Snowtober - How crazy is this?

We got just a mushy coating and I am glad we are "somewhat" along the coast! 

We will have to shove this slush off the drive though or we are going to bust out the ice skates!

Morse Code Day

April 27th is Morse Code Day; this day remembers the birthday of Samuel Morse, inventor of the Morse code. For this reason every year we celebrate Morse Code Day on 27th April, so celebrate this day with very gloriously and send some messages of love and friendship through various morse code to all you know and love also make the day memorable with your favorite site rumela.

WE LOVE ALL CODES - KM is always looking at different types of codes and runic scripts so this will be right up her alley! Here are some great ways to integrate this into your day -

• Education World - decipher morse code lesson plan
• How to Learn Morse Code - Free course
• Morse Code Messaging - using things around the house
• Morse Code Translator
  
• Code Listening Tool

I will let you know later how we made out!


UPDATE:
So we had a VERY busy day, but we did get a chance this afternoon to talk about Samuel Morse while we were in the car and we discussed what Morse Code was/is used for and KM had some fun decoding things, then we got home and she went to google something and saw that the google logo was in morse code today as well - very neat!
We then used the walkie talkies and tried to get code things to one another -
I must say that she was much better at it than I was!


This will be my last "holiday posting" until the fall as we are slowing our studies down a bit and I have just not been really great about getting to them - so we are gonna take a break from and maybe do holiday weeks in the fall - you would be amazed at how many things are celebrated each week!!! Hope you have enjoyed!

Talk like...

and say Happy Birthday to him while you are at it!!

Today would have been Shakespeare's 445th Birthday and Chicago Shakespeare's Theater is encouraging everyone to Talk like Shakespeare! They have some great links and downloadable files that can get you started.

We went to the library last night and scrambled together some HBO animated videos including The Tempest and The Twelfth Night. We also grabbed some books on Shakespeare's life and his work at the Globe Theater.

I also thought it would be the perfect day to unveil some of the photos from KM's debut performance as Hermia in Midsummer's Night Dream -

Here she is in the garden scene calling Lysander.

Here she is telling her secret to Helena.

Here she is awakening in the garden.
Here is she is in the fairy forest after the perfomance..

and again with SR.

They did such a wonderful job that the museum has asked them to do a benefit performance to raise funds and of course the kids are so grateful to be able to give back to such a wonderful and generous organization!

I shalt give thine an update on our progress in our Shakespearean endeavors no later than morrow!
Fare ye well!

Earth Day

Here are some great links to get you thinking a little more green today:

• Kaboose's list of various links for today
• Planet Pals has a ton of resources
• Lesson plans page - earth day pages
• Teacher Planet: Earth Day Theme
• Federal Resource for Education Excellence - Climate Change Resources

Will have an update this evening with how we spent our earth day!

We actually got very little "Earth Day" related things done today - you see our Public Schools are on vacation this week and we here at GCK are not, but KM had been VERY social on Monday and Tuesday so she needed to buckle down today before her aunt - SR - came over for a sleepover and won't be leaving until late tomorrow (Thur) afternoon. Which left really only today and Friday (at which time we will also have SC) to get her work for the whole week done before her VERY BESTEST BEST Friends from Maine come for their visit this weekend!!! So though we did talk about the fact that it was Earth day, we really didn't do anything extra special, it was also really really rainy outside, but I was thinking that maybe tomorrow I will get the girls out there to do something -

oh but wait to tomorrow is an extra extra special day...
you will have to wait to see!

National High Five Day

National High Five Day falls on the third Thursday of April each year. The holiday originated at the University of Virginia in 2002, and has since spread across the nation, and around the globe.

It’s easy to get caught up in the hype surrounding National High Five Day. If you find yourself getting carried away, it is best to simply extend your outstretched hand to the next stranger who walks by, and repeat until the High Five is reciprocated. Then move on. Repeat. - copied from official site

Check out the documentary on this phenomenon HERE!

Metric System Day

The metric system just makes so much more sense to me and I truly don't understand why it is not used as the standard measurement here in the US, but hey what can we do today but celebrate this common sense system!!!

Here are our links for today -

• Great explanation of the metric system
• Various worksheet and other info on metric system
• Metric System Rap - I am not making this one up!
  
• List of sites for the kiddos to explore
• Kids Corner - list of conversions

I will update you later with what we did to get more metric!


----OUR DAY JUST GOT AWAY FROM US!!! CJ was home for the day because they had an outside job and it was TOOOO wet! This ALWAYS throws things off to begin with, but we also had errands to do, costumes to get in order and a new history unit to do. KM did look over some of the metric links on her own this morning though and her favorite was the National Institute of Standards and Technology - HERE and when she printed out the Metric Pyramid it seemed to all make sense to her! Maybe we can take some time later in the week to take a look at some of the other sites!!! Let me know what you guys got done and had fun with!!!

