Top Reading Activities for Elementary Learners.... look it up



A Few New Bulletin Boards

I love this one I saw on Pinterest from Geneva Design:

by Katie H Sanders

 

 

 

 

and this one from Nancy Boes:

"and then it's spring" by Julie Fogliano and Ill. by Erin E. Stead

And Then It's Spring (Booklist Editor's Choice. Books for Youth (Awards)) by Julie Fogliano and Erin Stead (Feb 14, 2012)

This is a wonderfully, fantastical book...  Following a snow-filled winter, a young boy and his dog decide that they've had enough of all that brown and resolve to plant a garden. They dig, they plant, they play, they wait . . . and wait . . . until at last, the brown becomes a more hopeful shade of brown, a sign that spring may finally be on its way.

 

Julie Fogliano's tender story of anticipation is brought to life by the distinctive illustrations Erin E. Stead, recipient of the 2011 Caldecott Medal.

 

And Then It's Spring is one The Washington Post's Best Kids Books of 2012.

One of Kirkus Reviews' Best Children's Books of 2012

 

 

Celebrate Earth Day (April 22nd) all Week

Don't forget that Earth day was yesterday and read as many books as possible about preserving our earth.  The Lorax is a great one.  Here is just one lesson plan from Scholastic books:
http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/lesson-plan/lorax-dr-seuss

Other lesson plans for earth day could include:  http://www.readwritethink.org/classroom-resources/calendar-activities/celebrate-earth-20468.html

Other books about Earth day include:

 

 

 

 

My Light
written and illustrated by Molly Bang
Blue Sky/Scholastic, 2004
Your local library
Amazon
ages 4-8

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Living Sunlight
How Plants Bring the Earth To Life
by Molly Bang and Penny Chisholm
Blue Sky/Scholastic, 2009
Your local library
Amazon
ages 4-9



Easter Walk - A Treasure Hunt for the Real Meaning of Easter

Follow Tyler and Amy as they take a much-anticipated Easter walk with their grandpa. Using clues from the scriptures, they find six objects that symbolize specific moments in the Easter story. For example, they find something sharp to remind them of the Savior’s crown of thorns and something made of wood to remind them of the cross. As they walk, they learn important lessons about Easter and its particular message for their family — and yours. This touching story beautifully illustrates the importance of the Savior’s Atonement and Resurrection as it helps us remember the true meaning of Easter. It teaches the eternal truth that families can be together forever. Give Easter Walk as a meaningful gift, or read it with your family. It is a great way to start a new family tradition — the Easter walk.
About the Authors

Deborah Pace Rowley is the author of The Miracle of the Wooden Shoes and other picture books. She and her husband, Lin, are the parents of five children and live in American Fork, Utah. The children still talk about their favorite Easter walk around a cabin in Prescott, Arizona, several years ago.
DAN BURR earned his bachelor of fine arts degree from Utah State University and a master’s degree in illustration from Syracuse University. He and his wife, Patti, are raising their two children and numerous farm animals on twelve acres of river-bottom land in Tetonia, Idaho. Dan is a well-known Christian illustrator who also specializes in wildlife renderings. A few of the books Dan has illustrated are The Miracle of the Wooden Shoes, I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day, and The Mansion.

Found at Deseret Book or wherever LDS books are sold. 

The Easter Story - Because of Him

Go to http://easter.mormon.org/ and read and watch a short Easter message.  Enjoy and see what I believe Easter is about!  I'd be happy to answer any questions you many have about this in the comments section!

Happiest of Easters and Happy Spring!

Laura Smoot

Freebies, Doodads and Helpful Hints

from Library Sparks April 2014

1.  April is Math Awareness Month, so here is a list of books to share with your kids:
     Actual Size, by Steve Jenkins, Houghton Mifflin, 2004.
     The Grapes of Math, by Greg Tang, Scholastic Press, 2001.
     How Much is a Million?, by David A. Schwartz.  HarperCollins, 2004.
     Marvelous Math, A Book of Poems, by Lee Bennett Hopkins.  Simon & Schuster, Books
     for Children, 2001

2.  Word Clouds for Kids:  "A word cloud is a graphical representation of word frequency," states ABCya.com, at www.abcya.com/word_clouds.htm.  This fun site has a free word cloud generator that is easy to use.  Students can change the color, layout, and font of their word clouds and then save or print them out.


3.  Book Series Match -  What are your student's favorite series?  Print the Book Series Match sheet at www.librarysparks.com.  Distribute one to each pair of students in your group.  Have them work together to match the characters to their series.

4.  April is Poetry Month Bulletin Board -  Create a word cloud-style bulletin board to celebrate Poetry Month.  Cover the board with any color paper, and write poetry forms, words related to poetry, or names of poets in different sizes and in different directions.  For a different effect, cover the board with black paper and use fluorescent-colored chalk or letters.

