Dear Friends,
We welcome a month where we are even more grateful for that which we hold close and dear. This month in KLRN, we invite you to enjoy excellent programs featuring people who have bravely served our country in so many ways. Thank you for your service. On November 11 (and also available on KLRN November 10-14), enjoy Salute to Service: A Veteran's Day Celebration, a Veterans Day musical celebration hosted by Jon Stewart and featuring the U.S. Army Field Band with special guests Mickey Guyton, Amanda Shires and Mandy Gonzalez.
With Molly of Denali, follow the adventures of Molly, a feisty and resourceful Alaska Native girl, as she helps her parents run the Denali Trading Post in their Alaskan village. Viewers are introduced to the rich history and modern-day experience of family life in the heart of the Alaskan tundra through the eyes of Molly, her parents, and her friends. Designed to help kids develop skills around informational text such as using a map and following an instruction manual, this is the first nationally distributed children's series in the U.S. to feature an Alaska Native lead character.
On Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood, Fred Rogers' original Neighborhood of Make Believe is recreated in vibrant color and texture; his signature puppet Daniel Striped Tiger is transformed into a curious and playful 4-year-old joined by his friends O the Owl, Prince Wednesday, Katerina Kittycat and Miss Elaina. The series curriculum is school-readiness and social-emotional learning, and each preschool themed episode offers a musical strategy for children and parents to use together.
Below, find high quality resources from PBS Learning Media to connect further learning to this exceptional programming. On air and online, KLRN PBS provides high-quality, free, state standards-aligned programs and educational resources. In this blog post, you will find links to KLRN television programs and supplemental learning materials on PBS Learning Media. Visit https://klrn.pbslearningmedia.org/signup/ to set up an account to access any of the thousands of state standards-aligned educational resources for free! Some highlighted collections we recommend this month are:
Honoring Our Soldiers | The Warrior Tradition: (Grades K-5) Participate in a class discussion about celebrations in your own life, and explore how Native American communities support their soldiers and veterans through their culture and ceremonies.
Secrets of the Code Talkers | The Warrior Tradition:(Grades K-5) Understand the role of the code talker during World War II and discover how a Native language served as an unbreakable “secret” code and weapon against the enemy.
Soldiers, Veterans, and War in American Life (This collection features various resources for Grades K-5, 6-8, and 9-12) These videos, images, and media-rich lesson plans allow you to bring stories from the battlefront into American history, world history, and health classrooms. Compare veterans’ recounted memories of World War II and Vietnam to understand how these wars shaped American culture. Analyze artifacts and oral histories that reveal important experiences of a nation during times of conflict. Use recent veterans’ personal stories to engage in a discussion of how the choice to become a soldier and the experience of serving relate to personal values and goals.
Molly of Denali Collection on PBS Learning Media: (Grades K-2) Informational text and Alaska Native culture form the basis of the groundbreaking MOLLY OF DENALI™ series and its educational resources. The MOLLY OF DENALI™ collection offers videos, digital games, lessons, teaching tips, and activities so that educators can utilize the series in the classroom. Set in a rural Alaskan village, and featuring the adventures of Molly, her family, and friends, MOLLY OF DENALI™ models the many ways that children can access and create informational text in their daily lives. At the same time, the stories are infused with Alaska Native values, history, traditions, language, as well as contemporary life.
Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood Collection on PBS Learning Media: (Grades PreK-2) Social-emotional development and academic success are much more related than many people think. We often hear talk about the academic curriculum or the social-emotional approach to early education as if these are two separate things. Research tells us that for children to be successful in school, they must be mentally healthy and they must have good interpersonal skills. Emotional development skills include the ability to regulate behavior, to manage feelings, to feel competent in completing tasks, and confident in trying new things. To help boost these invaluable skills among preschoolers, each episode of Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood consists of two engaging stories that center on a common early learning theme with catchy, musical strategies that reinforce each theme and that preschoolers and adults will both sing – and use! – together in their daily lives.
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. These videos are available in English and Spanish.
Watt Watchers: (All Grades) Watt Watchers of Texas 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 of Texas is an updated resource that builds upon the original beloved program and provides a modern look at energy, sustainability and conservation.These resources are available in English and Spanish.
During the school year, KLRN offers free virtual teacher training sessions, generously supported by Firstmark Credit Union and The San Antonio Medical Foundation. To find out more about KLRN’s upcoming training sessions and community events, please visit the KLRN Events Page. Please reach out to us anytime at education@klrn.org.
With appreciation,
KLRN Education Team
Mental Health Resources
- KLRN Blog Post: PBS resources to help families during challenging times
- KLRN List: Emotional Wellness Resources for Families and Children of all Ages
- Youth Mental Health (including resources KET series You Are Not Alone on PBS Learning Media)
- Transgender Education Network of Texas transtexas.org
- Equality Texas: equalitytexas.org and an excellent list of Texas-wide and even nationwide community resources: https://www.equalitytexas.org/community-resources/
- PFLAG San Antonio (Parents, Families, Friends and Allies United with the LGBTQ Community): https://pflagsanantonio.org/
- San Antonio Gender Association: https://sagender.net/
- ACLU Texas: https://www.aclutx.org
- San Antonio LGBT Chamber of Commerce: https://www.salgbtchamber.org; info@salgbtchamber.org
- Clarity: claritycgc.org
- Pride Center: pridecentersa.org and a great list of San Antonio area resources: https://pridecentersa.org/resources/
- The Trevor Project: https://www.thetrevorproject.org/
- David’s Legacy: https://www.davidslegacy.org/learn-and-do-more/