A Wander Through A Handful of Kids Literature Blogs

From the Collecting Children's Books Blog

I thought this blog entry would simply be revisiting a blog entry that I love from last year, but then I became completely lost on the Internet by a series of fierce wonderings (as Luke's 3rd grade teacher would say):

So, re-printed from last year, a  lovely blog post about starting a summer book club for your kids.  I found the blog "Dinner: A Love Story" a few weeks ago, and have been enchanted for a couple of reasons.  The first is that the blogger manages to prepare a home cooked meal for her family every single night of the week.  It's a dream of mine.  At the Morell home, we survive on Chipotle take out for days at a time.  The other reason I adore this blog is that the entire family loves children's books, and has a series of posts suggesting various wonderful titles (and several I'd like to try...)  Blogger Jenny Rosenstrach sets up a summer reading program for her kids - something I used to do when my kids were younger.  Like me, she uses shameless bribing (one summer, when Peter was in 2nd grade, he earned nearly 20 playmobil men).  So take a moment to check out the summer reading program, the book lists, and perhaps even the dinner suggestions too:

Dinner a Love Story Summer Reading:

This year, when I wandered back to see if Jenny had a new list of books for the summer (she does not), I discovered that she recommended a wonderful blog dedicated to children's literature:

Mrs. Little: An Obsession with Children's Books

With entry titles like: "If Amelia Bedelia was a Chanel Client", and "If your son sleeps with a light saber... " I was hooked.

So then I wondered what other Children's Literature blogs might be out there that I have been missing, and came across a fascinating article by Elizabeth Bird which appeared in the School Library Journal a few years ago.  Titled:  This Blog's for You: Ten of the best blogs for folks who take kids' lit seriously (but not too seriously).  I wandered through all ten, and have chosen three that I found to be fascinating... and hope you do too!  

Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast

I consider it fair to say that of all the children’s literary blogs, the most visually stunning (with consistently kicking content) is the product of Eisha Prather and Jules Danielson. They provide amazing interviews of up-and-coming authors and illustrators. - Elizabeth Bird

Educating Alice

A blog written by Monica Edinger, an educator at New York City’s Dalton School, this regularly updated site features whip-smart commentary and classroom experience regarding all aspects of children’s literature. - Elizabeth Bird

Collecting Children's Books

This may be the best-written children’s literary blog of all time. Librarian Peter Sieruta doesn’t just retell the history of children’s books—he brings it to life and makes it dance! - Elizabeth Bird

Time to stop wondering and wandering!  I have laundry (and reading!) to do...

Enjoy!

Mrs. Morell


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LearnZillion

Upper School Math Teacher and tech guru Polly Sileo recently attended a professional development conference, and discovered a cool new resource she would like to share with the HTS Community.


Learnzillion contains videos that review a range of math, grammar, phonics, reading and writing  topics that align with the new Common Core standards.  Our teachers recognize it will be a great resource to help prepare lessons and provide differentiation - to help struggling kids review,  or kids who need a challenge think about new concepts.  For parents or tutors, it could be a great resource for many of the same reasons.   This website is similar to Khan Academy,  but it is created by teachers and is more intentional, and far less procedural than KA.

I have provided a pair of screen shots to help give you a sense of what the lessons look like...

If the program sounds intriguing, you can read more it in the following news articles:

•  CNN Report
• EdSurge

Enjoy!

Mrs. Morell

KidsPost Summer Reading Club - Animal Adventures

Each summer, the Washington Post KidsPost sponsors a Summer Reading Club.  This year, the focus is on animal adventures.  You have to love a crew that wrote:  "We at KidsPost have been squirreling away (or gathering) books.  We've worked like dogs to find interesting titles.  And we've waited till now to let the cat out of the bag."   If you have a child who loves animals, you may want to check out wonderful list of titles, mostly with 8 to 12 year olds in mind:

• Survivors: The Empty City, by Erin Hunter
• Never Say Die, by Will Hobbs
• Pegasus: The Flame of Olympus, by Kate O'Hearn
• An Army of Frogs, By Trevor Pryce
• The Familiars, By Adam Jay Epstein and Andrew Jacobson
• The Tale of Despereaux, By Kate DiCamillo
• The Cats of Tangelwood Forest, By Charles de Lint

Parents can register their children on the Washington Post, and any child who reads any or all of the titles on the list receives a bookmark (the program works on the honor system).