International Children's Book Day

Since 1967, on or around Hans Christian Andersen's birthday, 2 April, International Children's Book Day (ICBD) is celebrated to inspire a love of reading and to call attention to children's books.

Here are some great sites that we will be looking into today -

• International Children's Digital Library
• Article on Hans Christian Andersen and his Fairy Tales
• Digital versions of Hans Christian Andersen's story
• Andersen's Fairy Tales
• Of course we had to track him down on one of SC's favorite sites Story Nory
• Great Resources from British Library
• Read Write Think - activities

Hans Christen Andersen stories are great for progymnasmata writing activities - which is the method that we have been implementing for KM and she has been having great success with it. Here is another article on it - here.

UPDATE - the day just got away from and after NUMEROUS phone calls, we didn't get a chance to get as much of this stuff done as we had hoped, but hey there is always next year right!!! While I was on the phone KM did spend a good deal of time on the Andersen's Fairy Tales site and played the Princess Pea Shooter game for a while - I think she liked watching her get struck by lightning the most!

Did you use of any of the resources - let me know if you did and how things turned out!

Ostara Blessings to All - updated

Ostara celebrates the Goddess of Renewal. The spring equinox brings renewal in so many forms. It is time to get our houses and yards in order so that we can enjoy the warm weather to come!

• Great introduction to Ostara
• Tackling Spring Cleaning
• eHow has a great list of suggestions
• Family Fun has a ton of spring crafts
• Enchanted learning has some cool activities and worksheets

If you have anymore to share - please do we will be working on spring things all week around here!!!

EVENING UPDATE ~~~~
We had an extremely productive day!!!
I collect all the remaining winter items that were around the house to be stored in the attic

I attacked and conquered our craft and future curriculum closet!!!

Everything is in a box or on a shelf exactly where it is suppose to be!!!

We made a trip to the library and remembered to stop and grab -


but to KM's delight I had forgotten to check them and there was one that was slightly cracked on the top so of course she ...
to experiment with it.

Her favorite part was when she realized that the sack really went all along the shell, but you could seperate it from the shell without breaking it.
She spent a good 35 minutes examining the shell and yolk!

CJ got home just in time to color the eggs with us and we had dinner while they dried.
We each did three eggs and after dinner we went through the Runes book to choose which symbols we wanted to wish for -
We make 2 each to go in our Ostro on the mantel.


and one each for our family basket!


All and all we had a very blessed Ostara!

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Here are some great games and print out links for your little leprechauns!!

• a list of lesson plans for various ages
• Kinderart has a ton of projects!
  
• Fun Printables from Kaboose
• Lots of worksheets with today's theme!
• all sorts of links for projects and recipes

I will swing by later and let you know what we have gotten done!

Updated - I have not felt my best today so we kept it kinda quiet. SC was here, but we managed to get a good amount of schoolwork done rather quickly because she was watching an Elmo Potty Time video and then we painted some leprechaun's, did a St Patty's day word search and crossword puzzle and then all nestled together and watched "A Very Unlucky Leprechaun".
That was about it. I didn't even get the camera out - which is SOOOOO unlike me! SC will be home with her mom tomorrow so KM and I will be hiding out in bed getting lots of work done while I rest up for our Field Trip to the Opera on Thursday!!! Can't wait it is going to be sooo much fun!!!

Hope you had a very Happy St. Patrick's Day!!!

National Organize Your Home Office Day!

The 2nd Tuesday of March has been declared as “National Organize Your Home Office Day.” I thought I would share this as I know a lot of my followers work from home and/or have an office at home.

I am neurotically organized - as most of you well know - but I have been slacking a bit lately with everything that is going on and I have a TON of files that I should probably get organized. I also need to pick up a new shredder and get office supplies in check again! So that is what I am going to be doing this afternoon.

Here are some great sites to check out -

• How-to's of Home Office Organization
• Life Organizers has tips on organizing everything!
• 5 Great tips for home office organization

National Tortila Chip Day

Today is a holiday with a crunch. One might even suggest that it is a corny holiday. Well, that's okay because today is National Tortilla Chip Day. Just a few decades ago, Americans seldom ate Corn Chips and Salsa. It's popularity has grown immensely. Today is a tribute to that rising popularity of one of America's favorite munchies.

Here are some links we are going to use today:

• Interesting info from wikipedia
  
• Rather simple Fried Tortilla Chips
• Edhelper has a Theme Unit if you are a member
  
• Some videos from expert village

I will post some pics of what we did later on this evening!

SHOUT - HOODIE HOO

On this winter day, people go out at noon, wave their hands over their heads and chant "Hoodie-Hoo".

It is a day to chase away winter and bring in spring. After all, everyone in the northern hemisphere are sick and tired of winter at this point and a little crazy being cooped up inside all winter and not seeing the sun.

