Guest Blog at Minds-in Bloom...Check it out

Thanks to Rachel Lynette for the opportunity to share a Back to School blog, 
"Got a Minute ,Two, or Five? It's on the homepage and can be found here, too: Check it out: http://www.minds-in-bloom.com/2015/08/got-minute-two-or-five.html


Gail
What ideas do you have when there is a bit of time left during your class?

It's a new school year and I'd like to share one thought...focus on the positive!

As a classroom teacher for 33 years, I know that there are days when this thought is difficult at best to accomplish, but it really is something to keep in mind...even on those difficult days.  Take a walk during your break, have some photographs of your kids, husband, significant other, something you can gaze upon to bring back your positive state of mind. Eat chocolate(for me-Butterfingers!)

Try to find something that happened during your day that brings a smile, not a frown, as you leave school to go home. There were many days, when I'd arrive home, dragging myself into the home, down with what may have happened that day. The negativity zapped my of my energies. It wasn't a good thing and certainly not healthy. It took me a while to realize...focus on the positive!

Another important thought as you begin your school year...try and align  yourself with positive teachers and other adults during the day. I remember having a team where at break time, two of the women would complain about the kids, the administration and everything else. I eventually stopped joining them at break time and started to walk. Stay clear of such negative people, they will only bring you down...  A few years later, I had several new team members, the negative teachers had left. WHAT a difference. When those of us on my new team would leave the building at the end of the day,we'd be laughing about something humorous that we'd experienced that day! What a difference this team made on my day and my life. So-seek out those that help you accomplish this goal-focus on the positive.

I wish you all a wonderful school year!
Gail
http://www.gailhennessey.com

Anyone else have some thoughts for those teachers returning to the classroom?

THINGY LETTERS! CLIP ART Alphabet!

I am so excited that my THINGY LETTER Clipart is finally available.

From Utah to Colorado, to New York to New Jersey, and around my home and inside my garage, once I started I saw letters of the alphabet all around me!

Use my THINGY letters to have kids write spelling words, vocabulary words, to make Mother’s Day/Father’s Day cards or as an art activity!

Have students try and guess what some of the THINGY LETTERS are.( I've included a key) 

* I have both a color photograph THINGY LETTERS as well as a black/white version...

Just in time for those looking for new clipart options for BACK TO SCHOOL!

Gail
https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Clipart-AlphabetTHINGY-LETTERS-1987248



Also, check out the TpT Back to School Sale, August 3-4.  Save up to 28% on all purchases. Promo code: BTS15

Picture, This, Activity: Sea Bunny

Wanted to share:  Perhaps, you may find this a great "Picture, This", activity!

What do you see?  If you think this looks like a cuddly bunnie, that's what this marine slug has been nicknamed. The adorable slug, of the Jorunna Parva species,is found in the Indian Ocean, to Japan and the Philippines. Discovered back in 1938, the  "sea bunnies" have only become known to the rest of the world, last year, with the release of some very cool photographs(such as this one).

Ask kids to look at the photograph:
1. Write three descriptions to describe the marine slug.
2. Write a day in your life as a "sea bunny". What do you see? What do you do? What do think about as you spend your life living on the ocean floor.
3. In Japanese, the slugs are called KAWAII(which is Japanese for "cute"). What is one word you'd use to describe the slug?


Photograph from odditycentral.com-more photographs here, too.


Gail


Check out my My TpT Store for fun/informative web quests, Reader's Theater Scripts on famous people and more: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Gail-Hennessey

New Horizons About to Visit Pluto!

 Perhaps, you will find this of interest to use with your students!


After 9 1/2 years, New Horizons is about to give Earthlings an amazing view of Pluto!  On Tuesday, July 14th, after 3 billion miles, the spacecraft will be within 7800 miles of the dwarf planet(which was still considered a planet back during the 2006 launch). It will take 4 1/2 hours, traveling at the speed of light, for New Horizons' snapshots to reach Earth. Mission control at Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab in Laurel, Maryland, will begin sharing photographs with the rest of us soon after. The flyby of New Horizons will last only a few hours. If you look to the lower left, scientist have nicknamed the dark region, the whale. And, to the right, is a white heart shaped region of Pluto. Illustration from bbc.com.

