February 2012

Talking About War: A Discussion for Kids?

Submitted by Nomad on Tue, 2012-02-28 10:43

February is a month chock full of opportunities to teach your kids about U.S. history. Black History Month on the heels of Martin Luther King Day is launching pad for discussions of slavery and civil rights. The Presidents’ Day holiday is an opportunity to learn about United States presidents   both past and present. What about extending these lessons to move into a broader review of U.S. war history from the Civil War to the Vietnam War,  and the U.S. involvement in the Middle East today?
 

New Activities for Presidents' Day!

Submitted by Nomad on Sat, 2012-02-18 17:17

We've made three new activities available in honor of Presidents' Day. Take some time over the next week to work through them and enjoy!

The Washington Monument is a 555-foot-tall obelisk in Washington, D.C. It is made of marble, granite, and sandstone. The monument is one of the world’s tallest stone structure and the world’s tallest obelisk. An obelisk is a tall stone pillar with a square base and sides that taper to a point like a pyramid. Download here.

Here are some great Civil War projects including making your own telegraph learning some morse code or building an ironclad ship



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Welcome to STEM Friday!

Submitted by Nomad on Thu, 2012-02-16 11:36

This week here at Nomad Press we’re hosting STEM Friday. It’s a chance for us to feature children’s books from all over the web that incorporate science, technology, engineering and mathematics. Leave your links and information in the comments and I’ll update throughout the day.

 

From NC Teacher Stuff, Energy Island, which is the account of how a Danish island switched to all renewable sources of energy.

Anastasia at Booktalking offers A Warmer World.
 

 Rourke Publishing looks at the field of early math education. The featured book is Nancy Kelly Allen's What's A Fraction? Looking for a fun and yummy way to teach the concept of fractions? Check this book out!: What's A Fraction?

 
From SimplyScience, Zap! It's Electricity by Buffy Silverman.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Way back in October we posted about why STEM education is so important to our kids NOW. To reiterate, children are natural scientists and problem-solvers, so it’s our job to help nourish those natural tendencies and give them the kind of active and exploratory education that they need, whether we’re parents or teachers or both!

 

Gelett Burgess award goes to Amazing Africa

Submitted by Nomad on Thu, 2012-02-16 11:13

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

    

We are proud to announce that Amazing Africa Projects You Can Build Yourself has been awarded the Gelett Burgess Children's Book Honor. This title was written by Carla Mooney for Nomad Press and was selected as the best family-friendly book inspiring imagination and creativity in the category of Society and Culture/Multicultural-Activity.

 

The Gelett Burgess Children's Book Awards advisory council looks for books that entertain and teach with an energetic and creative approach. The Gelett Burgess Center for Creative Expression selects books that stimulate the child's imagination, as well as inspire them creatively. Advisory council members want to know a book will make an impact in a child's life by helping them grow: socially, emotionally, ethically, intellectually, and physically.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Communicating Kindness

Submitted by Nomad on Tue, 2012-02-14 10:40

This week is “Random Acts of Kindness (RAK)” Week. Don’t save that kindness for someone special on Valentine’s Day, do something kind for someone every day! What I like most about doing small acts of kindness is knowing that those small actions in turn produce more small actions, because the person to whom you act kindly is more apt to act kindly to others as well, and so on and so forth. The snowball effect of our actions is a simple lesson we can teach our children.

 

Explore Water!

Submitted by Nomad on Fri, 2012-02-10 14:49

Today is STEM Friday, so we're going to blog about a recent addition to our "Explore" series called Explore Water! 25 Great Projects, Activities, Experiments. 

 

A Literacy Enhancer, Or Just Another Video “Game”?

Submitted by Nomad on Tue, 2012-02-07 12:43

The Corporation for Public Broadcasting and the National Endowment for the Humanities have funded, in part, a free online game called Mission US, created by a group of historians and educators to give children a realistic sense of what life might have been like during slavery, from the decisions people made to the vocabulary people used.

 

Virginia Hamilton and the American “Hopescape”

Submitted by Nomad on Thu, 2012-02-02 10:26

This year’s theme for Black History Month is Black Women in American Culture and History. When it comes to African-American women in US history we can easily name off some of the most prominent: for example, Harriet Tubman, the famous abolitionist during the American Civil War, or Rosa Parks, “the mother of the freedom movement,” and her act of civil disobedience on a bus one day in 1955 in Montgomery, Alabama. We’ve heard of the “Little Rock Nine,” and their female leader, Daisy Bates, who helped a group of black students become the first to attend the all-white Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas. PBS will be airing a documentary about her on February 2nd.