“The willingness with which our young people are likely to serve in any war, no matter how justified, shall be directly proportional as to how they perceive the veterans of earlier wars were treated and appreciated by their nation.”
~General George Washington

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).  For a third year at CLE, Vetiquette is hosting a service project to honor another 30 fallen service members. Each class received (1) the biography of a different service member who died and (2) materials to create a tribute quilt which will be gifted to the service member’s family. Many thanks to our Cottage Lane staff, teachers and students for making this happen.

Find out more about this program here, Vetiquette Power Point!

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“Sugar, Sugar is a deceptively simple puzzle that gets difficult quickly. Your object is to direct the cascading sugar granules into various receptacles – the instructions becoming more complicated with each level. To direct the sugar, you use your mouse to draw lines on the screen. That’s it.”  From Engage Their Minds

Sojourner Truth

Rosa Parks

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Barack Obama

Wilma Rudolph

Harriet Tubman

Jesse Owens

January 8th was National Argyle Day and February kicks off Black History month. Let’s do some research about famous American Americans and use sock puppets to tell their stories.

Using the Sock Puppet App, write a short piece of dialogue for two sock puppet characters that creatively presents interesting nonfiction facts on a Black American! You only have 30 seconds!

We can a learn a lot about perseverance from Martin Luther King, Jr. On Monday, January 16th 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 they are. We can change them! Kids can change them.

Let’s use a creative form of poetry, Blackout Poetry, to share our own message of hope and perseverance with MLK: An American Leader.  For homework, post your poem to this blog.

Additional Resources:

• Try this listening activity. Listen to the I Have A Dream speech while you’re reading text.
• Here is a Martin Luther King, Jr. Internet scavenger hunt. Information is from the official U.S. Government website on Martin Luther King, Jr.
• Watch the video of the book, Martin’s Big Words.
• Watch King Leads March On Washington.

Let’s use this time of year to keep our logic in check. Choose from the following activities to keep your brains active.

• Factory Balls is a problem solving game that emphasizes logic and sequential reasoning. Your job is to create a design that matches the customer’s order!
• Factory Balls – Christmas Edition is a bewitchingly challenging Flash game. You have to drag the white Christmas ornaments to the appropriate tools that surround the tree to recreate the colors on the sample ornament.  Each level becomes increasingly difficult, as you have to learn how to layer the paint colors and use the correct pieces to imitate the design on the ornaments.
• Winter Sudoku – This site has different levels of difficulty.  I ended up putting it on the interactive white board for the kids, and they loved it!  It was one of the most popular stations.
• Electric Circuit – Try connecting these lights.
• Blocky Christmas Puzzle  is a fun game that challenges you to move some blocks around the screen.  As you move through the levels, new obstacles are added and your own block becomes magnetic – which can be helpful and irritating at the same time.

This video is packed with fun information. Listen carefully and find out why reindeer are called caribou in North America. The lesson also teaches students how reindeer adapt and migrate.

Find out more:
Migrations:Big Animal Trips
A Deer Migration You Have to See to Believe

Last week you solved problems through playful exploration and trial and error.  With TEAMWORK you were able to breakout.  Today a door is firmly locked. You will need your problem solving skills to escape once, twice…forty times! Can you escape the mysterious room? And do it again and again and again? Play 40x Escape.

Breakout EDU brought gaming to our classroom. Our Breakout presented us with a challenge that encouraged teamwork, problem solving, critical thinking, and troubleshooting. The Spyder Heist challenge used at Cottage Lane that included graphing, patterning, converting, and critical reading.
Let’s continue using these skills when solving mysteries, logic puzzles and/or riddles!

What am I?