FEBRUARY: Happy Valentine's Day

And so, yes, there is a history to this occasion where our students give gifts, receive gifts, and create crafty gifts all in the name of St. Valentine. But, as tradition holds, February 14th is the day of celebration.

Here are a few crafts and ideas I found online that can be celebrated in the classroom.

Language Arts:
Take some ideas to discuss poetic devices in poetry from ReadWriteThink's Lesson plans.

With Middle, Junior, and Senior High School students you may want to discuss idioms from the story I found online titled Valentine's Day Date where the idioms are underlined and connected to a link that helps describe those idioms.

Get crafty!
The Kid's Fun Review links you to 9 Homemade Valentine Ideas For Kids

This is a fun idea for teachers! Maybe find a way to get your students in a group picture (example below) and have you be the one up close to the camera handing out your hand for the lollipop or a Valentine pencil. It's a fun classroom gift. It will take some camera skill, but it can be done.



The Sweet Tooth suggests Felt Fortune Cookies and Rolo Wraps as a an additional sweet treat.

Art Class:
Students can learn how to draw a rose, maybe create a mosaic of roses (example below).

FEBRUARY: Saint Valentine DID exist

As I child I celebrated February 14th (or sometime around there depending on whether the 14th landed on a weekend) giving out small pieces of candy and a card that came with a box of similar cards I bought at the local neighborhood store. The card would have a message that was grammatically incorrect, or had a pun like "Hogs and Kisses from your favorite Hogger," or an image of my favorite Saturday morning cartoon hugging another Saturday morning cartoon.

And I remember I had to make sure every student in my class, whether or not I liked him or her, got a card because that was the right thing to do.

As an adult it has become the occasion of when dark chocolates go on sale, my favorite color red becomes a fashion staple, and I get all sorts of goodies.

But, I never really understood WHY we actually celebrated St. Valentine's Day.

Many stories and legends go back and forth from Christian and Roman time periods, but leave it to the good ol' History Channel and its website to provide more insight into St. Valentine.

Happy birthday, Mr. Dickens

The BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) website introduces resources that connects students to a biographical animation, a game, and an additional link to read more about the novelist who brought us the story of Mr. Scrooge.

Here's the website that connects you to this helpful resource: Bleak House's Charles John Huffam Dickens 1812-1870

FEBRUARY: Groundhog Day

Apparently, in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania Groundhog Day is a BIG deal. You see, in this town the residents rely on Punxsutawney Phil, the weather forecasting groundhog. According to their town folklore, when Punxsutawney Phil "sees his shadow, there will be six more weeks of winter weather. If he does not see his shadow, there will be an early spring."

Not all states may rely this legend, but to this small town in Pennsylvania has a fun and festive way of honoring it.

Here is a link of lesson plans from the state's Groundhog Day website: Groundhog Day Lesson Plans



Also, consider Fun with Punxsutawney Phil ideas from Technology Rocks Seriously.

FEBRUARY: National Snack Month

As National Snack Month continues, consider activities that encourage product awareness and the reasons why they purchase the snacks that they do.http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has a website called Choose My Plate which includes links about nutrition and health.

Here's a link to Health and Nutrition Information. It includes lesson plans for 6- 11 year olds.

FEBRUARY: National Snack Month

It's National Snack Month! Yum! Yum! Yum! Nom! Nom! Nom!

How do you commemorate such an occasion?

NOTE: Before you serve ANY food in the classroom, be sure to check with your school administration AND your head custodian.

1. You can always serve your students a snack which, for convenience but more expensive, can be anything bite-size and pre-packaged. Older students, like Middle School and High School students, get a kick out of anything worth eating. If you feel like you can spare some money, buy those pre-packaged snacks.

2. Healthier options: Slice apples, oranges, and bananas. Serve raisins, grapes, peanuts (be careful of food allergies), etc. This works better for classes that do not change every hours. You can purchase pre-packed apples, carrots, and celery as well, but that also can get expensive.

3. Crackers. Buy crackers by the bulk and these can easily be shared among students. If you want to get extra crafty, head to lunch tables or outside under a tree and have the students share cheese spread. Cracker recipes can also find healthy recipes.

