View All Blog Posts

April 2021 on KnowItAll.org!

Images from content featured on KnowItAll.org in April 2021

YOUR GUIDE TO RESOURCES FOR APRIL 2021

Be sure to explore the details below, so you won’t miss a thing!

Literacy, storytelling, poetry and journalism resources abound in our Libraries, Literature & Learning Collection! You may be surprised at the wealth of content you’ll find! View details on the Collection and descriptions of the Series below!

  • Also in April, explore our resources for Yom HaShoah (April 7-8),  International Day of Human Space Flight (April 12), Earth Day (April 22), International Chernobyl Disaster Remembrance Day (April 26), International Jazz Day (April 30) and more!
  • Try out our resources for National Public Health Week (April 5-11) and World Health Day (April 7). We hope you will not only view them but also act on them!
  • Be sure to view our Dates for Your Calendar and KnowItAll Resources below! 

 

NEW ON KNOWITALL!

The BK Collection: All Things Ladybugs

Interactives

Students will learn each stage of the ladybug lifecycle.

In this module you will label the parts of a ladybug by dragging and dropping the name of each part to the correct boxes. To learn more about each part, you can hover your mouse over the green magnifying glass.

Lesson Plans

Students will learn each stage of the ladybug lifecycle.

Students will brainstorm, write, and publish their own children's book depicting a theme of their choice. Students will use ladybugs as the main characters or other important pieces of the story.

Smart Cat had a lot of fun catching ladybugs at BK’s house. Can you help him count his collection? On each line, write the number of lady bugs in the circle.

Students will be working together in teams to create biodomes. They will be adding plants, animals, and decomposers to their biodomes. 

 

The Chernobyl Event: An Update at 35 Years  - Now Available on KnowItAll.org!

Thirty-five years ago on April 26, 1986, the largest nuclear disaster in history took place behind the Soviet Iron Curtain. This event impacted nature, nuclear science, the Soviet Union’s political outlook and economy, U.S.-Soviet relations, and the people who lived there and called it home. The Chernobyl event had ramifications not just to that area, but for the world.

The Chernobyl Event: An Update at 35 years airs April 25 and repeats April 26 at 7:00 p.m. on South Carolina ETV. The special program, produced by ETV Education, takes a look back at the history of the event, relates why SCETV and The University of South Carolina have been involved, and focuses on the continued study of animals, birds and insects as we look at the lasting impact of the Chernobyl event.

With naturalist Rudy Mancke and other special guests, Angel Malone with the SC Department of Education leads a comprehensive discussion highlighting the impact on humans and nature, scientific research, and actions to make the contaminated site safer. In addition, we delve into related environmental issues in our state and education for our students as we talk about why studying the Chernobyl event has relevance today.

Panelists:

Rudy Mancke - USC Naturalist-in-residence / Host of SCETV NatureScene

Dr. Tim Mousseau - Professor of Biological Science, University of South Carolina

Angie Hill - NBCT, Science Department Chair, Westwood High School, Richland District Two

Ann Timberlake - Timberlake Communications LLC / State Director, The Energy Foundation

Dr. Gordon B. Smith - Professor Emeritus of Political Science, University of South Carolina

Rare photos and video footage, captured by South Carolina ETV’s NatureScene production team when they were allowed to visit in 2003, provide a one-of-a-kind view, documenting evidence of the devastation caused by an accident of catastrophic proportions. At 35 years since the tragedy, it remains the world’s worst-ever civil nuclear disaster. The Chernobyl event on April 26, 1986, forever impacted people and nature.

Now available on KnowItAll.org!

From the Sky

A digital series that offers viewers a glimpse into the cities and towns of South Carolina from a “not often seen” vantage point – from above – using a drone camera. 

 

Sisterhood: SC Suffragists: The Rollin Sisters 

During Reconstruction, despite their inability to vote or hold political office, the Rollin Sisters, were among the most influential people in South Carolina politics. Born to an aristocratic free Black family in Charleston, the Sisters were noted for their influence and political savvy in Reconstruction politics. Their Columbia home, dubbed "the Rollin Salon," was the site for social and political gatherings where black and white Republican politicians and their wives mingled freely, advancing social causes and helping to shape the political climate of the times. In February 1871, Charlotte Rollin and her sisters received a charter for SC's first Women's Suffrage organization, the South Carolina Chapter of the American Woman Suffrage Association (SCAWSA), a coalition of blacks and whites working to enact universal suffrage, regardless of race and gender. This program examines the sisters' efforts and those of their cohorts, whose dreams were once centerstage before being crushed by the fall of Reconstruction.