Fun Facts:
Pluto was discovered in 1930, by Clyde Tombaugh.

Pluto takes 248 1/2 years to orbit the sun!( The earth does this in one year)

It takes Pluto  6 1/2 days to turn on its axis(The Earth takes 24 hours)

For a time, between 1979 and 1999,Neptune was further away from the sun,than Pluto!

Pluto has four known moons.  Charon is the largest.

Bundle up on Pluto as the temperatures is about minus 390F.

No longer a planet, Pluto is also now known as 134340.

It takes 8 minutes for the sun’s light to reach Earth. It takes five hours to reach Pluto.

It is so dark on Pluto that stars can be seen during the day.

Disney’s dog Pluto was supposed to have been named after Pluto.

Back in 1930, an eleven year old girl, Venetia Burney, suggested the name of Pluto!

It takes about a week for the sun to rise and set on Pluto.

Percival Lowell first suggested a search for a planet beyond Neptune.

Pluto has about 1/15 the gravity of Earth. If you weigh 100 pounds on Earth, you’d weigh about 7 pounds on Pluto.

Pluto is called a dwarf planet or a plutoid.

Extensions:

* A MNEMONIC is a way to remember lists using the first letters of each. One used for the planets was: My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Nine Pizzas.  Think of a new MNEMONIC for the 8 planets or a mnemonic for remembering something else.

* http://www.nasa.gov/audience/forstudents/k-4/stories/nasa-knows/what-is-pluto-k4.html  Read why Pluto was demoted from being one of our nine planets.  What do you think, should Pluto be a planet or not? Why, why not?

* Check out my webquest on space. There are 12 informative webquestions, compehension questions and extension activities. https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Space-The-Final-FrontierWebquestExtension-Activities-1526888

U.S. Treasury to Place a Woman's portrait on the Ten Dollar Bill!

Do you know who is on a ten dollar bill? If you answered Alexander Hamilton, you are correct...for now. The U.S. Treasury has announced that there will be a change coming in 2020. A woman's face will be featured on the ten dollar bill!  The year, 2020, is the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution, giving women the right to vote.

An organization has been petitioning the U.S. Treasury to place a woman's face on the twenty dollar bill for this 100th anniversary. Currently, President Andrew Jackson is on the twenty dollar bill. Due to Jackson's treatment of Native Americans, this particular bill was suggested for the change. An online vote asking people which woman they'd like to see selected, picked Harriet Tubman.

The U.S. Treasury will begin asking people which woman they'd like to see on the new ten dollar bill. 

Trivia: Did you know that the last woman to be on a U.S.paper currency was Martha Washington?
THIRTEEN other countries already have a woman on their paper currency. See this list: http://nytlive.nytimes.com/womenintheworld/2015/06/18/11-countries-that-beat-america-to-putting-a-woman-on-paper-currency/

 Suggestions

1. Have small groups Name 10 famous women in U.S. History. Regroup and list the 3 most named.

2. By law, a person must not be living to be selected for selection for U.S. Currency.What would be 3 characteristics you would use for your selection?

3. Who would be your selection and why?

Personally, I would select Eleanor Roosevelt.

Born into wealth, advice from her dad helped shaped the person she became. He told her after reading the story, The Ugly Duckling, “We mustn’t spend too much time thinking about ourselves. We must think about other people, too."  This is what Eleanor did all her life! I remember reading a story about how as a young girl,while visiting Italy with her family, went for a donkey ride. When she noticed the young boy guiding the donkey had no shoes, she showed kindness by letting HIM ride the donkey! 

When her husband,Franklin Roosevelt contracted polio and was confined to a wheelchair, Eleanor became the yes, ears and legs for her husband. Eleanor traveled the country, returning with information that helped shape the policies of her husband’s 12 years in the White House. Eleanor also showed her bravery by traveled to visit troops during World War 2.

When asked the 3 most important things for happiness,Eleanor replied, "A feeling that you have been honest with yourself and those around you; a feeling that you have done the best you could in your personal life and in your work; and the ability to love others.”

