A letter to the First Lady

The Children and Nature Network have written a letter to Michelle Obama, asking that she include an outdoor component to her childhood obesity initiative. Here.

Nicely done.

40 Wild Birds play a Gibson Les Paul guitar

Never thought I'd have that as a heading but as music is play, birds are nature and kids will love it, it's definitely on topic.

Follow this link to see a video of this great installation by artist Celeste Boursier-Mougenot.

Tests, tests and more tests....

What is with education today? It all seems to be geared around getting kids to pass tests and this new Race to the Top initiative by the Obama Administration seems no different, and please, correct me if I'm wrong.

But when I saw the four key areas for reform, I just thought, well, here we go again. No reform, just the same old, same old.....

"Through Race to the Top, we are asking States to advance reforms around four specific areas:

• Adopting standards and assessments that prepare students to succeed in college and the workplace and to compete in the global economy;
• Building data systems that measure student growth and success, and inform teachers and principals about how they can improve instruction;
• Recruiting, developing, rewarding, and retaining effective teachers and principals, especially where they are needed most; and
• Turning around our lowest-achieving schools."

KIds love Hamsters

Not sure if they really will appreciate the full meaning of this but it is very funny (and scary).... It's from here.

This is good

The U.S Surgeon General's office has stated "Today’s epidemic of overweight and obesity threatens the historic progress we have made in increasing American’s quality and years of healthy life." The article is here.

That's all well and good but what effect will it have on our society? If the U.S. Surgeon General advocates something, does it happen? I don't know enough about American politics to really understand the implications of this statement but I live in hope.......

(I know, the photo's a cheap shot, but somehow I just have this image in my head of all the people employed at the U.S. Surgeon General's office sitting around in scrubs all day....)

Slightly off topic

But entertaining all the same. Here's an article on the Times website by one of their columnists. The line about describing overpackaging of toys cracked me up;

"This is why so many parents can be found on Christmas Day weeping openly and making obscene gestures at new toys with their clawed, bleeding hands."

We've all been there.....

Playing to learn

My son's Kindergarten teacher sent this article home today. "Playing to Learn" on the New York Times website.

I particularly liked how in the ideal theoretical classroom:

"During the school day, there should be extended time for play. Research has shown unequivocally that children learn best when they are interested in the material or activity they are learning. Play — from building contraptions to enacting stories to inventing games — can allow children to satisfy their curiosity about the things that interest them in their own way. It can also help them acquire higher-order thinking skills, like generating testable hypotheses, imagining situations from someone else’s perspective and thinking of alternate solutions."