Elementary

Students will learn about resources they can use to improve their writing. They will discover that they can look at the work of other writers, use books like a dictionary or thesaurus, use writing techniques like rhyme, alliteration, and onomatopoeia, organize ideas and facts with outlines or story maps. Proofreading tools are also discussed.

Professor Plot, the zany publisher of Wordswork, has given his editors a unique challenge: Showcase four different types of writing, each with its own purpose and audience, in the upcoming issue of the magazine.

Expository writing emerges as the theme for this issue of Wordswork, and the editors are on a quest to fill the magazine with writing that informs or provides facts. The team quickly realizes that expository writing can be anything from a school science project to a letter to the president!

Viewers learn the importance of prewriting (thinking and planning), how to transform ideas into a written draft, different types of sentences (lead, topic, etc.) editing, proofreading, and publishing.

Viewers will learn about the story-writing process. Discusses character, setting, plot, the ending, and looks at ways to organize ideas through the use of character webs and story maps. Examines character and plot development, diologue, and descriptive details as a tool for making a story interesting.

Learn about electricity when Ben Franklin leaps out of the pages of a student's science textbook to help him with his homework. Using the latest computer graphics and experiments, Ben explains concepts such as lightning, static electricity, and simple, series, and parallel circuits.

This program helps students learn the principles of sound, the range of human hearing, and significant terms as they discover the science behind everyday sounds. Travel deep into the ocean and high into the skies in search of creatures who use echolocation.

When "Hardware Hal" holds a "Simple and Compound Machines Sale" he demonstrates to his assistants the six simple machines: the lever, wedge, inclined plane, pulley, wheel & axle, and screw. Shows how these machines make work easier by changing force, direction, or distance.

Why does light behave the way it does? How does it travel from its source to the objects it illuminates and then to human eyes? Most people certainly take light for granted, but understanding the basic nature of light can open up a whole new world! Students learn how light travels in waves as well as how those waves behave. And children discover the connection between light and color.

Isaac Newton himself shows students how gravity, friction, and inertia are related to mass, force, and momentum. Exciting graphics and re-creations allow students to see how Newton's laws of motion relate to real life. Experiments with roller blades, baseballs, and other common objects encourage students to make science exploration recreational.

Discover the properties of forces through observation and experimentation. Encourage students to explore their surroundings to discover the fascinating impact forces have on their everyday lives. Understand that every force is a push or pull. Learn about friction, balanced and unbalanced forces, and pressure.

Students learn about gravity. First stop: Earth—to discover how gravity affects people and things on this planet. Next stop: outer space—to learn how gravity affects other planets. This learning journey demonstrates the effects of mass on gravity and the difference between mass and weight in a way that is easy to understand and fun to watch.

Energy is all around you. Learn about the many different types of energy and how energy can change form. Vivid examples illustrate how potential energy and kinetic energy are defined, and how one form of energy can change into another. Discover that energy never goes away, that it can only be transferred from one form into another.

Two students in search of ideas for a science project find help in a store like one they’ve never seen. Miss Dallerwag, the store owner, helps explain concepts like atoms and molecules. She also describes what mass, volume, and density are and how they are different, and the states of matter and how they change.