Hispanic Heritage Month - Resources for Every Content Area

Hispanic Heritage Month is September 15 - October 15, and the resources available for you to integrate its celebration into your curriculum are MANY!

The official web portal for the month-long observance is a collaborative project of the Library of Congress and the National Endowment for the Humanities, National Gallery of Art, National Park Service, Smithsonian Institution, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and U.S. National Archives and Records Administration. The site is chock-full of links to Exhibits and Collections in these categories:

                

                        

           Art and Architecture                         The Era of Exploration                           Culture and Ethnography

                              

                           Economics                                      Government, Politics, and Law            Poetry and Literature

  

                                                          History                                                                          Music

Are you a science teacher? Here's a great site for you: Latinos in Math & Science: Resources for kids, young adults and teachers. Check out the hotlinks for biographies of Hispanic scientists, etc.

Do you teach math? Go to the Smithsonian's Hispanic Heritage Cultural Tour and choose Resources. Select NMAH’s “Sports: Breaking Records, Breaking Barriers” website article on Roberto Clemente as a "hook" for a lesson on mean, median, mode, and range. Or graph his hits over a span of years. Or...

The Smithsonian's HHCT is amazing in so many other ways. Click over and check out all of the Objects, the Timeline, and the Quizzes and Activities there. 

Enjoy all the possibilities of the next month. November is American Indian Heritage Month, so I'll be searching out good resources for your observance of the First People's heritage!

EDSITEment! - Lessons for the Common Core

Close reading. Citing evidence. Making logical inferences. Analyzing. Summarizing. Interpreting. Evaluating and differentiating primary and secondary sources. Where does a busy teacher find appropriate lessons and activities to guide students in developing these required CCSS English Language Arts skills?

In this first post of a series about the fantastic Thinkfinity Consortium gateway, we're looking at EDSITEment, a partnership among the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Verizon Foundation, and the National Trust for the Humanities.

"All websites linked to EDSITEment have been reviewed for content, design, and educational impact in the classroom. They cover a wide range of humanities subjects, from American history to literature, world history and culture, language, art, and archaeology, and have been judged by humanities specialists to be of high intellectual quality."

EDSITEment truly is a treasure trove, with lesson plans searchable by subject, theme, and grade level. As examples, I want to point you to two of these: Anne Frank: One of Hundreds of Thousands and Anne Frank: Writer. These lessons provide a means for you to "supplement your students' reading of The Diary of a Young Girl by connecting the diary to the study of history and to honor the legacy of Anne Frank, the writer, as she inspires your students to use writing to deepen their insights into their own experiences and the experiences of others."

The skills listed for the lessons are:

• Critical analysis
• Critical thinking
• Historical analysis
• Textual analysis
• Using primary sources

Here are two of the learning objectives:

• Use specific examples from first-hand accounts to draw conclusions about one aspect of human behavior.
• Students will read the diary in search of quotes that indicate Anne's reflections on different feelings, relationships and behaviors that she noted while her family was in hiding. 

Below is the first page of The Diary of Anne Frank: A Changing Record, which you can use as a guide for close reading. Students are asked to cite entry date and quote for emotions, relationships, and behaviors they find in Anne's diary.

There are hundreds more wonderful lessons in EDSITEment's library - lessons for the Common Core, at your service from this amazing resource, for FREE. Enjoy!

Zygote Body™ & 3D Science - Check it out, Biology teachers!

Teachers of Life Science and Biology, today's post is for you!

Zygote Body™, the new incarnation of Google Body, is gorgeous, three-dimensional human anatomy at your fingertips. Just choose gender and go! By manipulating the controls, you can reveal layers, rotate the image vertically and horizontally, change systems, select for labels...it is phenomenal! And FREE!

Here's a screenshot that shows the controls on the left:

And that's not all that's available from Zygote: 3D Science provides a selection of beautiful clipart from its commercial images that can be used in presentations and educational handouts. How about this image of a constellation of neuron cells?

Go over to their site and look around to see everything. What an incredible resource from a classy company, all FREE for you!

Teaching About September 11

I have to share this blog post with you today, from the The Learning Network at The New York Times. It is the first post of the 2012-2013 school year in their series Great Ideas from Readers. 

