Hour of Code

South School kids love to code! Each December we spend between one and four IT classes learning about a variety of code programs. Second graders and fifth graders explore how to code Dash robots. 

Dance Party 2019 LINK

Pumpkin Time

It's Pumpkin Time!

Where does your pumpkin go after Halloween?

How to make a pumpkin bird feeder. LINK

Nature Cat Composter LINK

Halloween Pumpkin After Party LINK

Favorite Characters!

Reading a book from a series is like visiting with old friends. Each year we introduce some of our best friends to South School students. Click on the videos below to visit author studios, learn about the newest releases, and more!

Kindergarten Friends:

Fancy Nancy

Skippyjon Jones

Knuffle Bunny

Mother Bruce

Otis the Tractor

Froggy

Pete the Cat

Olivia

Pappa Bear and Little Bear

Little Elliot

First Grade Friends:

Elephant & Piggie

Fly Guy

Mouse and Mole

Frog & Toad

Mr. McGee

Charlie & Lola

Pigeon

Frances

Benny & Penny

George & Martha

Summer Sendoff

Summer is a great time to get outside and explore everything that our beautiful state has to offer. Here are some ideas and links to help you learn more.

Get Outdoors

• Visit our state parks. Click on this LINK to see where they are. Wolfe's Neck State Park in Freeport is just one of the many options, LINK
• Wells Reserve at Laudholm LINK
• Gilsland Farm, Falmouth LINK
• Maine Audubon Wildlife Sanctuaries LINK
• Go for a "Full Moon Canoe Tour" or maybe a bird walk with the Maine Audubon Society. See all of their fun summer activities here. LINK
• Maine Wildlife Park, Gray LINK
• Go hiking. There are may public trails in Maine. Choose a new one each week, pack a lunch and visit a part of Maine you have never seen before. Here are some possibilities:
• This great website helps you to search for trails by level of difficulty and town. Check it out. LINK
• Traveling this summer? AllTrails.com has a searchable database of trails for the United States. LINK
• Go camping. Theres no better summer activity. Wether you are in a tent or an RV, spending the night under the stars with your family is the best! Get the dirt on over 35,000 campgrounds in the US at this website called, The Dyrt. LINK
• Road Trip! Try one of these scenic byways. LINK
• Visit a Farmers Market or Family Farm. 
• Wow! Look at all these farmer's markets! LINK
• 
  

Beaches

• Popham LINK
• Reid State Park LINK
• Pemaquid Beach LINK

On the Water

• The Maine Island Trail has information about 200 small Maine islands that you can visit for the day or stay overnight. LINK
• Catch a Ferry Boat to a Maine island. LINK
• White Water Rafting! LINK
• Boat tours in Maine range from bird watching and whale watching trips to scenic tours. Here is more information. 
• Cap'n Fish, Boothbay Harbor LINK
• Balmy Days, Boothbay Harbor LINK
• Casco Bay Lines, Portland LINK   

Visit a Lighthouse

• There are 65 to choose from. Some are only accessible by boat, others you can drive to. Some are open to the public and have special tours. Click here for a complete list. LINK. Click here for more information LINK.
• Burnt Island Lighthouse in Boothbay Harbor, has a special reenactment program. Learn more here LINK.
• Read some lighthouse stories together. Here are some in our library:
• Keep the Lights Burning Abbie by Peter Roop
• Abbie Burgess, Lighthouse Heroine by Dorothy Holder Jones
• Hello Lighthouse by Sophie Blackall (Caldecott Medal Winner 2019)
• The Sea Chest by Toni Buzzio
• The Little Red Lighthouse and the Great Gray Bridge by Hildegarde Hoyt Swift
• Celia's Island Journal by Celia Thaxter

Growing Stuff (Indoors or Out)

• Public Gardens
• Merryspring, Camden LINK
• Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens, Boothbay Harbor LINK
• Viles Arboretum, Augusta LINK
• Garden Centers
• Moose Crossing LINK
• Snug Harbor Farm, Kennebunk LINK
• Estabrooks, Yarmouth LINK
• Plants Unlimited, Rockport LINK

Crafty Rainy Day Activities

• Made by Joel, LINK
• Nature Scrapbooks LINK
• Build a Birdhouse LINK
• Painting Rocks LINK
• Fairy Houses LINK
• Kitchen Creations LINK

