Discover Something New
Discover something new today. From “space archeology” to deep space exploration, the universe is full of things to explore and discover!

Today’s Activities

A Viking Discovery?

A band of sea travelers called the Vikings were the first Europeans to arrive in the Americas. A recent discovery may help answer centuries-old mysteries about these early explorers.

Read this Scholastic Magazine article and then make a copy of the Informational Text Response to organize your learning. 

Change the reading level or click the text to speech button within the article itself.

Here is a story about space exploration.

Scientific Notation

Practice writing numbers in scientific notation.

* Answers

Watch this BrainPOP video about scientific notation.

Portal to the Universe

Engineers are building a powerful telescope that could launch a new era in astronomy. Prior to reading, think about this question. What challenges might be involved in building a giant space telescope? Then enjoy learning about the new James Webb Space Telescope that will be launched in 2021.

Change the reading level or click the text to speech button within the article itself.

The Struggle Is Real

Fact: Life is exhausting. But our super-fun fitness test will help you up your strength and stamina so that you barely notice.

First, have your child do some warm-up stretches: 10-15 arm circles (front and backward), 15 jumping jacks, running in place for 30 seconds, 10 leg squats, 10 push-ups, and sit-ups then go to GoNoodle and have your child pick a couple of PE/Dance videos.  

Hubble's Greatest Hits

Visit this link to check out more of the Hubble Space Telescope’s most spectacular images:

  • Choose three of your favorites that were not included in our “Hubble’s Greatest Hits” gallery.
  • Click the title of each of your favorite images for a detailed description.
  • Use the description to write a one-sentence caption summarizing the most important or interesting information about the image, like the ones in our gallery.

Don’t forget to include the year the image was captured! Then draw and caption your own artistic space scene.

Look at the images from the space telescope and talk about what your favorite is, and why you like it.

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Teaching Tips

Accessibility Feature

Turning on transcripts for YouTube Videos [PDF]

More 8th Grade Lessons

Additional lessons are available for this grade level by pressing “More Lessons” above, or selecting a lesson below:

Headed to High School

Headed to High School

Today's ActivitiesHow Do You Feel About Starting High School? Nervous? Excited? Unsure? Write a short response to reflect on. Write about these: 3 Things you have heard about high school and are wondering if they are, in fact, true. 2 Goals or aspirations you have for...

Fail Forward

Fail Forward

Today's Activities Reflect on this image.  Talk to another person and share thoughts with each other.  Write your responses.Video: Will Smith's Thoughts on Failure Respond to this video. Do you agree or disagree with Will Smith? Explain what experience(s) in your life...

The Present

The Present

Today's Activities'The Present' is a short 4 minute animation created by Jacob Frey.   What is your overall response to the short film? Rewatch the film and pause at 2:35. Use at least 5 adjectives to describe the boy during this part of the film. Rewatch the...