Product Description
This unique resource for teachers of grades K-3 presents interdisciplinary whole-language activities featuring animals from A to Z. Included are over 150 reproducible activity sheets. A bibliography of animal books appears at the end, and references to children's books appear throughout. ... Read more

Product Description
Want to boost a child’s love of reading while making your time together more fun and meaningful? Playful Reading takes readers on a joyful romp through asset-rich children's picture books, emphasizing early literacy skills, reading for pleasure, and the eight asset categories. This collection is a terrific resource for teachers, daycare providers, parents, grandparents—anyone who spends time with children. Playful Reading comes full of activities, discussion topics, and ways to create memorable moments between children and the adults who read to them.

Includes fun activities and discussion topics on these favorite children’s books:

• You Can Do It, Sam
• Molly Goes Shopping
• A Birthday for Frances
• Adam’s Daycare
• How Do Dinosaurs Say Goodnight?
• Now I’m Big
• Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus
• Owl Moon
• And If the Moon Could Talk
• Toot and Puddle: Puddle’s ABC
• Stella, Queen of the Snow
• The Ugly Vegetables
• The First Thing My Mama Told Me
• and many more! ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Especially helpful for using at home
Sometimes reviewers feel so inadequate describing rich, thoughtful volumes inpuny reviews. For example, the ways early literacy, family ties, and memory making can be enhanced using Carolyn Munson-Benson's inspired, practical book about the influential relationship of preschoolers, adults, and books are developed with such mindfulness and delivered with such clarity in thissensible compilation of reading suggestions, doable activities and things to talk about, that one longs to pass it around and let it speak for itself.Good stuff!

Those familiar with the old favorite, Whole Child, Whole Parent by Polly Berrien Berends, will recognize similar caring intelligence in Munson-Benson's writing. Those who use Starting Out Right: A Guide to Promoting Children's Reading Success by M. Susan Burns, Peg Griffin, and Catherine E. Snow, will welcome Munson-Benson's juicy applications of its sound principles. Those motivated by Jim Trelease's stirring Read-Aloud Handbook will find in Playful Reading better suggestions for preschool reading experiences than he offers. And those who rely on various story stretching resources will find none more valuable, especially for home use with preschool aged children, than Playful Reading: Fun Ways to Build the Bond Between Preschoolers, Books and You.

Having read and considered thousands of children's books over her long career as a consultant and author on literacy, reviewer, developer of a classroom book nook program, and parent, Munson-Benson has developed, besides contagiousenthusiasm,an unerring sense of rightness in children's books. She recognizes and appreciates their power and is very good at helpinggrown-ups direct that power effectively toward encouraging children's positive association with reading as well as their healthy general development. While it all is a lot to think about, she makes it easy with enticing lesson plans and ideas parents, child care providers or teachers will want to use. Grandparents and other special relatives of young children also will love it.

Besides designating solid picture books preschoolers enjoy, and offering easycreative ways of sharing and extending their reading experience with appropriate, satisfying activities, Playful Parenting also meshes with the work its publisher, Search Institute, has been doing to promote "developmental assets", its term for specific positive experiences, conditions and connections that nurture children. ( Search Institute's earlier books, What Kids Need to Succeed and What Young Children Need to Succeed and leaders guide, describe their framework of 40 developmental assets.)

Munson-Benson chooses children's titles, and structures her book, with attention to these assets. Categorizing books by the eight assets of support, empowerment, boundaries and expectations, constructive use of time, commitment to learning, positive values, social competencies, and positive identity , she features, for each chapter, a cogent explanation of that asset in the lives of young children, five perfect book choicesthat bring out the asset naturally, a story overview, some enjoyable activities, related things to think about, savor and verbally explore together, and additional good books that support that asset.

The Boundaries and Expectations chapter, for example, includes Officer Buckle and Gloria by Peggy Rathman, How Do Dinosaurs Say Goodnight by Jane Yolen, Now I'm Big by Margaret Miller, Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus, and Trashy Town.As fitting as her titles are her original suggestions about ways to use the books in fun, non-didactic ways.For How Do Dinosaurs Say Good Night?for example, she discusses going to bed rituals, playing with toy dinosaurs, and having a pretend paleontological dig for butcher bones in a sandbox or plaster form.

The book has a friendly, down-to-earth style, and includes some delightful personal anecdotes. It is packed with so many relevant ideas, suggestions, resources,and inspiration, an index would be helpful. Every sentence is meaningful. There's no filler. One children's title is attributed to the wrong publisher, but this book has been tightly edited to be lean and appealing and make sense.It is laid out beautifully.


