May is a little late… we’ve been hiking… and reading… and relaxing… as one does when the father person takes a break from work… we will be back into blogging next week… get your boots on and ready for the great outdoors!!!
A Couple of our readers have asked us how we use our calendar posts for school. These posts began, and have grown, simply because it was interesting to see what events were occurring on a particular day. We don’t celebrate everyday – but we could!!! At the beginning of each month we print out a new calendar (click on the image and print it landscape, works better that way). Then we read through the blog post and pick the days that we would like to celebrate. We write those days out onto our calendar and pop the calendar onto the fridge. On the particular date we visit the website and have a look at the links or create some fun to post on our blog, like our recent Shakespeare post on his birthday.
If you would like to now more about how we use our calendar for school as a fabulous resource of famous people and events then do pop over to the Almanac page for an explanation… Meanwhile, we hope you have a marvellous May!!!
Dozens of Days to Celebrate
1 May 2014: Save the Rhino Day.
- Se7en+1 Fun Rhino Activities from Se7en.
- Save the Rhino Day from holiday insights…
- Fun stuff for kids in the rhino info section at Save the Rhino.
- Rhino facts from discovery kids.
- Rhino crafts for kids from Artists Helping Children.Org.
- Kids fun from The International Rhino Foundation.
2 May 1844: Elijah McCoy Inventor (1844 – 1929).
4 May 1971: GreenPeace launched.
4 May 2014: National Weather Observer’s Day.
- Se7en Make a Weather Station.
- Making a Daily Weather Chart in Se7en Steps.
- Weather Watch from Scholastic.
- Weather Whizzkids – great stuff!!!
- A list of weather Lesson Plans at Discovery Education.
- Weather Lesson Links from The Teachers Guide.
4 May 2014: International Firefighter’s Day.
- Kids Firefighter Blog.
- Firefighter for Kids, National Geographic.
- Volunteer Wild Fire Services Keep a whole lot more than the Cape Vynbos Safe… check out their site, they do fantastic work.
4 May 2014: World Asthma Day.
5 May 2014: Cinco De Mayo
- One Pretty Thing’s Round-up – this year and last year… fun!
- Did I say Kaboose already!!!
- Social Studies for kids tells the story.
- KinderArt has some fun projects as usual.
5 May 2014: Children’s Day (Japan).
7 May 1937: Hindenburg Disaster
- The Hindenburg at Awesome Stories.
- The Hindenburg Disaster at Kids.net.au
- The Hindenburg disaster on HowStuffWorks.
7 May 1840: Tchaikovsky’s Birthday (1840 – 1893).
- Se7en+1 Music Appreciation Resources for Kids… Books, Online and Craftiness…
- Making Music fun is such a great site.
- Classics for kids is fun.
- DSOKids has a bio and some fun music goodies for kids.
7 May 2014: Space Day.
- Se7en’s Space Spectacular…
- The Official Site…
- Nasa Space Place for kids.
- Outer SPace Crafts from About.com
- NASA Kids’ Club.
8 May 1884: Harry Truman’s Birthday (1884 – 1972).
- A fun quick site for kids from the Truman Library.
- Biography and coloring book.
- Lesson plans from US history.
8 May 1945: VE Day.
- What is VE Day? From Kids.net.au
- Have a look at a newspaper of the day from Exploring 20th Century London.
- Children of World War II on the History Learning Site.
10 May: Clean Up Your Room Day
- Teaching Kids to Declutter in Se7en Steps.
- Se7en + 1 Steps to Decluttering – Never Again.
- How to Declutter Your Home in Se7en + 1 Steps…
- Se7en + 1 Are Resorting their Weekends with Operation S.O.R.T.
- Se7en Celebrate Salvador Dali
- ArtSmart4kids has a great biography.
- Lesson Plans Galore from the Salvador Dali Museum.
- EHow has some great info and links.
11 May: Edward Lear’s Birthday (1812 – 1888).
- Se7en Do Poetry and Heaps of Resources for Kids.
- Se7en Make Poetry Notebooks.
- And a Jumbly Week That Was…
- Edward Lear from Surfnetkids.com
- Edward Lear homepage.
- Ehow has some great limerick ideas.
- A collection of nice limericks.
- Teacher Planet has a limerick page.
