Leap Day!

All months of the year have 30 or 31 days, but February always has less than that. In most years, February has 28 days. But every fourth year (mostly), February gets an extra day, so it has 29 days. This year, 2012, is one of those years and is called a leap year. The last leap year was four years ago in 2008; the next leap year will be 2016. See the pattern?

Some people call that extra February day, the 29th, Leap Day. And that day is today! I wish we could be in school to talk about it, but since it's vacation week, this blog post will have to do.

The extra day every four years has to do with the amount of time it takes for the Earth to go all the way around the sun once. We know that's one year, and a year is 365 days. But it actually take the Earth just a few hours more than that to orbit the Sun - it's about 365 ¼ days. A quarter of a day is 24 divided by 4 or 6 hours. And 6 extra hours every year for 4 years equals 24 hours - and that's the extra day, the Leap Day.

If there were no Leap Day, the seasons would slowly shift over time and, in about 700 years, we'd have snow in June and beach weather in December! Whoever thought of Leap Day was a really good thinker and problem-solver!

Iditarod

The Iditarod, the famous Alaskan sled dog race, begins at the end of vacation and Miss Bocko's class is learning a little about it. They came to the lab before vacation, looked at the official website, learned about some of the mushers, and chose five to follow throughout the race. As we do this, we'll be learning math and map skills, and reading information in a table. We're hoping we can take some time during the week to watch some video of the race and see the dogs in action!

Private Information

4Mc has been learning about instances where private information is asked for on the web (like on that Read for Our School site!). Fourth graders know the rule: Always ask a trusted adult before giving out information that is private. What's private information? Check out our word cloud!

Read For Our School

NHCS is participating in a wonderful opportunity for students to earn books for our school library. The Pearson Foundation is currently sponsoring a reading initiative called “Read For My School” where participating schools are eligible to earn up to 500 free books for their libraries, just by reading. The program runs from February 14th through March 14th and is open to all students.

Registration is necessary in order to participate in the program. The online form can be found at http://www.wegivebooks.org/pf/rfms/register.php  In order to register, students will need to create a username and a password, and provide an email address, his or her birthday, state, and our school name (there is a New Hampton Elementary School registered which is not our school - look for New Hampton Community School!)  Please assist your child with this registration. Once the registration is completed, students can begin reading the online books.  There are over 150 books to choose from at various reading levels. After the book is read, click “Give a Book” for it to be counted towards our school’s total.

In order for NHCS to be eligible for books, we must cumulatively read 50 or more books.  We hope that you will consider registering your child for this program. Please feel free to call or email with any questions you may have. Have fun reading!