Join Me at NCSS

Join Heidi in Atlanta, Georgia at the National Council of Social Studies annual conference in November. Find Heidi for a free academic scrapbooking kit that is a take off on the book "Three Cups of Tea". The book's author, Greg Mortensen, will be a key note speaker at the conference. What better time than to hear his story of building schools in Pakistan and use a unique activity in your classroom afterwards? Be sure to find Heidi at the conference and ask her for the free academic scrapbooking kit!

Petal and Paint Power

In the April e-newsletter I spoke of an art technique that I thought was fun for students to use as embellishments in their classroom academic scrapbooking.
Here is a photo taken of a student practicing with petals and paint on plain white paper. Nothing fancy. Broken petal. General white paper. Acrylic white paint. Easy to use and supplies are easy to find even at the end of the school year. Have fun with this technique.

End of Year Activity

Here's a fun end-of-the-year activity to do with your students. You really don't need a lot of time, and the students will love it. Collect a variety of photos you still have left over from the year of picture taking in your classroom. Make sure you have them already scanned in for the students. In Microsoft Word, let the students make a collage of those photos that they want. Once the photos are on the page and printed out on paper, they make a fancy border, trim the edges to size, and then I laminate the bookmarks.

I have the kids make a bookmark of classroom memories to motivate them to read over the summer. I give them a short book list (like 5 choices) and tell them to use their bookmark to mark their memories on every page. Turning the bookmark over, they will write something down to remember about the story and they do this as they go along in their reading. It's a keeper!

4000 Photos and Counting

Sicily! What a trip... it was an incredible jaw dropping experience that left me inspired to say the least. The land of contrasts is what the locals call their island. Similar to the U.S. for a diverse heritage: Phoenician (Lebanon today), Greek, Islamic, Roman and others. Locals say that it is almost impossible to accurately trace their lineage due to the intermix of peoples. The land of the sun with 3 legs. Representing the island with its jutting peninsulas in 3 geographic corners. The sun for the happiness of being Roman and the legs showing the other cultures and their place on the island. The Phoenicians came into the North to settle. The Greeks the southern area. The Arabs in the internal region. The Romans all over the island. How much more fascinating can it get I wondered? Posting photos will come, I promise! Lots of them! In the meantime, think about how we all connect in our personal histories.... our little stories that turn out to not be as little as we think.

Following Us in Sicily

Touring Club Italiano! Be a pro loco and follow us along the autostrada! All the hustle and bustle of the airport and immigration behind us, we picked up our rental car. I've learned a new phrase: "Quanto costa?" How much does that cost? Deep into internal Sicily we are exploring the grape fields and the vino process. Chemistry class, you know. :) Over to the west coast to follow the ancient salt route: Trapani, Erice, Marsala where the modern day piles of salt are very visible. Archeological explorations at Segesta along the way at the north end to Selinunte along the southern coast. Ah! Those ancient Greeks and their stone carved panels of mythology. Gasolio. I had to read a 4 page document about how to get gas for the rental car. Intense! And the drivers on the road? My g-d, they drive worst than me (I won't even pass a truck on a curve like these drivers; like, scare me to death!). he-he! Did you know you need to keep receipts from every purchase? Sometimes there might be police with machine guns outside restaurant who ask for your receipt. Not because they think someone didn't pay for the meal, rather, they think the owner keep taxes for self. I love this place! Seriously. The people are wonderful and easy to converse with. They love Obama. I've handed out pins and trinkets that show Obama as thank you's from help with gasolio to directions to whatever, and I have been kissed more by the locals than my dog. I love it... I should have brought more Obama pins! Ha-Ha! Agrigento and the Valle dei Templi. Oh, how splendid-- ancient civilization is a marvel! We spent over 2 hours just to walk along the first mile of path. 2 days at Valley of Temples. Then north through the internal farmlands and villages to Mt. Etna. As we were driving the country roads, all of a sudden there it was. Mt. Etna. Rising majestically into the clouds and looming ever so present from the distance of a 2 hour car ride away. That's how large the volcano is. The volcano is pretty seen from anywhere on the island-- there are about 400 craters split all over the Catania county area. Moon walk on the Silvestri craters with all its steam and rumbles. Too cool! Last explosion was 2003, and covered Taormina and other areas with gray ash. As we stayed in Taorima, we saw the red glow of the lava flowing one night and it was a really awesome experience to watch it from a distance, that is. It doesn't flow every night, but it is announced on television when it is anticipated and I understand that the scientists are very accurate about it too. Private tour into Siracusa (Syracuse) for the greek drama initiated in 733 BC, and a special shell fish dinner on the Island of Ortygia where the ancient Greeks first inhabitated. The tourist information center faces the Temple of Apollo! I think I need a rest! We stayed for 4 days in Taormina, taking in an Italian Catholic Easter service. The evening procession was cancelled due to the rain much to my camera's chagrin. Taormina is all steps as the city is built into the mountainside and rises from sea level to the top of the hill. We should of made a video of the winding road up this mountain side. The grade was 10% rising to an incredible 18% that made me hold on to whatever I could grab inside the little Fiat Idea we had rented. The big news was the new movie out: Io and Marley! I think you can guess what movie this is! In fact, I watched it twice on the international flight (coming and going)! What an experience!

A Block of Women

I have used a trading cards activity in the past whenever I do my women in history unit. I decided to shake things up after 13 years! ha ha. Each student chooses a woman in history to illustrate. Using a wooden block or a paper block, each side will represent something about that woman's contributions to society. Here's the twist... each side must be creatively designed to represent the era in which the woman lived. So, yes, we are talking about the block being creative visual when completed. Have fun!

In the Minds of Presidents Warm Up

Ah! So we hear that Obama models Lincoln. Well, Lincoln was certainly a man of character who had a lot to bear on his shoulders. Everyone studies Lincoln and in his centennial year, we are hearing about many activities to honor him. But, have you considered how Lincoln as well as other President's had to think in order to be effective in office? How we think has changed over the course of time and is reflective of what the global world has to offer with political events and activities. Even our younger students can understand this. So, next time you study the Presidents, offer a warm-up that really gets your students talking!

Here's what to do. Give the kids an enlarged copy of the President's head, face sideways. Give the students a specific event that occurred during that President's tenure, preferrably one related to your lesson of the day. Ask the kids to come up with thoughts of the President about that event. They can put these thoughts into little clouds around the head so it looks as though the President is thinking. But, here's the twist... the thoughts have to be what the students think that the President is thinking... not what they are thinking about the event. It's a challenge, but the students are up for it.