 

SOLKIT: Guideposts for Black Girlhood Celebration

In February 2020, SCETV partnered with SOLHOT (Saving Our Lives Hear Our Truths) for Black Girl Genius Week 2020. Black Girl Genius week is a public campaign celebrating the creative potential and cultivating affirmative space for Black girls to be and become. While at SCETV, homegirls and participants sat for interviews about the worlds they wish to create. We present their guideposts for engagement. This piece features foundational scholars in Black Girlhood Studies, to include Ruth Nicole Brown and Nikky Finney.

History In A Nutshell

The question of "the peculiar institution" known as slavery had been hotly debated long before the American Civil War. After the Civil War, Congress did not have a clear plan as to what to do with the millions of newly liberated African American "Freedmen". The Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution were meant to fix the social and political issues many African Americans faced. Resistance in both the state and federal levels made progress during the "Reconstruction Era" difficult, and ultimately caused the "Great Experiment in Biracial Democracy" to fail. Full and equal rights for African Americans, as well as minorities, would not be fully realized until the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. 

 

For School Library Month & National Poetry Month Resources -

EXPLORE OUR LIBRARIES, LITERATURE & LEARNING COLLECTION!  

Knowitall features an extensive collection of literacy resources! Be sure to take time to explore!

SERIES

Ask an Author

Knowitall has produced Q&A video profiles with national authors and illustrators who visit South Carolina. These interview opportunities are provided by partners like the South Carolina State Library.

Baker’s Dozen

Storytelling should be a part of a student’s educational experience because it is a literary activity, a listening activity, a means of transmitting values, and a means of appreciating cultural diversity.

The storytellers in the Baker’s Dozen lessons were influenced by Augusta Baker, a well-known librarian and storyteller who worked in the New York Public Library for many years and taught storytelling at colleges across the country. These thirteen, renowned national and local storytellers were taped in the studios of SCETV as they told their stories in front of elementary-age students who asked the storyteller questions about their story and the art of storytelling.

Be a Media Critic | Artopia

Take a closer look at types of media like photography, radio, film, and television. Record your answers to the Write About It questions in a notebook or a digital document.

Club Write

This series serves as a comprehensive contextualized support for developing writing skills in preparation for high school. Episodes can be used within and across curriculum areas to support many different applications of writing, from lyrics to persuasion to technical reports. In each program, students are challenged to approach a writing assignment in different ways. Strategies for organizing information and structuring personal schedules to complete assignments are depicted. Real-life settings where different writing styles are employed are carefully woven into the stories. Cooperative learning is emphasized. The new CLUB WRITE KIDS is a prequel to this series. Club Write is distributed by AIT (Agency for Instructional Technology). 

Conversations with S.C. Writers

SCETV brings into the studio well-known South Carolina writers to share a little about their careers, writing process and more!

Grammar Pitfalls | Standard Deviants TV

The Standard Deviants clear away confusion and identify the most common grammatical errors.

Gullah Tales

Native Islanders share their folklore and history through storytelling and singing. 

Idella Bodie’s Ghost Tour: A Writer’s Guide

Offers students and teachers a personal view of the writing process.

Inside Storytelling

South Carolina and national storytellers perform interesting stories and talk about the craft of storytelling.

Letter TV I

Letter TV II

Letter TV III

This series primarily teaches letter recognition and sound association to young children. In addition to teaching the common sounds associated with the letters of the alphabet, programs also help children sight-read common words and build confidence and excitement for reading. Every episode introduces some important cross-curricular content that can be developed into a broader learning activity in class. Other lessons focusing on letter combinations and reading rules can be found in LETTER TV II and LETTER TV III. Letter TV is distributed by AIT (Agency for Instructional Technology). 

Literary Tour of South Carolina

Students meet nationally recognized authors who call South Carolina home. They learn about the writing process, making characters come alive on the page, creating the plot, and how important research is to any story, both fiction and non-fiction. 

Mama Phonics

Produced by the S.C. Department of Education in conjunction with ETV, this phonetic series is designed as a review of decoding skills. Mama Phonics and her consonant and vowel children present phonetic rules in a fairy-tale manner. They meet "Detective WordFinder" and help him pronounce words.

Mary Boykin Chesnut | Idella Bodie’s SC Women

Mary Boykin Chesnut kept a diary during the Civil War. Events dramatized in this film were extracted straight from her diary. 

National Book Month | Periscope

This collection celebrates books! 

