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Product Reviews February 2006
Each month Teaching Pre K-8 reviews outstanding products for the classroom.
This month's products are:
Edupress
Highsmith, Inc.
Lark Books
Yankee Publishing, Inc.
Scholastic
Ellison
Front Street
ETA Cuisenaire
Celebrate Black History Month
Edupress has many items to help you celebrate Black history month, all month – and all year – long.
We received some nice posters for your bulletin boards. African American Heroes includes short biographies and nice, large photos of six famous Black Americans. The posters also include a quote from each of the people illustrated: Jesse Owens, Malcolm X, Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King, Jr., Thurgood Marshall and Ella Fitzgerald.
We saw another poster set entitled "Africa." There are 20 pieces in this set: people in native dress, some animals, a house, etc. A book to accompany this set is available separately.
Coordinating resources from photo history activities on civil rights, (two sets), to Africa and Notable Black Americans, the activity books will fill the bill for your social studies throughout the year.
Edupress
www.edupressinc.com
Storypath
We really loved this innovative approach to teaching social studies. We received The Struggle for Independence in Colonial Boston kit for review.
Each Storypath unit includes a teacher's handbook, 35 student portfolios and six class sets of content cards (eight – 12 cards per set). In The Struggle for Independence in Colonial Boston, grades 5 - 8, the children build a colonial community to investigate events leading to the Declaration of Independence and Revolutionary War. As colonial families the children must decide whether to remain loyal to England or support the move towards independence. Students role-play the story while engaged in reading, writing and researching. They use prior knowledge and understanding to develop their characters.
Storypath uses an inquiry approach. We can't do justice to the beautiful artwork of this kit, but visit the website today for information. Highsmith Inc. is the publisher and the price for this kit is $l29.95 plus s/h.
Highsmith, Inc.
www.teachstorypath.com
It's Not Magic, It's Science!
It may seem like magic, but the tricks in this book are illustrative of sound, easy-to-understand scientific explanations that will stimulate kids' understanding of basic concepts. It's Not Magic, It's Science! provides 50 fabulous feats kids will love while learning. Each trick includes a materials list (pretty simple), a description of what the child will do, and how it actually works.
This 80-page treasury also includes a glossary, a template for a specific trick and metric conversions. We really defy anyone of any age not to get hooked on these activities. Children learn how to poke a skewer through a balloon without breaking the balloon and they will thoroughly enjoy balancing a penny on a coat hanger.
No matter what the title says, this book really provides classroom magic. $14.95 hardbound.
Lark Books
www.lark.com
The Old Farmer's Almanac For Kids
Kids will have just as much fun with this almanac as adults do with the adult version. There are 11 sections covering everything from weather to nature, health, funnies and facts and useful things to name a few. Super photographs and art elucidate the content. There's useful information and some would-you-believe facts that will get even your reluctant readers reading.
There's also a companion website, www.Almanac4kids.com with a lot of additional special features, puzzles and activities. $9.95 for a great deal of fun information and learning potential.
Yankee Publishing, Inc.
www.Almanac.com
6+1 Traits of Writing
Ruth Culham should be a household name for her great work in the field of writing. Both guides she authored in the 6+1 Traits of Writing series, The Complete Guide Grades 3 and Up and The Complete Guide for the Primary Grades, are outstanding.
The author makes the point that the 6+1 TRAIT™ model is more than an approach to teaching and assessing writing; it is a vocabulary teachers use to describe their vision of what good writing looks like – any kind of writing. "It's a form of analytic assessment, a method of looking at the main characteristics of writing and assessing them independent from one another," Ms. Culham states.
The six traits are idea, organization, voice, word choice, sentence fluency, conventions – and the +1 is presentation. We've seen so very many writing handbooks, some good and some not so good. But this book is different from even the "good" ones: it goes the extra mile with the common vocabulary so teachers and kids are on the same page.