5.  Origami Yoda Activities - if you have fans of the Origami Yoda series by Tom Angleberger, the following websites will be of interest for planning activities or for paper-folding directions.

Origami Yoda.  http://origamiyoda.com/.  Includes paper-foling direction.  Students can submit paper fold; adults can sign up for Angleberger's newsletter.

The Surprise Attack of Jabba the Puppett:  An Origami Yoda Activity Kit.  www.abramsbooks.com/origamiyoda/jabbaactivityguide.pdf  

The Secret of the Fortune Wookiee:  An Origami Yoda Activity Kit.  www.abramsbooks.com/origamiyoda/Wookiee_Activity_Kit.pdf

The Talking Eggs by Robert D. San Souci and Jerry Pinkney and Discussion Guide

 

When my kids were little, we read the book called "The Talking Eggs" by Robert D. San Souci (Author), Jerry Pinkney (Illustrator).  First of all, let me just say that I adore anything that is illustrated by Jerry Pinkney.  If the story doesn't stand out, he's not going to put his name on the book as illustrator.  It's a perfect Easter story and would be a great addition to any  literature circle, Character Education lesson, or just for fun.  The story goes something like this. 

Two sisters lived down Louisiana way long ago: Rose, who was unpleasant, mean, and the older of the two; and her younger sister, Blanche, who was "sweet and kind and sharp as forty crickets." Guess who has to do all the work for Rose and their mother? Blanche's kind and obedient nature finally pays off when she helps an old woman who has magical powers--and a chicken house full of talking eggs containing treasures for those who do as they're told: gold and silver, jewels, silk dresses, satin shoes, "even a handsome carriage that grew in a wink from the size of a matchbox...." Robert D. San Souci's lively, humorous retelling of this Creole folktale abounds with colorful expressions, and Jerry Pinkney's full-page illustrations make us believe in the marvels that Blanche finds, even the two-headed cow, square-dancing rabbits, and rainbow-colored chickens! This inspired collaboration, a 1989 Caldecott Honor Book, will delight young readers who like a captivating story with a strong heroine and a dash of mystery. (Ages 5 to 10) --Marcie Bovetz            

 

From Publishers Weekly

In this adaptation of a Creole folktale, Blanche is kind, loving and patient, but her older sister Rose takes after their mean, sneaky mother. One day Blanche befriends a hideous old "aunty" on a path near her home and is rewarded with magic eggs. Of course, Rose and the girls' mother are beside themselves with envy, and Rose sets out to snag some eggs of her own. But greedy Rose's cruel nature gets her into trouble. She torments the old lady, grabs the wrong eggs and ends up "angry, sore and stung." Pinkney's exquisitely wrought illustrations are close cousins to those in his Caldecott Honor Book Mirandy and Brother Wind , with similar woodlands and soft farmyard settings of the rural South. When the magic begins, the witch takes off her head, dressed-up rabbits do the Virginia reel and eggs begin to chatter. There are some spectacular scenes here. Ages 4-8.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

The Talking Eggs Discussion Guide

Grades: PreK–K, 1–2, 

Grade Level Equivalent: 3.5

 

Lexile Measure: 940L

 

Guided Reading Level: M

 

Age: Age 7

 

Genre: Fables, Folk Tales and Myths

 

Subject: Character and Values, Magic and Supernatural, Just Rewards, Manners and Conduct, Siblings

                                      

Before Reading
Children will bring to this book a familiarity with folktales and a love for a well-told story. The Talking Eggs will delight them with its good and evil characters, its strange and magical happenings, and its fresh and natural language.
Tell students that they will be reading a folktale about two sisters—a “good” sister and a “bad” sister. Draw upon their prior experience with literature by asking them to think of other folktales or fairy tales that have “good” or “evil” characters. Discuss these characters in such classic tales as The Mitten, Stone Soup, The Three Billy-Goats Gruff, Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood, or other tales with which the children are familiar.

Extend the discussion by asking students to name personality traits or behavior shared by the good characters they mentioned and traits shared by the bad or evil characters. You may wish to use concept maps to organize students' responses. As students volunteer words for the maps, have them support their suggestions with specific examples of characters and their behavior from folktales or fairy tales. Be sure to save the maps for further use.

Good Characters:  (center of web)

Branches of web:  Answers may include: kind; truthful; brave; hard-working; helpful to others; and can be trusted.

Bad Characters:  (center of web)

Branches of web:  Answers may include: cruel; lazy; jealous; selfish; greedy; can't be trusted; and lying.

 

• Subjects:
  Literature, Plot, Character, Setting, Literature Appreciation, Vocabulary, Siblings
• Skills:
  Plot, Character and Setting, Vocabulary

 

A Spring Poem: The Lily by William Blake (a great one to memorize)

The modest Rose puts forth a thorn,
The humble sheep a threat'ning horn:
While the Lily white shall in love delight,
Nor a thorn nor a threat stain her beauty bright.