National Poetry Month: A World of Poetry | Periscope

Poetry is a language spoken around the world. Although you may not regularly sit down and read poetry, chances are you are exposed to some form of it every day. 

On the Other Hand

Designed to teach sign language to teachers and parents of deaf children, this innovative series can also teach signing to classroom students. Through animation, real-life segments, and direct instruction by the series’ hosts, students can learn the fundamentals of this language in order to communicate with friends and classmates who use signing as their primary means of communication. 

Pulitzer Prize Winners in South Carolina

Three programs that feature Pulitzer Prize honorees from South Carolina, including:

Celebrating Pulitzer Commentary with Kathleen Parker and Jim Hoagland, moderated by Charles Bierbauer.

Celebrating Pulitzer Novelist Julia Peterkin.

Celebrating Pulitzer Public Service Journalism with the Charleston Post and Courier.

Punct Rock

Standard Deviants TV: Punct Rock covers the apostrophe, the dash, the hyphen, and answers the question, "What's Punctuation?"

Reading, Safety & Internet Safety Minutes

Two of these short programs provide a fun, unique way to encourage middle and high school students to read for fun as well as for information. The other four attention-getting vignettes are designed to help students understand how to be safe at school, at home and online. School Resources Officers talk about what is the safe behavior in each situation. 

Scholastic Children’s Stories

Scholastic Children's Stories are grouped into six collections: Families, Feelings & Friendship, Fantasy & Imagination, Favorite Animal Stories, Folk Tales & Fables, Multicultural, and Seasons & Nature.

Shakespeare | Standard Deviants TV

The Standard Deviants get up-close and personal with Shakespeare's famous plays, Hamlet and Macbeth.

Storytime with SCETV

Storytime with SCETV is an online series that promotes the love of reading and literary stories connected to South Carolina. In this series, Friends of ETV share and read literary favorites, many of which are connected to South Carolina. Packages include the reading and at least one supplemental teaching and learning activity.

Tune Up to Literacy

Recommended for preK-3, Tune Up to Literacy encourages literacy using original songs by composer/lyricist/educator Dr. Al Balkin, composer who wrote music for The Hobbit, and several off-Broadway children’s musicals. The programs musically introduce and reinforce concepts such as punctuation and sentence construction.

Writer’s Workshop

Please note: This content was created as part of a college-level course. Some of the content may contain adult themes or language not suitable for all audiences.

For this workshop series, 15 major talents in contemporary literature met in a forum with well-known author William Price Fox and USC creative writing students. Each writer discussed personal writing methods, furnishing insights into the highly individualized process of literary creation. Featured writers include George Plimpton, James Dickey, James McPherson, John Gardner, John Hawkes, John Irving, Kurt Vonnegut, Nora Ephron, Pauline Kael, Reynolds Price, Stephen Spender, Susan Sontag, Tom Wolfe, William Price Fox, and William Styron.  

Writers from the South Carolina Hall of Fame

South Carolina Hall of Fame honors and recognizes contemporary and past citizens who have made outstanding contributions to South Carolina’s history and progress. Writers Include Elizabeth Coker, Mary Simms Oliphant, Pat Conroy, Robert Bass, and Walter Edgar.

TOPICS

* South Carolina educators, please register for an account on KnowItAll.org to gain access to all of the content that is available to SC teachers.

NATIONAL POETRY MONTH: A WORLD OF POETRY from Periscope!

More Poets!

 

DATES FOR YOUR CALENDAR AND KNOWITALL RESOURCES

April 1 – Take Down Tobacco - Day of Action

  • View resources related to tobacco here on Knowitall!

Videos

Lesson Plans

 

April 2: Children’s Book Day

View the Libraries, Literature and Learning Collection.

SERIES

TOPICS

 

April 2: Love Your Produce Manager Day

 

April 4 – Maya Angelou’s birthday

 

April 4 – National Hug a Newsperson Day

 

April 4-10 – National Library Week

 

April 5-11 – National Public Health Week  and April 7: World Health Day

SERIES

 

April 6 – National Library Workers Day

 

April 6 – National Student Athlete Day

  • Try out our new series - First Choice Fit - with Marcus Lattimore!
  • Explore content on athletes at various stages of their lives on KnowItAll!

 

April 6 – SAAM (Sexual Assault Awareness Month) Day of Action

* If you believe you know of someone who may be a victim of human trafficking, please contact local law enforcement or the NHTRC (National Human Trafficking Resource Center) Hotline at 1-888-373-7888.  

 

April 7 – National Walking Day

Videos

Lesson Plan

SC teachers – be sure to register for an account on KnowItAll.org to gain access to all of the content that is available to SC teachers!

