Wednesday

Top Ten Books About the Moon For Young Readers

One of my favorite units to teach in second grade was an integrated Language Arts and Science unit on the moon. We studied legends and folktales about the moon from around the world and learned about the Native American names for all the full moons. We tracked the moon visually over the course of the month and learned the names for the phases. My second graders were voracious word-collectors and loved the sounds of waxing, waning and gibbous.
In honor of this week’s Supermoon and full lunar eclipse event, I invite you to explore some of my favorite book resources on the moon. Both fiction and non-fiction are on the list below…but even the fiction books have quite a bit factual content about our closest celestial neighbor!



Best Moon Books For Kids

Simple Crafts to Celebrate Autumn (Even If Your Leaves Don't Change Color)


A roundup of simple leaf crafts for southern folks -- colorful leaves not required!

I always feel bad for the folks down south when fall arrives. Come winter I wish I lived there where it's warmer, but autumn is glorious in the Northeastern US. Judging by what's popular on Pinterest, it seems everyone wants to welcome the season with pumpkins, Indian corn and colored leaves in tones of red, orange and gold. Here's how to do just that when you don't have colorful fall leaves of your own to work with:



Autumn Leaf Banner with Coffee Filters and Liquid Watercolors

Leaf Mobile with Wax Paper and Crayon Shavings

Autumn Trivets with Tissue Paper, Mod-Podge and Porcelain Tiles


and finally because all leaves are beautiful, no matter their size or propensity to change color:

Leaf Creatures Inspired by Look What I Made With a Leaf by Morteza Sohi




Saturday

Countdown to Supermoon!

Finally! A space event we can see in our neck of the woods (or portion of the hemisphere). With the eclipse starting at 8:11, even littles can enjoy the fascinating sight as the LARGEST moon of the year is covered in shadow. We're going space themed all week because I love the topic and there's so many amazing things to share. Here's a little perspective for today, a scale model of the solar system. At seven miles, it's very impressive. Earth is literally the blue marble in the model!


Tuesday

Read My Interview at "Artful Parent!"



REGINA OF CHALK IN MY POCKET ON ENCOURAGING CREATIVITY


JEAN:  Why do you believe creativity is important to foster in our children?
REGINA:  Wow. This is a loaded question!
You’d think that as someone with a computer science degree I’d say, it’s not. We’re living in an information driven society, why do we need colored pencils, paint or music in our classrooms — shouldn’t we just focus on building competent computer and information literacy skills?
I feel just the opposite. Even if you push aside the joy, pleasure the intrinsic “humanness” that results from creating something with your hands, above all art fosters creative thinking. Approaching a problem with an open mind and finding creative solutions is a required skill set for ANY job. Even a computer programmer could benefit from “outside the box” thinking skills.
So many academic programs today are focused on the end goal of standardized testing and the classroom experience reflects that. Worksheet after worksheet does not a happy child make! I was lucky to teach in a school where art was not only taught but celebrated throughout the curriculum.
Confidence is built when you share something all your own with your classmates. Having it respectfully received is a result of a great art appreciation curriculum which I think should go hand in hand with art class. You don’t have to like every genre of art (or dance, music, ect) but appreciating and respecting the creativity and technique that went into it is a must. Now THAT is a lesson that can carry over into every content area and character development goal.