American flag blowing, close-up

Patriotism is the word of the month for our Character Education program. On May 26th we will come together as a school community and wear red, white and blue. Patriotism is the quality of being supportive for one’s country. One way to show devotion to our country is to honor and respect the American flag. Pam Ryan’s The Flag We Love reminds us of our country’s ideals.

Ronald Reagan said, “If we love our country, we should also love our countrymen.” Another way to show your patriotism is to honor our service men and women. Vetiquette is a character education program that teaches children the importance of showing gratitude for our veterans and particularly for gold star families (families that have lost an immediate family member in service to our country). Please make sure you read the biography of the service member assigned to our class. We will create a tribute quilt which will be gifted to the service member’s family. Here are additional biographies of some true American Heroes.

April is blue for respect. Cottage Lane’s book of the month, Pinduli, is a surprising story about self-image, self-acceptance, and treating others with respect. After reading, sharing and discussing this special book you will realize how a few tiny words – bad or good – can create something enormous!

Do you think that by hurting someone else’s feelings it made the animals who made Pinduli feel bad, feel better about themselves?

Use this link to go to the vocabulary quizlet.

Dr. Seuss (Dr. Theodor Geisel) was born over 100 years ago on March 2nd.

Children always enjoy listening to bouncy rhythms and reciting catchy rhymes. By reading and listening to stories and poems with rhythms and rhymes, we explore how language and sounds work. This helps us to develop our vocabulary, memory, and concepts of writing. Listen to the story, There’s a Wocket in my Pocket.

Even though the Dr. Seuss used silly, meaningless words, why were we able to understand their meanings? silly, or made up, rhyming words are often used to construct poems. Read “Jabberwocky” by Lewis Carroll and “Bleezer’s Ice Cream” by Jack Prelutsky. Try to write your own silly poem.

Celebrate Dr. Seuss in Seussville where you can play variety of games and activities, and find information about favorite Seuss characters.

Thirty days have September,
April, June, and November;
Thirty-one the others date,
Except in February, twenty-eight;
But in leap year we assign
February, twenty-nine.

So, what do we do with all of those 1/4 days? We add a day in a leap year! The extra day is added to the end of February. It becomes February 29. It’s called leap day!

Math Rules for Leap Years

Which years are leap years? Here are three simple rules for determining the leap years.

1. Every year divisible by 4 is a leap year
2. But every year divisible by 100 is NOT a leap year
3. Unless the year is also divisible by 400, then it is still a leap year.

Leap-Year Math Quiz

1. List the next five leap years after 2012:
2. Sara was born in 1988. What was the first leap year during her lifetime?
3. Circle the years that were leap years: 1900, 1972, 1956, 1946, 1992, 1886, 1420, 1600
4. List the next five century leap years:
5. The day of the week that a date falls on usually skips forward one day the following year. January 1, 2011, was a Saturday; January 1, 2012, was a Sunday. But if there’s a February 29 between the two dates, the day of the week “leaps” forward an extra day: January 1, 2013, will be on a Tuesday (instead of Monday). On which day will January 1 fall in…
   • a. 2014?
   • b. 2017?

BONUS: A leap year occurs every four years. Based on that information, about how many hours longer than 365 days do you think it takes Earth to revolve around the sun?

It is time to get those creative juices going again! Mrs. McBride is offering another opportunity to put your designing skills to work. Find out more details for this month’s challenge here – The Valentine Challenge.

Solve the logic puzzle by filling in all of the squares in the game grid. Use the clues and your deductive reasoning to solve this online logic game – The Kidz Page.

Want more logic games? Click here!

Are you an expert? Try these logic grids on PuzzlersParadise.

We can a learn a lot about perseverance from Martin Luther King, Jr. On Monday, January 18th we observe his birthday and honor all of his accomplishments. Listen to Kid President’s video on how King taught us that things won’t always be awesome, but your response can be.

Remember, things don’t always have to be the way they are. We can change them! Kids can change them.

What would you do to help change the world?

Last month over forty students participated in the CLE Paper Challenge. It is time to get those creative juices going again! Mrs. McBride is offering another opportunity to put your designing skills to work. Find out more details for this month’s challenge here – The Snowflake Challenge.

Welcome to an exciting New Year, and may you reach all your goals in 2016. Today’s assembly, Colors of Character for January, reminds us that perseverance is essential to success. Continue reading The Royal Bee and be inspired by this true story to reach your own personal goals.

Let’s create a class motto to remind us to persevere when things are challenging.