4. Blogger It's Taylor Made made fruit kabobs for her Yo-Gabba-Gabba children party


5. Buy some bread, peanut butter, jelly, and wah-lah. Use cookie cutters to make their own fun shapes.

Lastly, consider making a classroom consensus. Divide students into the four major food groups: Fruits, Proteins, Dairy, Vegetables, Grains and having each group create a questionnaire that would help create a consensus of popular snacks for each group. Then offer the students an opportunity to vote on one snack that you can serve.



Of course, I imagine doing this lesson if you have an unlimited budget.

JANUARY: "The Lone Ranger" first heard on the radio

In 1933 a "The Lone Ranger" was heard on radio. The program ran for 2,956 episodes and ended in 1955.

Discuss radio plays and how it was a form of entertainment before television, video games, and computers. I found a more detailed lesson to approach this from Melanie Marchand who submitted her lesson plan idea on the website Lesson Plans Page. She suggests this lesson for 10th grade Language Arts or Social Studies: Media-Radio lesson plan.

You may also want to a put a twist on Traci Gardner's lesson plan I found on Read Write Think titled Audio Broadcasts and Podcasts: Oral Storytelling and Dramatization

The Lone Ranger was later broadcasted on television as one of the first television series on television, broadcasting on television in 1949.





Take this opportunity to discuss the difference between what television is like today versus how it was in 1949. Perhaps allow students to research on their own or allow students to critically think about what they know and what they see in the above videos. Create or print a Venn Diagram if necessary.

JANUARY: "The Raven" was published

On January 29, 1845 Edgar Allan Poe's "The Raven" was published for the first time in the "New York Evening Mirror."

Here's a link to "The Raven" from the Poe Museum website. The museum itself is located in Richmond, Virginia and its website includes teacher resources and student resources.

For Grades 6-8, consider using ReadWriteThink's lesson plan: Modeling Reading and Analysis Processes with the Works of Edgar Allan Poe

From Teacher's First, you can have students participate in an interactive reading of "The Raven" where students learn a bit more about alliteration, assonance, internal rhyme, and various vocabulary words. Here's the link to The Rave: The Interactive Study Resource.

National Doughnut Day

I first heard about this day on Facebook when a former student mentioned it on his page. I thought of a number of ideas and thought, with the school-year about to end and Summer around the corner, why not serve students a bit of history and a treat.

National Doughnut Day is not only a day where doughnut shops treat customers to free doughnuts, it was a holiday to recognize the women who served World War I soldiers. The Salvation Army helped to organize this occasion in honoring those women.



Here are few activity ideas:
* Research various doughnut recipes you can create in the classroom and mix the dough in class.

* You can purchase plain doughnuts from your grocery store and provide different toppings the students can use to make their one of a kind doughnuts. Some stores sell a glaze or you can whip up an easy glaze like this one.

* For younger, and perhaps a healthier route, treat student to doughnut shaped cereal.

* Use doughnut shaped cereal to make lanyards or necklace treats by stranding the cereal through a colored yarn or string.

* Read a children's book about doughnuts to your students and have them discuss or create a circle chart about the story. Like Who Needs Donuts? by Mark Alan Stamaty Other books can be found at your library.

For activities that inspire creativity, but without the sugar:

* Create various circle and pie charts catering to the theme of World War I, Women in World War I, and facts about the Salvation Army.

* The Salvation Army does so much to help others, why not create a Doughnut Poster thanking them for what they have done in history and today?

* Students can draw or paint their own doughnut design. Encourage various designs. How cool would it be to eat car-shaped dougnuts, huh?

* Visit the nearest doughnut shop. Krispy Kreme dougnuts is a great location for students to see the doughnut making process. Inside their stores they have bakers and a factory style conveyor belt to display the doughnut making process. Plus, kids get a spiffy hat.



There are all sorts of ways to make learning fun (and edible)!

NOVEMBER: Marc Brown, creator of Arthur

It's November 25th, and it's Marc Brown's birthday, you know, the creator and author of Arthur.

