Reading
"The principal goal of education is to create men who are capable of doing new things, not simply of repeating what other generations have done." ~~ Jean Piaget (1896 - 1980) Swiss cognitive psychologist
Wizard of Oz
Frank L. Baum (1856 - 1910) wrote fourteen children's books
and a handful of short stories about the mythical land of Oz, but it was
his first,"The Wonderful Wizard of Oz", that became an American
classic and one of the most popular movies in film history,
Library of Congress: The Wizard of Oz: An American
Fairytale: http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/oz/
"Since its publication in September 1900, L. Frank Baum's ?The Wonderful
Wizard of Oz' has become America's greatest and best-loved homegrown fairytale."
This virtual exhibit from the Library of Congress is divided into three
sections: To Please a Child, To See the Wizard, To Own the Wizard. Original
covers for many of Baum's children's books, Wizard of Oz advertising posters,
and W. W. Denslow's original black-and-white book illustrations can be
viewed here..
Project Gutenberg: Wizard of Oz: http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/55
Because "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" was published more than
one-hundred years ago, it is no longer covered by copyright in the U.S.,
and you can read the entire text online at Project Gutenberg. Other available
formats include Palm, Pocket PC, and plain text. Click on Frank L. Baum
to find more of his works, including an MP3 audio version of another book
in the Oz series, "The Wonderful Land of Oz."
Booksprice: http://www.booksprice.com/
"We compare book prices at the major online Book Stores to find the
best price for new & used books."
Robert Lee Frost ( 1874 - 1963) is one of
America's most famous poets and a four-time Pulitzer Prize winner His
poetry is both traditional and experimental and often memorized by school
children. He once stated that his goal was to write "a few poems
it will be hard to get rid of."
"Poetry is when an emotion has found its thought and the thought
has found words." ~~ Robert Frost ( 1874 - 1963) American poet
*American Poems: Robert Frost: http://www.americanpoems.com/poets/robertfrost/
American Poems's Robert Frost page starts with a biography linked to related
poets (including Carl Sandburg and Ezra Pound) and ends with a listing
of 108 poems, sorted by volume. Each poem includes comments posted by
readers. Like all online public commentary, some of it is worthwhile,
and some is not. Another feature is the ability to email any of the poems
to friends and family.
* Frost Out Loud: http://robertfrostoutloud.com/
Eric Copenhaver's "labor of love" (includes thirty or so Frost
poems, most of which include both the text and an audio reading. A handful
also include a reading by Frost himself, and an offsite link to related
analysis. "You may find that the combination of the text and sound
in this modern-day medium enhances the experience of the poem even more;
the text supplements the sound and the sound enhances the text to create
a sum greater than the parts."
* Modern American Poetry: Robert Frost: http://www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/poets/a_f/frost/frost.htm
Modern American Poetry is the online companion to "Anthology of Modern
American Poetry" from Oxford University Press. It contains literary
criticism on thousands of poems from hundreds of American poets, and is
a great place to peruse before writing your high-school or college English
paper. In fact, if you are particularly proud of your finished paper,
you can send it in (see instructions on About the Site, linked from the
home page) and perhaps get published.
Word Count here: http://www.wordcount.org/main.php
WordCount™ is an artistic experiment in the
way we use language. It presents the 86,800 most frequently used English
words, ranked in order of commonality. Each word is scaled to reflect
its frequency relative to the words that precede and follow it, giving
a visual barometer of relevance. The larger the word, the more we use
it. The smaller the word, the more uncommon it is.
WordCount data currently comes from the British
National Corpus®, a 100 million word collection of samples of written
and spoken language from a wide range of sources, designed to represent
an accurate cross-section of current English usage. WordCount includes
all words that occur at least twice in the BNC®. In the future, WordCount
will be modified to track word usage within any desired text, website,
and eventually the entire Internet.
WordCount was designed with a minimalist aesthetic, to
let the information speak for itself. The interface is clean, basic and
intuitive. The goal is for the user to feel embedded in the language.
America's Most Literate Cities 2004: http://www.uww.edu/npa/cities/
For 79 US cities with populations above 200,000, this study measures "the
public's propensity for reading" in several ways, including library
circulation, financial support for public libraries, number of bookstores,
educational attainment, number of magazines and journals published there,
and newspaper circulation.
The Digital Library: a Biography: http://www.clir.org/pubs/reports/pub109/pub109.pdf
Case studies of six major digital libraries illustrate opportunities and
pitfalls provided by the electronic medium.
Reading Room: http://specialcollections.blogspot.com/
A new blog devoted to rare books and special collections.
Theological Libraries: Historical Sources: http://www.ptsem.edu/grow/library/nyatla/sources.htm
a Webliography compiled by David Stewart of Princeton Theological Seminary
Literature for Children: http://susdl.fcla.edu/juv/
"a collection of the treasures of children's literature published
largely in the United States and Great Britain from before 1850 to beyond
1950. At the core of this Collection are books from the Baldwin Library
of Historical Children's Literature, housed in the Department of Special
Collections and Area Studies at the University of Florida."
Gnooks - welcome to the world of literature:
http://gnooks.com/
"Gnooks is a self-adapting community system based on the gnod engine.
Discover new writers you will like, travel the map of literature and discuss
your favorite books and authors." You can type the name of an author
to find discussions, or to see a clickable literature map of comparable
authors -- the closest names in the visual display are considered most
akin to your target author.
Language Arts Curriculum Links: http://www.msad54.k12.me.us/MSAD54Pages/Curriculum%20Resources/languagearts.html
Why do we love quotations? Marlene Dietrich,
the German-born American actress and singer, summed it up nicely when
she said "I love quotations because it is a joy to find thoughts
one might have, beautifully expressed with much authority by someone recognized
wiser than oneself."
*Annabelle's Quotation Guide: http://www.annabelle.net/
From "Adventure" to "Writing,"
Annabelle's quotes are arranged into 120 topics, including some unique
ones such as "September 2001 Attacks" and "Censorship &
Free Speech." Click on any quote's author to see more, or visit "Topics"
to browse authors alphabetically. There is also a search function, making
it easy to find exactly what you are looking for. Quote Grams lets you
pair quotes with photos and send them to friends and family.
*Bartleby.com: Familiar Quotations: http://www.bartleby.com/100/
John Bartlett, an American publisher born in 1820, published nine editions
of "Familiar Quotations" in his lifetime. This is the 1919 tenth
edition, the first to be produced after his death. Traverse it with the
search function, or the chronological and alphabetic author indexes.
*Brainy Quote: http://www.brainyquote.com/
Brainy Quote hosts "over 38,000 famous
quotes by 10,000 authors from Aristotle to Zappa." Each author's
page includes some biographical facts and a link to their books at Amazon.com.
Want to add a daily quote to your own site? No problem. In fact, Brainy
Quote offers six topics for you to choose from. And just for the fun of
it, try your hand at Quote Trivia.
Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare:
http://www2.hn.psu.edu/faculty/jmanis/shakesp/midsum.pdf
Study Guide for Midsummer Night's Dream: http://www.glencoe.com/sec/literature/litlibrary/pdf/midsummer_nights_dream.pdf
Lesson Plans: Guess that Scene: A Review of A Midsummer Night's Dream
Through Performance: http://www.folger.edu/education/lesson.cfm?lessonid=159
Lesson Plans:"Such Affection Move": Finding Staging Clues in
A Midsummer Night's Dream: http://www.folger.edu/education/lesson.cfm?lessonid=141
Cue Sheets for Students - A Midsummers Night's Dream:
http://artsedge.kennedy-center.org/cuesheet/pdf/KCMID.pdf
Shakespeare: Subject to Change: http://www.ciconline.org/bdp1/
Shakespeare in PDF's: http://www.hn.psu.edu/faculty/jmanis/shake.htm
World Poetry Audio Library: http://www.english.eku.edu/Pellegrino/worldpoetry/
Since poetry is designed to be heard, a good recitation helps unlock meaning.
RhymeZone: http://www.rhymezone.com/
"Type in a word below to find its rhymes, synonyms, definitions,
and more"
Anne Frank the Writer: an unfinished story:
http://www.ushmm.org/museum/exhibit/online/af/htmlsite/
Anne's diary, published in 1947 and eventually translated
into almost 70 languages, is for many young readers the first encounter
with the history of Nazi Germany. Between the ages of 13 and 15, Anne
wrote short stories, fairy tales, essays, and the beginnings of a novel.
Five notebooks and more than 300 loose pages handwritten during her two
years in hiding survived the war. This website presents an indepth
look at her writings through the use of a narrated exhibition, interviews,
an opportunity for site users to respond, artifacts from the museum, and
links to other recommended sites. Produced by The United States Holocaust
Memorial Museum.
Grade Level: Early Childhood (K-2), Elementary,
Middle School, High School, College, Adult/Professional
Content Area: History & Social Studies (World History)
Today in Literature: Great Stories, People,
Books & Events in Literary History: http://www.todayinliterature.com/
"features a new original biographical story each calendar day about
the great writers, books, and events in literary history. Our articles
are supplemented with links to recommended websites where you will find
author biographies, electronic texts, reviews, quotes and other reference
materials..."
Enoch Pratt Free Library - estories http://www.epfl.net/kids/estories/ESTORIES_archive_list.cfm
Listen to and watch master story tellers tell stories based on different
traditions (Native American, African, Iranian, Jewish)
Gloria's Website - implementing the writing process in the classroom: http://www3.sk.sympatico.ca/fiss/default.htm
A writing activity for the week before any holiday is for students to listen to and read stories from the popular Chicken Soup series. Explain to them that they are going to make their own books designed to be a holiday gift for a family member. The book is titled "Chicken Soup for the Holiday Soul," and the students make a cover just like the Chicken Soup books, a table of contents, and a dedication page. Stories that they might include are: Best Holiday Gift I Received, Best Holiday Gift I Ever Gave, Favorite Holiday Family Tradition, What the Holidays Mean to Me, and so on. Have the students include some fun poetry, like acrostics, and silly lists like Top 10 Best Things to Get in Your Holiday Stocking.
Folklore and Mythology E-Texts: http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/folktexts.html
Edited and translated by Prof. D. L. Ashman. It has a combined index of
authors, titles, and themes (baldheaded men, "abducted by aliens,"
end of the world," etc.).
SurLaLune Fairy Tales Site: http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/
"A portal to the realm of fairy tale and folklore
studies featuring 26 annotated fairy tales, including their histories,
similar tales across cultures, and over 1,000 illustrations."
The Robin Hood Project: http://www.lib.rochester.edu/camelot/rh/rhhome.stm
THE ROBIN HOOD PROJECT is designed to make available in electronic format
a database of texts, images, bibliographies, and basic information about
the Robin Hood stories and other outlaw tales.
Robin Hood - Bold Outlaw of Barnsdale and
Sherwood: http://www.boldoutlaw.com
Language Tools, iTools: http://www.itools.com/lang/
At this site there are over one dozen reference tools on one page, including
dictionaries, thesauri, encyclopedias, crossword and word scramble solvers,
along with text language translators.
Title Ball: http://www.harcourtschool.com/activity/title_ball/index.html
Punctuation Campground: http://www.harcourtschool.com/activity/punctuation/index.html
Corey Green: http://www.coreygreen.com/index.html
Felix's Clubhouse: http://www.abbeville.com/felix/index.htm
Super Kids Vocabulary Builder: http://superkids.com/aweb/tools/words/
The Electronic Library - Using Technology
to Resolve Children's Reading Difficulties While Restoring Their Self-Esteem:
http://www.tomes.ca/_library/
The Electronic Library has been used extensively in the United Kingdom,
Australia and New Zealand. It is based on the concept that reading is
an antisocial activity and assumes some working knowledge
of the code. An extensive research project was done in the UK and now
the first informal research on the library was done in PE, a small Canadian
province.
The Textmapping Project: http://www.textmapping.org/index.html
"Textmapping is a graphic organizer technique that can be used to
teach reading comprehension and writing skills, study skills, and course
content."
Great Lakes' Great Books Award: http://www.mraread.org/greatbooks/index.html
The Fantastic in Art and Fiction: http://fantastic.library.cornell.edu/
For such topics as "The Dance of Death, "Angels and Demons,"
"Weird Science," "Fantastic Space," this presents
a brief backgrounder, a variety of images, and a list of sources for the
images. Created by the Cornell Institute for Digital Collections, drawing
on the rare and manuscript collections of the Cornell University Library.
Hanover Historical Texts Project: http://history.hanover.edu/project.html
"The Project's principal aim is to make primary texts readily available
to students and faculty for use in history and humanities courses."
There's a little of everything here: pre-Socratic dialogues, letters of
the Crusaders, decrees of the Council of Trent, documents of the slave
trade, documents of the French and American Revolutions, etc. Lots more
is promised for texts from Asia, Africa and Latin America.
Fairy Tale and Folk Tale Cyber Dictionary: http://www.op97.org/instruct/ftcyber/ is a simple project for primary-grade students. After reading a folk or fairy tale, each student in the class chooses a word to illustrate and write a sentence about. The stories and illustrations are submitted and posted on the project Web site. Students and their teachers will become part of an international community of primary-aged students who have produced content for their peers using fairy or folk tales and the Internet. Grades 1-3.
Quentin Blake: http://www.quentinblake.com/
Quentin Blake's website has amusing illustrations and entertaining activities.
Here you can find out all about the man who brought characters to life,
from Mister Magnolia and Mrs Armitage to the BFG and Matilda. You can
find the latest news and information on new books and exhibitions, and
suggestions for teachers and parents.
Artbomb.net: http://www.artbomb.net/aboutus.jsp
Artbomb's mission is to promote diverse and sophisticated graphic novels.
The books are classified by genre.
America Reads: Resource Kit: http://www.ed.gov/inits/americareads/resourcekit/
Preventing Reading Difficulties in Young Children: http://stills.nap.edu/html/prdyc/
Beginning to Read: Preschool to Grade 2: http://www.ed.gov/Family/RWN/Activ97/begin.html
Between the Lions: http://pbskids.org/lions/
Child Becomes a Reader
http://www.nifl.gov/partnershipforreading/publications/readingk-3.pdf
http://www.nifl.gov/partnershipforreading/publications/pdf/low_res_child_reader_B-K.pdf
Put Reading First
http://www.nifl.gov/partnershipforreading/publications/Cierra.pdf
http://www.nifl.gov/partnershipforreading/publications/Parent_br.pdf
Free Publications to Order: http://www.nichd.nih.gov/publications/pubskey.cfm?from=nrp
When Stars Read - VIDEO: http://www.ldonline.org/videos/when_stars_read.ram
Why Children Succeed or Fail at Reading
http://www.ldonline.org/ld_indepth/reading/nichdbrochure.html
http://www.ldonline.org/ld_indepth/reading/cars.html
KidReach Online Reading Center: http://www.westga.edu/%7Ekidreach/
LEARNS
http://www.nwrel.org/learns/
http://www.nwrel.org/learns/pdf.html
MARCOGRAM: Reading, It Take You Places
http://www.marcopolo-education.org/MarcoGrams/11-25-02.html
Simple Things You Can Do to Help: http://www.ed.gov/PDFDocs/simple.pdf
The Handmade Book: http://cfmedia.scetv.org/periscope/display/ArchiveStory.cfm?articleID=76&pageN
umber=1&moduleID=55
Reading Planet: http://www.rif.org/readingplanet/
Read and Rise: http://www.nul.org/pdf/2002guide.pdf
Launching Young Readers: http://www.pbs.org/launchingreaders/
A Spiderman Comic Book: http://www.ed.gov/inits/americareads/spidey/spidey.pdf
Teaching Reading IS Rocket Science: http://www.aft.org/edissues/downloads/rocketsci.pdf
Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad
Day:
http://play.rbn.com/?url=kennedy/kennedy/g2demand/alexander.smi&proto=rtsp
Harlem:
http://play.rbn.com/?url=kennedy/kennedy/g2demand/harlem.smi&proto=rtsp
Brothers of the Knight
http://play.rbn.com/?url=kennedy/kennedy/g2demand/brother.smi&proto=rtsp
Tale of Peter Rabbit by Beatrix Potter
http://wiredforbooks.org/peter2.ram
http://edsitement.neh.gov/view_lesson_plan.asp?id=386
AddAll.com: http://www.addall.com
"AddALL searches all the data bases of all the major on-line bookstores.
This makes us the biggest book database on the Internet." You can
also click on Used & Out of Print Books to search this separate database.
Booktalks -- Quick and Simple: http://nancykeane.com/booktalks/default.htm
Components of Effective Reading & Writing Instruction K-8: http://www.mcps.k12.md.us/curriculum/english/comp_effect_rwinstr.htm
A Day to Day Calendar of Reading Activities:
http://www.rif.org/parents/resources/monthly.mspx
You can download a calendar page with each day of the month filled in
with a different literacy activity. It's from the Reading Is Fundamental
site, and makes a good addition on your refrigerator door.
Eight Areas of Learning and Your Child's
Mind: http://www.allkindsofminds.org/content/Adoptive%20Family%20Learning%20Styles_LEVINE1.pdf
Mel Levine of the University of North Carolina has sorted the way we learn
into eight different areas that include spatial thinking, attention, sequential
thinking, and more. This article has a one-page chart that lists all eight
areas, what to look for, and what to do if the area is a strength or if
it's a weakness for your child.
The Westing Game: http://www.soemadison.wisc.edu/ccbc/wisauth/raskin/intro.htm
This site has the actual manuscript on it, showing various drafts. Raskin
wanted students to learn about the creative writing process and also learn
why we do all the pre-writing, rough drafts, first drafts, etc. It shows
why we proofread also. It also has audio's explaining the drafts.
Children's E-Books
The Kennedy Center's "Storytime Online": http://www.kennedy-center.org/multimedia/storytimeonline/
This is a wonderful site! Pictures from the book are shown, the book is
read and the works are displayed. All of this and music too!
International Children's Digital Library:
http://www.icdlbooks.org:8080/servlet/TitleList?sort=title&pnum=1
Very easily searched, but this site is hard to read online. It would be
fine for printing, however.
Kids Corner: http://wiredforbooks.org/kids.htm
Compact For Reading and School-Home Links:
http://www.ed.gov/pubs/CompactforReading/index.html#links
Printable pages for Kindergarten through grade three.
Literacy Center: http://www.literacycenter.net/lessonview_en.htm
Basic colors/shapes/etc. with sound
Little Animals Activity Center: http://www.bbc.co.uk/education/laac/
Animal activities, read-along stories, and more for primary grades (includes
audio).
Read Alouds: http://childrensbooks.about.com/cs/readalouds/
Elements of a Mystery: http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/childrens_writing
MysteryNet's Kids Mysteries: http://www.mysterynet.ncom/learn/lessonplans/writing.shtml
MysteryNet's homepage: www.mysterynet.com
A Unit for [Your State]
Authors
Students first chose a book by the state's authors.
Then they read the book and kept a journal of the story by chapters. Include
figurative language used by the authors to make their stories more interesting.
They make an author card in the shape of the state with the picture, dates
birth/death, and any books
receiving awards.
A speaker might come in to talk to the students about book talks. The
students are then videotaped having a book talk with other students that
share the author.
Students research the author.
The project ends with a PowerPoint about the author.
The Quotations Page: http://www.quotationspage.com/
Hamlet on the Ramparts: http://shea.mit.edu/ramparts/welcome.htm
Interesting. This site, hosted by MIT's Shakespeare Project, is an attempt
to compile all known resources devoted to Hamlet, Act 1, Scenes 4 and
5, in which Hamlet meets the ghost of his father.
The Hogwarts Challenge: http://www.palmdps.act.edu.au/resource_centre/booklook/harry_potter/intro_potter.htm
Harry Potter Word Search: http://www.funorama.com/wfharrypotter.html
The Magical World of Harry Potter: http://www.thinkquest.org/library/lib/site_sum_outside.html?tname=J001330&url=J001330/page19.html
Harry Potter: http://pirates.k12.ar.us/cre/labert/harrypotter.htm
The Red Hat Society philosophy is based on
the poem "Warning" by Jenny Joseph. It speaks of an old woman
who "wears purple and a red hat that doesn't go", and she does
some outrageous things that "sweet little old ladies" just are
not supposed to do. Red Hatters are a fun-loving bunch
of ladies, who have given themselves permission to be eccentric and outrageous.
They love to play dress up, and go to tea, and do other fun things --
in their purple outfits and red hats, of course!
An edited version of the poem is at: http://www.redhatsociety.com/poem.html
with directions to how to purchase an unedited version.
Mrs. Kramps WebQuests: http://www.bgcs.k12.oh.us/kramp/default.htm
These are WebQuests designed by a fourth grade teacher
based on literature books.
75 Years of Pooh: http://www.penguinputnam.com/static/packages/us/yreaders/pooh75/
Pooh's publishers created this thoughtful and delightful site a few years
ago in celebration of the seventy-fifth anniversary of the publication
of Winnie-the-Pooh in 1926. There are interactive games, Pooh recipes,
and audio samples of Charles Kuralt reading from two Pooh books plus the
Pooh Party package (seventeen printable pages including invitations and
party games) and the chapter-by-chapter
Winnie-the-Pooh Classroom Activities.
Just Pooh: http://www.just-pooh.com/
There is a Shockwave Honey Tree game, plus Pooh e-cards to send to friends
and family, a twenty-five question quiz, the History of Pooh, book excerpts
(Stories), and a character guide (100 Acre Woods.)
The Page at Pooh Corner: http://www.pooh-corner.org/
James Milne's Page at Pooh Corner contains biographies of author A.A.
Milne, illustrator E.H.
Shepard, and the real-life Christopher Robin (the author's son). It also
has photos of the original stuffed animals that served as inspiration
for the world famous stories. Is webmaster Milne
related to the author? "As far as my family can tell, we're not related
... Still, it's fun having the same last name!"
Steps for Creating an Ode
1. Select a person, place, or thing that you want
to write about.
2. Write phrases describing how your item makes
you feel and why you feel this way.
3. Write many phrases telling unique qualities of
your subject.
4. Now, explain why your subject is important to
you and why you adore it so much!
5. Join some of your phrases into lines for your
ode. Remember they don't have to rhyme!
Now revise your lines following these steps:
- take away any lines that are too similar
- add more feeling to any meaningless lines
- pick a good opening line or sentence
- order the remaining lines into their best sequence
- select a good closing line that clearly expresses your feelings about
that subject
Rewrite your ode in a final draft.
"Birth of a Nation"
Downloads of the 1915 movie: http://www.uno.edu/~drcom/Griffith/Birth/
Teacher Guide: http://www.webster.edu/fatc/birth.html
Synopsis: http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Bungalow/1204/bnation.htm
Primary Sources: http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/today/feb08.html
Handouts and Materials for Students and Teachers:
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/index.html
Scripps Howard National Spelling Bee: http://www.spellingbee.com/
Children's Book Council of Australia: http://www.cbc.org.au/
This Little House of Mine: Grown-Up Thoughts:
http://www.common-place.org/vol-03/no-03/seidman/
Cable in the Classroom has a multimedia website called "Shakespeare: Subject to Change": http://www.ciconline.org/broadband which explores the printing process of Shakespeare's plays and variations in performances of his plays.
Books about chocolate
Chocolate by Hershey : a story about Milton S. Hershey -Burford, Betty
The Hershey's Kisses addition book -Pallotta, Jerry
The Hershey's Kisses subtraction book -Pallotta, Jerry
The Hershey's milk chocolate multiplication book -Pallotta, Jerry
Beans to chocolate -Snyder, Inez
Choco-Louie -Kindley, Jeffrey
The chocolate lovers : a children's story and cookbook -Loon, Joan van
The chocolate-covered contest -Keene, Carolyn
From cocoa bean to chocolate (Start To Finish) -Nelson, Robin
A guide for using Charlie and the chocolate factory in the classroom
-Ryan, Concetta Doti. - Teacher Created Materials, Westminster, CA :
c1993.
Lucky pennies and hot chocolate -Shields, Carol Diggory
The magic school bus in the rain forest -Scholastic
Oh, Ducky! : a chocolate calamity -Slonim, David
Painted eggs and chocolate bunnies -Parker, Toni Trent. (Symbols of Easter)
The secret ingredient -Stanley, George Edward
Simply delicious! -Mahy, Margaret
Wellington's chocolatey day -Inkpen, Mick
Correction: #12. Chocolate: Riches from the Rain Forest -Burleigh, Robert
This is a site for children who are beginning to read.
Guide to Grammar and Writing: http://webster.commnet.edu/grammar/index.htm
includes PowerPoint presentations and interactive activities
Fundamentals of English Grammar: Description
and Use by Donald E. Hardy: http://www.engl.niu.edu/dhardy/grammarbook/title.html
The entire book is online.
Daily Grammar: http://www.dailygrammar.com/
Daily Grammar sends you e-mail messages with a grammar lesson five days
of the week and a quiz on the sixth day.
Family Education: Charlotte's
Web:
http://www.familyeducation.com/topic/front/0,1156,2-14096-1,00.html
Collection of two quizzes, one word search, and two related art activities
(including a
paper mache piggy bank built around a balloon), plus a letter from E.B.
White, in which he answers questions frequently asked by children, and
the text of the entire first chapter. For links to even more Charlotte's
Web vocabulary and math pages, click on Online Fun, listed under Activities.
Harper Children's: E.B. White
http://www.harperchildrens.com/hch/author/author/white/
E.B. White wrote books for children and adults, as well as writing essays
and drawing sketches for The New Yorker magazine.
The New York Times: Life & Times of
E.B. White
http://www.nytimes.com/books/97/08/03/lifetimes/white.html
Five-minute audio clips of readings from Charlotte's Web, The Trumpet
of the Swan and Stuart Little, plus a collection of New York Times' articles
by and about E.B. White.
Pocantico Hills School: Charlotte's Web:
http://www2.lhric.org/pocantico/charlotte/
Each year, Mrs. Taverna's second-grade class reads Charlotte's Web, and
each year (since 1998) the students then add a little something to their
Pocantico Hills School Charlotte's Web site, including the ABCs of Charlotte's
Web (A is for Avery, B is for Barn), Chapter Summaries, The Mystery Quotes
Quiz, Charlotte's Web Trivia Crossword Puzzles, and a big section on Spiders.
Stuart Little 2: http://www.stuartlittle.com/
Seven games that you can play online or download to your PC or
Mac) and Cool Stuff (for e-cards and computer wallpaper.)
Dr. Suess sites
PRINTABLE CAT IN THE HAT MAZE: http://www.seussville.com/seussville/games/maze/
MAKE A MANY COLORED DAYS BOOKMARK:
http://www.seussville.com/seussville/titles/days/bookmark.html
"AT" FAMILY PRINTABLE: http://abcteach.com/Reading/suess/at.htm
Acivities for words rhyming with "at"
TEACHING PHONOGRAMS THROUGH THE SNEETCHES:
http://askeric.org/cgi-bin/printlessons.cgi/Virtual/Lessons/Language_Arts/Reading/RDG0012.html
http://www.randomhouse.com/seussville/
http://www.seuss.org/seuss.home.html
http://www.nea.org/readacross/games.html
http://k12.albemarle.org/MurrayElem/White/Seuss/seuss.shtml
Recordings for the Blind: http://www.rfbd.org
has several thousand books on tape available for students with vision
problems. If they don't have the tape, they'll make it for you...if you
supply them with two copies of the book (one for recording and one for
their archives). There is a fee for activation of
the service for the student, but once activated, the student is a member
of the program for life. (This is very useful for when they go to college.)
You will need to have verification of the student's vision from an ophthalmologist,
vision teacher, etc. Check their online form for more
details.
Knowing Poe (Maryland Public Television):
http://knowingpoe.thinkport.org/
The Literature, Life, and Times of Edgar Allan Poe...
In Baltimore and Beyond. Through the activities on this site, you can
introduce learners to the literature, life, and times of one of America's
foremost writers. Here, you will: explore his worlds, both fictional and
real, from a number of perspectives; examine the complex choices writers
such as Poe make as they create their works; investigate the "hard
facts" about life and death in Baltimore and the United States during
Poe's lifetime; and learn about the continuing impact of Poe's legacy.
