Today I attended the 41st Annual Children’s Folk Dance Festival, sponsored by the Indiana Music Educators Association.
Children from 18 elementary schools learned folk dances from all over the world and performed them in unison at the North Central High School gymnasium.
About 400 children came to dance, each wearing a colorful t-shirt designed back at school to wear on this day.
At 2:00 on a Saturday afternoon, the high school gym became a ballroom. The students showed off the skills they had practiced all year. They turned, twirled and stomped their way through twelve folk dances.
Parents applauded and cameras clicked. Students stepped lively to beautiful music from Poland, Italy, Russia, Israel, South Africa, Bolivia, Mexico, China, the United States, and Scotland.
What a great opportunity – to learn about a culture by understanding its way of dancing!
Bravo to Michael McBride, festival coordinator, and Marie Lawlor, dance coordinator. It was a wonderful day!
Look at this list of words. Can you put them together into pairs?
- desk
- knife
- syrup
- sand
- hammer
- dryer
- seashells
- shoes
- lightning
- moon
- socks
- fork
- nails
- thunder
- dog
- chair
- pancakes
- stars
- washer
- leash
I met this giraffe today, and this eagle too…at the Indianapolis Zoo!
Can you name the other animals I saw today?
_agle
_iraffe
_aboon
_emur
_olphin
_iger
_lephant
_izard
_hark
_tork
_alrus
_ibbon
_ebra
_ea lion
_olar bear
_eacock
_amarin
When we add, we put things together. Ask your parents if you may use some spoons. Lay the spoons on a table and work on these questions:
5 spoons and 1 more spoon makes ________ spoons in all.
7 spoons and 1 more spoon makes ________ spoons in all.
8 spoons and 2 mores spoons makes_______spoons in all.
Draw a picture of 7 spoons and 3 spoons. Tell how many in all.
Here is a story for you to read. The story does not have an ending. Would you like to write the ending to this story?
Barnaby and the Mailbox
Barnaby was a boy who liked to go fast on his bike. He spent his days zooming through the neighborhood. He flew up and down the sidewalks. He sped around corners. The neighbors yelled, “Barnaby, slow down!” every time he zipped by.
But Barnaby shouted back, “I’m okay, I’m having fun,” and he never slowed down. One day Barnaby had a race with Sam, the fastest bike rider in the neighborhood. The
race started at Barnaby’s house. The boys took off, and Barnaby was in the lead. Barnaby turned around to holler at Sam.
He shouted, “Hey Sam, I’m faster than –“. But Barnaby never finished his sentence. His bike swerved, and then Barnaby crashed — right into a mailbox.
“Crunch!” Barnaby’s head hit the mailbox. The box broke off its post and fell to the ground. Down went Barnaby, tumbling to the sidewalk. His bike rattled to the street.
Poor Barnaby! Sam stopped the race. He picked up Barnaby and lifted the bike out of the street. Barnaby’s head hurt badly, and he wanted to go home, but he knew he had to do something first: He had to take care of that mailbox. Barnaby picked up the beat-up box.
He carried it to the home of the owner, and he rang the doorbell…
That’s all Mrs. Peacock wrote. Can you write the rest of the story? Who will answer the door? What will that person say to Barnaby? Send me your ending to the story. I’d love to read it!
Do you have a writing journal? All you need is a notebook or a stack of papers that you staple together. In your journal, you can write about anything you like. You can draw pictures to go with your stories. It’s a lot of fun to have a writing journal. Here is a list of things you might want to write about in your journal.
- Things I like to do on a rainy day
- All about my pet
- A time when I was really surprised
- If I had a pet elephant, here are the things we would do together
- My favorite food and how to make it
- Let me tell you what I like about school
- A funny story about a very windy day
- Why I love my birthday
- This is what my bedroom looks like
- What would happen if a frog jumped into the kitchen
- All about my trip to ______________
- Here’s what’s new at my house
- The things I would do if I were ten feet tall
- A funny story about a lion who won’t get out of bed
- All about the people in my family
- How to have a great time at recess
- Ten things you might not know about me
- How to have a great time at recess
- Let me tell you about a very special day I had
- My favorite game and how to play it
