Week 7: October 12 through October 17

How do you know the truth from a lie, fact from fiction or opinion? This can be a hard question to answer, but we can begin to draw conclusions by looking for certain clues in the information we receive. This week, we will observe and discuss some ways we can discern between what is fact, fiction, or opinion.

Monday, October 12, 2020

That’s Facts!

A fact is a statement that can be proven true. Opinions are statements that express how we feel or what we think about something. Feelings and thoughts are not facts because they cannot be proven right or wrong. However, some opinions can be rooted in and formed by facts. These opinions are called informed opinions.

You can often determine if a statement is a fact or opinion based on keywords like, always, never, worst, best, delicious, horrible, great, better, etc. Additionally, opinion statements often begin with “I feel,” “I think,” “I love.” We can test or observe a fact. Facts include any statement that can be tested and always or almost always have the same result. We can also observe facts. To observe something is to experience it with our 5 senses. Often times, our observations can be made into an opinion. For example, if one night I see a long shadow through my window in the dark, I can draw a conclusion about what the shadow was. My conclusion may or may not be true. However, the fact is still that I saw a long shadow through my window while it was dark. Remember, feelings cannot be tested nor observed. This is why feelings are opinions.

If someone says, “Yesterday, Alicia went to the store with her mom,” We can confirm whether or not Alicia went to the store. This statement is a statement of fact because we can ask Alicia’s mom or check the cameras at the store to see if Alicia was there.

If Alicia says, “Going to the store with my Mom is better than going with my Dad,” we cannot really prove this. This is simply how Alicia feels. She is not wrong for how she feels but her sister may may think going with her daddy is more fun than with her mom.

Flowers often bloom in Spring. This is a statement of fact.

Spring is the best season. This is a statement of opinion.

Spring is the best season because flowers bloom in Spring. This statement is an informed opinion. Although we can prove that flowers bloom in Spring, we can not prove that Spring is or isn’t the best Season.

Please watch the new story here >>

This is a “Feel Good” news story that is meant to help the news viewers feel happy about the simple things that happen in everyday life.

Was this news story opinion based or factual?

How did you know?

Grandpa Mark is the best granddad ever! Last year for her birthday, he made a reading nook out of old shipping pallets for his grand daughter Olivia. Grandpa Mark can build anything.

Grandpa Mark is also an excellent cook. He grew up near the Gulf of Mexico in Thibodaux, Louisiana where his Papa and Mama taught him about how to catch and cook fish, shrimp, and crawdags. Now everybody's mouth waters when hear that Grandpa Mark is going to cook.

Olivia loves to spend time with her Grandpa. He is the tallest, strongest grandpa in the world. Every time he comes to Arkansas, where Olivia lives with her parents, he picks her up by her wrists and holds her up high and shouts, “Look at this big ol’ catfish I done caught!”

Today, Grandpa Mark and Olivia went fishing and caught the biggest fish ever.

Product: Find 3 or more opinions and 3 or more facts in the reading passage above. Explain why you say that the statements are fact or opinion.

Tuesday, October 13, 2020

Truth or Dare

Have you ever played Truth or Dare? Truth or Dare is a game that some children play together. Two or more people agree to tell the truth when asked embarrassing or silly questions or take a dare instead.

Yesterday, we discussed a bit about Fact and Opinion. An opinion is the opposite of fact. Today we will talk about truth and lies. Truth is the opposite of lies. The truth or what is true is a statement or idea based in facts or reality. The definition of truth has changed over the years. Some people say that truth is what you believe in strongly or that it there are different truths for the same idea. For Family World School purposes, the truth is based in the reality shared by all people. It is a statement or concept that informs and improves understanding. Additionally, truth may not necessarily be proven, like a fact, but their is evidence that substantiates what is true.

Is an opinion the same as a lie? What about a fictional story? Both of these concepts are based in statements that cannot be proven. So what is the difference?

A lie is different from a story or an opinion because of the intention behind the statement.

