Hello,
Every now and then I am asked “How long should I keep magazines issues?” or “What do I do with old magazines?”
There is a general rule for magazines as to how long to keep them. The rule is to keep them for 3 – 5 years, then discard. For the most part, this is a great rule. However, I offer some exceptions for you.
1. Certain periodicals such as Cobblestone and Faces are great resources for the curriculum, so I would keep them around like a textbook or other resource. We have copies of Cobblestone from when it was first published in 1980. Some people would also include National Geographic in this list, too.
2. There may be certain magazines that are popular with your students and they don’t care how old it is. Magazines like American Girl, Radio Control Car Action, Ranger Rick, and others just stay around here until they fall apart. We actually mend these until it is hopeless.
What can you do with old magazines? It used to be that children made posters and projects using pictures from magazines, but I seldom see this happening any longer. Children tend to get the pictures they want from the internet these days instead of magazines. Look for art projects or other activities using magazines and recycle them in your school in this way, or just discard them from the computer and put them on a table with a sign that says “FREE”. We do this here and they disappear quickly. I also put our weeded books out for free and they disappear, too.
On another note:
Someone also gave me another idea. He asked if I had ever done a post to highlight SDA authors. I have not, so I am asking you for your ideas on this. What SDA authors do you know or use in your school? What books have they written? Do they answer letters, or visit schools, or SKYPE? We can put together a list of authors for a reference.
Have a great week.
Audrey
Currently reading:
A New Song by Jan Karon
The Indiscretions of Archie by P. G. Wodehouse
The Obsession of Victoria Gracen by Grace Livingston Hill
The Last Boy at St. Edith’s by Lee Gjertsen Malone
Monday, May 9, 2016
Monday, May 2, 2016
50 Books All (Adventist) Kids Should Read
Hello,
I love lists. I love checking things off my list. I particularly enjoy lists of books to read. If you do an internet search for books all kids should read, you will find hundreds of them and most of them will be different. It is just someone’s opinion. In looking over the lists, I would see many books that aren’t books we want in our libraries, so I decided to begin to create one for Adventist Schools.
Nearly two years ago, I send out a request for ideas of books that kids should read or be familiar with and I got some book ideas from you.
I have listed the books in a table with the title, author, grade level, and if they are Adventist published or not. I had hoped for 50 and actually got 52 and more.
Title Author Age/Grade SDA
1 The Very Hungry Caterpillar Carle, Eric Pre K – 2 N
2 Ramona the Pest Cleary, Beverly 3 – 5 N
3 Anne of Green Gables Montgomery, L. M. 5 – 8 N
4 My Side of the Mountain George, Jean Craighead 5 – 8 N
5 Anne Frank: Diary of a Young Girl Frank, Anne 6 – 8 N
6 To Kill a Mockingbird Lee, Harper 7 – 8 N
7 Swift Arrow Edwards, Josephine Cunnington 4 – 8 Y