 

April 7-8: Yom HaShoah

Holocaust Remembrance Collection

  • S.C. Voices: Lessons from the Holocaust: Full interviews with South Carolinians who survived the Holocaust and those who liberated the concentration camps or witnessed the atrocities that took place. 

 

April 8 – National Zoo Lovers Day

 

April 9 – National Winston Churchill Day

 

April 9 – National Former Prisoner of War Recognition Day

Explore content in our Wars and Conflicts Collection.

"One day we heard something that was very disturbing to all of us. We heard for the first time about Auschwitz in Poland. That's where the killing was done. That we would be sent there, and that we would share this fate, none of us knew, not even when we were in Auschwitz itself." —Rudy Herz, Myrtle Beach Concentration Camp Survivor

 

"The inability to comprehend evil on such a scale gives evil an advantage. It allows evil to slip away from memory and be forgotten. It must not be forgotten, or it will come back again." —Miriam Chaikin, author of A Nightmare in History

"When I tell the story of my life, it takes me quite a while to get back to normal. I get nightmares. I don't mind having nightmares in order that future generations can benefit from it." —Ben Stern, Columbia Concentration Camp Survivor

"The wrongs which we seek to condemn and punish have been so calculated, so malignant and devastating, that civilization cannot tolerate their being ignored because it cannot survive their being repeated." —Justice Robert Jackson, Chief American Counsel at Nuremberg

Lesson Plan

 

April 9: National Unicorn Day

Have you ever seen a Unicorn Beetle? Now you can!

 

April 10: Encourage a Young Writer Day

TOPICS

SERIES

Lesson Plans

* SC teachers – be sure to register for an account on KnowItAll.org to gain access to all of the content that is available to SC teachers!

 

April 10 – National Farm Animals Day

 

April 11 – National Pet Day

 

April 11 - National Submarine Day

 

April 12: International Day of Human Space Flight

 

April 13 – National Peach Cobbler Day

View our resources on peaches including these and more!

View our South Carolina Symbols collection under Topics in the Explore South Carolina collection!

 

April 14 – Look Up at the Sky Day

From the Sky is a digital series that offers viewers a glimpse into the cities and towns of South Carolina from a “not often seen” vantage point – from aboveusing a drone camera. 

 

April 14: National Dolphin Day

 

April 15: National Support Teen Literature Day

View our Libraries, Literature & Learning Collection!

TOPICS

SERIES

 

April 16 – National Orchid Day

Video

Lesson Plan

Mosquitoes are often thought of as annoying pests to be exterminated. However, they play a rather large role in the pollination of many flowers, including goldenrod and orchids. View lesson.

 

April 17 – International Bat Appreciation Day

Videos

Lesson Plan

 

April 17: Ellis Island Family History Day

 

April 17 – International Haiku Poetry Day

Video

Lesson Plan

 

April 18: National Columnists Day

 

April 22: Earth Day

SERIES

TOPICS

You might be surprised at the wide assortment of topics in this collection, such as these!

View a few at a time or view them all! Choose a topic that interests you or one that you’re curious about!

In this Collection, there are too many programs available to list! Consider making recommendations to friends to view the ones you haven’t gotten to yet!

Toward the end of the alphabetical list are these assets that you won’t want to miss! Be sure to come back and explore them all! 

Lesson Plan

 

April 23: World Book Day

Explore our Libraries, Literature and Learning Collection!

 

April 23: Shakespeare’s Birthday

 

April 26: International Chernobyl Disaster Remembrance Day

 

April 27: National Tell a Story Day

 

April 28: Great Poetry Reading Day

More Poets!

 

April 30: Dia! Diversity in Action Day/El Dia de los Niños

A celebration of children, families and reading, emphasizing literacy for children of all cultural and linguistic backgrounds.

SERIES

TOPICS

* SC teachers – be sure to register for an account on KnowItAll.org to gain access to all of the content that is available to SC teachers!

 

April 30: International Jazz Day

Jazz Collection

 

TO GET THE MOST OUT OF KNOWITALL, EXPLORE THESE AREAS!

 Knowitall.org features over 9,000 mobile-friendly videos, worksheets, and interactives for preK-12.

Find topical content and lessons grouped together for your convenience.

Lesson plans for teachers that meet South Carolina standards.

Visit our April Factoids. You may be surprised at what you’ll find!

Find featured content and helpful information on using KnowItAll throughout the month!

Find new content recently added. Visit often, so you won’t miss a thing!

We welcome your questions and comments! We would love to hear from you!