Contents

1. This Month

2. Latest lesson plans and resources

3. New Booklists

4. Kids book reviews

5. Video

6. Book

7. Just for Fun

8. Closing Thought

 1.  This month

• Encouraging kids to volunteer is a great way to make them more aware of the needs of various individuals and agencies that rely on unpaid help. National Volunteer Week is April 27–May 3, which is a great time to encourage teachers to get their classes involved. Finding community groups willing to take on school volunteer groups is the easy part. Getting kids interested or even excited about volunteering is another story. That’s where this great Web site comes in—the volunteering section is just one part of the “It's My Life” site, which supports the PBS TV show of the same name. It helps kids understand why volunteering is so cool, how they can make a difference, what they can do to help, how they can help raise funds, and how they can be good volunteers. There are tons of suggestions to help individual kids or whole classes decide what kind of tasks they’d be excited about getting involved in. Speaking of volunteers, why not volunteer to do a library program on volunteering for the kids in your community?—Gail Junion-Metz

   

   

 

 

Spring ...Handprint tulip craft

This is a wonderful craft for kids who like to get messy

 

 

Autumn

Graphing Greenery
In this lesson, students gather leaves and trace them on graph paper. They then plot coordinates that approximate the shape of the leaves and share those coordinates as "worksheets" for other students to complete. (Grades 6-8)

 

 

2.  Latest additions to the Website (http://www.consultpivotal.com/for_teachers.htm):

 

I have added 5 new lesson plans and pages to the acid rain page. Use them for an Earth Day-type activity or next time you are doing a unit on pollution or the environment

 

Observing Antarctica

In this interactive activity adapted from NASA, students are invited to view Antarctica in unsurpassed detail using a compilation of high-resolution images called the Landsat Image Mosaic of Antarctica (LIMA). Students can choose to investigate Antarctica's moving ice; get closeup views of icebergs, snow dunes, and other land and seascape features; learn how cracks in a glacier can be used to gauge its speed; see how ridges and troughs in the ice help scientists determine glacier flow patterns; and take a flying tour of the area surrounding McMurdo Station, a scientific research center operated by the United States.

 

How Do Data Tables Make Our Lives Easier?

If you think about the relationships we've just talked about you will see that the answer we are looking for is always a number but sometimes the question is a thing, like the name of the city or a food. That's okay because you can look up all kinds of numeric information using a data table.

 

Science - Make a simple pump

(click on the picture)

 

 

 

Solar System jigsaw

An interactive resource to teach about the solar system. The activity is divided into three levels: planet, moon and hardware.

 

3.  New booklists

 

Children's Choice Book Awards Finalists 2009

The Most Frequently Challenged Books of 2008

The 2008 Skipping Stones Honour Awards

CBCA Book of the Year shortlist 2009

The 2009 Indies Choice Book Awards

 

4. Latest Kids Books highlighted

Curious catwalk by John Gravdahl The Dragonfly Pool by Vera Ibbotson The Boy in the Striped Pajamas by John Boyne Grizzly Trap by Justin D'Ath Wolverine.  Worst day ever by Barry Lyga

The page for the Boy in the Striped Pajamas also includes many links to lesson plans for the book and for the movie

 

 

5.  Video: How To Create A Curriculum

 

Outlines how to create a year-long curriculum. Gives you some great teaching tips!

 

 

 

More videos for teachers

 

 

6.  Book:  The Creative Teacher: An Encyclopedia of Ideas to Energize Your Curriculum

Facing ever-more-demanding state standards and less disciplined students, even the most experienced teacher carries a heavier burden today than ever. before. The Creative Teacher offers inventive tools to enhance standards-based curricula and helpful strategies for creating new and engaging lesson plans. Filled with fresh ideas for everything from bulletin boards to math activities, this one-stop resource will quickly become the most valuable volume in your library.