8 My Bible Friends set Degering, Etta B Pre K - 2 Y
9 Messiah Thomas, Jerry D 6 – 8 Y
10 Little Women Alcott, Louisa May 5 – 8 N
11 Girl of the Limberlost Porter, Gene Stratton 7 – 8 N
12 Childhood of Famous Americans – at least a few Various authors 3 – 5 N
13 The Cay Taylor, Theodore 3 - 7 N
14 Johnny Tremain Forbes, Esther 5 – 8 N
15 Sam Campbell’s books Campbell, Sam 5 - 8 N, Y
16 Joseph Fivash, Terri 7 – 8 Y
17 The Hiding Place Ten Boom, Corrie 7 – 8 N
18 The Miracle Worker Gibson, William 5 - 8 N
19 The Adventist Girl series books Various authors 3 – 6 Y
20 Where the Red Fern Grows Rawls, Wilson 5 - 8 N
21 Caddie Woodlawn Brink, Carol Ryrie 5 – 8 N
22 Jungle Thorn Youngberg, Norma 5 – 8 Y
23 Nyla and the White Crocodile Youngberg, Norma 5 – 8 Y
24 Hatchet Paulsen, Gary 4 – 8 N
25 Any book by Eric B. Hare Hare, Eric B 5 - 8 Y
26 Snow Treasure Mcswiggan, Marie 5 - 8 N
27 Treasures of the Snow St. John, Patricia 4 - 8
28 The Witch of Blackbird Pond Speare, Elizaabeth George Speare 5 – 8 N
29 Treasure Island Stevenson, Robert Louis 5 – 8 N
30 Swiss Family Robinson Wyss, Johann David N
31 The Secret Garden Burnett, Frances Hodgson 4 – 8 N
32 Pollyanna Porter, Eleanor H. 4 – 8 N
33 The Chronicles of Narnia Lewis, C. S. 5 - 8 N
34 Little House series Wilder, Laura Ingalls 3 – 8 N
35 Red Scarf Girl Jiang, Ji-li 5 - 8 N
36 Clever Queen Hare, Eric B 5 - 8 Y
37 Heidi Spyri, Johanna 5 – 8 N
38 Harold and the Purple Crayon Johnson, Crockett K - 2 N
39 Ramona the Pest Cleary, Beverly 3 – 5 N
40 Where the Sidewalk Ends Siverstein, Shel 3 – 8 N
41 Bridge to Terabithia Paterson, Katherine 5 – 8 N
42 Bud, Not Buddy Curtis, Christopher Paul 5 – 8 N
43 Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing Blume, Judy 4 – 6 N
44 Esperanza Rising Ryan, Pam Munoz 5 – 8 N
45 I Am Malala: How One Girl Stood Up for Education and Changed the World Yousafzai, Malala 5 – 8 N
46 Frindle Clements, Andrew 3 – 8 N
47 The Boxcar Children Warner, Gertrude, Chandler 2 - 4 N
48 Mr. Popper’s Penguins Atwater, Florence 2 – 5 N
49 Island of the Blue Dolphins O’Dell, Scott 5 – 8 N
50 Julie of the Wolves George, Jean Craighead 5 – 8 N
51 The Year of the Book Cheng, Andrea 3 – 6 N
52 Red Butterfly Sonnichsen, Al. L. 5 – 8 N
Thank you to those who helped create this list. I hope you enjoy it!
Audrey
Currently reading:
A New Song by Jan Karon (Book 5 of the Mitford series)
The Indiscretions of Archie by P. G. Wodehouse
The Year of Living Danishly by Helen Russell (Audible book)
It Ain’t So Awful, Falafel by Firoozeh Dumas
I love lists. I love checking things off my list. I particularly enjoy lists of books to read. If you do an internet search for books all kids should read, you will find hundreds of them and most of them will be different. It is just someone’s opinion. In looking over the lists, I would see many books that aren’t books we want in our libraries, so I decided to begin to create one for Adventist Schools.
Nearly two years ago, I send out a request for ideas of books that kids should read or be familiar with and I got some book ideas from you.
I have listed the books in a table with the title, author, grade level, and if they are Adventist published or not. I had hoped for 50 and actually got 52 and more.