Rarely is price considered in reviews, particularly of wonderful books, but, although teachers accustomed to paying 24.95 for a curriculum guide may not mind, people ordering this as a family resource will be surprised to receive a paperback that, in format, resembles books that usually cost about 16.95. However, the content of Playful Reading, the possibilities it contains, surpassing the physical object itself, are worth a great deal. HIghly recommended.

playful reading: positive fun ways to build the bond between preschoolers, books, and you
This book may be helpful to parents who work one-on-one with children, but not so helpful to caregivers and preschool teachers who work with a group of children at any given time.
... Read more

Product Description
Introduce children to literature with stories and activities about things that go! Approximately 125 picture books are annotated, and a skills index allows the activity leader to use stories that will reinforce such skills as rhythm, following directions, and word recognition. Grades PreK-3. ... Read more

Product Description
Provide students with multiple opportunities to practice for mastery of core skills such as:

• Vocabulary Skills



• Reading Skills



• Map and Globe skills



• Chart and Graph Skills

Product Description
This one of two volumes teaches children in Kindergarten and Grade 1 the 220 Dolch Basic Sight Words that are needed for success in beginning reading.The book features 160 pages, including an answer key and reward certificate. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Better than current Spectrum Sight Word Books
I perfer this form to the format of the current "spectrum Sight Word Activites".In this format, the child is reading whole sentences starting form the end of lesson 1 (end of 1st week -- or 1st day in my son's case).Then it is words building on words.The words are not in the "grade levels" or in frequency order. There are not fancy color pictures or variety in the activites, but if it works, it works.The format matched my son's learning style, and for that reason I give it 5 stars.

Boring
I was very disappointed by this book.

1.It has exactly the same four exercises for every set of six sight words.The pattern just repeats over and over again.

2.Not much effort has been made to make the activities attractive to kids.

2.The sight words are presented in an order that does not correspond with the frequency of the words. The pre-primer words are not presented much, if at all.

3.Some of the exercises involve tracing the words, but the format for tracing is strange.The letters to be traced are printed in very heavy, thick dotted lines, so that a pencil line is barely be visible through the dots.

More help for parents
Children in K-1 can learn 110 of the Dolch basic sight words along with additional words from the Dolch Common Nouns List in Volume 2 of Dolch Sight Word Activities.Utilizing lessons in letter-tracing, matching andvizualization, scrambled words, missing letters, sentence completion andoral reading, parents and teachers can introduce five new words in each ofthe 25 units, then reward each child with a "certificate ofaccomplishment" included in the book. This book builds on Volume 1 andprovides excellent material for assisting parents with teaching their childbasic reading skills.

Excellent home help for parents
Volume 1 of Dolch Sight Work Activities for grades K-1 covers 110 of the Dolch basic sight words, along with additional words from the Dolch Commomon Nouns List.Each of the 25 units includes lessons in lettertracing, matching and visualization, scrambled words, missing letters,sentence completion, and oral reading.Parent participation is encouragedand a "certificate of accomplishment" is included at the end ofthe bookThis book is excellent source material for both teachers andparents, but particularly for parents who wish to help their child at homewith basic reading skills. ... Read more

Product Description

Promote reading and literacy with this wonderful assortment of lively, fast-paced, fun-filled children's programs specifically designed for children aged 4 through 8. You and the children will delight in such program themes as Creepy Crawlies, Forest Friends, Frosty Frolics, and After School Adventures. The book presents an entertaining mix of multisensory activities that appeal to a variety of literacy levels and learning styles—rhymes and songs, awesome activities, crafty crafts, and great games.

Unlike other programming guides, this one uses a developmental approach with literature-based activities fitted to specific learning needs. More than an idea book, it includes all the nuts and bolts for initiating children's programs—from foundations and guidelines for understanding various stages of learning to everything you need to get started: book lists, step-by-step instructions, reproducible patterns and illustrations, even tips on publicity and public relations. Whether you're a novice or a seasoned children's programmer, this book gives you fresh programming ideas that foster lifelong literacy and love of reading. Grades PreK-3.

