From The New York Times:    How do you navigate all this with students? In a history class, it might be natural to construct a full unit on Ukraine, but teachers across the curriculum may also want to address questions and emotions about this conflict or teach aspects of it suited to their subject areas. We hope this collection can help.
We’ve sifted through many of the thousands of news items, including articles, Opinion essays, maps, photos, graphics, videos and more, that have appeared on nytimes.com since the invasion began, looking for what we thought might be best suited for classrooms. Because The Learning Network and everything we link to is accessible without a Times digital subscription, teachers clicking on these resources from our site can use them with their students free of charge.

Places to Start

• Where to Begin, No Matter What You Teach
• Background and Historical Context
• Military Developments
• Zelensky and Putin
• The Global Response and Its Implications
• The Role of China
• The Humanitarian Crisis
• Understanding the Russian Experience
• The Information War: Media Literacy
• War and Literature
• How to Help
• Tell Us How You’re Teaching About This Conflict

Start with our lesson plan.
In this lesson plan, published just after the invasion, we use a range of Times resources, including articles, videos, maps, photos and podcasts, to help students answer these questions and understand what is at stake.

Greetings,
NASA Glenn Research Center is reaching out to administrators, educators, libraries, youth-serving organizations, parents, and students to inform you of two exciting summer opportunities for elementary and middle school students to explore NASA and STEM careers – TECH Day and the NASA STEM Kids Virtual Event!
​TECH Day – We are currently accepting registrations for TECH Day a one day event for middle school students that will be held virtually on May 12, 2022. TECH stands for: Tours of NASA, Engineering challenge, Career exploration, and Hands-on activity. This engaging event will include a virtual tour of a NASA Glenn facility, a student engineering design challenge, and a career exploration Q&A session with NASA subject matter experts. During the event students will have an opportunity to complete the engineering design challenge and display their solutions to NASA. Registration for this event closes on April 14, 2022. (Flyer attached)
NASA STEM Kids Virtual Event – We are currently accepting registrations for one of NASA STEM Kids Virtual Events Airplane: Flight Expedition which will be held virtually on May 14, 2022. This event will engage Kindergarten through fourth grade (K-4) students in the excitement of NASA’s missions of exploration and discovery through virtual tours, conversations with NASA experts, and hands-on activities related to aeronautics. Registration for this event closes on April 14, 2022. (Flyer attached)
Please help us to circulate the attached flyers to students or groups who may be interested in participating in TECH Day or the NASA STEM Kids Virtual Event about Airplanes: Flight Expedition.
Information about these and other inspiring educational opportunities are available on the NASA Glenn’s STEM Engagement web page.
If you have any questions, please contact us at: [email protected]
We hope to see your students at NASA STEM engagement opportunities!
Thank you and best regards,
GRC’s Office of STEM Engagement

Teachers LOVE showing new movies in class as a reward or a break.  Disney/Pixar's new movie Turning Red might not be the right movie for your classroom.........  It is geared toward teens and is probably not what you want to show in your elementary classroom.

Please use a resource such as Common Sense Media anytime you want to check the content or the rating of a movie.

https://www.commonsensemedia.org/movie-reviews/turning-red


What Parents Need to Know
​Parents need to know that Turning Red is Pixar's coming-of-age adventure set in early-2000s Toronto about Meilin "Mei" Lee (voiced by Rosalie Chiang), a Chinese Canadian teen who unleashes a literal red panda when she starts going through puberty. The panda transformation -- which can sometimes be intense and leads to both unintended and purposeful damage/destruction -- is definitely a metaphor for adolescence, and the movie skews more toward an older tween/early teen audience than many of Pixar's other films. The story centers the city's Chinatown community where Mei lives and features an authentically diverse cast. With puberty/adolescence at the heart of the action, expect references to periods and celebrity crushes, discussions of "hotness," and descriptions of the attractiveness of popular singers (as well as another older teen) and their gyrating dance moves. Occasional mild/insult language includes "crap," "freak," "jerkwad," "butthead," etc. The film encourages curiosity, compassion, courage, self-control, and teamwork, and families who watch together can discuss lots of issues afterward, from the importance of having honest conversations about puberty to the dangers of lying and keeping secrets and the need for both close friends and trusted adults.