Title Author Age/Grade SDA
1 The Very Hungry Caterpillar Carle, Eric Pre K – 2 N
2 Ramona the Pest Cleary, Beverly 3 – 5 N
3 Anne of Green Gables Montgomery, L. M. 5 – 8 N
4 My Side of the Mountain George, Jean Craighead 5 – 8 N
5 Anne Frank: Diary of a Young Girl Frank, Anne 6 – 8 N
6 To Kill a Mockingbird Lee, Harper 7 – 8 N
7 Swift Arrow Edwards, Josephine Cunnington 4 – 8 Y
8 My Bible Friends set Degering, Etta B Pre K - 2 Y
9 Messiah Thomas, Jerry D 6 – 8 Y
10 Little Women Alcott, Louisa May 5 – 8 N
11 Girl of the Limberlost Porter, Gene Stratton 7 – 8 N
12 Childhood of Famous Americans – at least a few Various authors 3 – 5 N
13 The Cay Taylor, Theodore 3 - 7 N
14 Johnny Tremain Forbes, Esther 5 – 8 N
15 Sam Campbell’s books Campbell, Sam 5 - 8 N, Y
16 Joseph Fivash, Terri 7 – 8 Y
17 The Hiding Place Ten Boom, Corrie 7 – 8 N
18 The Miracle Worker Gibson, William 5 - 8 N
19 The Adventist Girl series books Various authors 3 – 6 Y
20 Where the Red Fern Grows Rawls, Wilson 5 - 8 N
21 Caddie Woodlawn Brink, Carol Ryrie 5 – 8 N
22 Jungle Thorn Youngberg, Norma 5 – 8 Y
23 Nyla and the White Crocodile Youngberg, Norma 5 – 8 Y
24 Hatchet Paulsen, Gary 4 – 8 N
25 Any book by Eric B. Hare Hare, Eric B 5 - 8 Y
26 Snow Treasure Mcswiggan, Marie 5 - 8 N
27 Treasures of the Snow St. John, Patricia 4 - 8
28 The Witch of Blackbird Pond Speare, Elizaabeth George Speare 5 – 8 N
29 Treasure Island Stevenson, Robert Louis 5 – 8 N
30 Swiss Family Robinson Wyss, Johann David N
31 The Secret Garden Burnett, Frances Hodgson 4 – 8 N
32 Pollyanna Porter, Eleanor H. 4 – 8 N
33 The Chronicles of Narnia Lewis, C. S. 5 - 8 N
34 Little House series Wilder, Laura Ingalls 3 – 8 N
35 Red Scarf Girl Jiang, Ji-li 5 - 8 N
36 Clever Queen Hare, Eric B 5 - 8 Y
37 Heidi Spyri, Johanna 5 – 8 N
38 Harold and the Purple Crayon Johnson, Crockett K - 2 N
39 Ramona the Pest Cleary, Beverly 3 – 5 N
40 Where the Sidewalk Ends Siverstein, Shel 3 – 8 N
41 Bridge to Terabithia Paterson, Katherine 5 – 8 N
42 Bud, Not Buddy Curtis, Christopher Paul 5 – 8 N
43 Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing Blume, Judy 4 – 6 N
44 Esperanza Rising Ryan, Pam Munoz 5 – 8 N
45 I Am Malala: How One Girl Stood Up for Education and Changed the World Yousafzai, Malala 5 – 8 N
46 Frindle Clements, Andrew 3 – 8 N
47 The Boxcar Children Warner, Gertrude, Chandler 2 - 4 N
48 Mr. Popper’s Penguins Atwater, Florence 2 – 5 N
49 Island of the Blue Dolphins O’Dell, Scott 5 – 8 N
50 Julie of the Wolves George, Jean Craighead 5 – 8 N
51 The Year of the Book Cheng, Andrea 3 – 6 N
52 Red Butterfly Sonnichsen, Al. L. 5 – 8 N
Thank you to those who helped create this list. I hope you enjoy it!
Audrey
Currently reading:
A New Song by Jan Karon (Book 5 of the Mitford series)
The Indiscretions of Archie by P. G. Wodehouse
The Year of Living Danishly by Helen Russell (Audible book)
It Ain’t So Awful, Falafel by Firoozeh Dumas
National Parks Display
Hello,
I had a brilliant idea and I just wanted to share this with you since I only have brilliant ideas a very few times each year!
Since 2016 is the centennial of the National Parks program, I am getting a display ready that will last through next December. I am putting up a map of the National Parks in the library. I bought some pins with colored flags and we will mark each park that someone in our school has visited. I’ll write names or initials on the flag of the pin. I’m trying to decide how to verify an actual park visit. Maybe I’ll have a short form for students to take home and have parents sign, or maybe it isn’t necessary. Still thinking about that, so if you have any thought or ideas for me, please let me know.
