Creative Teaching » Holidays

March 2011: Ideas for Every Day of the Month!

Jo — Wed, 23 Feb 2011 00:21:51 +0000

March 2011

These calendars are designed to give you tons of information about March 2011. I have left weekends out so you can enjoy your family .

March themed student-made books, games, and activities will be on my next blog.

March Calendars:

Holidaysmart
Brownielocks
Fun-odd-march-holidays-to-celebrate-with-kids
About.com
The People History (to change the date, click on the calendar on left side of the page)
Info please

March 1st: (Tuesday)

(National Pancake Day) Can you say free pancakes? Yum!
IHOP Pancake Day
Nebraska (1867) became a state on this day!
Apples 4 the teacher
Ohio (1803) became a state on this day too!
Ohio kids

March 2nd: (Wednesday)

(National Read Across America Day)
Dr. Seuss, Theodore Geisel, was born in 190
Seussville
Apples 4 the teacher

March 3rd: (Thursday)

(Japanese Doll Festival for girls)
Knowledgehound japanese holidays
Florida became a state in 1845!
Leg. state fl .us kids

March 4th: (Friday)

Vermont became a state, 1791
Enchantedlearning.com

March 7th: (Monday)

Alexander Graham Bell received a patent for the telephone.
Scienceprojectideasforkids

March 8th: (Tuesday)

Mardi Gras/ Fat Tuesday
activity village mardi gras

March 9th: (Wednesday)

Learn What Your Name Means
Zelo.com

March 10th: (Thursday)

March 11th: (Friday)

Johnny Appleseed died in1844
Kinderart/Johnnyappleseed

March 13th: Sunday) Daylight Savings Time

March 14th: (Monday)

Plant a flower! Yeah Spring!!!
Primary games/flowers

March 15th: (Tuesday)

In 1820 Maine became a state!
http://www.apples4theteacher.com/usa-states/maine/

March 16th: (Wednesday)

Everything You Do Is Right Day
100-ways-to-praise-your-child/

March 17th: (Thursday)

St. Patrick’s Day
Family crafts
Kaboose

March 18th: (Friday)

Birthday of Sparky the Fire Dog (Official mascot of the National Fire Protection Association)
Sparky

March 20th: (Sunday) First Day of Spring

March 21st: (Monday)

Spring games and activities

Family fun

March 22nd: (Tuesday)

Goof off with the family day! (or a part of it if you don’t have the whole day!)
Bing.com/entertainment/games

March 23th: (Wednesday)

Patrick Henry’s “Give me liberty or give me death” Speech, 1775
Almanack/people

March 24th: (Thursday)

Harry Houdini (magician) born, in1874
Library of simple tricks

March 25th: (Friday)

National Family Day
Angelfire 100things

March 28th: (Monday)

March in national kite month
National kite month

March 29th: (Tuesday)

March is National Craft Month
Activity village

March 30th: (Wednesday)

Vincent Van Gogh born, 1853
Van+gogh+paintings

March 31th: (Thursday)

National Sing With Your Child Month
I love these sites! Have fun singing with your kids!
Myrelationshipsupermarket
Kididdles.com/lyrics/allsongs

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Types of Poems

Jo — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 04:40:32 +0000

I was trying to figure out what kinds of poems to write for personal Christmas gifts, so I compiled a list of different kinds of poems. I am going to use this blog entry throughout the year as my son writes more poetry.

Hope these sites help you as they have helped me!

Types of Poetry This site gives you poems in ABC order with definitions and examples for each kind of poem!
Mrs. Mitchell’s Virtual School: Different Types of Poems for Kids Poetry for kids with great definitions and super examples!
Poem of Quotes.com: 51 Types of Poetry In ABC order with definitions
Shadow Poetry: Types of Poetry More poems in ABC order and examples
Buzzle.com: Types of Poetry Poems in ABC order with definitions
ReadWriteThink: Student Materials – Diamante Poems I LOVE this site!! It walks you through how to write a diamante poem in a fun way!
Three great sites that show examples of concrete, or shape, poems:
- Oregon State University: Court (Smith)’s Concrete Creation
- Literacy Rules!: Concrete Poems
- ReadWriteThink: Student Materials – Shape Poems This Web site walks you through how to write a shape poem!
Types of Poetry: Ballad Poems Defines ballad poems
Giggle Poetry: How to Write a Limerick Shows you how to write funny limerick poems
ReadWriteThink: Student Materials – Acrostic Poems Walks you through how to write an acrostic poem
Hyperborea: Free-Verse Poems Examples of free-verse poems

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Books to Make with Children

Jo — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 06:02:51 +0000

November includes many special days, including “Children’s Book Week”. There are tons of different types of books you can make with your children. Creating a variety of books with your children makes writing much more interesting and motivational for them!