A lie is created to mislead or trick others. However, a story is written often to entertain or share a moral lesson with an audience.

Opinions, however unfounded they may be, are statements of feelings that the holder has. The opinion may be formed because of lies but the feelings themselves are real to the person who has the opinion.

A person who avoids telling lies and tries to always tell the truth is called honest (AH NES T). It can be challenging to be honest because it means you tell the truth even when it might embarrass you or make your parents upset with you. Telling the truth can be also be confused with being rude. Giving an unsolicited opinion or insulting others is not the same as being truthful.

Let’s talk about the truth.

Here are some statements and situations to examine whether someone is telling the truth, stating an opinion, or lying.

“Hey, Jessie! Those shoes are ugly.”

”The shoes are purple with yellow stripes and silver sequence on the tip.”

Noah looks out his window and sees there is no rain and say, “It is raining outside.”

Safir was outside playing with his dad’s ladder when it slipped from his hands and hit the living room window. When Daddy came home, he saw the cracked window and asked how it got there. “I accidentally cracked it with your ladder. I’m sorry.”

“Hey, Jessie! Those shoes are ugly.” Opinion

”The shoes are purple with yellow stripes and silver sequence on the tip.” Truth

Noah looks out his window and sees there is no rain and say, “It is raining outside.” Lie

Janae wanted to style her Princess Petunia doll’s hair. She went into her mom’s room to use her hemp shea butter hair cream and other products. When Mama went into her room, she saw her hair cream spilled on the floor near her dresser. Mama said maybe I left it open and accidentally bumped the dresser on my way out of the room. Janae kept quiet as Mama cleaned up the mess. Lie The final observation is an example of lying by omission. This means that although a person didn’t tell a direct lie, they allowed someone to believe something that they know is not true in order to mislead that person. In Janae’s case, she probably doesn’t want to be in trouble for wasting her mom’s hair cream so she is letting her think that the hair cream spilled because of the mom’s own actions.

Product: So now you have an idea on how we define the truth and lies. Let’s play a game called 3 Truths and a Lie. I will tell you three truths and one lie about this person. You guess which statement is the lie. Share your guess in the comments section below or on the Family World School group page on FB.

a) This is Ben Blackwell.

b) Ben is famous hip hop artist.

c) Ben was born and raised in Israel.

d) Ben is a sailor in California.

Wednesday, October 14, 2020

Trustworthy News

How honest are you? What makes a person a liar or trustworthy?

Most of us can think of someone we know who is trustworthy. Being trustworthy means that people can count on you to do what’s right, be responsible, and keep your word no matter what. We look to our leaders to be trustworthy or it is hard to follow them.

We can look for trustworthy information online or in books also. Books and other print material can be trustworthy if the information it shares is factual and ethical as well. On the internet, information is abundant but much of it is opinion-based or outright misleading. Misleading information on the internet often exists to trap someone’s thinking so they feel a certain way about a particular product, cause, idea, or person. Every website exists to provide others with information but the challenge to finding trustworthy information is the intention of the author. Do you remember what makes a statement true or factual?

Facts include any statement that can be tested and always or almost always have the same result. Credible websites are filled with facts. The facts are verified when the author’s work has been reviewed by other professionals who work in the area that the website’s information focuses on. This is called peer review. Peer reviewed articles are common in scientific or scholarly journals.

There are other ways to see if a website is trustworthy. Aside from looking for peer reviews, you should observe the website type. After the dot [.] in the web address, you will find com, org, gov, edu or another domain type. The com in .com means it’s commercial site. A commercial site is generally a business site that is designed to sell a product or a service. The org in .org typically represents an organization that advocates or promotes a certain idea or group. Dot gov sites and dot edu sites are generally providing less biased information that is based in fact or agreed to by experts in the field being written about.

Being able to identify credible information on the internet is important because it helps us make informed decisions. Click here to learn more about how we can identify trustworthy websites on the internet.

