Who's coming to Spartans at the Movies this Sunday? Free to all elementary families! Let Mrs. Maris know if your child is bring a Lego creation. michelle.maris@olympia.org
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!
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.
First graders in Mrs. Gray's class are learning about important figures during Black History Month, including Dr. Mae Jamison. This week, we learned facts about her life, put together a timeline, read "Mae Among the Stars" and practiced design testing and data collection with a space landing simulation. It's safe to say that space landing was their favorite!
In observance of Presidents' Day, Olympia will not have school on Monday, February 20, 2023.
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!
Tip #4: Discuss fact vs. opinion
Play around with ideas, deciding which are facts and which are opinions. Ask: How tall are you? What's the best food in the world? Do you like dogs? Point out that both facts and opinions show up in the news, but opinion is usually labeled.
Mrs. Castillo's AM and PM PreK classes started a unit on Space today by becoming astronauts!
If you want to know if someone is trying to trick you with a headline, think through a few of these five questions each time you read a shocking story. Don't let them pull the wool over your eyes Spartans!
Video: bit.ly/OlyNMV1
Family Activity: bit.ly/OlyNMFR1
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 children about the structure of online news articles is an important place to start.
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.
2nd PBIS all school celebration today! Way to earn all those blue tickets South Spartans. Friday afternoon game day was a great way to end the week.
Congratulations to our Super Spartans for January! These students go above and beyond in the kindness department! Check out the video of our celebrations today!
http://bit.ly/3IeLrVv
Fake News has been around for a long time. Track its history from 63 B.C. through present day in this infographic. Where do you see Fake News today? How does it impact your life? Does it impact the type of media you consume, or where you consume it?
https://youtu.be/mh1dLvGe06Y - BBC
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. Check out these ways to escape the filter bubble and make sure your ideas about the world are being challenged.
This Sunday’s Spartan Swim is cancelled. Thanks to those that came to the other two swims.
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.
Well-crafted headlines benefit everyone. They help readers digest information and publishers sell news stories. But what if the headline is misleading? What if it's crafted just to get clicks and not to inform? "Clickbait" headlines may benefit advertisers and publishers (think $$$), but they don't benefit readers. And when they go viral, they can badly misinform the public. This week, look for clickbait headlines in the media that you consume and discuss them with your family. How many can you find before Sunday rolls around!?
bit.ly/OlyNMV2
All media comes with an author and an agenda. Help kids think critically about any media they view with critical questions that dig below the surface. And to really empower kids, have them create their own media with these same questions in mind.
Tip #1: Encourage Healthy Skepticism. Help your children analyze the info around them, from toy packaging to Instagram posts to news headlines, and question the purpose of the words and images they see. Teach kids how to use fact-checking tools like Snopes and FactCheck.org.