I also bought a couple of books about the national parks and I’ll have them in a prominent area for students to check out. My map has been delayed, so I can’t show you what it looks like, so look for that coming in a week or so.
If this sounds like something your school would enjoy working on, I’d like to encourage you to do it along with me.
Have a great week,
Audrey
I had a brilliant idea and I just wanted to share this with you since I only have brilliant ideas a very few times each year!
Since 2016 is the centennial of the National Parks program, I am getting a display ready that will last through next December. I am putting up a map of the National Parks in the library. I bought some pins with colored flags and we will mark each park that someone in our school has visited. I’ll write names or initials on the flag of the pin. I’m trying to decide how to verify an actual park visit. Maybe I’ll have a short form for students to take home and have parents sign, or maybe it isn’t necessary. Still thinking about that, so if you have any thought or ideas for me, please let me know.
I also bought a couple of books about the national parks and I’ll have them in a prominent area for students to check out. My map has been delayed, so I can’t show you what it looks like, so look for that coming in a week or so.
If this sounds like something your school would enjoy working on, I’d like to encourage you to do it along with me.
Have a great week,
Audrey
Tuesday, April 26, 2016
National Parks Display Idea
Hello,
I had a brilliant idea and I just wanted to share this with you since I only have brilliant ideas a very few times each year!
Since 2016 is the centennial of the National Parks program, I am getting a display ready that will last through next December. I am putting up a map of the National Parks in the library. I bought some pins with colored flags and we will mark each park that someone in our school has visited. I’ll write names or initials on the flag of the pin. I’m trying to decide how to verify an actual park visit. Maybe I’ll have a short form for students to take home and have parents sign, or maybe it isn’t necessary. Still thinking about that, so if you have any thought or ideas for me, please let me know.
I also bought a couple of books about the national parks and I’ll have them in a prominent area for students to check out. My map has been delayed, so I can’t show you what it looks like, so look for that coming in a week or so.
If this sounds like something your school would enjoy working on, I’d like to encourage you to do it along with me.
Have a great week,
Audrey
I had a brilliant idea and I just wanted to share this with you since I only have brilliant ideas a very few times each year!
Since 2016 is the centennial of the National Parks program, I am getting a display ready that will last through next December. I am putting up a map of the National Parks in the library. I bought some pins with colored flags and we will mark each park that someone in our school has visited. I’ll write names or initials on the flag of the pin. I’m trying to decide how to verify an actual park visit. Maybe I’ll have a short form for students to take home and have parents sign, or maybe it isn’t necessary. Still thinking about that, so if you have any thought or ideas for me, please let me know.
I also bought a couple of books about the national parks and I’ll have them in a prominent area for students to check out. My map has been delayed, so I can’t show you what it looks like, so look for that coming in a week or so.
If this sounds like something your school would enjoy working on, I’d like to encourage you to do it along with me.
Have a great week,
Audrey
Monday, April 18, 2016
A Website and a Book
Hello,
I have some things that you might be interested in, but they don’t really go together. The only thing they have in common is that they are both new to me!
One is a website that has information, activities and cool things to do in respect to climate. I looked over the Carbon Travels section and did notice one place that mentions ‘millions of years ago’, but the information is updated and interesting. At first I thought the site was for young children since it is brightly colored and has font that is somewhat juvenile, but it looks like it will work for grades 3 – 8. The review on Common Sense Media says Grades 3 – 6. There is a lot of reading, so children will need to be able to read fairly well or work with a partner.
Subjects include Weather and Climate, Air, Ocean, Fresh Water, Carbon’s Travels, Energy, Plants and Animals, Technology and Big Questions. Big Questions discusses “What is ‘global climate change?”, “What is the Greenhouse Effect?”, What is happening in the ocean?”, “What else do we need to find out?”, “What is the big deal with carbon?”, “How do we know the climate is changing?”, and “What can we do to help?”
http://climatekids.nasa.gov/
The other is a book about a few people who helped establish our National Parks. My husband and I are ‘collecting’ National Parks, and when I saw a preview of this book, I requested a galley to look it over.