In addition to these interactive experiences, there are
lesson plans created by Maryland teachers, primary source documents, links
for further research, and materials for fun family activities related
to Edgar Allan Poe. Classroom Connections is a:
http://knowingpoe.thinkport.org/classconn/
Grade Level: Elementary, Middle School, High
School, College, Adult/Professional
Content Area: Arts (Literature), Education (Curriculum), English (Literature)
The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art: http://www.picturebookart.org/home/index.asp has the works of Carle, Maurice Sendak, Nancy Eklholm and more than a dozen other artists slated for display at the Amherst, Mass., museum. Educators and children around the nation also have access to the museum through its Website. The site features examples of new and well-known works, along with recommended reading, tips for sharing books with young children and descriptions of upcoming events. Links to other online resources featuring children's books also are provided.
Reading Rockets: Launching Young Readers:
http://www.pbs.org/launchingreaders/
features parent tips, video clips & transcripts from interviews with
reading experts; motivational e-cards
grandparents & teachers can send to children; a forum for sharing
suggestions; booklists; & answers to key questions. This website,
which accompanies the PBS "Reading Rockets" television series,
also provides overviews for the 5-part series.
Public Speaking
Allyn & Bacon's Public Speaking Website: http://www.abacon.com/pubspeak/
Allen & Bacon publishes several college textbooks on public speaking,
along with this companion website that weaves online resources into a
five module mini-course, including Assessing your Situation, to Delivering
Your Presentation, Ask the Speech Doctor ("Would you like some individual
help with your speech?") and the downloadable PowerPoint presentations
for teachers of public speaking classes.
The Art of Public Speaking: http://www.mhhe.com/socscience/comm/lucas/student/
The Art of Public Speaking is another college textbook site, this one
supplements the McGraw-Hill book by Stephen Lucas. Under the Resources
heading, you'll find links to sites that supplement and relate to the
textbook itself. Some of these are useful without the textbook (such as
the history
of public speaking, and career explorations) while others are not. There
is "Guides to Public Speaking" in the right-hand column, which
include How to Give Your First Speech and Presentation Graphics.
Great American Speeches: http://www.pbs.org/greatspeeches/timeline/
PBS has created a timeline of ninety twentieth-century American speeches,
set among relevant historical events. To view the full text of each speech
in a pop-up window, click on the Speech tag.
Some entries also include audio or video clips. The archive begins with
Booker T. Washington's 1895 speech at The Cotton State Exposition in Atlanta,
GA, and concludes with Elie Wiesel's 1999 speech at a White House symposium
that marked the forty-fourth anniversary of the liberation of the Buchenwald
concentration camp.
Toastmasters International: 10 Tips for Successful
Public Speaking: http://www.toastmasters.org/tips.asp
"Feeling some nervousness before giving a speech is natural and healthy.
It shows you care about doing well. But, too much nervousness can be detrimental.
Here's how you can control your
nervousness and make effective, memorable presentations." Everyone
loves lists of ten, and these Toastmaster tips do not disappoint. The
site also includes a searchable directory of Toastmasters clubs worldwide,
with a guide to starting a new club at school, work or in your community.
Virtual Presentation Assistant: http://www.ukans.edu/cwis/units/coms2/vpa/vpa.htm
Supporting Your Points is where you'll learn about using statistics, humor,
facts and narrative
to defend your claim; and you can examine famous speeches that include
good support, such as Lincoln's Gettysburg address, and King's I Have
a Dream speech.
The Six Types of Folk Stories
Objectives: Students will be able to identify some
key elements of folktales, fables, fairy tales, legends, myths and tall
tales, and be able to differentiate between them.
Materials: Selections from each genre, chart paper,
markers.
Procedure: Define genres (7
minutes). Say, "Today we're going to play a game to learn the differences
between these six genres of literature, called folk stories. They are
stories that were told aloud, passed
down by communities in every country of the world. Each of these six genres
are pretty similar, but there are some important differences."
Go over each genre:
1. A fable is very short, with a moral at the end. Characters are usually
talking animals.
2. A folk tale is a story, also usually with talking animal characters,
which uses a pattern (numbers, repetition).
3. A fairy tale is similar to a folk tale, but the characters are people.
There are obvious "good guys" and "bad guys," and
magic is usually involved.
4. A myth is a magical story about how natural forces work (death, creation,
weather). Sometimes myths have gods, goddesses, or heroes.
5. A legend is similar to a myth, but it is based on actual historical
events or people.
6. A tall tale is a story about a heroic person who did completely outrageous,
impossible things.
Ask students to suggest examples of each type as
it is described.
Describe the game (3 minutes). Divide the students
into teams and give each team a genre. Say, "On the floor are some
books. Each book is a kind of folk story. You have to look through the
books and try to find all the folk stories that fit your team's genre.
Bring the book back to your team's table when you think you have one that
fits. Then you have to explain why you think the folk story falls into
that genre. It's not enough to just say 'The cover says so!' Use the reasons
we have listed here on this chart. In ten minutes, your team will present
one of the books you chose to the class. Any questions?"
Do it (15 minutes). Assist the students as they
browse the books. Listen to their discussions and offer suggestions if
they seem stuck. Wrap up when most books have been brought to the tables,
then go around and have each table present a justification for the books
they selected.
Maggi Rohde, Library/Media Specialist
Allen Elementary School, Ann Arbor, MI
maggi@intranet.org
Fashion Show
The students decorate a paper bag in the form of a vest on the outside,
on the inside they write a summary of the book, and they write a notecard
to read when someone else models their vest. They tell what the objects
on the front represent and the their review of the book.
Alphabet sites
Bembo's Zoo: http://www.bemboszoo.com/
"A is for antelope, B is for Bison, C is for crab." An amazing
typographic adventure awaits you at Bembo's Zoo, as you watch each letter
of the alphabet transform into a wild animal right before your eyes and
ears. This Flash animation for all ages is based on the book of the same
name, by graphic artist Roberto de Vicq de Cumptich.
Learning Planet: Alphabet Action: http://www.learningplanet.com/act/fl/aact/index.asp
Point and click on each letter of the alphabet to hear its name, and see
a corresponding animated word. Many letters have additional pictures (C
is for car and cat) available by clicking on the small blue plus. For
five more alphabet and counting games, select Activities from the yellow
horizontal menu, then choose Preschool- K. These free games are a teaser
for the Learning Planet subscription service; games which are not clickable
are available only to paying subscribers.
Literacy Center: http://www.literacycenter.net/lessonview_en.htm
The Literacy Center uses a modified Montessori approach to teaching reading,
with a selection of four alphabet exercises, and five more for numbers,
colors, and shapes. After choosing between upper and lower-case, you can
click through the alphabet to see and hear each letter. Clicking on the
yellow and green triangles will toggle you in and out of two different
interactive activities.
Sesame Street Print and Play: http://www.sesameworkshop.org/sesamestreet/coloringpages/
When you're living on Sesame Street, B is for Bert and C is for Cookie
Monster. Each letter of this Sesame Street alphabet is linked to a black-and-white
picture to be printed (these are not interactive) and colored with crayons.
Scrolling down the page, you'll find dozens more, including printable
coloring activities with numbers, shapes and all your favorite Sesame
Street characters.
Academy Curricular Exchange Language Arts
Lessons Intermediate (6-8): http://ofcn.org/cyber.serv/academy/ace/lang/inter.html
This is the Columbia Education Center's Curriculum Exchange where teachers
can find a variety of lesson plans.
AskEric Lesson Plans: http://askeric.org/cgi-bin/lessons.cgi/Language_Arts
Lesson plans on a variety of subjects are found at this site.
The Children's Literature Web Guide: http://www.acs.ucalgary.ca/~dkbrown/index.html
Links to many other websites, including commentaries on children's books,
book award winners from around the world, and ideas for parents, teachers,
and storytellers.
Oregon Authors Project: http://www.open.k12.or.us/ccp/authors/
Grade level reading tasks using various books and stories by Oregon authors
are included here. It is an easy to use site with a lot of information.
ACQWeb's Directory of Book Reviews on the Web: http://acqweb.library.vanderbilt.edu/acqweb/bookrev.html
Links to reviewing journals in most curriculum fields, including electronic
publications.
The Librarian's Guide to Cyberspace for Parents and Kids:
http://www.ala.org/parentspage/greatsites/guide.html
Includes over 700 web sites for parents and kids.
Chris Brown's Virtual Reference Desk: http://www.virtualref.com/
This site is a reference librarian's subject list of links to useful websites.
Children's Book Council Online Publishers Page: http://www.cbcbooks.org/
This site carries author interviews and gives subject bibliography links
to many author/illustrator sites. It also lists books by topic.
The Multicultural Book Review Homepage: http://www.isomedia.com/homes/jmele/homepage.html
At this site you can read reviews and submit your own reviews of multicultural
books.
SCORE Teacher Guide: Tuck Everlasting: http://www.sdcoe.k12.ca.us/score/tuck/tucktg.htm
TeacherView: Tuck Everlasting: http://www.eduplace.com/tview/tviews/t/tuckeverlasting.html
Pigs Space: Novel Studies: http://cspace.unb.ca/nbco/pigs/novel/
Tuck Everlasting: http://www.ocdsb.edu.on.ca/Teacher_Res/arts/integrated/tuck.htm
Betsy Byars, Author Study: http://www.carolhurst.com/authors/byars.html
Betsy Byars' Web Site: http://www.betsybyars.com
The Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS): http://dibels.uoregon.edu/ are a set of standardized, individually administered measures of early literacy development. They are designed to be short (one minute) fluency measures used to regularly monitor the development of pre-reading and early reading skills.
Book Report Alternatives
Ad Campaign- Your job is to design an ad campaign to promote your book.
Think of ideas for a cover, inside jacket, poster, window banner and display
cartoon. Sketch your ideas or put them together to form a window display.
Some of you may want to present your ideas in the form of a
60-second TV or radio commercial.
Adding- Add a chapter or incident to the story. You may include new characters,
new incidents or new settings.
Advertising- You work in the advertising department of a publisher. Your
job is to create an advertising display for the book. This display will
be set up in bookstores across the country. For your display, consider
using author photos, posters, dioramas, or cardboard display cases. Aging
Character- Pretend you are the major character at age sixty, tell about
your life as a young person and as an adult.
Alien Encounter- Pretend you have landed on another planet and you are
going to convince them the book you just read is a good one to read. How
would you do it? Remember they cannot speak the English language.
Author- Write a letter to the author about certain aspects of the book
you did not like. Site the book to back up what you say. Offer suggestions
for improvement.
Author Comparison- Compare this book to another written by the same author.
Author Research- Find out about the author; present a brief biography
of him and tell about his book. What else has he written?
Balloon- Blow up a balloon and decorate the sides of it so it tells about
the book you read.
Book Designer- You are a book designer, and the publisher wants to come
out with a new edition of the book. Design a new cover or book jacket,
and illustrate the first page of each chapter.
Box Design- Design a box (it can be square or 3-D). Put something about
the book on all sides of it. Cartoon Strip- Draw a cartoon strip of the
most important events in the story.
Character Construction- Use a 2-liter plastic bottle for the body (partially
filled with sand or pebbles to stay upright), a plastic foam ball for
the head and poster board for the feet and clothes. Explain why
you choose this character to design. Use lines from the book to back up
your character.
Character Conversation- Choose two characters from the story and write
about a conversation they might have.
Characters Meet- create a scene in which the main characters from TWO
novels meet.
Chinese Restaurant- You are out with the main characters from your book
at a Chinese restaurant. On this particular night, the fortune cookies
are amazingly appropriate. Describe each character and tell what his/her
fortune cookie said and why it is fitting. Do not forget to include yourself!
Clay Characters- make clay figures that go along with your book. Collage-
Use old magazines as a source for pictures which represent some event
of part of your book. Make a collage to show and explain your choices
to the group.
Compare/Contrast- Compare and contrast yourself with the main character
of the book.
Crossword Puzzle- Select 20 difficult words from the book and look up
their synonyms in a dictionary or thesaurus. Using these synonyms as well
as facts about the plot and characters, design a crossword puzzle.
Draw- Draw a mural depicting the major scenes from the book.
Descriptive Words- Find as many descriptive words as you can in one chapter
that are used for people or a place. Be sure to specify which.
Desert Island- Imagine you are stranded on a deserted island with an important
character from your book. Which one would you choose and why?
Detective Game- Make a detective game about the book you read. Give clues.
You may use page numbers, etc.
Diary- Pretend you are the main character and write several diary pages
describing an important event in the book.
Diorama- Make a diorama of an important happening in the book.
Ending- Make up a new ending for the book.
Epilogue- Write an epilogue to the story.
Felt Board Characters- Make a set of felt board characters and tell part
of the book with them. Highlight- For each chapter, pick a highlight or
point that you felt made that chapter exciting. Illustrate each highlight.
Historical Background- Present the historical background for this novel.
Hundred Year Test- Explain why you think this book will or will not be
read a hundred years from now. Support your opinion by stating specific
events from the story.
Greeting Card- Design an original greeting card(s) that your character
could send to a friend/foe/relative or someone else in the book.
Illustrations- Draw your own set of illustrations for the book.
Interior Decorator- Design a new home for the main characters in your
book.
Limerick- Write a limerick about your book.
Lost and Found- Make up a lost and found as for a person or object in
your book.
Main Character- Describe the main character in 150 words.
Main Character Design- Use butcher paper and make a life-size picture
of the main character of your book.
Map- Make an illustrated map showing a character's travels or the area
encompassed by your book. Mobile- Design and build a mobile that conveys
scenes, characters, or events from the book. Monologue- Prepare a monologue
from the story. Memorize it and present it to the class.
Movie Script- Write a movie script for one of the scenes in your book.
Act it out in front of the class with the help of other students.
Photos- Take photos which reflect your understanding of the novel.
Pictures- Bring in pictures, drawings, posters or objects that represent
some aspect of the novel. Poem- Make up a poem about your book.
Problem- Describe the problem or conflict existing for the main character
in the book. Tell how the conflict was or was not resolved.
Pulitzer Prize- Pretend you are one of the judges for the Pulitzer Prize
for Literature, an annual award honoring excellence in writing. Decide
whether you would nominate the book you have just read for such an award.
Then write a letter to the author explaining why you have accepted or
rejected his book to compete for such high honors.
Puppet- Create a puppet to represent your favorite character in the story.
Puzzle- Make a put-together puzzle. Make it in the shape of a main object
or character of the book. When put together it has on it the name of the
book and the author.
Questions- Write 10 question which could be used to test other students
understanding of the story. Make sure to include a list of answers.
Roll Story- Make a roll (like those you see on a cash register) and use
words and pictures to tell about your book. It will be told as they unroll
this.
Scrapbook- Make a scrapbook about the book.
Seed Mosaic- Make a seed mosaic to illustrate part of the book.
Setting- Research the geography of the setting of the novel.
Shoebox Picture Scene- Make a shoebox picture scene.
Song- Write a ballad or song about the characters and events in your story.
Set the words to the music of a popular song and sing it in class.
Stamp- Design a stamp that could be the crest or symbol to represent either
the book or the main character.
Television commercial- Make a television commercial about your book. Act
out the commercial for the class.
TV Talk Show- Interview a character for a TV talk show, creating questions
and answers consistent with the novel.
Timeline- Make a timeline of what happens during the book.
Title- Using the title of the book, write a phrase about the book for
each letter.
Travel Poster- Make a travel poster inviting tourists to visit the setting
of the book.
Turning Point- Pick out what you felt was the "turning
point" in the book. Write about the incidents that led the reader
to that point.
Word Power- Make a list of new, unusual or interesting
words or phrases found in your book.
Word Search- Select 20 difficult words from the book and
look up their
synonyms in a dictionary or thesaurus. Using these synonyms as well as
facts about the plot and characters and design a word search. (include
the
answer key!)
Write- Write your own story based on an idea you got from
the book.
Idioms/Figures of speech: http://www.essdack.org/tips/idiom.html
Lesson plan, including list of idioms
THE ART OF WRITING
Paradigm Online Writing Assistant: http://www.powa.org/
A comprehensive guide to writing nonfiction essays that includes activities
and exercises appropriate for high school students and above.
The Write Site: http://www.writesite.org/
This site was designed for middle school children and features some great
resources for student journalism.
Basic Guide to Essay Writing: http://members.tripod.com/~lklivingston/essay/
The title says it all! This is a great introduction to basic essay writing.
It's in a format that is easy to follow. Good for middle school and above.
OWL Online Writing Lab: Research and Documenting Sources: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/research/
A list of handouts available related to research and the construction
of a bibliography available from the Purdue University English Department.
Writing Skills: http://www.infoplease.com/homework/writingskills1.html
This page at the Infoplease Homework Help section provides resources to
help student with all forms of nonfiction writing from elementary level
book reports to advanced essay writing.
Online Literacy: http://www.nexus.edu.au/teachstud/onlit/
This is an all around guide to language arts site that includes some excellent
information about writing presented in a fun, light hearted, and engaging
manner.
Writers Word: http://www.ellopos.net/education/studentland.htm
This collection of writings on writing will provide high-school aged beginning
writers with insights into the techniques and thinking of some of the
world's greatest authors.
Traci's List of 10 Creative Writing Experiences:
http://www.tengrrl.com/tens/017.shtml
Discover 10 creative activities to inspire creative writing in children
of all ages.
Creative Writing:
http://www.awesomelibrary.org/Classroom/English/Reading_and_Writing/Creative
_Writing.html
Awesome Library offers links to lots of excellent creative writing resources,
including articles, lessons, and such tools as a dictionary and thesaurus.
Memaw's Creative Writing Corner: http://www.berkeleyprep.org/lower/fourth/writing/creative_writing_corner.htm
The creative writing activity ideas for elementary school teachers are
appropriate for home use as well.
Kids can submit their creative writing to one of these
sites and see their work published online:
Kids Writing Forum: http://www.geocities.com/kidswritingforum/
CyberKids: http://www.cyberkids.com/
Kid Pub: http://kidpub.org/kidpub/
Ask students to write a sentence
as a group. The kids get divided into groups of 4-5. The rules
are: They cannot talk. Each person adds one word
to the sentence. They can use only one piece of paper and one pencil and
it must be passed from one student to the next. The sentence must make
sense and come to an end. They have one minute to write their sentence.
You set the goal that you want the sentences to consistently get longer
with consequent tries. Lead the activity several times with the rule about
no talking. Then try one time allowing the groups to talk as they compose.
After the "game" is over you can discuss quite a few things.
You can talk about teamwork. It is usually not easier to make a longer
sentence when everyone talks but most of the time the sentence content
is better. You can discuss goals. Usually the kids attempt to make a silly
sentence.
You can talk about if there was anything that was said that suprised you.
The lesson comes from Tom Jackson. He has several books, "Activities
that Teach," "More Activities that Teach," and "Still
More Activities that Teach." He has many games that could be used
for lots of
issues. Quite a few are team building games.
Vocabulary, Free Puzzles and Activities:
: http://www.vocabulary.com/
Interactive activities by grade level
GREAT BOOKS FOR PRESCHOOLERS:
http://www.kidsource.com/hookedonphonics/great.books.html
http://www.infopeople.org/bpl/booklist/chickmoo.html
http://jmrl.org/children/booklists/presch.html
Here are a few lists to find recommended picture
and reading books for preschoolers, from new releases to the traditional
classics and modern favorites.
IDEAS FOR ENCOURAGING READERS: http://www.kidsource.com/hookedonphonics/index2.html
How do you set the pace for reading readiness at
an early age? Here are a number of suggestions to involve young children
in getting excited about reading.
READY, SET, READ: http://www.preksmarties.com/reading/reading11.htm
From infants through to preschoolers, this article
discusses tips for how to read to young students, as well as how to choose
appropriate books.
PLANTING THE SEEDS FOR EARLY READING: http://www.preksmarties.com/reading/reading6.htm
This author makes a case for teaching toddlers and
preschoolers the sounds of letters before letter identification as a pre-reading
tool.
SPELLING PRACTICE TECHNIQUES: http://www.col-ed.org/cur/lang/lang28.txt
Three separate activities get active about spelling
word lists, giving a whole new meaning to word practice and encouraging
all students to become better students.
THE FIVE PARAGRAPH ESSAY--REVISING, EDITING, AND EVALUATING:
http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Atrium/1437/eval.html
Now that you have introduced your students to the
methods behind the five paragraph essays--and actually produced some promising
results--then get down to work on the revision and editing issues, a prime
concern and focus of work for all writers. Excellent guidelines and resources
here lead the way.
Crossword puzzle sites
Kids Crosswords and Other Puzzles: http://www.kidcrosswords.com/
Each of these educational puzzles for the elementary-school crowd
covers a different subject. The summer assortment of ten puzzles includes
Ancient China, First Aid, Pollution and Mountains. Most of these puzzles
are interactive crosswords, but some are word scrambles and word searches
designed for pen and paper.
New York Times Learning Network Crosswords: http://www.nytimes.com/learning/students/xwords/
Among crossword puzzle fans, the daily New York Times crosswords are
legendary. These Learning Network semi-monthly puzzles for students are
edited by the very same puzzlemaster, Will Shortz. Each puzzle has a theme
(such as Summer Safety) and both an interactive and printable version
of the crossword, as well as Web site recommendations for further learning.
Topics in the archive cover a wide range, with an emphasis on history
and science.
One Across: http://www.oneacross.com/
"Having trouble getting the last word in that puzzle? Having
trouble getting the first? See if our search engine can help! Unlike pure
pattern dictionary searches, we actually analyze the clue as well."
To use this tool, enter the exact clue and an answer pattern. For unknown
letters, use a question mark. For example, for clue "Cut" and
pattern "h???" you get the answer "hewn" along with
other lower rated answers such as "snip" and "sawn."
Puzzles by Puzzability: http://www.puzzability.com/puzzles/
These original interactive puzzles were created to showcase the talents
of a team of three puzzle experts, including the crossword editor of the
"Wall Street Journal." Among the daily and weekly puzzles you'll
find crosswords, word searches and brain teasers. "We like to point
out three ingredients you'll find in our puzzles: 1) A puzzle that is
left unsolved is basically a failure. Puzzles are made to be solved. 2)
Puzzles are not tests. They're entertainment. 3) A good puzzle is a bit
like a joke. The unsolved components are a set-up, and the solution is
the punch line."
Thinks.com: The World's First Crossword: http://thinks.com/crosswords/first1.htm
Although the origins of the crossword puzzle can be traced to nineteenth
century children's books, journalist Arthur Wynne is credited with creating
the first modern crossword puzzle. His Fun Word-Cross appeared in "New
York World" on December 21, 1913. Follow the link at the bottom of
the article to see it. Notice how only the starting and ending squares
have numbers, and the clues are numbered the same way. Continue on to
Crosswords Index for the Thinks.com archive of puzzles, and a compendium
of software you can use to create your own crossword puzzles.
Free books online
Blackmask Online - http://www.blackmask.com/page.php
Read books on line free with Acrobat Reader.
Index of eTexts: http://www.infomotions.com/etexts/
DRAMATIC PLAY CENTER IDEAS: http://www.canteach.ca/elementary/drama8.html
What kind of items and activities can you place
in centers to encourage dramatic play? This site offers
a whole list of possible suggestions.
FISH COLOR WORDS PRINTABLE: http://www.bry-backmanor.org/actpag52.html
Reinforce color words for kindergarten and first
grade students with this appealing printable. Students must color each
fish according to the color word printed below it.
THIRD GRADE VOCABULARY ACTIVITIES: http://www.ed.gov/pubs/CompactforReading/table3.html
Fully one hundred vocabulary activities are included
in these pages, all appropriate for 3rd grade vocabulary instruction and
reinforcement. You can download this file and print out most of these
worksheets for homework enrichment, or use them for class exercises.
SPELLING AND VOCABULARY ACTIVITIES: http://www.teachersdesk.org/spell_plans.html
Inject a whole lot of sparkle into your everyday
spelling and vocabulary lessons with the ideas and activities offered
at this site. Students will respond well to the game playing and creative
aspects of these active exercises as a break from the usual pencil and
paper drills.
REFERENCE BOOK ACTIVITIES AND WORKSHEETS: http://home.att.net/%7Eteaching/refbook.htm
In order to introduce and/or practice reference
skills with your 4th graders, this site offers several appropriate learning
exercises. Most templates are included for various lessons, including
guide words gameboards, climate comparisons, historical timeline masters,
cooperative learning weekly plans, individual grade logs, grammar practice
worksheets, flip-flop book templates, scrabble championship forms, energy
investigation booklets.
BOOK REPORT RECIPE: http://www.teachersdesk.org/readreport.html
Try this alternative book report, in recipe formula,
for a fresh change of pace. All the usual ingredients
for reviewing books are still included. These cards would make a nice
introductory back-to-school exercise and bulletin board display--students
can illustrate their cards and report a recipe on a special
book they read over the summer.
DICTIONARY SKILLS WORKSHEET:
http://worksheets.teach-nology.com/critical_thinking/dictionary/
Selected vocabulary lists for upper elementary students
will help focus and practice dictionary use
skills, and expand students' vocabulary usage as well.
USING NEWSPAPERS IN THE CLASSROOM: http://www.teachersdesk.org/news.html
Find classroom activities using your local newspapers
for parts of speech, outlining, sequencing, reporting, inference, locating
specific information, discerning fact and opinion, and more.
INDEX AND TABLE OF CONTENTS WORKSHEETS:
http://worksheets.teach-nology.com/research/book/
These worksheets introduce students to locating
parts of a book through the index and table of contents. Three relevant
student worksheets are included.
WORD SAFARI VOCABULARY EXPEDITIONS: http://home.earthlink.net/~ruthpett/safari/index.htm
What's in a word? Your students will have a chance
to be word sleuths as they track down how writers use their chosen words.
The word choices are challenging but not above high school level, and
will certainly sharpen vocabulary skills.
EIGHTH GRADE LANGUAGE UNIT WORKSHEETS:
http://worksheets.teach-nology.com/language_arts/vocab/eight/
Choices for eighth grade worksheets include cryptograms,
vocabulary quizzes, word scrambles, word
searches, and missing letters. Use these worksheets for ready-made homework
activities to reinforce
classroom learning.
Teacher's Depot: http://www.lindecrawford.net
literature units, author information, and themes
Kidspired Tales 2002: http://www.northcanton.sparcc.org/~ptk1nc/kidspired2002/
Kidspired Tales 2002 is a Collaborative Internet Project for K-2 students.
The objective of this
project is to help teachers develop new literacies into their content
area instruction.
Flat Stanley website: http://flatstanley.enoreo.on.ca/
This is primarily an elementary school project in which
students read the book Flat Stanley--a tale of a boy who gets flattened
by his bulletin board. His parents discover that he can now be mailed
to friends in California instead of the more expensive way of traveling.
You can sign up to be a receiver of Flat Stanleys from other students,
or you can send Flat Stanley out on a journey. The recipients of the Flat
Stanley (a paper figure) then write a letter back describing what Stanley
did while he was visiting. There are directions and suggestions for using
Flat Stanley. There is also a template for Flat Stanely and interactive
games on the site (unrelated to Flat Stanley).
Have students study the editorial page of the newspapers--looking at elements common to letters that get published. Then have then choose an issue and write/type a letter to the editor. Then send them.
Writing Traits: http://www.nwrel.org/nwreport/mar02/complete.html
The traits are ideas and content, organization,
voice, word choice, sentence fluency, and last - conventions (spelling,
punctuation, grammar, paragraphing). Your job is to provide daily writing
time,
mini-lessons to maximize focus on what trait you're working on as a whole
class, countless examples of successful writing (lots of books around)
and a model of this valuable time spent gathering ideas,
writing a first draft, revising, editing, presenting and sharing a final
copy. It's part of the daily schedule, a set time to write.
TIPS FOR TEACHING THE SOUNDS OF WORDS: http://pbskids.org/lions/kguide/sounds_tips.html
The tips listed here are specifically written for
kindergarten teachers, to help develop phonics skills for
young emergent readers. An interactive game is also included.
WORD WORMS: http://pbskids.org/lions/printables/games/worms.html
Four printable word sheets form the foundation for this reading and vocabulary
game. Use your word worms as creative starters for short story writing
exercises, or incorporate your spelling and vocabulary words into the
game.
