Field Trip Ideas

Are your students lucky enough to have the opportunity to go on field trips?

I saw an amazing idea that I had never heard about before-did you know you can take your class, grades preK-12, on a field trip to an Apple Retail Store? Your class has a choice of creating a project, with help from trainers and specialists, using all the amazing hardware and software in the store, or showcasing a project. This option allows the students to bring a project they have made at school or home, and use the entire store as a place to present their work. This link goes directly to the Apple Retail Store field trip page. If anyone has been on one of these field trips, I would love to have your comments!

Field trips may be out of the question for some due to the rising cost of transporting classes, paying for admission costs, etc., but Lunchables is having a contest to help send 50 classes on field trips. Check out this short video about a class of 5th graders on an "alien" field trip!

Youtube: Alien Field Trip

More on how to find field trip ideas, and on virtual field trips coming soon!

Earth Day Ideas For April 22, 2010

EARTH DAY IS CELEBRATING ITS 40th ANNIVERSARY ON April 22, 2010
For students of all ages, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency [EPA] has a site with an assortment of Earth Day ideas. One fun online quiz lets students guess how many gallons of water are used in daily activities.
A downloadable PDF booklet called The Happy Earth Day Activities Book has charming illustrations that can be colored, and a nice range of activities for different age groups. I have used this booklet with younger children, letting small groups work on coloring and decorating pages for a shared class book, and have let older students work together to study and summarize the various ways to help the environment.
Nickelodeon has a section on their website called The Big Green Help. Among the various activities suggested to help you celebrate Earth Day, be sure to see what LeBron James is doing to help.

Jon Scieszka is Encouraging Boys to Read

Reading seems to be the theme this week! This time I want to make sure you know about the site called
GUYS READ.
Jon Scieszka, author of The True Story of The 3 Little Pigs, The Stinky Cheese Man, Math Curse, the Time Warp Trio series, and many others, started the program to get more boys interested in reading. There are ideas for promoting literacy, along with a wonderful list of books that just might hook your boys into reading. You are encouraged to suggest other books you know boys like. I applaud this talented author for addressing this important issue!

Great Children's Book Authors' Websites!

Today I want to share with you some great websites to help "hook" your young readers on books. These authors have some very engaging features such as videos, activities, games, unpublished stories, and fan clubs. Check them out! 

Dav Pilkey

Jeff Kinney; Diary of a Wimpy Kid

Junie B. Jones; series by Barbara Parks

Jan Brett; a wonderful site!

Robert Munsch