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!

The New Year brings new goals. In order to reach our goals, we need perseverance. Perseverance is Cottage Lane’s word of the month!

• Perseverance is a steady persistence with an idea or task despite obstacles.
• Perseverance is not getting discouraged or giving up when tasks are difficult.
• Perseverance is the continuance with challenges.

At our assembly today, we saw many examples of perseverance. Review some examples again here – Perseverance Assembly. What will you persevere at this year? Post your goal to our class blog and steps that you will take to reach that goal!

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.

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

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

“The Hour of Code is designed to demystify code and show that computer science is not rocket-science, anybody can learn the basics,” said Hadi Partovi, founder and CEO of Code.org. “In one week last year, 15 million students tried an Hour of Code. Now we’re aiming for 100 million worldwide to prove that the demand for relevant 21st century computer science education crosses all borders and knows no boundaries.”

HOUR of CODE – Try a one-hour tutorial designed for all ages in over 45 languages. Join millions of students and teachers in over 180 countries starting with an Hour of Code. You can find all activities here or try one below.

This month we are “wild” about cranes. Our book of the month, The Paper Crane, reminds us of the magical powers generosity can have on others and ourselves. We learned that:

•  Generosity is the quality of being kind and giving.
•  Generosity is freely sharing what you have with others.
•  Generosity is being willing to offer money, help or time when it is needed.
•  To be generous means giving something that is valuable to you without expectation of reward or return.
•  Generosity doesn’t always cost money. Anyone can be more generous simply by sharing his/her spirit with others.

Our goal this month is to show generosity. Being generous does not have to cost money. You can be generous with your time, service and/or smile. In addition, you can be generous by donating a used coat to our Coat Drive, purchasing a new hat or mitten for the Winter Drive and/or making cranes for our school wide gift. Watch the video below or read these directions to make as many cranes as you can. Have fun!

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.