A list of titles and authors of books set
to music.
A You're Adorable byMartha Alexander
Baby Beluga by Raffi
The Cat Came Back by Bill Slavin
Chicken Soup with Rice by Maurice Sendak
Clifford We Love You by Norman Bridwell
Down By the Bay by Raffi
Down By the Station by Hillerbrand
Everything Grows by Raffi
Five Little Ducks by Raffi
Frog Went a Courtin' by John Langstaff
Give the Dog a Bone by Steven Kellogg
The Hokey Pokey by Laprise, Macak, and Baker
How Much is That Doggy by Trapan
I Know an Old Lady by Nadine Westcott
I'm a Little Teapot by Iza Tripani
I've Been Working on the Railroad by Nadine Westcott
The Itsy Bitsy Spider by Iza Tripani
The Lady With the Alligator Purse by Nadine Westcott
The Little Drummer Boy by Ezra Jack Keats
Little Rabbit Foo Foo by Michael Rosen, Michael
Mary Had a Little Lamb by Iza Tripani
Mary Wore Her Red Dress by Merle Peek
My Favorite Things by Renee Graef
Oh Where, Oh Where Has My Little Dog Gone? by Iza Tripani
Oh, a Hunting We Will Go by John Langstaff
On Top of Spaghetti by Katherine Tillotson
One By One: Garth Pig's Rain Song by Mary Rayner
One Light, One Sun by Raffi
Over in the Meadow by Paul Galdone
Over the River and through the Wood by Lydia Child
Peanut Butter and Jelly by Nadine Westcott
Pizza Pokey by Jeffrey Stoodt
Shake My Sillies Out by Raffi
Shoo Fly by Trapan
Skip to My Lou by Nadine Westcott
Take Me Out to the Ballgame by Jack Norworth
The Thirteen Days of Halloween by Carol Greene
The Twelve Days of Christmas: A Song Rebus Emily Bolam, illustrator
There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly by Slimms Taback
Tingalayo by Raffi
Today is Monday by Eric Carle
Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star by Iza Tripani
Wheels on the Bus by Raffi
What a Wonderful World by Bob Thiele
This Land is Your Land by Woody Guthrie
Lift Every Voice and Sing by James Weldon Johnson
Justin's Drama and Theatre Links: http://www.theatrelinks.com/
Justin Cash of Australia has created a mammoth directory of theatre links
including: history, practitioners, genres, styles, online plays, playwrights,
classroom resources, education institutions, arts organizations, set/lighting/costume
designs and more. As with any hotlist, teachers of younger students should
always check links for suitability before having students access them.
Grade Level: Middle School, High School, College,
Adult/Professional
Content Area: Arts (Performing Arts), Community Interest (Leisure)
13 EXCITING READING ACTIVITIES FOR CHILDREN:
http://www.cbcbooks.org/html/13excotomg.html
Shore up enthusiam for a reading program with the suggestions here. Competitions,
comparisons, and awards all make reading exciting.
DISCOVERING MARC BROWN: http://www.mcps.k12.md.us/departments/isa/elit/el/arthurless.htm
Second grade students will examine two novels
by Marc Brown, with an eye especially to character traits. They will make
comparisons using a Venn diagram worksheet, and fill in a worksheet chart
on what they learned about Brown's characters. Three websites provide
the online resources.
HOW TO START A WRITER'S WORKSHOP: http://www.teachers.net/lessons/posts/681.html
If you need help setting up an elementary writer's
workshop in your classroom, this site provides an outline, guided steps
for the process, and notes for the teacher's role.
LITERACY CENTERS FOR KINDERGARTEN: http://www.teachers.net/lessons/posts/469.html
Kindergarten students can partner up or work independently
to work in literacy centers. Here are several good suggestions for activities.
WORD WALL ROUTINE: http://www.k111.k12.il.us/lafayette/fourblocks/word_wall_routine.htm
Working within the four blocks literacy framework,
word walls have established a solid footing in elementary classrooms.
Here are some suggestions on how to use them to your best advantage, with
further extension activities.
ALPHABET CUTOUTS: http://pbskids.org/lions/printables/games/alphabet_uc.html
Simple alphabet cards can be downloaded and printed
here to cut and use for phonics lessons in your emergent reader classes.
DIALECTICAL JOURNAL PRINTABLE: http://www.sdcoe.k12.ca.us/score/actbank/sdia.htm
Use this template to print out pages for a dialectical
reading journal for your students.
GRAPHIC ORGANIZERS: http://www.sdcoe.k12.ca.us/score/actbank/torganiz.htm
Here is a whole selection of various graphic organizers
you can use throughout your school year. Find an Interaction Outline,
and Anticipation/Reaction Guide, Chain of Events, Compare and Contrast,
and the usual Venn diagrams, amongst other choices.
READING PICNIC: http://www.teachers.net/lessons/posts/299.html
Encourage both reading and early book report skills
with this lesson activity. Your class will keep nightly reading records,
and then one day per month, plan a reading picnic, sharing books and snacks
in a structured manner.
THE TRUE STORY OF THE THREE LITTLE PIGS: http://www.teachers.net/lessons/posts/708.html
Using two popular children's books, "The Three
Little Pigs" and "The True Story of the Three Little Pigs by
A. Wolf", your students will learn how to use Venn diagrams in comparing
the similarities and differences between the two stories.
LITERACY HOUR ACTIVITIES: http://www.bbc.co.uk/education/wordsandpictures/clusters/print/index.shtml
Here are some great printable activity sheets for
literacy centers or, as suggested here, literacy hour. Scrapbooks, phonemes,
poems, consonant clusters, cluster buster games, and final sound pyramid
games are all showcased.
WORD WALL LISTS: http://www.k111.k12.il.us/lafayette/fourblocks/word_wall_grade_level_lists.htm
For kindergarten through third grade, find weekly
lists to use for your classroom word walls. The site suggests printing
each batch on different colored card stock, and includes those categories
as well.
WORD WHEELS: http://library.thinkquest.org/50027/PhonicsPhun/WordWheel/index.html
Students will begin to recognize patterns in words
as they construct their word wheels. Both rhyming endings and phonogram
families are used to focus on visualizing patterns.
MAKING WORDS: http://teams.lacoe.edu/village/ideas/letters.html
Use this cardboard letters and pocket chart activity
along with your word walls or your reading selection vocabulary lists.
The final challenge is to make a word using all of the letters from the
templates.
I AM AN AUTHOR: http://www.teachers.net/lessons/posts/795.html
Involve families in the art of writing and your
students' efforts. Each student becomes a guest author of the week during
the school year, during which time they take a book bag of assorted items
and options home to respond to with their families.
THE CHEESEBURGER PARAGRAPH: http://www.gigglepotz.com/para.htm
Students will construct a messy cheeseburger--without
a Bun--as a visual aid to learning how to also construct a paragraph.
Topic, concluding, and supporting sentences become evident and logical
as related to the cheeseburger model.
LITERATURE LOGS: http://www.teachers.net/lessons/posts/49.html
Literature logs or journals can help students focus
and refine the concepts and vocabulary they are covering in a class novel.
The journals also help to prepare students for book report writing. This
activity provides suggestions to follow through with student responses
on class reading for each day of the week.
LITERARY REPORT CARDS: http://www.sdcoe.k12.ca.us/score/actbank/tlitcar.htm
Students will better analyze character traits when
they have to develop criteria for analysis, and then assign those characters
a report card grade.
MMSD: Language Arts Professional Resources: http://www.madison.k12.wi.us/tnl/langarts/mosaic.htm
Mosaic Of Thought: Teaching Comprehension in a Reader's Workshop
by Ellin Oliver Keene and Susan Zimmermann is a book that has many strategies
for teaching reading comprehension. They are summarized nicely on this
site.
Picture BINGO: http://www.northcoast.com/%7Ehope/bingo4.txt
"To help students to associate pictures with words.
To associate first letters of words with the words."
Reading Aloud to Children: http://www.ed.gov/offices/OESE/teachingouryoungest/reading.html
STORY TIME PREPARATION: http://www.kinderart.com/littles/storysongs.shtml
With a little help from an active song, you should
be able to have your preschoolers ready and willing
to sit still and listen at storytime.
READING AND WRITING PLAY MATERIALS: http://www.ed.gov/Family/RSRforCaregvr/reading.html
You can never start too early to foster a deep love
of reading and to encourage pre-writing skills.
The activities and environments targeted in this article address several
ways of developing appreciation and curiosity for both reading and writing.
Basic Handwriting: http://www.handwritingforkids.com/handwrite/
Learning Page.com: http://www.learningpage.com
You can print practice worksheets in Zaner-Blozer, D'Nealian, and cursive.
Select basic sheets from the menu. You need to become a member in order
to print all of the worksheets, but membership is free.
The Seventh Tower series
by Garth Nix: http://www.theseventhtower.com/
There is not an ending until you read through the 6th book in the series.
They are quite suspenseful but easy to read. The story takes places in
the future and the scenes change between 3 worlds.
Lemony Snicket sites
Kidsreads.com: A Series of Unfortunate Events:
http://www.kidsreads.com/series/series-lemony-snicket-author.asp
Start your Lemony Snicket adventure with four short video clips narrated
by Daniel Handler (an "associate" of Mr. Snicket) urging you
not to read "A Series of Unfortunate Events" and to keep the
books out of the hands of children. You'll also enjoy the character sketches
of Violet, Klaus, Sonny and Count Olaf written by Snicket himself, and
his answers to Frequently Asked Questions.
Lemony Snicket: http://www.lemonysnicket.com/
"Attention: please run for your life. You have undoubtedly reached
this Web site by mistake." Yet with an introduction such as this,
we are quite positive we have reached the absolutely right place: the
official Lemony Snicket site. If you persevere past all the warnings,
you'll find excerpts from each of the books, a free screensaver, an author
bio, a bio of illustrator Brett Helquist, and a handful of games. Week
after week I recommend word search puzzles, but the Count Olaf Word Search
is the one word search puzzle you should never see. Do not click there.
Ever. I mean it.
Quidditch.com: Lemony Snicket: http://www.quidditch.com/lemony%20snicket.htm
What is Lemony Snicket's real name? Who is Beatrice? The answer to the
first question is Daniel Handler. The answer to the second question may
be found here, where the folks at Quidditch.com explore the many literary
and cultural references found in "A Series of Unfortunate Events."
Great fun for those wanting to learn more about Dante, Edgar Allen Poe,
George Orwell, F. Scott Fitzgerald and other famous folks.
Time for Kids: Lemony Snicket, Author: http://www.timeforkids.com/TFK/explore/story/0,6079,249604,00.html
"The mysterious writer of "A Series of Unfortunate Events"
confesses all to TFK kid reporter Laura Winters." Learn about the
Nickelodeon films based on the gloomy book series, what books Daniel Handler
loved as a child, and the author's advice for would-be writers. Read the
interviewer's bio (she's nine) and her other Time for Kids articles by
following the Laura Winters link at the bottom of the page.
Unfortunate Events: http://www.unfortunateevents.com
Join the hunt for Lemony Snicket by registering with your email address
and choosing a user name. The hunt (created by Egmont Books, the British
publisher of the Snicket series) is a collection of Flash arcade games,
with high scores saved and posted. In addition to the games, you'll find
book synopsis for the first five books listed under The Terrible Story
and postcards to share with friends at Lemony Widgets.
100 PICTURE BOOKS EVERYONE SHOULD KNOW: http://www.nypl.org/branch/kids/gloria.html
Challenge your class to read these honored books in home and in class.
You can keep a class chart to check off when you have read each book,
and have a celebration when you complete them all. Make bookmarks with
each of your students' pictures glued on to kick off your efforts.
NURSERY RHYME CARDS:
http://curry.edschool.virginia.edu/go/wil/rimes_and_rhymes.htm#Seventy_One
To encourage both the school-home connection, as well as the positive
influences of families reading together, this site offers more than seventy
illustrated nursery rhymes to print as cards and send home with students.
They can also be used in the classroom, collected, reviewed, and sent
home as a little book.
READING AND WRITING PLAY MATERIALS: http://www.ed.gov/Family/RSRforCaregvr/reading.html
Create a center in your preschool classroom just
for reading development and explorations. The suggestions here will help
you get started.
SHOW THEM WORDS:
http://www.coreknowledge.org/CKproto2/resrcs/lessons/01_PreK_ShowWords.pdf
Prepare a foundation for reading success by exploring
the printed word with preschoolers. Students will recognize printed forms
all around them, and then become familiar with how their name looks in
print. They will practice writing their names, and develop handeye coordination
and fine muscle control. Art activities are combined with alphabet awareness
and mastery.
A BOOK A WEEK INSTRUCTION PLANS:
http://curry.edschool.virginia.edu/go/wil/classroom_instruction.htm#Weekly_Instruction
Here is an extensive supply of lesson plans to accompany
young children's literature. Each book listed
supplies activities for further exploration of the characters and themes
developed in the reading mat-
erial. A reading guide for October through April recommends seasonally
appropriate books, with all the favorites included.
Access Excellence mystery spot: http://www.accessexcellence.org/AE/mspot/
Nothing hits the spot like a good mystery, and the Mystery Spot is the
spot for mysteries. Each mystery provides background information, an engaging
storyline, and pertinent scientific data to
help would-be detectives solve the problem. Grades: 9 - 12
ALPHABET COLORING PAGES: http://www.everythingpreschool.com/coloringpages/alphabet/index.htm
Find two choices to download and print at this site.
The first choice offers letters with various animals
and plants drawn into the letter itself--all of which begin with that
letter. Your second alphabet selection is more for recognition skills,
with bubbles drawn all over.
ALPHABET GAMES: http://www.teachers.net/lessons/posts/122.html
Games like "Swat!", listed here, are particularly
effective for getting young children to learn their
alphabet or numbers. Also find suggestions for matching games, fill in
missing letters, and painting with water on the blackboard.
Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: http://wikipedia.com/
Readability: http://www.timetabler.com/reading.html
"This article outlines the subject of readability, and its relevance
to school books.
The 4 main sections of the article are:
1. The effect of interest and motivation.
2. Legibility, including type, layout and reading conditions.
3. Sentence structure, including readability formulae.
4. Reading ages for school textbooks, especially in science."
ALA's Booklist: Books for Youth: http://www.ala.org/booklist/v98/
002.html
CA DOE: Recommended Literature: Kindergarten Through Grade Twelve: http://www.cde.ca.gov/ci/literature/
Center for the Book in the Library of Congress: http://www.loc.gov/loc/cfbook/
Reading Pathfinder: http://readingpath.org
RIF Reading Planet: http://www.rifreadingplanet.org/rif/
RIF Reading Planet is the place where kids and families come together
to explore the world of books through interactive games, fun activities,
online book reviews, and informative articles.
VOCABULARY GAME: http://www7.funbrain.com/cgi-bin/vo.cgi?A1=s&A2=tool&INSTRUCTS=1
Increase second grade student vocabulary with this online game. This
particular set develops words associated with tools. If your student does
not know the item, teach them the process of elimination to try to attain
the answer--a useful skill for test taking.
WEB SITE TRAIL: http://www.glenbrook.k12.il.us/gbssci/phys/projects/yep/wst.html
This template for student research makes sure students
keep a good record of sites visited, with a space for the URL and a short
description of the site. The forms would also prove useful for "forgetful"
students, who might have a bit of trouble remembering where they left
off.
VIRTUAL PRESENTATION ASSISTANT: http://www.ukans.edu/cwis/units/coms2/vpa/vpa.htm
If public speaking is on your high school curriculum,
then try these tutorials for helping students give their presentations.
Contents include choosing your subject--with links to media and references
online, analyzing your audience, outlining your points, using visual aids,
and all other points of public speaking. Sample audio selections are included--try
Great Speeches of the 20th Century for inspiration.
COLOR CODE WRITING: http://www.col-ed.org/cur/lang/lang18.txt
For students who may still be having some difficulty
in forming written letters or numbers, try this color coding technique.
The four primary colors are used for each letter formation, starting with
green for "go" and ending in red for "stop".
VOCABULARY BUILDING FOR PRIMARY STUDENTS:
http://www.col-ed.org/cur/lang/lang13.txt
Webbing and mapping exercises use nursery rhymes
and class books to brainstorm and classify word groups. This is a cooperative
learning exercise to promote both vocabulary fortification and group efforts,
for grades one through three.
TALKING CHIPS: http://204.184.214.251/coop/kgrade/k2.html
Through an interactive method of teamwork and submitting
game chips to contribute to class work, students will practice not only
sentence comprehension but also become aware of the logistics of cooperative
efforts and consideration for others.
WORD SORT: http://www.sdcoe.k12.ca.us/SCORE/Phonics_Link/lessons/wordsort.html
Emergent readers will strengthen skills in sound
pattern recognition and reading by sorting patterns
into specific pockets while working with partners. This is a whole class
activity, and can be used in
tandem with any book the class is presently studying.
123 READING ROAD: http://library.thinkquest.org/50027/AlphabetSoup/index.html
Practice alphabet recognition and sounds through
a multitude of online and printable activities available from this Thinkquest
site for emergent readers. From flash cards, to alphabet games, to connecting
the dots or letter match printables, it offers a host of classroom resources.
Then, specifically for
the educator, find assessments and rubrics, as well as professional related
articles all categorized here.
READING COMPREHENSION: http://abcteach.com/directory/reading_comprehension/
Reading comprehension stories are downloadable in
pdf files for printing or reading online. Comprehension exercises follow,
along with printable tests as well. Select your grade level, from PreK
through high school, and then choose selections from categories such as
fiction, non-fiction, or holiday/seasonal. This resource is great for
pre-testing drills, homework assignments, or supplemental classroom reading
and comprehension practice. It can also be used to develop listening skills
if you read selections aloud to your entire class, and then ask specific
related questions after.
BUSY AS A BEE -- WORKING WITH SIMILES; http://www.col-ed.org/cur/lang/lang42.txt
This lesson plan can be used with or without the
suggested book to reinforce the concept of similes. Rather in the fashion
of the ever-popular "mad libs", students will, unknowingly to
each other, compose subjects, similes, and descriptive phrases. When read
aloud, the results will be quite humorous, but they will nevertheless
fully demonstrate how similes are used in writing.
PREPOSITION BOOGIE:
http://www.lessonplanspage.com/LAPrepositionalPhrases-PrepositionBoogie46.htm
Two excellent exercises emphatically teach students
the definition of a preposition, and prepositional
phrases. Students will physically follow spatial commands for the first
exercise; look for loads of fun
with this one. They will then recreate their bedroom by filling in the
blanks of a template for a descriptive paragraph, and students will have
to guess whose bedroom is being described.
INTERRUPTED BOOK REPORT: http://www.sdcoe.k12.ca.us/SCORE/actbank/sinterb.htm
Here's a "novel" idea for a book report:
during circle or sharing time, students have 30 seconds only, timed, to
highlight the events or characters of a class reading book. Then the next
person picks up the thread, and so on. It should offer several unique
perspectives to share on the same book, and might be a particularly helpful
exercise to complete before written book reports are due.
DESIGN A BOOK JACKET: http://www.canteach.ca/elementary/novel44.html
What does a book's jacket say about the book itself?
Or more importantly, what should it say? Students will consider their
novel and then design a jacket according to samples viewed. Then let them
take a turn and design according to what they think it should have included
instead.
DIALOG JACKET: http://www.sdcoe.k12.ca.us/SCORE/actbank/sdiajack.htm
Here is another version of book jackets; this time
the design will be based on the characters of the novel. Students will
create dialog as well as illustrations to present a complete book jacket.
Template included.
TEACHING READING COMPREHENSION SKILLS:
http://www.lessonplanspage.com/LATeachingComprehension-Method57.htm
Reading comprehension skills are refined in this
clever lesson plan, when the students actually become teachers--or more
to the point--the testers. Students practice silent reading techniques
on passages from several media, and then will create approximately 20
questions, based of format templates. As the passages are passed around,
students are responsible for answering each other's questions.
SHAKESPEARE POETRY MACHINE: http://www.shakespeare.com/Poetry/ieindex.html
Interactive fun online--students will receive a
random selection of the bard's most frequently used
words, and then try to rearrange them to make their own poetry. Copy and
paste student outcomes into a presentation folder of your own to print
out for class displays and to compare results.
SHAKESPEARE MIND MAPS: http://www.folger.edu/education/lesson.cfm?lessonid=45
This quality exercise in character analysis works
well for any of Shakespeare's plays. Students will brainstorm a selected
character to extrapolate all possible aspects, then create a non-linear
mind map--as a visual representation--for that character. They must include
quotes along with their elements. Poster results will be mounted for display
and comparison in the classroom, with each student presenting and defending
his or her project.
REWRITING SHAKESPEARE'S EPITAPH IN IAMBIC PENTAMETER:
http://askeric.org/cgi-bin/printlessons.cgi/Virtual/Lessons/Language_Arts/Literature/LIT0002.html
Ask your students if they are familiar with the
epitaph written upon Shakespeare's grave, as well as the
intentions and history behind the words. Once the four lines are understood
in context, students will work in groups to create a more fitting epitaph
for this most famous of English writers--using Shakespeare's own iambic
pentameter... a bit more daunting a task than it might seem initially,
but students will surely learn to better appreciate the extent and mastery
of the bard's works after honing their own attempts.
SOLILOQUIES, CUTTING, AND COMPUTERS: http://www.folger.edu/education/lesson.cfm?lessonid=4
"Othello" is used as the premise for this
lesson plan, but virtually any soliloquy from any Shakespeare play can
be represented. Students will--probably unwittingly--consider chosen soliloquies
in depth in order to cut them to half their sizes, one line at a time.
After a timed effort and in a chair scramble event (done in a computer
lab), students then switch seats, confront the reduced text on their monitors,
and cut the text once more, two to three lines each time.
SHAKESPEARE WALLS: http://www.folger.edu/education/lesson.cfm?lessonid=6
This innovative approach to Shakespearean analysis
has students creating bar graphs with play text. Pages are ripped (really)
from the book--you can download and print Shakespeare's plays online if
you have trouble with this idea. Then they are mounted scene-by-scene
on a "Shakespeare Wall", with students identifying and highlighting
words, phrases, or sections with different colored markers each time on
an aspect of the play or scene being studied. (This technique would also
work well with virtually any work studied in class.)
STUDENT ACTIVITIES FOR ROMEO AND JULIET: http://www.laguna.k12.nm.us/r&j/activiti.htm
Written by a middle school class and suitable
for the same age group, this site offers explorations into Elizabethan
costume, artists' renderings of various set designs, online quizzes, study
guides, and more.
Reading Aloud to Children
In the landmark 1986 review Becoming a Nation of
Readers, the Commission on Reading called reading aloud to children "the
single most important activity for building the knowledge required for
success in reading." The best time to begin reading books with children
is when they are infants-babies as young as six weeks old enjoy being
read to & looking at pictures. By age two or three,
children begin to develop an awareness of printed letters & words.
They see adults around them reading, writing, & using printed words
for many purposes. Toddlers & preschoolers are especially ready to
learn from adults reading to & with them.
Reading aloud to young children is important because
it helps them acquire the information & skills they need to succeed
in school & life, such as:
* Knowledge of printed letters & words &
the relationship between sound & print.
* The meaning of many words.
* How books work & a variety of writing styles.
* The world in which they live.
* The difference between written language & everyday conversation.
* The pleasure of reading.
Here are some suggestions for reading aloud to children.
* Make reading books an enjoyable experience. Choose
a comfortable place where the children can sit near you. Help them feel
safe & secure. Be enthusiastic about reading. Show the children that
reading is an interesting & rewarding activity. When children enjoy
being read to, they will grow to love books & be eager to learn to
read.
* Read to children frequently. Read to the children
in your care several times a day. Establish regular times for reading
during the day, & find other opportunities to read:
- Start or end the day with a book.
- Read to children after a morning play period which also helps settle
them down.
- Read to them during snack time or before nap time.
* Help children to learn as you read. Offer explanations,
make observations, & help the children to notice new information.
Explain words that they may not know. Point out how the pictures in a
book relate to the story. If the story takes place in an historic era
or in an unfamiliar place, give children some background information so
that they will better understand & enjoy the story. Talk about the
characters' actions & feelings. Find ways to compare the book that
you are reading with what the children have been doing in the classroom.
* Ask children questions as you read. Ask questions
that help children connect the story with their own lives or that help
them to compare the book with other books that they have read. Ask questions
that help the children to notice what is in the book & ask them to
predict what happens next.
* Encourage children to talk about the book. Have
a conversation with the children about the book you are reading. Answer
their questions. Welcome their observations, & add to what they say.
Continue to talk about the book after you have read it. Invite the children
to comment on the story. Ask them to talk about their favorite parts &
encourage them to tell the story in their own words.
* Read many kinds of books. Children need to be
read different kinds of books. Storybooks can help children to learn about
times, cultures, & peoples other than their own; stories can help
them understand how others think, act, & feel. Informational books
can help children learn facts about the
world around them. These books also introduce children to important concepts
& vocabulary that they will need for success in school. Read books
that relate to the children's backgrounds: their experiences, cultures,
languages & interests. Read books with characters & situations
both
similar & dissimilar to those in the children's lives so they can
learn about the world.
* Choose books to help you teach. Use alphabet books
to help you teach the names of the letters & the sounds that each
letter represents & use counting books to teach children how to count
& to recognize numbers. Use poetry or rhyming books to support your
teaching of phonological awareness. Use big books (oversized books that
your children can easily see) to point out letters, words, & other
features of print & to teach book handling. Choose stories that help
children learn about social behavior, for example books about friendship
to help children learn to share & cooperate. Also choose stories that
show children how the world around them works for example, what is happening
with the eggs that are hatching in your science area.
* Reread favorite books. Children love to hear their
favorite books over & over again. Hearing books read several times
helps children understand & notice new things. For example, they may
figure out what an unfamiliar word means when they have heard the story
several times. They may notice repeated sound patterns. If you point out
some letters & words as you read the book repeatedly, children also
may pick up specific words that are easily recognized & specific letter-sound
relationships.
ANIMAL FLASH CARDS: http://www.billybear4kids.com/animal/animal-abc/a.html
Preschool students can practice beginning sounds
by associating letters and sounds with one of their favorite things--animals.
Each letter offers a few different animals to click on, with a photo to
accompany each one. The cards can also be downloaded for printing and
collating an animal alphabet mini-book; let your students choose one representative
animal for each letter, rather than printing them all. In this way, each
student will have his or her own individualized alphabet book to share
and compare.
ADDING SNAP TO LANGUAGE ARTS CLASSES:
http://www.kodak.com/aboutKodak/bu/ci/education/lessonPlans/lessonPlan045.shtml
Photos are the starting point for this lesson plan
in integrating art with language arts activities. Students
use pictures of themselves to create plays, captions, and stories with
cause and effect, sequencing, predicting outcomes, and more. While suggested
for early elementary, the outline of the activities can generally be used
across all grade levels.
HANDMADE BOOKS: http://www.dickblick.com/lessonplans/handmadebooks/
Students will use a variety of paper products as
well as surfaces for textures, cords, ribbons, etc. to create their own
handmade book. Let them fill the book with the best of their student writings
throughout the year for a great class or grade souvenir.
FAIRY TALES MURAL: http://putnamvalleyschools.org/ft/04Mural.html
Illustrate the characters, sequencing, or plot of
fairy tales with this lesson idea. The basic concept can
be used across all grade levels; try illustrating (or sequencing through
illustration) a Shakespeare play
for middle to high school classes.
MAGNETIC ART: http://www.canteach.ca/elementary/visart18.html
Experimentation with magnets and metal filings or
shavings lies at the heart of this design lesson. Extend it to include
language arts by having students create a magnetic swirl (or some other
design concept) and, using word magnets, compose a poem inside the swirl,
running from center to the outside. (You can create your own magnet words
by purchasing a magnet strip from a craft store; attach paper to the sticky
side, cut strips, and write on words for your students to get creative
with.)