Travel Through Time

• Owls Head Transportation Museum LINK
• Maine State Museum, Augusta LINK
• Maine Historical Society, Portland LINK
• Maine Maritime Museum, Bath LINK
• Penobscot Marine Museum, Searsport LINK
• Local Historical Societies

South Students at the Farnsworth
Visit the Stories of the Land and its people exhibit at the Farnsworth museum with artwork from South School fourth graders. LINK

READ, READ, READ

• Summer Reading Programs at your local library
• Rockland Public Library
• Thomaston Public Library
• Camden Public Library
• Rockport Public Library
• "Best" List Challenge. Choose one of the following lists and read as many of the books as you can.
• Maine Student Book Award LINK
• Chickadee Program LINK
• Newberry Award Winners LINK
• Caldecott Award Winners LINK
• Geisel Award Winners LINK
• Sibert Award Winners LINK

Image by OpenClipart-Vectors from Pixabay

Before you go...

Check the Weather, Weather Underground LINK

Check the Tides LINK

Scavenger Hunts and Challenges 

Don't forget your adventure pack!

Sounds of Spring

Everyone Loves Mo!

Learn to draw Piggie!

Go on a Safari!

Djuma Dam, South Africa

And the winner is...

Which one will you choose?

Whale Dilemma

The Boy and the Whale by Mordicai Gerstein

A whale is trapped in a fishing net that Abelardo's family uses for their livelihood. Abelardo's father is angry that his net has been destroyed. Should Abelardo help the whale or should he obey his father and stay away? What would you do? This story is based on a real life event. What parts of it do you think really happened? Watch the video and see if you were right.

Biographies

Melissa Sweet



Judy Schachner

Eugenie Clark, Shark Lady by Jess Keating, Illustrations by Marta Alvarez Miguens

Our second Chickadee nominee is Shark Lady; The True Story of How Eugenie Clark Became the Ocean's Most Fearless Scientist, a great book about a woman that was passionate about sharks!

More Moon and Space Links

Visit Scholastic and learn more about the Jedi Academy series. Author Jeffrey Brown has also written the Darth Vader and Sons series as well as the Lucy the Neanderthal series. LINK

Check out the Origami Yoda series by Tom Angleberger! LINK

LINK

NASA KID'S CLUB LINK

LINK

January, Wolf Moon

This blog post is all things MOON. We begin reading our Chickadee nominees on January 7th with the story, When the Moon Comes by Paul Harbridge. This is a great story of the magic of being out on a moonlit night in winter.

Here are some other things we will be exploring:

Isadora Moon is half vampire and half fairy. There are four books in the Isadora series, the fifth will be published in March of 2019. These books are great choices for beginning chapter book readers in grades K through three. Visit Author Harriet Muncaster's website for fun coloring pages, biographical information, informational videos and more. 

Watch this video to learn how to write your own fiction stories.

Blizzard of the Blue Moon is a Magic Tree House, Merlin Mission book, MTHMM. This is number 36 in the series. Travel through time with Jack and Annie in the Magic Tree House books. The first MTH was written in 1999. Number 32 in the series, "To the Future Ben Franklin!", will be published in July of 2019. The Merlin Magic books were first published in 2001 and are almost twice as long as the original MTH books so that children can continue on when their reading ability increases.

Author Torben Kuhlmann has illustrated three wonderful stories with similar formats. They are kept in our E section but are a hybrid between a picture book and a chapter book in that the stories are longer and have more words. Each story introduces to real life science with an interesting fiction story. The beautiful illustrations will capture readers attention. These could be a great jumping off point for more in depth research into space travel, flight, and underwater exploration.

Armstrong:The Adventurous Journey of a Mouse to the Moon

Lindbergh:The Tale of a Flying Mouse

Edison:The Mystery of the Missing Mouse Treasure

Also, Moletown

            

Trailer for Armstrong

Grace Lin has a very popular trilogy of books that are inspired by Chinese Folktales. 

Where the Mountain Meets the Moon

Starry River of the Sky

When the Sea Turned to Silver

When the Mountain Meets the Moon is a New York Times bestseller and a Newberry Honor book. Although these are chapter books, Lin's has included beautiful illustrations throughout the books.