The title is Mountain Chef: How One Man Lost His Groceries, Changed His Plans, and Helped Cook Up the National Park Service by Annette Bay Pimentel. It is the true story of Tie Sing, a Chinese American mountain man who fed thirty people for ten days in the wilderness. He was hired by Stephen Mather to cook for his group of influential men on this camping trip hoping to influence them to help create our National Parks. Tie Sing planned diligently, but he could not know that problems with the donkeys carrying the food would happen causing Tie to completely change his menus not once but twice. Tie creatively made fortune cookies on the last night with fortunes reading “Long may you search the mountains” or Long may you build the paths through the mountains” and more. This is a picture book with watercolor paintings throughout. At the end is more information including photos of the people on the camping trip plus little bios of some of the men. If you visit Yosemite National Park, you can hike to Sing Peak which is named for Tie Sing.
Look for this book coming out on August 2, 2016. It is a great tribute to the 100th anniversary of the National Park Service created by Congress on August 25, 1916.
Have a great week!
Audrey
Currently reading:
A New Song by Jan Karon (Book 5 of the Mitford series)
The Indiscretions of Archie by P. G. Wodehouse
The Year of Living Danishly by Helen Russell (Audible book)
It Ain’t So Awful, Falafel by Firoozeh Dumas
I have some things that you might be interested in, but they don’t really go together. The only thing they have in common is that they are both new to me!
One is a website that has information, activities and cool things to do in respect to climate. I looked over the Carbon Travels section and did notice one place that mentions ‘millions of years ago’, but the information is updated and interesting. At first I thought the site was for young children since it is brightly colored and has font that is somewhat juvenile, but it looks like it will work for grades 3 – 8. The review on Common Sense Media says Grades 3 – 6. There is a lot of reading, so children will need to be able to read fairly well or work with a partner.
Subjects include Weather and Climate, Air, Ocean, Fresh Water, Carbon’s Travels, Energy, Plants and Animals, Technology and Big Questions. Big Questions discusses “What is ‘global climate change?”, “What is the Greenhouse Effect?”, What is happening in the ocean?”, “What else do we need to find out?”, “What is the big deal with carbon?”, “How do we know the climate is changing?”, and “What can we do to help?”
http://climatekids.nasa.gov/
The other is a book about a few people who helped establish our National Parks. My husband and I are ‘collecting’ National Parks, and when I saw a preview of this book, I requested a galley to look it over.
The title is Mountain Chef: How One Man Lost His Groceries, Changed His Plans, and Helped Cook Up the National Park Service by Annette Bay Pimentel. It is the true story of Tie Sing, a Chinese American mountain man who fed thirty people for ten days in the wilderness. He was hired by Stephen Mather to cook for his group of influential men on this camping trip hoping to influence them to help create our National Parks. Tie Sing planned diligently, but he could not know that problems with the donkeys carrying the food would happen causing Tie to completely change his menus not once but twice. Tie creatively made fortune cookies on the last night with fortunes reading “Long may you search the mountains” or Long may you build the paths through the mountains” and more. This is a picture book with watercolor paintings throughout. At the end is more information including photos of the people on the camping trip plus little bios of some of the men. If you visit Yosemite National Park, you can hike to Sing Peak which is named for Tie Sing.
Look for this book coming out on August 2, 2016. It is a great tribute to the 100th anniversary of the National Park Service created by Congress on August 25, 1916.
Have a great week!
Audrey
Currently reading:
A New Song by Jan Karon (Book 5 of the Mitford series)
The Indiscretions of Archie by P. G. Wodehouse
The Year of Living Danishly by Helen Russell (Audible book)
It Ain’t So Awful, Falafel by Firoozeh Dumas
Monday, April 11, 2016
Book Talks
Hello,
I have a group of students that seem to think checking books out of our school library is not cool enough. They want to go to the public library to get their books. This past week, I decided to do some book talks for them during their library class. I found 6 – 8 books in our library that were age appropriate and interesting. I realized that I really did not have enough time to write book talks for all of those books before their class time, so I did the next best thing. I went to the internet and typed in the title of each book and the term ‘book talk’. I found a couple of great sites and printed out the book talks for each book.
