Author: admin

Here at the Flocab HQ in Brooklyn, we got a little bit shaken up during Tuesday's earthquake. An earthquake is a surprising thing around these parts! But if we'd been dutifully checking our Twitter feed, we could have learned about the quake before it even rattled the Brooklyn Bridge. Turns out: Twitter travels faster than seismic waves. According to this article, it would have been possible for us to read about the earthquake in New York a good minute before we felt it. If you read about the news before it actually happens, does that make you a time traveller?…

Wednesday is a special day for Flocabulary. Each Wednesday, we celebrate our favorite witty classroom-appropriate lines from the hip-hop world and literature, and then we prompt everyone to try their hand at writing some wordplay. So to celebrate those of you heading back to school, here's today's official Wordplay Wednesday: "Either you're gonna whine or you climb; I chose the latter" -J. Cole Today's mission? Leave a comment with motivational wordplay for all the kids starting school this week. GO! And if you use Twitter, share your best lines with the hashtag #WordplayWednesday

To plan a good lesson, sometimes the devil's in the details. Well we've taken care of all of that for you, with this song and lesson plan to teach American idioms. The lesson is especially helpful for English Language Learners who often struggle with the cultural or non-literal meanings of idioms.

The Odyssey, Shakespeare and Huck Finn...yes, we've rapped about them. We wedded literature with rap, and never looked back. And now, we're combining our lessons with social media. We've put together a list of our favorite re-imaginings of the classics on Facebook and Twitter, and included lesson plans to adapt each idea for the classroom.

Practice literacy skills all over town!

At the end of the school year, it can sometimes be tough to keep your students in their seats. They gaze out the window, as if the mere act of looking hard enough will make summer materialize faster. So why fight the call of the outdoors? Send your students on a scavenger hunt around your town or city! They’ll practice their language arts skills all over town, and see for themselves that you really can “use this in real life.”

With younger students, the whole class can walk around and do a few activities together. For older kids, the scavenger hunt makes a great homework assignment–ask students to pick 1 or 2 activities! School already out? Save it for September–this is a great way to start off the year.

The Scavenger Hunt!

1. Grammar Challenge: Find three signs with incorrect spelling or grammar. Photograph yourself with them. Explain how you would correct those signs. Also explain the impacts and confusions that this incorrect signage could cause in the world.

2. Analyze Advertisement: Find three interesting advertisements on a billboard or bus. Photograph yourself with them. Analyze all of the ways in which it is trying to convince you to do/buy what it is advertising. After you do that, explain whether or not you are convinced.

3. Educational Eavesdropping: Listen to at least 3 conversations on the bus. Transcribe (copy down) the conversations to the best of your ability. Describe what you learned about the people and their personalities/lives, and how you learned it. Do you think you know a lot about them?