Book Review: Gingerbread Baby

This week’s featured book is Gingerbread Baby by Jan Brett. I love Jan Brett’s detailed and intricate illustrations. In contrast, her stories are typically fairly straightforward and simple. My kids have always been delighted with her books and tend to ask for them to be read again and again.

So, we need a few activities to go along with Gingerbread Baby. For the real moms among us, who want to do something fun, but feel a little pressed for time or energy this is the activity for you:

Storytime with Grandma
One of our grandmas doesn’t live very close, but she can still read stories to my kids. Jan Brett’s books are popular enough that grandma or grandpa or another special person could easily check this book out from the library. Then arrange a convenient time with Grandma and make a phone call. Put her on speaker phone, hand your child his copy of the book and let Grandma read the story to your child. You may need to remind Grandma to tell your child when to turn the page. Maybe Grandma is tech-savvy enough to make a recording of the book on a CD or as a sound file on the computer. You might be able to get a digital video recording or even do a teleconference on Skype. However you manage to connect across the miles, this is definitely a book worth sharing with a special family member, no matter what the distance.

More real mom activities can be found by visiting Jan Brett’s homepage. There you can can design and print your own Gingerbread Baby and your own Gingerbread Baby House. I should let you know that I had problems using this website on a Mac with both Safari and Firefox. It works if you’re on a PC with Internet Explorer.

For the super moms among us, you can find instructions, recipes and patterns for gingerbread houses online in many places. If you need to simplify this activity a little bit, you might consider using graham crackers to build the house.

Also, you might find that simply making gingerbread babies is plenty of fun for most kids. For this you don’t need to do the cutting the pattern and building the house stages. Arm yourself with a person-shaped cookie-cutter and move right on to the icing and candy decorating parts!

Tags: book reviews, cooking, reading

Book Review: How I Became a Pirate

How I Became a Pirate by Melinda Long, illustrated by David Shannon

You can probably find this book easily at your library. I often see it in the book orders that come home from school as well. But if you’re wanting to add a few coins to the tip jar here at MomSchool.tv you can also buy it from Amazon.

We love reading this book as a family–especially the gorgeous, detailed, vibrant illustrations! There are tons of easy ways to extend the story into fun family activities. But since we don’t always want to turn the day into an International Event, here’s a few realistic ideas for family fun.

Real Mom Activities

1. Hot and Cold: Kids are fascinated by treasure hunting. You can have an easy treasure hunting game by hiding a simple treat somewhere and then saying “hot” as your kids get closer to it and “cold” when they move farther away. Younger preschoolers and older toddlers can figure out this game too, but they do need a little more help. Once my kids have found the “treasure,” they always love taking turns hiding another one and playing again.
2. Pirate Picnic: Spend an afternoon outside as pirates. Wear bandannas on your heads. Have pirate foods (no vegetables!). Eat with your hands and speak like pirates. If possible, do this at a park with a sand area where you can build sandcastles and bury treasure.

Super Mom Activities

1. Make a Treasure Map: This activity can become quite a project depending on your time and resources. DLTK Crafts has my favorite suggestions for making old, pirate-y treasure maps. I typically either use grocery bags or the cinnamon suggestion to make the paper brown. Also, I prefer to let my kids do their best drawing of our house and yard. This gives them excellent practice with conceptualizing and creating maps. My kids sometimes get frustrated by making the maps perfect representations and I have to kind of help them to realize that it doesn’t have to be exactly what our house or yard looks like. This ability usually starts to develop around kindergarten. Once they’ve created their maps, have them trade and see if they can discover each others’ treasures. You can add to the theme by having them wear bandannas and eye patches.
2. Time Capsule: This is an activity for older kids who are going to be able to handle the idea of letting the “treasure” stay buried for a while. You will need to explain the concept of a time capsule and then set them free to collect what they want to put in it. Having them write a letter to themselves in the future is always fun. An old ammunition container can work well for the time capsule, especially if the contents are placed in plastic bags. Be careful with your digging, if you decide to bury the time capsule.
3. Geocaching: If you have a hand-held GPS device, you may find high-tech treasure hunting lots of fun. It is a favorite pastime of our family. Dylan and Anya think it’s so much fun to find the treasure box and trade toys and trinkets. Wear pirate costumes and have fun together. This site does require a free registration to access the coordinates for caches.

Tags: book reviews, literacy, reading

Introducing Weekly Book Reviews

Weekly book reviews start this Friday.  If you’re interested in hearing a particular book reviewed or need activities for a specific book, leave a comment and let me know.  Otherwise, we’ll see you Friday!

Tags: book reviews, literacy, reading

Audio Books

To be really honest, as you start browsing Audible Kids, it’s easy to be overwhelmed by the tremendous number of books for kids.  It really is amazing to see the selection that they have.  They have divided their library into various subcategories, but that is only so useful.  Truthfully, there’s plenty of books in the 0-4 years category that Dylan (age 7) will still thoroughly enjoy.  So, I thought I’d just post a few highlights from each category.  These are stories that we have loved listening to and that seem to be fairly good values.

Ages 0-4
Note that on many picture books you can get an “Enhanced Version” that allows you to view pictures on your iPhone or computer.

