During Week 20 in the National Day Calendar Classroom, we take a look at how static electricity affects our lives. National Static Electricity Day dedicates an entire day in January because it’s excellent time to study and produce static electricity.
Try one or all the experiments in the video below. Also, visit the archive, print the word search and crossword puzzles.
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Lesson 1 – National Static Electricity Day
You will need the following items to complete every experiment in the video to the right. Give these simple static electricity experiments a try.
2 styrofoam plates cloth aluminum can PVC pipe or conduit tape thread toothpick or matchstick beaker or glass container with a lid bubbles straw
wooden blocks styrofoam balls aluminum foil small box plate glass styrofoam cup balloons length of wire plastic bags
Which item in each experiment is the conductor and which is the insulator?
The Classroom is filled with lessons, puzzles, games, and more are all organized by month, making everything easy to access and use. Plus, everything is free for teachers (and homeschoolers too) to use in their classrooms!
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NATIONAL DAY CALENDAR CLASSROOM – January 21-31, 2018 – Week 19
The National Day Calendar Classroom visits several days on the calendar over the next ten days.
We will begin with National Handwriting Day on January 23. With the advent of electronic media, handwriting seems to be a lost art. However, generation after generation has learned that even as styles change, our ability to read vital historical and scientific documents depends on our ability to understand the handwritten word. We will take a look at other reasons for maintaining classic handwriting.
On January 24, Library Shelfie Day gives us the opportunity to create a bookshelf of our liking.
National Opposite Day on January 25 will wake up the classroom and make the day more interesting. We can also take a look this from an opposite position.
Finally, on Monday, January 29, National Bubble Wrap Appreciation Day the classroom will take a look at all the ways mistakes are one step closer to learning something new.
Students are always welcome to visit our Today’s Trivia page to test their knowledge from around the world.
NATIONAL HANDWRITING DAY – January 23
Studies at Indiana University by Dr. Karin Harman James support the scientific argument that children who learn the alphabet by writing it show more brain activity than those who don’t.
Handwriting is a complex fine motor task. Coordinating the muscles of the hand, eyes and the brain to work together requires skills that once developed become second nature. These skills improve our daily language.
Researchers, Pam Mueller and Daniel Oppenheimer, published a paper in the journal Psychological Science suggesting handwriting plays an important role in memory.
All this is to say, handwriting still plays an important role in our everyday lives. The Smithsonian explores The Art of Handwriting and includes correspondence across the ages. Your assignment is to examine the letters through the ages with your students and see how handwriting evolves through the ages. Encourage your students to take their notes by hand and write as often as possible.
LIBRARY SHELFIE DAY – Fourth Wednesday in January
Assign your students to each bring one book to class to create a bookshelf that describes your classroom. Take a shelfie of your bookshelf and post it on social media.
NATIONAL OPPOSITE DAY – January 25
Reverse the schedule. Read books backward. Eat dessert first. Discuss what it might mean to live outside instead of inside. Ask how it might feel to be sick instead of well. Or, to live by the ocean instead of a mountain. Ask if that is considered an opposite? Does everything have an opposite? For example, is a cat the opposite of a dog? National Day Calendar would love to hear your students’ responses – Feel free to use the contact form at the bottom of the page to share.
NATIONAL BUBBLE WRAP APPRECIATION DAY – Last Monday in January
Thomas Edison said once, “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” Bubble wrap seemed like a failure. It was no good as wallpaper but as packaging for shipping fragile items, it became a genius invention. Play Dough started out as a wallpaper cleaner and transformed into a child’s art supply.
Our students’ young minds often have a million new ideas running through their heads every day. Challenge them to execute something from their failures.
Write about a project that didn’t go well. What did you learn from what went wrong?
Describe a day where things went wrong. Was there anything that you could have done differently to make it go better? Did something better come of it that wouldn’t have happened if things hadn’t gone wrong?
Think of a mistake you made that ended up to be a good thing. Describe what was good about it.
Find something broken around the house. Ask permission to make it useful in another way.
NATIONAL DAY CALENDAR CLASSROOM – Week of January 14-20, 2018 – Week 18
National Day Calendar Classroom takes the thesaurus from the bookshelf in honor of Peter Mark Roget. While his glossary of synonyms and phrases is not the only one in existence, this useful reference increases vocabulary and broadens communication skills. Our students will benefit from more creative writing skills knowing the variety of thesauri available to them and how to use them.
