Celebrate creativity, problem-solving, and the endless worlds you can build one block at a time.
International Minecraft Day celebrates one of the world's most popular creative games. Minecraft encourages players to imagine, create, and solve problems. Today you'll practice a different kind of creativity by writing clear, step-by-step instructions for a Minecraft recipe.
Minecraft is the best-selling video game of all time, with hundreds of millions of copies sold around the world!
by Max Brooks
What would happen if you suddenly woke up inside the world of Minecraft? This exciting adventure follows one character’s journey as they learn to survive, build, and explore. It’s a fantastic example of turning a favorite game into a compelling story.
Great recipes are a type of procedural writing… they explain exactly how to complete a task by giving clear, step-by-step directions. Use transition words like First, Next, Then, After that, and Finally to guide your reader through each step.
Be sure to include everything your reader needs to know, from gathering ingredients to crafting the finished food. Clear directions will help every player become a master Minecraft chef!
Start by building something together in Minecraft! Recreate your house, design a medieval castle, invent a new village, or dream up an incredible base.
Next, watch one of our favorite YouTube creators, Ann Reardon from How To Cook That. She recreates the Minecraft cake recipe using real ingredients, explores the science behind what happens, and discovers whether the famous recipe really works outside the game!
β Bonus Adventure: Bake a real cake or cupcakes together! Then compare your real-life recipe with the Minecraft version. Which would you rather eat?
Every adventure has another path to follow. Choose a trail and see where your curiosity leads!
Diamonds, emeralds, and amethysts aren’t just Minecraft treasures. They’re real minerals and gemstones formed deep inside the Earth. Amethyst even grows inside geodes, those ordinary-looking rocks that can hide sparkling purple crystals inside.
Explore National Geographic Kids’ gemstone collection and compare a few Minecraft favorites with the real thing.
Wonder Challenge:
Look up a photograph of an uncut diamond, emerald, or amethyst. Does it look the way you expected before it was polished?
Minecraft’s towering dripstone caves were inspired in part by SΖ‘n ΔoΓ²ng Cave in Vietnam, one of the largest natural caves in the world. Parts of the cavern are about 200 meters high, and some of its enormous stalagmites rise tens of meters from the cave floor.
Find SΖ‘n ΔoΓ²ng on a map, then see how Minecraft describes its real-world cave inspiration.
Wonder Challenge:
Look at photographs of SΖ‘n ΔoΓ²ng and a Minecraft dripstone cave side by side. What details can you spot that may have inspired the game’s designers?
Gold, copper, iron, and carbon all appear on the real periodic table. Minecraft may turn materials into tidy blocks and ores, but in the real world each element has its own symbol, properties, and uses.
Pick a few familiar Minecraft materials and see whether you can find their real chemical symbols on a periodic table.
Wonder Challenge:
Find the symbols for gold, copper, iron, and carbon. Which ones match the beginning of the English word, and which ones don’t?
Would you rather...
Print & Plan
Keep todayβs book pick, writing prompt, family activity, and discussion ideas together in one colorful overview.
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Be inspiring! π
Lately weβve been fascinated by all the tropical fish in Minecraft! It’s so cool that they are inspired by real fish species, and there are thousands of combinations to discover! Now weβre determined to build the ultimate aquarium! My daughter and I have also been having so much fun with a marine biology add-on, although Iβve discovered that navigating underwater in Minecraft is apparently not one of my natural talents. π Have you ever built an aquarium in Minecraft, or do you have a favorite educational add-on or world we should try?
Every National Day is a starting point for curiosity! Read, write, play, and explore together as ordinary days lead to unexpected discoveries.
Follow curiosity, not the calendar. Choose the adventures that spark your interest and enjoy them whenever the time is right. β¨
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