National Wildflower Week

Did you know that this is National Wildflower Week? (Or it may have been two weeks ago if you're on Lady Bird Johnson Wildlflower Center time, but there's no time like the present!)  Get in on the fun with these wildflower activities.

First, get some background knowledge by visiting the U. S. Forest Service's Celebrating Wildflowers page where you can learn about wildflowers from around the country and find lots of wildflower activities.  Also check out their 20 Ways to Observe National Wildflower Week list and locate a botanical garden or arboretum near you.

Read Miss Lady Bird's Wildflowers: How a First Lady Changed America to learn about former First Lady, Lady Bird Johnson's love for wildflowers and the work she did to share her passion with the people of the United States.

 After reading about this famous Texan, practice motor skills with a Texas wildflower craft.

Learn to make paper bluebonnets, Texas' state wildflower, in just a few steps in this previous article.

Explore and compare the 50 state flowers of the U. S.  Notice that some state flowers are wildflowers chosen because they are indigenous to the state.  After perusing the gallery, students can write a persuasive letter or essay about why their state flower is the best or why their state flower should be changed to a plant that better represents the state.

Visit the U. S. Forest Service Dyes page to learn about natural dyes made from native plants.  The page includes a list of plants that were commonly used for dye by Native Americans and a guide to plants by their dye color. Try making your own wildflower dye using this tutorial from the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center.  Sheepy Hollow Farm Life has a long list of plants and flowers that can be used to make the dyes.  Then, soak natural fiber (cotton, wool, silk) strings or fabrics in the handmade wildflower dyes.  After soaking, leave the dyed fibers to dry while you go read the first chapter of Lois Lowry's book, Gathering Blue, from The Giver series. 

This book's main character, Kira, is a skilled young embroiderer who learns the art of natural dye making in order to complete an important assignment from the leaders of her underdeveloped village.

National Bookmobile Day

1911 Book Van - NYPL

 Did you know that tomorrow is National Bookmobile Day?  Well it is.  If you live in a city, like mine, where there hasn't been a public library bookmobile in decades, you may be thinking, "who still uses a bookmobile?"  Turns out, a lot of folks depend on mobile libraries.  People who live in rural areas, people who don't have transportation, children, old people, sick people, busy people, and even lazy people can enjoy all kinds of library services through mobile libraries.  Now you should be asking, "why doesn't my city have a bookmobile?"

Celebrate your favorite bookmobile or cheer for one to drive your way during tomorrow's celebration.  At the American Library Association's National Bookmobile Day webpage, you can find printable, foldable bookmobiles that students can construct.  Or try a different foldable bookmobile courtesy of illustrator Bob Staake.

Let students use these printables or design their own shoebox bookmobiles and have a mini parade to raise awareness about the history and importance of mobile libraries.

To give students ideas for their miniature bookmobiles, introduce them to some of the world's most interesting bookmobiles and the fearless, beloved librarians who care for them.  Start by reading Jeanette Winter's book Biblioburro: A True Story from Colombia to find out about Luis Soriano and his donkey library that shared books in rural Colombia.

Discover Alaska's Kusco Book Express, a floating library that brings books to families along the Kuscokwim River.

LitSite Alaska

Learn about Proyecto Bibliomula, which employs a team of mules to transport books to people in rural Venezuela.

Proyecto Bibliomula

Read about Kenya's Camel Library Service that shares books with the nomadic people in the country's northeastern region.

Book Aid International

Then, browse through many other interesting bookmobiles in ALA's Celebrating 100 Years of Bookmobiles presentation.

Earth Day Storytime - Garbage, Garbage, Garbage

Earth Day is observed every year on April 22.  However, as I tell my students, one day is not nearly sufficient to meaningfully address sustainable living and the needs of our environment.  So, in our library, April is Earth Month.  To get things started, my students and I read some amazing stories about trash.