Assignment 1: Copy and print the following story. Have your students use a thesaurus to make a more creative story by replacing the words in parenthesis with synonyms.
On National Peking Duck Day, the chef (said) _______ he wanted to (make) _________ a delicious meal in honor of the day.
He (told) _______ his assistant to (get) ___________ all the ingredients while the chef (read) _________ the recipe. The assistant (hurried) _________ away. When he returned, the assistant’s arms were (full) with all the supplies.
Soon, the chef and his assistant set to work (quickly) ____________. The kitchen filled with (nice) ________ (smell) _______________ and became (very) ________________ (warm)__________.
Finally, the chef placed the duck in the oven. While it roasted, the (tired) chef rested while his assistant was left to clean the (dirty)___________ kitchen.
The chef began to snore (loudly) _________ while the duck cooked. The assistant watched the oven closely and when the meal was ready, carefully removed the (good) ________ dish from the oven.
The chef woke (suddenly) _______. “It’s (great) __________!” he (said).
With (big) ________ fanfare, the chef presented the duck to his guests and it was received with (happiness) ________.
Assignment 2: Create flashcards or print a list of words. Divide students into groups and challenge them to come up with synonyms for the words on the list. Then have them look them up in the thesaurus to see which ones they missed. Remind them that words out of context can be nouns, adverbs, adjectives or verbs. They will need to consider how the word would be used in a sentence. A sample list has been provided.
very
really
fast
slowly
small
bad
good
big
long
short
strong
clean
beautiful
dirty
fancy
thin
fat
cute
pretty
smooth
wide
tired
run
play
write
sit
stop
build
hit
eat
NATIONAL DAY CALENDAR CLASSROOM – WEEK 17 – January 7-13, 2018
The winter months bring dry air and National Static Electricity Day on January 9. It’s a fun way to make science interactive for all age groups. National Day Calendar has been charging up our particles, er, articles and has several experiments you can do in the classroom. Gather your protons and electrons and check out the shocking links below!
While most of the links below take similar approaches to demonstrating static electricity, they are geared toward different age groups. Review below for additional information on each.
Bright Hub Education – This pre-school aged experiment will get students interested in science.
PBS – From Prairie Public PBS Learning Media, this link provides a full lesson plan for grades 6-8. They’ve included materials list, video and resource links, too.
MnStep – Minnesota Science Teachers Project includes similar experiments to those listed above, but in their fourth project, they include using static electricity to make lightning. (Something for all age groups.)
On January 4, National Trivia Day offers a way to prepare students for major exams, testing and studying in a fun and challenging way. Playing trivia games is a kind of mental crosstraining. For those students with excellent study habits who may suffer from test anxiety, trivia has shown to reduce stress and allow them to perform under pressure. For those who are struggling to retain information, walking away from the topic and playing a random trivia game may allow room for new ideas to lodge in the brain. Or, placing the information in the form of trivia will help the student’s mind find a way to remember the data in a new format and a relaxed environment.
TRIVIA FORMATS
Jeopardy – Write six categories across the top of the white or chalkboard. Provide your students with two cards – one for the answer to be taped answer side toward the board and one with the correct question (answer in the form of a question). Depending on the number of students, several rounds could be played. Suggested categories: Your Town’s History, Current Events, Your School’s History, Your State’s History, Pop Culture, Music, The Grammy’s, 2017 Movies, Last Month’s English Test, The Bill of Rights, National Day Calendar.
Trivial Pursuit – Any version will do. Using only the cards, divide your class into teams. Award points based on the topic. Roll a die to determine the point value for each category in this order: 1. Geography = Blue, 2. Entertainment = Pink, 3. History = Yellow 4. Art&Literature = Brown/Purple 5. Science & Nature = Green 6. Sports & Leisure = Orange
Trivia Swap -Depending on the size of your school, work with other classrooms. Assign your students to come up with three trivia questions and answers each. Collect all the trivia questions and trade them with another classroom. Present the trivia questions from the other class to your students as a game.
RESOURCES
National Day Calendar provides a daily trivia challenge on our Today’s Trivia page. We will feature extra trivia questions for National Trivia Day.
Quiz Global – Ranked from easy to impossible and includes educational and pop culture topics.
Freekigames – Variety of games including trivia. Difficulty meter beneath each topic lets you know just how hard the trivia will be.
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