A MOMENT IN TIME: http://www.eduplace.com/ss/act/recmom.html
These accordion-style books can be used by any grade
level, for practically any learning application. For Language Arts classes,
try creating a timeline for a famous author or poet. Illustrate costumes
for a play, or use the accordion folds to sequence events in a story.
WORD WALL ACTIVITIES: http://www.wfu.edu/~cunningh/fourblocks/block4.html
Just in case you're running a bit
stale with your spelling lists or word walls, here are numerous suggestions
for word wall activities for elementary classrooms.
SPELLING STRATEGIES: http://teacher.scholastic.com/lessonrepro/lessonplans/instructor/spellstat.htm
Four sections offer educators resources
for teaching spelling beyond the workbook approach. Find strategies for
exploring sounds, mastering high frequency words, teaching spelling rules,
and choosing writing words to complement your spelling lists.
"The North Star" by Peter Reynolds
can be read online: http://www.fablevision.com/northstar/read.html
The North Star is the story of a young boy's journey
through life. It is an allegory that raises questions about which road
we take, and how to seek out our own unique path through life.
ALPHABET PICTURES: http://www.alphabet-soup.net/ttools/abcpictures.html
These printable alphabet pages teach children to
reinforce knowledge of upper and lower case letters by coloring each with
a different color until a hidden picture emerges.
100words: http://www.100words.net/
For writers, the challenge is to write every day.
See some examples from participants who wrote 100 words (exactly) every
day for a month. Some are poems; some are stories. The content is suitable
for mature students of writing.
Grade Level: College, Adult/Professional
Content Area: English (Writing), Community Interest (Leisure)
The American Library Association (ALA) and Major League Baseball (MLB) have implemented an innovative new partnership program as part of the @ your library campaign: https://cs.ala.org/@yourlibrary/. Hit a Home Run @ your library program is designed to promote the importance of 21st century literacy skills and increase awareness of the library as an essential information resource and librarians as the ultimate search engine. The focus of the program is a fun and educational, intergenerational online game to be hosted on the MLB Web site: http://mlb.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/mlb/homepage/mlb_homepage.jsp that will challenge palyers of all ages --children, teens and adults-- to test and develop their information literacy skills. Players will be encouraged to head to the library, get online, review the program introduction, select an appropriate skill level, and step up to the plate. A pitcher will throw out the first "pitch" (question/excerise) and players will have to access library resources to complete a variety of literacy exercises, which if done correctly will result in a "home run." Everyone who successfully completes the program will be eligible for a grand prize drawing. If you and to get involved in this campaign, visit: https://cs.ala.org/@yourlibrary/gettingstarted.cfm
SPRINGTIME ALPHABET: http://curry.edschool.virginia.edu/go/wil/Spring_Alphabet.pdf
Colors and high-interest graphics combine to create
a wonderful little springtime alphabet book. Print these pages out and
add each letter to your books as you study them.
For reading groups and book clubs - ReadingGroupGuides.com: http://readinggroupguides.com/ is a comprehensive site with book reviews, author interviews, advice on starting and running reading groups, a forum, a newsletter, and recipes for book-club gatherings! Specifically for kids and teens are sister sites, Teenreads.com: http://teenreads.com/ and Kidsreads.com: http://kidsreads.com/.
WORDS AND SOUNDS BINGO: http://www.learningcompanyschool.com/content/pdf/RR_LTR_SLP.pdf
Rhyming words, vowels, initial and ending consonant
sounds, and sight words can all be practiced with this interactive activity
for kindergarten and first grade classes. A template is included, along
with sight word lists on five levels of difficulty. This exercise would
make a great pre-testing review activity--primary students will enjoy
the active participation. Based on the popular Reader Rabbit series. (The
complete Reader Rabbit series is available at: http://www.learningcompanyschool.com
THEATRE ARTS
Introducing theater arts is a fun and rewarding way to expand any curriculum.
Here is a set of games and activities to use with children to help them
explore their world and learn too!
Creative Dramatics Workshop Handbook: http://www.kmrscripts.com/cdguide.html
You'll find a concise comprehensive guide to teaching creative dramatics
to children including a list of games and scenarios that are ready to
use.
Creative Drama Lesson Plans: http://www.geocities.com/Broadway/Alley/3765/lessons.html
A great resource for drama education lesson plans. Some will need to be
adapted for smaller groups.
Improv Games: http://www.humanpingpongball.com/gm.html
Want to get your children to think creatively and have some acting fun?
Try this Encyclopedia of short improvisation games for the young and old
alike! Some may need to be adapted for small groups or 2-4 people.
Aaron's Reader's Theater Page: http://www.aaronshep.com/rt/index.html
Reader's theater is a simple form of theater that is easy to produce.
It is not a requirement to perform in front of an audience, but when it
is done, little or no props or costumes are required. In stage productions,
readers generally dress in black and sit on stools in the center of the
stage. A narrator describes the activities of the characters creating
all the action. Scripts for reader's theater cover a variety of topics
from both literature and history. Creating a new script is an excellent
language arts
exercise or history research project. Review this site for more information
about reader's theater and a set of scripts available for use.
English Online: http://english.unitecnology.ac.nz/
This site is a vast professional development resource
for teachers of English in New Zealand and worldwide. Educators will find
over 150 fully resourced and downloadable teaching units, professional
readings, selected links and discussion forums.
Grade Level: Early Childhood, Elementary, Middle
School, High School
Content Area: English (General), Science (General), History & Social
Studies (World History/Geography)
American Folklore: http://www.americanfolklore.net/
Created as part of a master's project, this site
makes folktales from different U.S. states easy to find. Users can also
find stories about famous characters, tales from different times in U.S.
History, and some ethnic tales. This website is a great introduction to
storytelling traditions.
Grade Level: Early Childhood, Elementary, Middle
School, High School
Content Area: Arts (Performing Arts), History & Social Studies (General),
English (Speaking)
Author sites
http://www.robertmunsch.com/
http://www.tomiedepaola.com/
http://www.patriciapolacco.com/
http://www.scils.rutgers.edu/~kvander/paulsen.html
http://www.carolhurst.com/titles/authorb.html
http://teacher.scholastic.com/writewit/poetry/jack_home.htm
http://www.pilkey.com/
http://www.randomhouse.com/seussville/
http://www.janbrett.com/
http://www.scholastic.com/harrypotter/home.asp
Children's Authors and Illustrators on the Web: http://www.ucalgary.ca/~dkbrown/authors.html
Carol Hurst's Children's Literature Site: http://www.carolhurst.com/index.html
Authors for Children: http://www.authorsforchildren.com
Fairy Tales and Fables
AesopFables.com: http://www.aesopfables.com/
AesopFables.com has the entire text of 655 of Aesop's fables and 127
fairy tales from Hans Christian Andersen. And creator John Long isn't
done yet: 209 Grimm brothers' fairy tales are coming soon. Selected Fables
includes eighty-six Aesop fables "selected for their ease of reading
and concise moral understanding." Look for the Real Audio logo in
the lower right-hand corner of some of the story pages to hear Long's
ten year old daughter read the fable.
Aesop's Fables: http://www.umass.edu/aesop/
Each year, University of Massachusetts professor
Copper Giloth asks his Computers in Fine Arts students to illustrate or
animate an Aesop fable, along with their own modern retelling of the story.
This collection of nearly forty fables is the best of that student work
dating back to 1994. This fun site is a great place to start before creating
your own fables.
Childhood Reading: http://childhoodreading.com/
Childhood Reading is a mix of fairy tales, fables
and poetry accompanied by original early-twentieth century illustrations.
The illustrated tales are indexed by both author (such as Hans Christian
Andersen, Robert Louis Stevenson and Aesop) and illustrator (including
Maxfield Parrish and Edmund Dulac.) It's the simple design and yummy artwork
that make this site special.
Grimm's Fairy Tales: From Folklore to Forever: http://www.nationalgeographic.com/grimm/
Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm were German patriots
of the early nineteenth century who set out to preserve their country's
folk tales. The stories were often cruel, but once the brothers saw how
popular the tales were with young readers, they started making them softer
and sweeter. National Geographic serves up a graphically-rich adventure
into twelve "unvarnished" Grimm fairy tales, some of which include
audio. Click on the treasure box for a biography, resource links, and
a kid's activity page.
Scholastic: Myths, Folktales, Fairy Tales: http://teacher.scholastic.com/writewit/mff/
As part of their Writing with Writers series, this
Scholastic project is a multi-grade resource for learning about and writing
myths, folktales and fairytales. Grades one to three explore fairy tales
and meet two authors who have re-written classic fairy tales: Jon Scieska
(author of "The True Story of the Three Little Pigs") and Diane
Good (author and illustrator of "Cinderella: The Dog and her Little
Glass Slipper.") Similarly, grades three to six dive into folk tales
while grades five through eight learn about myths. There even is an opportunity
to submit your own tales for possible publication on the Scholastic site.
MissThistleBritches.com: http://www.missthistlebritches.com/
Writing prompts, short stories, and Shakespeare can all be found at this
site.
Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators:
http://www.scbwi.org/booklist.htm
Reading or bearing stories about peace and love
can work wonders for a frightened child. So the Society ofChildren's Book
Wrtiers and Illustrators has compiled a list to help teachers and librarians
choose books for children in crisis. The books will also be used by society
members as they prepare for school visits. Whild the list was compiled
in response to the Sept. 11 attacks, the temes are lasting ones. Tolerance,
peace, unity, conflict resolution, methods of dealing with fear, historical
perspectives of war, justice and retribution are among the topics explored
in the books. Title, author, summary and targeted age are noted for each
book.
Web English Teacher: http://www.webenglishteacher.com/
This is a comprehensive Hotlist for English teachers,
with links to prose, drama, poetry, and vocabulary sites, as well as Shakespeare,
Olympics, Journalism, and Critical thinking.
Grade Level: Early Childhood, Elementary, Middle
School, High School, College
Content Area: English (General), Arts (Literature)
Mrs. Elliott's Second Grade: http://myschoolonline.com/folder/0,1872,24742-145616-27-2923,00.html
STATE BOOK LIST
Reading by the States: One book for each state as
recommended in Carol Hurst's Children's Literature Newsletter,
Volume 7 Number 2. http://www.carolhurst.com
ALABAMA
Curtis, Christopher Paul "The Watsons Go to Birmingham, 1963"
Grades 4 - 9
Most of the first part of the book is devoted to the high jinks, many
of them hilarious, of Byron Watson, who skirts the edge of delinquency.
Although his parents are loving and have great senses of humor, they are
finally pushed into doing something drastic about Byron. They will take
Byron to his grandmothers in Birmingham for a change of scenery, and they
hope a chance to change his way of living. The trip to Birmingham brings
the children to their first experience with segregation. The real climax
comes when the church Sunday school that Joetta is attending is bombed.
The horror of it all is too much for Kenny, however. The family, including
Byron, go back to Michigan and it is Byron who saves the day.
ALASKA
Blake, Robert J. "Akiak: A Tale from the Iditerod"
Grades 1 - 5
This is a tale about perseverance and courage. Akiak is a sled dog in
the Iditerod and she's doing very well until ice cakes in her paws on
the fourth day force Mick, her owner, to take her lead dog out of what
was to be her final race. Akiak escapes the handlers who are trying to
put her on a homebound plane and re-enters the race on her own. The rules
prevent her from being re-harnessed even when the dog succeeds in relocating
Mick and her team on the trail but Akiak continues, eventually preventing
Mick from choosing the wrong trail. Akiak enters Nome the hero, the readers
hoped she'd be.
ARIZONA
Cowley, Joy "Big Moon Tortilla" Illustrated by Dyanne Strongbow
Grades K - 3
Marta Enos, a little girl living on the Papago Reservation in southern
Arizona, has a really bad day. When she seeks comfort from her grandmother,
she gets it but she also gets a lesson in perspective. Grandmother tells
her a traditional tale, which incorporates the many ways to look at a
problem. Given many choices of those ways the child chooses to be an eagle,
flying high and able to see just how small the problem is. Her grandmother's
advice? "Fly high and laugh. Then come back and do your
homework."
ARKANSAS
Branscum, Robbie "The Murder of Hound Dog Bates"
Grades 3 - 5
When Sassafras Bates finds his beloved dog dead, he knows immediately
that it's one of his aunts who killed it. When guilt alone doesn't seem
to bring forth a confession from one of the culprits, Sassafras sets about
proving it. In the process, he learns a lot about himself and his aunts
and the reader has a laugh and a tear.
CALIFORNIA
Cushman, Karen "The Ballad of Lucy Whipple"
Grades 4 - 9
In Lucy, Cushman has created a believable, very human teenager who allows
us to see the period and the characters of the California Gold Rush -
miners, saloon keepers, Native Americans, slaves, adventurers and mountain
men who were drawn to the gold fields. By focusing on Lucy and her
mother, Cushman allows us to see the females who, at that time, made up
ten percent of the populace.
COLORADO
Naylor, Phyllis Reynolds "The Fear Place"
Grades 4 - 8
This brief, accessible novel is a good story about two teenage brothers,
their misunderstandings and eventual understanding. Mainly, however, it's
a story about facing and overcoming one's fears. The two brothers are
alone in the Colorado wilderness when they angrily part company. To get
as far away from his younger brother as possible, Gordon goes through
a difficult mountain trail to an even more remote area. At first younger
brother Doug is delighted that his tormentor is gone, especially when
he makes friends with a mountain lion but he gradually becomes worried
about Gordon. Eventually he must take the fearful trail (over which he
once collapsed) to find him. When he finds his badly injured brother,
he must travel back through the Fear Place - this time with his brother
on his back.
CONNECTICUT
Speare, Elizabeth George "The Witch of Blackbird Pond"
Grades 5 - 9
It's 1688 and Kit Tyler has always been a misfit. She is willful and independent
and these qualities upset her Puritan aunt and uncle in Wethersfield,
Connecticut. Kit spent the first sixteen years of her life in the Barbados
where rules were less restrictive. At Blackbird Pond, the only place where
Kit feels free, she meets and befriends Hannah, a Quaker. When a mysterious
fever strikes Wethersfield, the villagers accuse Hannah of being a witch
and burn down her house. At the last minute Kit helps her friend escape
but ends up being accused of witchcraft herself.
DELAWARE
Laird, Marnie "Water Rat"
Grades 4- 6
It's 1748, and 14-year-old Matt, who loves the water and is nicknamed
Water Rat, runs away from a tyrannical tavern owner and goes to live with
a doctor and his family on their Delaware farm. When a pirate ship arrives
at the family's dock, Matt proves himself a hero and manages to save the
doctor's family while assisting with the capture of the pirates.
FLORIDA
McDonald, Joyce "Comfort Creek"
Grades 4 - 8
Life for Quinella and her family has not been easy since their mother
left to pursue a singing career. Their father is out of work because the
phosphate mine that has controlled their lives is going out of business.
Pa-Daddy moves their trailer to a cypress swamp to save money and they
may lose even
these primitive quarters as the joblessness goes on. There is the possibility
that a new phosphate mine could begin but that would cause the destruction
of yet another community. The characters are warm and believable and the
situation of a company owned town closing down is an interesting one.
GEORGIA
Krisher, Trudy "Spite Fences"
Grades 5 - 7
Life in Kinship, Georgia has been good for thirteen-year-old Maggie Pugh
but the summer of 1960 changes everything. Zeke, a black trader, has given
her a camera and through the camera's eye Maggie sees things differently.
She knows now that the physical abuse she suffers from her mother is not
part of every child's life. She sees the racism and abuse heaped on Zeke
and other members of the black community and she takes a different look
at the white citizens who perpetuate those horrors. This is a strong book
which handles brutality brutally.
HAWAII
Salisbury, Graham "Blue Skin of the Sea: A Novel in Stories"
Grades 6-9
This is the coming of age story of Sonny Mendoza, living in Hawaii in
the 50s and 60s. We follow the boy from age 6 to mid teenage in a series
of related stories. Sonny moves back to live with his uncommunicative,
widowed father at age six and discovers his family as he becomes increasingly
aware of his own fear of the sea. Mendoza men, he knows, have no such
fear and rely upon the sea for their livelihood as well as their pleasures.
IDAHO
Creech, Sharon "Walk Two Moons"
Grades 4 - 9
Salamanca Tree Hiddle's mother left her to go to Idaho. Now, Sal and her
paternal grandparents set out to drive from Ohio to Idaho in time for
her mother's birthday. On the way, Sal tells them about her friend Phoebe
whose mother also left without notice and, as she tells the story, Sal
sees parallels
between Phoebe's experience and her own. Drawing strength on the traditions
of her own Native American ancestry, Sal is able at last to face the truth
about her mother.
ILLINOIS
Peck, Richard "A Long Way From Chicago"
Grades 4 - 8
Every August from 1929 - 1942, our narrator, Joey, and his sister Mary
Alice came from Chicago to stay at their grandmother's home in rural Illinois.
We join them there every year from 1929-1935 and then again, for a last
look, in 1942. In the interim the children grow into adulthood but their
grandmother remains a constant presence, resolved in her eccentricity.
Those eccentricities bother
them at first, but they learn to expect them and even enjoy them. There
is, beneath all that, a loving and
wonderful person, but she'd never admit it.
INDIANA
Wyman, Andrea "Red Sky at Morning"
Grades 3-6
Callie, Katherine and their mother are left behind on their grandfather's
Indiana farm when their father goes to Oregon to establish a future for
them there. As the months go by, one devastation after another hits the
family: the mother dies in childbirth, diphtheria strikes, the grandfather
is felled
by a weak heart. Through all this the girls hope for their father's return
but he turns out to be elusive.
IOWA
San Souci, Robert D. "Kate Shelley: Bound for Legend" Illustrated
by Max Ginsburg
Grades 2 - 4
Set in rural Iowa at the end of the twentieth century, this picture book
tells of the heroism of Kate Shelley who risked her life to stop the train
from Chicago from crossing a downed bridge. Railroad officials had already
stopped the train but Kate was honored nationally for her courage.
KANSAS
Beatty, Patricia "Jayhawker"
Grades 5 - 9
Elijah's father is a jayhawker (abolitionist follower of John Brown).
Their house is burned by Missouri Bushwackers (defenders of slavery).
After his father is killed, Elijah is captured by Prentiss, a plantation
owner and Bushwacker, who beats Elijah and steals his horse. Elijah finally
gets to
confront his tormentor but not before he encounters both Jesse James and
Wild Bill Hickok.
KENTUCKY
Lyon, George Ella "Come a Tide" Illustrated by Stephen Gammell
Grades K - 4
In this delightful picture book, the old folks know that heavy rains are
coming and that sets these rural Kentucky dwellers to moving and helping
each other cope with the coming flood. It's a yearly occurrence, apparently,
and one small child is fearful, but Grandma faces the challenge with gusto
and soon everybody is "making friends with a shovel" to clean
up the mess. The illustrations almost drip with water and mud.
LOUISIANA
Holt, Kimberly Willis "My Louisiana Sky"
Grades 4 - 8
Tiger Ann Parker is a smart, sensitive girl with mentally challenged parents.
She lives in rural Louisiana with her parents and Granny. It's Granny
who keeps everything in the household on track. She dispenses love and
discipline with equal aplomb. Then Granny dies suddenly and Tiger Ann
is invited to live with her very stylish aunt in Baton Rouge. Life in
the big city is tempting but Tiger has a role
to play back in her hometown.
MAINE
Speare, Elizabeth George "The Sign of the Beaver"
Grades 4 - 8
In 1768, Matt Hallowell and his father went to build a house in the Maine
woods, leaving the rest of the family down in Massachusetts. In early
summer, when the cabin was finished, Mr. Hallowell left his son with a
rifle, a field of planted corn and some minimal skills for survival. A
fur trapper stole the
rifle and Matt was almost fatally injured before a Native American offers
his help in return for teaching his grandson to read English.
MARYLAND
Paterson, Katherine "Jacob Have I Loved"
Grades 6 - 9
All her life, Sara Louise, known as Wheeze, has felt deprived of schooling,
friends, mother and even
grandmother by her beautiful twin sister, Caroline. Slowly Louise begins
to find her identity and the
courage to pursue her own path rather than to let jealousy take over.
Isolated on a tiny Chesapeake
Bay Island, her grandmother's sharp tongue has intensified these feelings
of incompetence. Louise
learns the ways of the island, taking on a job traditionally reserved
for males and, as she gains
confidence in herself, all sorts of insights into her own behavior and
that of others become apparent.
MASSACHUSETTS
Cormier, Robert "Other Bells for Us to Ring"
Grades 5 - 9
Darcy's family has moved often during her eleven years so Darcy has never
had a real friend. She
expects to go on telling her secrets to her Shirley Temple doll. Then
Kathleen O'Hara forces her way
into Darcy's life. Kathleen's large Irish Catholic family life is in direct
contrast to Darcy's more
sedate Unitarian one, but Darcy's home is full of love and Kathleen's
is full of fear of the abuse from
her often drunken father. When Darcy's father is drafted and sent to the
front in Europe, it is Kathleen
that Darcy turns to.
MICHIGAN
Howard, Ellen "The Log Cabin Quilt" Illustrated by Ronald Himler
Grades 1 - 8
After her mother's death in the Carolinas, Elvirey and her family pack
up the wagon to move to Michigan. At the last minute, defying her son-in-law's
instructions to take only the bare necessities, Grandma throws on a bag
of quilting scraps. In Michigan the father builds the log cabin for his
family's shelter before heading off to hunt for food. A sudden burst of
winter freezes the clay between the logs and the cold fills the cabin.
Close to death, they use the quilt scraps to replace the clay and save
themselves while inadvertently decorating the cabin.
MINNESOTA
Paulsen, Gary "Popcorn Days & Buttermilk Nights"
Grades 4 - 9
As in many works by Paulsen, the narrator is a troubled boy who has been
sent to stay with relatives in northern Minnesota. His uncle, a blacksmith,
treats the boy with his own quiet dignity. The family has no money, although
they all work hard. Most of the people pay the blacksmith fees with produce
so there is always ample to eat. The boy finds his anger disappearing
as he becomes part of the rhythm
of the farm and the blacksmith shop. When harvest season is in full swing,
the line of broken tools and equipment to be fixed seems endless and David
and the boy sleep in the shop for a few hours at a time before pitching
in to work again. At last the busy time is over and they're headed for
a well- earned rest. But a circus that David can't afford to bring his
children to changes everything.
MISSISSIPPI
Taylor, Mildred "Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry"
Grades 5 - 9
In this first book about the Logan family, we focus on Cassie, one of
four children, in this African American family. In rural Mississippi during
the Depression years, the Logans own land and are respected by the sharecropping
community. All around them there is the violence spawned by racial hatred:
lynchings and other violence. We see one year in that life through Cassie's
eyes.
MISSOURI
Twain, Mark "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer"
Grades 4 - 9
The humor is timeless, the mystery and hijinks as refreshing today as
it was when Twain created it. Life in small town Missouri in the latter
part of the 19th century is lovingly depicted.
MONTANA
Hudson, Jan "Sweetgrass"
Grades 5 - 9
Sweetgrass is 15 and in love with Eagle-Sun but her father says she is
not yet mature enough to be married. When the family is struck by small
pox, Sweetgrass learns her strengths and takes on the role of a woman
to save the remaining family members. This is a quiet but powerful book.
The setting is beautiful and the cultural content is strong. We see the
roles of men and women and those of adults and children in the culture
as it was before the arrival of guns and horses.
NEBRASKA
Conrad, Pam "Prairie Songs"
Grades 5 - 9
This novel stresses the human toll that life on the early frontier exacted.
Louisa loves the prairie, but it's too harsh for delicate Emmeline, a
debutante from Philadelphia brought there by her young doctor husband.
Eventually life in the sod house overwhelms her and the woman is driven
to madness. NEVADA
* Ryan, Pam Munoz "Riding Freedom"
Grades 4 - 7
Based on the life of Charlotte Parkhurst, this novel details her outlandish
experiences. Disgusted with the somber life in a New Hampshire orphanage
in the middle of the nineteenth century, she disguised herself as a boy
and fled to Nevada, stopping to sharpen her horse-training skills on the
way. That ability to disguise her gender even allowed her, years later,
to vote at a time when women could not.
NEW HAMPSHIRE
Blos, Joan W. "A Gathering of Days"
Grades 4 - 7
Written as the diary of an eleven year old girl, this short novel makes
personal the mid-nineteenth century life in small town New Hampshire.
We witness the changes in society and in the life of Catherine as she
encounters and aids a runaway slave, mourns the death of her best friend
and adjusts to a new stepmother. The book is deeply personal and makes
for a fast, informative experience with history.
NEW JERSEY
Cohen, Barbara "Thank You, Jackie Robinson"
Grades 4 - 7
Sam Green is nuts about baseball. His mother runs an inn in New Jersey
and Sam's best friend is Davy, the African American cook at the inn. They
share the interest in baseball and especially admire Jackie Robinson,
the first black man in major league baseball. Together Davy and Sam set
out to see a game at each ballpark within a day's drive of their home.
They can't go any farther than that since,
in these days of segregation, Davy is not allowed in any restaurant or
hotel.
NEW MEXICO
Hobbs, Will "Kokopelli's Flute"
Grades 4 - 7
This is a mystical novel of transformation. Tepary lives with his parents
in the four corners area of New Mexico. His mother is researching packrat
droppings. His father is planting and keeping alive old varieties of corn,
beans and squash. When one of the ancient cliff dwellings is savaged by
pot-stealers,
Tepary comes upon an ancient flute. During a lunar eclipse, he blows upon
it. From that moment, he is transformed each night into a pack rat. At
about the same time a very wise Indian arrives and we soon begin to suspect
that he is Kokopelli, the ancient flue player. We also learn that he is
the person who
has been anonymously supplying Tepary's father with obscure and ancient
seeds. Then Tep's mother falls ill with the hanta virus and he needs both
human and rat form to help her.
NEW YORK
Konigsburg, E. L. "From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler"
Grades 3 - 7
Claudia is running away from home -- not that home is so terrible -- it's
just that she feels unappreciated there. She takes her younger brother
Jamie with her largely because he manages money better than she and has
some accumulated allowance. Of course, she doesn't intend to rough it
away from home. They hide out in the Metropolitan Museum of Art using
some very clever ruses to keep their presence a secret. There Claudia
becomes intrigued with a statue which may or may not be the work of Michaelangelo.
NORTH CAROLINA
Newton, Suzanne "I Will Call It Georgie's Blues"
Grades 5 - 8
The three children of Reverend Sloan and his wife, Lou, must deal with
the rigidity created by this insecure, fearful man. He browbeats his wife
who must present a happy face to the congregation. Eighteen year old daughter
Aileen is becoming increasingly rebellious, by dating Pete, a disreputable
young man. Georgie is the youngest child and the most vulnerable. He strives
constantly for his father's attention and love. The middle child, Neal,
tries to keep the peace but mostly escapes into the world of music.
NORTH DAKOTA
Kurtz, Jane "Jakarta Missing"
Grades 5 - 9
It's been a long journey for Dakar's family from Kenya to North Dakota.
Although infinitely safer now, Dakar still has fears: the telephone, the
people, even the house itself. Most of all she fears for her older sister
Jakarta, who refused to leave Kenya. Her mother is subject to fits of
depression and her father seems too focused on world diseases to notice
his children in need.
OHIO
Fleischman, Paul "The Borning Room"
Grades 5 - 9
One room in the house her grandfather built in Ohio in 1820 is the focal
point in Georgina's narrative. The roles of birth and death that have
been played out in that room outline her life. In that room
she herself is born and there she witnesses the birth of one of her younger
siblings. Eventually, Georgina has her own babies in that room. There,
also, her mother dies giving birth to another baby
probably due to a misuse of the new drug, chloroform. An escaping slave
is befriended first by Georgina and then by the rest of the family as
she aids in a difficult birth. The room is also the place
where her beloved grandfather dies after refusing to change his freethinking
ways.
OKLAHOMA
Hesse, Karen "Out of the Dust"
Grades 5 - 7
Told in blank verse, this stark tale is made even starker by that format.
Billie Jo lives with her mother and father on the plains of Oklahoma in
1934. Times already hard are made harder by the dust
bowl. Billie Jo's piano talents offer some escape even though her mother
disapproves of her musical choices. A tragic fire and its ensuing guilt
and pain take away all vestiges of home for Billie Jo and she decides
to leave it all behind - for a while.