The Cat in the Hat and Other Dr. Seuss Favorites
Green Eggs and Ham and Other Servings of Dr. Seuss
Strega Nona
Where the Wild Things Are

Ages 5-7
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
The Spiderwick Chronicles
The Magic Treehouse: Books 1-2
Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle

Ages 8-10
Holes
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
Because of Winn-Dixie
Ella Enchanted

Ages 11-13
A Wrinkle in Time
Ender’s Game
The Giver
Hatchet

Also, if you find that your children are enjoying audio stories, you may also want to check out Story Nory. Each week Natasha makes available a story for download. These are almost always fairy tales or myths or updates on Prince Bertie and friends, characters created by Story Nory. My kids like these stories, but the once-a-week release doesn’t usually keep up with their demand for new material.

Do you have any book recommendations for me? Leave a comment. Dylan will thank you!

Tags: audio books, listening comprehension, literacy, reading, reading comprehension

Picture Books with Older Readers

One of the hardest aspects of using picture books with older kids is judging the reading level of the books. The text for picture books can range from very simple to fairly difficult.  It’s clear to a parent that Go, Dog Go is simpler than Stellaluna, but some of the finer distinctions are less obvious.

It’s also tricky for parents because books can be leveled in various ways.  Some common reading level systems are Guided Reading Level, Developmental Reading Assessment, and Reading Recovery.  Books can also be leveled by grade and month.  For example, a book labeled 2.4 means it corresponds to the reading level expected at the fourth month of second grade.  Scholastic presents a good overview of three reading level systems.

I recommend finding out from your child’s teacher which type of reading levels your school district uses and what level your child is currently on. Once you have that information, you can begin browsing various online reading lists and databases to find picture books that correspond to your child’s reading level. Keep in mind that for leisure reading, teachers usually recommend that children read one or two levels below their current learning level. Why would this help?

• Children feel confident in their reading skills because it isn’t too hard
• Children experience reading as a recreational activity
• Children practice reading independently–they don’t need your help
• Children experience less frustration, making reading more FUN
• Children are likely to comprehend details of the story without feeling overwhelmed

Each year the Caldecott Medal is awarded to “the artist of the most distinguished American picture book for children.” Additionally 3-5 other books are designated Caldecott Honor books. These books are the basis of my picture book library. Using this helpful quick search at Scholastic, I was able to determine the reading level of the Caldecott Books for the 2000′s. Scholastic also helpfully allows you to change the leveling system between Grade Level Equivalent, DRA, Guided Reading, and Lexile Framework. Look in the upper right corner of the search results for that option.

So, here’s some Caldecott picture books for your older readers.  Note that illustrators are listed first since this award is honoring the illustrator.

First Grade

1. Henry’s Freedom Box: A True Story from the Underground Railroad Kadir Nelson/Ellen Levine
2. Kitten’s First Full Moon Kevin Henkes
3. Knuffle Bunny: A Cautionary Tale Mo Willems
4. Ella Sarah Gets Dressed Margaret Chodos-Irvine
5. Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus Mo Willems
6. Hondo and Fabian Peter McCarty
7. The Stray Dog Marc Simont
8. Click, Clack, Moo: Cows that Type Betsy Lewis/Doreen Cronin
9. Olivia Ian Falconer
10. Joseph Had a Little Overcoat Simms Taback
11. When Sophie Gets Angry-Really, Really Angry Molly Bang

Second Grade

1. Zen Shorts Jon J. Muth
2. Hot Air: The (Mostly) True Story of the First Hot-Air Balloon Ride Marjorie Priceman
3. Coming on Home Soon E. B. Lewis/Jacqueline Woodson
4. The Man Who Walked Between the Towers Mordicai Gerstein
5. My Friend Rabbit Eric Rohmann
6. The Three Pigs David Wiesner
7. Martin’s Big Words: the Life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Bryan Collier/Doreen Rappaport

Third Grade

1. Knuffle Bunny Too: A Case of Mistaken Identity Mo Willems
2. Moses: When Harriet Tubman Led Her People to Freedom Kadir Nelson/Carole Boston Wetherford
3. The Hello, Goodbye Window Chris Raschka/Norton Juster
4. What Do You Do with a Tail Like This? Steve Jenkins and Robin Page
5. The Dinosaurs of Waterhouse Hawkins Brian Sleznick/Barbara Kerley
6. A Child’s Calendar Trina Schart Hyman/John Updike
7. Sector 7 David Wiesner
8. The Ugly Duckling Jerry Pinkney/Hans Christian Andersen (adapted)

Fourth Grade

1. Song of the Water Boatman and Other Pond Poems Beckie Prange/Joyce Sidman
2. The Spider and the Fly Tony DiTerlizza/Mary Howitt
3. Noah’s Ark Jerry Pinkney
4. So You Want to Be President? David Small/Judith St. George

Fifth Grade

1. The Invention of Hugo Cabret Brian Selznick
2. Rosa Bryan Collier/Nikki Giovanni
3. Casey at the Bat Christopher Bing/Ernest Thayer

Do you need to me find the level of a picture book for you? Does your older reader have a favorite picture book to share with us? Leave a comment and let us know. I’ll be happy to find a level for you if I can, and I’m always interested in new picture book recommendations.

Tags: reading