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KLRN Educator Resources | April 2024

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by
Ian Cruz
• Published on • Last modified on
animated characters wearing eclipse sunglasses to watch an eclipse
KLRN Education

Dear Friends,

This month, we celebrate the amazing kiddos of the world! On KLRN, you can always find an excellent variety of outstanding programs both on-air and online. This month on KLRN, check out these awesome programs whose unique and lovable characters make the world a little more cheerful:

  • Hero Elementary (7:30PM- weekdays on KLRN PBS Kids)
  • Work It Out Wombats (9:30AM - weekdays on KLRN PBS Kids)
  • Lyla in the Loop (7AM - weekdays on KLRN PBS Kids)
  • Donkey Hodie (10AM - weekdays on KLRN HDTV)
  • Odd Squad (4:30PM - weekdays on KLRN PBS Kids)


Please see the KLRN Schedule for details on these and even more great shows for the whole family!

Kids Day in the Park with KLRN: Kick off Week of the Young Child with Kids Day in the Park! Families stop by for a morning of fun with many local community organizations promoting fun activities for the family. Meet a PBS KIDS character for a meet and greet. Stop by the Registration table at the event to pick up your special KLRN bag with goodies. Date: Saturday, April 06, 2024 from 10am-1pm, Location: 2200 N Flores St, San Antonio, TX 78212. Please fill out this pre-registration form to attend. Onsite Registration will also be available.

The total eclipse will be on Monday, April 8! While not all of San Antonio will be in the path of totality (where the eclipse is visible), Please note: downtown San Antonio is not in the path of totality. We hope you can join us at Nelson W. Wolff Municipal Stadium for a FREE Eclipse Viewing Event on Monday, April 8, 2024 from 10am-2pm (totality will be at 1:34pm) at 5757 US -90 W. This is a free event, but registration is required. Please register here: fevo.me/totalsolareclipse2024.

To learn more about eclipses, check out these awesome NOVA and GBH Eclipse Resources:


Our friends at Texas PBS have built a collection of resources about conservation for Texas teachers. Check out the collection of Texas Conservation Lesson Plans Available Now in PBS LearningMedia. Texas is home to some of the most unique wildlife, people and places in the nation. A new partnership between Texas PBS stations and the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) showcases what we can all do to Take Care of Texas. Teachers are invited to take the pledge to make our state's unique resources available to the next generation. Texas PBS and TCEQ are teaming up to build more awareness of important ways we can all protect and conserve what’s unique about Texas. This new collection of free lesson plans and student worksheets designed to spark activities, lessons and discussions about conservation. Topics include air, water, and waste conservation tactics and strategies. The collection will use insights and data from TCEQ researchers and science experts. The Texas environmental collection is intended for K-12 classroom teachers, informal educators, and parents who are looking for science-based educational learning materials.

We invite you to join us for our April educator sessions which, as always, are free of charge and offer continuing education credit.

  • Thursday, 4/11 from 6pm-8pm: An Active April with The Healthy Kids Project: Join KLRN & The Healthy Kids Project to learn about the many activities you can do to have an Active April! This session is geared toward early childhood - 2nd grade educators, but all are welcome. Thank you to The San Antonio Medical Foundation and Firstmark for supporting this event. 2 hours of continuing education credit will be awarded upon completion of the session and accompanying post survey. 
    4/11: Register here
  • Wednesday, 4/17 from 6pm-7pm: KLRN Family and Educator Session: Watt Watchers: Earth Day Resources with Special Guests from CPS Energy, Disco Learning Media, SPEER, and UTSA: Join KLRN and our friends to learn about smart energy education and how to be an energy saver at school, at home, and in the community. We will explore free TEKS-aligned lessons and activities from Watt Watchers of Texas! Thank you to Texas State Energy Conservation Office, US Department of Energy, ITron, CPS Energy, The University of Texas at Austin, and Disco Learning Media for supporting this event. Thank you also to our PBS partner stations! 1 hour of continuing education credit will be awarded upon completion of the session and accompanying post survey. 
    4/17: Register here
  • Tuesday, 4/23 from 6pm-7pm: Questions, Questions! Turning Curiosity into Action: Join us for a session designed for all early childhood educators! Together we’ll explore the importance of developing children’s curiosity skills using Sesame Workshop Resources. Thank you to Firstmark for supporting this event. 1 hour of continuing education credit will be awarded upon completion of the session and accompanying post survey. 
    4/23: Register here


Please visit https://www.klrn.org/events/ to learn more and to register for any (or all!) of these sessions. Thank you to the San Antonio Medical Foundation and Firstmark Credit Union for generously supporting KLRN’s Educator Sessions. 