It is almost SPRING BREAK! Our schools are about to let out for that precious week before the preparations for end-of-year testing begins. That means your students are probably about to be at home for the week.
Often families take this time to go on vacation, do cleaning projects, or just lounge around. The great news is that your students can still keep up their reading during this time, too. Here are some suggestions to give to your students and their parents to keep them reading during the entire week of Spring Break.
For Parents:
Make a library date
At the beginning of Spring Break, take your child to the library, and let them choose some books for the week. Now, remember: let the child choose. She wants to read comic books? Absolutely. He wants to read a book from his younger reading days? Why not? Make sure they know they can choose anything that gets them excited. The important thing is that your child wants to keep reading. Encourage them to choose whatever suits their fancy and, before you know it, your child will have a stack of books so high they’ll probably exceed their checkout limit…and that’s a great thing.
Read with them
One of the things that makes kids excited about reading is when parents get involved. Having an adult who reads with them helps children get more involved in the reading process and feel more confident. The children love it…and they will love it even more if that adult is a family member. It takes only 15 minutes of your day to keep your child on their reading schedule. This will reinforce what they are learning in school. Best yet, reading with your child creates a special bond that neither of you will forget.
Give them a challenge
Just because the little ones are on vacation, doesn’t mean there can’t be challenges. Set a minimum page limit for the week, or set a minimum time amount for them to read each day. Make the challenges attainable, and wherever possible, make them fun! Your children will even love it if you can participate with them in their challenges. Then for each challenge they meet, reward them with a trip to the library or bookstore to get a new book, a trip to the park, or more quality time with you.
Get excited with them
When your child talks incessantly about a book they’ve read, that is the best thing you can hope for. Encourage that. Get excited with them! Ask them questions about the characters, the story, and what makes it special for them. Knowing you can get excited with them keeps them excited. It keeps them reading.
And that’s what it’s all about.

Click on the file below for a list of books that are also movies!  Great for your classroom activities.

Movies are a great idea after reading a novel.  Compare and Contrast activities are a great way to compare the book to the movie and keeps the students interested when they know they will be able to talk about the differences.

From author Donalyn Miller:
​When you think about reading, what do you visualize? I imagine traveling around the world while curled up in my armchair. I see books stacked around my house. I picture my husband, my daughters, my granddaughters, and my friends—all readers who suggest titles, share books, and talk about what they are reading. For me, reading is part of my daily life—nothing rare or remarkable.
As a teacher, I share my love of reading with my students and try to inspire them to read more. My upper elementary and middle school students read 30, 40, 50, or more books a year, without incentives or extrinsic rewards. No matter their past reading experiences, all of my students read more and report greater motivation and interest in reading. One student, Ashley, told me, “It is impossible to be a nonreader in your class, Mrs. Miller.” In a classroom where reading weaves through everything we do, I know that Ashley is right.
Many of my students develop a love for reading during one year in the classroom. Former students and their families report that they are still enthusiastic readers.
But this is not universally true. I've run into former students who admit they aren’t reading much anymore. What happens? Why do these students, who read avidly in my class, lose their reading motivation? They often tell me they don’t have time to read, they have too much homework and too many activities, or they “can’t find anything good to read.”
In the past, I grew irritated with their English teachers. How did these teachers squash my students’ independent reading engagement? Why weren’t they promoting a love of reading?
I have evolved in my understanding of lifelong reading habits and a teacher’s role in fostering their development. If my students had internalized the behaviors of lifelong readers, they wouldn’t need a teacher to orchestrate their reading lives. While students benefited from the optimal reading environment in my classroom, they lacked the skills to maintain independent reading habits. It is necessary to model, explicitly teach, and reflect on students’ development of lifelong, avid—or, as I call them, “wild”—reading behaviors to ensure that they remain motivated, engaged readers. My colleague Susan Kelley and I surveyed 900 adults and found an array of characteristics that define people’s reading lives. Here are five habits of “wild readers” that translate well into classroom practice.

