About the Contest: CLE is celebrating Earth Day by sponsoring a recycle poster contest using the theme, Every Day is Earth Day! This contest is open to students to promote recycling in creative and fun ways, raising environmental awareness.

Theme: Every Day is Earth Day posters should clearly highlight the importance of recycling in our school and community. This theme can include topics such as “reduce, reuse, and recycle”. Use your imagination and get creative!

Poster Requirements:
• Students must create their own original artwork – no copyrighted clip art, computer-generated graphics, or copyrighted characters.
• Posters must reflect the theme of the contest.
• All entries on paper 11 inches in width and 8.5 inches in height. (No lined notebook paper!)
• Artwork must be oriented on the page in landscape or portrait format.
• All entries must be 2-dimensional; no collage or glued on pieces can be accepted.
• Paint, crayon, marker, colored pencil is acceptable, but remember that bright solid colors will reproduce better!
• Individual students may only submit one entry.
• Each poster must have student names and class teachers on the back of the poster.
• Do NOT fold posters when submitting to the main office.

Awards: One student from each grade level will receive a class award for their poster.

Due Date: Posters are due by April 23, 2018. Submit to the main office for display. Posters can be turned in any day earlier.

Perseverance is this month’s superpower!

• Perseverance is the courage it takes to continue trying despite previous failures.
• Perseverance is the strength that gets you through times of trouble.
• Perseverance is knowing that the road to success is paved with difficulty.
• Perseverance is steady persistence in a course of action, especially in spite of discouragement.

We were inspired by William Kamkwamba’s story. When his village was hit by a drought, everyone’s crops began to fail. Without enough money for food and school, William spent his days in the library and figured out how to bring electricity to his village. Persevering against the odds, William built a functioning windmill out of junkyard scraps and became the local hero who harnessed the wind. Listen to the children’s books here – The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind.

Here is another video, Moving Windmills.

Interview an adult. Determine a time in his/her life when he/she had to persevere and the result of this hard work. Share this experience with our class blog.

Back by popular demand… The Peeps Challenge! After nine years the Washington Post is no longer sponsoring its annual peeps contest. We want to keep this challenge alive at Cottage Lane. Get those creatives juices flowing and find out more information here – THE PEEPS CHALLENGE.

Let’s rise to the challenge this month!!! You can do it!!!

1. Add your “Black Out” poem to our shared google doc – Women’s Black Out Poems.
2. It does not matter if you are a boy or a girl. What are you going to make? Please write your “One day I will…” statement to this blog post.

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.

This month’s superpower is Integrity.  Integrity is the quality of being honest, having strong moral principles and total sincerity. Oprah Winfrey states, “Real integrity is doing the right thing knowing that nobody’s going to know whether you did it or not.”

Monica Kulling introduces us to the fascinating Margaret Knight. Known as Mattie, she was different from most American girls living in 1850. In the Bag! Margaret Knight Wraps it Up provides a great opportunity to celebrate problem-solving, creativity, inventions, perseverance and integrity.

Check out this website Inspire My Kids.  Select one of the quotes and post a comment about what it means to you.

We can a learn a lot about character from Martin Luther King, Jr. His birthday is in January and February is Black History month.. 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.

https://quizlet.com/267750097/wordmasters-list-2-14-25-flash-cards/

https://quizlet.com/267750097/wordmasters-list-2-14-25-flash-cards/