Olympics 2008- Getting Students Involved

As August spins by, it's inevitable that students begin to think about school whether by choice or by the back-to-school signals that loom around us. With the Olympics starting today, there are great avenues in which parents can involve their children while honing some academic skills such as reading, math and research. The best part is that with the excitement of the Summer Olympic Games, students enjoy these academic-based activities because the Olympics is fun and rather easy to follow. Visit this great site with resources about Olympics 2008 students. Go Team USA!!

NEA's "Read Across America" Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss!

Today, March 3, 2008 is the National Education Association's "Read Across America" day. Perhaps your child will come home with some great comments about how they celebrated this ever popular day. I think that it is wonderful to have a single day dedicated to reading, as it serves as a backbone to education across subjects.
However, I propose that we attempt to keep "Read Across America" alive everyday, even though we celebrate it on a particular day, Dr. Seuss's birthday (3/2). (This year many schools celebrated it on 3/3 because 3/2 was a Sunday). We celebrate Dr. Seuss's birthday because he gave us the timeless readers like "The Cat and the Hat" that helped many say, "I can read and I am a reader!" With this theme in mind, it is important that we surround our students with books and print, constantly reminding them they are readers and the power to read is endless.
Keep on the lookout for the NEA's: Cat-a-Van" in a city near you! The National Edcuation Association's website (http://www.nea.org/) writes:

Catch the reading ride this Read Across America season! Three Cat-a-Van tours will be hitting the roads to celebrate the joy of reading. The three tours will start their travels in Atlanta, Austin and Chicago to cover more than 1,200 miles in 11 states.
During the cat trek, the tours will visit more than 18 cities in Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Missouri, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, and Texas to provide more than 12,000 books and cash grants valued at $100,000, thanks to a generous donations from NEA's Books Across America, a program that provides book donations and financial backing to public school libraries in need. Find out if Seuss's famous feline is headed to your neck of the woods.