5/27/2014 Happy Birthday Rachel Carson!

Happy Birthday Rachel Carson!

Environmental activist, marine biologist, and author Rachel Carson was born on May 27, 1907 in Springfield, PA.  She is best known as the author of Silent Spring. This 1962 book brought public attention to the the harmful impact of pesticides on the environment.  Rachel Carson’s work had an important impact on the American environmental movement, which led to the creation of the United States Environmental Protection Agency.  Carson was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Jimmy Carter in 1980.  

My original reader Do Your Part to Save The Earth is a great addition to your lesson plan this week, or whenever your class is studying recycling and conserving resources! This third-grade level N reader combines reading activities and science concepts.Another great educational resource for Arbor Day is my original play, Trees – A Joy Forever! The play is written for 2nd - 5th grades and has 11 parts. The play focuses on J. Sterling Morton, the founder of Arbor Day. The play tells the history of Morton’s contribution to establishing Arbor Day as a national holiday through the eyes of the statue (J. Sterling Morton). The statue comes alive when two children walk through Arbor Lodge Historical Park in Nebraska.  This is an original play written for use as readers’ theater, as a part of balanced literacy (Read-Aloud, Shared and Performance Reading or Guided Reading), or for an actual play production.   My Nature & Science books, including Leveled Book set Kindergarten Levels A/B, Louis Pasteur - Exploring Pasteurization and Vaccines, and The Legend of the Unicorn: The Narwhal.

5/20/2014 Happy Birthday, Dolley Madison!

Happy Birthday, Dolley Madison!

The popular wife of James Madison, the fourth U.S. President, was born Dolley (or Dolly) Payne on a Quaker settlement in Guilford County, North Carolina May 20, 1768.  Dolley became a widow at age 25 when her first husband John Todd died in 1793. Aaron Burr, the third Vice-President of the United States introduced Dolley to James Madison and they were married They were married on September 15, 1794.

Dolley was a popular hostess in the White House.  In 1814, as everyone in the White House was fleeing an invading British Army Dolly ordered an important portrait of George Washington to be rescued.  

My  five-page Level O reader The Founding Fathers is a wonderful resource to bring information about life in the American colonies about the founders of the United States into your classroom.  The book comes with three accompanying worksheets to help reinforce literacy skills involving reading comprehension, language, spelling, and writing

My leveled book series Famous Women in History: Leveled Books for Grades 2 - 4 is a great source to learn about some other impressive women like Dolley Madison with your class. This collection of leveled readers for second through fourth grade features stories about eight women and their contributions to history.

5/19/2014 Fun with Math: The Invention of the Rubik's Cube

“If you are curious, you’ll find the puzzles around you. If you are determined, you will solve them.”

Erno Rubik

40 years ago today, the colorful puzzle known as the Rubik’s Cube was invented.  The Rubik’s Cube is named for its inventor, the Hungarian sculptor and  architecture professor Ernő Rubik.  It was originally patented in Hungary as the “Magic Cube.”  The cubes were first sold in toy shops in Hungary in 1977, and worldwide in 1980.  

The Rubik’s Cube is a fun way to explore numbers.  The original Rubik's Cube is 3x3x3, it has eight corners and twelve edges. There are 40,320 ways to arrange the corner cubes, and that is just the corner cubes!  In all, there are about 43 quintillion starting points. Dutch teenager Mats Valk is the current world record holder for the fastest solving of the puzzle at 5.55 seconds (see video above)

Your students can play with an online version of the Groovix Cube on display in Liberty Science Center in Jersey City, N.J as part of their “Beyond Rubik’s Cube” exhibition.   You can teach your students more about different sizes of cubes with my second-grade level L reader reader Cubes - Alike or Different. It is a great option to combine reading, language, and math skills!

5/15/2014 Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin

Do your students love exploring science and nature?

A recent Google doodle honored the birthday of biochemist Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin.  Hodgkin is famous for her important achievements in protein crystallography, for which she won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1964.  Before her remarkable accomplishments as an adult, Hodgkin was a curious girl who loved exploring the natural world in England, the Middle East, and Northern Africa.  

Dorothy Mary Crowfoot was born May 12, 1910 in Cairo, Egypt, to English parents.  Her mother Grace Mary Crowfoot (Hood) was an archaeologist and scholar of ancient textiles, and her father John Winter Crowfoot was an archaeologist and classical scholar.  Dorothy was the oldest of her parents four daughters.  Her mother encouraged Dorothy’s curiosity and interest in science as a girl.  According to the Chemical Heritage Foundation, as a child “She enjoyed using a portable mineral analysis kit to analyze pebbles that she and her sister found in the stream running through the family garden in Khartoum, Sudan.”

When she was only 24, Hodgkin was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis.  This disease would eventually lead to crippling deformities in her hands and feet but she continued to remain active as a scientist and peace activist.  She improved the techniques of X-Ray crystallography, and used X-rays to determine the structures of important biomolecules, including penicillin, vitamin B12, and insulin.

My Nature & Science books, including Leveled Book set Kindergarten Levels A/B, Louis Pasteur - Exploring Pasteurization and Vaccines, and The Legend of the Unicorn: The Narwhal.

5/7/2014 Looking Ahead to Summer, and What is Juneteenth?

The school year may be winding down in many classrooms, but for a lot of students and educators, summer means summer school!

Prepare for the summer months ahead with my 4th grade Level Q reader What is Juneteenth? now a FREE download to assess the quality of my work.  This reader tells the story of Juneteenth - a day celebrated at the end of the Civil War. From this story, your students will learn about the oldest known celebration of the ending of slavery in the U.S.

The book comes with companion worksheets which reinforce literacy skills involving reading, language, spelling and writing. Specific concepts, skills and vocabulary targeted in the book are listed on the first page of the story.

You can also learn more about Juneteenth and find more free Juneteenth Education resources from the National Juneteenth Observation Foundation

5/6/2014 Teachers Pay Teachers 2-Day Sale!

Teachers Pay Teachers is Having a sale May 6-7, and so is Haven Hill Learning!  Visit my Teachers Pay Teachers store to take 20% off all books and plays while the sale is happening!

5/4/2014 Almost Time For Cinco de Mayo!

Happy Cinco de Mayo!

Tomorrow, May 5th, is Cinco de Mayo, a Mexican and Mexican-American holiday!  In the Mexican state of Puebla, this day is used to celebrate the Mexican army's unexpected victory against the French at the Battle of Puebla on May 5, 1862.  
 In Mexico, this holiday is known as El Día de la Batalla de Puebla, “The Day of the Battle of Puebla.”

Many towns and cities across Mexico, Texas, and other U.S. states have festivals to celebrate Chico de Mayo on May 5 each year. With my 4th grade level R reader Cinco de Mayo - A Mexican Holiday your class will learn the history behind the celebration. It is great to accompany a social studies unit on the states or Mexico!  The book comes with companion worksheets which reinforce literacy skills involving reading, language, spelling and writing. Specific concepts, skills and vocabulary targeted in the book are listed on the first page of the story.