You'll find two lesson plans there, one by teachers Bev Berns, Shaelynn Farnsworth, Shawn Hyer, Erin Olson and Todd Vogts from schools in Iowa and Kansas, and another by Rachelle Lamoureux of North Dakota. Please read the post, and then watch the video.

Shannon Doyne, who wrote the post, says: "Shaelynn Farnsworth and Erin Olson, along with other teachers...used our collection of 9/11 resources as the foundation for research for the video (below), which was created by students at multiple high schools."

Ms. Doyne continues, "Rachelle Lamoureux...used front-page Times articles from the first 10 days after the attacks as readings to which her “current generation” students responded, then contributed a word for a group collage that captured their reactions." (Lamoureux is a middle school teacher.)

In addition to these two lesson plans, you will find many links to additional teacher resources on the website.

Flashcards, Flashcards, Flashcards!

Five of my best friends and I left early the morning after Labor Day for North Myrtle Beach, SC, to spend the rest of the week relaxing! It was absolutely fabulous, but I did miss you, and I'm ready to get back in the swing of researching and sharing.

Today's post is about a site whose name is a little deceptive. Free ESL Flashcards has 968 images, each of which is available for download in three different sizes! Why three sizes? Here's their answer: "The Big set is great for vocabulary presentation, the Medium set is good for teaching small groups of students and playing language learning games. The Small sets of pictures are great for ESL games..."

But who says they're only great for ESL? You be the judge - categories include:

• Actions (3 sets, one is shown to the right)
• Adjectives (opposites)
• Adjectives (2 sets)
• Alphabet (2 sets)
• Animals
• Body parts (3 sets)
• Christmas
• Clothes
• Colors (2 sets)
• Daily Activities (2 sets)
• Emotions (3 sets)
• Family
• Food (plurals)
• Food (uncountable)
• Halloween
• Health (2 sets)
• Numbers
• Occupations and jobs (3 sets)
• Places (2 sets)
• Prepositions
• Rooms in a house
• School objects
• Seasons and Weather
• Sports
• Sports actions
• Sports equipment
• Sports vocabulary
• St. Patrick's Day
• Thanksgiving
• Time
• Valentine's Day

There are also coloring picture sets for Christmas, Easter, St. Patrick's Day, and Thanksgiving that your kiddos could use to make greeting cards or to decorate the classroom.

All of these could be printed on card stock and laminated to be used over and over. My teaching partner and I often printed manipulatives like this on plain paper and mounted them on construction paper before laminating. It's a little more time-consuming, but cheaper.

Which ones can YOU use, and how can you use them? I'm sure you'll find great ways!

Teaching Science Through Inquiry - Last in the Series

If you teach science and are just now joining the blog, PLEASE go back and read these August 20th & 21st posts before reading this one - A Private Universe - It will change your life! (be SURE to watch the video) and A Private Universe - Second in a Series.

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Here's the thing, and oh, my goodness, do you hear Common Core goals of rigor and relevance in every phrase?

"Students at all grade levels and in every domain of science should have the opportunity to use scientific inquiry and develop the ability to think and act in ways associated with inquiry, including asking questions, planning and conducting investigations, using appropriate tools and techniques to gather data, thinking critically and logically about relationships between evidence and explanations, constructing and analyzing alternative explanations, and communicating scientific arguments." 

From the National Science Education Standards

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As promised, in this final post connected to A Private Universe, here is an annotated list of fabulous resources for teaching kids through inquiry:

1. Education.com is dedicated to parents, but who says teachers aren't parents (and parents teachers)? Many of the ideas on the site would be great in a classroom. There are 626 activities and hundreds of ideas for science fair projects, but again, who says they only belong in science fairs?

2. To Exploratorium, I say (with a smile): "There's NO reason these After School Activities have to be done after school!" 

3. Exploratorium's Explore tab takes you to 528 things to make and do, and links to 152 science learning websites!

4. How to Smile is the project of a group of science museums: Lawrence Hall of Science, Exploratorium, New York Hall of Science, Science Museum of Minnesota, and Children's Museum of Houston. Their focus is on science for children in non-classroom settings. I call that a challenge that teachers can meet with non-traditional equipment!!! There are 3,287 math and science activities on this site...need we say more?

5. Inquiry in Action  - The American Chemical Society offers a FREE download of the book Inquiry in Action. It has 7 chapters with 43 hands-on activities PLUS a review of Chemistry Fundamentals with molecular animations for teachers (we all need a refresher from time to time)!

