CALENDAR ACTIVITIES

  April 18 - 23, 2011  

April 18

Paul Revere began his famous midnight ride in 1775.

Through the study of Paul Revere, students learn about primary source documents while researching their family histories, with which they create and compare their family trees.

 

The son of a French immigrant, Paul Revere worked as a gold- and silversmith for more than 40 years in Boston, Massachusetts. In the years before the revolution, Revere gathered intelligence information by "watching the Movements of British soldiers," as he wrote in a personal account of his ride. Although he was joined by William Dawes and Dr. Samuel Prescott, it is Paul Revere who is generally remembered for making this historic midnight ride.

http://www.americanrevolution.org/revere.html

April 20

Celebrate author Mary Hoffman's birthday today.

Students write original picture books based on their own aspirations and dreams and share with the class or with younger students.

  Mary Hoffman, author of the Amazing Grace book series, was born in England in 1945. Hoffman has authored more than 80 children's books, including the Stravaganza series of fantasy novels for young adults, several story collections, as well as a number of nonfiction titles for children and adults. Stravaganza: City of Masks was on the New York Public Library's 2003 Stuff for the Teen Age list.

April 21

Barbara Park, author of the Junie B. Jones series, was born on this day.

Students write their own "Junie B." stories, based on the Junie B. Jones series, after brainstorming issues they've experienced during the school year.

 

Barbara Park is the author of over two dozen Junie B. Jones books, as well as several stories for older readers including My Mother Got Married and Other Disasters, Skinnybones, and Mick Harte Was Here. Park's books have earned a number of awards, including many children's choice and parents' choice award lists. Titles in the Junie B. Jones series continue to appear on bestseller lists.

April 22

Celebrate Earth Day!

In celebration of Earth Day, students research famous environmentalists and write letters to them asking for their opinions on current issues and turn their letters into a poem.

 

Gaylord Nelson founded Earth Day in 1970. In the same year, Denis Hayes coordinated the first Earth Day in the United States. As a result of Earth Day, many environmental laws were passed and the Environmental Protection Agency was created.

April 23

In 1564, William Shakespeare was born on this day.

Based on grade level, students learn about rhyming structure, experiment with the Shakespearean Insult Kit, or study scenes from Othello and watch an adaptation of that scene from the movie O.

William Shakespeare is the most widely taught playwright in the English language. By 1588, Shakespeare had left his wife and children to live in London as an actor. During the next ten years, he became a successful playwright, performing for the royal court and building a new theater called the Globe. He retired to Stratford-upon-Avon in 1616, where he died soon after. Since that time, few young students of English literature have not heard the line, "O Romeo, Romeo! Wherefore art thou Romeo?"





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