RECENTLYThis week I received an email from my good friend, Silvia, who lives in Guatemala. I first met Silvia Zulena Saga Pineda, last year, when she wrote telling me about the young children she was teaching in the garage of her home. Silvia resides in the poorest area of Guatemala. These children, if it were not for Silvia, would have no other place to attend school. Over the summer, Silvia's garage started to leak so badly she needed to move the school to another location. That did not slow her down at all. She now has so many students that she teaches them in two shifts, by herself, each day. In total now, Silvia's small school has 30 students with 4 more on a waiting list.
Last year, when I featured Silvia in our newsletter, the students at Lancaster High, in Lancaster, Ohio, took it upon themselves to raise funds to buy Silvia's students books for their classroom. Thanks to the students of Lancaster High, and their teacher Jenny Spencer, Silvia's classroom is now filled with over $700 worth of books.
You can visit Silvia's website online at www.compartiendoesperanza.ws, and you can write to Silvia and her students by emailing silvisaga@gmail.com. (Silvia speaks Spanish.)
Helping Silvia's classes would be a wonderful spring project for any class to undertake. For further details about the success of last year's project, please feel free to email me.
This Week's Theme - Celebrating Spring
The month of March and the advent of Spring is an exciting and uplifting time. We've chosen two free song downloads that celebrate flowers, seedlings and Spring. These are from volumes 1 and 4 of the Singing Sight Words series. We hope that you and your students enjoy these songs and the accompanying activities! Based on the Dolch sight word lists, our Singing Sight Words series uses 50 songs to teach over 300 of the most commonly used sight words.
Click here to buy this week's special: the 4 volume Singing Sight Words series PLUS the 4 corresponding reproducible resource/activity books. They are all on special this week for only $99.99 (regular $127.60).
Free Song Downloads
Flowers from the CD/Book Kit: Singing Sight Words, vol. 1
Click here to purchase the entire Sight Words series for
only $99.99 (regular $127.60).
Download the song Flowers in Mp3 format:
http://www.sara-jordan.com/promo-FlowersMp3.shtml
Lyrics for Flowers can be downloaded here:
http://www.sara-jordan.com/Flowers.pdf
Just a Little Seed from the CD/Book Kit: Singing Sight Words, vol. 4
Click here to purchase the entire Sight Words series for
only $99.99 (regular $127.60).
Download the song Just a Little Seed in Mp3 format:
http://www.sara-jordan.com/promo-JustALittleSeedMp3.shtml
Lyrics for Just a Little Seed can be downloaded here:
http://www.sara-jordan.com/JustALittleSeed.pdf
Corresponding Online Links and Activities
Younger children will enjoy this spring time coloring book which may be printed out.
http://www.bry-backmanor.org/actpag35.html
This FREE SPRING ACTIVITY from Celebrate Seasons entails planting seeds and watching them grow.
http://www.sara-jordan.com/SpringCycleActivity.pdf
Students in grades K-5 will have fun with this Eggshell People activity. Check it out!
http://www.education-world.com/a_lesson/02/lp259-02.shtml
Here is a good on-line concentration game for students from K-5.
http://www.primarygames.com/season_match/spring_match/spring_match.htm
The Kaboose website has some theme based puzzles and word searches.
http://www.kidsdomain.com/holiday/spring/word.html
Education World's Five Lessons for Teaching About Plants
http://www.education-world.com/a_lesson/lesson259.shtml
Oodles of great activities from Saskatchewan, Canada (the Curriculum and Instruction Branch)
http://www.sasked.gov.sk.ca/docs/kindergarten/kindsths.html
Learn about the return of the robin.
http://www.learner.org/jnorth/tm/robin/SpringFever.html