Spot the Troll Game

Where does fake news come from? Fake people, of course! Spot the Troll is an 8-question quiz that tests how well you can spot fake social media accounts. These are accounts that pretend to be run by real people, but are really run by organizations that try to sway...

Laughter is the Best Medicine

When the news becomes too stressful, sometimes it is best to take a step back, remind yourself that you’re not alone, and find a good laugh. And if we can’t laugh at today’s news, we can always laugh at yesterday’s. For example, one anecdote...

A New Podcast about Careers

Recently I’ve become enamored of the Library of Congress’s website. The sheer amount of Stuff™ they have online is mind-boggling. They’ve recently started a new podcast called “America Works”. Each ten-minute episode features an...

Write a 1-Minute Play

Recently the St Croix Falls Festival Theatre hosted a writing contest for grown-ups. They asked people to write a play that 1 minute long, and they read the best ones aloud on YouTube. So I wondered: What would a 1-minute play festival for kids look like? So...

Make Your Own Synonyms with Jason Reynolds

It can be fun to play with words! In this video, author Jason Reynolds challenges us to invent new words that mean something similar to words we already know. He turns “jump” into “updown”. I might turn “dandelion” into...

Writing a Poem, and an Announcement!

This week we’ll explore writing poetry. Erm, excuse me. “Poetry” is such a broad topic. This week we’ll explore rhyming, and poetry topics — what do you want to write a poem about? Take a blank piece of paper, and make a list. Write down...