Seasonal Celebration - First Day of Spring (Vernal Equinox)

My family and I decided to celebrate the vernal equinox, more commonly referred to as the first day of spring. After a long, cold and snow filled winter, we gladly rejoiced on Saturday. We rode bikes and played tennis, football and baseball. We spent time at the playground, walked our dog and ended the day with a celebratory meal reflecting on all the things we are thankful for - especially winter coming to an end!

I recently finished a fabulous book, encouraging one to remember their victories as they serve to build confidence. They also suggested celebrating victories. Given my propensity for celebrations, I’m in implementation mode! I declared to my husband last week, let’s celebrate the four seasons. After a winter of over 70 inches of snow, my family was willing to humor me. We plan to celebrate the first day of each season.

Fun Seasonal Facts for Your Children

Earth continually moves. It takes one year for it to orbit the sun and it rotates on its own axis every 24 hours or 1 day which causes day and night. The earth is tilted 23.5 degrees. If the earth was not tilted, there would be no seasons or differences in daylight. The tilt of the Earth’s axis and its revolution around the sun creates different cycles in a year, called seasons.


The following seasonal information is relevant to the Northern Hemisphere:

The vernal equinox occurs on March 20th or 21st when the sun is positioned directly over the equator and the hours of daylight and darkness are equivalent.

The summer solstice occurs on June 20th or 21st which is the first day of summer. This day contains the most daylight.

The autumnal equinox occurs on September 22nd or 23rd and is similar to the vernal equinox in that the hours of daylight and darkness are equal because the sun is positioned above the equator.

The winter solstice occurs on December 21st or 22nd which is the first day of winter. This day contains the least amount of sunlight.

Source: Ronan, Colin A. “Seasons.” The New Book of Knowledge. 2010. Grolier Online. 22 Mar. 2010

Happy St. Patrick’s Day

Ireland’s most distinguished national holiday is Saint Patrick’s Day, commonly called St. Paddy’s Day. This holiday honors the missionary who became the patron saint of Ireland. The Irish happily celebrate this day with parades, festive dinners, and dances. The national color of Ireland is green and the favored color on March 17th. Many people wear shamrocks which is the country’s national symbol. According to legend, Saint Patrick explained the concept of the trinity using a shamrock (three leaf clover).

My family loves to celebrate St Patrick’s Day! Conveniently, my daughter’s half birthday falls on March 17th so we fill our day with lots of festive activities. We proudly wear green on St Patrick’s Day. We eat green bagels, green scrambled eggs with cheese and ham. We sing happy half birthday and again eat something green and sweet. Of course, we read one of our favorite books, Dr. Seuss’ Green Eggs and Ham.

In school, my daughter recently completed a great activity that is perfect for St. Patrick’s Day. She counted shamrocks and incorporated the sight words “there”, “was” and “were”. Draw a shamrock (draw 3 hearts) and write, “There was one shamrock.” Draw two shamrocks and write, “There were two shamrocks.” Continue until your child or you get bored!

Source: “Saint Patrick’s Day.” Reviewed by William R. Keyser. The New Book of Knowledge®. 2010. Grolier Online. 13 Mar. 2010 .

Sight Words: A Key Benchmark for Kindergarten Curriculums

Last night, our school held a kindergarten curriculum information session. The session provided parents with great ideas for supporting reading at home. They provided us with the tools to both determine and improve a child’s reading level.

Pre readers (Level 1 – 3) These children are learning their sight words and enjoy reading books. If your child is a pre reader, they recommend performing the following activities at home:

Read every day (a recurring theme in this post)

Read with expressions and make it fun

Practice sight words

The ability to instantly recognize sight words greatly assists a child in getting to the next reading level as well as reading comprehension. Our teachers recommended creating a wall word at home. Print the 25 sight words noted below and put it on a wall. Look for sight words in books and environmental print. In addition, a child needs to make a connection between sight words and sentences. Some children know all these words but do not recognize them when reading.

a	is	in	me	at	go	we
and	you	can	this	like	here	I
it	to	my	up	on	am	the
see	said	look	come

Personally, I have found a balanced approach that combines both obtaining a sight word vocabulary via wall word, fun games (hint: Erudition) and reading to your child every day for at least 20 minutes provides the desired results.

Beginner Readers (level 4-6) These children can read simple sentences and books that contain many sight words and picture support. They know all of the above 25 kindergarten sight words and possess the ability to apply some reading strategies.

If your child is a beginner reader, they recommend doing the following activities at home:

Read every day

Discuss elements of books -beginning, middle, ending, setting, characters, problem and solution

Point out the endings to sight words – look, looks, looked

Practice spelling and writing sight words

Work with the sight words on List A & B noted below

List A

going	down	not	yes	went	with	one
for	day	little	he	they	big	got
have	where	are	from	run	of	his
out	she	will	was

List B

her	get	after	eat	why	away	who
home	then	night	first	saw	did	mother
because	father	again	has	want	what	make
came	could	do	there

Readers (level 7-9) These children can read many of the words in a picture book independently. They possess the ability to apply strategies to figure out new words; they read fluently with expression.

