Mid-week Morsel: 4th of July Crafts

Tomorrow is the 237th anniversary of our independence.  What a great reason to celebrate!  And children love to celebrate.  Waiting until dusk for the fireworks to start is so hard when you love to celebrate.  I've found a couple of websites that love to celebrate the 4th of July, too.  All Kids Network shares over 20 crafts kids can do to celebrate the 4th.  If you want more than crafts to help you celebrate, Enchanted Learning offers activity books, worksheets, and coloring pages in addition to crafts.  There's a whole lot of daylight between now and fireworks time, so break out your crafts supplies, warm up your printer, and get the party started.

Karissa

Mid-week Morsel: Get Outdoors!

Spring is probably my favorite season.  It is a season full of hope and potential.  Nature is waking up from it's long winter nap, and everything is beautiful.  It just makes me want to be outdoors, enjoying the world around me.  But, sometimes, I don't know where to go to do the outdoor activities I want to do.  Park Visitor is a website I've found that allows visitors to search for parks, and other landmarks.  Search nearby, or where you'll be vacationing.  Search by park name, or by activity.  Visitors can also view pictures of the parks and reviews posted by other visitors.  All of these features make it so much easier to get out there and enjoy nature.  Don't tell the kids, but just maybe you can even sneak in a little education while you're there.

Karissa

Presidents' Day Fun and Activities

Monday is Presidents' Day (and my birthday) and most students have the day off.  All too often holidays are taken for granted as simply a day off.  We don't take the time to ponder why the day is special, let alone do anything to celebrate it.  I've done some research on our presidents recently, and the first thing I can tell you is that there is a ton of information out there.  I research a lot of topics.  I'm always looking something up.  Usually, I search through page after page of results before I find enough information to satisfy me.  This time, however, I found great resources right on the first page of my search results, and even more on the pages that followed.  So, this year, take advantage of the extra time with your little ones and spend some time exploring the lives of the our presidents.


Biographical Information
The Internet Public Library (IPL2) has links to biographies, historical documents, audio & video files, and other presidential sites are also included.

The Biography channel's website has full episodes, mini biography videos and more biographical information about all 44 presidents.

The PBS series American Experience has 33 hours of streaming documentaries on 8 20th century presidents, biographies of every U.S. President, original interviews, articles, photo galleries, timelines and extensive teacher guides.

Songs

YouTube has a couple fun versions of songs to help teach the names of the presidents in order, one set to the tune of Yankee Doodle, and the other by the Animaniacs.  Please note that these songs are a little old; the Yankee Doodle song ends with George W. Bush, and the Animaniacs' song ends with Bill Clinton.


Games
Learning Games for Kids has a collection of presidential online games including word searches and a hangman style game.

Primary Games has a few president-themed puzzle games.

Activities
Enchanted learning has a 2 pages full of crafts and printables, and historical information.

Family Education created a whole page of crafts, activities, printables, and crossword puzzles about our presidents.

Lesson Ideas
Scholastic's teacher website includes everything you need from lesson plans to activities & games to help students learn about past presidents and develop leadership skills.

The Home School Mom is offering 2 free presidential notebooking units.

Extras
Family Education has put together a 10 question quiz about presidential blooper and blunders, and slideshows about presidential pets, and first kids.

The History Channel has nearly 50 short video clips about the presidents.

The Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery has a mystery for kids to solve involving a portrait of George Washington.

Karissa

Mid-week Morsel: Remembering Frederick Douglass

The month of February holds the birthdays of three men who were integral in shaping our young country; George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and Frederick Douglass.  We will study Presidents Washington and Lincoln more this weekend for Presidents' Day, but for this week's Mid-week Morsel I want to acknowledge Frederick Douglass.  Though he didn't know his actual date of birth, he celebrated it on February 14th.  He was an inspirational American who escaped from slavery and dedicated his life to freedom and equality for all people.  Having taught himself to read and write, he published an anti-slavery newspaper, was an eloquent lecturer on the topics of women's rights and the abolishment of slavery, and wrote three auto-biographies.  This week, get inspired by listening to a reading of Douglass' story My Escape From Slavery and by reading his third auto-biography, The Life and Times of Frederick Douglass: From 1817-1882.

Karissa

Mid-week Morsel: Printable Maps

This week's Mid-week Morsel is for parents, teachers, and geography & social studies buffs of all ages.   While digging through my very long list of educational bookmarks on my laptop, I rediscovered a link to Maps ETC, a website produced by the Florida Center for Instructional Technology.  They have an enormous collection of printable maps.  I'm not just talking about blank maps to color in; they have historical maps, political maps, black & white maps, color maps, and many others from every state in the country, and every continent on the globe.  This is definitely a site to add to your bookmarks list for future reference.  What must have links in your bookmarks list help you live the good life?  Please post them to share with others.