OREGON
Avi "The Barn"
Grades 4 - 9
Ben's father has been felled by palsy. Ben, the youngest child has been
called home from the boarding school. Ben with his older brother, Harrison,
and his sister Nettie, undertake to build a much-needed barn. Ben is convinced
that this will make his steadily failing father get better. The barn becomes
a symbol for achievement, acceptance and love.
PENNSYLVANIA
Lowry, Lois "Autumn Street"
Grades 4 - 8
Lowry puts us into the mind of a six year old girl with all her misperceptions,
innocence and concerns. Elizabeth has come with her sister and pregnant
mother to live with her grandparents while her father is overseas. The
grandparents are people of wealth and respect in the community. Her mother
is kind and loving but it is Tatie, the black maid of the household who
is Elizabeth's solace during this time. Charles, Tatie's grandson, becomes
Elizabeth's best friend although he is not allowed in anything but the
kitchen of the house and must not use the sidewalks at the front of the
house. Elizabeth and Charles take Elizabeth's new sled to the park and
there, Charles is harassed and driven off by the bigger boys because he
is black. These events combine to make up a larger tragedy.
RHODE ISLAND
Avi "Something Upstairs"
Grades 4 - 8
Avi has taken an overused plot and twisted it just enough to make it new.
Avi appears in the book as himself, the person to whom this story is told
by a young boy at a school Avi visits. After moving into an old house
in Providence with his family, Kenny makes contact with a ghost - that
of a young slave boy murdered in that house. As in many such stories,
Kenny is drawn into the past to change the
fate of the ghost. In this case, Kenny must himself become a killer and
risk becoming a ghost himself in order to save Caleb.
SOUTH CAROLINA
McGill, Alice "Miles' Song"
Grades 4 - 8
Language plays a big part in this novel about slavery in general and one
slave in particular. Miles uses the language of the field slave even after,
having been surreptitiously taught to read and write, he can speak the
same style of English his masters do. It's important, however, that the
white slave owners believe that young Miles is slow and foolish. They
set out to break him, but those attempts only
make him stronger. When he does make his run for freedom, Miles uses every
skill and trick he has learned.
SOUTH DAKOTA
Turner, Ann "Grasshopper Summer"
Grades 3 - 6
Sam sees no reason for his father's decision to strike out on their own
in Dakota Territory. However, all too soon the covered wagon is equipped
and loaded and they're off. The prairie both thrills and frightens Sam.
When the sod house is ready, however, it quickly becomes home and Sam's
fright and resentment turns to pride in their home and their family. Then
the plague of grasshoppers arrive.
In a few painful weeks, everything they've worked for is gone and the
rest of the family just about gives up. It's Sam and his father who find
ways to start again.
TENNESSEE
Freeman, Suzanne "The Cuckoo's Child"
Grades 4 - 8
Mia is confused and angry. Her parents never returned from a sailing cruise.
Mia and her two half sisters have been taken in by their mother's sister
Kit in small town Tennessee. Convinced that she can somehow bring her
parents back, Mia's behavior is erratic and bizarre. An analogy is made
between the cuckoo who deposits her lone egg in other bird's nests and
what Mia's mother, always a free spirit, has done. During one summer,
Mia has broken her aunt's arms by jumping on her from the water tower,
broken up her aunt's relationship with one man and bitten a new suitor's
hand.
TEXAS
Erickson, John "Hank the Cowdog"
Grades 3 - 5
This is the first in a series of books about Hank, the Head of Ranch Security
on a Texas ranch. The humor is tongue-in-cheek as the ever-confident dog
manages to misinterpret and mishandle almost every situation. His faithful
and ever-confused sidekick Drover adds to the fun. There's nothing sophisticated
in these books, just good fun.
UTAH
Wunderli, Stephen "The Blue Between the Clouds"
Grades 5 - 9
Matt and Two Moons are best friends and this book is a celebration of
their friendship. Two Moon's parents are dead and his sister wants him
to live with her in Bozeman, Montana, but his grandfather who lives on
the reservation has decided that Two Moons can stay with Matt and his
family for a while. Perhaps because both boys know their living arrangement
is temporary, they thoroughly enjoy
and understand each other. Both are determined to fly and manage, amazingly,
with the help of a disturbed World War I veteran, to do so.
VERMONT
Kinsey-Warnock, Natalie "The Night the Bells Rang"
Grades 4 - 6
This is the gentle story of life in northern Vermont during the First
World War. Mason lives on a farm with his younger brother and parents
and much of the book describes such rural pastimes as sugar on snow and
cider-making, but the heart of the book lies in the perceptions Mason
has toward Aden Cutler, the school bully. It's Mason who bears the brunt
of that bullying and often, bullies his own brother in anger at his helplessness.
He frequently wishes Aden dead. However, it is also Mason who is sole
witness to and recipient of an act of bravery and kindness on the part
of Aden.
VIRGINIA
Reeder, Carolyn "Shades of Gray"
Grades 4 - 8
Twelve year old Will Page is a grieving and angry boy when he moves in
with his relatives in the Piedmont region of Virginia. Will's family in
Winchester, Virginia has been wiped out in the Civil War. Will's anger
is directed at the Union Army, of course, but also at the uncle with whom
he now lives. Uncle Jed refused to take sides in the war and Will considers
him a traitor and a coward, a feeling shared by most of Jed's neighbors.
WASHINGTON
Thesman, Jean "The Rain Catchers"
Grades 4 - 8
Gray, 14 lives in her grandmother's home where the clocks have no hands.
She shares the home with her great aunt Minette, Minette's daughter, and
her grandmother's cousin and a family friend, Dr. Belle Russell. Together
these women share stories of their past over and over again as they drink
tea and wait for the rain to fall through the honeysuckle. They all have
lives of their own, one writes, one is a famous medical consultant, one
runs a company but the sense of family is powerful. The household is an
oasis of sanity and a solid footing from which the women and girls take
their strength.
WEST VIRGINIA
Naylor, Phyllis Reynolds "Shiloh"
Grades 3 - 6
When Marty finds and befriends an abused dog and his father demands that
he return Shiloh to his owner, Marty must choose between deceit and truth.
He does return Shiloh once, but when Shiloh returns, half starved, Marty
cannot betray the dog's faith. He hides Shiloh in the woods until his
perfidity is discovered and Marty must face his parents' wrath and that
of Shiloh's owner. This simple book is a strong and thoughtful animal
story.
WISCONSIN
Henkes, Kevin "Protecting Marie"
Grades 4 - 6
Fanny's mother is fortyish, beautiful and the anchor of their family.
Her father is sixty, moody, a talented artist and a demanding man. Both,
however, adore their only child and reach out to her in remarkably open
ways. Fanny's relationship with her mother is open and loving. Her father,
however, has given her reason to distrust him. Once he brought her a puppy
and then found the puppy's antics so distracting to his work that he made
her give the puppy away. Now, her father is blocked in his painting, depressed
about turning sixty and often angry and withdrawn. He wants, even demands,
understanding by his wife and daughter. His wife gives that understanding
quite consistently. Fanny alternates hating and loving him. When he brings
her another dog, this one grown and well trained, she hesitates to love
the dog and, after she does so, she lives in constant fear that her father
will take him away.
WYOMING
Paulsen, Gary "The Haymeadow"
Grades 5 - 9
John Baron has just turned fourteen when he is sent by his stern, uncommunicative
father to spend the summer in the haymeadow. He'll be alone with six thousand
sheep, two horses and four dogs. Fortunately, the dogs are trained sheepherders,
because without them, John could do it. John has always identified with
and tried to emulate his grandfather as he's been depicted in the stories
about him. In the haymeadow, John comes to face
his fears as well as his dreams. When his father comes to the haymeadow,
he also faces him and finds out the truth about his grandfather, his father
and himself.
Book Adventure: http://www.bookadventure.org/
This website houses a free motivational reading
program for children in grades K-8. Reviews help children pick a book
to read, either from a library or bookstore. After the book is read, children
can take a quiz online, with the incentive of prizes after a number of
quizzes are completed. Parents can monitor their child's activities and
find resources for reading challenges in their families. Teachers can
access the articles that may help them increase parental involvement.
This website was developed by Sylvan Learning Centers.
Grade Level: Early Childhood, Elementary, Middle
School
Content Area: English (Reading), Community Interest (Parenting and Families)
Fact on File: http://factsonfile.com/
Use this web site for an up-to-date walk through print and electronic
reference products for the school and library market, including On-line
Databases and On Files Binders.
The Grinch Song Page:
http://www.afn.org/~afn15301/drseuss.html
Meet the "great glorious and gandorious" Dr. Seuss. Puzzles,
quizzes, art, stories, and a mailing
list that appeals to kids and adults alike.
Dr. Seuss's Suessville: http://www.randomhouse.com/seussville/
Features a full range of books and CD-ROMs based on "Green Eggs and
Ham," plus contests and a Dr. Seuss trivia quiz.
Features Author: Dr. Suess: http://www.carolhurst.com/authors/drseuss.html
Children's literature newsletter features the author during the fortieth
anniversary of "The Cat
in the Hat." Find details on his writing career.
The Dr. Suess Web Page: http://www.seuss.org/
Homage includes a brief biography of the author, list of books in print,
and a complete filmography. Check out the Dr. Seuss parodies.
Early Works by Dr. Suess: http://www.afn.org/~afn15301/seussfiles/early.html
Read some stories and poetry from Theodore Geisel's early career and check
out the early concept
drawings of the Cat in the Hat.
Examining the Dr.: The Secret Art of Dr. Suess: http://hotwired.lycos.com/books/95/49/seuss.html
Author Stephen Fowler takes a deeper and more contemporary look at several
Seuss classics
such as "Green Eggs and Ham" and "The Cat in the Hat."
Spelling sites:
http://www.coedu.usf.edu/~morris/speltic.html#bingo
http://www.harcourtschool.com/activity/spelling_check/1_10.html
http://www.teachnet.com/print.php?page=lesson/langarts/spellingwds040299.html
Ideas to practice spelling words
1. Surround words - Write your words on graph paper and outline in colors.
2. 1234 Spelling - Count the vowels and consonants in each word. What
do you notice?
3. Ransom words - Write your words by cutting out letters in a newspaper
or magazine. Glue onto paper.
4. Pyramid words - Write your words adding or subtracting one letter at
a time to form a pyramid shape.
5. A Song & Dance - Pretend you are a cheerleader, a dancer, a comedian,
etc., and perform a 2 minute routine. It can be a ballet, a rap, knock-knock
jokes, full of music and movement. No clowns allowed.
6. Feed the Glundersnedd (from poetry4kids.com - fantastic poetry) - (or
an imaginary monster) - Decorate several spelling words as food. Draw
a picture of the monster and the words he will eat. Write the reasons
why the monster prefers the words. If the words are soap and little, you
might say,
"My monster prefers bubbly slippery letters like s,o,
and a, but he chokes on the p every time. He always eats little
last because the l's and t's are like toothpicks to clean
around his pointy teeth."
7. Spelling Families - Draw a spelling family of words. Draw their house
with the words playing in the yard, looking out the window, working on
the house. If one spelling word is batter, the spelling family could be
words that end in -er, words that have double consonants, words that have
two syllables,
words that have more than one meaning - batter up, cookie batter...
8. Dr. Seuss Was Here! - It's up to you how you imitate the dear doctor.
You can make up a silly story rhyme with your words, or illustrate a page
to go along with the rhyme. Surprise the class.
9. Highway Safety - Using dotted line paper, write the words into three
groups: safe, unsafe, and dangerous drivers - those that dip below the
line and above the dotted line. If your spelling words are our, are, tip
and lip, which falls into the ditch or into the other lane? Which is more
dangerous - lip or
tip? Why?
10. Pay for your Words - If the consonants cost a nickel and the vowels
cost a dime, how much would you have to pay for your spelling words? Compare
the most expensive with the least, etc. Make up money problems to solve.
Tell your parent the strategy you could use to solve the problem.
11. Other Handed - If you are right-handed, write with your left, or vice
versa. Look up vice versa.
12. Choo-Choo Words - Write the entire list end-to-end as one long word,
using different colors of crayon or ink for different words. Be creative
choosing the engine and the caboose words.
13. Silly String - With a long length of string, "write" words,
using the string to shape the letters.
14. Backwriting - Using your finger, draw each letter on a partners' back,
having the partner say the word when completed.
15. Telephone Words - Translate your words into numbers from a telephone
keypad.
16. Flashwriting - In a darkened room, use a flashlight to draw letters
in the air.
17. Newspaper Words - Search a newspaper page, circling each letter of
a word as you find it.
18. 30 Second Words - Write a TV commercial using all the words from your
list.
19. Popsicles - Make words using popsicle sticks.
20. Secret Agent Words - Number the alphabet from 1 to 26, then convert
your words to code.
21. Etch-A-Word - Use an Etch-A-Sketch to write your words.
22. Morse Code - Convert your words to Morse Code.
23. Dictionary Duel - Write your spelling words sorting into three groups:
the beginning section of the alphabet, A-H, the middle, H-P, and the last,
Q-Z. Then ask someone to call out a word. Find the first letter of the
word as quickly as you can. If you look up the word moon, where in the
three sections would you open the dictionary? How close did you open the
book to the first letter?
24. Cartoon Words - Use some of your words in a cartoon.
25. ABC order- Write your words in alphabetical order in your best handwriting.
26. Rainbow Words - Write your words in three colors.
27. Backwards Words- Write your words forwards, then backwards.
28. Silly sentences - Use all your words in a few sentences.
29. Picture words - Draw a picture and write your words in the picture.
Make a dictionary out of it.
30. Words without Vowels - Write your words replacing all vowels with
a line.
31. Words without Consonants - Same as above but replace consonants with
lines.
32. Story words - Write a short story using all your words.
33. Scrambled words -Write your words, then write them again with the
letters mixed up.
34. Wordsearch -Make a word search with a friend or parent, then trade
and solve.
35. Crossword - Complete a crossword puzzle made by a parent.
36. Puzzle words - Use a blank puzzle form. Write your words on the form,
making sure that the words cross over the pieces. Then cut them out (color)
and put them in a baggie with your name on it. 37. Words-in-words - Write
your word and then write at least 1 word made from each.
38. Delicious words - Write your words in whipped cream or anything you
can eat!
39. Good Clean Words -Write your words in shaving cream on a surface that
can be cleaned safely.
40. Dirty Words - Write your words in mud or sand.
41. Pasta Words - Write your words by arranging alphabet pasta or Alphabits.
42. Reversed words - Write your words in ABC order -backwards - from Z
to A.
43. 3D words - Use modeling clay rolled thinly to make your words.
44. Magazine words - Use an old magazine or newspaper and find your word.
Cut and glue onto paper.
45. Sound Words - Use a tape recorder and record your words and their
spelling. Then listen to your tape, checking to see that you spelled all
the words correctly.
46. X Words - Write two words having one common letter so they criss-cross.
47. Bookmark - Create a colorful, artistic bookmark and carefully write
your spelling words on it.
Bridge to Terebithia: http://www.connectingstudents.com/literacy/bridge.htm
Julie of the Wolves by Jean Craighead George
http://www.nancypolette.com/LitGuidesText/julieofthewolves.html
http://www.harperchildrens.com/schoolhouse/TeachersGuides/jcgindex.htm
The Call of the Wild by Jack London
http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/call/
http://www.nt.net/~torino/call.html
Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry:
http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/rollofthunder/
http://www.sdcoe.k12.ca.us/score/roll/rolltg.htm
http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/ejournals/ALAN/spring95/Bontempo.html
http://www.connectingstudents.com/literacy/thunder.htm
Know Play? Reference Lookup: http://www.kplay.cc/reference.html
This site has links to an
online dictionaries, thesauruses, rhyming dictionary, acronym, and artist
lookup. The goal of this site is to simplify your life.
Grade Level: Early Childhood, Elementary, Middle
School, High School,
College, Adult/Professional
Content Area: English (Reading/Writing), Arts (Visual Arts), Technology
(General)
Citation Machine: http://landmark-project.com/citation_machine/
This has been a popular web tool that enables teachers (and students)
to select a resource type (book, journal article, newspaper or magazine
article, web site, e-mail message, online forum, interview) and then fill
in a form asking for the appropriate attribution information. The tool
then produces a standard citation for the resource, which can be highlighted,
copied, and then pasted into an information product. Today, as a result
of constant requests, Citation Machine now generates APA citations as
well as MLA.
Weather sites
Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs: http://www.sdcoe.k12.ca.us/score/Cloudy/cloudytg.htm
Lesson Planz.com: http://lessonplanz.com/lp/search.cgi?query=weather
The Wonderful World of Weather:
http://k12science.ati.stevens-tech.edu/curriculum/weatherproj/index_NEW.html
Lord of the Rings sites: J.R.R.
Tolkien in Oxford: http://www.jrrtolkien.org.uk/
British author and Oxford professor J. R. R. Tolkien wrote "The
Hobbit" in 1937. The three-volume sequel "The Lord of the Rings",
which weaves a tale of good against evil in imaginary Middle Earth, was
written between 1954 and 1955. This fan site is a Tolkien resource, with
a special focus on his tenure at Oxford University as both a student and
a professor. Highlights are the Tolkien biography, timeline, Hobbit maps,
Tolkien Alphabet, five quizzes and a printable crossword.
Lord of the Rings: Official Movie Site: http://www.lordoftherings.net/
The official movie site from New Line Productions is a multimedia
extravaganza. Visit for cast interviews, soundtrack clips, movie trailers,
screensavers, e-cards and a fan message board. There is also aninteractive
Middle Earth map. As you mouse around the map, you can explore Hobbit
culture and characters, as well as view video snippets from the film.
National Geographic Beyond the Movie: Lord of the Rings: http://www.nationalgeographic.com/ngbeyond
This edition of National Geographic's Beyond the Movie is a site for
for middle school students and older and includes the author, the book,
and the film in its scope. Although the topics (such as the historical,
cultural and mythological influences on Tolkien) sound very academic,
National Geographic excels at making it very approachable. So is the evil
ring a reference to the atomic bomb of World War II? "'An author
cannot of course remain wholly unaffected by his experience,' Tolkien
acknowledged, but he strongly denied that his story was an allegory for
World War I or II."
The New York Times: The Tolkien Archives: http://www.nytimes.com/specials/advertising/movies/tolkien/
At this site there is a collection of original
New York Times news articles starting with a 1938 book review of "The
Hobbit." There are also audio snippets of Tolkien reading, the complete
first chapters of "The Hobbit" and "The Fellowship of the
Rings," nine interactive Tolkien quizzes, and interdisciplinary lesson
plans for grades six through twelve.
The Tolkien Trail: http://www.tolkientrail.com/
This site is a fan-created journey through Middle Earth
led by the wizard Gandalf. Along the way you can stop to play a few games
(including a word search, paddle ball, and hangman), read the Tolkien-inspired
fan fiction, view the fan art gallery, and join the very lively discussion
board. There is even a One Ring musical in development, which is being
posted one scene at a time.
Ad Dissection 101: http://website.education.wisc.edu/rla/ADSITE/index.htm
High school students take on the roles of scientist
and media consultant to learn about advertising and how a print ad can
affect and persuade readers. Students then apply their knowledge to design
an ad to help consumers (and their classmates) recognize manipulation.
Grade Level: High School
Content Area: English (General) [Dewey #800], Business (Marketing),
History & Social Studies (Psychology)
The Visual Thesaurus: http://thesaurus.plumbdesign.com/index.html
is an online project from Plumb Design that explores the richness of the
English language. Beginning with a single word, an array of synonyms seems
to grow out around the word forming a sort of moving tree diagram. Gradually,
another word in the diagram begins to develop its own set of branches
as well. The diagram continues to revolve and grow before your eyes in
a mesmerizing fluid motion. The controls allow you to focus on whatever
words you wish. This is not so much a reference tool for looking up synonyms
as it is an exploration of how the words in our language are connected
to one another. Note that the program may take a
while to load the first time you visit, which may irritate some users
with slower Internet connections.
List of Books from 50 States: http://www.nea.org/readacross/messages/189.html
BBC Bookcase: Roald Dahl: http://www.bbc.co.uk/education/bookcase/authors/dahl/
Born 13 September 1916 in Wales to Norwegian parents (Roald is pronounced
as in the Norwegian, Roo-ahl), Roald Dahl died on 23rd November 1990 when
he was 74. BBC Bookcase provides a succinct and interesting synopsis of
Roald Dahl's creative life, including quotes about his work from writers
Noel Coward, Erica Jong and others. Links to additional BBC articles on
Dahl are at the bottom of the page.
Blue Peter: Roald Dahl's Works: http://www.bbc.co.uk/bluepeter/articles/article_roalddahl.shtml
This Roald Dahl article from the online archive of the BBC children's
show Blue Peter, is a fun collection of five RealPlayer video clips. Top
clicks are the interview with actress Mara Wilson, who played Matilda
on the big screen; a visit to Dahl's Gipsy Hill home and the children's
maze being
built there; and a behind-the-scenes look at the movie "James and
the Giant Peach."
Official Roald Dahl Website: http://www.roalddahl.com/
With artwork by Quentin Blake, this Flash site is both familiar and unexpected
– much like a Dahl novel. Highlights of this site are Treats (for
games and quizzes); The Man (for audio interviews); and Tips for Teachers.
I was intrigued by the audio snippets of music based on Dahl's rhymes
and stories. Look for them on the last page of Music & the Foundation,
which is listed under The Roald Dahl
Foundation.
Puffin Books: Roald Dahl: http://www.puffin.co.uk/Author/AuthorPage/1,1590,000486,00.html
"When he was at school Roald Dahl received terrible reports for his
writing - with one teacher actually writing in his report, 'I have never
met a boy who so persistently writes the exact opposite of what he means.
He seems incapable of marshaling his thoughts on paper.'" This extraordinary
author (whose favorite smell is bacon frying) had an extraordinary life.
Puffin Books presents Roald Dahl in three pages: ID Card (Dahl in a snapshot),
Biography, and By this Author (a book listing.)
Roald Dahl Fans: http://www.roalddahlfans.com/
Written by Dahl fan Kristine Howard (a recent graduate of Notre Dame,
now living in London) this site is tops for homework help, ideas for teachers,
and just plain fun. Strengths are Howard's Dahl biography, time line and
photo gallery; the thirteen original Dahl trivia quizzes and crossword
puzzles; and the photo essays of Howard's tour of Dahl's Gipsy House in
Great Missenden, England (where she met the original Big Friendly Giant.)
As someone who writes in an open space between her
kitchen and family room, I was fascinated with the pictures of the writing
hut where Dahl worked.
Multicultural stories
Take your primary students on an imaginary journey through ancient Japan.
The
Tale of the Mandarin Ducks
by Katherine Paterson is a beautifully written and illustrated folktale
about sacrifice, love, and the true meaning of helping all creatures –
in this case, a magnificent Mandarin duck.
Ask your intermediate or middle-school students if they knew that there
were German POWs jailed in the United States during World War II. After
you have piqued their curiosity, introduce them to Summer
of My German Soldier by
Bette Greene, a story about a Jewish girl who befriends an escaped
Nazi prisoner in Arkansas.
"What happens to a dream deferred? Does it
dry up like a raisin in the sun?" This excerpt from Langston Hughes's
poem "Dreams" is the basis for the title of the screenplay A
Raisin in the Sun by
Lorraine Hansberry. High school students will experience African-American
culture while following the Younger family's struggle to realize their
dream by escaping ghetto life.
CyberGuides: Teacher Guides and Student Activities:
http://www.sdcoe.k12.ca.us/score/cyberguide.html
This is a site for novel units and these novels are listed by grade range.
English vocabulary words compiled from Latin and Greek prefixes or roots or suffixes: http://www.wordexplorations.com/
Guided Reading sites
Guided Reading: http://www.geocities.com/Wellesley/Atrium/1783/GuidedReading.html
This is a site of information on Guided Reading that this teacher presents
at her inservices.
Four Blocks: Guided Reading: http://www.wfu.edu/~cunningh/fourblocks/block1.html
Patricia Cunningham is a strong advocate of Guided Reading.
Guided Reading: http://www.mcps.k12.md.us/curriculum/english/guided_rdg.html
This site is a good explanation of what Guided Reading is all about.
Guided Reading: http://www.laurens55.k12.sc.us/guided_reading.htm
This site has a guided reading lesson format.
Comparison of Traditional & Guided Reading Groups: http://instech.tusd.k12.az.us/BL/blcompgroups.htm
Teaching Ideas and Units: http://www.discover.tased.edu.au/english/guide.htm
This site has a case study of guided reading.
Teaching Reading: A Balanced, Comprehensive Approach to Teaching Reading
in Prekindergarten Through Grade Three: http://goldmine.cde.ca.gov/cilbranch/teachrd.htm
California Department of Education's site.
Guided Reading: http://www.westga.edu/~eroberts/PowerPoints/guideread/index.htm
A slide show on Guided Reading by Dr. Elaine Roberts of State University
of West Georgia.
Guided Reading Strategies: http://www.earlyliterature.ecsd.net/guided_reading_strategies.htm
Guided Reading strategies
Guided Reading in the Primary Classroom: http://teacher.scholastic.com/professional/teachstrat/guidedreading.htm
Scholastic/Instructor Article on Guided Reading
Teachers’ Use of Technology in a Reading
Clinic: http://www.readingonline.org/articles/art_index.asp?HREF=/articles/balajthy/
Why should teachers use computers with struggling readers? What rewards
and challenges will they experience when they do so? This article describes
the evidence teachers report of achievement gains due to computer use.
Diagramming Sentences:
http://cctc2.commnet.edu/grammar/diagrams/diagrams.htm
Here's a great site with information on sentence diagramming, including
a PowerPoint presentation (sentences diagrammed before your very eyes!)
and a wonderful quote from Mr. Language Person (aka Dave Barry) that justifies
the time spent visiting all by itself. It is part of a larger grammar
reference site that's consistently excellent.
Other sites about diagraming sentences:
http://www.geocities.com/gene_moutoux/basicdiagrams2.htm
http://www.lausd.k12.ca.us/Lincoln_HS/Burleson/Lessons/TS/diagram.htm
http://203.207.121.50/wsgs/English/one_pager1.htm
Reading and Language Arts Ideas: www.superkidz.com/reading.html
Wisconsin Literacy Education and Reading
Netwark Source: www.wilearns.com
"Reading Planet": http://www.rifreadingplanet.org/rif/
is designed to help families & children explore
the world of books. It features an annotated list of 1,000 children's
books that can be browsed by age group, author, or category (e.g., popular,
classic, award winning). Children can post reviews of their favorite books
& read reviews by others. The site, offered by Reading Is Fundamental,
Inc., also provides learning activities, articles for adults, & interviews
with authors.
Sites related to Harry Potter
Note that outside of the States the book is referred to as Harry Potter
and the Philosopher's Stone
http://www.scholastic.com/harrypotter/home.asp
http://harrypotter.warnerbros.com/home.html
http://www.januarymagazine.com/profiles/jkrowling.html
http://www.scholastic.com/harrypotter/books/goblet/index.htm
http://www.connectingstudents.com/lessonplans/potter/
http://www.connectingstudents.com/lessonplans/potter/links.htm
http://www.connectingstudents.com/literacy/potter1.htm
http://pirates.k12.ar.us/cre/labert/harrypotter.htm
http://www.geocities.com/EnchantedForest/Mountain/5101/5thgrade_cameron_williams.html
http://www.mathstories.com/bookstories/Book_16_Harry_Potter.htm
http://www.mikids.com/harrypotter/default.htm
http://harrypotter.freehosting.net/terms.html
My Favourite
http://www.primaryresources.co.uk/english/harry.htm
http://www.connectingstudents.com/literacy/potter1.htm
http://www.connectingstudents.com/lessonplans/potter/
http://www.scholastic.com/harrypotter/books/guides/index.htm
http://www.geocities.com/EnchantedForest/Mountain/5101/games.html
http://www.geocities.com/EnchantedForest/Mountain/5101/teachers.html
http://www.scholastic.com/harrypotter/index.htm
http://atozteacherstuff.com/themes/harrypotter.shtml
http://www.primaryresources.co.uk/harry/index.htm
http://www.edhelper.com/cat191.htm
Make Magic with Harry Potter: http://www.maslibraries.org/Publications/samplers/hpotter.html
Sampler activities for Harry Potter books Grade Level(s): 3-5
Potter Fantasy Dream Cast: http://incwell.com/HarryPotter/
Students assume the roles of producer and director of the movie versions
of the Harry Potter books.
