Northern Lights

Image from NASA

Late in January, there were many reports of Northern Lights in Europe, especially over the Scandinavian countries. As fourth graders were coming into the room for ICT on Friday, parts of this video were playing so they could see the phenomenon. The kids showed more interest than I had anticipated, particularly when they learned that, in the past, Northern Lights have been visible over our area of New Hampshire. Mrs. Bruning shared a wonderful story about seeing them when she and her family were camping.

Students asked that I post the video here so they could access it again. If your child shows continued  interest, you might want to sign up for email alerts with a website called Spaceweather.com. When solar activity takes place that makes the liklihood of seeing the Northern Lights good, I get an email - so I know when to keep my eye on the night sky. I know some day I'll see them again!

10 Not-So-Scary Movies for Halloween

If you're looking for a spooky family movie this Halloween weekend, check out this list of 10 Not-So-Scary Movies at Common Sense Media. Happy Halloween!

Lights-Camera-Action!

Today, the fourth graders performed their original New Hampshire legends for the camera! What great stories! Stay tuned for more on this special project!

Summer Stinks!

Marty Kelley in his ROCKS hat!

Do you remember Marty Kelley, the author who came to DES last year? The one who wrote The Messiest Desk and Twelve Terrible Things and drew the picture of Autumn not drinking out of the dog's dish? He's a musician as well as an author and he's made a new "Super Cool Punk Rock Version" of his book, Summer Stinks! You can see the music video by clicking here. Now Marty Kelley ROCKS in more ways than one!! And if Summer really does stink, maybe it's good that it's over now?

New Names

Kindergartners in ICT class listened to the story Chrysanthemum by Kevin Henkes, the story of a small student who was teased because of the name she loved. We learned a rhyming song about names (it's called "Willoby Wolloby" - listen to it here!) Then we experimented with seeing our names printed in all sorts of different fonts. Finally, we created a Wordle with all of our names and hung it up in the classroom!

we all have such special names with so many different letters - and there are so many ways to look at each of them! See?