6. The Inquiry Project "takes a unique approach to a study of matter for grades 3-5, bringing together mathematics, science content, and inquiry." The entire curriculum is presented on the website. You can purchase some investigation kits from Sempco, Inc., but most of the items needed can be found easily, and detailed specs for developing your own kits are coming soon. In the Library of Resources, there are very short videos that explain ideas and strategies that will hone YOUR skills in teaching with inquiry. This site is a treasure!

7. Science Buddies has more than 1000 Project Ideas focused on science fairs, but who says that's their only place? While these are not open-ended, there is a "Make it Your Own" section for each that could lead to a higher level of inquiry.

8. The Science Museum was founded in 1857 as part of the South Kensington Museum in the U.K., and gained independence in 1909. Most of us can't take a field trip there, but we can make use of their great Classroom Resources.

9. 24/7 Science is a product of The Lawrence Hall of Science at the University of California, Berkeley. It is simply fantastic. Go. Click on the array of resources. Please. You and your kiddos will be glad.

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If, as I hope, you are seeking to raise the level of inquiry in YOUR science class, I highly recommend Simpifying Inquiry Instruction, by Bell, Smetana, and Binns, an article that appeared in The Science Teacher. You will find there a modified version of the four-level model of inquiry, with suggestions for raising the level of a science activity. It is a valuable tool! 

And because I MUST make a reading connection :) - I know that time is at a premium in your classrooms. With that in mind, please consider using some of your reading/language arts block (which, with the implementation of CCSS, must include a large amount of informational text) to integrate science, which should not be left by the wayside!  NSTA, the National Science Teachers Association, has done the research for you. They have, for the past 11 years, compiled lists of Outstanding Science Trade Books for Students K–12. Could you ask for more?

              

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One final note: Please consider joining your state Science Teachers Association, if you haven't already. I was a member of TSTA for years as a science teacher, and I can attest that their annual conference is a wonderful professional development experience. This year's theme is Framing the Common Core. You will make friends and professional connections, and have great resources at your fingertips. Here's an example: an air pressure lesson posted on the website by my friend, Barry Farris. 

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 P.S. I hope you're all enjoying your long weekend! I'm leaving tomorrow morning for a relaxing beach trip with 5 of my best girlfriends (one of whom is my only sister, Carole). I may not be posting again until I return, which is why I wanted to get this looong one up before I left. Happy September!

Books Should Be Free

When I posted about Common Core online text exemplars, I had never seen this site, and I couldn't wait to share it on the blog today:

Books Should Be Free has both ebooks and audiobooks on their site...yes, for FREE! You can search by title, author, or keyword, and there are books of all genres, not just for children. It goes without saying that these are not new books, but many are classics and I saw several of my favorite books from childhood there.

Examples?

  

• The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
• The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
• Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
• Just So Stories
• Little Women
• Peter Pan
• The Scarlet Letter
• The Secret Garden
• The Swiss Family Robinson
• The Velveteen Rabbit
• The Wind in the Willows

Most of the audiobooks can be streamed or downloaded in several formats. They are also available as eBooks for Kindle, etc., or you can read them in your browser.

One note of caution - there is an advertisement in the center of each page, once you have clicked on a book. Many of them look like this

Download a Free Audiobook

100,000+ Titles. Download Now. 

Listen on Your iPod or MP3 Player!

Audible.com

This is not the free download you want. (It is a 30 day trial for Audible.com, which is a great site, but not free.) Instead of clicking on this ad, scroll down to Audiobook Downloads, Stream, and eBook Downloads to make your choice.

I hope you find many, many books that you and your kiddos will enjoy!

Annotated Common Core Standards...and More

With Blogger's statistics page, I'm able to see exactly which learning twice posts are being read most often. When I mentioned to my daughter that the most popular posts were Common Core related, her answer was a polite, "Well, duh." What she actually said was something like, "Of course! It's what everyone is most concerned about this year," but I get it.

Since some of the CCSS are, shall we say, a bit dense, it might help to have them broken down into chunks à la Marcia Tate for your planning and for your students' learning.