I typically use Amazon.com to check out information about books and this is a good place to start. Amazon has summaries of the books and if needed they can be tweaked slightly to make a good book talk. http://www.amazon.com/
One site was Teen Ink. This is a literary magazine for teens and teens write the book reviews. I used one review from this site. If you decide to use this site, read the review and make sure that it is a good fit for your school. https://www.teenink.com/reviews/book_reviews/
My best source the other day was a site that I use personally – GoodReads.com Their reviews/book summaries worked very well for me. https://www.goodreads.com/
In searching for book reviews sources today, I came across some by children on SchoolTube. If you aren’t familiar with SchoolTube, I understand that it is YouTube for scholastic purposes. The ones that I saw were by children and were quite short, so you could show quite a few of them in a short time. I also had the thought that students might decide to create their own book talks and post them. You can also find book talks on YouTube. http://www.schooltube.com/search/?term=book+talks
Scholastic has book talks for their books, too. Each book fair that we host here has a resource section where tons of information and help can be found. Book talks are there, too. You just print out the ones you need. Even if you don’t host Scholastic book fairs, you can type in Scholastic book talks and find them. http://www.scholastic.com/teacher/ab/booktalks.htm; http://teacher.scholastic.com/products/tradebooks/booktalks.htm#discussion
If you wish to either teach students how to prepare their own book talks or make it a bit easier to create them yourself, ALA (American Library Association) has a lesson plan plus template and even a rubric for this purpose. http://www.ala.org/aasl/sites/ala.org.aasl/files/content/conferencesandevents/ecollab/lpd/StudentCreatedBookTalks.pdf
By the way, after I gave the book talks, those students came rushing to my table to grab the books I had just promoted. I felt pretty good about that.
Have a great week!
Audrey
PS. For each book talk I used, I copied the source at the bottom of the review both to cite it and to remember where I got it from.
Currently Reading:
A New Song by Jan Karon (Book 5 of the Mitford series)
Gunn’s Golden Rules by Tim Gunn
The Indiscretions of Archie by P. G. Wodehouse
The Year of Living Danishly by Helen Russell (Audible book)
I have a group of students that seem to think checking books out of our school library is not cool enough. They want to go to the public library to get their books. This past week, I decided to do some book talks for them during their library class. I found 6 – 8 books in our library that were age appropriate and interesting. I realized that I really did not have enough time to write book talks for all of those books before their class time, so I did the next best thing. I went to the internet and typed in the title of each book and the term ‘book talk’. I found a couple of great sites and printed out the book talks for each book.
I typically use Amazon.com to check out information about books and this is a good place to start. Amazon has summaries of the books and if needed they can be tweaked slightly to make a good book talk. http://www.amazon.com/
One site was Teen Ink. This is a literary magazine for teens and teens write the book reviews. I used one review from this site. If you decide to use this site, read the review and make sure that it is a good fit for your school. https://www.teenink.com/reviews/book_reviews/
My best source the other day was a site that I use personally – GoodReads.com Their reviews/book summaries worked very well for me. https://www.goodreads.com/
In searching for book reviews sources today, I came across some by children on SchoolTube. If you aren’t familiar with SchoolTube, I understand that it is YouTube for scholastic purposes. The ones that I saw were by children and were quite short, so you could show quite a few of them in a short time. I also had the thought that students might decide to create their own book talks and post them. You can also find book talks on YouTube. http://www.schooltube.com/search/?term=book+talks
Scholastic has book talks for their books, too. Each book fair that we host here has a resource section where tons of information and help can be found. Book talks are there, too. You just print out the ones you need. Even if you don’t host Scholastic book fairs, you can type in Scholastic book talks and find them. http://www.scholastic.com/teacher/ab/booktalks.htm; http://teacher.scholastic.com/products/tradebooks/booktalks.htm#discussion
If you wish to either teach students how to prepare their own book talks or make it a bit easier to create them yourself, ALA (American Library Association) has a lesson plan plus template and even a rubric for this purpose. http://www.ala.org/aasl/sites/ala.org.aasl/files/content/conferencesandevents/ecollab/lpd/StudentCreatedBookTalks.pdf
By the way, after I gave the book talks, those students came rushing to my table to grab the books I had just promoted. I felt pretty good about that.