Grade Level(s): 3-5
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone Activities: http://www.connectingstudents.com/lessonplans/potter/cameron1.htm
Harry
Chapter discussion questions and activities.
Grade Level(s): 3-5
Potter Alphabet Book: http://www.connectingstudents.com/lessonplans/potter/alphabook.htm
Create a class alphabet book about Harry Potter and his adventures with
the Dursleys and at Hogwarts.
Grade Level(s): 3-5
General Harry Potter Ideas: http://www.primaryresources.co.uk/harry/index.htm
Activities and ideas that you can use with several of the Harry Potter
books.
Grade Level(s): 3-5
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets Literature Guide Discussion questions
and activities
for J.K. Rowling's book: http://www.nancypolette.com/LitGuidesText/harrypotterchamberofsecrets.htm
Grade Level(s): 3-5
Vocabulary and activities for J.K. Rowling's book:
http://www.nancypolette.com/LitGuidesText/harrypotterprisoner.htm
Grade Level(s): 3-5
Discussion questions and activities for this book by J.K. Rowling: http://www.nancypolette.com/LitGuidesText/harrypottersorcerersstone.htm
Grade Level(s): 3-5
Harry Potter and the sorcerer's stone Cyberguide:
http://www.connectingstudents.com/lessonplans/potter/index.htm
http://www.scholastic.com./harrypotter/home_noflash.asp
Fun with Harry Potter: http://www.angelfire.com/co3/teachhpotter/index.html
Many activities for teaching with Harry Potter, including printable sheets.
The Harry Potter Lexicon: http://gifts.connectonline.com/
This site details all sorts of information about Harry Potter's world,
from an atlas of places to time lines for events in the books. One link
even takes you to the Encyclopedia of Spells, where you get a complete
description of a spell (note: J. K. Rowling made up the spells for her
books)
CBC4Kids J.K. Rowling Webcast: http://www.cbc4kids.ca/general/words/harrypottercontest/
Suppose J.K. Rowling came to your town to do
a press conference, and you were invited as a student reporter. What questions
would you ask the author who is Britain's highest-earning woman? A roomful
of kids, ages ten to seventeen, were given just that opportunity in Vancouver
last year. Rowling's responses to both the kid and grown-up reporters
are recorded as individual audio clips along with additional coverage
of her Vancouver tour.
J. K. Rowling Interview: http://hosted.ukoln.ac.uk/stories/stories/rowling/interview.htm
Where does Joanne Rowling get her ideas? "I
wish I knew. Sometimes they just come (like magic) and other times I have
to sit and think for about a week before I manage to work out how something
will happen. Where the idea for Harry Potter actually came from I really
couldn't tell you. I was traveling on a train between Manchester and London
and it just popped into my head." After the interview, scroll down
for Harry Potter inspired writing activities.
Meet J.K. Rowling: http://www.scholastic.com/harrypotter/author/
Scholastic, Rowling's American publisher, presents
a brief Rowling bio, along with links to transcripts of live interviews.
"Like that of her own character, Harry Potter, J.K. Rowling's life
has the luster of a fairy tale. Divorced, living on public assistance
in a tiny Edinburgh flat with her infant daughter, Rowling wrote Harry
Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone at a table in a cafe during her daughter's
naps and it was Harry Potter that rescued her."
National Public Radio J.K. Rowling Interviews: http://www.npr.org/ramfiles/me/20001027.me.15.ram
In this four-minute audio clip from October, 2000,
NPR's Margot Adler asks Rowling about her fifth book ("Harry Potter
and The Order of the Phoenix") and the demands of fame. They also
discuss the pros and cons of seeing Harry Potter on the big screen in
the upcoming Warner Bros. movie. What do you think? Will the director's
vision of the characters conflict with those in your imagination? In an
earlier 1998 interview Adler probes Rowling about the source of her inspiration.
To listen to either segment, you'll need the free RealPlayer plug-in.
Welcome Back, Potter: http://www.bookmagazine.com/archive/issue10/potter.shtml
This article from the online archive of Book Magazine,
analyzes J.K. Rowling's unprecedented success, opening with a few comments
from the British editor that gave J.K. Rowling her first big break. Written
for the book publishing industry, it has some behind-the-scenes insight
that will be interesting to anyone who dreams of being a novelist. If
you are doing an author's report on Rowling, don't miss the timeline of
her life. You'll find a link to it in a little yellow box in the middle
of the article.
Writing topics and prompts
http://www.thewritesource.com/topics.htm.
They have writing topics organized by grade level for grades 2,3,4-5,6-8,
and 9-12.
Writing Prompts [Personal Narrative] -- upper elementary.
http://home.earthlink.net/~jhholly/pnarrative.html
Narrative and Descriptive Writing Prompts -- elementary
level.
http://products.hprtec.org/wizard/HTML/1309.html
Samples of narrative writing prompts -- middle school
http://www.mde.k12.ms.us/acad/osa/narrwrit.htm
NARRATIVE WRITING Prompts -- middle school/high
school
http://www.wathena406.k12.ks.us/clarkson/Lesson%20Plans/narprompts.htm
Ten Narrative Writing Prompts -- High school and
Advance Placement
http://www.ncte.org/traci/tens/019.shtml
Parts of Speech:
http://www.eduplace.com/tales/
http://www.uottawa.ca/academic/arts/writcent/hypergrammar/partsp.html
http://www.cftech.com/BrainBank/
http://www.english.uiuc.edu/cws/wworkshop/grammarmenu.htm
http://dailygrammar.com/archive.html
www.wordplay.com
http://ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/
MightyBook.com: www.mightybook.com
This is a non-profit educational Web site, emphasizing reading and literacy
skills for children in grades K-8. It offers advice for teachers and parents,
as well as original children's picture books, video song books, sing-along
songs and word games. It publishes books and poetry written by kids.
Animated ABC's: http://www.enfagrow.com/abc_a.html
This site is for preschooler or kindergartner children. Click on a letter
to see a little show. The letters are close together and might be hard
for little hands to hit with the mouse, so your child can call out the
letter and you can click.
Between the Lions: http://pbskids.org/lions/index.html
This site has a lot of printable games and worksheets, stories, and nice
word list with illustrations
and sample sentences.
English-Zone.com: http://english-zone.com/
Step by Step directions on writing essays,
paragraphs, research papers, etc.
http://ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/
http://www.angelfire.com/ks/teachme/modesactivities.html
ESLHome: Online Passages and Reading Exercises:
http://home.earthlink.net/~eslstudent/read/read.html
This hotlist links to good resources created for
older students to test reading comprehension. You can find quizzes, online
activities and other helpful materials that are well-organized and easy
to navigate.
Grade Level: High School, College, Adult/Professional
Content Area: Foreign Language (English as a Second Language), English
(Reading)
Paragraph a Week: A Yearly Writing Program:
http://www.knownet.net/~ackley/paragraph/par_week_program.html
Paragraph a Week is a yearly writing program designed
to give your fifth- and sixth-graders practice with writing various types
of paragraphs. In addition it reinforces good study habits and preparation
of long-term assignments. Moreover, it involves parents in their child's
Language Arts curriculum.
Interactive reading sites:
http://teachers.teach-nology.com/themes/lang_arts/creative/
http://deil.lang.uiuc.edu/web.pages/grammarsafari/journal_index.html
http://www.write101.com/vocab.htm
http://www.maran.com/dictionary/index.html
http://www.learn.motion.com/lim/links/lanlinks/lan.links#GRM
http://www.cs.fsu.edu/~jtbauer/sentence.html
www.paragraphpunch.com
and www.essaypunch.com
Lesson Plans for Numbering
the Stars by Lois Lowry: http://www.connectingstudents.com/literacy/number.htm
http://www.carolhurst.com/titles/numberthestars.html
Lesson plans for Slave
Dancer by Paula Fox:
http://www.randomhouse.com/teachers/guides/slav.html
Webbing Into Literacy: http://curry.edschool.virginia.edu/curry/dept/cise/elem/resources/wil/
The program is geared towards Head Start, but is easily adapted to any
primary classroom. Each week focuses upon a different phoneme. The site
includes a poem to introduce the phoneme, flash
cards, and follow up poems - all in downloadable format, ready to be printed!
Phonics web sties can be found here: http://www.geocities.com/EnchantedForest/Tower/1217/reading.html
Electronic Text Websites
www.knowledgerush.com has the complete
texts of all the classics, historical documents, and tons of other stuff.
Prior to the writing assignment, every student
selects a "sorcerer's
stone", perhaps during a walk along a beach area or around the school
grounds...
The Sorcerer's Stone
Pretend that your stone is the Sorcerer's Stone
searched for by Harry Potter. What magic does it contain? What powers
will it bestow upon you? How will you use it? This week you need to write
three paragraphs for your writing assignment.
The first paragraph will be a description of your stone. Describe its
color, size and shape. (You might also want to make up a place that you
found it.) Use describing words that are exactly what you mean; for instance,
you might want to use the thesaurus for the exact colors in your stone
(there are many kinds of browns for example).
The second paragraph will be on the powers the stone will give you and
how you discovered the powers. For instance, did you have to rub the stone
as Aladdin did his lamp? Did you all of a sudden find yourself doing something
unusual and not know how it was possible, then gradually discover that
it was the stone that had given you the power? The third paragraph will
be on what you do with your stone when you find out about its powers--what
feats will you perform, what things will you change, whose life will you
make better or worse?
Remember that each paragraph will have an opening and closing sentence!
1. You have your date and name in the corners of
the paper and a title on the top line. Skip a line after the title.
2. Have margins on the left and right side of your paper.
3. Indent the first word of the paragraph.
4. The first sentence of each paragraph must be a topic sentence. These
sentences must express the central thought of each paragraph that follows.
5. You have at least 3 supporting sentences in each paragraph. Use at
least 2 "sense" words in each paragraph! Underline them in your
rough draft.
6. You have a concluding sentence for each paragraph.
7. Begin and end each sentence correctly. Make sure each word is correctly
spelled.
8. Each sentence in each paragraph must stick to the topic and relate
to the topic of that paragraph.
9. Proof-read your writing, then have someone else--someone who knows
their spelling and punctuation--make corrections on your paper. Have them
sign this paper.
10. You have this sheet of paper turned in with your rough draft and the
final copy which is done in cursive.
11. Signature of person who checked your paper
Other Harry Potter sites:
Teaching with Harry Potter Theme Page: http://atozteacherstuff.com/themes/harrypotter.shtml
Lesson plans, classroom activity
http://www.studyweb.com/links/7733.html
Activities for Island of the Blue Dolphin
SCORE- Teacher Cyberguide for Island of the Blue
Dolphins
http://www.sdcoe.k12.ca.us/score/blue/bluetg.html
Home Alone- Island of the Blue Dolphins Quest
http://www.esc2.net/TIELevel2/projects/island/
Learn about the Island of the Blue Dolphins- An
Internet Sampler
http://www.urich.edu/~ed344/samplers/bluedolphins.html
Word Fun: http://dent.edmonds.wednet.edu/IMD/wordfun.html#Word
vocabulary activities and games for middle school students
Teachers' Depot: www.lindecrawford.net
This site tells where to find lesson plans for books, information
about authors, where to find books about specific themes, and it has ready-made
webquests.
"Hawthorne in Salem": http://hawthorneinsalem.org/
explores Nathaniel Hawthorne's connection to
Salem, Massachusetts, with a primary focus on "the Custom House sketch,"
the first chapter of "The Scarlet Letter." The site also presents
materials from museums in Salem, as well as lectures & excerpts from
books & articles by leading Hawthorne scholars.
Early Literacy: http://www.earlyliterature.ecsd.net/
A compilation of research, strategies, and resources for teachers and
parents.
Puzzability: http://www.puzzability.com/puzzles/index.html
All kinds of work puzzles and games.
Christopher Robin 's Winnie the Pooh Character
Guide: http://www.geocities.com/EnchantedForest/3278/pooh-guide.html
Includes graphics and lesson plans.
Guide to Writing a Basic Essay: http://members.tripod.com/~lklivingston/essay/index.html
Writing Argumentative Essays:: http://www.eslplanet.com/teachertools/argueweb/frntpage.htm
Mrs. Barnard’s Classroom Launcher for a Global
Community of Learners
http://www.asd.wednet.edu/EagleCreek/Barnard/wriweb.htm
This site tells about the Five Paragraph Essay Model, with examples and
assessment methods.
Outta Ray's Head: http://www.cgocable.net/~rayser/index.htm
Literature and writing based lesson plans.
CyberGuides (Grades K-3): http://www.sdcoe.k12.ca.us/score/cyk3.html
Supplement your lessons with CyberGuides. These standards-based Web units
correspond to popular works of literature such as "Charlotte's Web"
or the "Velveteen Rabbit." Each
guide contains a student and teacher edition complete with standards,
activities, and suggested links. The guides are based on California Language
Arts Content Standards.
S.C.O.R.E. Phonics Link: http://www.sdcoe.k12.ca.us/score/Phonics_Link/phonics.html
The Phonics Link provides resources to help you build your background
knowledge about linguistics, phoneme awareness, and the process by which
students learn to read.
Literacy Center: http://www.literacycenter.net/lessonview_en.htm
Help build strong readers by using these online literacy lessons with
your pre-K through second-grade students. This simply designed site
offers an area where young children can learn early reading skills in
a safe, structured format. The site requires the Flash Player 5
plug-in.
CyberGuides (Grades 4-5): http://www.sdcoe.k12.ca.us/score/cy45.html
CyberGuides aren't just for primary students! Upper elementary educators
will find these online, units helpful in adding depth to their studies
of core works of literature. The guides are based on California Language
Arts Content Standards.
Grammar Blast by Houghton Mifflin: http://www.eduplace.com/kids/hme/quizzes/index.htm
Add energy to your everyday grammar lessons using these online, interactive
games for grades two through eight. Students can practice sentences,
parts of speech, punctuation, and more.
ALA: Best Practices: Junior High/Middle School: http://www.ala.org/aasl/learning/mspractices.html
This list from the American Library Association contains "best practices"
for grades six through eight. Once you take a look at these excellent
lessons and activities, you're sure to think of great opportunities to
include them in your classroom.
CyberGuides (Grades 6-8): http://www.sdcoe.k12.ca.us/score/cy68.html
These middle-school CyberGuides contain supplementary lessons, activities,
and Web sites to complement your class's study of classic works of literature.
Guides are based on California Language Arts Content Standards.
MiddleWeb Language Arts Resources: http://www.middleweb.com/CurrLangArt.html
Looking for middle-school language arts resources? Stop right here
for lots of links to language arts for the middle grades.
Vocabulary from "Anne Frank, the Diary of a Young Girl": http://www.vocabulary.com/VUctannefrank.html
If your class is reading Anne Frank's famous book, you'll enjoy this vocabulary
site, created specifically using words from the autobiography. The site,
Vocabulary Classic Texts, also publishes lists of vocabulary words for
other literary works.
CyberGuides (Grades 9-12): http://www.sdcoe.k12.ca.us/score/cy912.html
Reading "Hamlet" or "Great Expectations"? Liven up
your lessons with some supplementary CyberGuides. Based on the California
Language Arts Content Standards, these lessons deliver instruction centered
on core works of literature.
Annenberg/CPB Project: Literature: http://www.learner.org/exhibits/literature/
Take an interactive journey through Susan Glaspell's classic short story,
"A Jury of Her Peers." This story not only encourages students
to explore the mystery, but also to investigate the story's literary elements.
Renaissance: http://renaissance.dm.net/
Take a trip back in history to Elizabethan England. Learn about the customs,
food, occupations, games, and pastimes of the period in order to provide
richness to Renaissance
readings.
Literacy Center - The Early Childhood Education
Network: http://www.literacycenter.net/
The Literacy Center is one of the rare destinations on the Web that allows
early childhood learners, parents, and teachers the ability to find age-appropriate
literacy materials without distracting graphics and advertisements.
The lessons are simple to use, they build upon each other, and they even
connect with real-world experiences. Although the site's graphical
interface is simple to use, make sure that you have Flash Player 5 software
to ensure its optimal performance.
Database of Award-winning Children's Literature:
http://www2.wcoil.com/~ellerbee/childlit.html
On this site, students can search for a world of books by the criteria
they choose, be it ethnicity of the protagonist, age, or major awards
won. The site encourages students to do research as well: first, students
will have to go to the library to find these books. In addition, the site
explains both MLA and APA styles for citing sources.
Fairrosa Cyber Library: http://www.dalton.org/libraries/fairrosa/
This site is a solid resource for looking up various children's books.
The book reviews and articles will be helpful for teachers, but not as
essential as the thematic list of books. Though it covers themes from
adoption to time travel, the list also categorizes books by the awards
that they have won. This site is also an excellent source for information
about the life and works of Lewis Carroll.
Vocabulary.com: http://syndicate.com
Offering different levels of vocabulary, this site will prove useful for
younger and older kids. The fun and colorful quizzes and puzzles are organized
both by grade level and by theme. Some of the concepts covered include
synonyms and antonyms, as well as analogies. Advanced word activities
allow students to understand roots and to learn how knowing a root will
enable them to pick up vocabulary more easily.
Word Dance: http://www.worddance.com/
This literary magazine is obviously quite selective, as the level of writing
included in its issues is impressive. Students can express themselves
in a variety of ways, including different forms of writing (prose and
poetry) and artwork. If students don't want to read too much poetry at
once, they can always break to a word game.
The Riggs Institute: http://www.riggsinst.org/
Emphasizing a "multi-sensory" approach to reading, this site
teaches the use of sight, sound, voice, and writing to teach reading and
writing. For teachers who are skeptical about the success of phonics,
or just don't know that much about it, the site also includes numerous
links to research about the great debate behind phonics, as well as descriptions
of phonics and phonetics.
American English Pronunciation: http://eleaston.com/pronunciation/index.html
As any non-native speaker and student of English will testify, the rules
of pronunciation and grammar governing the language are truly dizzying
and baffling. This, coupled with the great number of English speakers
found throughout the world, is enough to torment native and non-native
speakers alike. To help students confront the myriad rules of pronunciation,
make sure that they tap this valuable resource. Here you'll find both
text and accompanying examples to help students with their lessons.
You can also find fun exercises, songs, and even reference
guides that show local variations on the language
Harry Potter: http://www.scholastic.com/harrypotter/index.htm
from Scholastic is the virtual residence of the popular J. K. Rowling
character. The site includes Potter fun and
games -- trivia, scrambled "Wizard Words," and a crossword puzzle
with clues covering all four books.
The Flat Stanley Project: http://www.flatstanleyproject.org, which last year involved elementary-school students in more than 1,000 classrooms in some 15 countries, is based on the children's book of that name by Jeff Brown. It started in 1995 by third-grade teacher Dale Hubert in Ontario, who wanted to develop a safe and fun way for elementary school students to share their creativity with the world
Candid Kids: http://www.candidkids.com/
Candid Kids is a unique site that encourages kids to create their own
poetry and short stories through an innovative incentive system. Your
students can submit their creative works online and for every new completed
project they receive points that are redeemable at the site's online store.
In addition, your creative writers can summon the help of teachers or
discover tips to
improve their writing skills.
Daisy and the Intergalactic Traveling Salesmen:
http://kotn.ntu.ac.uk/daisy/
The premise of this online, interactive story is simple: if a salesman
from the planet Pinkerello shows up at your door and asks you to join
him as he sells and collects inventions from planets all over the universe,
what would you do? Literally, the question of "what would you do?"
is left into the hands of your students, who decide in a choose-your-own-adventure
fashion how the story will progress. As your students decide the actions
of Daisy, the story's protagonist, they will witness the rich literary
and artistic contributions created by kids around the globe.
Candlelight Stories: http://www.candlelightstories.com/
Candlelight Stories offers a wide selection of activities focusing on
the wide world of children's literature. In addition to finding periodically
updated e-books of popular children's literature, you'll love the bevy
of online games featuring familiar storybook characters, and interesting
diversions such as an animation machine. The site even offers downloadable
live broadcasts of story hours and audio versions of selected texts, but
access to these locations requires a small fee.
Traditional Grammar: An Interactive Book: http://www.engl.niu.edu/dhardy/grammarbook/title.html provides an introduction to basic syntax in Modern English. It also examines the most common mistakes people make in formal writing. You can choose specific chapters from the drop-down box to access topics of specific interest.
Stories, Folklore, and Fairy Tales Theme
Page: http://www.cln.org/themes/fairytales.html
Storytelling isn't just for little kids. From Grimm's fairy tales to Zen
and Taoist ones, this site offers a large number of compelling stories
for older students. The site also links to sites offering tales
from the Basque region to Guam to Russia to Japan. The high points of
the site are the interdisciplinary lesson plans, including one in which
students discuss heroic actions
using the newspaper and another where they study Native American culture
through the reading of folktales.
Aphorisms Galore: http://www.aphorismsgalore.com/
Are your students running for school elections? Or do they want to spruce
up a paper -- or their own debate speech? This site offers a huge number
of pithy, wise statements for any occasion. Organized by topic, the site
includes proverbs about altruism and cynicism; science and religion; success
and failure; and law and politics, as well as many others.
Vocabulary University: http://www.vocabulary.com/
Whether students are studying for the PSAT or just want to learn something
new, this site offers some great vocabulary challenges to elementary,
junior-high, and high-school kids. Students can begin by taking the current
fill-in-the-blanks quiz (or searching the archives for
previous ones). Continuation of activities could earn students a diploma
from Vocabulary University (registration is free). Teachers also have
access to theme-based vocabulary projects.
Children's Storybooks Online: http://www.magickeys.com/books/
Although parts of this site feel like they were built for very young kids,
they actually include content that is appropriate for middle schoolers.
Students can read illustrated stories or religious parables on the site,
as well as take quizzes or solve riddles.
World Wide Words: http://www.clever.net/quinion/words/
A goldmine for word lovers and a cabinet of curiosities for that clever
teenager who wants to show off her sophisticated vocabulary, this site
provides hours of interest. The "New This Week" section includes
articles on the changing English language, as well as the latest
controversies. The "Recently Added" section covers jargon, new
additions to the language, as well as topical vocabulary, based on current
events. The site examines the English language from a British viewpoint,
so budding linguists have a chance to compare their "American"
speech to that of the British.
Mrs. Alphabet: http://www.mrsalphabet.com/
Mrs. Alphabet is all about teaching phonics, reading, and other related
language skills for primary-age students. While its focus is on
providing ideas for useful classroom activities centered on language-arts
themes, there are some great learning games that are just for
kids. Be careful: this site spawns a number of navigation windows and
uses various plug-ins in order for it to run optimally.
Just Write.org: http://www.justwrite.org/
Created by a retired teacher, Just Write.org is an electronic magazine
featuring creative writing from K-12 students. In addition to giving students
the opportunity to be published, young writers can get great lessons on
writing effectively from assignments like constructing paragraphs or writing
thank-you letters.
Absolutely Whootie: Stories to Grow By: http://www.storiestogrowby.com/
As the world becomes smaller, educators have learned to include lessons
from other nations and cultures. This site offers a wide selection of
stories and folk tales derived from cultures around the globe. Not only
can students and teachers investigate stories from locations as far away
as East Africa and Afghanistan, but classrooms can also view the student
gallery, contribute their own
interpretations, and download story scripts for theatrical performances.
The Drama Teacher's Resource Room: http://www3.sk.sympatico.ca/erachi/ is dedicated to drama teachers of students in grades four through twelve. The site includes lesson plans, ideas for props, costumes, and other backstage requirements, production ideas, and links to other drama-related resources.
Common Errors in English: http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/errors.html
This is one site that can benefit both teachers and students. Though not
particularly flashy, this site is simply an index that covers some of
the most commonly made grammatical and spelling errors in the English
language.
Virtual Alphabet: http://www2.minot.k12.nd.us/classrooms/madden/virtual_alphabet.htm
Teachers can use this site to review the alphabet with their students.
Each letter has an animal character associated with it, an original song
with a familiar melody, and links to other pages about that animal. Check
out the letter x with Felix Fox. Grade Level: Early Childhood Content
Area: English (Reading) Dewey #028 Resource Type: Activity webmaster
joann_m@yahoo.com
The Amazing Adventure Series: http://www.amazingadventure.com/index_fl.html
The site immediately prepares readers for a workout of the imagination
with its majestic music and animated graphics. The stories don't fail
to entertain either, with their easy-to-read font, text and illustrations,
and the option to listen to the text.
World Wide Words: http://www.quinion.com/words/
Little do students know how language constantly changes and develops,
and this site, with its list of topical and weird words, lets students
think about language and its relationship with current events and media.
They can find out how words like "fuddy-duddy" and "simputer"
came about, read about different types of jargon, and explore language
in the context of current events. One good example includes a discussion
on the "Americanization" of the Harry Potter books.
The Write Site: http://www.writesite.org/default.htm
The perfect site for that budding journalist, the Write Site offers articles
on the history of journalism and gives students the chance to explore
different types of jobs in the field. Students are given great pointers
on the process of writing, from doing research online to
finding their own tone and voice; then they can learn from others' mistakes
by submitting journalistic bloopers they find in their local newspapers.
Teachers can also access
curriculum resources on the process of writing.
Childrenstory.com: http://www.childrenstory.com/
Great for beginning readers, this site adapts a number of well-known fairy
tales and nursery rhymes and gives youngsters the option of reading the
text or listening to the stories in their entirety. It has short stories
like Cinderella and Snow White and interactive reading and listening options.
Living Letters: Notable, delightful, experimental
You and your kids have to experience this Web site:
http://www.livingletters.com; and its technology to believe it. Iris
and Otto (the "I" and "O") are your hosts and playmates
in Letter Land. They will soon be joined by "U," "A,"
and "E" (not their real names). Otto, "the round mound
of sound," is an opera singer. He's a little slow but very lovable.
Iris, a pronoun as *well* as a letter, a fashion-conscious one to boot,
is the fastest letter in the alphabet, believing that most of her peers
are like "super-crunchy peanut butter sliding uphill."
The technology that lets you play with Iris and Otto is designed for a
"28.8 modem and a Christmas '97 Pentium computer or better,"
The New York Times goes into more detail on that part of the Letter Land
experience: http://www.nytimes.com/2000/09/12/technology/12ANIM.html,
which writer John Markoff says fuses entertainment, education, and artificial
intelligence.
Using the Web for School Newsletters
from Copernicus Education Gateway at: http://www.EdGate.com,
October 18,2000.
We live in a world that's closely connected. Never before has it been
so simple to stay in touch with the community, the district, the nation,
indeed the whole world. The Web has made it easy to access news from halfway
across the globe in a matter of seconds. Even better, it employs a
host of multimedia effects to present the news in a manner that's both
exciting and attractive. Yet this "news" potential remains underutilized
in our schools. Despite the existence of an arguably more efficient
system, many educators still rely on the traditional "paper"
model to produce their communications documents.
School newsletters present the ideal opportunity to explore the vast capabilities
of the Web. Both the Web and school newsletters help children develop
writing into the school curriculum, thereby serving the school's community
as well.
School newsletters on the Web naturally mean significant savings on paper,
which is a valuable environmental lesson to pass on to children. They
also present savings in terms of mailing time and cost, and they generate
a speedier response time from readers.
Your school may not have a reliable computer system in place or all of
your students may not be at the same level of proficiency, but it's important
to make a start. To begin with:
1. Get support. Any new project requires support for it to be a meaningful
venture. It means gathering the right resources and the right attitudes.
Involve students, faculty, and parents. It may take time but it will pay
rich rewards.
2. Make more time. Restructure, reschedule, and plan for time to develop
a school newsletter. Find ways teach students writing, editing, and designing
skills on the Web in the classroom, instead of relegating it to an after-school
activity.