Learn more about the program by visiting:

KidsPost Summer Reading Program

Great Websites for Rising 4th Graders

Following is Mrs. Miller's list of favorite ideas for rising 4th graders.  These sites will help your children improve their typing speed, master multiplication facts, and provide ways to practice spelling, grammar and phonics... all while having fun!

Keyboarding

BBC Dancemat Typing

A Pair of HTS Summer Programs

We would like to announce two new programs to held by HTS teachers this summer:

Vic Gallerano will be conducting two workshops:

Intensive Writing Skills for rising 6th, 7th and 8th Graders - Thursday, June 20th - Wednesday, July 3rd (1pm to 3pm at HTS)

Writing the High School Application Essay - Monday, July 8th through Friday, July 19th (1pm to 3pm at HTS)

Details can be found on this flyer or by contacting Mr. G on vgallerano@htsdc.org

Polly Sileo will be conducting a Virtual Summer Math Program.

Details can be found on the flyer or by contacting Ms. Sileo on psileo@htsdc.org

In case you have missed it, a list of local summer programs and Holy Trinity tutors can be found on Holy Trinity's Summer Information Page.

Teach your Monster to Read

Lower school tech teacher Catherine Miller has been using Teach Your Monster to Read with some of our early childhood students, and they absolutely love it!   This engaging website would be a great resource to tuck into your summer learning stockpile for little people.

A Children's Book Guide to Travel

Once again, I had another blog idea in mind, but got sidetracked by something amazing that landed in my inbox. (really, I'll get to those keyboarding suggestions soon)

Once upon the time, our family had the chance to live in London.  Some of our fondest memories involve summers traveling through Europe with the kids... and often times the way to bring the history or culture alive for the kids would be through storybook references.  Like Paddington Bear, we wandered through Paddington Station in London, we marched the streets of Paris like Madeline (but not quite in two straight lines) and hiked in the hills of Scotland imagining the flying cars in Harry Potter were zooming above the Hogwarts Express.  We also made a pilgrimage to Doune Castle, where Monty Python and the Holy Grail was filmed, and the kids had great fun clopping coconuts as they pretended to gallop into the castle... but I digress.

Pinterest for Summer Learning

My daughter introduced Pinterest to me last year as a site to pin fabulous fashion, design and travel ideas.  If you aren't familiar with the site, it's an online bulletin board, where you can post links to articles, photos, quotes and ideas.  It's SO much fun, and completely addictive.  So much so, that I had to give it up for a while.  It wasn't helping me get through my to-do lists.

Educators around the country have adopted Pinterest as a great way to share ideas, projects and websites... so the good news is, I now have an excuse to peruse Pinterest for teaching ideas.  Perhaps I can convince my higher-ups it counts as a teaspoon or so of professional development...

Article Alert: The Touch Screen Generation - How Children Use iPads (and a list of suggested Apps!)

My flight was delayed on the way home from Spring Break in Florida yesterday, so I set out to buy a pile of magazines to pass the time.  Though I was briefly tempted by People Magazine's account of how Kate Middleton's pregnancy is progressing, the cover story of the Atlantic magazine caught my eye as a slightly more useful read: "The Touch Screen Generation: How Children Use iPads," by Hilary Rosen.  It's a fascinating piece for parents of young children (and their teachers!)  The link to the article can be found here.

Rosen says: "Norman Rockwell never painted "Boy Swiping Finger on Screen" and our own vision of a perfect childhood has never adjusted to accommodate that now-common tableau. Add to that our modern fear that every parenting decision may have lasting consequences—that every minute of enrichment lost or mindless entertainment indulged will add up to some permanent handicap in the future—and you have deep guilt and confusion. To date, no body of research has definitively proved that the iPad will make your preschooler smarter or teach her to speak Chinese, or alternatively that it will rust her neural circuitry—the device has been out for only three years, not much more than the time it takes some academics to find funding and gather research subjects. So what’s a parent to do?

E is for Explore

Happy New Years All!