If you would like to go from this:

RL.5.2. Determine a theme of a story, drama, or poem from details in the text, including how characters in a story or drama respond to challenges or how the speaker in a poem reflects upon a topic; summarize the text.

to this:

RL.5.2. Determine a theme of a story, drama, or poem from details in the text, including how characters in a story or drama respond to challenges or how the speaker in a poem reflects upon a topic; summarize the text.

• Students should demonstrate the ability to articulate the theme or central idea of a fictional text, providing specifics from the text to support the response.
• Students should be able to respond to questions about a character’s motivations and conflicts.
• Students should be able to articulate how the speaker or narrator’s point of view reveals the theme or central idea of a text.
• Students should be able to write a summary of the text.

click on over to Kristen Bowers' Teachers Pay Teachers page and download Annotated Common Core Standards for Grades 3 - 12...for FREE!

PLEASE, if you download, leave Kristen a comment thanking her for her work and generosity, and visit her website to see what else she has to offer. She does have items for sale both there and on her TPT page.

Charity Preston, who is recommended by Kristen, also has some amazing Common Core Lesson Planning Packs with cute themes for K though 5th grade for only $5.95 each on her TPT page. They include annotated CCSS, templates for lesson planning, student checklists, "I Can" statements and posters, etc...upwards of 150 pages each...so affordable!

I hope this helps, and I especially wish for you all a wonderful Labor Day weekend - try to rest a little from your dedicated labor, in and out of the classroom, for your kiddos!

Common Core Standards Checklists

When I find a resource that looks good for middle school ELA, I run it by my daughter, who teaches 7th & 8th grade Reading & Language Arts. Yesterday, she told me she needed checklists that would allow her to note the dates when she taught skills for a particular Common Core standard.

Here's what I found for her, for FREE, at Tori Gorosave's Teachers Pay Teachers page: Common Core Checklist ELA Grade 7, and for $1.00, Common Core Checklist ELA Grade 8.

Though Joanna won't use this, Tori also has a Common Core Checklist ELA Grade 6 for only $1.50.

For YOU, I searched for checklists for younger grades too, and here's what I found:

Fonda Jones, on her TPT page, offers a FREE class checklist for 1st grade ELA. Her other ELA and math checklists, each of which has space for 24 students, are $1.50 each.

Anne Wheeler also has ELA Checklists for K-5th grade for $1 - $1.50, which are not set up as class lists. Her checklists for K-5th math are $1.50 each at TPT.

When you consider the time these teachers have spent putting the documents together, this nominal amount is a real deal. Hope you find just what will work best for you!

Common Core: Text Exemplar Activities

I'm so excited to share a fellow Tennessee teacher's fabulous work with you this morning!

Mary P. teaches in Shelbyville, TN, and not only is she a class act, she is willing to share her act with you - activities she has created for these eight of the 2nd and 3rd grade Common Core Text Exemplars!

     

   

             

  

The activities range from analyzing to discussing to predicting to sequencing to task cards, and SO much more. They would be great to use in literacy stations as well as in small groups and whole class meetings.

Mary offers these FREE downloads at  Pitner's Potpourri, but that's not all! Quick, click over to read her entire blog for other great ideas and more freebies!

I'll let her know I linked to her blog today, and if you download from it, please leave a comment thanking HER. Also, if you know of other folks who are sharing activities for CC exemplars, please let ME know so I can spread the good word!

Anchor Charts - Five Essential Features

Persistence pays off....eventually. This morning, I felt like a miner who had discovered a rich new vein! I've been looking for a clear description of what an anchor chart should be, to be most useful for student learning. That's really all that matters in any instructional strategy, right? I found the information below on a wikispace, and finally found the source through some backwards searches. I DO love technology. ;-)

Cornerstone Literacy is "a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization that strives to improve literacy outcomes for students in elementary schools serving urban and high-poverty communities by dramatically increasing the number of highly effective teachers." Their website is amazing, packed with research, strategies, and frameworks for literacy and thinking skills. Be sure to go there and check out what they offer for FREE.

Cornerstone's information about Anchor Charts, written by Wendy Seger, is exactly what I've wanted to share with you:

1. An anchor chart should have a single focus. Sometimes a teaching standard is broad by design, such as "Students will write with a clear focus, coherent organization, and sufficient detail." To be able to meet this standard, teachers would have to help students accomplish the many discrete skills that build capacity to meet the writing expectation. Those skills make up the topics of the lessons that are taught in the day-to-day work in the classroom. It is such discrete skills that are represented in an anchor chart. For example, the chart below supports the learner in one of the skills that would lead toward mastery of this standard.