On PBS Learning Media, you can find thousands of high-quality educational resources for all grade levels for free! Setting up an account is easy to do (and completely free!) Visit https://klrn.pbslearningmedia.org/ to sign up today to get access to any of the over  30,000 state standards-aligned educational resources for free! Here is a short video tutorial that explains how in a few quick steps, you can create an account and create class rosters, too. Some highlighted PBS Learning Media collections and resources we recommend this month are: 

Hero Elementary (Grades K-2): The Science and Engineering Practices are skills that can make all humans truly super. At HERO ELEMENTARY™, these practices are known as the SUPERPOWERS OF SCIENCE and they combine science and literacy to build powerful learning. HERO ELEMENTARY engages children as scientists and communicators, to learn about the natural and human-made world. The HERO ELEMENTARY collection offers videos, digital games, and hands-on investigations for educators to use in the classroom. Sparks’ Crew, the diverse team of students at HERO ELEMENTARY, models ways to use science and literacy to help their community and save the day. HERO ELEMENTARY inspires children to do real science to make a difference in their world.

Work It Out Wombats! (Grades PreK-K) Work It Out Wombats!™, a PBS KIDS® animated series for preschoolers and kindergartners, follows the adventures of a playful trio of marsupial siblings—Malik, Zadie, and Zeke—who live with their grandmother (named Super!) in a fantastical treehouse apartment complex. The Treeborhood is home to a diverse and quirky community of neighbors, who just happen to be wombats, snakes, moose, kangaroos, iguanas, fish, tarsiers, and eagles! With an educational focus on computational thinking, Work It Out Wombats! introduces children to a creative way of thinking that helps them solve problems and complete tasks in more organized ways, using a toolkit of skills from computer science.

Lyla in the Loop (Grades K-2) Lyla in the Loop is a PBS KIDS animated series for kids ages 4-8. The show stars Lyla, a dynamic 7-year-old Black girl, her close-knit family, fantastical blue sidekick Stu, and a host of relatable and quirky characters living in her city community, who together spotlight creative problem-solving and critical thinking skills while working collaboratively with others. In every adventure, Lyla collaborates with family and friends to help others in her community while introducing the audience to foundational computational thinking concepts. The series supports a wide range of learners, modeling creative expression and flexible step-by-step approaches to problem-solving.

Donkey Hodie (Grades PreK-2) Donkey Hodie online resources provide many opportunities for educators to introduce or reinforce social emotional curriculum. In every episode of this puppet series for 3-5-year-olds, Donkey Hodie and her pals, Purple Panda, Duck Duck and Bob Dog, empower preschoolers to dream big and overcome obstacles in their own lives, to work hard and persevere in the face of failure, to be resourceful and discover they are capable of solving problems on their own—and to laugh themselves silly along the way. The learning goals for Donkey Hodie focus on self-regulation and executive function skills, with an emphasis on resilience, persistence, and problem solving. The characters in the whimsical world of Someplace Else model ways to think about creative solutions to problems, which will, in turn, inspire our viewers as they tackle problem solving in their everyday lives. As they watch Donkey Hodie, kids will learn to face their fears and challenges with positivity, and enjoy the success that comes from trying hard and doing their best. The resources in this collection will help you explore the concepts introduced in Donkey Hodie with activity ideas, video clips, and digital games. Use these resources to help your students explore self-regulation and executive function skills -- the Donkey Hodie way!

Odd Squad (Grades PreK-5) Welcome to Odd Squad: the zaniest, craziest team of kid investigators around! Explore content below targeted at making elementary-level math a fun, imaginative experience, mixing concepts like arithmetic and geometry with fantastical storytelling.

KLRN’s The Healthy Kids Project (Grades PreK-2): The Healthy Kids Project uses song, movement, and animation in ten engaging lessons that support healthy choices and attitudes--teaching not only successful actions (limiting refined sugar, choosing water as a beverage, choosing fresh foods over processed foods), but also successful strategies (valuing the body, not letting past mistakes impede future success, taking one step at a time toward a goal, helping others to make good choices.) Each lesson contains a 60-second video and is accompanied by an overview, lesson plan and student activity. It’s a turnkey kit for teachers to impart critical life lessons about health, without taking time away from core subjects.

Watt Watchers (All Grades): Watt Watchers is a state-sponsored STEM program to help boost energy literacy for K-12 students and help schools save money by saving energy. Through the program, students, teachers, and families will have access to energy saving tips, activities, and lessons. Launched in 1985, Watt Watchers is an updated resource that builds upon the original beloved program and provides a modern look at energy, sustainability and conservation.

As always, at the bottom of this post, you will find a list of links of organizations, both local and nationally, that provide mental health resources. Please know that you are important and you make the world a nicer place. Thank you for being you. Reach out to us anytime at education@klrn.org. 

With appreciation,

KLRN Education Team


 

Mental Health Resources

If you or someone you know is hurting or in crisis, call or text 988 or visit 988lifeline.org to reach the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline