Nature Videos and Web Cams

Here are some more cool nature videos and web cams!

Kansas City Zoo: Penguins

Inside a Beaver Lodge

Live Stream the Northern Lights

The National Aquarium

Monterey Bay Aquarium

The Monterey Bay Aquarium is a wonderful place to visit in person. Since we can't do that right now, here's how you can go there virtually:

Tune in To a Web Cam 
(you can watch the penguins and the otters!)

Animals A to Z
Learn about the different animals at the Aquarium

Habitats
Explore animals' ocean homes

Earth Day - April 22

April 22 is Earth Day!
Here are some fun ways to celebrate:

National Geographic for Kids: Earth Day

National Parks Service: Games and  Challenges

National Parks Service Park Cams

Live Virtual Bee Hive Tour on Instagram! Apr 21 and 23 at 1pm

Virtually Experience the Inside of a Live Bee Hive!

Watch Planet Bee educators suit up and open a honey bee hive from the comfort of your own home!  They explain the inner workings of the colony, explain why bees are important for the environment, and give tips and techniques about beekeeping. Local students will give an entertaining Q&A at the end. This all-ages broadcast is the perfect way to celebrate the natural world during Earth Week! 

Earth Week Hive Dive Lives

April 21 at 1 p.m. PST - aimed towards a younger audience

April 23 at 1 p.m. PST - for all ages

How to Watch

🐝Follow @planet_bee on Instagram🐝

At 1 p.m. PST, go to @planet_bee and click on the top left circle (our logo) to view the Instagram Live broadcast!

It's National Library Week!

Even though we can't actually go to the library right now, your family can help you visit the library online. Here are some great places:

Kensington School Library - go to the Follet Destiny Library
Select Kensington and login

Contra Costa Library - if you have a library card, you can check out e-books

Berkeley Public Library - if you have a library card, you can check out e-books

Digital Public Library of America

New York Public Library

Story Time

This is one of my family's very favorite books! We read it so many times we wore it out. Now you can hear Grover read it:

Grover Reads The Monster at the End of This Book

And here are astronauts reading science books from space (warning: this one has lots of ads. Be sure to have your kids click on the pictures of the astronauts)

Astronauts reading from Space

Jackie Robinson Day

Jackie Robinson broke the MLB color barrier when he made his MLB debut on April 15, 1947. He's always a favorite pick when we do biographies in the computer lab.

Here are some sites to help you learn about him:

Jackie Robinson Museum: Jackie Robinson Day

MLB Community: Jackie Robinson Day

East Bay Regional Parks

We're missing our field trips to Tilden Park!
Now you can explore the East Bay Regional Parks through their Digital Learning Activities:

EBRPD Digital Learning

Be sure you scroll down the page to the videos - you can check  out the pond in Tilden!

Story Time with the Contra Costa Library

Virtual Story Time

The Contra Costa County Library is launching new storytime content in two different platforms aimed at providing families with library programming during the COVID-19 health crisis.

Online Storytime is a series of videos created by some of the Library’s best storytellers. Each storyteller films a 10-minute video, from home, that includes reading books, singing songs and having fun. A new video will debut every Tuesday and Thursday at 10 a.m. on the Library’s Facebook page (@ccclib).

Video Storytime is an ongoing series for the library and the first episode of season two is live on the Library’s YouTube channel (theccclib) right now. Video storytime includes singing, rhymes, finger plays and more. A new playlist will debut every Wednesday. Video Storytime was created in partnership with Contra Costa Television (CCTV) with funding provided through a Pacific Library Partnership Innovation Grant. The segments are produced and edited by library staff.

Spring Break - Ranger Rick is online

Can't go to the Parks on your Spring Break? Here's a way to stay engaged with the outdoors.

The National Wildlife Federation is making their Ranger Rick program available free until June. Check out the online magazine, animal videos, and cool activities:

Ranger Rick 

Let's Go Learn

Is your child using Let's Go Learn as part of their distance learning?
Here's some helpful information:

Let's Go Learn provides personalized and adaptive instruction in math and language arts. It starts with an assessment to discover exactly what the students know and where they are struggling. Students are then enrolled in the instruction and activity piece.

It's important that your student do the assessments without help since the activity piece is based  on these results. Remind your child that they aren't expected to know everything already! There will be things on both assessments that are hard and things they haven't learned yet, especially on the math assessment. It's OK to guess when it gets too hard.

Once students finish the assessment they will be enrolled in the activity section. I'll be checking daily to be sure all students get enrolled quickly, but feel free to email me with any questions.