Monday, May 20, 2013, Tracy Bergum’s 5th grade students from Sacred Heart School in East Grand Forks visited the Grand Forks Herald downtown office. Thanks for coming – we enjoyed your visit!
Sacred Heart 5th Graders
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Memorial Day Resources
Memorial Day, which is observed on the last Monday of May, commemorates the men and women who died while in the military service. In observance of the holiday, many people visit cemeteries and memorials, and volunteers often place American flags on each grave site at national cemeteries. http://www.va.gov/opa/speceven/memday/
Here are some Memorial Day Resources
Armed Forces Day 2013
May 18 is Armed Forces Day. What is it and how did it originate?
President Harry S. Truman led the effort to establish a single holiday for citizens to come together and thank our military members for their patriotic service in support of our country.
On August 31, 1949, Secretary of Defense Louis Johnson announced the creation of an Armed Forces Day to replace separate Army, Navy, Marine Corps and Air Force Days.
The single day celebration stemmed from the unification of the Armed Forces under the Department of Defense.
For more information and to download a FREE poster visit http://www.defense.gov/afd/
ACTIVITIES
Here are some activities you can use with the newspaper from the NIE Institute.
1. Look through the newspaper for mentions of either active military officials or veterans of war. Why are they mentioned? Create a bulletin board or scrapbook with related articles and photographs. You may want to use an entire week’s worth of papers.
2. Do a newspaper scavenger hunt for at least 15 words that could refer to Armed Forces Day (example: war; holiday; military; etc.). When the 15 words are found, write your own short story using at least 10 of the words you’ve chosen. Give your story a military theme.
3. Many military personnel are on active duty. Find an article that deals with one of our current military operations. Work with two or three fellow students to write an article in favor of or against our current military action. Schedule a classroom debate to discuss the pros and cons.
4. Invite local military personnel to visit your classroom. Have students write feature stories about the visitors, discussing their lives to share with other students.
Congratulations Katie!
Katie Delohery with her 2012 ND Newspaper Association Newspapers in Education Teacher of the Year Award
Congratulations to Katie Delohery who was named ND Newspaper Association 2012 Newspapers in Education Teacher of the Year!
Katie is in her sixth year teaching in the Interventions Program at Grand Forks Herald Central High School. She participates in the Herald’s Newspapers in Education Program.
I nominated Katie for this award for her dedication and her creative ways of using newspapers in her classroom. Here are the judges’ comments: “Delohery has used the newspaper in the classroom successfully– but this is a special situation. Delohery uses the newspaper in her Interventions Tutoring Program – a classroom for “at risk” high school students. It’s a program for students who with out it, might slip through the cracks. Using the Herald in Delohery’s classroom has benefited the students in their learning process.”
Interventions Tutoring is a program to assist students who have been determined to be at risk for school failure. The Interventions Tutoring Program addresses student needs in terms of academic supports, school participation/involvement, and support/related services. The program’s mission is to identify and remove obstacles that cause school failure and increase students’ resiliency, perseverance, connectedness to school, and hope for achievement. The Interventions Tutoring Program’s goals align with school district initiatives for literacy.
• To improve student attitude toward reading
• To improve student motivation to read both in and out of school
• To expose students to a variety of readings
• To engage in conversations about the purposes for reading
• To help students acquire reading skills and strategies
• To promote independent learning and student responsibility for their own learning
Katie shared with me some of the ways she uses the Herald in her classroom:
“The newspapers are on display in our classroom for our students to readily access. We choose an article of the week to display on our bulletin board where multiple copies are available for students to read. One student mentioned, “I enjoy the articles of the week because they are unique articles or articles I typically wouldn’t have read otherwise.” There isn’t an hour that goes by where the newspapers haven’t been used by students.
Since our program’s goals align with the district’s literacy initiatives we often times use articles for reading strategies to help with comprehension. We have used articles for students to practice their questioning, activating background knowledge, predicting, visualizing, connecting and summarizing skills. I asked a student why they enjoy having the newspapers available in the classroom she said, “I really enjoy having newspapers available in the classroom. It keeps me updated on current events and also allows us to do fun learning strategies that involve articles from the newspaper.
Other fun strategies we have done with the articles include: Newspaper scavenger hunts, locating our vocabulary words, learning vocabulary strategies, using context clues, using discussion protocols, examining writing styles, developing opinion pieces and many more. The great thing about getting the newspaper every day is there is a variety of ways we can use them for learning while keeping up with current events. I LOVE watching children learn; it is my passion and I am confident the Grand Forks Herald has helped many students learn!”
Mother’s Day Projects
Sunday, May 12 is Mother’s Day – a holiday that honors mothers for their love and dedication to their families. Mother’s Day is celebrated on the second Sunday in May each year. Here are some fun Mother’s Day projects from Kid News and Family Fun Magazine.
To download the page click here
(Note: If you are going to print the page, check the fit to page setting on your printer. The page is bigger than letter size.)
Grand Forks Central students attend International DECA Conference
Thanks to KimBerly Clark, Grand Forks Central Marketing Teacher/DECA Adviser for sending us the following information!