I discovered this amazing blog this morning from the iLearn Technology Blog.  What a find!!  Blogger Erin Bittman is a graphic designer who has taught Pre-K and graphic design to kids.  The design of the blog is beautiful, and the hundreds of ideas are brilliant.  I think you will find ideas for every subject and grade level with this blog to help perk up lessons during those long January days. Topics include discovery/exploration, science/engineering, mathematics, art, literacy, social studies and seasons/holidays. 

Videos to Enrich the Mind

As I am a visual learner, and have a relatively short attention span, I have always loved educational videos. Schoolhouse Rock and I are old friends... and you all know how I love BrainPop.

This week, I discovered some neat new sources of educational videos on YouTube - to include Bill Nye the Science Guy and Schoolhouse Rock.  And I love the idea of Crash Course History and Biology.  Enjoy:

Crash Course History
This is a series of 37 fast-paced ten to twelve minute overviews of major concepts and themes in World History. These might be a fun way to kick-off or reinforce a unit in the Upper School.

10 Recommended Apps from our Early Childhood Students

This year, thanks to our generous parents, we were able to pilot iPads with our Pre-K, Kindergarten and 1st graders.  Each class received five iPads loaded with (only!) educational apps, and the children played with these apps during center time.  When I walked in to classrooms with these new gadgets after Christmas break, I found I had an immediate hobbit-sized fan club - the kids LOVE iPads.  Everyone involved was impressed by how engaged the kids were while learning basic building blocks in language arts and math. The EC team met earlier this week to discuss the program, and among the topics discussed were classroom favorites, as we look to build our library of "apps that work" for next year.  So, in no particular order, I offer you the favorite educational apps among the littlest students of HTS during the spring semester of 2012:

(All apps can be purchased from iTunes or the AppStore, and many can be run on iPhones in addition to iPads)

1. Don't Let the Pigeon Run the App

This app is more than simply an online story book - it lets children create their own Pigeon stories with their pal, Mo Willems.  Our pigeon-loving students loved the creative possibilities of the three games on this App.


2. Super Why

This was a huge favorite among the younger set. Based on the PBS series, this app offers four games: Lickety Letter Hunt, Wands up Writing, Rhyming Time and Story Saver.  The children love the graphics, and are able to earn stickers as they successfully complete the games.  Stickers are a big deal for these kids :)


3. Math Bingo

This game offers the option to practice math facts in addition, subtraction, multiplication and division... or a mix of all problems. It was very popular with our 1st graders this year, who loved the quirky little creatures that took up residence on their bingo boards.  It is possible to set up a player profile, so you can see which problems your child is solving correctly.

4. Word Bingo

This was a huge favorite among our first graders, but it is possible to set leveled word lists from Pre-Primer through 3rd grade.  Like Math Bingo, the kids found love the critters on the bingo board. Beyond the bingo game, the app also offers a spelling practice options.

5.  Teach Me Kindergarten

The children loved to earn stickers while learning important kindergarten skills such as addition, subtraction, sight words and spelling.  It is possible to set specific topics for the children to work with.


6. Teach Me First Grade

Again, earning stickers was very motivating to our students while they learned all-important skills such as addition, subtraction, sight words and spelling.  It is possible to set specific topics for the children to work with.


7. Bobo Explores Light

Mr. Denny reported that this was a huge favorite in his 1st grade class.  The Bobo Explores Light iPad book takes fundamental science concepts for school-age children, and injects them with humor, astonishment and whimsy.  It is truly wonderful.


8. Pirate Trio - Love to Count

This lovely, engaging British game introduces numbers as being the indicators of order, time, weight and quantity.  Parents are provided a tracking screen which is helpful for evaluating a child's progress.  The kids love this game.


9. Pirate Trio - Love to Read

The companion to Love to Count is an app inspired by Montessori teaching methods designed to lead children through the steps of getting to know words and understanding how to apply them. The child shakes the iPad or iPhone to scatter the letters, and the challenge is to put the letters back into place so the word is re-constructed again.  This was a favorite in the kindergarten and PreK.

10. Little Matchups - Count Money 

OK, I'll be honest.  This wasn't one of our student's favorite games, but a game that speaks to an area of weakness for many of our students.  The "Little Matchups" games are very visually appealing and easy to use for the kids.  Be sure to explore others by this game designer.


We'll be hunting for great new apps to introduce in the fall, so let me know if you discover any wonderful new titles.