NOVEMBER: Mickey Mouse's Birthday

On November 18, 1928, Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse was born forever changing the face of cartoons. There is so much students can do on Mickey Mouse's birthday, and activities range from pre-school to high school.



Find a story about Mickey Mouse and explore his creation. Find these stories online or go to the Disney Archive to read about Mickey Mouse. TIME magazine posted "A Brief History of Mickey Mouse" that you may also want to consider.

Consider working on a KWL chart as a group, since students may already know some quick facts about Mickey Mouse. Once this is done, students can color a picture of Mickey Mouse and write down a single fact about what they learned about him. Consider buying a coloring book and distribute various images of Mickey Mouse, or you may choose to make a copy of a single image and have students create a background for Mickey Mouse. Don't make this activity just about coloring and writing, find this opportunity to explore character descriptions, history, and the biography of Walt Disney.

For older students, perhaps consider having students look into the biography of Walt Disney. Students can also establish a time line Walt Disney animation of Mickey Mouse, from Steamboat Willie to current exposure like the Disney channel. Interactive time line websites like Timetoast have great potential for activities like this. Plenty of information about Walt Disney is available at this Walt Disney website.



There is so much history, culture, and influence of what came of Walt Disney and Mickey mouse. Take this opportunity to explore it and allow your students to learn a bit about popular culture icon. In the end, treat students to a clip of a Disney film, or play a board like Screenlife games like Scene It? which is known create trivia around movie and television show. They have a Disney version. If anything, use the DVD to help with trivia questions.

NOVEMBER: National "unfriend" Day

Technically National Unfriend Day is not something official, but when a celebrity with his own talk show, who was once on a popular Los Angeles radio station, and is known by face and name, the likes of Jimmy Kimmel can make anything happen.

(Just give it some time before this occasion gets posted on Wikipedia)

For example, he can get the California (soon-out-of-office) State Governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, to (humorously) be part of the Unfriend Day occasion:



How would this occasion be applied to educators?

I suggest to take this time to discuss social networking and the pro and cons of "friending" and "unfriending" people online. This would also be a great opportunity to discuss with your students how we do this outside the social networking world and how that effects people in our society.

Discuss the meaning of friendship and what it means in person and what it means online. For example, my nephew accepted the "friend request" from someone who says is annoying at his school. He explained to me that although this kid is annoying at school, the kid is not harmful and does not disrespect his peers. For those reasons, he accepted the classmate's request.



Address the benefits of social networking, and how people abuse it causing people to "unfriend" others.

Some people get offended when others "delete" people from their social networking profiles. Perhaps create activities of how this would reflect the person who did the deleting and the person who was deleted.

There is so much to cover regarding social networking, and as the internet grows and network connections expands, considering "unfriend" Day. As stated in this CNN.com article:

"Facebook was once the social networking site we chose over MySpace to connect with our real friends; but over the years, many of us have accumulated dozens, if not hundreds, of Facebook friends that are, in fact, not actually our friends."

Something to think about.

OCTOBER: Red Ribbon Week

Often taking place the last week of October, Red Ribbon week is a week long campaign that recognizes and promotes drug-free living, mainly to youth and teens. There are great resources available to parents and teachers to promote this week, here are some of those links and resources:

- National Family Partnership's Lock Your Meds official campaign about keeping prescription drugs out of the hands of youth. Find resources for that campaign here.

- Here is a list of Red Ribbon Activities including themed days like Decoration Day, Information Day, Faith Day
Wear Red Rally Day, Pledge Day, and Recognition Day.

- Red Ribbon Coalition, which also has a brief history to the Red Ribbon Campaign



- Red Ribbon printable worksheets

- I still have my t-shirt from the D.A.R.E. program...

- Get additional information from drugfree.org

- And there's the hip, modern, and interactive site (for the cool kids, but essentially quite informative): Above The Influence (the opening page takes a while to open) or ski on over to the Above The Influence main page.

