All People Are Beautiful by Vincent Kelly

Last month, Vincent Kelly released his children's book called All People Are Beautiful.  All People Are Beautiful is a cheerful, delightful story that will put a smile on your face and make you feel good inside.  It has bright illustrations and features children from all over the world.  Keep reading to learn more about All People Are Beautiful and how you can use it in your classroom.

Disclosure: Affiliate links to Amazon are included in this post.

Fun Facts About Cicadas

It's summer 2021... the year of the Brood X (Brood Ten) cicada!  At the time of this posting, billions of cicadas have already emerged from the ground in Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia, and Washington DC and are singing their mating songs, hoping to find a mate.  Do you live in an area that has been inundated with cicadas?  Have you ever wondered what the life of a cicada is like?  Read on to learn some interesting facts about these noisy insects!

Dancing Popcorn Science and STEM Experiment

Dancing Popcorn is a popular STEM experiment among teachers of young children.  It requires only three materials, is easy to prepare and clean up, and can be used to teach a variety of science concepts such as:

• buoyancy, sink, float
• density
• states of matter (solids, liquids, and gases)
• chemical changes
• making and confirming predictions
• vocabulary development: carbon dioxide

There are two ways to do the Dancing Popcorn STEM experiment, one using seltzer water and the other using vinegar and baking soda.  This blog post is going to focus on the easier of the two... dropping popcorn kernels into seltzer water.  Keep reading to learn more about this experiment and how you can use it with your little ones.

Disclosure: Affiliate links to Amazon are included in this post.

Exploring Density: Sink or Float STEM Experiment

Sink or float science and STEM experiments and popular with early education and early elementary school teachers.  These experiments are easy to prepare and conduct and have a fun wow factor with students.  Back in September, I wrote a blog post about a Halloween candy-themed sink or float STEM activity you can use in your classroom.  This blog post is about another sink or float activity... but with a twist.  In this STEM activity, you will be dropping objects into a container of oil and water.  How will this change the results?  Keep reading to find out!

Disclosure: Affiliate links to Amazon are included in this post.

One Plastic Bag: Isatou Ceesay and the Recycling Women of the Gambia by Miranda Paul

Plastic shopping bags became widely used in the 1980s.  They're popular with manufacturers because they are cheaper to make than paper bags and popular with consumers because of their convenience.  (How many of us have carried four or five bags of groceries in one hand while bringing them into the house, right?)  

Manufacturers have justified making plastic shopping bags by claiming it was good for the environment... it reduced the number of trees being cut each year.  However, plastic shopping bags have actually hurt the environment in large parts of the world.  One Plastic Bag by Miranda Paul is the true story of how plastic shopping bags have wreaked havoc in one community and how a woman named Isatou Ceesay was determined to do something about it.  Keep reading to learn more about One Plastic Bag, how you can use it in the classroom, and for a simple art enrichment activity that repurposes plastic shopping bags.

Disclosure: Affiliate links to Amazon are included in this post.

What is Memorial Day?

Memorial Day in the United States is a public holiday celebrated on the last Monday in May. On this day, we honor the men and women who died while serving in the military. Memorial Day also marks the unofficial beginning of summer. Here are six fun facts about Memorial Day for you.

Six Children's Books About Egyptian Mummies

Several weeks ago I wrote a blog post about How to Make a Mummy and included the step-by-step directions on how to recreate the mummification process to mummify an apple.  This week, I pulled together a list of six popular children's books about Egyptian mummies to help you extend your students' learning in the classroom.  These are nonfiction books that students in second grade and above would enjoy.

Disclosure: Affiliate links are included in this post.

Fun Facts About Camels

Happy Wednesday!  It's Wednesday-Hump-Day... the halfway point of the workweek.  The phrase 'Hump Day' became popular during the 1960s and since then the camel has been the unofficial Hump Day mascot.  How much do you know about camels?  Why is the camel the Hump Day mascot?  Keep reading to learn more about these fascinating animals!

Incredible Animals by Dunia Rahwan

If you're a frequent visitor to Kelly's Classroom Online, then you know I enjoy writing posts about animals.  So far, I've written about bees, groundhogs, reindeer, and rhinoceros.  I even compiled a list of children's books about animal poop!  If you enjoyed those posts, you will enjoy today's post about Incredible Animals by Dunia Rahwan.  Incredible Animals is a fact-packed, nonfiction book about animals from all over the world.  If you've enjoyed reading my Fun Facts About Animals series, you will definitely enjoy reading this book.  Keep reading to learn more about Incredible Animals and for a FREE animal research printable you can use it with.

Disclosure: Affiliate links to Amazon are included in this post.

Dippin' Dandelions STEM Challenge

Dipping dandelions into a glass of water to see what happens to them is the newest TikTok challenge out there.  (I found out about this challenge from someone who told me about it after reading Learning About Dandelion Life Cycles.)  To do this challenge, you dip a white fuzzy dandelion head into a glass of water, keep it submerged for a few seconds, and pull it out.  Then you observe any changes that may have occurred.  Pretty simple, eh?  My son and I gave it a try earlier today and this is what happened...

Learning About Dandelion Life Cycles

Dandelions... also called puffballs, lion's head, lion's tooth, and monk's head... are some of the first flowers that appear in the spring.  Spring animals love to eat them.  Children love to play with them.  Science teachers and homeschooling families like to use them to talk about plant life cycles.  Keep reading for a quick science + craft activity and children's book suggestion you can use to teach dandelion life cycles to the children you work with!

Disclosure: Affiliate links to Amazon are included in this post.