Here's a sample from the writing prompts for Feb. 28:
Most of the people of Curiepe, Venezuela, make their living fishing for sardines. Every year on this day, they have a funeral for the sardines they have caught during the previous year. The funeral serves to remind them of the need to protect the sardines from overfishing and pollution. Describe another ceremony or celebration that would help to remind people of the need to take care of the natural world.
This week's prompts are now posted! Here's a sample from the dozens available!
In 1930, the first cow flew on an airplane. The cow was even milked while on the airplane. What kind of problems do you think there would be trying to fly a cow or other large animal on an airplane?
Jennifer Davis Bowman, Ed.D. writes in Teachers.Net Gazette:
After thinking about the curriculum that most educators (including myself) fall into during the month of February, I compiled a list of 8 things to avoid during the study of Black History. [Click below to read her list.]
“Those who refuse to learn from the past are doomed to repeat it,” said George Santayana nearly a century ago.Yet our public school system continues to operate on the myth that what teachers do in classrooms is enough to close the gap on learning between children at all socioeconomic levels.
February sees the birth of jeans, a national park, the Supreme Court, and in Japan they’re throwing beans. And then a cow flew a plane…so be sure you don't miss any of this month's writing prompts!
Here's a sample from this week's collection:
February 4: Today is Setsubun (Bean Throwing Day) in Japan. To drive out evil spirits and prepare for spring, roasted beans are scattered around the house, temple, or shrine. While you scatter them, you chant, "Devils out, happiness in!” Then you collect one bean for every year of your age and eat it. So beans are good luck food in Japan. What is your good-luck food? Why do you think of that food as bringing good luck?
The first winter Olympic Games opened in Chamonix, France, in 1924. It began the process of popularizing winter sports for ordinary people; prior to then, only very rich people (or those who lived in the mountains) skied. Do you like or participate in a winter sport, or would you like to learn one? Which one? Why that one? (If you are not interested in winter sports, tell why you feel as you do.)
The novelist W. Somerset Maugham (pronounced MÆHM) was born in 1874. He once wrote: “It is bad enough to know the past; it would be intolerable to know the future.” What about the future would you not want to know? Why?