Have contests:
- Language Arts: Poetry, Short Story, Write a script, write lyrics, create a book jacket for a book you're reading in class: how would one of the characters promote Red-Ribbon week?, rewrite the lyrics to a popular song
- Arts: Create a poster promoting healthy and drug-free living, perform a skit, perform a song (hip-hop, country, rock and roll, etc.), collaborate on a school mural (of course, this would take LOTS of planning), paint panels to display at school (maybe give each grade or class a canvas they can paint) or take the transcripts from the Above The Influence Ads and re-enact them.
- Physical Education or Recess: Have a free choice activity promoting that all can have fun without drugs, play with other other classes or grades and have an annual competition, obstacle courses, a drug-free run of who can run/skip/hop/jump the most
- History: Create an American History timeline about programs, laws, and people who promotes drug-free changes. Timetoast is a great interactive timeline maker.
- Math: Have students guess the measurement of a red ribbon

I'm stuck on more ideas, but when I get there, I'll post them.

OCTOBER: Ben & Jerry's Spooky Halloween Site

Though Halloween is right around the corner, I have to admit that Ben & Jerry serves up a cold, fun, (and spooky) Halloween website.

* Flavor Graveyard (RIP Rainforest Crunch)
* Create a scarecrow
* Coloring Pages
* Some fun Halloween history (Ben & Jerry style)

It is a fun, click-anywhere type of website, but if you have children or teens (even adults) who get a little scared of the squeaky sounds of a haunted house, or the surprises behind every click, perhaps they are better off spookily perusing a different Halloween site.

Happy Spooky-ween!

OCTOBER 5: World Teacher Day

"World Teachers’ Day, held annually on 5 October since 1994, commemorates the anniversary of the signing in 1966 of the UNESCO/ILO Recommendation Concerning the Status of Teachers. It is an occasion to celebrate the essential role of teachers in providing quality education at all levels." - United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)

OCTOBER: National Make A Difference Day

USA Weekend Magazine reminds us to celebrate National Make a Difference Day! It is "the largest national day of helping others, is sponsored annually by USA WEEKEND Magazine and its 800 carrier newspapers. Make A Difference Day takes place on the 4th Saturday in October each year."

More information can be found at their website for suggestions and ways to submit a project for an award: Make A Difference Day: Getting started

Other headlines include:
- Make a Difference Day: Ohio
- Make a Difference Day: Whatcom Volunteer Center
- Make a Difference Day: Hands On Network

You can also log-on to VolunteerMatch.org for volunteer opportunities.

OCTOBER: Rideshare Week

Though Rideshare Week is recognizable in California, that does not mean other states can not commemorate this occasion too! Rideshare Week encourages the use of smart transportation, whether it is carpooling to work, a group of friend's riding their bikes to school, or simply taking a stroll to the park rather than driving there.



The Rideshare.com Impact Page has plenty of facts and data about commuting in California as well as additional information to:
- Commuting Facts
- Global Warming
- Fossil Fuel Consumption
- Environmental Impact of Human Activities
- Caring for Our Environment

Perhaps your students can discover their neighborhood's "walkscore" and discuss ways to improve the score or the things your students can do in their community to make proper use of the transportation around them.

October: National Pasta Month

- Review some Pasta Fun Facts
- Use Your Noodle: 6 Crafts to Make with Pasta
- Pasta Crafts
- National Pasta Association: Kid's Corner

Just a few suggestions...

October: Banned Book Week ends

Banned Book week begins at the end of September and ends the first week of October:

September: Yabba, Dabba, Dooo!

Before they were identified in a popular song among our youth ("Google" Young Money performing Bed Rock), The Flintstones was quite a family.

It seems September 30, 2010 marks the 50th Anniversary of Hannah-Barbera's The Flintstones family.



Try watching an episode of The Flintstones and compare it to animated televisions families like The Simpsons, The Jetsons, and The Proud Family

Discuss family values.

Compare and describe the animation.

Explore characterization.

And, if you're thinking about using the 1994 The Flinstone's movie, uhm, may I suggest just viewing this clip:



Okay...that's all I have for now. Remember, Yabba-Dabbah-Dooo!