How to Change the World

I don't think there are many topics beyond the realm of children. It is never too early to start teaching kids how they can make a positive change in the world. Enter Weezer.

Weezer Changes the World is a great picture book by David McPhail that takes an every day dog who does every day dog things in his every day dog life and through a chance lightning strike (call it epiphany) becomes more interested in the human aspect of the world - like math, gravity, science, the arts, philanthropy, and of course world peace.

Weezer can't do it all by himself and eventually has to go back to being the simple dog who tinkles on the carpet. But Weezer has already changed the world and given everybody the right idea about making the world a better place.

This is a simple but profound little book that I want on the book shelf all the time to keep reminding our kids that they shape their world.



Weezer Changes the World 
Reading level: Ages 4-8 
Hardcover: 40 pages 
Publisher: Beach Lane Books; 1 edition (December 1, 2009) 
Language: English 
ISBN-10: 1416990003 
ISBN-13: 978-1416990000

The Easiest Way for Parents To Help with Reading Instruction

 This is a great reminder from a great blog:

LitBlog

Fluency is the easiest part of reading instruction that parents can help with at home. 

"Fluency is the ability to read a text accurately and quickly.
When fluent readers read silently, they recognize words automatically. They group words quickly to help them gain meaning from what they read. Fluent readers read aloud effortlessly and with expression. Their reading sounds natural, as if they are speaking. Readers who have not yet developed fluency read slowly, word by word. Their oral reading is choppy and plodding.

Fluency is important because it provides a bridge between word recognition and comprehension. Because fluent readers do not have to concentrate on decoding the words, they can focus their attention on what the text means. They can make connections among the ideas in the text and between the text and their background knowledge.

•    More fluent readers recognize words and comprehend at the same time.

•    Less fluent readers, however, must focus their attention on figuring out the words, leaving them little attention for understanding the text.

Research Supported Fluency Strategies in LitART
1.    Model fluent reading and have students reread the text on their own.
2.    Conduct guided reading (provide feedback and guidance during reading.)
3.    Use repeated oral readings of the same text to increase accuracy and rate.
4.    Facilitate partner reading to increase oral reading opportunities
5.    Employ reader’s theatre to allow for a performed reading."

Children Learning in a New World

I've been thinking a lot about how the current school-age generation interacts with technology.

We may joke about how we remember the first cell phone being the size of a brick, but kids today do not know any other kind of world. We may assume that video games, MP3 players, television on our phones and MTV quick editing may be shrinking our children's attention span. At the same time we read reports from all over (specifically Department of Defense studies) saying that the use of video game technology in training has not only led to the amazing ability of drone pilots in the United States flying missions over Afghanistan but also helps foster quick and analytical decision making for ground forces and NFL quarterbacks.

As an education sales consultant I can tell you that I have seen a spectrum of technology currently available to teachers and students. And the technology makes some impressive claims - specifically about student motivation, which led me to this article in Scholastic Administrator magazine. In the very near future the text-book will be a thing of the past. It's actually pretty close to extinct right now. Several school districts here in Ohio (Lorain schools for one) have gone completely digital now that curriculum companies are making the content available in digital format.

21st Century Skills and 21st Century Learners are the current buzz words in education. Students today require a new type of learning environment to prepare them for an ever changing future. Students today interact with their world in a different way. Students today learn in a different way. What is amazing is that while students are living and studying in a more virtual world - their learning is actually more "real" than ours ever was.

Today a class can go on a virtual archaeological dig in South America. During this virtual experience they can study history, science, math, writing, communication, and literature. The virtual experience didn't really take place - but it made the learning much more real because it was tied to experience and simultaneously answering the age-old question, "Why do we need to learn this?" By the way - you can replace the words "virtual archaeological dig in South America" with "virtual Habitat for Humanity build in West Virginia," or "virtual heart transplant at the Cleveland Clinic."

But does it motivate kids?


It may be like the new toy Christmas morning - forgotten by dinner.