The following are different types of “books” you can make with children:

Pop-up books
Shape books
Accordion books
Envelope books
Peek-a-Boo books
- ThinkQuest: Make Your Own Peek A Boo Book
- education.com: Make Peek-a-Boo Books
Mini books
Flip books
- Robert Truscio: Drawings that Move – Flip Books
Big books
- I use an opaque projector and butcher paper to enlarge the shape I want.
- I color the shape and laminate it.
- Finally, I cut out the shape and use it to trace blank sheets for children to write and draw on.
- Examples of big books that I have made (photos to come!):
  - Big Book of Planets
  - Big Book of Body Parts (trace each child on butcher paper)
Peek-over books
- Simply glue a picture or photo on top of a folded sheet of paper.
Theme books
- These are great for nonfiction and unit studies such as the presidential election and countries.
Journals
- Please see my blog, “Types of Journal Writing“.

Here is a list of useful resources for making books with children:

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Stickers and Story Starter Webs

Jo — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 07:26:41 +0000

Usually l let children choose the setting, characters, and the “who, what, where, why, and when” before they begin a creative story. However, this time I decided to try something different—I chose the prewriting “set-up” for the story, but I used a couple of stickers in place of words.

The result was an instant hit! The child writing this story decided immediately that the witch, Susie, was going to be thrown a surprise party by a family of spiders for her 115th birthday. He drafted a story outline (this story is going to be five paragraphs) and he began drafting the first paragraph with gusto! I was so happy to hear him giggling to himself as he began writing the story.

I will share other ways that stickers have helped “jump-start” children’s writings in blogs to come. May you all enjoy reading your children’s creative stories!

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Pumpkin Theme Unit

Jo — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 04:08:27 +0000

My son is going to make a pumpkin-shaped book with the following “chapters”:

Fun pumpkin facts
Pumpkin reading and comprehension
Pumpkin creative writing (with child-drawn pictures)
Pumpkin recipes
Pumpkin arts/crafts (child-made)

The following Web sites will be used:

Child-Made Pumpkin Fact Books
Wanted…Someone is Stealing all of the Pumpkins!
Farm Bureau Kids: Pumpkin Fun Facts
Halloween Online: Unusual Pumpkin Facts
Halloween Online: Pumpkin Recipes
Merced County Office of Education: Pumpkins (PDF file) (I love this Web site…it has info on pumpkins plus all kinds of neat ideas!)
Kids’ Turn Central: 101 Things to do with a Pumpkin

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Child-Made Pumpkin Fact Books

Jo — Sat, 13 Sep 2008 17:12:54 +0000

The purpose of child-made pumpkin fact books is for your children to have a reference book about pumpkins that they can reread in the future. I find that nonfiction child-made books are very popular during silent reading time. They are also a huge hit when they take them home to read to parents, friends, grandparents, etc.

My children titled their books, “All About Pumpkins” and created their own nonfiction books about pumpkins.
Sometimes we made pop-up books (see Simple Pop-Ups You Can Make!) or pumpkin-shaped books (see Shapebook: Halloween – Pumpkin) for the covers.
If I wanted all of the covers to look the same, and the covers were elaborate and time-consuming, I asked one of my volunteer moms or dads to put together the book covers for me. I would provide the parents with the necessary materials and they were glad to glue on googly eyes or cut out shapes while they watched TV. God bless parent helpers!!
You may want to brainstorm other titles with your children and let them pick the title they like the best for their book.
Make a book with your children on “How Pumpkins Grow”.
List ways that people use pumpkins.
Here are a few Web sites to help children find pumpkin facts:

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Handmade Presidential Election Big Book

Jo — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 20:01:44 +0000

I’ve decided to turn my interactive bulletin board into an ongoing “Handmade Presidential Election Big Book”. This book includes pictures of the candidates and their running mates, mini-books on how presidents are elected, information on the US Constitution, the history of the US, “hands-on” games about past presidents, and much more. The book will not be complete until after the election because we have a section under past presidents called, “Who Will be Next?”

The worksheets my 5th grader completes about the election will also go into this big book. In the end, it will be an excellent reference book for my child to refer back to when needed. (I hate it when worksheets are tossed in the garbage!)

I’m using my scrapbooking skills to make it look a little more interesting. My son already loves the way his big book looks, and it is motivating him to learn more about presidents and current events.

***Update *** Here is my Political Election Theme Outline.

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Election Day Theme Unit

Jo — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 18:56:08 +0000

I’m creating an Election Day theme unit for my fifth-grade son. I found an outstanding Web site that you need to check out if you’re also teaching presidential elections. The Web site is Electing a President for Kids.

I’m also creating an interactive bulletin board that has a book about the presidents (which is something that my child put together last year), a timeline about the history of our country, and other books about electing a president.

If anyone has other ideas for an Election Day theme unit I’d love to hear from you!

***Update*** I’ve decided to turn my interactive bulletin board into an ongoing “Handmade Presidential Election Big Book”.

***Update 2*** Here is my Political Election Theme Outline.

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