Monday Fun Fact Nov 28

A Charlie Brown Classic

 

image from Parade

The holiday show A Charlie Brown Christmas debuted in 1965.

The producers of the show hired real children, not actors, to give voice to the characters.  Some of the children were from the director Bill Melendez's Southern California neighborhood.  Some of the children were so young that they could not yet read.

Monday Fun Fact Nov 21

 Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade

 The first time that New York City hosted the Macy's  Thanksgiving Day parade was in 1924.  The parade has many balloons, floats, and bands - including the University of Missouri's Marching Mizzou playing this year!

image from ILoveNY.com

Here is a fun video to watch about the balloons:

Balloonatics!

Monday Fun Fact Nov 14

 

Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture

images from DeviantArt and Last.fm

Russian composer Pyotr Tchaikovsky wrote the 1812 Overture to commemorate the success of the Russian army keeping the French Army, led by Napoleon Bonaparte, from invading.

Here is the finale of that composition, performed by at the BBC Proms: 

1812 Finale

The 1812 Overture is beloved worldwide, and it can be heard in many places:

Stella Jumping Into Leaves

Monday Fun Fact Nov 7

 

ABCYa!  Oh Yeah!

image from ABCYa

ABCYa! has been a favorite website of mine ever since I started teaching at Shepard :) The fun and educational games that you play make learning exciting! My favorite section is the green section:  strategy games. 

ABCYa was created in 2004 by school teachers Alan and Lisa Tortolani.  They wanted to find learning games for their students that were not filled with violence and inappropriate ads.  The name "ABCYa" was created to make it easy for children to type into a web browser.  The games were successful, and many other teachers began using the website with their own students.

Monday Fun Fact Oct 31

 

American Women Quarters

image from Coin News

The US Mint has been making special quarters since 1999 to celebrate the United States.  The American Women Quarters Program was set up to celebrate the accomplishments of American women.  The program will last four years and started in 2022.  The quarters will showcase women who contributed to the arts, space, humanities, civil rights, and suffrage, to name a few.  

The first 5 quarters will feature:

 Maya Angelou - writer and performer

 Dr Sally Ride - first American woman astronaut in space

 Wilma Mankiller - first woman chief of the Cherokee nation

 Nina Ortero-Warren - leader in New Mexico's suffrage movement

 Anna May Wong - first Chinese American film star

You can learn more about this program and these women at:

American Women Quarter Program