What technology are your children using in school?


Does it seem to make a difference in their motivation to learn?

Head Start Works

It cannot be stressed enough how important it is for kids to be ready to succeed. This means that no matter how much faith we put in public education, (and I put A LOT of faith in public education) schools cannot be expected to do it all. We need to take responsibility for our children's education and teach them to be responsible for it as well.

Head Start Works

This article from Scholastic Administrator takes a look at a study of Head Start from 2002-2005. The results show that Head Start works! Children are more prepared entering kindergarten with a "Head Start." What this means is that kids who would not typically get the chance to participate in any preschool program have a more even playing field with Head Start.

Akron Summit Community Action, Inc. and Community United Head Start operate the preschool and day care programs in Akron and Cleveland respectively. Get in touch with them if you have a preschool aged child ready to learn.
 
Kids can get a head start in many private preschool programs. It is up to us to make sure that the program our child is in does a great job, has a valid curriculum, and employs certified teachers. Kids who get to take part in a great preschool have a step ahead and Head Start provides that for all of us.

Germphobic, compulsive, hypochondriac children have heros too!

Scaredy Squirrel
written and illustrated by Melanie Watt


The classics are great. Who can’t get into a little Dr. Suess, Brothers Grimm and Mother Goose (each of which are filled with much craziness in their own right). But being a member of Generation X, I find myself looking for the quirky, the fresh, the out-of-the-ordinary, the non-typical in all things. It’s why I rejoiced when bands from my college days like They Might Be Giants and Bare Naked Ladies started making music for kids. They took the genre to knew place and added wit.

This why the books by Canadian author and illustrator Melanie Watt are so fun – particularly her Scaredy Squirrel series which features a compulsive, germ phobic, arachnophobic, anal-retentive, hypochondriac  squirrel who spends all day and night in his tree on the look-out for anything that might harm him. Readers are even warned on opening the book to wash their hands carefully,

Did I mention that Scaredy is anal-retentive? He is the consummate planner and has complete steps and strategies to avoid harm and how to react in case of emergency. Step 1: PANIC!

He has a contingency plan for everything, but when a killer bee flies into his safe area he is so startled that he falls from his safe tree only to discover that he can safely glide to the ground. Once safely on Terra firma, Scaredy realizes that he is still in danger and takes the only course imaginable, he plays dead.

Not your typical book and not a typical telling. Scaredy’s situation is told through great illustrations that include diagrams, maps, daily routines and a full page of Scaredy doing nothing but faking his own death. Of course he makes it back to his tree to continue his adventures of being scared in Scaredy Squirrel Makes a Friend, Scaredy Squirrel at the Beach, Scaredy Squirrel at Night in which he shares his fears of walruses, rabbits, beavers, piranhas, Godzilla, pirates, jellyfish, lobsters, sea monsters, seagulls, falling coconuts, dragons, faeries, ghosts, bats, unicorns, and polka-dot monsters.

Of course there is nothing to be scared of. And a preposition is something you should not end a sentence with. BUT, that is really the point. There are a lot of real fears that we should take precautions against, but Scaredy goes overboard. Watt may not have had this in mind, but it’s a good lesson for kids anyway – especially if they tend toward the germ phobic and compulsive. Scaredy can be a lesson or a hero – or both.

Reading Strategies for Picture Books: Start with the pictures of course. Point and name and have children name the items on the page when they have verbal skills. This becomes really important as children see different images that are vastly different representations of an apple. How many different ways are there to draw an apple? Infinite. But kids being able to identify an apple even in abstract is an important developmental stage and gets kids ready to read.

I have to mention another Melanie Watt book too. (And I should point out that Watt first name is supposed to have a little accent mark over the “e” but I can’t figure out how to do that.)  

Have I Got a Book for You! is a rather silly, hilarious and almost pointless book in which the entire message is to convince the reader to purchase the book they are currently reading about buying the book which they are currently reading about a book they are currently reading about…..you get the idea. I think Charlie Kaufman would do the movie adaptation - starring Phillip Seymour Hoffman. If you have any sales experience - this books speaks to the Sisyphian nature of the world.