3. Exploit the Web as a tool. The pages of your online newsletter can
contain much more than just text on a Web page. Have your students work
with images, sound, moving pictures, graphics, and multimedia effects
simultaneously.
4. Ask for feedback and participation. Motivate students to respond with
articles, stories, and letters. Focus on making the newsletter interactive.
Make it simple and convenient for readers to respond.
5. Talk to others. Stay connected with others in the field. Discuss and
share resources. Your newsletter could be the beginning of other important
online activities for your school.
The Internet
Public Library has a collection of "pathfinders," home-grown
guides, written by the IPL staff. They are intended to help you with online
and offline research. Each Pathfinder is on a specific subject area, from
Author Biographies (in the Arts & Humanities category) to Down Syndrome
(in the Health category), to Medieval European History (in History), Japanese
Business (Business), Endangered Species (Science), Needlecrafts (Entertainment),
and International Adoption (Society). And each Pathfinder contains an
overview or introduction of a few paragraphs, followed by suggested resources
in printed and Web form.
http://www.ipl.org/ref/QUE/PF
Reaching Out: The Evolution of Communication:
http://library.thinkquest.org/26451/
Designed by students from the U.S. and Belgium, this unique and comprehensive
site tracks the development of communication from ancient times to the
present. It analyzes communication from the standpoint of language, signification,
and mass media, and even pays tribute to those inventors who revolutionized
the way people interact.
The Write Site: http://www.writesite.org/
covers topics dealing with U.S. newspaper history, lessons on sharpening
journalism and research skills, and lists of resources for your
students to explore this career. Teachers might want to check out the
Editor's Desk for access to great lesson plans and activities celebrating
the printed word.
To search the public libraries in the Ramapo Catskill system, go to www.rcls.org, click the library you wish to search, or click Community Organization Database to search Orange, Rockland and Sullivan counties in New York. .
The Read In!: http://www.readin.org/Educator/main.htm
The Read In Foundation promotes global literacy and telecommunications
technology in education. To this end, their Web site offers a number of
great online resources for teachers looking to enhance their classroom
reading activities. Have your students log on to the Active Reader Zone
to work on their reading skills or check out the advice from literacy
experts. Be sure to download some of their teacher-tested lesson plans.
The Drama Teacher's Resource Room: http://www3.sk.sympatico.ca/erachi/index.html
To instill the acting bug into your students, have them visit this set
of creative drama resources. The lesson plans offered span an interesting
breadth, from the history of national theaters to various types of movement.
One compelling lesson plan describes how to create costumes from recyclable
objects. Students can also begin to understand the ins and outs of life
in the
theater by checking into the detailed rehearsal schedules.
KidsBookshelf: http://www.kidsbookshelf.com/
This summer's explosion in children's literature reached its peak with
the release of the latest Harry Potter story. Kids have made it clear
that they are itching more than ever to pick up books. This site is dedicated
to the printed word by giving parents, teachers, and students a
chance to not only explore the field of children's literature, but to
find a great deal of educational resources devoted to creativity.
Visit Teachers@Random: http://www.randomhouse.com/teachers/ for Random House's great ideas on promoting reading. The site offers notes on various books, reviews, and author biographies. You can also download interesting book-related activities.
ABC's of the Writing Process: http://www.angelfire.com/wi/writingprocess/index.html
A solid reference for middle-school writers, this site gives advice on
all the steps of writing: prewriting, writing, revising, editing, and
even publishing. Students can begin with the charts outlining different
ways to begin prewriting. The site also clearly distinguishes between
revising and editing, even providing an editing checklist.
Traditional Grammar: An Interactive Book: http://www.niu.edu/english/deh/grammarbook/title.html
This easily navigable grammar primer by Donald E. Hardy is a great resource
for any student writer. Though it includes a discussion of the basics
-- verbs, nouns, adjectives -- the site also progresses into advanced
topics like word choice, participles, and gerunds. All in all, the site
is a good place for students who want to prepare for high-school English
classes.
ZuZu: http://www.zuzu.org
For students who feel outside the norm because of their artistic tendencies,
this online arts magazine, established in September 1996, is a great refuge.
The site contains poetry, prose, and artwork, as well as Broadway show
reviews, all written by teenagers. ZuZu offers students many opportunities
to submit their work and to see their bylines up on the Net.
Creative Communication: http://www.youngpoets.org
promotes the use of language arts in schools and offers an online poetry
contest, complete with student and school awards! Get a free subscription
to their newsletter filled with tips on incorporating poetry into your
curriculum.
MysteryNet.com: http://www.mysterynet.com/learn/main.shtml
This site gives you ideas on how to use the mystery genre to encourage
critical thinking and take the mystery out of improving language and reading
comprehension.
Poetry Pals: http://www.geocities.com/cponykid/index1.html
Poetry is sometimes overlooked in language arts instruction, but it remains
a valuable exercise in language comprehension and creativity. Encourage
your students to write poetry and send in their work to this site, which
posts the writings of budding lyricists. The site's content is both instructive
and fun. Be sure to check out the online magnetic poetry set where students
can rearrange a pile of words into catchy couplets.
A Dramatic Education: http://www.angelfire.com/nm/marston6/
The best feature of this personal site by theatre arts teacher Peter Marston
Sullivan is the listing of lesson plans. Suggested lessons include the
expected ones -- on blocking, staging, and costuming -- and also more
pointed ones, including activities that teach how to audition and how
to speak in dialect. The site also covers more obscure topics, like the
history of Greek drama and the method
behind pantomime.
In today's high tech world, educators must ask themselves whether it is time to begin ERASING THE STRESS ON PENMANSHIP: http://www.buffalonews.com/editorial/20000806/1003525.asp. Some believe that early exposure to keyboarding will produce a generation incapable of writing. Others counter that it doesn't matter because typing skills will be in more demand than writing skills.
If you are looking for a way to enhance reading
skills, tune in to the PROMISE OF THE WEB: http://www.sunspot.net/content/readingby9/story?section=readingby9&pagename=story&story
id=1150410203580. At a recently held conference at the Maryland
Technological Academy, academicians stressed the need to choose high-quality
reading programs from the abundance
of software available online.
We're Making Macbeth:
http://www.dolphin.org/erik/nethernet/altskspr.html
This site offers an interactive method to teach Macbeth. There's a multimedia
journal
that demonstrates an innovative approach for introducing Shakespearean
literature. The list of activities includes group theatrics, interpretive
artwork, and even puppet show performances.
from Copernicus Education Gateway
With the latest installment of the Harry Potter series now in stores,
it appears that children's literature is experiencing a worldwide renaissance.
Yet as kids race to check out books this summer, should teachers encourage
parents to follow summer-reading lists?
Reading lists can help parents sift through a vast literary library that
is currently exploding in titles and popularity. Suggested reading lists
compiled with age, grade, ethnic, and religious considerations are particularly
appealing for some parents. Books are costly and most parents don't have
the luxury of sampling stories. Thus, they rely heavily on educator-selected
reading lists.
However, critics believe that some parents adhere to these reading lists
too closely, leaving little opportunity for kids to explore their own
literary interests. Forcing kids to read books in which they aren't interested,
critics argue, might discourage them from getting in the habit of
and enjoying reading.
While it is clear that kids who nurture their reading habits through the
summer months often improve their learning skills, might they find Pokemon
comics as fulfilling as the books of E.B White? To learn more, visit:
Education World's Summer Reading
http://www.education-world.com/summer_reading/
Alphabet Superhighway: http://www.ash.udel.edu/ash/index.html
This is a fabulous site for using the Web as an online writing resource.
It features constructive writing exercises and easy-to-use reference guides
designed to enhance student writing. For interesting diversions let your
students try the reading comprehension games or
submit writing samples to the site's online magazine.
Children's Creative Theater Guide: http://tqjunior.thinkquest.org/5291/
Need ideas on how to prepare your students for school plays? This site
covers all aspects of theatrics, including a quick reader on theater's
evolution through time, a glossary, and sure-fire exercises to eliminate
stage fright and build up strong acting skills.
From Marilyn Atlee (atlmtrt@aol.com),
a language arts teacher at Memorial Middle School in Houston, Texas:
"Because students often remember the bizarre or little known information
that we present in our lessons, I employ what I call an 'info search'
to introduce a unit. In the days prior to beginning a unit on an author,
each student is required to bring to class unique, interesting, classroom-appropriate
trivia about the author. They must cite the sources used. I encourage
them to do research on the computer and post several reliable Internet
sources on the board to get them started. Students take turns reading
the info that they found aloud. Once this is done, I compile an Author
Trivia File for students to peruse when they have time. This information,
along with the basic bio that I present, gives learners a much clearer
picture of the author and generates excitement about reading his/her works."
As more schools acquire computer technology, many educators are searching
for ways to incorporate this technology into their academic lesson plans.
This year, one eighth-grade class in Chickopee, Mass. tried out a novel
idea: a literary journal.
Aided by a language arts teacher and the school's computer specialist,
the eighth graders at Fairview Veterans Memorial Middle School compiled
100 of their class's best essays, creative stories, and poems into a special
magazine. Once they selected the best pieces, they produced the journal
using word processing and desktop publishing software. The project taught
students how to critically evaluate their own writing, type and edit their
pieces, and layout text and graphics in a sensible, artistic manner.
The students' advisors added a unique flavor to the journal by inviting
one bilingual and one special education class to submit work. Some of
the bilingual students translated their own stories and printed both English
and Spanish versions. The special education students dictated their entries
to eighth-grade partners.
This year's journal was so successful that the advisors applied for a
$30,000 grant to make the journal an annual class project. This year,
the school helped offset the costs by providing enough paper to print
copies for the students and local administrators.
Literary journals and classroom newspapers are great ways to excite your
students about writing and teach them valuable computer skills. For more
information, visit these resources:
"Students Create Literary Magazine"
http://www.masslive.com/newsindex/chicopee/index.ssf?/news/pstories/ch622mag.html
"Students Put Together a Book of Their Best Writing"
http://www.education-world.com/a_curr/curr014.shtml/
"A Teacher's Guide to Getting Students' Work Published"
http://www.education-world.com/a_curr/curr015.shtml
Making a Class Newspaper
http://ericir.syr.edu/Virtual/Lessons/Lang_arts/Journalism/JNL0004.html
I received this in an email from Dick Steinfeldt,
NYSC&TE (New York State Computer and Technologies in Education)
Webmaster
There is a wonderful little book called "The Mac is Not a Typewriter,"
by Robin Williams (ISBN -938151-31-2) which calls itself a style manual
for creating professional-level type on your Mac. (It really applies to
all platforms.)
On the subject of spaces after periods, it reads as follows:
"...for years you've been told to hit two spaces after periods, and
on a typewriter you should. But (your computer) is no typewriter.
On a typewriter, all the characters are monospaced; that is, they each
take up the same amount of space--the letter i takes up as much space
as the letter m. Because they are monospaced, you need to type two spaces
after periods to separate one sentence from the next. But...
On a (computer)...the characters are proportional; that is, they take
up a proportional amount of space--the letter i takes up about one-fifth
the space of the letter m. So you no longer need extra spaces to separate
sentences....
Of course, this one-space rule applies just as well to the spacing after
colons, semi-colons, question marks, quotation marks, exclamation points,
or any other punctuation you can think of. Yes, this is a difficult habit
to break, but it must be done.
Take a look at any magazine or book on your shelf--you will never find
two spaces between sentences."
The book makes some other interesting points. For example, how many teachers
still make their students UNDERLINE titles? The only reason we started
underling titles was that typewriters couldn't italicize. Guess what?..Your
computer/printer combination CAN italicize!!
Well, you say, underlining is still good for emphasis. Wrong! Look at
professional publications. They use boldface for emphasis. (bet your computer
can boldface, too!)
Absolutely Whootie: Stories to Grow By: http://hazel.forest.net/whootie/default.html
Whootie the Owl guides you through this site, which is filled with international
legends, folk stories, and fairy tales for younger students. Search for
stories geared toward 10- to 12-year-olds; then check to see if your choices
have accompanying worksheets to hand out in class. There are also related
games and puzzles for kids to try. Many of the stories incorporate character
education themes.
Crunch: http://nces.ed.gov/nceskids/crunch/
Crunch is a new online Webzine written by kids of all ages. The Crunch
editors offer news, arts, and technology topics and ask students to write
short stories and reviews to post to the site. There's also a section
for kids to submit creative writing and poetry. The topics are fun and
kid-oriented, making Crunch an exciting lesson plan idea.
Submissions are constantly accepted, so both your summer
school students and your new class next fall can participate.
Kim's Korner for Teacher Talk: http://www.angelfire.com/ks/teachme/
An eighth-grade language arts teacher created this forum to share with
other educators her ideas for teaching grammar, writing, and literature.
The simple graphics and clear explanations would be great for first-year
teachers who are spending the summer developing their lesson plans; veteran
teachers looking for ways to modify their curricula might find some useful
tips, too. Feel free to submit your own ideas as well.
Millennium Mystery Madness: http://library.thinkquest.org/J002344/index.html
This award-winning ThinkQuest Jr. site takes an in-depth look at mysteries
and how they're written. Teach your students about some of the world's
most famous mystery writers. Then walk through the step-by-step guide
to the various elements good mysteries need. Finally, get some reading
assignment ideas from the list of favorite mystery books and stories.
Plain Language Online Training: http://www.web.net/~plain/PlainTrain/
Teaching your students to write in plain language will help them learn
how to effectively and efficiently
communicate with others. Visit this short online training course with
your students to teach them how to organize their thoughts, choose the
right words, and produce a clear, complete document. You can also incorporate
the site's principles into your curriculum.
Many educators are asking, "HAVE COMPUTERS
FORCED HANDWRITING OUT OF THE PICTURE: http://www.education-world.com/a_curr/curr241.shtml
?"
Although it is clear that childrens' handwriting skills are on the decline,
educators and experts seem unable to agree on the cause. While some blame
the new emphasis on keyboarding skills, others place the blame on teachers,
school budgets, or book publishers.
Guide to Grammar and Writing: http://webster.commnet.edu/HP/pages/darling/grammar.htm
A terrific grammar and writing guide. Includes grammar rules, paragraph
structure, essay writing and commonly misused words and a computer-graded
quizzes area to test your knowledge.
Story Arts Online: http://www.storyarts.org/
Use the summer to improve your storytelling talents. Story Arts Online
not only tells you why storytelling is so important, but also gives you
tips and advice on how you and your students can become better storytellers.
Also included are lesson plans and activities, a curriculum ideas exchange,
related links, and more.
Kids Read Across America
From Deanna Benson White (dbenson@sjm.sccoast.net),
a sixth grade language arts teacher at St. James Middle School in
Surfside Beach, South Carolina:
"In celebration of Dr. Seuss's birthday this year, our students read
their way across the country from Myrtle Beach, SC to Los Angeles, CA.
They used the Internet to chart their course, determine their mileage,
and consider places to visit at each interim destination. They were able
to travel one mile for each page read. The classes plotted their trips
on a large wall map in the classroom. Once they had "arrived"
at their final destination, they planned and read the return trip.
Record-keeping consisted of a spreadsheet form giving the date of each
reading, amount of time involved, number of pages read, title and author
of the book, and a mandatory verifying signature of a parent or guardian.
The students submitted their sheets each Monday with their personal totals,
and then the class total was used to identify that week's interim location.
This could also be modified to visit other countries and explore other
continents, as well as allowing students to plan and read personal trips
using individual maps. Due to the great success of the first adventure,
the classes have planned additional trips as they explore their wonderful
land. The students loved the entire experience."
123 Reading Road: http://library.thinkquest.org/50027/main.html
This is a great site for early readers! Choose "Alphabet Soup"
to familiarize your students with the structure and sequence of letters,
or select "Sight Words" for a list of words worth memorizing.
The third area, "Phonics Phun," contains activities to help
students recognize patterns that form the building blocks of words. There
are additional hints for teachers and parents, as well as a list of suggested
links.
Spelling and Vocabulary: http://www.eduplace.com/rdg/hmsv/index.html
Here's a super site full of language arts activities. Developed
by Houghton Mifflin, this site lets you select a level and cycle appropriate
for your students, and then generates a list of resources -- such as word
searches, take-home activities, and missing word puzzles -- to entertain
and teach your kids.
Crossword Puzzles for Young Solvers: http://www.nytimes.com/learning/students/xwords/index.html?0510
The Learning Network features two theme-based crossword puzzles a month,
written at a ninth grade level, that can be played online or on paper.
The current archive of 30 puzzles includes topics ranging from the Civil
War to Insects to the Electoral Process.
Homework Central: "So You Want to Be
A...": http://homeworkcentral.com/knowledge/vsl_sections.asp?sectionid=37682&tg=NA&flt=STU
Get your students excited about their studies by showing them the types
of careers they can explore as adults. Whether they want to be astronauts
or actors, lawyers or principals, they will find lots of information about
a wide range of careers on this site. For each career, the site contains
sections about the job, its tasks and duties, personal requirements, working
conditions, the job market, and more.
TILT: http://tilt.lib.utsystem.edu/
TILT, or Texas Information Literacy Tutorial, is a terrific way to learn
about online library and research resources. Designed for college students
by the University of Texas System Digital Library, TILT could be useful
to middle schoolers who need to learn how to select the resources they
need for research, search online databases, and evaluate the quality of
the information they find online. It also covers other library skills,
such as the Dewey Decimal System, plagiarism, and proper source citation.
Each module ends in a quiz.
The Encyclopedia Mythica: http://www.pantheon.org/mythica/
Supplement your mythology unit with this great resource. Encyclopedia
Mythica offers hundreds of articles, illustrations, maps, and genealogy
tables for the folklore of dozens of cultures. Select a culture, and an
index of definitions and encyclopedia entries appears. Many entries
come with pronunciation guides and can be printed for easy reference.
There's information on the Arthurian legend, too.
To make sure that young students mature into
skilled readers, K-6 educators should focus on phonics in their classrooms,
according to the "Teaching Children to Read" report released
last week.
The report compiles the findings of a 14-member National Reading Panel
that was appointed in 1997 and charged with investigating the effectiveness
of different types of reading instruction. To arrive at its recommendations,
the National Reading Panel reviewed 100,000 published studies that covered
five key areas of reading, such as alphabetics and phonics.
In the end, a majority of the panel agreed that teaching students phonics
-- the way that sounds, represented by letters of the alphabet, string
together to make words -- was a better method for teaching reading than
other practices, such as whole-language approaches. The panel urged K-6
educators to incorporate systematic, explicit phonics instruction into
their elementary reading programs.
Not all members of the panel agreed with this conclusion. One member objected
to the body of materials used by the panel to develop its recommendation.
She asserted that the panel chose only to review studies that supported
their already held philosophical views and ignored other qualitative studies
that would have been of benefit to the project.
To learn more, visit:
"Reading Panel Urges Phonics For All in K-6" http://www.edweek.com/ew/ewstory.cfm?slug=32read.h19
"Teaching Children to Read": http://www.nichd.nih.gov/publications/nrp/smallbook.htm
The National Reading Panel: http://www.nationalreadingpanel.org/
From Amy Cody: codya@fuse.net,
a seventh grade language arts teacher at Walton-Verona High School in
Walton, Kentucky:
"Many teachers are responsible for some type of writing portfolio.
When the time comes for students to select specific types of writing to
put into the portfolio, confusion can abound. To make organization and
selection of the portfolio pieces easier, I use colored dots. Personal
narratives have a red dot, transactive or persuasive pieces have a blue
dot, pieces written out of content have a green dot, etc. When it comes
time to organize the writings into stacks and select specific pieces,
I direct their selections by color and student confusion is eliminated."
Tracking Creativity: http://tqjunior.advanced.org/4382/
This simple site -- the first place winner of the 1998 ThinkQuest Junior
Arts and Literature competition is a great place to bring your students
as they learn to write. Start them off with a basic ode, move forward
by exploring idioms, and then finish off the lesson at "Watch Your
Step," a section with some topic ideas that encourage creative writing.
SparkNotes: http://www.thespark.com/sparknotes/
SparkNotes are online study guides for a variety of novels and plays commonly
taught in middle and high schools. Each SparkNote is written by a student
at Harvard University and provides a simple, well-written overview of
the context and characters, as well as an in-depth review of each chapter
or scene. Study questions help quiz students on what they've learned;
message boards and online chats create a global classroom where students
can discuss literature.
HarperAudio!: http://town.hall.org/Archives/radio/IMS/HarperAudio/
HarperAudio! is a sound file database of poetry and literature selections
read by the authors or actors.Choose from a wide variety of authors and
poets -- including Poe, Vonnegut, Hemingway, Shakespeare, and Frost --
to see the available works. Then click on your selection to hear the work
read out loud. This is a great way to get your students excited about
what they're reading.
Daily Grammar: http://www.dailygrammar.com/
Register for this free service to receive five daily writing lessons via
email each week. On the sixth day, you'll get a quiz to test your students'
knowledge of the week's lessons. There are almost a year's worth of lessons
that are recycled beginning every January and July. Or, visit the archives
for lessons categorized by part of speech or part of a sentence.
KidBibs: http://www.kidbibs.com/
As the name implies, KidBibs is dedicated to encouraging children to read.
Consult the KidBibs Learning Tips section for weekly advice and activities
to cultivate readers. For more fun reading-related projects, spend time
combing through the collection of theme resources on the main page.
With the advent of computer games and the
Internet, you'd think that children would be less interested in the old-fashioned
pastime of reading. Yet Eliza Dresang, a professor and researcher at Florida
State University, recently found that middle schoolers and high schoolers
are reading more than in the past.
In an effort to grab the attention of young readers, authors have enhanced
their latest books for children and young adults with special design features,
such as new types of graphics and varied fonts.
Authors have also changed the nature of their plots. Many authors now
take a multicultural approach, choosing racially and ethnically diverse
characters and locations. Others are exploring topics once considered
too controversial for young readers.
There are various ways to encourage students who are more likely to play
computer games and surf the Internet than to curl up with a good book.
Support student participation in book clubs and read-a-thons, such as
those sponsored by Scholastic Books and local public libraries. Steer
your class toward Web sites filled with reading lists just for kids. Or
recommend comic books and magazines to students who don't enjoy novels
and poetry.
To learn more about encouraging your students to read, visit the following
Web sites:
American Library Association's Booklist Magazine http://www.ala.org/booklist/
Young Adult Library Service Association: Booklists http://www.ala.org/yalsa/booklists/index.html
Laura Ingalls
Wilder Award
Russell Freedman won
the 1998 Laura Ingalls Wilder Medal by the Association for Library Service
to Children. It is given to an author or illustrator whose books
have made a substantial and lasting contribution to literature for children.
Unlike most children's authors, Russell Freedman does not write fiction.
His books are all true stories about people in history or animals.
In 1988 he won the Newbery Medal for his book Lincoln, A Photobiography,
a book that reveals the real, very human man at the heart of the legend.
He won Newbery Honor Book awards in 1991 for The Wright Brothers:
How They Invented the Airplane, and in 1993 for Eleanor Roosevelt,
A Life of Discovery, which tells of an "ugly duckling"
who became one of the most powerful and best-loved women of her time.
Russell Freedman served in the Army during the Korean War, then
worked as a reporter. He did publicity for TV shows such as Father
Knows Best. In 1961, he wrote his first book, Teenagers
Who Made History. Thirty-six years after writing this book,
he took one chapter from it and expanded it into a new book, Out of
Darkness, The Story of Louis Braille. He said, One thing about
writing for kids is it allows me to explore just about any subject I'm
really interested in . A writer for kids has the most responsive
and appreciative audience." Writing a book takes him about
a year, depending on the particular book. He has written books in
two months, and has spent two years on other books. He said, "I
work seven days a week because I'm very much involved in what I'm doing.
It's not work; it's a game. It's a pleasurable activity. It's
like a sport. You can't wait to get back to it in the morning."
His favorite food is corn on the cob. His hobbies are travel, photography,
and hiking. His Favorite children's author is E.B. White.
"Charlotte's Web is one of my favorite books. I read
it once a year. I want to be E.B. White when I grow up. I
don't watch TV. I don't think there's anything more boring than
standard television fare," he said. His favorite place to
read is on a plane. His advice to kids is, "Read, read, read;
and write, write, write. Keep a diary, keep a journal, write letters.
Read what you enjoy."
The John Newbery Medal is
awarded each year to the author of the most outstanding children's book.
There were three runners-up, or Honor Books.
Louis Sachar was the
winner in 1999 for his book Holes. This book also won the
National Book Award for Young People's Literature. Louis Sachar
says, "Most of my books start with a character. Holes
started with a place." He got the idea when he moved to Austin,
Texas. It was so hot there he started a story about suffering in
the heat. He has had 17 books published, plus two that will be published
soon. In Holes, Stanley is sent to detention camp for
a crime he didn't commit. There he and the other boys must dig
a deep hole every day under the hot sun. Stanley digs up far more
than dirt in this funny, exciting book. The authors favorite thins
are fresh fruits and vegetables, bridge and playing video games with his
daughter, tennis, snow skiing, Bob Dylan, the Beatles and the color blue.
Lois Sachar, 45, and his wife, Carla, have a 12-year-old daughter, Sherre.
They have two dogs from the pound, Lucky and Tippy. Louis Sachar
majored in economics in college. While there he took a class about
ho to become a teacher's aide. He says, "I had no interest
in education. I took it for an easy class. But I loved it.
It became my favorite thing to do every day. That led me to write
a children's book." He wrote his first book, Sideways Stories
From Wayside School," the year after he graduated.
Sideways Arithmetic From Wayside School is a book of fun math
puzzles. "How many meals must Miss Mush cook before the food
tastes as bad as it smells?" He worked at a sweater warehouse
during the day and wrote at night. After being fired, he went to
law school. He worked part-time as a lawyer and kept writing.
After eight years, his books started selling so well he was able to quit
his job as a lawyer. Louis Sacher has this advice for kids, "It
is much more important to do what you like to do than to try to make money.
I went to law school and passed the bar, and had to decide whether
to become a lawyer or a writer. I was making very little money as
a writer, but I loved to write, and I never really liked practicing law."
He writes for about two hours every morning. Then he stops for the
day. "I want to be at my very best when I'm writing, and after
two hours I've lost the extra edge," he said. It takes him
about a year and a half to write a book. While he is writing it,
he said,"I never talk about it with anyone. No one is allowed
in my office except Lucky and Tippy (his dogs)." He writes
and rewrites the book five or six times. His ideas come from many
places. The counselor in "There's a Boy in the Girls' Bathroom"
was inspired by ;his wife. When he met her, she was working as a
counselor at an elementary school. He said, "I didn't realize
I would end up marrying her." In"There's a Boy in the
Girls' Bathroom," everyone thinks Bradley is a monster. But
a new counselor teaches him how to see things differently.
The Newbery Medal in 1998 went to Karen Hesse
for Out of the Dust. It tells of a brave 14-year-old girl,
Billie Jo, living during the terrible dust storms sweeping through Oklahoma
in the 1930s. Karen Hesse sent out manuscripts of children's
books for almost nine years before one was accepted. Her first book,
Wish Upon a Unicorn, was published in 1991. In the 1980's
Hess took special classes in order to care for a grandmother dying
of cancer and has worked as a hospice volunteer since. "Hospice
training forced me to look at myself, at my own mortality," Hesse
says. "It was that kind of reckoning that enabled me to be
so honest in my work." All fiction, all historically
accurate and all books like hers, Hesse says, that will help today's children
appreciate their ancestors' hardships yet remain shielded, while young,
from life's work and worry.
Jerry Spinelli won a Newbery Honor Book Award
for Wringer, in which Palmer LaRue dreads his 10th birthday.
Then he will have to join other boys at the annual pigeon hunt, where
they are expected to wring the necks of wounded birds. Jerry Spinelli
won the 1991 Newbery Medal for Maniac Magee. He and his
wife, Eileen, live in Phoenixville, Pa. The have six children.
Gail Carson Levine won a Newbery Honor Book
Award for Ella Enchanted. In this book, Cinderella must
win against a fairy's curse of obedience. Under the curse, Ella
must obey everyone's orders, even those of her wicked stepsisters.