Karissa

Celebrating Veteran's Day

"To us in America, the reflections of Armistice Day will be filled with solemn pride in the heroism of those who died in the country's service and with gratitude for the victory, both because of the thing from which it has freed us and because of the opportunity it has given America to show her sympathy with peace and justice in the councils of the nations."  These are the words of President Woodrow Wilson as he announced the first Armistice Day on November 11, 1919.  

That was the first anniversary of the day the fighting stopped for the First World War.  Armistice Day was created in part to honor all the military personnel who served in the Great War.  This was different than the already celebrated Memorial Day which honors all who have died in our nation's service. After WWII and the Korean War, in 1954 Congress changed the word Armistice to Veteran's so that personnel from all the wars could be recognized for their service.

There are many ways to celebrate Veteran's Day.  First and foremost, thank a veteran for his or her service.  You can attend a local celebration, visit a friend or relative who is a veteran, or even visit a local VA hospital.

Next, we need to teach our children to honor all who serve our country.  It is sometimes hard to distinguish between the wars we may not agree with, and the men and women who sacrifice their family and sometimes lives to fight in them.  Here are some resources to help teach children that veterans are heroes...

• Apples4TheTeacher
• Department of Veteran's Affairs
• VA for kids
• Wikipedia
• About.com
• National Geographic
• Teacher Vision
• The Teacher's Corner

Are you living the good life?  If so, thank a vet!

Karissa

Mid-week Morsel: Tour the Statue of Liberty

All the election buzz has me thinking about what I love about my country. What better way to burn some of that patriotic energy than to take a tour of the Statue of Liberty?!  The National Park Service website has a wonderful e-tour of the Statue of Liberty.  Take a few moments to gather the family and sit down for a whole new way to check out one of our nation's symbols of freedom.

Karissa

Election Resources for Kids

     The Presidential election is less than a month away, and boy does it show!  Campaign ads are flooding the airways, newscasts are abuzz about who is winning the latest poll, and debates are all the talk on social media.  Naturally, children are aware that all of this is going on, and they are sure to have questions.  What is the difference between a Democrat and a Republican?  What is the Electoral College?  How is it affected by the popular vote?  What does the President do?  Understanding political positions and the election process can be hard even for adults. It can be even more difficult to try to explain so that children can understand.  I've scoured the web and found some resources to try to help you explain it all to the children in your life, and maybe even have a little fun along the way.

Who is running for President this year?
     Let me start by suggesting you simply visit Barack Obama's and Mitt Romney's personal websites.  However, I understand that sometimes it's not easy to take the carefully worded propaganda on a candidate's website and explain it so that a younger child can understand it.  In that case, let me also suggest that you visit TIME for Kids' pages about Barack Obama and Mitt Romney.  They do a nice job of watering down the information so that just the facts about the candidates' lives come through for the readers.  For a very basic introduction for the youngest readers, PBS Kids' The Democracy Project has a page with a few basic facts about both candidates.


What is the difference between a Democrat and a Republican?
     This is a much tougher question to answer.  No matter what search parameters I entered, I only seemed to find very biased answers, many of which were full of attitudes I do not wish to pass on to my children.  I believe the best way to help you answer this question is simply to lead you to the Democratic platform site, and the Republican platform site where you can see what each party says about their beliefs.  TIME for Kids has a special section on their website which covers some of the current issues and where the candidates stand on those issues.  Finally, if you have access to a Brain Pop membership, they have a video which effectively summarizes the two political parties.

How does the election process work?
     The Central Rappahannock Regional Library in Virginia, Ben's Guide to U.S. Government for Kids, and PBS's Zoom tv show all have pages that explain the process. Brain Pop has a free Win the Whitehouse game that allows children to play along as a candidate, making decisions about how to run their campaign.

What is the Electoral College?
     Congress for Kids, Scholastic, and Social Studies for Kids all have very cut and dry articles explaining what the Electoral College is and how it works.  For a more animated explanation, check out Schoolhouse Rock's I'm Gonna Send Your Vote to College video.  Also, Scholastic Magazine has a video about the Electoral College and an Electoral College Challenge game on it's election page.

What does the President do?
     Ben's Guide to U.S. Government for Kids has a section in each grade level covering the branches of government and their roles.  Congress for Kids and Scholastic both have articles explaining the role of the President.  However, PBS Kids' Democracy Project's President for a Day game and Scholastic's Seven Hats Challenge game let children experience the job of being President (and as everyone knows it's more fun to be President than it is to read about being President.)

Need more help?  
Here is a list of books to buy or check out from your local library with more information.  What resources do you have in your favorites list and bookmarks about the election?

Karissa