Customer Reviews (1)

Awesome activities and great games
Designing book-based programs for preschoolers and young school age children is a breeze when you have this book handy! I just received my copy yesterday and I have already planned several programs. The advice and tips are useful, but the programs are just great. The games and activities are easy to understand, the directions are clear and the ideas are innovative and fun. The clever step-by-step illustrations bring the crafts to life. The fact that pages are reproducible for an entire class is a huge bonus! ... Read more

Product Description
This laugh-out-loud story puts young readers in the driver's seat for fast-paced interactive fun. There are pop-ups, pull-tabs, and flaps galore as readers help Bear to buy the perfect car. They can pull open the doors . . . turn the wheels on a breezy convertible . . . and then come along in Bear's one-of-a-kind "oinkmobile" for the ride of their lives. Full-color illustrations. ... Read more

Product Description
A colour illustrated activity book from the new LEARN TO READ series which helps young children to develop and practice the skills that build towards reading. ... Read more

Product Description
Success in the information age means that children learn not only to read - but also to interpret a wide range of symbols: letters, musical tones, numbers, computer icons and the like.

This unique sourcebook offers literacy activities and ideas to teach young children more than 72 literacy skills. It covers listening, sound recognition, parts of the book, top to bottom, left to right, letter/sound connections, using picture and context clues, sequencing, measurement, telling time, street addresses, coordinates, money, mouse skills, and keyboarding. Detailed discussions of each include necessary prerequisite skills, the concepts to be mastered, the materials needed, instructional procedures, and extensions to the activities. Here are more than 250 literacy development activities and ideas for use by school librarians, public librarians, daycare providers, head start teachers, classroom teachers, and others concerned with making sure that children are information literate. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

250+ Activitiesand Ideas for Developing Literacy Skills
excellent book, recommend for teachers, librains, etc ... Read more

Product Description
Mrs. Honey and her grandchildren, Peter and Emma, spend a fun-filled day trying to find Mrs. Honey's lost glasses.They search the house and yard, only succeeding in getting themselves black, white, red, hairy, yellow, green, blue, and brown all over!Finally, Mrs. Honey decides it's time to bathe and to wash their clothes.What do you suppose they find in the pocket of the apron which Mrs. Honey had forgotten in her washing machine? ... Read more

Product Description
This digital document is an article from Curriculum Review, published by PaperClip Communications on October 1, 2002. The length of the article is 451 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Encourage literacy with a recipe unit. (Grade K).(Ladders to Literacy: A Kindergarten Activity Book)
Publication: Curriculum Review (Refereed)
Date: October 1, 2002
Publisher: PaperClip Communications
Volume: 42Issue: 2Page: 10(2)

Distributed by Thomson Gale ... Read more

Product Description
This is a series of books of ready-made photocopiable activities plus teacher guidance that help teachers to do shared and guided writing within a particular text type. Each book covers one specific writing type and aims to improve teacher confidence and knowledge and provide them with the teaching resources they need. Each book has 4 sections: Using Good Examples - two extracts to explore in shared writing activities to enable children (and teachers) to develop knowledge and understanding of the text type; Developing Writing - activities for exploring, practising and planning elements of the text type; Writing - projects to help children to put their writing ideas and planning together into written work; and, Review - ideas and photocopiables to get children to redraft, assess and improve their own writing. The activities in "Persuasive Writing (7-9)" enable children to: write advertisements, articles, letters, fliers and leaflets; structure an argument; identify fact and opinion; justify a point of view; and, manipulate their reader. ... Read more

Product Description
This is a photocopiable activity book, which is one of a series intended to promote independent work during the literacy hour. The activities help children to achieve the word level learning objectives in the National Literacy Strategy, by developing essential skills in sound-spelling relationships, focusing on phonics, spelling, word recognition and vocabulary. Notes for teachers are included. ... Read more

Product Description
With the help of the snakes in Alf 'n Bet's Handwriting Book, they learn handwriting skills and how useful they are for recording, planning and letter-writing.

11" x 10"For children ages 4-8 years. ... Read more

Product Description
The books in this series offer ready-made photocopiable activities plus teacher guidance that help teachers to do shared and guided writing with whole class and groups. Each book covers one specific writing type and aims to improve teacher confidence and knowledge about shared and guided writing, whilst providing them with the teaching resources they need to improve practice. Each book has four sections: Using Good Examples - two extracts to explore in shared writing activities to enable children (and teachers) to develop knowledge and understanding of the text type; Developing Writing - activities for exploring, practicing and planning elements of the text type; Writing - projects to help children to put their writing ideas and planning into written work; Review - ideas and photocopiables to get children to redraft, assess and improve their own writing. The activities in this title enable children to: structure subject matter; understand the characteristics of report writing (non-chronological, moves from general to particular, final summary); break away from accounting to reporting; create a picture in words; use comparative language. ... Read more