Media - Day 4 grades 7+ learning activities

These activities will help youth build a positive view of themselves and recognize their strengths while thinking about media. They can be done alone or with friends over a video chat such as Skype, Zoom, Facetime, etc.

Mindfulness Activity

​​Trivia Question: What is air made up of? *See mindfulness activity answer at the end of the lesson plan.

Mindfulness Activity:

  • Notice how your belly feels.
  • Breathe fast for 10 seconds.
  • How do you feel? Better? Worse? The same?
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Staycation

​​Supplies: camera or cellphone camera

A staycation is when you stay home for a vacation period. Are you stuck at home and miss spending time with your friends? Let’s take a staycation together.

Take a picture of yourself doing your favorite staycation activity. It could be enjoying the sun in your back yard, reading a book, cooking your favorite food, spending time with family, sleeping in or playing video games.

Share one of the pictures with a friend and see if they can come up with a picture of their own.

Keep sharing pictures of different staycation activities you have done and see who can come up with the most.

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Logic Puzzles

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For this activity, connect with one or more friends on a video chat like Skype, Zoom or Facetime.

Test your logic skill with a friend and see if you can solve the brain teasers together! Take turns reading the questions, and work together to see if you can make sense of these brain teasers. Logic puzzle answers can be found at the end of the lesson plan.

  1. Your last good ping-pong ball fell down into a narrow metal pipe stuck in concrete one foot deep. The only tools you have are your table tennis paddle, your shoe-laces and your plastic water bottle, none of which fit into the pipe. How can you get your ball out with zero damage?
  2. A man who lives on the 10th floor takes the elevator down to the 1st floor every morning and goes to work. When he comes back in the evening on a rainy day, or if there are other people in the elevator, he goes to his floor directly. Every other time, he goes to the 7th floor and walks up three flights of stairs to his apartment. Can you explain why?
  3. How can you throw a ball as hard as you can and have it come back to you, without it bouncing off anything? There is nothing attached to it, and no one else catches or throws it back to you.
  4. Guess the next three letters in the series GTNTL.
  5. A boy is walking down the road with a doctor. While the boy is the doctor’s son, the doctor is not the boy’s father. Who is the doctor?
  6. What has a mouth but cannot eat, moves but has no legs, and has a bank but cannot put money in it?
  7. Your parents have six sons including you, and each son has one sister. How many people are in the family?
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Text Stories

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Supplies: messaging app, cellphone or computer

Write a short story with one or more friends over a messaging app.

  • Choose one of the topics below or create your own topic.
  • Decide on who goes first (try oldest to youngest).
  • Each person will start with the topic you choose and write a message in 10 to 20 words.
  • Keep the story going and see how many times you can go around to complete the story.
  • If you want to add a challenge, set a time limit on how long each person has to respond.
  • Be creative and let your story take a wild spin!

Topics:

  • I’ve been planning the perfect vacation for months, but then…
  • I suddenly found out that I was heir to a throne…
  • I opened my eyes and had no idea where I was…
  • I had a dream that I was...
  • Today I am going to accomplish…
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Review Questions

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  • How does it feel to stay connected to your friends even when you can’t see them?
  • How do you think staying connected helps us?
  • What are three things you can do over the next week to connect with friends and family?
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Trivia Answers

​​Mindful activity Answer: Nitrogen (78%), Oxygen (21%), Water Vapor (1-5%), and more!

Logic Puzzles Answers:

  1. All the tools are random things that are not going to help you. All you have to do is pour some water into the pipe so that the ball floats up to the surface. If you don't have any water, then think about how you could use whatever you drank today.
  2. The man is of short stature. He can't reach the upper elevator buttons, but he can ask people to push them for him. He can also push them with his umbrella.
  3. Throw the ball straight up in the air.
  4. I, T, S. The complete sequence is the first letter of every word in the sentence.
  5. The doctor is the boy’s mother.
  6. A river.
  7. Nine. Two parents, six sons, and one daughter. All of them have one sister (not six sisters).
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