Spring is here! And that means the world is changing right before your students’ eyes (or at least it is if you live in one of those locations that has a distinctive springtime). Flowers are blooming, it’s raining buckets, and the birds are singing here in North Carolina. It’s the perfect time to have a…
Yeppers, you read that right. I’m telling you about this special day in advance so you can prepare to celebrate with your kiddos. The official date of Something on a Stick Day is next Thursday, March 28. (Just so you know, the day is always celebrated on March 28.) When I first read about this…
Why did the horse keep falling over? He just wasn’t stable. Why can you never take balloons seriously? Because they’re full of hot air! We’re having a blast with The World’s Best Jokes for Kids, Volume 1 and Volume 2. And you and your students can, too. Take your best guess at the answer to…
Now that spring is almost here, we should be seeing more rainbows in the sky! That magical combination of sunshine and rain always fills me with awe. Did you know that there are also moonbows, fogbows, and cloudbows? That’s right! When the recipe calls for light and moisture, you can get a colorful arc during…
The next time you think teaching is unbearable, I encourage you to bring to mind this photo. Yipes! This past Tuesday five loggers (lumberjacks?) were in my backyard removing three trees that had thankfully stayed upright this past winter. I hated to see the trees go and at the same time I’m relieved they’re gone….
You’ve heard of Harriet Tubman, Susan B. Anthony, and Elizabeth Cady Stanton; now it’s time to meet Jovita Idar, Inez Milholland, Mary Church Terrell, and others who helped win the right to vote for American women. Learn about all of these women in Bold & Brave: Ten Heroes Who Won Women the Right to…
Have you heard that it’s bad luck to open an umbrella indoors? It’s a pretty common superstition, right up there with walking beneath a leaning ladder and not letting a black cat cross your path. But how did the superstition originate? Many believe that it arose during the Victorian period, when umbrellas with metal spokes…
March is National Reading Month so I’m going to blab briefly about my love of reading. Not too much, just a little bit. Reading for me is inexpensive adventure. I’ve wiggled my toes in the sandy beaches of Australia, hiked the Pacific Coast Trail (where I tangled with a bear!), sprinted down dark alleys, and…
Limber up your lips and get ready for our tricky tongue twister: Can you say this five times fast? Ten times? Twenty? Pick Peppa Pig prizes, Pick Peppa Pig prizes, Pick Peppa Pig prizes, Pick Peppa Pig prizes, Pick Peppa Pig prizes. Whew! To enter our random drawing, tell us whether you succeeded or if…
When I was in elementary school, we were all weighed quarterly throughout the school year. I remember they would set up the scales in the hallway, and we would line up against the wall to wait our turn. To some, being weighed wasn’t a big deal. To me it most definitely was a big deal…