SSR No More
This is an educational blog I read periodically; I like this blog because it’s from an educator providing real educational experience and knowledge in a blog. I liked the October article about SSR – Sustained Silent Reading and thought I would share it here. The article provided me with a ‘Duh’ moment and some good new ideas. Did you get the same feeling?
New Niche for Children’s Books
Maybe talking and teaching about the environment isn’t necessarily new territory for books (remember the Lorax?), but I’m super passionate about environmentalism so I usually take time to read about ways to get children interested in the environment. This article not only talks about books with stories about acid rain, planting trees, and stinky waste; it also provides resources with ways to participate and get involved. I especially liked the tree planting organization. This is probably because planting little trees was the first step I took as a youngster to protect the environment.
Prescription for Play
Can I just say that this is hilarious and brilliant at the same time? I love seeing innovative ways to get children’s (and their families’) attention. Doctors are starting to actually fill out prescriptions for play time and physical activity for obese and overweight children and teens! There can be multiple reasons as to why a child’s health deteriorates to these levels, and I’m not going to start criticizing families here – but I think what these doctors are doing is so smart.
Football’s Fun Fitness Program
As much as we would like to deny it, we all admire athletes – and we know that kids do the same. I’m not going to talk about how teens and other kids idolize athletes and their bad behavior. Nope. Instead, I wanted to share a positive program that the NFL is a part of. I knew about the NFL ‘Play 60′ program before, but I was reading about this in conjunction to a Bloomberg article that talked about expensive summer football programs. Anywho …back to the topic… This program is working to encourage kids of all ages to be physically active. Their main objective is to reduce childhood obesity (umm, pot calling kettle black NFL?) I would like to add to that — kids don’t get enough physical activity during the day, P.E. classes are not rigorous, recess has all but disappeared, and being more physically active allows you to sleep better, and focus more in your classes. So bravo NFL for helping out!
