Book Club Holiday Challenge

Our Book Club’s Holiday Challenge was such fun! The club divided into teams to complete in activities with a holiday theme. One activity required kids to move a Christmas cookie from their forehead to their mouth without using their hands. Lots of interesting faces on this one! Each team got involved with the Decorate-a-tree event in which one team member became the “tree” while all the other teammates decorated them. Pin the nose on Rudolph became a pretty heated event when they debated who actually was the closest. Holiday cup stacker required students to stack as many cups as possible in a pyramid in a minute. Ring the Christmas wreath required the kids to throw as many Christmas ornament balls through a Christmas wreath as possible in one minute. The Elephant Christmas walk required kids to place a pair of tights on their head and knock over as many Christmas cups lined up on the floor as possible in a minute.

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February 20th is Presidents Day

Presidents Day is celebrated on the third Monday in February and falls this year on the 20th.  Listed below are comprehensive online resources for Presidents Day.  Included in the sites are lesson plans, PowerPoint presentations, Webquests, SmartBoard resources, crafts, clip art, research information, digital images, timelines, and much more.

History.com

Teacher Vision

Education World

Blackwell’s Best

Teacher’s Guide

Best Teacher Site

Quiz

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Memorial Day – May 25th

Memorial Day is much more than a three-day weekend to mark the beginning of summer. To many people, especially the nation’s thousands of combat veterans, this day, which has a history stretching back all the way to the Civil War, is an important reminder of those who died in the service of their country.  Originally known as Decoration Day, it was established in 1868 to commemorate the dead from the Civil War.  Over the years it came to serve as a day to remember all U.S. men and women killed or missing in action in all wars.

History
Comprehensive Memorial Day Page
Activities

Great Books for Memorial Day

Don’t you know there’s a war on? by James Stevenson
A Wall of Names: The Story of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial by Judy Donnelly
Sunrise over Fallujah by Walter Dean Myers
Let Their Spirits Dance by Stella Pope Duarte
The Wall by Eve Bunting
My Brother Sam is Dead by James Lincoln Collier
Rifles for Watie by Harold Keith
The Fighting Ground by Avi
The Journal of Patrick Seamus Flaherty: United States Marine Corps, Khe Sanh, Vietnam, 1968 by Ellen Emerson White

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Happy Cinco de Mayo – May 5th

Cinco de Mayo is the celebration of the courage of the Mexican people during the battle (La Batalla de Puebla) on May 5th, 1862 where 4,500 Mexican soldiers defeated the Mexican traitors (exiled Mexican Conservatives) and French army of 6,500 at Puebla, Mexico.

Cinco de Mayo is not an American Holiday but it is celebrated on a much larger scale by Chicanos in the U.S. than in Mexico. This may be true because:

• If it had not been for the victory, France would have aided the South in the American Civil War and this would have an impact on the war.
• Chicanos celebrate this day in appreciation of its cultural and historical significance for the U.S.
• Considered to be a Chicano hero, General Ignacio Zaragosa was born in Texas when it was still part of México.

Today this holiday is a celebration of Mexican culture, food, music, and beverages that are unique to Mexico.

History

Activities

I have placed many applicable titles in a public resource list in Destiny, our library catalog.  To access this list, go to Destiny and click on Resource Lists on the left-hand side of the page.  Click the Public Lists tab and then click Mexico.

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Mother’s Day – May 10th

“Don’t put that in your mouth, you don’t know where it’s been.”  “Make sure you have on clean underwear; you never know if you might be in an accident.”  “Don’t play with that, you will put your eye out.”  I’m sure everyone has heard these phrases before and it was probably your mother who gave you this great advice.  Mother’s Day is a time of commemoration and celebration for Mom. It is a time of breakfast in bed, family gatherings, and crayon scribbled “I Love You’s.”  Take time this week to tell your mother how much she means to you.

History
Activities
All Things Mother’s Day

Great Books for Mother’s Day

Laura Charlotte by Kathryn Galbraith
Are You My Mother? by P.D. Eastman
Before I Was Your Mother by Kathryn Lasky
Love You Forever by Robert Munsch

Trivia about Mothers…

• There are 84 million moms in the U.S.
• The odds of a woman delivering twins are 1-in-33. Her odds of having triplets are approximately 1-in-539.
• August is the most popular month in which to have a baby.
• About 4 million women will have babies this year.
• The median age of a woman giving birth for the first time in the U.S. is 24.8.
• Daughters keep in closer contact with their mothers than do sons. (Pew Research)
• There are more phone calls made on Mother’s Day than on any other day of the year, (Pew Research)
  
• Nearly 80 percent of Americans will buy a card for mom this year, making Mother’s Day the third-largest card-selling holiday. (American Greetings)
• Mother’s Day is the busiest day of the year for restaurants.

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April Fools’ Day

April Fools’ Day falls on a Wednesday this year.  Are you interested in the top 100 April Fools’ Day hoaxes of all time?  Check out the links below and be careful not to get pranked.  😮

Museum of Hoaxes

Origin and History

Activites and Jokes

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