I think this is a pretty cool one...especially after my extra entrapment in the cold of Maine!!! We are going to be taking down a lot of the winter decorations and are going to go shopping for some new spring ones! So if you see some crazy person at the local store, waving their hands over their heads and shouting "Hoodie Hoo" just wave and say hi!

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY

Lots of links for the history of Valentine's Day can be found here!

Hope you all have a wonderful day!!!

Umbrella Day

Happy Umbrella Day

Umbrella Day is in honor of one of the world's most invaluable inventions. On a rainy, day, we are sure glad that someone was smart enough to invent it. It's also increasingly popular to use umbrellas to shade ourselves from harmful UV radiation, and the heat of the sun.
Umbrellas come in all sorts of sizes, colors, shapes, and, designs. Businesses and organizations use them for advertising. The smallest umbrellas fit inside a purse or glove compartment. Golf umbrellas are popular sizes. Then, there are lawn and beach umbrellas. There's one (or two) made just for you. Celebrate Umbrella Day in a couple of ways. First, make sure your umbrella is handy. Second, use it, or walk around with it. If you don't have an umbrella, isn't it time to get one?

Here are some great links for Umbrella Day! -

• Umbrella Coloring Page


• Practice spelling umbrella


• Make an Origami Umbrella


• Fun little Umbrella Man Game


• History of how umbrellas are made

Of course we are also planning on watching a classic movie that has a very important umbrella in it ----can you guess?

Celebrate Imbolc & Groundhog Day

Imbolc is the holiday in which we celebrate the midpoint of winter! As during Yule, we celebrate the return of sun. Spring is nearly here, though the days are not warmer they are getting longer. I really liked the image above, as it can mean so many different things. KM felt that it was mother earth rejuvenating the "earth's energy".

Here are some great links for information and activities to help you celebrate Imbolc -

• Fun Things for the Kids
• 13 Ways to celebrate Imbolc
• Pagan Dad's Blog has some incredible ideas

The mainstream for this holiday is of course Groundhog Day so I thought I would also add some links for things to go with that theme -

• The Official Punxsutawney Phil site teacher's section has some cool resources
  
• About.com has a ton of printables
• Enchanted Learning also has some simple projects and printables

That should be enough to get you started, I will be back later to let you know how our day goes!

Happy Freethinkers Day!

Observing the birthday of Thomas Paine, the author of Common Sense which advocated the independence of the American Colonies.

Here is an incredible list of Famous Freethinkers that prove thinking outside the box is what has brought about inventions and innovations that have changed the world!

Here are some other pretty cool things that I came across to help you celebrate this rather interesting day -

• download this handy lesson plan - Freethinkers Day from ESL holidays
• Secular Seasons - has several links to other Thomas Paine related sites
• Movie-a-day - recommends the 1960s classic INHERIT THE WIND
  

Inauguration Day!

Good-bye Georgey!!!

Hello Change!

This will be quite a historic day!

Here are some links to check out -

• http://inaugurationday2009.com/
• http://www.inauguration.dc.gov/index.asp
• http://www.insidetheschool.com/2009-presidential-inauguration-day-lesson-plan
• http://inaugural.senate.gov/index.cfm
  
• http://lesson-plan-help.suite101.com/article.cfm/lesson_on_obama_inauguration
  

Appreciate a Dragon Day!

Hip Hip Hooray for Dragons!!!

I am so excited about this one!!! Check out this site - here! There are lots cool ways to appreciate dragons today!

I will be back later to fill you in on what we have done!

~~~~Evening Update:

We had a rather difficult time getting ourselves together today, so we did not get as many fun dragon things done that I had hoped. However we did talk about different dragon myths from around the world, watched Puff the Magic Dragon and colored some print outs. We got a jump start on our decorations for the Chinese New Year as well, but you will have to wait to see those later!!
When I was looking for some cool printouts earlier I came across an incredible site Phee's Coloring Pages. If you check it out you will see why I liked so much! I think it is going to be my new favorite printable site!!!

Hope you had a great day, appreciating dragons!

International Programmers Day!

For decades, programmers have made major contributions to our lives. Programmers are ultimately responsible for many of the conveniences we enjoy such as DVR, direct deposit, web surfing, online bill paying, cell phones, etc. Behind most modern day convenience, there's a computer programmer.
This website is dedicated to those programmers who make our lives easier. - check it out
Here is another site specifically for kids to learn about programming - Click here!
Find a programmer and thank them for all that they do to allow us to live our lives with a little bit more ease - or fustration depending on how you look at it! The above listed site has some cute little e-cards you can send.

This site - click here - has a huge list of resources to teach kids about programming on several different levels.

----EVENING UPDATE ----

We had a very fun afternoon, we discussed codes and how every language is a code of its own and what programmers do. KM had a friend over this afternoon and they made a few video clips on Scratch. They had some difficulty at first until they actually read the instructions! I will try to upload one of the video clips tomorrow, but now I am off to bed!!!

Hope you had a great International Programmer Day!

Have a Holly Jolly Day!!!