Category: Holidays
Halloween Projects, Websites, Apps, and a Costume
Three holidays are fast-approaching–Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. If you’re a teacher, that means lots of tie-ins to make school festive and relevant to students.
Here are ideas for Halloween projects, lesson plans, websites, and apps:
Projects
- ASCII Art–Computer Art for Everyone (a pumpkin–see inset)
- Lesson Plan: Halloween letter for grades 2-5
- Make a Holiday Card
- A Holiday Card (with Publisher)
- A Holiday flier
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Have a Happy, Productive Labor Day!
Labor Day is annually held on the first Monday of September (this year, September 2nd). It was originally organized to celebrate various labor associations’ strengths of and contributions to the United States economy. It is largely a day of rest in modern times. Many people mark Labor Day as the end of the summer season and a last chance to make trips or hold outdoor events.
Labor Day is a US holiday dedicated to workers across the country. The public holiday always falls on the first Monday in September. The first federal observation of the holiday occurred in 1894 however the first Labor Day observed in a state was in Oregon in 1887.
Today, I honor the warrior, his job to fight for America’s way of life, invisibly and heroically, across the globe.
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Happy Fourth of July!
It’s America’s birthday and I’m celebrating. I have an Army son heading off overseas and a Navy daughter doing her thing stateside. I’m toasting both of them today and all of America’s warriors, God be with you.
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15 Memorial Day Websites for Students
Memorial Day (May 29, 2017) is the time we remember all of those soldiers (and anyone in the Armed Forces) who gave their lives in the defense of American freedom. In war and peace, they made the ultimate sacrifice, and because of them we are privileged to live the American Dream.
Once a year, we honor them, their sacrifice, and those they left behind. Here are some activities to help students understand the import of this day:
- Folding the American flag
- In Flanders Field--poem
- Memorial Day Messages, Speeches, Oaths, Poems, Anthems, and images
- Memorial Day Poems
- Memorial Day Poetry–poems
- Memorial Day Prayer
- Memorial Day puzzle I
- Memorial Day Puzzle II
- Memorial Day DigitPuzzle
- Memorial Day Quiz
- Memorial Day Word Search
- Primary source recollections of War
- Quotes about Memorial Day/Wars
- Remember our Warriors
- Who you are remembering–Americans killed in action
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May–Military Appreciation Month–God Bless Our Soldiers
As many of you know, I have a daughter in the Navy and a son in the Army. I love them both and live every day worried. But through it all, I appreciate what they are doing to make America what so many need it to be.
I love America. I love our military. I love my daughter and son.
You don’t have to watch all of these. I got carried away on YouTube. I just couldn’t pick a favorite…
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9qqPqHGX7q4]
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2UG5YoHcCAY]
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IwoXmXA8BvY]
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ahHPRFJinZM]
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m3MX2ha8QAQ]
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a4AUp5EzZ4M?list=PLZC5ws6GCJFk3S37RGq2PuMVYFuhsOL8V]
And the ever-favorite (17 million views):
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20 Great Websites and Apps for Earth Day
April 22nd is Earth Day. Celebrate it with your students by letting them visit these websites:
- Breathing earth– the environment
- Breathing Earth YouTube Video–of CO2 use, population changes, and more
- Conservation Game
- Earth Day—NASA Ocean Currents
- Earth Day Printables
- Eco-friendly house
- Ecotourism Simulation–for grades 4 and above
- EekoWorld
- Footprint calculator
- History of Earth Day–lots of reading
- My Garbology
- Starfall — Every Day is Earth Day
- Storyboard That! Earth Day lesson plans
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15 Easter Sites For Students
Many Christians celebrate Jesus Christ’s resurrection on Easter Sunday. The date depends on the ecclesiastical approximation of the March equinox. This year, it’s April 16, 2017.
Here are some websites your students will love:
- Easter color-me (for Kindergarten/first grade)
- Easter Color Me to print or import to drawing program
- Easter games II
- Easter games III
- Easter games IV
- Easter poems and songs (to play online)
- Easter Puppies–video
- Easter puzzles and games
- Easter songs for kids
- Easter story--the Easter Egg–video
- Easter Word hunt (Starfall)
Here are four sites that work well with iPads:
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18 St. Patrick’s Day Sites For Students
Getting ready for St. Patrick’s Day? Try these fun activities:
- Color the shamrock
- Color the Pot-o-gold
- Color the leprechaun
- Puzzle–St. Pat’s Puzzle
- Puzzle–St. Pat’s puzzle II
- Puzzle–St. Pat’s drag-and-drop puzzle
- Puzzle–St. Pat’s slide puzzle
- Puzzles and games
- St. Pat’s math
- St. Patrick’s Day history–video
- St. Pat’s Day songs–video
- Tic tac toe
- Webquest for St. Patrick’s Day I
- Webquest II
- Wordsearch
If you have iPads at your school, try these three apps:
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Celebrate Pi Day in Your Class
I posted this last year, but it’s still valid. One addition: new activities down toward the bottom of the post.
Pi Day is an annual celebration commemorating the mathematical constant π (pi). Pi Day is observed on March 14 since 3, 1, and 4 are the three most significant digits of π in the decimal form. Daniel Tammet, a high-functioning autistic savant, holds the European record for reciting pi from memory to 22,514 digits in five hours and nine minutes.
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What’s a Digipuzzle?
Netherlands-based Digipuzzle is an online educational resource that offers hundreds of G-rated learning games for younger audiences, many in both Spanish and English. Topics include math, animals, typing, geography, spelling, letter recognition, holidays, seasons, dinosaurs, USA, other games, and more. Many of these are divided into subcategories — for example: Math includes games and counting, fractions, addition, subtraction, and multiplication. Digipuzzle even offers holiday games. The site is easy to navigate, fun to use, and completely free. It is the labor of love from Marcel van de Wouw. It includes not only lots of themed puzzles, but Sudoku, line puzzles, search puzzles, dot-to-dot, tangrams, mosaics, and more.
You can use Digipuzzle on the web or as a mobile app.
Pros
Each game includes a sidebar with easy-to-understand icons that answer questions, access settings, and click you through available games.
Each game can be played at the level a student is comfortable — easy, normal, or hard — and can include audio or silent.