According to this post on the National Council of Teachers of English blog, National Newspaper Week is October 5-11, 2008 and this year's theme is "Public Notice: Good Government on Display".

Though I searched long and hard for Canadian and Newfoundland references to National Newspaper Week I couldn't find any.  I did, however, find a Canadian resource that would be useful in newspaper themed learning.  The Canadian Newspaper Association has a special site, Newspapers in Education, that is dedicated to making it easy for teachers to include newspapers in learning in their classrooms.  On this site the lessons are grouped according to grades.  As homeschoolers, however, we know that lessons can be adapted to meet different age/grade levels so be sure to check out any that interest you and don't let the suggested grades be a hinderance.  Here's a list of the lessons on the site grouped according to the suggested grades:

Grade 5 Lessons: 1. The Weather Report; 2. World Weather; 3. Canadian Government; 4. Organizing a Debate; 5. The Debate
Grade 6 Lessons: 1. The Purpose of Advertising; 2. Making the Connection; 3. The Target (Part 1); 4. The Target (Part 2); 5. Designing the Advertisement
Grades 7-9 Lessons: 1: Becoming a Reader; 2. Scavenger Hunt; 3. You Be the Judge, the Role of an Editor; 4. The News Story; 5. How a News Story is Organized; 6. Writing a News Story; 7. Student Handout Using Quotes in a Story; 8. The Breaking Story; 9. Where Does News Come From; 10. Writing a Review; 11. Bugs & Beefs, Editorial Writing - 2 parts

I provided a direct link to the Canadian Government lesson because this would be a good one to do now with the government so much in the news due to the upcoming elections.

October 5-11, 2008 is Fire Safety Week.  The theme this year is Prevent Home Fires.

Newfoundlander Michael Gaultois, who is a burn victim, was the guest speaker at the official launch of Fire Prevention Week in Ottawa on October 2nd.  Children's recording artisit Mary Lambert was also in attendance to preform Sing Out Fire Safety , a compilation of original songs she put together and are available from her site.

Local fire departments may have activities planned during the week so be sure to watch for them or contact you local departmen for information. 

The National Fire Protection Association is promoting a Great American Fire Drill "asking kids and families all across North America to practice their home fire escape plans."  If you do the drill you can report it on Sparky's special Fire Drill Reporting Page.

From the National Fire Protection Association, here is a quiz for grownups and older children to check how much you know about home fire safety.  The National Fire Protection Association also has a section on YouTube that is full of videos about fire safety.

At Fire Prevention Canada you can find information about the history of fire prevention week and a Fire Prevention Week Kit that you can download.  This kit is actually meant for fire departments to use in planning activities for Fire Prevention Week but parents can also use the information about fire safety and printable sheets for kids that are included in the kit.

Scholastic has a special National Fire Prevention Week section that is full of great stuff!   There's a Fire Safety Tips slideshow, a Hunt for Home Hazards online game using the white house as the sample but it can apply to any house, a Help Sparky Get Out and Stay Out online game, and an online tool to help build an escape plan.  There are also lesson plans, printables, and quizzes especially for grade k-5 available on the site.

Sparky the Fire Dog's site is also full of great great stuff.  There's a special Fire Trucks section which includes a Fire Truck Gallery of photos of different kinds of fire trucks and alarms for you to click on to hear what they sound like, a Get Out of the Way game where you have to push the space bar to blow the horn and the arrow keys to move the firetruck, and an explore Sparky's Fire Truck section where you click on parts of the truck and boxes come up with information about it.  There's a special Fire Inspection Checklist  and a Home Fire Safety Checklist  that you can print off and allow your child to use to be an offical safety inspector for your house.  On the Family Stuff page there's a step by step guide to home fire safety planning and practice, a Hunt for Home Hazards article ,  Sparky's Fire Safety Tips, and coloring pages.  Those are just some of the great things on Sparky's site.

Have fun exploring and learning.  If you decide to do something special to celebrate Fire Safety Week, I'd love to hear about it.

At EcoKids Blog I discovered that April 19-27 is National Wildlife Week.  The National Wildlife Federation site has a special page announcing National Wildlife Week.  This page says "Register for National Wildlife Federation’s Wildlife Watch and become a citizen naturalist. You can even record your sightings online!"  Though it is an American site Canadians can participate in the "Tell Your Wildlife Watch Story" page.   You can pick the Province you live in in a drop down menu as part of the report .  I'd love to hear from you if you do post something there.  Leave a comment here so that I can go check it out.

