Marketplace : Product Reviews :
Product Reviews April 2004
Each month Teaching Pre K-8 reviews outstanding products for the classroom.
This month's products are:
Hyperion
Peachtree Publishers
tiger tales
The Scarecrow Press, Inc.
Mead/Westvaco
McDonald Publishing
Learning Resources
Eileen Spinelli's newest...
Book is just wonderful. While You Are Away tells the very contemporary story of young children missing their parents who are deployed overseas. Mothers are represented as well as fathers.
From a language development standpoint, there's a nice bit of repetition in the text to help hesitant or emergent readers. This repetition also helps to capture the mood of the text.
This is a truly lovely book which will be balm for many of our kids whose parents are away. Hyperion is the publisher. $15.99 at your local bookstore.
Hyperion
www.hyperionbooksforchildren.com
Always one of our own...
Lester Laminack, our former "Parent Connection" columnist and frequent contributor to Teaching K-8's pages has just published another outstanding children's book: Saturdays and Teacakes (Peachtree Publishers, $16.95, 10 1/2" x 10 1/2," 32 pages).
The book tells the wonderful story of a boy's memorable visits to his grandmother every Saturday afternoon. Lester explores that special love between a child and his grandmother with great honesty and integrity, for the story is autobiographical. The time-out-of-time interlude described brings all of us back to our own childhood's enchanted moments.
The art is by Chris Soentpiet and is nothing less than extraordinary. The detail is so beautiful that the reader is totally enveloped in the magic of the world recreated by Laminack and Soentpiet.
Although the publisher states this book is for ages 4-8, we can see it as a lovely read aloud at many levels, including being read to older family members and friends. We feel it's something children will go back to again and again for the feelings of comfort and stability it engenders. Just $26.95 for this treasure at your local bookstore.
Peachtree Publishers
www.peachtree-online.com
tiger tales...
Is a company that was new to us, but since making it's acquaintance, we think you'd like to know about it, too.
This company produces children's books; hardcover, paperback and even board books for toddlers. The titles we saw feature events and experiences that occur in a child's real world, e.g. relationships with friends and family, bedtime antics, self-awareness and so on.
The board books we saw were Busy Bee, Hurray for Elephant!, Lion's Mane and Scaredy Duck. All of these titles have felt material on the cover, which makes a nice tactile situation for a child. These are $3.95 each retail.
The hardcover picture books are 32 pages with beautiful, appropriate art. We particularly liked Gooseberry Goose, the story of a gosling who, after watching his animal friends prepare for winter, became concerned that winter would find him unprepared. Mother and Father tell him he has nothing to worry about, but he doesn't realize that, when he's practicing his flying, he's getting ready for winter...and the flight south.
Laura's Secret is another super book for primaries. This one shows kids what believing in something can do; a paper kite can soar. There are a number of other great titles, too, so ask for a catalog. The hardbounds are $16.95. If you order directly you'll need to add s/h. You can also buy these at your local bookstore.
tiger tales
www.tigertalesbooks.com
Wow!...
That's the only word to describe Getting School-Wise – A Student Guidebook by Carol Josel. In a nutshell, this is a book of academic coping skills. It's a guide to management and learning strategies that can be used in its entirety or as needed.
The eight sections of the book cover a personal analysis, organization and homework activities, time management activities, learning style activities, note-taking activities, study skill activities, memory technique activities and "testwiseness" activities.
Carol has taught for many years and all of the activities, most of which she created, are activities that have been successful with children who have had problems or who needed a boost. The activities are short and appealing.
The above-listed sections of the book are not presented in random sequence. They are part of the master plan of the book, leading children to success upon which they can build.
There are so many tips in this guide for teachers. For each section there are several Board Quotes that come from many sources. They are inspirational, practical and thought – and discussion – provoking.
There's an appendix that provides masters for a monthly calendar, KWL Chart, Venn Diagram, T-Chart, Sequence Chain, Concept Map, Main Idea Graphic, Frayer Model and a Reading Log.
We can't recommend this book highly enough; it's simply outstanding. 172 pages, $32.95. This is a ScarecrowEducation Book.
When you call for information ask about Carol's Other-Wise and School Wise – A Parent Guidebook. There are 307 pages of solid tips, activities and self-analysis sheets to help parents through all those times when they feel at sea handling their kids.
The book covers making memories in addition to handling dinner hour, manners, vacations, motivation and goal-setting, TV time, computer time, sleep, organizing time, education and learning, reading, vocabulary building, writing, spelling, learning styles, homework, matters of the brain, studying, taking tests and a wonderful section on cheating.
This is a must-have for parents. Your PTA might find a way to buy a couple copies of this book for your parents lending library. It's $34.95 and also from ScarecrowEducation.
The Scarecrow Press, Inc.
www.rowmaneducation.com
Now, this is clever...
Mead has come up with a simple, yet amazingly helpful band to aid kids in keeping books together. It's called a First Gear® Wrapper Keeper and will make a bigger difference than you can imagine.
This organization system is to today's kids what the leather book strap was to students generations ago. The Wrapper is made of expanding material and has a strong Velcro™ closure. Kids who need organization in their materials to make school work for them will be home free with this Wrapper. There is a pen/pencil loop and a zipper pocket for ID card, money or keys. The spine is equipped with a clear window for labeling subjects that are Wrapped. We saw Wrappers in navy blue and black.
Mead/Westvaco
www.MeadWeb.com
Study Slides...
Are the newest stars from McDonald Publishing Company. This is a fun way to learn or review important concepts. There are Study Slides available for vocabulary, parts of speech, geography, both U.S. and world history, physical, earth and life science, pre-algebra, algebra, geometry and fractions, decimals and percents.
We saw the Life Science Study Slide which includes nine topic insert slides. The tenth slide is blank so you can customize it with your own questions. All in all you can cover 100 important concepts in each set of 10 slides. Subjects on the nine cards vary from Systems of the Human body, Terms in Ecology, Human Nutrition, Animals and so on. There are 10 questions on each slide.
We used a homemade version of these slides many, many years ago and they were a very effective teaching and learning device. The McDonald version is professional and comprehensive.
It's sometimes hard to find ways of getting middle school kids involved in learning facts. These Study Slides can really go a long way toward that goal. For grades six to eight. $4.95 each plus s/h.
McDonald Publishing also has some great "Smart Bookmarks." These cover various subject areas and there are 36 bookmarks in each package. Lots of subliminal learning potential here. $2.95 plus s/h.
All of these products are at your local school supply dealer.
McDonald Publishing
www.mcdonaldpublishing.com
Reading Rods® Readers...
We told you about these great rods last year, but now there are readers to go with them and it makes a really neat package.
Each book includes a carefully-constructed story, focusing on an essential phonetic skill, thus helping childen to build solid decoding skills. The activities using the rods integrate beautifully. There are three Reading Rods Reader sets; Word Families, Phonics Foundations – Set One and Phonics Foundations – Set Two.
In Phonics Foundations – Set One, there is a list of focus words and sight words, along with a word count in the front of each book. There's one book each for the short vowels, the long vowels (for a total of 10 books), plus five books on blends, a review book and a tidy little teacher's guide: 17 books in all. Additional manipulative activities using the Reading Rods are included in the teacher's guide. These cover building words, spelling, vocabulary, building sentences and writing. The cost is $44.95 for the Starter Set.
Phonics Foundation – Set Two includes advanced vowel mastery books. There are so many variations such as the Deluxe Starter Set and the Classroom Library Set that it's best to check Learning Resources' website for pricing information.
These Reading Rod Readers are an investment and one which you'll be glad you made.
Learning Resources
www.learningresources.com