William Blake

(This is one of my favorite poems, as I have a beautiful grandbaby in heaven with this name.  It's fitting for the Spring and for Poetry month.)

Altered Books - READ

Last year our local "Used" book store, called The Book Garden, http://bookgarden2.com/, had an altered book contest in the month of April. I decided to participate just for fun, because I am NOT an artist. I had fun cutting out pictures from an old falling apart version of the book "Animalia" by Eric Carle.  I cut out the letters R, E, A, D to spell read and glued them to big block letters, then added some flowers from other pages.  Here is what I got:

It was fun to do and I did it with my daughter who was 17.  Now I'm trying to decide what to do next, if I have time to do anything at all or if I should just bag the whole idea.  Hmmmmmm..... 
I'll let you know what I've decided in a few days.  I should have taken some pics of the other altered books because there were some amazing ones.  I didn't win of course, because the talent was unbelievable.  Some real artist got into the project and "went to town".  Maybe I can find some pictures of what they did.  It was truly remarkable.



This is similar to some of the stuff that they had there!!! And this:



Kind of "out does" mine.  Hee Hee!!!!

Safe Search Sites for Kids

Kid Safe Search Sites

Menu: Subject Indexes | Search Engines | Fun and Educational Sites | Web Safety and Media Reviews

Thanks to Resources for School Librarians for this amazing list!!!

Subject Indexes

KidsClick

A searchable web directory created by "a bunch of librarians" at the Ramapo Catskill Library System.

The Internet Public Library

Check out both the Kid and Teen spaces.

Great Sites for Kids

Directory of web sites for students, parents, and teachers compiled by the Association for Library Service for Children

Infoplease

An online almanac, encyclopedia, and dictionary. This site also has a daily almanac, breaking news, and fun stuff.

FactMonster

Online dictionary, encyclopedia and almanac. Also homework help and some fun and games links. From Information Please.

Kids.gov

There is a wide variety of topics such as art, history, animals, and fun stuff at this US government site. It includes links to both goverment and commercial web sites.

Education World

This is a great site for teachers, and you will find lots of links to web sites which will be helpful to students, parents, and home schoolers.

The Virtual Middle School Library

Directory of sites for middle school students and their teachers and parents.

Think Quest Library

This is a collection of over 8000 web sites created by students for students. They include a wide range of school subjects.

KidsSites.Com

A rather limited number of sites, but the ones included are good ones.

Kids.Net.Au

This Australian site uses the Kids section of the Open Directory Project as the basis for its directory. Good collection of web sites for school work or just for fun.

Search Engines

KidRex

This search engine is good if you want to avoid pornography and advertisements.

KidzSearch

This search engine seems to be pornography free, but it does have a few Google advertisements.

Quintura Kids

This is a site which more for browsing than for searching. It is not the place to go for homework, but it is good for casual searching. No ads.

Sweet Search

This is a search engine which searches sites which have been approved by researchers. The results screen is rather cluttered, and it is very easy to get directed to Finding Dulcinea which is the parent of the Sweet Search site. The reading level of the articles retrieved was rather high.

Fun and Educational Sites

Fun Brain

Lots of fun (and educational) games for students in grades K - 8.

Enchanted Learning

Education, crafts, and games for the K-6 set.

PBS Kids

Fun for the preschool set.

Pauly's Playhouse

Fun games and activities for children ages 3 and up

Child Safety on the Net and Media Reviews

NetSmartz

Online safety information for kids, teens, parents, educators, and law enforcement agencies.

Get NetWise

Lots of information for adults concerned with child safety on the web. There is also information about computer viruses and preventing spam.

iKeep Safe Internet Safety Coalition

This site provides internet safety information for students, teachers, and parents. It is sponsored by state governors,and/or first spouses, law enforcement agencies, and many other groups.

A Parent's Guide to Facebook

A 32 page booklet to help you understand facebook, and to help you to teach your child to use it safely.

Growing Wireless

Many wireless networks provide means for parents to control their children's use. There is also quite a bit of information on how to teach children the safe use of wireless.

Media Smarts

An extensive site with information for children, parents and teachers. The information provided deals with all forms of the media.

Get Safe Online

Information about protecting your computer, your identity, and your business information while online.

Stay Safe Online

There is information here about child safety on the net, and there is also very important information about guarding your computer from viruses and hacker attacks. Try taking the self test to find out how well prepared your computer is.

Kid's Online Safety

Articles for both parents and kids. This site is by the Federal Trade Commission.

Chat Danger

An guide to safe chatting in chat rooms, games, and e-mail.

Common Sense Media

Reviews of TV, web sites, books, and music. Also, this site has articles on media use and abuse.

All you can read or watch: A guide to subscription streaming services for kids

An article by Laura Hazard Owen, Sept. 6, 2013. An evaluation of streaming services for e-books and videos for children.

Entertainment Software Review Board

Check here for ratings of game software.