What would you do if you had to live in a giant pile of garbage? Most of us prefer to have our trash trucked off to the landfill to be forgotten.  But, for Cap'n Duffy St. Pierre, the sailor who spent most of 1987 sailing up and down the Atlantic Ocean with a boatload of garbage, that wasn't an option.  This is the main conflict in Here Comes the Garbage Barge!, by amazing author Jonah Winter.

The story describes the true events of a tugboat, called the Break of Dawn, full of more than 3000 pounds of trash that set out from Long Island on a mission to unload the garbage in North Carolina.  Unfortunately for Cap'n Duffy, North Carolina didn't want the trash, and neither did any of the other places he tried to stop along the Atlantic and Gulf Coasts of the U.S., Mexico, and Belize.  This book makes a great read-aloud, partly because it's jammed full of characters with hilariously imitable local accents.  Plus, this story is a perfect way to begin a discussion about how garbage is managed by communities and what individuals can do to reduce their contributions to landfills.

In addition to the interesting subject, and amazing storytelling, this book has fantastic illustrations by Chris Sickels from Red Nose Studio.  Each page is composed of clay characters, each handmade by Sickels, surrounded by real plastic toys and junk.

Students can see how the illustrations were made at this video narrated by Sickels. 

Next we read Antoinette Portis' Not a Box.

 This quick read illustrates how easily simple items, like a cardboard box, can be reused as something much more grand.  Read more about this great book and fun activities to go along with it.

Finally, since it's Poetry Month, I also shared Shel Silverstein's poem, "Sara Cynthia Sylvia Stout Would Not Take the Garbage Out" from Where the Sidewalk Ends.

 In this famous poem, Sara's stubbornness leaves her lonely and surrounded by smelly heaps of trash.  Students will wince and squirm in delighted disgust as you read the long list of decomposing foods that stink up Sara's space.

If you need more resources, like used media or reusable containers, for your Earth Day lessons and celebrations, check out Amazon's Earth Day Sale: Shop Amazon Earth Day - Green Solutions.

Put a Poem in Your Pocket + Poetry Centers

April is Poetry Month, so all month long, we will be reading, writing, and exploring poetry.  On April 18, we will be celebrating Poem in Your Pocket day as a part of our poetry month activities.  This celebration has been taking place nationwide each April since 2008.  It's a fun opportunity to enjoy and share poetry with students.  Likewise, they get to share their own favorite poems with each other!  This literary event can become an exciting classroom tradition, just like Valentine card exchanges and Halloween candy sharing.

There are lots of ways your students can celebrate the occasion.  They can carry poems in their own pockets, display pocketfuls of poems, choose poems from pockets, and so on.  Students can write or type their favorite poems onto cards they can carry around and share.  You can also print many pocket-sized poems from Poets.org for your celebration.

To help students investigate poetry independently, I setup several poetry centers for students to visit.

Each basket is labelled with a tag like this one that gives instructions for the activity.

All the materials students need for the activity are placed inside the box.  I will keep most of these centers out all month, just changing the contents from week to week, so students can explore lots of poets and poems.  The Acrostics center is the sole exception.  Each week, I will swap in a different form of poetry for students to attempt on their own.

You can print a set of free Poetry Month centers HERE.

If you still can't get enough poetry fun, check out this past article with more Poetry Month ideas and online activities.

Fun Things to Do this Spring

Spring will begin in just a couple of days.  I am very excited about its arrival.  There are lots of things to look forward to in Spring...flowers, birds, short sleeves, egg-everything.  In the interest of keeping track of all the things I want to remember to do, I made this list of fun things to do during Spring.  Don't let all the rainy days invite boredom.  Spring is a great time to get started on...all kinds of things. 

Get your printable Fun Things to Do this Spring list HERE.

St. Patrick's Day Stories, Gardens, and Other Fun

Saint Patrick's Day is a fantastic time to explore some Irish traditions and folktales.  The shamrock, or three-leafed clover, has long been associated with Ireland.  Occasionally, clovers grow with four or more leaves instead of the usual three.  These rare four-leafed clovers are thought to bring good luck to those who discover them.  Let students experience this tradition first-hand by growing clover in the classroom.

