from Ghana, blend/decode oe and ie vowel teams.

1 PM: Inside the MET | The Birthday Surprise

New York City’s Metropolitan Museum of Art is the largest art museum in the Americas. At five floors high and four city blocks long, the Met is home to 2.3 million square feet of artistic treasures. In the months leading up to the Met’s 150th birthday, we follow the ambitious behind-the-scenes preparations as the museum plans an anniversary year nobody will forget — but COVID-19 strikes as the exhibition revels begin. As the Met is forced to close its doors for the first time in history, a skeleton staff battles to protect 1.2 million precious objects while executives face losses approaching $150 million, revealing the new reality inside this storied art institution.

2 PM: Inside the MET | All Things to All People?

After the COVID-19 pandemic forces the Metropolitan Museum of Art to close its doors and place plans for their 150th year on hold, the killing of George Floyd in May 2020 leads to the resurgence of the Black Lives Matter movement and renewed calls for social justice. The Met is forced to confront their historical record on inclusion, exclusion and diversity in art and staffing, as questions are raised about some of the Met’s most treasured objects. As curators work to deliver on the Met’s new vision, we follow leading artists in their studios to see and hear the realities of making work that now has increased political resonance.

Monday, May 31

12 PM: National Memorial Day Concert 2021

On the eve of Memorial Day, a star-studded lineup will grace the stage for one of the highest-rated programs on PBS. For over 30 years, this multiple-award-winning television event has honored the military service and sacrifice of all our men and women in uniform, their families at home, and those who have made the ultimate sacrifice for our country.

Learning at Home on Mountain Lake PBS is supported by:
Adirondack Foundation
With additional support by:
North Country Behavioral Medicine
Stafford, Owens, Piller, Murnane, Kelleher & Trombley, PLLC