Have a great week!
Audrey
PS. For each book talk I used, I copied the source at the bottom of the review both to cite it and to remember where I got it from.
Currently Reading:
A New Song by Jan Karon (Book 5 of the Mitford series)
Gunn’s Golden Rules by Tim Gunn
The Indiscretions of Archie by P. G. Wodehouse
The Year of Living Danishly by Helen Russell (Audible book)
Monday, April 4, 2016
New Books
Hello,
Here are a few new books you might like.
Tree of Wonder by Kate Messner, illustrated by Simona Mulazzani. This is a book about a tree in the rainforest and the creatures that make their homes in the tree. The book begins with 1 Almendro tree, 2 Great Green Macaws, 4 Keel-billed Toucans, and continues multiplying 8 more times. In the back is more information and websites about the Almendro tree and extra rainforest math problems. One of the problems is this: There are four Great Green Macaws shown in the illustration on pages 4 – 5. When the eggs hatch, how many birds will there be all together? There are also book suggestions and a movie suggestion for more rainforest information.
I chose the poison dart frog page because they are so colorful and I wanted you to see the visual of 256 frogs in the sidebar. I also like that there is easier text and more informational text. Great for a reading buddy situation.
Beatrix Potter and Her Paint Box by David McPhail. A simple biography of the author/illustrator of Peter Rabbit plus many other books for children. Beatrix Potter was born nearly 150 years ago this coming July and her books still remain popular. McPhail has used watercolors to illustrate this book which is a lovely nod to Beatrix’s own illustrations.
Traveling Butterflies by Susumu Shingu. If you study the life cycle of a monarch butterfly, this is a great resource to have. The book begins with a picture of eggs on a leaf, and continues through the different stages of a butterfly through their migration south.
Edible Science Experiments You Can Eat by Jodi Wheeler-Toppen and Carol Tennant. If your kids like science experiments and eating, they will enjoy this book. Each experiment give the science of what is happening. There is a list of supplies needed, a difficulty level, time needed, and instructions. Vocabulary words may be found on many pages. Photographs help to show some of the steps in each experiment and children are shown wearing lab coats and goggles when appropriate.
Clean Sweep! Frank Zamboni’s Ice Machine by Monica Kulling, illustrated by Renné Benoit. Here is the story in picture book format of the Zamboni ice machine and how it came to be invented. Use this in a unit on inventors, the Winter Olympics, ice skating, or just for fun. There are a list of fun facts at the end of the book. One of the is that a Zamboni machine, with a top speed of 9 miles per hour, was driven across Canada from St. John’s, Newfoundland to Victoria, British Columbia, a trip that took four months.
The last set of books I want to share with you today is actually three books that work well together. In a preview box, I found among other things, three different sets of books. One set had six biographies written on a low reading level. The series is found under the title “Amazing Inventors & Innovators. The books in that series include George Eastman, Alexander Graham Bell, Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, Samuel Morse, and The Wright Brothers.
Another set of books was titles Amazing super Simple Inventions and each one has projects for children to do. Super Simple Aircraft Projects, Super Simple, Automobile Projects, Camera Projects, Phonograph Projects, Telegraph Projects, and Telephone Projects. One of our 5th and 6th grade teachers was interested in these projects.
The third set of books was about inventions. Aircraft, automobiles, cameras, phonograph, telegraphs, and telephones.
