Spring has finally sprung!  I hope you all get the chance to enjoy some nicer weather this week.  I would have loved to go the Pirates' home opener today.  Were any of you lucky enough to go?

In case you didn't know, Earth Day is coming up on April 22nd.  Of course, we should take care of our planet every day, not just on Earth Day, but this is a great opportunity to really focus on being good environmental stewards.  Here are some fun activities you can try:

Clean up the park and brush up on your recycling skills by sorting trash in this National Geographic game.

Instead of throwing away those old nubs of crayons, melt them down to make new, multi-colored crayons!

Get the directions HERE.

Use your favorite veggies to create an Earth Day masterpiece!  
Get the recipe HERE.

These books come from PBS Parents' list of Green Reads.

The Lorax 

by Dr. Seuss

The Great Kapok Tree: A Tale of the Amazon Rain Forest

by Lynne Cherry

I Can Save the Earth!: One Little Monster Learns to Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle

by Allison Inches

The Curious Garden

by Peter Brown

As our school administration likes to tell us, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day is a day ON, not a day off.  Our children are so fortunate to live in a society that, while definitely not perfect, has come such a long way since Dr. King's time.  Dr. King's message of acceptance and compassion is an important one to revisit and stretches far beyond the civil rights movement. 

Here are some resources you can use to learn more about Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

The Reading Rockets website (one of my favorites for reading resources!) has a fantastic list of books to read on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day.  From biographies of Dr. King and Ruby Bridges to stories of people striving to improve their communities, there are books here for a variety of interests and ages.

Click HERE to go to the list.

I've said it before and I'll say it again:  You can find the best resources on the Teachers Pay Teachers website, and many of them are absolutely FREE!  (You will need to sign up for a free account to download files.)

Here is the link to all of the FREE Martin Luther King Day resources.  You can filter the results by rating, grade level, etc.

A few of my favorite free resources:

Martin Luther King Jr. Poster Activity FREEBIE

Martin Luther King Jr. Vocabulary Cards Freebie

Martin Luther King Jr. Facts and Opinions (Freebie)

Martin Luther King Day MLK Foldable Pack *Freebie*

If you live in the Pittsburgh area, there are a couple of activities you can do for FREE on Monday, January 20th:

The Carnegie Science Center is offering free admission and free parking to everybody on the 20th.  It seems that they are even throwing in an Omnimax movie!

The Pittsburgh Glass Center on Penn Ave. will have free glass blowing demonstrations on Monday.  They are also offering several mini workshops for a small fee.


The Schenley Park Ice Rink (in Oakland) has free ice skating from 1pm - 4 pm on Monday.  They will also have educational activities and art projects available.

You can see a more complete list of activities in this Post-Gazette article.