1 | Dedicate time to reading
Wild readers spend substantial time reading in spite of their hectic lives. They capitalize on the moments in their days when they are bored or waiting, and rack up significant reading time by stealing it.
Teaching tips:
• Books to Go: Encourage students to carry a book with them everywhere so that they have something to read when they finish assignments, wait for the bus, or ride to soccer practice.
• Reading Itinerary: Have students keep a reading itinerary for one week, noting the places in your classroom and school where they read and for what length of time. This will help students recognize their preferences about where and when they read, as well as note the obstacles that prevent them from reading.

2 | Successfully self-select
Wild readers are confident when selecting books to read, and they have the experience and skills to successfully choose books that meet their interests, needs, and reading abilities.
Teaching tips:
• Preview Stacks: Collect four or five books at a student’s reading level that match her interests and invite her to select from these.
• Selection Reflections: Have students reflect on their book selections. Create forms with questions that include the following:
â—— How did you find out about the books that you like to read?
â—— When you see a book, how do you decide whether you want to read it?
â—— Do you ever abandon a book? Why or why not?

3 | Share books with others
Wild readers enjoy talking about books almost as much as reading them. Reading communities provide a group of other readers who support us. As literacy expert Stephen Krashen reminds us, “Children read more when they see other people reading.”
Teaching tips:
• Seating Preferences: Foster reading relationships by seating students with common reading interests at the same table. They can suggest titles to one another for additional reading and participate in book ­discussions.
• Reading Graffiti: Stretch a sheet of butcher paper across a wall. Invite students to write the title of a book and a memorable quote from it. I scrawled The Hunger Games’ catchphrase, “May the odds be ever in your favor!” on our board. Every line serves as a book endorsement.

4 | Have reading plans
You can spot wild readers from a mile away. They’re usually the first to get their hands on the new Rick Riordan or Suzanne Collins and they can’t wait to fill out the latest book order form at school. Wild readers always plan to read beyond their current book. They anticipate new books by favorite authors or the next installment in a beloved series. Reading is habitual for them, not a casual, once-in-awhile pursuit.
Teaching tips:
• Super Series: Promote series, which become a reading plan for students who struggle to maintain reading momentum and motivation. Students who read series develop confidence and increased comprehension with each subsequent book because they build background knowledge as
they go.
• Set a Challenge: Chances are that your students are up for a challenge. Have them set up a plan to push themselves—perhaps by reading a certain number of Newbery-winning titles or taking part in a Book-a-Day Challenge over a break.

5 | Validate and expand
Yes, children need to read widely and experience a range of texts as part of their literacy education. But wild readers express strong ­preferences in the books they like—gravitating toward specific genres, writing styles, topics, and authors. Validate their choices while pushing the envelope.
Teaching tips:
• Reading Preferences: Encourage students to try new books by reading across all genres. Show students connections between texts of different genres like Laurie Halse Anderson’s Fever 1793 and Jim Murphy’s An American Plague, or The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan and D’Aulaires’ Book of Greek Myths.
• Genre Boost: Take a look at the genres that students avoid. Many of my students report nonfiction as their least favorite category. Select high-quality nonfiction to share during book talks or to serve as mentor texts. Try pairing fiction texts with nonfiction texts on the same topic.
Students need encouragement and practice to develop the habits of wild readers. Every day, I ask, “What did I teach my students about reading that they can use with other texts? What did I show my students about reading that they can use outside of school?” We must never lose sight of our goal—fostering a lifelong love of reading, which lasts long after school ends.

Books that Build Community Share these high-quality read-aloud books to help forge communities of wild readers in your classroom.
• Wonder
by R. J. Palacio.
A wonderful book about courage, love, and the difference one person can make in the lives of others.
• I Want My Hat Back
by Jon Klassen.
My sixth graders declare this a favorite for its dark and hilarious surprise ending.
• The Strange Case of Origami Yoda
by Tom Angleberger.
This book about a sixth-grade misfit sends the message that all kids have something to contribute.
• Interrupting Chicken
by David Ezra Stein.
If there’s a chicken on the cover, you can predict the book will be funny. Use this as a springboard to talk about classroom etiquette.

Click here to read about picture books about anxiety for kids: