Well, the people from Google have the entries in the Doodle 4 Goole contest narrowed down to the finalists. Now, it’s your turn to select your favorites. This would be a great sponge activity to do as a class. I hope you enjoy seeing the results. The winner will appear on the Google website on May 21st, so cast your votes now! Voting ends on May 18th. You can cast your votes at http://www.google.com/doodle4google/vote.html.

Believe it or not, it’s almost time to think about summer reading! This summer, Scholastic is offering a summer reading opportunity for your students and their families. The details will be shared on April 30, and they are kicking off their event with a live game show that will be broadcast online. Right now, they are accepting question submissions for the game show. This would be a great activity to do with your kids in the afternoon after MAP testing. Have them come up with questions and answers about their favorite books and authors. Then, check back on April 30 to watch the show! Find all the info on the Scholastic Summer Challenge website.

Upstart promotions is hosting a Vote for Books project. Students can nominate their favorite books until April 30. The top 10 candidates will be announced online on May 1. A general election will run through summer and fall. Votes will be tallied on Election Day, and the winner will be announced on November 5. Have your students nominate their favorite books by going to VoteForBooks.com.

Have you ever noticed those fancy Google logos they have on special holidays? Google calls these Google Doodles, and they are having a contest for kids to create a Google Doodle! How cool would it be for one of our kids to come up with a design that would be featured on the Google website? Well, here’s their chance.

Doodle 4 Google is a national contest that asks kids to come up with a logo based on the theme “What if…”. You can read the contest details on their website. Here are some examples from past contests in the United Kingdom and Australia.

I already registered our school as a participant. If you would like to have your students participate in the contest, just let me know. I would be glad to help you develop this as a project with your students. It would be a great activity to do during those stressful MAP testing weeks, and it would definitely keep our students engaged in learning. We can only submit 6 entries in the contest from our school, so I will have a panel of teachers help select the entries to send in from all of the classes that participate.

Entries are due April 12, so start planning now for this fun learning opportunity!

Okay, I realize I’m sharing yet another online tool that really isn’t school related, but it’s too cool not to share. My son has gotten me addicted to an online radio site called Pandora. The neat thing about this site is that you select an artist that you like (for example – Sting – I know, I’m dating myself), and Pandora will play songs by Sting and create the “Sting” channel for you. In addition to songs by that particular artist, it will also play songs that are similar in style to songs by Sting. It gives you the option to give those songs the “thumbs up” or “thumbs down” as to whether you think they belong on your Sting channel.  It is so awesome! You get to listen to the songs and artists you like, and you don’t have to listen to commercials. All types of music are included, which has been great for my son who loves contemporary Christian artists like Skillet and Reliant K. Anyway, give it a try and create your own custom radio stations!

Since I seem to have a holiday theme going today, I thought I’d share another item. For those of us who grew up in the 80s and loved “Africa” by Toto, you’ll get a kick out of this video. It is a safe one to share with others, even your students, but I don’t think they are old enough to get the humor. Enjoy!