Good morning!

The sun is back again!

I hope you all had a wonderful Earth Day yesterday and had a chance to get outside. I went for a rainy walk through a beautiful, flower-filled park with my daughter and basked in the scenery and the company. 🙂

Oliver Jeffers, another favourite author, had a bit of a different day. He recorded a Ted Talk and I’d like to share it with you here.

I hope you enjoyed Oliver Jeffers as much as I did.  He says,

“As we watch the wheels of industry grind to a halt, the machinery of progress become silent, we have the wildest of opportunities to hit the reset button. To take a different path.”

Please think about what this means and how you could take this opportunity. When life gets back to “normal”, what “different path” could you take that would show your kindness to our Planet Earth?

Drop me an email or comment below with your ideas or thoughts…

Be kind,

Mrs. H.

Happy Earth Day!

Fifty years ago today, on April 22, 1970, 20 million people celebrated the Earth in the United States, where Earth Day began. Today, at least 193 countries celebrate Earth Day and billions of people realize the importance of learning about and caring for this planet we all call home.

Just in case you’ve forgotten how beautiful our planet is while you’ve been safe at home, take a look:

Aren’t we lucky to live here? You can also watch a live-action version of that video just outside your front door. It might not be so grand or sweeping (and you’d have the chirping birds instead of the music!), but it’s just as awe-inspiring. Take the time today or tomorrow…or today AND tomorrow…and just sit for 15 minutes and observe. Use all your senses…inhale the fresh scents of Spring, touch the grass beneath your legs, look at the vibrant colours and shapes of flowers and leaves on the trees, listen for the sounds of new life…taste is the one sense you might want to wait to use until your veggie garden grows! 😉 Enjoy all our planet has to offer…

If you’re looking for other activities after you’ve soaked up the beauty of nature, here are some websites that offer ideas and information about respecting our planet.

50 Earth Day Activities for Kids on Tinkerlab.

A different view of our Earth can be seen on space.com .

National Geographic Kids is a great site to explore and it can be found here.

Finally, Earth Day’s gone digital with The New York Times.

As always, feel free to comment below to tell me about what you observed outside or just say hello!

Happy Earth Day, Clinton Thunderbirds!

Mrs. H. 🙂

Good morning!

As I write this blog post, the sun has come up and there is another beautiful, blue sky outside my window. Haven’t we been lucky to have such amazing weather to enjoy all the signs that Spring is here? I can picture the beautiful cherry tree outside Clinton school…:)

I also have some music on and I’m enjoying listening to poetry. Did you know that the songs we listen to are poetry set to music? Songwriters are poets? April might be poetry month, but you are listening to poetry all year long!

Below you will find a poem by Jane Yolen that has been set to music and it becomes…a song! Enjoy the sunny day and perhaps you will be inspired to write some poetry of your own to thank our Earth. Of course, please share it with me if you do!

Mrs. H. 🙂

Good morning, Clinton Thunderbirds! 🙂

One of the most circulated books in our Clinton Library is Where’s Waldo! Wouldn’t it be fun to have your own hunt for Waldo and friends at home? Candlewick Press  (the publisher of Where’s Waldo books) has made it possible! Print out your own Waldo Character Sheets to get started. They can be printed with a colour printer or you can print them and colour them yourself.  You could even draw them yourself! Ask an adult to hide them for you or you and your siblings could take turns hiding them for each other. Good luck! That Waldo is a tricky one…;)

Click here to check out some other Where’s Waldo activities such as a word search, colouring page or matching game.

Happy hunting!

And happy weekend! 🙂

Mrs. H.

Winner of the 2020 Caldecott Medal (for amazing illustrations)
A 2020 Newbery Honor Book (for a powerful story)
Winner of the 2020 Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award (for determination and courage to work together)

That’s a lot of awards! And very well deserved! Do you remember The Undefeated? It was on our library fireplace for quite a while, so I could talk to you all about it.  It was written by Kwame Alexander, one of my favourite poets/authors. If you’re in Intermediate, you might know Kwame for these books…

Kwame writes in verse (poetry) and we will be talking about poetry this month, as April is Poetry Month. Check back on our Library blog to learn more about poetry from Kwame himself. In the meantime, here he is reading/performing The Undefeated.

Enjoy! 🙂

Mrs. H.

PS…Congrats to Gokul who knew the answer was Seven!

Take away a letter and I become even. What number am I?

Leave your guess in the comments below or check back tomorrow for the answer. 🙂

Below you will find some students’ goals and drawings. Many thanks to Cara and Krystal! I love to hear from you all. Please feel free to comment below or just continue to send me emails. I miss you!

Happy Reading!

Mrs. H.