Watt is original, funny and witty. She puts a great twist on storytelling.


Scaredy Squirrel
written and illustrated by Melanie Watts 
Reading level: Ages 4-8 
Hardcover: 40 pages 
Publisher: Kids Can Press, Ltd. (February 1, 2006)
ISBN-10: 1553379594 
ISBN-13: 978-1553379591

A funny bed-time book for dad - Melonhead and the Big Stink

 

Melonhead

Melonhead and the Big Stink
by  Katy Kelly
illustrated by Gillian Johnson


Melonhead and the Big Stink is a hilarious chapter book for kids who like funny characters with a knack for getting into trouble – and I don’t know any kids who don’t. Think of this as an updated and more clever Dennis the Menace. 

On the last day of fourth grade we meet Adam Melon (Melonhead) and his best buddy Sam who begin the summer vacation with “The List of Doom,” created by Melonhead’s mother and designed to help Melonhead make good decision, and, therefore, not get into so many….situations.

The List
1. NO walking on roofs.
2. NO climbing trees.
3. NO putting things in your nose.
4. NO snakes.
5. NO rodents
6. NO playing in the yard until after the Capital Hill House & Garden Tour and Contest.
7. NO haircuts by nonprofessionals.

The list is based upon past experience, but Melonhead and Sam assume the summer is basically over if they can’t do anything on the list. They always seem to find new adventures like saving ducks in a fountain that don’t need saving, releasing 500 ladybugs in the kitchen, turning curtain rods into harpoons that fly out the window, and inventing a game called “fenceball”  involving pelting each other with tennis balls. These all end up being additions to the List of Doom.

According to Melonhead and Sam, the only way to save the summer is a trip to the New York Botanical Gardens for the blooming of the titan arum, also known as the bunga bangkai, which is a six-foot tall flower that blooms once every 75 years and smells like a dead, rotting mammal. This is the "big stink," and who wouldn't be up for a trip to New York City to see that?

In order to go see the big stink, Melonhead and Sam decide they better be on their best behavior and to use their own self-improvement plan, the Boys’ Improvement Guide For Acting Responsible Till Stink Saturday or B.I.G.F.A.R.T.S.S. And they try to stay out of trouble. They really do. But they are just so darn good at it.

Writer Katy Kelly has a great knack for dialogue that kids and big folks will both enjoy. It’s quick and light-hearted and keeps moving – important for young readers working on chapter books. Melonhead and Sam zing lines back and forth at each other – often calling each other crazy rhyming names

“I’m ready, Freddie.”
“We rock, Jock.”
“E-Z P-Z like Parcheesi.”
“Let’s go, Moe.”
“No sweat, Claudette.”
“We’ll see, Flea.”
“But I’m still going to win, Flynn.”

The best and funniest moments in the book come when Melonhead is working for their neighbor Mrs. Wilkins.

“Stop slouching and go up to the attic,” she said.
“Really?” I said. “This is my lucky day!”
“I don’t care for sarcasm,” she said.
“I might not either,” I told her. “What is it?

Or when Melonhead suggests he get some friends to come over and help. Mrs. Wilkins doesn’t like the idea.

“One boy is one boy,” she said. “Two boys is half a boy. And three boys is no boy at all.”

Melonhead and the Big Stink is a great companion to classics like Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing and Super Fudge by Judy Bloom. I especially recommend Melonhead as a great book for dad to read at bedtime. The chapters are short and fast and fun, and you get to say B.I.G.F.A.R.T.S.S almost every chapter.


Lexile: 400
ISBN-10: 044042187X
ISBN-13: 9780440421870
Published: Yearling, 05/11/2010
Pages: 240
Recommended Reading Level Minimum Age: 8
Maximum Age: 12
Minimum Grade Level: 3rd Grade
Maximum Grade Level: 7th Grade