Ring in 2010

Tomorrow is New Year's Eve and the last day of the decade. If you're thinking of hosting a last-minute soiree, head to Chica and Jo for this printable, penguin invitation craft.Print, cut, assemble and deliver these charming party propositions that are to0 cute to turn down.

New Year's is a perfect occasion for practicing clock skills. In the era of digital timepieces, even big kids often need extra clock practice. Make this New Year's countdown clock from Kaboose. After constructing the clock, learners can mark the final hours of the decade.

Visit FatherTimes.net to study New Year's Eve and New Year's Day traditions in countries around the world. Make some of these global holiday activities part of your own festivity this year like the Scotish tradition of first-footing (visiting friends at midnight), the Japanese tradition of forgiving grudges or the Venezuelan tradition of wearing yellow underwear to bring happiness in the new year.
Then checkout the lyrics and history of the English-speaking world's New Year's Anthem, Auld Lang Syne. After reading about the song, read Auld Lang Syne, Joanne Findon's biographical storybook about Robert Burns who transcribed the traditional Scottish folk song and contributed lyrics to make the famous 1796 version of the tune. With all that learning done, it will be time for a snack. Sample various traditional New Year's foods, which are outlined neatly in "Lucky Foods for the New Year," from Epicurous. Eat black-eyed peas and cabbage which are thought to bring luck and money in the Southern U.S. Or gobble down 12 grapes, one for each chime of the clock at midnight, as is the tradition in Spain.

Images from Chica and Jo, Kaboose, Virtual Sheet Music, Amazon,

Sherlock Holmes Printable Paper Doll

The newest movie adaptation of Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes was released yesterday. According to the Guinness Book of World Records, Sherlock Holmes is the most frequently portrayed fictional character in film history.

After seeing the new Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law film or re-reading some of the famous 19th century stories, check out this Sherlock Holmes printable paper doll at Paper Doll Garden. Students can retell scenes from the original stories or create new adventures for the renowned detective.

Image from Paper Doll Garden.

Hubble

In 1990, NASA launched the Hubble Space Telescope into orbit around Earth where it can collect clear images of space, unobstructed by our atmosphere. In the last 19 years, Hubble has allowed scientists to discover quasars, dark energy, and the age of the universe. The telescope runs on two 25 ft. solar panels, orbits Earth once every 97 minutes, and has collected countless images of space using filters that can process ultraviolet, infrared and visible light.

Learning about Hubble fits perfectly with lessons on space exploration, renewable energy or the light spectrum. Visit Hubblesite.org to find bunches of information about Hubble's history and structure.
After students read about the telescope, check out all of Hubblesite's fun, extension activities like
tracking the Hubble's orbit, preparing for a night of stargazing, and building a hand-held Hubble.
For many students, tactile experiences like model-making aid in their comprehension of a concept. Also, understanding the relationship between a model and the object it represents is a key learning objective in some states.
The site provides three tutorials for mini-telescope construction, which you can approach as your bravery accords. In my class, we made the basic, paper model, which the site describes as "Average to Difficult." This took just less than three 45-minute class periods with about 18 sets of helping hands.


Hubble diagram and photo from Hubblesite.org

Hanukkah Hullaballoo

Hanukkah's beginning is just days away. Learn more about the holiday by visiting Torah Tots Chanukah Story page for detailed explanations of the meaning and traditions of the Jewish Festival of Lights.
Students can practice "lighting" a candle each day without the hazard of fire with this colorful menorah printable from Nick Jr. Talking about the menorah is also a great opportunity to practice ordinal numbers as you light candles on the first, second, third, etc. days.

Read Eric Kimmel's The Magic Dreidles which is a Hanukkah twist on Grimm's Fairy Tale, "The Table, The Donkey and The Stick."

After reading Kimmel's story, print a paper dreidle template from Akhlah's Crafts page, so students can play the traditional dreidle game following these directions from Judaism.com. Then browse their Hanukkah books section for more ideas about what to read.

After playing the game, students can make dreidle candy boxes to fill and enjoy with step-by-step instructions and a template from Chabad.org's Chanukah page.

Images from Nick Jr., Eric Kimmel, Judaism.com, Chabad.org.

End of the World

Today, I was asked, for the eleventy-billionth time, if the world is going to end in 2012. I've done all the persuading I can do alone. I need to call in the experts to corroborate my story.

Fortunately, NASA seems to have reached a similar point of exasperation with all the hub-bub over 2012, so they have graciously lent their astro-brilliance to the matter and published "2012: Beginning of the End or Why the World Won't End?" This concise article explain clearly why students can relax a little about impending doom.

After reading, visit the "2012 Doomsday Myths Debunked" photo gallery at National Geographic.

Image from National Geographic

Plant Life Cycle Activity Cards

Visit Craft Jr. to get this set of printable, plant life cycle cards. Students can practice putting the pictures in order to reinforce their memory of the life cycle of plants. If you print two sets, kids can turn them over and play memory.
Craft Jr. has eight other plant-life lesson ideas accompanying this printable. Also check out the black-and-white version of the cards, that students can color themselves, and the printable plant-life mini-book and word puzzle.

Images from Craft Jr.

Thanksgiving

I like Thanksgiving and the idea of stopping to think of what we have to appreciate. While I was shopping this week, I hoped to find some Thanksgiving candies to give with thank you cards. With the way holidays are commercialized, I thought it would be easy to find some little turkey-shaped chocolates. But, everywhere I went it seemed to already be Christmas. I like Christmas too, but put on the brakes. So, in celebration of slowing down a little to be thankful, I've compiled some of my favorite Thanksgiving stories and ideas.

Read Thanksgiving on Thursday from Mary Pope Osborne's Magic Tree House Series and its non-fiction companion book, Pilgrims.
In the illustrated fiction book, Jack and Annie, the series' main characters, take their time-traveling tree house back to the first Thanksgiving in 1621. The kids meet Squanto, Captain Standish and Governor Bradford and help prepare for the first harvest festival. Readers learn about Wamanoag and early colonists' ways of living. Random House, the books publisher, has a Thanksgiving on Thursday teacher's guide that includes a printable Thanksgiving Quilt worksheet. They also have a section of activities that can be used with all of the Magic Tree House fiction books.
Follow-up this story by reading Pilgrims, which rehashes the first Thanksgiving story from a completely non-fiction perspective and includes plenty of illustrations and diagrams of Wampanoag and Colonial clothes and lifestyles.
To find out more about the colonies, visit PBS' interactive history of 1628 in North America.

Then read Thank You, Sarah: The Woman Who Saved Thanksgiving, a biographical picture-book about Sarah Hale who helped Thanksgiving become a national holiday in 1863.
Visit author Laurie Halse Anderson's site for a Thank You, Sarah teacher's guide full of guided reading questions and activity ideas.

Then visit Danielle's Place to get instructions for Story of Thanksgiving turkey,
table-top teepees,
and bunches of other Fall and Thanksgiving ideas.

Craft images from Danielle's Place.