Read Across America

I thought I would put up some information about Read Across America. The date, as always is the 2nd of March, this year, a Wednesday, the birthday of Theodor Seuss Geisel (1904).  There are all sorts of things you can do to celebrate Read Across America, but a great place to start is at the National Education Association Website and their own page of http://www.nea.org/grants/886.htm They have some resources there such as official guidelines,  a reading pledge, a poem, and booklists.  They also have a list of things to do at: http://www.nea.org/grants/20122.htm

Other dates 'celebrated' in March are: Town Meeting Day in Vermont, St. David's Day (Welsh patron saint), Texas Independence Day, Casimir Pulaski Day, International Women's Day, Shrove Tuesday (also known in some countires as pancake day!) and Mardi Gras, Ash Wednesday, Daylight Saving Time starts, Evacuation Day (who knew?!), St. Patrick's Day (patron saint of Ireland), Vernal equinox (look out for those pools), Purim, International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, World Poetry Day (you don't  say?), World Water Day (are water balloons allowed in your school or library on March 22nd?), World Meteorological Day, World Tuberculosis Day (I'm not making this stuff up - really!), Maryland Day, International Day of Remembrance of Slavery Victims and the Transatlantic Slave Trade, Prince Jonah Kuhio Kalanianaole Day, Seward's Day, and César Chávez Day!

Wow, that's a busy month!  23 days to have something to shout about!  I had to look some of these up to see what the heck they were.  It turns out that evacuation day is 'celebrating' when the Brits were kicked out of Boston during the revolution. Casimir Pulaski, was a Polish born soldier who is remembered for his contribution to American independence and his day is an annual holiday in Illinois. Prince Jonah Kuhio Kalanianaole is one of the best-known leaders in Hawaii’s history, born in 1871 and started the process that led to Hawaii being admitted as a fully fledged state of America. (Having done a little study on how Hawaii joined the USA, I am not sure that Kalanianaole was a hero to Hawaiians!) This happened in 1959, 37 years after his death in 1922.  And World Tuberculosis Day is a day to raise awareness of the disease and is promoted by organizations such as the World Health Organization (WHO)!

Art, sort of, in multimedia by Simon Brooks, © 2016

So there are some things to look forward to next month! And I have a bunch of stories to share celebrating story and reading!

Peace,
Simon