National Family Month is celebrated each year. from Mother s Day to Father s Day. Invite students. to share special. classmates. May Calendar Capers

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1 May Calendar Name May Calendar Capers Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Cinco de Mayo is May 5. Make a batch of quesadillas or tacos with your students. May 4 is National Weather Observer s Day. Have students take turns reporting current weather conditions and predicting the weather for the next day. Be Kind To Animals Week is celebrated the first full week of May. Discuss with students how pets depend on their owners for food, shelter, and love. Cartoon Art Appreciation Week is May 1 7. Have students design their own cartoon characters in honor of this week. May 1 is May Day a time to celebrate the new life brought forth by spring. Take students on a walk around the school to search for signs of spring. National Family Month is celebrated each year from Mother s Day to Father s Day. Invite students to share special family customs with classmates. Mother s Day is celebrated on the second Sunday in May. Have each student make a card for her mother or another important woman in her life. Police Week is celebrated the week of May 15. Discuss with students the responsibilities of police officers. Have each child write a letter of appreciation to the officers at the local police station. Pay tribute to the ever-popular hamburger in May by celebrating National Hamburger Month. Brainstorm a list of hamburger toppings with students, and have each child vote for his favorite. May is National Bike Month. Have youngsters design bike-safety posters. May is Older Americans Month. Help students recognize the accomplishments of older Americans by inviting local elderly people to eat lunch at your school. Celebrate May Ray Day on May 19. This day recognizes people named Ray. It is also a day to celebrate warm days. Invite students to share activities they like to do on sunny days. May is National Egg Month. Ask each student to list five different ways eggs can be used. May 16 is Biographers Day. Have each student write a real story about the life of someone he knows. National Transportation Week is celebrated the week of the third Friday in May. Brainstorm types of transportation with students. May 31 is National Save Your Hearing Day. Discuss with students safety tips for ears. The first American daily newspaper was published on May 30, 1783, in Pennsylvania. Provide students with newspapers to peruse. Help students create bouquets of flowers with a variety of art materials, such as tissue paper, paint, construction paper, and pipe cleaners. Have each student draw a picture of three different kinds of flowers. May 25 is National Missing Children s Day. Discuss safety information with students, such as not talking to strangers. Note To The Teacher: Highlight special days and events with these fact-filled ideas.

2 Family activities May Events And Activities For The Family May Events Directions: Select at least one activity below to complete as a family by the end of May. (Challenge: See if your family can complete all three activities.) Cartoon Art Appreciation Week This weeklong celebration in May (May 1 7) is guaranteed to bring loads of learning fun! Not only does it recognize cartoon art and its creators, it also promotes the use of this entertaining artwork as an educational tool. To work with language arts skills, for example, cut out a newspaper comic strip, omitting each of the speech bubbles. Then invite your child to tell or write a story that corresponds with the pictures. Modify this idea by giving your youngster only the first part of a comic strip and having him draw and write an ending. Sequencing skills can be reinforced by first reading a comic strip with your child, then cutting apart each of its frames. Challenge your youngster to sequence the pictures and retell the story. With these motivating ideas, laughter and learning go hand in hand! National Weather Observer s Day Weather followers are recognized each year on May 4. In honor of this special day, warm up your youngster s observation skills with weather-wise activities. Have your child record on a graph the temperature each day for one week. Ask him to tell about his completed graph. Which day was the hottest? Coldest? How many degrees are there between the hottest and coldest days? To vary this idea, have your youngster record several daily temperatures on a sheet of paper, then order the temperatures from lowest to highest. For added fun, share with your child television, radio, or newspaper weather reports, and encourage him to compare the forecasts with his observations. Rain or shine, these weather-related activities are sure to please! Extra! Extra! Read All About It! On May 30, 1783, the first American daily newspaper was published. Recognize this important date with an alphabetizing activity that s hot off the press! Ask your child to cut out a total of ten words from different headlines. For best results, have her select words that begin with different letters. Instruct your youngster to arrange and glue the words in alphabetical order on a sheet of paper. After verifying the list s accuracy, read each word with your child. Then ask her several questions about the list, such as, Which word comes before? or, If we added the word, where would it belong? In no time at all, your youngster s alphabetizing skills will be making headlines! Note To The Teacher: Distribute one copy of this reproducible to each student at the beginning of the month. Encourage each family to complete at least one activity by the end of May.

3 Take your students south of the border with this multicultural study of Mexico. Cinco de Mayo (May 5th) is a holiday that commemorates the day in 1862 when the Mexican army defeated invading French troops. This celebration typically includes parades, mock battles, mariachi bands, fireworks, and piñatas. Use the following ideas and reproducibles to add a little fiesta flavor to a variety of skills. Festive Flowers Bright tissue-paper flowers are a common and colorful sight during the Cinco de Mayo celebration. Engage your students in making festive paper flowers to decorate your classroom during your Cinco de Mayo studies. Purchase or gather a package of paper coffee filters, a box of assorted food coloring, several small containers, a class supply of green pipe cleaners, and a cup of water. Place a few drops of food coloring and a small amount of water into each container to create an assortment of colors to choose from. Give each student three filters. Instruct her to fold each filter into eighths, then dip the rounded edge of one filter into a container so that it absorbs the color. Have her dip the remaining filters into two different colors. Carefully unfold the filters and lay them flat to dry. To form a flower, have each student stack her three filters. Direct her to gather the filters together at the center and wrap a pipe cleaner tightly around the end for a stem. Place the finished flowers around the room or use them to decorate a bulletin-board display. How Colorful! Introduce your students to a small portion of the Spanish language by teaching them color words. Have your students practice their new vocabulary by incorporating the words into a game of I Spy or bingo, a class-made big book of colors, or an art lesson. English Spanish red rojo (roh-ho) blue azul (ah-sool) yellow amarillo (ahm-ar-ee-yo) green verde (bear-day) pink rosa (roh-sah) brown moreno (more-eh-no) black negro (nay-gro) white blanco (blan-ko) purple morado (more-ah-do) orange anaranjado (ah-nah-rahn-ha-do)

4 Write each beginning blend. Color by the code. Red-Hot Blends Cinco De Mayo Three-letter initial blends scr red spr green str yellow Bonus Box: On the back of this paper, write a sentence using one of these words. 6

5 Read each word. Cut and glue to match. Hats Off! Cinco De Mayo Long vowels kite cake tree nail goat three pie boat leaf Bonus Box: Find two pairs of rhyming words. Write them on the back of this paper.