April 22 is Earth Day Canada.  You can learn more about the history of Earth Day Canada and find some printable activities for it here.   You can find out about planned Earth Day Events in Newfoundland and Labrador here.  To register an event click here.  

The EcoKids site is hosting their 5th Annual Scavenger Hunt .  The deadline for submissions is April 25th, 2008.  You have to  "Search through the web site to correctly answer all the questions and be entered into a draw for some great prizes".  Open to ages 7-12.

In Barb's "Learning in the Great Outdoors Blog Carnival" post, I learned that April 13-19 is Environmental Education Week.  Though this is an American Event Canadians are also encouraged to take part in it.  At the National Environment Education Week website you can learn all about what it is and you will find links to a reading list and age graded quizzes for children.  The Get Involved page has lots of ideas for ways to participate, as well as lots of links to other pages for ideas.  If you decide to get involved you can register and tell them what you plan to do.  There are a few Canada organizations listed under the International Partners list on the Our Partners page.

All this is in prepartion for World Earth day which is coming up on April 22, and I'll be telling you a whole lot more about that later.

If you decide to do anything to recognize Environmental Education Week, let me know.

I discovered at Farm School that April is National Poetry Month.  At the League of Canadian Poets I discovered that this is Canada's 10th Annual National poetry month and the theme this year is "Poetry Without Borders".   At the League of Canadian Poets site you can find out all about National Poetry Month in Canada .  It includes links to posters, a pdf on the history of National Poetry Month in Canada, press releases, etc.  There's also a National Poetry Month Resources page. 

April 7-13 is Young Poets' Week.  There is a special page and forum for Young Poets.  Here they can share their poetry and receive feedback.

The American poets site, Poets.org, says that April 17 is "Poem in Your Pocket Day".  There's a really fun poem there and some suggestions of fun things to do.

I challenge you this month to either write your own poem, or copy your favorite poem, being careful to include the writers name, or write about your favorite poet.  Send your writings to me at jacquelinehillierATgmailDOTcom.   Just change the capitalized words to the right symbols and it will work.  At the end of the month I will post all the poems I receive.

I recieved a newsletter from Knowledge Quest this week with a link to a St. Patrick's Day Unit Study.   I emailed Terri and asked, and got, permission from her to post a link to it here. 

This is a great looking week long unit study with suggested activities/topics laid out for each day of the week from March 10th - 14th.  Throughout the week you are encouraged to learn about St. Patrick, Ireland geography and history and to experience some Irish music and food.  Also included in the unit are links to learn more about making lapbooks and timelines.  Be sure to checkout this St. Patrick's Day Unit Study made available by KnowledgeQuest.

I just found out that this is education week in our province's public schools and I thought maybe some of us homeschoolers might like to check out some of the things they are doing and maybe even implement some of it into our week.  The NTA News release about education week says that "The purpose of Education Week is to celebrate education and to encourage parents, community member and other educational stakeholders to become more involved with education..."  I don't think homeschooling parents need encouragement to become more involved with education but we still might like to implement some of the things they suggest.

The theme for this year's education week is Learn...Respect....Grow... .  At the NTA website you can  see the logo for Education Week 2008 and read about it's significance.  Also on their site is a link to a resource book in pdf form that you can print off in totality or just print pages you are interested in.  The resource book includes words and music to a special education week song, web resources, word searches, brain teasers, sudoku puzzles, crossword puzzles, activities/ideas for each key word in the theme.

I just found out about a VOCM radio contest that was on the go before education week and I liked the idea.  I thought I would use it to put off my own challenge here.  They invited students to write and send to them a poem or short story about what they like about a particular subject, a favorite teacher or why they like their school.  Some of these would be chosen to be aired on the radio.  I thought this would be a neat thing for homeschooled students to do and to send to me and I would post their submissions on our website, but I don't have to leave anyone out because I can post everybody's  :)  Send your writings to me at jacqueline hillier @ g mail . com but take out all the spaces I've made in the address - I made those spaces to keep people I don't want from getting my address.  I will post submissions as I get them.