2. The anchor chart is co-constructed with the students. The brain-based research of Marcia Tate and others support the use of visuals to incorporate new learning into memory. When the visual represents a learning event that includes the students, it becomes an artifact of the learning experience. It has meaning for the students because they participated in its construction. 

3. The anchor chart has an organized appearance. Clarity is paramount to understanding. If the students can’t read the chart or find the statement of explicit instruction, the anchor chart will be of no support to the students when they return to it as a scaffold.

4. The anchor chart matches the learners’ developmental level. The language, the amount of information, the length of the sentences, and the size of lettering should all match the cognitive level of the students for whom the chart is created. Below are three anchor charts developed for the same lesson: introduction to the comprehension strategy of schema. The one on the left was designed for second graders, the one in the middle for fourth graders, and the one on the right for first graders. Notice the differences in language and complexity.

5. The anchor chart supports on-going learning. One of the most important considerations is whether or not the chart is relevant and used by the students. Charts should reflect recent lessons or concepts that need continued scaffolding. Teachers can support learning by placing an anchor chart in a classroom library where students can access the information later. 

NOTES: 

• See "Anchor Charts - Another Blogger's Ideas" for a great way to save your charts in a binder.
• Jodi, over at The Clutter-Free Classroom, posted a great idea in Anchor Chart Planning and Management about creating an ongoing Powerpoint presentation that students could access on classroom computers and that you could project when the entire class needs to revisit the chart.

I've put together a list of sites that you can visit to see a variety of beautiful examples of Anchor Charts for different grades and subjects:

A Literate Life at julieballew.com

Classroom Anchor Charts and Ideas

Fabulous Fourth Grade

Hall County Schools Literacy Site

Mrs. Meacham's Classroom Snapshots

Mrs. Zimmerman's Learning Conservatory

My Life as a Third Grade Teacher

Second Grade with Mrs. Wade

Teaching in High Heels

Working 4 the Classroom

To see photos of more great anchor charts, click over to my "learning twice: Teaching Resources" board on Pinterest!

So. Read about anchor charts. Look at exemplary anchor charts. Make anchor charts with your students. Use anchor charts for reflection, reteaching, review, and scaffolding. And let me know how anchor charts work for you and your kiddos!

Giant Coordinate Plane @ Mrs W's Math-Connection

While doing research for a post on Anchor Charts, I came across a teacher's blog that I just have to share. Katie Widener is a middle school math teacher who started blogging in March of this year. She is young and obviously energetic, and I'm proud to say she is a fellow Tennessee teacher! You can find some great things on her TeachersPayTeacher's store for good prices. I REALLY like her posters, many of which are only $1 for a digital download.

Mrs. W's Math-Connection is her blog, and you NEED to follow it if you also teach math. She posts lots of photos from her classroom, which means you can actually see her ideas in action.

My favorite picture is this one, and I can imagine kiddos in every grade from 3rd up loving to be points on the plane:

http://mrswsmathconnection.blogspot.com/2012/03/when-lights-go-out.html

I also really like Mrs. W's post about the Pythagorean Theorem (close to my heart as a former Physics teacher) which includes pics of her kids doing an activity, along with a video and cartoons.

http://mrswsmathconnection.blogspot.com/2012/03/oh-so-important-pythagoras.html

Thanks to Katie's colleagues who convinced her to start her blog. Go visit it to see what else you can use with your students!

The Marvelous Cherry Carl (and her updated website)

If you teach kindergarten, primary grades, or English Learners, or if you do reading intervention and by some twist of fate have never seen Cherry Carl's incredible work, you are in for a truly amazing treat!

to Carl's Corner!

Cherry retired after 35 years as a teacher & language arts specialist, and was an instructor in the Reading Specialist Program  at U.C. San Diego until 2009. She still maintains this amazing website packed with great resources. In her words, "I wasn't ready to retire. Teaching is in my blood! I'm passionate about the joy of knowing how to read and write and want every child to have the experience of closing a book with a sigh, 'Wow, that was a good book!'"