Remember, don’t get caught in the trap of misleading information. Speaking of a trap, you can use this mnemonic /nəˈmänik/ TRAAP to remember ways you might check if a website’s information is trustworthy.

Product: Read the article below and check for TRAAP.

1. When was the article published or last updated? 2. Is the information in the article relevant or connected in any way?

3. Is the author of the article an expert?

4. Who is this articles’s intended audience?

5. Is the article biased?

Now that you’ve answered these questions, do you believe that the website is trustworthy or credible? Share your answers in the comments below or on our Family World School group Facebook page.

Thursday, October 15, 2020

Honest Truth

How honest are you? Honesty is usually the character tait people admire in their heroes or leaders. No one wants to follow someone they cannot trust. There is a saying that the only thing a person truly has is his/her word.

This statement means that even though we may gain material possessions, admiration from our friends, or even fame, we could easily lose all of those things. Unlike those things we can lose, the idea that we mean and do what we say, we tell the truth, and speak what is right is what lasts and what people will remember the most about us.

The following is an honesty test for you to see if you are as honest as you would like to be. As you answer the questions, think about times you’ve had opportunities to be honest or dishonest.

If you could ✔️ at least 3/4 (three of the four), you are generally an honest person. If you could only ✔️ 1/4 of the statements, you’ve got a lot of work to do to become an honest person.

Why is honesty such a big deal? There are many reasons why honesty is a big deal. One reason is because if you tell people something important, you want them to trust what you say so they can take action.

How can not being honest hurt you?

How can being dishonest hurt someone else?

Are you as honest and trustworthy as you should be?

Do people know they can trust what you tell them?

Here is a short story about honesty.

The Farmer & the Baker

There was once a farmer and a baker. Every week the baker bought 1kilogram of butter from the farmer. One day the baker decided to measure the butter that he had bought from the farmer just to see if he was getting the right amount. When he did this, he found that he was being sold less than a pound of butter. This was a big problem for the baker. 1 kilogram is just over 2 pounds. The baker shouted, “I’m being cheated!” Soon the baker took to farmer to court to sue him for cheating him out of his money each week. The judge called the farmer and asked if he had indeed cheated the baker. The farmer said, “I am poor and have primitive measuring tools but I do have a scale. Every week, I buy 1kilogram of bread from the baker. When I sell the butter, I weigh it against the bread that I‘d bought from the baker to make sure it is the right weight.

Moral of the story; You get what you give.

1. Who was really being cheated in this story?

2. Why do you think the moral of the story is that you get what you give?

3. If the farmer was weighing 1.4 pounds of bread against the weight of butter on the scale, how many pounds of butter did he sell the farmer?

Product: Create or share a folktale about honesty. Write and illustrate your story or Create a short skit to show what happened in video. Share your folktale in the Family World School Facebook group or in the comments section below.

Friday, October 16, 2020

Of the Stories You Tell

Have you ever heard of Aesop's Fables? Aesop was a Grecian of Ethiopian heritage. He created, modified, and retold stories that taught moral lessons.

Aesop was famous because of his creativity and ability to make people think about the moral and ethical results of their actions. There is some disagreement about many aspects of Aesop's life because it was so long ago. However, most accounts describe him as having been enslaved in Greece and being freed. Most people say he was of African heritage although he could have been Ethiopian and Grecian. You can learn more with the following pdf.

One of his most famous stories is The Boy Who Cried Wolf.

Please enjoy

Imagine you are making a new movie called "The Boy Who Cried Wolf."

What would your movie be about? Who are the characters in your story? Is there a hero? Is there a villain? What happens in the movie? This group of teens made a horror movie trailer with the same name. Do not watch it if you are easily frightened.

Product: Write a script this weekend for your movie, The Boy Who Cried Wolf. Choose what genre it will be action, science fiction, comedy, drama? Share your script or make a movie and post it in the Family World School group on FaceBook or in the comments section below.