Leap Day 2016

Leap Day 2016

Have you ever known someone born on Leap Day?  I do!  It is a wonderfully strange occurrence and the young girl I know is officially turning one year old tomorrow, her birthday is celebrated annually on March 1st.  

Wonderopolis: Why Do Some Years Leap Ahead? and 13 Things You Did Not Know About Leap Year shares some fascinating information about Leap Day to share with your students to help them better understand this crazy day.  

If you are looking for some fun activities to celebrate the day, check out the websites below:

7 Ideas for Celebrating Leap Day

Leap Year Lessons: Activities for Leap Day

29 Fun Things to Do on Leap Day

ReadWriteThink: Today is Leap Day! for grades 3-7

Celebrating Dr. Seuss's Birthday with Read Across America

Celebrating Dr. Seuss's Birthday with Read Across America

I am a huge fan of Dr. Seuss.  I have read nearly all of his books, including books that show and explain the political side of Dr. Seuss.  In honor of his 112th birthday here is a short YouTube video to say Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss.  Attached are several articles with suggested ways to celebrate his birthday on March 2nd.  

5 Ways to Celebrate Dr. Seuss's Birthday

Hats Off to Dr. Seuss's Birthday

NEA's Read Across America   This site provides many educator resources for ideas to celebrate including NEA's 2016 Read Across America Classroom Activity Guide.

In addition to celebrating Read Across America, simply Promoting a Love of Reading at Home for Students in Grades K-5, offers a dozen ideas to promote a love of reading. Guys Read (a website to promote reading to boys by Jon Sciezka along with a suggested book list), and Read Kiddo Read (to promote reading to all students by James Patterson. This site was in response to encouraging his own son to love reading) are two more fantastic resources to promote a love of reading.  As you may look for ideas to share with students and parents, consider these to celebrate reading and to help develop a love of reading!

Presidents, Elections, and Voting

Presidents, Elections, and Voting

We are well entrenched in the presidential primaries with Iowa's Caucuses and New Hampshire's primaries occurring in the last two weeks, and South Carolina's primary this week.  Tomorrow is President's Day, and our Wisconsin primary is April 5th.  With so much media coverage surrounding presidential candidates, the concept of voting, and President's Day holiday, below are some resources.  The first offers a handful of terrific picture books to help explain how a president is elected and highlights of past presidents. The second resource is a Scholastic activity appropriate for grades 4-8 where Professor Carlotta Facts asks students to determine the mystery person with the fewest number of clues.  The third resource is from ReadWriteThink to help students better understand the voting process.  This unit is appropriate for grades 3-5.  

Picture Books about Presidents and Elections

Presidents, Game 1: A History Mystery Activity

Voting! What's It All About?

I Love Chocolate Cake!

I Love Chocolate Cake!

What is your chocolate cake of books?  Today mine is The War That Saved My Life by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley.

I wasn't always the avid reader and children's and young adult book lover I am.  I have fond memories of my mom sitting with my four siblings and myself piled on a twin bed listening to her read James and the Giant Peach, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and the annual Christmas holiday story printed in our local newspaper where we couldn't wait to hear the next day's chapter.  I had some favorite books growing up, but I never heard my mother say to me, "Why are you reading that book again," or "That book isn't on your teacher's reading list."  I don't remember my teachers telling me I could read certain books either. 

I am an avid reader of the Nerdy Book Club  and the post earlier this week really begs me to share the Nerdy Book Club Post: Chocolate Cake by Julie Falatko. I love the analogy of picky eaters to that of picky book selectors. We work so hard to teach students to read, but developing a "love" for reading is through our excitement for reading!  I see it when I book talk books or share book trailers.  I love to hear when students cannot wait to get their hands on a book I've shared.  Let's get students to discover their chocolate cake of books, not their broccoli of books.