Cherry had expanded her original website Carl's Corner into four separate ones. In 2015, she incorporated them back into one large site. Here you'll find so many activities that it will take you hours to see it all. Seriously. I tried to think of a way to give you an idea of everything on the site, but I simply couldn't. Instead, I'll just show you one of her "Rhyme Time Bingo" cards and tell you that it's the tip of an enormous iceberg:

Click on Alphabet Avenue, which is is dedicated entirely to activities that support learning and using the alphabet, including a variety of offerings for each letter. There is a CD loaded with goodies for sale, but most things are absolutely FREE!

There are small books to print that you can find on the Website Directory by subject, such as Critters, Dinosaurs, Fall, etc., along with pocket chart cards and much more. Again, you can buy a CD with lots of printables, or you can download and print FREE ones.

Another previously separate site, Word Way, has hundreds of pages of word family activities, games, posters, songs, and puzzles.

Honestly, I've been downloading, printing, laminating, and using Cherry Carl's resources for several years, and every time I look at one of her websites, I'm still amazed by things I've never seen before. You're going to love them!

The Slave Trade, Then and Now

This post is not just about teaching strategies or resources. Instead, it offers an opportunity to reflect on a disturbing chapter in our country's past, to share that reflection with your students, and to learn about a similar tragic situation that exists in 2012.

Today is the 10th annual International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition. UNESCO's Director-General included this paragraph in his statement marking this year's August 23rd remembrance:

"While we should never forget the atrocities committed in the past, we should be equally vigilant in seeking to abolish the contemporary forms of slavery that affect millions of men, women and children around the world. Despite the arsenal of international instruments created to combat the exploitation of human beings, as well as the growing awareness of the forced labour and the sale and prostitution of children, the disturbing truth is that such flagrant violations of human rights continue. They are a scourge undermining the social fabric of many societies, which UNESCO is working with determination to end."

To share this remembrance of slavery in the United States with your students (sorry I couldn't give you advance notice, but one day soon will also be good) Anita Silvey recommends reading Virginia Hamilton's The People Could Fly.

http://childrensbookalmanac.com/wp-content/uploads/8-23-People-Could-Fly.png

If you want to educate yourself about human trafficking and one organizations's work in the fight against it in Nepal, go to the website of the Red Thread Movement.

http://www.redthreadmovement.org/uploads/6/6/5/0/6650393/7766928_orig.png

Nerdy Book Club - Picture Books for the Secondary Classroom

Good Morning, blog friends! Just time for a quick post before a busy day.

You know how I love picture books, and that I think they are great for us older folks as well as our kiddos. 

I want you to click over to Nerdy Book Club, where you'll find "Top 10 Picture Books for the Secondary Classroom" by Kim McCollum-Clark. Kim includes books by some of my favorite authors (Cynthia Rylant, Maurice Sendak, Judith Byron Schachner), and briefly describes how you might use them as instructional tools.

From NBC, here are Kim's creds: "Kim McCollum-Clark teaches English and English Education at Millersville University of Pennsylvania, where her collection of young adult literature, graphic novels, and picture books are on constant loan to her teacher-babies. You can find her on Twitter as @KimMcCollum."

I'm impressed, and I'll be following her from now on on Twitter!

Exploratorium - Even if you don't live in San Francisco!

If you don't live in San Francisco, you probably can't accept Exploratorium's invitation to take your students there on a fabulous field trip. But oh, can you find things to do, make, listen to, and watch on their awesome website!

Below are just a few of the 528 things to make, see, and do:

• Blue Sky - why the sky is blue and the sunset is red
• Color Chromatography - the colors in "black" ink 

http://www.exploratorium.edu/afterschool/activities/images/nav/color-on.gif

• Ice Balloons - density, changes of state, etc. 
• Modeling the Seasons - refer to the blog posts on "A Private Universe!"
• Peter's Savage Garden - carnivorous plants in action with California Carnivores' owner

http://www.californiacarnivores.com/Images/CC_Peter_N_Truncata.jpg

• Slinky in Hand - transverse and longitudinal waves

And oh, my goodness, explo.tv! How do 1030 webcasts, videos, podcasts, and slide shows sound?
With registration, you can download videos so that you don't have to wait for buffering when showing them to your students. Here's one I downloaded from Ice Stories Polar Media Collection, "Traverse Across Frozen McMurdo Sound":

So, don't wait - hurry to the Exploratorium site and see what's in store for you and your kiddos!