- Some of Edward Lear’s Limericks.
12 May 2014: Kite Day.
- We made kites for a Dr. Seuss Party and we got the plans from the Children’s Discovery Museum of San Jose.
- Kite Trivia from kites for kids.
- Flight tips and basics from breeze chasers.
- Professor Kite.
- The virtual Kite Zoo.
- How Does a Kite Fly.
- A nice resource for little people with kites from round the world.
12 May 1820: Florence Nightingale’s birthday (1820 – 1910).
- Visit the Florence Nightingale Museum.
- BBC schools Famous People.
- And Woodlands-Junior are totally fabulous for all the Florence Nightingale facts…
- This is lovely a click-through story of her life.
- Florence Nightingale paper doll.
14 May 1847 : Webster’s Dictionary First Published.
- Merriam-Webster’s WordCentral for kids is very cool!!!
- Here’s the Grown up version.
- And who can resist top-online dictionaries for kids from About.com
14 May 1804: Lewis and Clarke Began their expedition (1804).
- These worksheets form Class Brain are brilliant and we always use them, whenever we study Lewis and Clarke.
- Lewis and Clark Map from EdHelper.
- An article from Time for Kids
- Lewis and Clark resources from around the web.
- This page from PBS is packed with fabulous resources.
- This site has great activities.
- Nice interactive link from National Geographic.
14 May 1727: Thomas Gainsborough (artist) born, 1727
- Garden of Praise has some great links: puzzles, word searches and worksheets.
- Enchanted Learning Coloring Pages: Gainsborough’s “Blue Boy.”
- The Web Museum in Paris has a biography and a collection of his paintings to look at.
- A Wikipedia Biography and gallery of paintings.
15 May 1856: L.F. Baum’s Birthday (1856 – 1919).
- Amazing Moms has a Wizard of Oz party!
- Classroom activities from thewizardofoz.info
- Coloring pages from DLTK
- Craft Ideas from DLTK
- Family Crafts has a list of activities.
16 May 2014: National Chocolate Chip Day.
17 May 1874: First Kentucky Derby.
- The Official Kentucky Derby Website.
- Se7en Steps To a Pony Party.
- One Pretty Thing has a collection of crafts.
- Fun Kentucky Derby Printables from Partysupplieshut.com.
18 May 2014: International Museum Day.
- Visitor Information for Cape towns Collection of Museums.
- What’s on at Cape town Museums Today… The Treasure Hunt is next Saturday because of the storm.
- This is a great spot packed with online museum goodies from museums all over the U.K. – My kids love this site and roam here for hours.
- Create Your Own Museum from Wikihow.
- Create your own art collection form the Tate Modern.
18 May 1980: Mt. St. Helens Erupted.
- Mt. St. Helens National Park.
- The story of Mt. St. Helens with quick Facts.
- The history of Mt. St. Helens.
19 May 2014: Circus Day.
- Se7en’s Circus in a Suitcase… Celebrating Alexander Calder.
- Se7en’s Quick and Easy Circus Party.
- Katherine Marie is having a Clown Week this week…so cool.
- Se7en’s Quick and Easy Circus Party.
- A fun circus party from Amazing Moms.
- Tightrope Peg Man from Family Fun
- Circus printables from Family Fun.
- Quick and Easy Balloon Cupcakes from Family Fun.
- Circus Crafts from Show Mom The Money.
- Classroom resources from Teaching Heart.
- More circus crafts from Kids Crafts Magazine.
20 May 1927: Amelia Earheart’s TransAtlantic Flight.
- Amelia Earhart’s Biography.
- Another great biography.
- Great Biography from Garden of Praise followed by worksheets and printables.
21 May 1844: Henri Rousseau’s Birthday (1844 – 1910).
- Biography and links from Princeton online.
- Quick bio from About.co.
- Biography and lesson ideas from Princeton Online.
- You can’t beat the NGA for kids, follow the link to the online game.
21 May 1927: Lindbergh Flight Day.
- Brilliant Detailed Story coloring book about Charles Lindbergh.
- Everything you need to know about the man from the Official website.
21 May 1799: Mary Anning’s Birthday (1799 – 1847).
- The fascinating story of Mary Anning, for kids.
- A fuller biography from The DorsetPage.
- More about her from the Natural History Museum.
