Integrating History: President's Day

If you can name all of these guys below, you are amazing. I still get hung up.

Today, buildings are closed.  

 My child asked why? Isn't there only one President? I would be silly to not explain to her the history of it all. Only then, did she look confused.

I luckily had these two books on hand.

That is as far as we have gotten today. 

For the older kids, there are so many other books that would be better for their reading level. These two are my particular favorites:

If anything, challenge yourself and your kids. Take that picture from the top of all the Presidents, add our current President Obama, copy it twice and play the matching game. Add their names for a challenge. Good luck and have a wonderful day off!!

Moment in history:

Last year, the living Presidents got together for this great picture. Isn't it great to live in a country where our leadership can get along and the torch passes peacefully?



Integrating Weather: When Smog attacks

Today's idea was brought to you by my four-year old. The weather the past two weeks, well maybe three, has led commutes to work to look like this:

And signs posted while we drive like this:

Are caused by this:

Needless to say, it has been miserable. Kids haven't been able to play outside and everyone is having some serious cabin fever.

We welcomed a birthday trip to The Treehouse Museum. A place where discovery play, stories, and history meet. It was during that time, we got on the computer to read a few of our favorite Dr. Seuss.

Diva E then asked, where is the Lorax story? The original one? I had no idea, so we moved on. On the way home, she asked : Do we live in Theneedville?

What an interesting text to world connection!

So, we dug out the book: Cloudy with a chance of Meatballs.

We had fun reading it and then got out some play dough to create our own mess of weather.

 Of course if you do a google search, there are many, many activities you could do with this story. One sheet that I had from my teaching days was this gem:

For any age, students could write an extension to the story or re-create the story with their own issues.

I found this site that leads to a plethera of printable activities to keep the fun going.

Free activities to print

Either way- have fun and enjoy another snowy, wintry day!!!

Integrating History: Pearl Harbor attacks

On December 7, 71 years ago, there was an attack on Pearl Harbor. You can view pictures here:  Pearl Harbor Attack.

The next day, we went to war in what would be World War II. President Roosevelt labeled Dec. 7, 1941, "a date which will live in infamy."

This weekend take time with your kids and look up pictures and read about this day and the events that followed after it.

Have your student write a Christmas letter to a serviceman or woman thanking them for their service during a time of year when they could be with their family, but they are protecting us.

It may seem small, but it woul mean so much.

Integrating reading &writing:Print rich environment

I love having words around for my children to read. This as an easy craft I did in the Fall.

1. Get letters from your local craft store.

2. Choose scrapbook paper. 

3. Turn letters over to trace

4. Cut out letter.

5. Use modge podge on the letter and stick paper to the letter.

6. Place a bit of mode lodge on top of the paper. Allow to dry and hang where you would like. 

I have also done this for the girls names. 

Integrating Holidays: Halloween Fun

This time of year is very long for parents, at least for me. Every day I get the question, when is Halloween? In schools they talk about Fall and Halloween for quite a while.

A favorite book to read:

To help with sequencing and comprehension skills, you can:
 enlarge items from the book, color them, lamenate them (for durability), and have your child put them in order of how they arrived in the story.

We read the book then I had her put them in order from what she remembered. After that, we checked the book to see what she got correct.
Once they were all in order, we made the noises of the two shoes going "clomp, clomp" and the other noises as well.

It was a fun activity and one we can revisit again and again. After a while, I am going to see if she can draw the items in order and create her own scarecrow.

Here is a link with tons of Old Lady activities for this book: Afraid of anything


Also fun Fall activities remember Leaf Man from a previous year?

Integrating Culture: Hispanic Heritage Month

From September 15th to October 15th, tht United States celebrates Hispanic Heritage Month. According to Wikipedia: "September 15 was chosen as the starting point for the celebration because it is the anniversary of independence of five Latin American countries: Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua. They all declared independence in 1821. In addition, Mexico, Chile and Belize celebrate their independence days on September 16, September 18, and September 21, respectively."

Hispanic Heritage Month also celebrates the long and important presence of Hispanic Americans in North America, starting with the discovery of America by Spanish conquistadors led by Christopher Columbus on October 12, 1492. While we no longer receive the day off of school for Columbus Day, we do need to recognize that he discovered a land where we know occupy and live.

The contributions of Hispanic and Latino are many and to help guide you on who and the what, here is the government website you can read on what they are focusing on here: Hispanic Heritage

Here are a few books to read:

Here is a website I have sent to my teacher, but there are some names of Latinos you could have your child look up and read about. Scholastic.

Here are some more resources you can use during the last part of this month and all year long to recognize Hispanic and Latino Heritage: Parents Connect.

Integrating History: Constitution Day

Constitution Day, September 17th, 2012

This document is the Supreme Law of the United States and kids in the family should begin learning about what their rights are as US citizens. You can start small with the little ones or go big with the older kids.

Here is a website for a quick list of activities can be found here.

Another great website, Constitution Day, has information on the ratificaion of the Constitution and the Founding Fathers.
Activity:
For the older kids in your family, you could match the Founding Father with one interesting fact about that person. This activity woul take longer than one day.


Books:
Amazon has a great deal on two books I read that helps kids understand the purpose of this document a little more.
David Catrow is slowly becoming my new favorite author.

 You can talk about what rules are and why we have them as you read these books. Of course since it is still the beginning of the year, you can put in place school rules for the house like:
1. No TV on a school night
2. Reading after dinner for 30 minutes
3. We will play a board game as a family one night a week.

Whatever you think will fit your schedule and family needs. The kids will love creating rules for parents as well. Have the older kids write out a constitution for the family and everyone sign it to be placed in the playroom or bathroom of the house.

Recognize this document and how lucky we are to be an American. It is your role as a parent to help create functioning citizens in this country. Start now.