Left to right: Jessica Fairley, Jenna Wheeler, Madi Remer, Jason Kuntz, Jamie Griggs and Parker Luney
GFC DECA Members Attend International Conference
More than 16,000 students and advisors from various countries and all 50 states attended DECA’s International Conference April 24-28 in Anaheim, CA. National DECA President Morgan Thompson, from North Dakota, opened the conference in high spirits and Steve Greenbaum, CEO of PostNet, spoke about overcoming adversity and becoming successful. Mr. Greenbaum was featured on Undercover Boss. DECA members competed in a wide margin of events and spent a great deal of time networking with each other.
North Dakota was represented by over 150 students and advisors. Grand Forks Central DECA had six students attending the conference: Jamie Griggs, Jenna Wheeler, Parker Luney, Jessica Fairley, Jason Kuntz, and Madi Remer.
Along with the conference Central students experienced Disneyland, Hollywood, Rodeo Drive, Beverly Hills, and Santa Monica Pier. As a whole the conference in Anaheim California was a great experience. The competition prepared students for real life situations and got them thinking about what’s next.
Congratulations to Grand Forks Central DECA members Jamie Griggs, Jenna Wheeler, and Madi Remer who placed in the top 30% in their event, with over 150-200 members in each event.
Cinco de Mayo
Cinco de Mayo is a national holiday in Mexico, but it is also widely celebrated by Mexican-Americans in the United States. The holiday, which in Spanish means the “Fifth of May,” commemorates the Battle of Puebla, when Mexican patriots stopped a French invasion. It often is confused with Mexico’s Independence Day, which is Sept. 16.
The Battle of Puebla victory was significant in that the smaller, less well-equipped army toppled the bigger, stronger one.
To honor the day, people throughout Mexico, as well as many cities throughout the United States, celebrate with festivals and fiestas, enjoying traditional Mexican food and special music and dances. People often don clothes of red and green — two of the colors of the Mexican flag (along with white). -McClatchy Newspapers
ACTIVITIES from the KRP Ultimate Holiday Activity Guide
While most Mexican-Americans celebrate the traditional American holidays, many also continue to observe the major holidays of their homeland, such as Cinco de Mayo. Often, they do so with fiestas. Explain to students that fiesta means festival, a colorful celebration that can include fireworks, dancing, the ringing of bells, parades, and plenty of food and drink. Another Mexican tradition, the pinata, is also usually present. Pinatas, which are commonplace in many American celebrations, are usually made of papier-mache and are shaped like animals. Find a papier-mache “recipe” and old newspapers and help your students make a pinata for Cinco de Mayo. Display their work throughout the school.
Discuss other ways Mexican-Americans have had an influence on American society and your community. Ask students to find and clip newspaper stories and photos that illustrate this influence. They can create a bulletin board display in honor of this important Mexican national holiday.
Mexico is an important American neighbor. Things that happen in Mexico often affect the United States and vice versa. Have students look for a news story about an event or happening in Mexico that will have an impact on the United States. Allow them to discuss their conclusions. Then have them look for a U.S. story that might have an effect on Mexico.
Welcome Neighbors!
Tuesday, April 30 we had a visit from our neighbors at Grand Forks Central High School. Teacher Beth Carlson, Para Ruth Turner and the Community Skills students toured the Grand Forks Herald! They participate in the Grand Forks Herald Newspapers in Education Program.
Larimore, N.D. 6th Grade Students 2013
Thursday, April 25, 2013, the 6th grade students from Larimore, N.D. visited the Grand Forks Herald downtown office. They are pictured here with teacher Brenda Beck (right) and para Judith Quinn (left).
This same group visited the Grand Forks Herald production plant last May as 5th graders. Here are a couple of photos of them from last year at the Herald production plant.
What is Arbor Day?
Glenda E. Fauske the Information and Education Coordinator / ND Forest Service at North Dakota State University in Bottineau, N.D. provided me with some excellent information on Arbor Day.
April 26 is the “national” Arbor Day. North Dakota’s Arbor Day is the first Friday in May. Each state has their own Arbor Day depending upon the planting season in their state. This year, however, ND is celebrating their State Arbor Day on May 17 at Annie’s House in Bottineau, N.D. Click on the following links to learn more:
- Work with a friend, a relative or a parent to clip pictures and names of trees from your newspaper over the period of a couple of weeks. Clip photos from newspaper stories or advertisements; clip the names of trees, try to draw your own picture of how each tree appears.
- Create a scrapbook of trees popular or commonly grown in your community. Paste or tape pictures of different trees on different pages of your scrapbook and identify the type of tree you have selected. If you clip names of trees, try to draw your own picture of how each tree appears.
- Finally, try to find an example of a leaf from most of the types of trees you identified in your notebook. Attach the leaf to the appropriate page. If you can’t find a particular leaf, do some research and draw a sample leaf from the tree.
- When you complete your scrapbook, add a page to the back of the scrapbook in which you describe any findings you and your partner made. Include any final statements about your research and what you learned about trees in your community.
