Literacy, Languages, and the Arts
October 16-October 22, 2013

Find the latest educational resources from Iowa Public Television.

When You Feel so Mad that You Want to Roar: Strategy Song and Lesson Plan
Grade Range: PreK-K

In this video excerpt, Daniel Tiger and his friends sing a song about conquering anger by counting to four. They find that getting mad when things go wrong is normal, but when you get mad, stop, count to four, and then you'll be able to reflect and come up with a solution to the problem that makes you happier. In the related activity, use music and movement to help children practice slowing down and controlling their actions. Before children can think clearly enough to deal constructively with their angry feelings, they need self-control in order to slow down and calm down.

Integrating Social Studies and the Arts
Grade Range: K-12

This article explores integrating Social Studies

and the arts, including sections on 21st century skills, team teaching, aligned content, and sample lessons.

Theater: Scene Shop
Grade Range: 2-5

In this interactive, students will understand how the scenery, or set, helps create the illusion of a particular time and place in a play.

Stupid or Smart?
Grade Range: 6-12

WLVT PBS 39 and PSEA present

Write Now! video writing prompts. These prompts are tools for educators and students to use in the classroom to encourage creative writing. The topics covered in these clips are general/social topics that challenge students to evaluate common day occurrences or items in different ways.

Is Twitter the Newest Form of Literature?
Grade Range: 9-12

Everyone is familiar with Twitter, the uber-popular micro-blogging site, which limits the user to 140 characters. The tweet is perfect for sharing your favorite links and updating the world about your life, but it might also be the newest literary form! This massively constrained communication, which has remarkable similarities to the Haiku, has inspired creativity worthy of the name "literature."

What Does He Have to Say to Us Today?
Grade Range: 9-12

In this video segment from the documentary American Masters: Bill T. Jones: A Good Man, Bill T. Jones and his Associate Artistic Director, Janet Wong, turn to primary texts to learn more about Abraham Lincoln. In an effort to make Lincoln relevant in the performance piece, Jones and Wong begin their research but along the way discover surprising attitudes, ideas and statements reflective of the controversies that exist around Lincoln today.

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