Gail Carson Levine had some of her writings published when she was still
in high school. She and her husband live in Brewster, N.Y.
Patricia Reilly Giff won a Newbery Honor
Book Award for Lily's Crossing. Lily Mollahan can't wait
to get to Rockaway, the coastal town where she and her father and grandmother
spend each summer. Little does she know that the summer of 1944
will be marked by change. Her father goes to war; her best friend,
Margaret, moves to Detroit; and she meets Albert, a Hungarian refugee.
As Lily and Albert become friends, they begin sharing their fears, their
secrets, and their wishes. More than anything, Lily wants her father
home safely and Albert wishes to be reunited with his sister, Ruth. Through
her friendship with Albert, Lily starts to see life differently and pledges
to stop her worst habit - lying. Patricia Reilly Giff has said,
"Lily's Crossing is about my childhood. I was inspired
to write the book because, for years, I thought about my childhood during
World War II, in Rockaway, New York, which I loved. We went there
every day in the summer and I loved the water. So I thought one
day that I would write Lily, and it took me about four years
to finally do it. The book is fiction, but it's based on so much
that I did do. I am Lily; I am the grandmother. Albert is
a composite of many boys I knew growing up. And the bakery really
existed, but it was in St Albans, where I grew up. We often went
to the bakery - and during the war, when the baker couldn't get eggs or
sugar, the offerings were pretty slim. There were signs up, like
"Loose Lips Sink Ships." When I went to bed at night,
I'd look out the window and see the search lights and always worry that
the German planes were coming. I was afraid a lot, and so the time
period is real. The story is fiction, but the setting, the background,
is true. When my sister was born, my mother put stars up on her
bedroom ceiling and they were beautiful. Eventually, the dried a
little and sometimes a star would float down from my sister's ceiling
onto the bed or floor and we called them falling stars. We thought
they were magic. So, putting the stars on the ceiling reminded me
of my childhood, of that time during World War II." Patricia
Reilly Giff has always been surrounded by books, and reading and writing
have always been important in her life. Patricia Reilly Giff taught
reading for 20 years and worked for a book publisher. She has written
more than 60 books for kids. She and her husband, Jim, live in Weston,
Conn. They have three children and five grandchildren.
A teachers guide for Lily's Crossing:
Before reading discuss that Lily's Crossing is set after
D-Day. In 1994, the United States celebrated the 50th anniversary
of D-Day. Go to the library to find articles in news magazines about
this celebration. Share with the class any unusual facts or moving
stories that you uncover.
As you read describe Lily and Margaret's friendship. How is Lily's
friendship with Albert different? Why does Lily say that he is the
best friend she ever had? Write a letter Lily might write to Poppy
describing her new friend, Albert. At the end of the novel, Albert
and Ruth are reunited, and Lily gets to meet Ruth. What do you
think Albert has told Ruth about Lily?
Throughout the book, Lily makes a list of her problems and solutions to
the problems. One of her worst problems is lying. She also
has a vivid imagination. Discuss the difference between lying and
imagining. Why does Lily continue to lie when she knows she's being
dishonest? List all the lies that Lily tells. How does one
lie lead to another? In what other ways is Lily dishonest?
At what point in the novel does she finally overcome her habit of lying?
Both Lily and Albert have lost parents, but they still have the love of
a family. Describe Lily's family. What is her relationship
with Poppy? What is Gram's role in the family? How does Lily's
relationship with Gram change at the end of the novel? How
does Albert gain a sense of family from Mr. and Mrs. Orban?
Lily feels guilty because she didn't tell her father good-bye. Albert
feels guilty because he didn't tell Ruth good-bye. How does each
of them deal with the guilt? Lily writes an "I'm sorry"
letter to her father, but we don't know what she says in it. Write
the letter that Lily sends.
Lily, Margaret, and Albert must face the loss and separation of family
members. Compare and contrast the way each character deals with
these feelings. How do Lily and Albert help Margaret deal with her
loss? How do they help each other?
Lily is a good writer. Write a journal entry that she might write
on the day her father leaves for the war. Lily has a vivid imagination,
she tells Margaret that her Aunt Celia is a U.S. spy in Germany; and imagines
that Mr. Egan is a Nazi spy. Write a story that Lily might write
about Aunt Celia or Mr. Egan.
Discuss the meaning of the title, Lily's Crossing.
During World War II, the U.S. government began rationing supplies.
Find out what items were rationed. What was the purpose of a "Victory
Garden"? Margaret's father goes to Detroit to make B-24 Liberator
Bombers. What other jobs on the home front helped the war effort?
Use reference sources and a map of Europe to trace the invasion of France
by the Allies. Begin with the military's landing on Omaha Beach
and follow their maneuvers through the small towns and cities that they
liberated in France.
Albert comes to Rockaway from Hungary via Austria, Switzerland, France,
and Canada. Ask students to calculate the approximate mileage over
land and water of his trip. Check the Internet or call a travel
agency and find out the flight time, including layovers, that Albert could
expect if he were traveling today from Kennedy Airport in New York to
Budapest, the capital of Hungary. How much would his flight cost?
Lily feels close to her mother through the stars pasted on her bedroom
ceiling. Each summer she brings one star with her to Rockaway.
Why are the stars so important to her? Lily makes reference to the
Big Dipper, Orion's Belt, and Cassiopeia. Research these constellations
and draw a diagram of each. Extend your research by locating other
constellations that Lily might find in the summer skies at Rockaway.
Gram and Lily listen to "Portia Faces Life" on the radio.
Write a radio script for an episode of a show entitled "Lily Faces
Life." Perform your script for the entire class.
Mrs. Sherman has two war posters hanging in her shop. One says,
"Loose Lips Sink ships," and the other says, "Someone Talked."
Design a poster using one of these slogans.
Search for words in the novel such as convoy(page 76) that specifically
pertain to the war. Then, locate words such as swell (page
116) and jetty (page 86) that refer to the coastal setting of
the book. Discuss the meaning of each word located.
The Randolph Caldecott Medal
is awarded each year to the illustrator of
the most outstanding children's picture book. Three Honor Book awards
are also given.
The winner for 1999 is Mary Azarian
for Snowflake Bentley. Snowflake Bentley by Jacqueline
Briggs Martin is the true story of the man who showed the world that no
two snowflakes are alike. He worked for 50 years to invent a way
to photograph snowflakes. His photos never made him rich, but they
made the world a richer place. Mary Azarian creates her art with
woodcuts. Before the movable press was invented, woodcuts allowed
people to make many copies of one picture. She started making woodcuts
when she was a kid. In college she studied more about this printing
process. She also paints. About 30 years ago, she began her
own business because she wanted to stay home with her three young sons.
She sold her woodcut prints to craft shops and art galleries. In
the mid 1960's, she made a series of alphabet posters for a poor rural
school where she was teaching. Later she made alphabet sets for
the entire Vermont school system. These alphabet posters became
her first book, A Farmer's Alphabet. To make woodcuts,
Mary Azarian: draws a picture on a block of wood with a pencil, draws
over the picture with a waterproof felt-tipped pen, cuts away the part
of the image she doesn't want to print, rolls ink over the design, lays
the inked block on the bottom of her hand-operated press, puts paper on
top of the block,. rolls a weighted cylinder over the block. After
the print is made she hand-colors each one. Mary Azarian lives in
Calais, Vt. she has three grown sons. She also has a beagle,
Hilda, and three cats, Phoebe, Trey and Big Kitty. Big Kitty was
the model for the cat in her book Barn Cat. Barn Cat
by Carol P. Saul is a book of playful counting rhymes. The cat watches
the world about her, looking for what she thinks is special. Some
of her favorite thins are: "I love to cook. My favorite foods
are what I make from scratch.", the color blue, playing bridge, gardening,
medieval and Renaissance choral music, any kind of world music such as
African or Middle Eastern. Her favorite time to read is the hour
between her morning walk and before beginning her art work. Her
favorite author is Chris Van Allsburg and her favorite sport is cross-country
skiing. She has this advice for kids, "It's hard for kids to
know what they really want to do. But if there's something they
really, really want to do, they should try it even if it doesn't seem
practical. Snowflake Bentley is a perfect example of this.
Nobody placed any value at all on his photographing snowflakes.
But he just kept doing it. All too often we get pushed into ways
of making a living that are practical but don't satisfy the needs of the
heart." A Symphony for the Sheep by C.M. Millen is
a poem about raising sheep in Ireland, and how clothes are made from their
wool.
Paul O. Zelinsky
was awarded the Caldecott Medal for Rapunzel in 1998. His
rewriting of the fairy tale tells of a beautiful girl with long, long
hair who is imprisoned by a witch. Paul O. Zelinsky has also won
three Caldecott Honor Book awards. Sometimes Paul Zelinsky both
writes and illustrates his books. Other times he illustrates for
other authors. Some of his favorite things are bicycling and the
TV show Frasier. His favorite time and place to read are"in
bed, starting when I get in." He and his wife Deborah, a teacher,
live in New York with their two daughters, Anna and Rachel.
They have a Siamese cat named Skimby. His advice to kids is,"My
general point of view is that you learn by doing, so don't stop writing
and don't stop drawing. Drawing teaches you to see."
David Small was
a Caldecott Honor Book winner for The Gardener by Sarah Stewart,
about a girl living during the Depression who brightens the lives of friends
and family by planting flowers everywhere. David Small illustrates
his own children's books and also those of his wife, Sarah Stewart.
They have three grown children. He also reviews children's books
for The New York Times. He draws for newspapers and magazines.
Simms Taback was
a Caldecott Honor Book winner for There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed
a Fly. It is a well-known and funny American folk poem.
Simms Taback has illustrated kids' books, calendars, and sells his own
greeting cards. He lives in upstate New York.
Christopher Myers
was a Caldecott Honor Book winner for Harlem, a poem by Walter
Dean Myers. It tells the bright, hopeful story of today's Harlem,
a neighborhood in New York City. Christopher Myers is now making
paintings with fabric, to be hung or shown on a web site. He is
the son of author Walter Dean Myers.
Kevin Henkes writes
and illustrates books for children of many ages. In 1994 he won
a Caldecott Honor Book award for his picture book Owen.
He also writes novels for older children. He sold his first book
when he was 19. He has now written 24, and has also illustrated
many of them. Different artists, including his wife, Laura Dronzek,
have done the art for some of his other books. He and his wife,
a painter, have a 3-year-old son and a 1-year-old daughter. They
live in Madison, Wis. Kevin Henkes said, "For as long as I
can remember, I loved drawing. When I was in high school and trying
to think about what to do with my life, I rediscovered children's picture
books. I was starting to like writing. I had an English teacher
who really encouraged my writing, so I wanted a job where I could do both
(drawing and writing), and be my own boss." His hobbies are
reading and gardening. He likes running and bicycling. His
best time and place to read is in bed. He likes classical music.
He listens to music when he is drawing, but not when writing. He
says, "When I'm writing, I'm reading aloud." When he works
on picture books, he writes the story first. He sends it to his
editor, then makes sketches. He makes a model, or dummy, of what
the whole book will look like. He reads the book aloud to see how
it sounds. Then he draws the pictures with India ink. The
last step is painting the pictures. He said, "I used to do
two a year, but now I am doing child car, too." He now does
about one book a year. In Sun & Spoon, 10-year-old
Spoon seeks a special keepsake of his grandmother's, who just died.
But his 6-year-old sister keeps getting in the way of his search.
His advice to kids is, "Practice a lot. Before that, read a
lot. Enjoy reading. Draw what you like, and don't worry about
making a masterpiece every time. When I was a young artist, I got
hung up on that for a time. I thought everything I did had to be
perfect."
from The Mini Page by Betty Debnam found in The Times Herald
Record, May 30, 1998, July 12, 1998 and Nov. 14, 1998
Dick King-Smith
wrote the book Babe: the Galleant Pig on which the hit movie
was based. Dick King-Smith has written numerous award-winning books
about all kinds of charming characters besides Babe. He has said
that on a typical day he sits down "in my very small study my very
old (1635) cottage; scribble in longhand in the morning; in the afternoon,
type out the morning's work (on old portable, with one finger); evening,
read day's work to my wife, seeking her approval. I get the germ
of an idea, sit down, and knock something out, hoping it will evolve into
a story. I don't do all the preparatory things writers are meant
to do (so sometimes I fall flat on my face). I certainly don't ask
anyone else for advice or for ideas. I don't try the story out on
anyone (except wife). I seldom review, knowing that my various
- very good - editors will leave it alone if it's OK and will tell me
in no uncertain terms if it's not. I write (mainly) about animals
because I've always kept them, am interested in them, know a bit about
them and know that children like them. Anyway, it's such fun putting
words into their mouths. Fond as I am of pigs and admiring their
beauty and great intelligence, I have to say that the best pet is a dog,
especially if it's beautiful, affectionate, intelligent, and biddable.
Our present dog, a German shepherd female, named Fly after the collie
in Babe, is beautiful, affectionate, intelligent, and as mad as a March
hare. Dick King-Smith was born in 1922 in Bitton, Gloucestershire,
England. He was a farmer for 20 years and a primary school teacher.
He is happily married to a girl he met at age 13. He has two daughters
and one son. Dick enjoys writing for children because he can retreat
into the world of fantasy and put words into the mouths of animals he
knows so well. "Lots of ideas come wizzing into my mind too,
but most of them are so batty tat I chuck them out again," he says.
His favorite Dick King-Smith book is The Sheep Pig (also known
as Babe: The Gallant Pig). He likes the English countryside
and home. He dislikes nuts, turnips, pineapples, and flying.
The following is a list of books he has written and awards they have won:
Ace: The Very Important Pig; School Library Journal Best
Book of the Year, Horn Book Fanfare Honor book, IRA-CBC Children's
Choice: Babe: the Gallant Pig; ALA Notable Children's Book,
Boston Globe-Horn Book Honor Book, Horn Book Fanfare
Honor Book, IRA-CBC Children's Choice, NCTE Teachers' Choice:
Charlie Muffin's Miracle Mouse: Godhanger: Harriet's
Hare; Parenting Reading Magic Award; Harry's Mad;
California Young Reader Medal, ALA Notabel Children's Book, School
Library Journal Best Book of the Year, Parent's Choice Award
for Literature: The Invisible Dog: Martin's Mice; ALA
Notable Children's Book, School Library Journal Best Book of
the Year, American Bookseller Pick of the Lists, Library of Congress
Best Book of the Year, Parents Magazine Best Book of the Year:
A Mouse Called Wolf; Children's Book Committee at Bank Street
College Best Book of the Year, New York Public Library 100 Titles for
Reading and Sharing: Mr. Ape: The Robber Boy: Smasher:
The Stray; Children's Book Committee at Bank Street College Best
Book of the Year: Three Terrible Trins; ALA Notable Children's
Booklist Children's Editors' Choice, IRA-CBC Children's Choice:
The Waterhorse. (Visit www.randomhouse.com/kids/dickkingsmith/
for more on Dick King-Smith
Coretta Scott
King Awards are given each year
to an outstanding black author and illustrator. 1999 is the 30th
anniversary of the awards.
The 1999 Coretta Scott King Author Award went to Angela
Johnson for Heaven, In this
book a 14-year-old girl learns her parents are not her birth parents.
This discovery changes what and who she trusts.
Javaka Steptoe won
the 1998 Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award for In Daddy's Arms
I Am Tall: African Americans Celebrating Fathers. For this
book, he designed collages, or art made of different materials.
The objects he used included pennies, shells, buttons, pieces of a tin
ceiling and floorboards from an old building. Javaka Steptoe illustrated
several authors' poems in In Daddy's Arms I Am Tall. It
took him four years to finish. It is his first book. "It's
important for kids not to give up. I think it's important for them
to have some sort of idea of who they are, and who they want to be.
You can be offered a lot of different jobs doing stuff. And you
can just do any fob somebody gives you. Or you can think about whether
it's something you want to be a part of," he said. Javaka Steptoe
teaches art to kids at a children's museum in Brooklyn, N.Y. He
is now illustrating full time, but may soon teach art at a junior high
school. He lives in Brooklyn. Javaka Steptoe grew up with
artists. His father, John Steptoe, was Caldecott honor-winning
illustrator of children's books. He died in 1989. His mother,
Stephanie Douglas, is an art therapist working in hospitals. He
went to an art and design high school and to a college specializing in
the arts. Some of his favorite things are sweets, spicy foods, the
colors red and green, to do and to watch dance, The Story of Ferdinand
by Munro Leaf, and The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales
by Jon Scieszka and Lane Smith.
Interviews
with other authors
K.A (Katherine Alice) Applegate
has written more that 100 books, most of them for kids and young adults.
Since it began 1996, her Animorph series has morphed, or changed,
her into a famous and very popular author. Her best-selling series
is published in more than 12 countries. In this series, five teen-agers
gain the power to morph into any animal they touch. They must use
these powers to battle an evil species that takes over human brains.
K. A. Applegate said this series has allowed her to use her love of animals
in her writing. "I grew up with a menagerie - dogs, cats, gerbils
- not to mention three younger siblings. I was sure I wanted to
grow up to be either a veterinarian or a writer." K. A. Applegate
tries to show readers how it would feel to be one of the animals the kids
become. "I don't want to talk about animals in sentimental terms
in these books," she said. "when Tobias becomes a hawk,
I want the reader to see the world as a hawk might see it - to soar on
the warm breezes and hurtle toward the ground to make a kill. When
Marco becomes an ant, I want to convey the ant's lack of individuality,
his blind world of scent and touch." K. A. Applegate has a
son, Jake. She also has two cats. She enjoys traveling, reading,
gardening, and playing the cello. Her favorite children's book is
Charlotte's Web by E. B. White. Her favorite foods are
popcorn and cereal.
Johanna Hurwitz takes
about six months to actually write a book. "Long before I do
any writing, I think and talk to myself a lot," she said. She
started making up stories as a child. Her first book, Busybody
Nora, took her three years of sending out the book and getting it
rejected, then sending it out again, before a publisher finally bought
it. It was so popular it became part of a series. Ever-Clever
Elisa is one of a series of books about kids living in a New York
apartment building. Other series characters are Nora, Teddy and
Russell. In Faraway Summer, a charity group sends a poor
New York girl to a Vermont farm for the summer. She learns to appreciate
the differences in the people and the land. She writes children's
books because, she said, "I wanted to be a writer when I was a child.
The books I was reading then made me want to write books like that.
I really enjoy children as human beings. They are much more interested
in things. They haven't been spoiled by life. They are more
spontaneous. Another wonderful thing is that if children like a
book, they'll read it a second or third time. The most important
thing is that you read. This will give you a better vocabulary,
better spelling and use of the English language. And of course writing
is important. It's like learning to swim or ride a bike. If
you do it only once, you won't have learned how to swim or ride a bike."
Her husband, UI, s a college professor and writer and her daughter, Nomi,
and son, Ben are both grown. She has an 18 year old cat. She
lives in Wilmington, Vt. and Long Island, NY. Her favorite children's
author is E.B. White. She says about her hobbies, "Of course
I'm a reader. I love to travel, cook and spend time with my family."
Her favorite sport to watch is baseball. Her favorite sport t do
is walking. "When I'm walking I do a lot of thinking."
She said about her favorite time and place to read, "I can read anytime
or anyplace. I can get so absorbed in a book that the world could
come to an end around me and I wouldn't notice."from The
Mini Page by Betty Debnam found in The Times Herald Record, May 30, 1998
Soup by Robert Newton Peck
Living in rural 1930's, soup and Rob didn't have Nintendo, television,
or Rollerblades to entertain them. Instead the boys made games out
of the common objects around them, such as sticks, apples, and a barrel.
Investigate the games of the past with a fun cooperative learning activity.
Assign each student the task of interviewing an older friend - a parent,
grandparent, neighbor, etc. - to find out about the games that his friend
played in his or her youth. After the interviews are completed,
divide the class into groups. Have each group discuss its findings
and choose one game to teach to the rest of the class. Schedule
a Back-to-the-Past Day during which groups teach their games from "the
good old days." Encourage students to dress in old-fashioned
clothes. After the game session, cool off with homemade ice cream
or cold lemonade.
Wherever Soup went, trouble usually wasn't far behind - much to the dismay
of the often-innocent Rob. Ask students to pretend that Soup is
their best friend. How would their parents feel about Soup?
Would students defend Soup's antics because he was their friend.
In what ways was soup a good friend to Rob? After discussing these
questions, have each student fold a piece of paper in half lengthwise,
unfold it, and label the tops of the two resulting columns "Soup"
and "My Best Friend." In the soup column, have the student
list the qualities that made Soup a good friend, citing examples from
the book. In the other column, have him list his best friend's positive
qualities. Are there any similarities between the two? Follow
up by having students share their lists and use them to construct a class
or group bar graph about friendship.
For a fun writing activity, have each student cut out a large medicine
bottle from colorful construction paper. Next have the student glue
a white piece of paper in the middle of the bottle to serve as the label.
On the label, have the student suggest a section of the book that is sure
to cure a bad case of the blues. Be sure that the student includes
the chapter of the book and why he thinks that particular section will
make the reader laugh out loud. Post completed bottles on bulletin
board entitled "Laughter Is the Best Medicine!"
"A flame in front and a fool in back" - that's how Rob's Aunt
Carrie described smoking, the very thing Rob and Soup try one day in a
cornfield. Use this episode to initiate a discussion about he hazards
of smoking. If your students want to investigate smoking further,
try any of these activities: Invite a guest speaker from the American
Cancer Society or a local physician to talk with your class about smoking;
Have students create antismoking posters, buttons, or bumper stickers
to display around your school; Have small groups of students discuss the
following question, Why so you think people choose to smoke? What's the
best way to encourage someone no to smoke? How would you answer a friend
who is encouraging you to smoke?; Provide a supply of magazines.
Have small groups of students cut out cigarette advertisements from magazines,
then have the groups analyze the ads to determine how advertisers try
to persuade people to smoke; For good literature about smoking, look for
Know About Smoking by Margaret O. Hyde, Breath Of Air And
A Breath of Smoke by John S. Marar, Tobacco: What It Is, What
It Does by Judith S. Seizas, Smoking by Sherry Sonnett,
Smoking And Health by Brian R. Ward.
Rope -- a simple object, but one that soup and rob found full of fun.
They made lassos, but the most fun was tying someone up. Even when
soup tied rob up and subjected him to "straw mouth" and other"tortures,"
the boys' friendship remained as strong as the rope that held Rob.
After reading chapter 3, give each child a three-foot length of yarn.
Challenge students to fill there ropes with "friendship knots."
Each time a student shares a kind word or deed with another classmate,
have him tie a knot in his rope. After tow or three day, have students
share their ropes and tell or write about some of their "knotty experiences.
Gather copies of Robert Newton Peck's other soup books: Soup
and Me, Soup For President, Soup In The Saddle, Soup On fire, Soup On
Ice, Soup On Wheels, Soup's Drum, Soup's Goat. Assign a different
book to each cooperative group. After reading it, have each group
create a special display of important items from its book. For
example, a display on Soup might include a piece of a clothesline,
an apple, Miss Kelly's note, and some brown yarn from Rob's sweater.
Have each group present its display and explain each item; then set up
all of the displays around the room to create your own Soup Museum.
History of the Write Stuff: The earliest writing tools came from Greece, where they used a stylus made of metal, bone or ivory to mark on wax-coated tablets. By 400 A.D. a stable form of ink was developed, but wood-fiber paper was not used commonly until the late 14th century. The quill pen was introduced about 700 A.D. and used for nearly a thousand years. The most desirable quills were taken from the five outer left--wing feathers of geese or swans. They lasted for only a week of writing before they deteriorated. Lewis Edison Waterman patented the first practical fountain pen in 1884. Earlier versions leaked. The first ones had to be filled using an eyedropper, but by 1915 most had a soft, refillable rubber sac to hold ink. Ink cartridges were introduced around 1950. You can still buy a Waterman fountain pen. A Hungarian journalist named Ladisio Biro created the first ball point pen in 1938 after he noticed the type of ink used in newspaper printing presses dried quickly, leaving the paper dry. The design was pirated all over the world, but Biro is still the generic name for the ball point pen in most of the world. The modern version of Biro's pen, The Bic Crystal, sells 14 million pieces daily.
Focusing on Famous People: On a piece
of art paper, draw the perfect birthday gift for your person. Below
your drawing, add a caption that explains why this gift is so perfect
for your famous person.
What was your person's "recipe for success?" Draw a large
recipe card on a piece of white art paper. Write your person's recipe
for success on the card. Cut the card out and decorate it.
You've just been asked by your principal to plan a special day for students
at your school to honor your famous person. What kinds of
activities or special events will you plan for this day? Write a
plan giving the details of this special day.
You've just been introduced to the world's top expert on your famous person.
This expert knows everything that there is to know about your person.
List ten questions about your famous person that you would ask this expert.
How would life be different for people today if your person had never
been born? List your predictions.
List three ways that you and your famous person are alike. List
three ways in which you are different. Do you think you are more
alike than different, or more different than alike? Explain your
answer.
You have been asked to write and direct a short film about your famous
person. But you will only have time to tell about one of your famous
person's accomplishments. Which accomplishment will you choose,
and why? Write your answer in a letter to the president of the television
network that will broadcast your film.
A top-notch writer has just decided to write a new book about a famous
person. You want to convince this writer to write the book about
your famous person. Tape-record or write a message to
this writer. Explain why your famous person is the perfect topic
for a new book. Suggest a title for the book as well.
Unfold a Story
The idea is to create foldout books that students write by unfolding and
filling in one page at a time. First, cover a bulletin board with
craft paper and add a heading such as "Watch the Stories Unfold."
then cut white craft paper into long strips, 10" wide by 80"
long. Draw lines every 10 inches, to create seven 10"-wide
pages and a cover. Starting at the right, fold one page over the
next. Do not fold the last page - it will be the cover. Write
the title of the book on the cover, then use pushpins to take the book
starting from the left side to the board. To write in the book,
students remove the pushpins and unfold it to reveal one page at a time
(then tack the pages in place again). The cover of the book travels
to the right of the board, and the page numbers count down from left to
right.
Facts Unfold - To write a nonfiction book, on each new page students write
down a subject and related facts. Set up several of these Unfold
a Story boards during science and social studies units to encourage children
to share information on different topics within the particular curriculum.
Unusual Events Unfold - Brainstorm uncommon events (real or make-believe)
and use them to start off stories. Children will be proud to see
their ideas up on the board and excited to see how their ideas evolve
into stories.
Fairy Tales Unfold - To get their creative juices flowing, share some
unusual retellings of familiar tales, such as The True Story of the
Three Little Pigs by Jon Scieszka, in which the wolf tells his side.
Then have kids try their own.
Poems Unfold - Start the first line of a collaborative poem, then let
the children build on it from one page to the next. Remind students
that a poem can be like a tiny story and that lines don't have to rhyme.
| American Library Association | a
fun and educational reading list for elementary students of notable
books recommended by the American Library Association: |
| Book Adventure | students read book, takes quizzes and win prizes, teachers can sign up classes, parents can sign up children |
| Teenreads.com | offers book reviews by genre, subject, and author-- all chosen for teen readers. |
| Chapter One | Washington Post review of book and first chapter of reviewed book |
| Charlotte's Web | unit has worksheets, ideas and links |
| Complete Works of William Shakespeare | complete etexts, by category |
| Crossword
Puzzles for Young Solvers |
Learning Network features two theme-based crossword puzzles a month, written at a ninth grade level, that can be played online or on paper, archived |
| Kids @ Random | Dr. Seuss characters host lots of games for kids |
| Latin Dictionary and Grammar Aid | translates words form English to Latin |
| Lit Cafe | biographies of authors arranged by time periods, grammar information, madlibs, participation story |
| Mr. William Shakespeare and the Internet | complete annotated guide to the scholarly Shakespeare resources available on Internet |
| Online Poetry Classroom | created to increase and enhance educational resources available to high school teachers of poetry, especially through the use of new technology |
| The Velveteen Rabbit | complete book on-line |
| Webtime Stories | "annotated collection of web sites for people who love children's literature" |
| Winnie the Pooh and Friends-An Expotition | maps, games, reading about Winnie the Pooh |