- Bio from Lucy Learns.
22 May 2012: International Jazz Day
- Classics for Kids has Jazz for kids links.
- Jazz for Young People Online, Learn about the Jazz Greats.
- This is a fabulous interactive site from PBS.
- Lesson Plans from PBS.
22 May 1570: First Atlas Published.
- Se7en do Geography – Heaps of Resources.
- Wonderful, kid friendly – map links to die for from National Geographic.
- National Geographic World Atlas for kids – fun!!!
- Fact Monster Atlas for kids.
- Online Atlas of world History from TimeMaps – so cool!
- Se7en’s World wide Map in se7en Steps.
- The Whole Wide World in Se7en Steps.
22 May 1844: Mary Cassatt’s Birthday (1844 – 1926).
23 May 2014: World Turtle Day.
- Absolutely cool turtle tides from cccturtle.org. Printables, Games, Fact sheets – everything.
- Lots of turtle activities from seaturtleinc.
- A bit about world turtle day from mpes.org
- Celebrate World Turtle Day from the Humane Society of the USA.
- Make an Origami Turtle from Family Fun.
24 May: The Brooklyn Bridge Opened in 1883.
- 42 Explore has a mass of bridge links – everything you can imagine about bridges.
- This is so fun… Big Apple History from PBS.
- A great history of the Brooklyn Bridge, with great diagrams, from catskillarchive.com
- Take a virtual walk across Brooklyn Bridge.
- The Brooklyn Bridge Guide from About.com.
24 May 1844: First Morse Code Message Sent.
- Morse Code from Enchanted learning
- Cryptology for kids – This is fun!
- More codes and ciphering to enjoy.
- And everyone needs a morse code translator!
25 May 2014 : Missing Children’s Day.
- Around the World.
- In Europe.
- And Madeleine…
- In our South African news today.
- The last book in this post is all called “Protecting the Gift.” Every woman in the world should read this book – really! Go and read our review…
- The Day We Lost A Child for a Couple of Hours… yes, it can happen to anyone.
26 May 2014: Blueberry Cheesecake Day.
- Se7en’s Baked Cheese Cake Recipe.
- RecipeZaar has a bunch of totally gorgeous looking recipes.
- My Punch Bowl, describes the origins and different types of cheese cake.
- She Knows has a heap on Blueberry Cheesecake tips and recipes.
26 May 1951: Sally Ride’s Birthday (1951 – ).
27 May 1907: Rachel Carson’s Birthday (1907 – 1964).
- Great Fact Sheet.
A Biography Page. - Kid readable bio from Scholastic.
- My Hero – a Quick Bio.
- Rachel Carson Centennial Blog.
- Lesson Plan
- Resources from The Rachel Carson Homestead.
- Another Lesson Plan
- Short biography and lesson plan ideas.
27 May 1964: Golden Gate Bridge Opened.
27 May : Masking Tape patented.
- Se7en’s Essential Parenting Tools.
- IdeaFinder.com – would you believe the history of masking tape.
- The history of Scotch Tape from About.com
28 May 1959: MonkeyNauts Able and Baker in Space.
- Woodlands Junior has London Landmarks, scroll down for Big Ben.
- Big Ben Facts and Figures from LondonNet..
- The Interesting Story of Big Ben from WhiteChapelFoundry.
29 May 1953: Hillary and Tenzing conquer Everest.
- BBC on this Day…
- Time Magazine Article.
- Photo Gallery – from National Geographic.
- How Stuff Works: Climbing Mount Everest.
29 May 1917: John F. Kennedy’s Birthday.
I kind-of love that Clean up your room day is on Mother’s Day this year 🙂 🙂
Someday,someday I am going to get myself together and use some of these days to teach my kids some great general knowledge.
Oh and do enter my competition
Hay Marcia, The irony of Mother’s Day and Clean-Up Your room day was not totally lost on me, though I have an idea that it may well be lost on more than a few little folk that live with me!!! Hope you have the most fantastic week!!!
Oh Cat… I’ll tell you a secret… just mark a couple of these events on the calendar and your kids will teach themselves!!! Mine all want to know who’s birthday it is and what was special on this day… I often send them to look things up or find out something about the person… Natural curiosity is about the best teacher ever!!! Hope you have the most brilliant week!!!