Visit The Schroeder Page to get this free printable clover observation chart.  After the seeds are planted, you can set the clover up in an observation center for students to visit independently or in small groups.  They can fill in this comparison sheet, draw diagrams of the plants as they grow, and use magnifying glasses to search for four-leafed clovers.

At the end of the month, students can chart their individual results, compare to classmates' observations, and chart the class' cumulative data.  Clover plays an important role in nitrogen fixation, so this experiment is a great springboard for a discussion about the nitrogen cycle.  Visit Backyard Nature to find out exactly how clover fits into Earth's nitrogen cycle.

Carry the clover theme into reading, with this shamrock book recommendation form from The Centered School Library.

Students will have fun using this sheet to tell their peers about books they'd be lucky to read.  Meanwhile, they'll get practice evaluating books and writing persuasively.

Students could also use the book review form to recommend their favorite leprechaun stories.  Read a few leprechaun picture books, like Jamie O'Rourke and the Big Potato by Tomie dePaula and Tim O'Toole and the Wee Folk by Gerald McDermott.  With older kids, read Leprechaun in Late Winter from the Magic Tree House series by Mary Pope Osborne. Also check out Leprechauns and Irish Folklore, the nonfiction companion to Osborne's novel.

Invite some luck your way by making the clover patch or another area of the garden into a retreat for leprechauns.

Kids can collect items from the outdoors and the recycling bin to accessorize the leprechaun garden.  If they don't find the shapes they need, students can use air-hardening clay to create pieces like the leaf-chair and yellow mushroom above.  Then, print out this free leprechaun puppet that kids can use for storytelling and imaginative play in the new mini garden.

All this learning and gardening will work up an appetite.  For snack time, make Irish soda bread, a traditional St. Patrick's day food.  Soda bread is simple to make, because the baking soda in the recipe helps the bread rise.  This means no repetitions of kneading and rising like in many bread recipes.

For more St. Patrick's Day fun, check out these rainbow-themed learning ideas.

Rodeo Reading, Writing, and Crafts

It's rodeo season in my area.  It's the time of year when even urban Texans break out boots and bolos to celebrate our cowboy roots (or pretend we have any).  It's also a great time to explore western fiction and cowboy culture with students.

Get started by reading a few stories aloud.  With my little listeners, I began with The Gingerbread Cowboy by Janet Squires.  This story adds a cowboy twist to a familiar tale.  Students love being able to predict what will happen next in a book they've never read.  Then we read Jan Brett's Armadillo Rodeo in which a curious little armadillo wanders away from his mother into a rodeo full of exciting new sights and adventures.

After the read-aloud, let students brainstorm and recall what cowboys and cowgirls wear and do.

Then challenge students to explore their inner-mavericks by writing about what they would do or how they would dress if they were cowboys and cowgirls.

Make a math connection by showing students how cowboy outfits include symmetry.

Get this fantastic cowboy symmetry printable courtesy of author Loreen Leedy.  The download comes with a blackline activity as well as tips for teaching students about symmetry.

Our rodeo season begins just as Texas' state wildflower is beginning to bloom.  Students can practice fine motor skills by making paper bluebonnets.

For each flower, students need one wooden skewer, 2 green die cuts of the letter "O", 6-8 blue die cut "O"s, and a couple of Styrofoam packing peanuts.  I didn't have to ask many people before I found someone willing to donate packing peanuts they had lying around at home.

1. Poke the skewer through one of the green "O"s on its long side.  Then poke through the other long side.  Now you have an "O" folded in half without being creased in the middle.
2. Add the second green "O".  Then add all of the blue "O"s in the same manner.
3. Poke the skewer through one packing peanut and into another.
4. Spread the blue and green ovals out as necessary to make the flower look fluffy and full.

Older students can make these on their own, but remind them to be very careful with the pointed ends of the skewers.  With young children, you may want to include a piece of craft foam in your supplies.  Lay the foam on the table, so little hands can poke the skewer down through the paper toward the tabletop without scratching the table.

 When everyone is finished, you can group the flowers together to make a beautiful display.