If your child is a reader, they recommend doing the following activities at home:

Implementing a “you read to me I read to you” strategy; a child reads one page and another person reads the other page. Some children tire easily; so alternating between pages is a great strategy. Mary Ann Hoberman and Michael Emberley wrote a series of excellent books that promote this concept.

Reread books to practice fluency. A great book to reread is Brown Bear Brown Bear What Do you See? My daughter could recite this entire book without turning a page; it is filled with repetition and rhymes. Each sentence is eight words or less and incorporates many sight words (I, see, a, you, do, what).

Model reading with fluency - read books to your child that is above his/her reading level

Ask comprehension questions - ask the “wh” questions (who, what, where, when & why)


Fluent readers (level 10 & up) These children read independently with confidence. They possess the ability to reflect on what they read. In addition, they use text features to aid in comprehension.

If your child is a fluent reader, they recommend doing the following activities at home:

Keep reading (they mentioned this several times)

Be a good listener when your child is reading

Allow them to make mistakes

They provided fabulous advice. They told us to listen to our children read and allow them to make mistakes so they can self correct. When reading with my children, I instinctively correct them when they misspeak rather than providing the opportunity to correct themselves. Allowing children to self correct ultimately creates a more positive reading environment. If you listen while they read and are not quick in pointing out their mistakes they may correct themselves as they read on – great advice!

Celebrating Dr. Seuss

If your family is like mine, you love celebrations. In honor of Dr. Seuss we created a cookie cake in the shape of the famous red and white hat from his legendary book, The Cat in the Hat. We honored Dr. Seuss by reading his books and eating cookie cake – the perfect after school activity to celebrate Dr. Seuss’ birthday.

This activity takes approximately 30 minutes and requires the following ingredients: Betty Crocker’s sugar cookie mix, a stick of butter, an egg, vanilla frosting and red food coloring. Make sugar cookie mix as directed. Using wax paper, shape the cookie dough into a hat and place it on a cookie sheet. Bake the cookie until the edges are light golden brown. Cool completely. Place half of the vanilla frosting into a bowl and add red food coloring. Frost and decorate as desired. A healthy alternative is to make a pizza, using mozzerella cheese and tomato sauce to create the red and white stripes.

Dr. Seuss’ Story

Courtesy of the
Montgomery County
Library
Theodor Seuss Geisel (1904–1991), a voracious reader and distinguished drawer, was born on March 2, 1904 in Springfield, Massachusetts. He has received numerous prestigious awards including the Pulitzer Prize. Theodor Geisel’s literary works impacted the world; he sold over 200 million copies of his books worldwide.

His popularity grew exponentially from his literary works as Dr. Seuss. Geisel was saving his real name for serious endeavors. He created his pseudonym using his middle name and the doctor salutation. Ironically, his father wanted him to obtain a doctorate. Geisel once joked that he saved him thousands of dollars.

Geisel graduated from Dartmouth and did pursue a doctorate in English literature at Oxford University. He quickly changed his mind and returned to the states after a fellow student encouraged him to leave academia and pursue cartooning. He not only listened to her advice; he married her too.

In 1937, he published his first childrens book, And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street. Over the next two decades, Dr. Seuss published 12 more children books (e.g. Horton Hears a Who!) In 1957, Dr. Seuss published both The Cat in the Hat and How the Grinch Stole Christmas (one of his favorite books). Over the next few decades, he continued writing children books, publishing over 30 books in this period. My favorite Dr. Seuss book, Oh, the Places You’ll Go! , was the last book published in his lifetime.

Geisel strived to create children books that were both easy and entertaining. He restricted the vocabulary, used repetition and rhyming, and kept it simple so very young children could read his books; he revolutionized children books. His early literary works established him as a reputable writer but his reputation soared in1957 when he published The Cat in the Hat.
Dr. Seuss wrote four out of the ten bestselling hardcover children books of all time. They are as follows: The Cat in the Hat, Green Eggs and Ham, One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish, and Hop on Pop.

Gerald Harrison, president of Random House’s merchandise division, in Publisher’s Weekly, stated “… he was basically an educator. He helped teach kids that reading was a joy and not a chore…. For those of us who worked with him, he taught us to strive for excellence in all the books we published.”

Source: “Seuss, Dr.” Authors and Artists for Young Adults, Volume 48. Gale Group, 2003.
Reproduced in Biography Resource Center. Farmington Hills, Mich.: Gale, 2010. http://proxy.montgomerylibrary.org:2071/servlet/BioRC