She strongly believed that  “freedom must be universal and all men must be assured that there will be respect for the individual human being, regardless of his race, his creed, or his color”. Civil Rights were very important concern to Eleanor. In fact, she caused quite a commotion when on March 29,1941, she  went for a ride with a pilot,one of the Tuskegee Airmen. It is hard to believe today but at the time, many people didn’t think African Americans could safely fly aircrafts. She wanted to change that perception…and helped to do so.   She also resigned from the Daughters of the American Revolution, when in 1939, the group refused permission for African American singer, Marian Anderson, to perform at Constitution Hall.  Eleanor then organized a performance at the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, attended by over 75,000 people!

Called a  humanitarian , she worked at the  newly formed  UN after her husband  died. The organization  stood for a moment of  silence  in her honor at her death in 1962 . President Truman call Eleanor Roosevelt, the  “First Lady of the World.”

In my opinion, Eleanor would be a great choice for the new ten dollar bill.

Gail

I have a fun/informative play on Eleanor Roosevelt:  https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Eleanor-Roosevelt-A-Biographical-PlayTo-Tell-the-Truth-Play-590590

National Library Day is April 15th and Library of Congress Day is April 24th!

National Library Day is April 15th and Library of Congress Day is April 24th!

2/3 of all Americans have a library card. If you don't have a library card...this would be a great time of year to get one.  And, what's great about a library card... it's  FREE! 

Fun Facts to Share with Kids:

1. The word "library" comes from the word librarie, meaning "a collection of books". The Anglo-French word comes from an earlier Latin word, librariaum ,meaning "chest of books"

2.The first lending library was established by Ben Franklin, in 1731.

3. The first bookmobile was in operation, in 1857, England.

4. St. Catherine's Monastery's Library(in Sinai, Egypt) is said to be the oldest continually run library in the world. It was constructed in 6th century. Only monks and  scholars can use it.

5. The oldest continually run public library is The Library of Paris(Bibliotheque de Paris), in Paris, France. It dates back to 1368.

6. A Greek, Zenodotus, is considered the first known librarian in history.  He worked at the Library of Alexandria, Egypt.

7. The Library of Congress, in the USA,is the world's largest library.

8.The largest book find ever owed was  $345.14(two cents a day). A book of poetry was checked out in 1955 and found in a home 47 years later!

9. The most expensive book ever sold is the Codex Leicester, by Leonardo da Vinci. It was purchased by Bill Gates, in 1994, for $30.8 million!!!! dollars.

10. Each year, the main library ,at Indiana University, sinks about one inch from the weight of all the books! 

11. The world’s first library was built by Ashurbanipal(668-627BC) in Assyria.
12.The Epic of Gilgamesh is considered the oldest written story. It comes from the people of Mesopotamia ,telling the adventures of the King of Uruk( @2750-2500 BC). 

Extension Activities:

1. See photographs of some of the most beautiful libraries in the world: http://www.miragebookmark.ch/most-interesting-libraries.htm  Pretend you are visiting one of these libraries. What do you see? How do you feel?What might you be reading?

2. Write a paragraph explaining what you think of one of these quotes:

     " Reading makes all other learning possible. We have to get books into our children's hands early and often." President Barack Obama

     "Whatever the cost of our libraries, the price is cheap compared to that of an ignorant nation." American Broadcast journalist, Walter Cronkite.

     "There is more treasure in books than in all the pirate's loot on Treasure Island." Walt Disney
     " A book is like a garden, carried in the pocket." Chinese Proverb
3. Write a persuasive paragraph explaining why someone should have a library card.

4. Write a poem about a library.

5. Check out my informative web quest on the Library of Congress, our nation’s library! Are you a bibliophile(someone that loves books)? The Library of Congress, called our Nation's Library has over 33 million books. There are also over 12.5 million photographs and 6 million pieces of sheet music! Learn more about the Nation's Library with this fun and informative webquest.

  https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Library-of-Congress-Explore-Our-Nations-LibraryWebquest-604584

Links:

http://www.against-the-grain.com/2011/06/five-fun-facts-you-may-not-know-about-libraries/

http://libraryoutsourcing.com/10-interesting-facts-libraries/