I admit that it took me a while to realize that the three sets were linked to each other. They would make great units. Read the biography of George Eastman, read about the invention of the camera, and then have your class do some or all of the camera projects. The books have different authors, but the publisher is ABDO. I do wish the publisher would have combined these three books into one and published six books rather than eighteen, but apparently they didn’t think to ask me.
I hope you see something that interests you. Have a great week.
Audrey
Currently reading:
A New Song by Jan Karon (Book 5 of the Mitford series)
The Blue Castle by L. M. Montgomery
Gunn’s Golden Rules by Tim Gunn
Here are a few new books you might like.
Tree of Wonder by Kate Messner, illustrated by Simona Mulazzani. This is a book about a tree in the rainforest and the creatures that make their homes in the tree. The book begins with 1 Almendro tree, 2 Great Green Macaws, 4 Keel-billed Toucans, and continues multiplying 8 more times. In the back is more information and websites about the Almendro tree and extra rainforest math problems. One of the problems is this: There are four Great Green Macaws shown in the illustration on pages 4 – 5. When the eggs hatch, how many birds will there be all together? There are also book suggestions and a movie suggestion for more rainforest information.
I chose the poison dart frog page because they are so colorful and I wanted you to see the visual of 256 frogs in the sidebar. I also like that there is easier text and more informational text. Great for a reading buddy situation.
Beatrix Potter and Her Paint Box by David McPhail. A simple biography of the author/illustrator of Peter Rabbit plus many other books for children. Beatrix Potter was born nearly 150 years ago this coming July and her books still remain popular. McPhail has used watercolors to illustrate this book which is a lovely nod to Beatrix’s own illustrations.
Traveling Butterflies by Susumu Shingu. If you study the life cycle of a monarch butterfly, this is a great resource to have. The book begins with a picture of eggs on a leaf, and continues through the different stages of a butterfly through their migration south.
Edible Science Experiments You Can Eat by Jodi Wheeler-Toppen and Carol Tennant. If your kids like science experiments and eating, they will enjoy this book. Each experiment give the science of what is happening. There is a list of supplies needed, a difficulty level, time needed, and instructions. Vocabulary words may be found on many pages. Photographs help to show some of the steps in each experiment and children are shown wearing lab coats and goggles when appropriate.
Clean Sweep! Frank Zamboni’s Ice Machine by Monica Kulling, illustrated by Renné Benoit. Here is the story in picture book format of the Zamboni ice machine and how it came to be invented. Use this in a unit on inventors, the Winter Olympics, ice skating, or just for fun. There are a list of fun facts at the end of the book. One of the is that a Zamboni machine, with a top speed of 9 miles per hour, was driven across Canada from St. John’s, Newfoundland to Victoria, British Columbia, a trip that took four months.
The last set of books I want to share with you today is actually three books that work well together. In a preview box, I found among other things, three different sets of books. One set had six biographies written on a low reading level. The series is found under the title “Amazing Inventors & Innovators. The books in that series include George Eastman, Alexander Graham Bell, Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, Samuel Morse, and The Wright Brothers.
Another set of books was titles Amazing super Simple Inventions and each one has projects for children to do. Super Simple Aircraft Projects, Super Simple, Automobile Projects, Camera Projects, Phonograph Projects, Telegraph Projects, and Telephone Projects. One of our 5th and 6th grade teachers was interested in these projects.
The third set of books was about inventions. Aircraft, automobiles, cameras, phonograph, telegraphs, and telephones.
I admit that it took me a while to realize that the three sets were linked to each other. They would make great units. Read the biography of George Eastman, read about the invention of the camera, and then have your class do some or all of the camera projects. The books have different authors, but the publisher is ABDO. I do wish the publisher would have combined these three books into one and published six books rather than eighteen, but apparently they didn’t think to ask me.
I hope you see something that interests you. Have a great week.
Audrey
Currently reading:
A New Song by Jan Karon (Book 5 of the Mitford series)
The Blue Castle by L. M. Montgomery
Gunn’s Golden Rules by Tim Gunn
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