If the first book wasn't enough of a boon, Ruth wrote the guide for the primary grades. She takes us from first scribbles to construction of sentences and investigates with us the emotions of the child and pride in his or her work when communication takes written form. No part of the process is skipped or given less than its due. This handbook should be on every primary teacher's desk in the country. Each book is $26.99 plus s/h.
Ms. Culham offers workshops designed to help beginning and experienced teachers implement this model in K-12 classrooms.
Scholastic
www.scholastic.com
Dewey Doo-it
You've loved the children's books and CDs featuring Dewey Doo-it. Now, there's a super Teacher's Kit for Dewey Doo-it Helps Owlie Fly Again. We're eating our words once more about celebrities and kids books; Mandy Patinkin and Bernadette Peters sing the songs that follow – and extend the vocabulary – of the text in this book and the accompanying CD is outstanding.
The story is a wonderful discussion starter about how we can help each other, though some of us may have physical limitations. In addition, the songs include coined words and nonsense word-family sounds that are not only great fun, but also get kids playing with language.
The kit, for grades kindergarten through three, also includes 90 helper stickers and 30 diplomas, a 20-page Teacher's Guide that includes 11 lessons, and a collection box for the Christopher Reeve Paralysis Foundation. (Dana Reeve sings one of the songs on the CD.) Ellison, the company that also makes those great die-cutting products for your classroom, is the distributor of this series. Volume 2, Dewey Doo-it Feeds a Friend and Volume 3, Dewey Doo-it Builds a House are also available now. $29.95 per kit or the value pack at $74.95 for all three kits (plus s/h). Ellison is donating a portion of the profits from the sale of these kits to the Christopher Reeve Foundation. Check Ellison's website because they have dies available based on the Doo-it characters.
We do like these kits. A lot.
Ellison
www.ellison.com
Breakfast for Jack
Wordless picture books are one of these truly great teaching aids we forget about in today's text-heavy electronic world, yet we know of nothing better to encourage a sense of story in a child than these books.
There are clear beginnings, middles and ends in wordless books. They illustrate character, setting and action with little chance for misinterpretation. They're a great equalizer in those first days when children who have mastered the rudiments of reading seem to shine at the expense of the struggling reader or the child who has been exposed little to books.
Pat Schories is a master at creating wordless books. Breakfast for Jack is a super, single-situation book that's accessible for most children. It's the story of a family who feeds themselves, feeds their cat... and forgets breakfast for their dog, Jack. This is doubly surprising as the cover art depicts Jack sleeping on the bed with his young master. It's a wonderful discussion starter about responsibility.
The art is just perfect; there's no mistaking what's going on in every frame so retelling the story is not a problem for kids.
Ms. Schories has also "written" two other wordless books about Jack and his adventures. Check the Front Street website for more information.
The Jack books are $13.95 at your local bookstore and are suggested for ages three to eight. As with all good books, there are so many more things that can be done with them at other than suggested ages. The case in point here? Use the Jack books at upper grades to have kids practice writing dialogue.
Front Street
www.frontstreet.com
P.S.
In our May 2005 issue of Teaching K-8 we told you about WorldScapes,™ the cross-cultural, cross-curricular leveled literacy series. Well, now the math and science books are available.
These new books present real-world applications of key math and science topics that make standards-based skills and concepts practical and meaningful. We saw The Greatest Wall of All and Magic Squares and More. These two titles are in the China collection.
These paperbacks (24 pages and16 pages) follow the same format as the language arts/history/social studies collections we described in May. There are highlighted words in the text that are defined at the bottom of the page, There are current frames of reference for the content of the selection. For instance we learn how the Great Wall was built by hand with forced labor and in another panel we see the trucks and cranes involving delivery of supplies to building sites in today's world. A section of each spread is devoted activities, a look at ancient technologies, and online references which extend the learning introduced in the content area.
In Magic Squares and More, we learn about early compasses, abaci and magic squares. We also saw an earthquake recorder made of an urn and some ceramic frogs! Honestly.
This fact is illustrative of the content of all the WorldScapes books: immensely interesting, cross-curriculum and plain fun learning.
Find out more about this series if you don't already know about it and if you do know about it, see the newest math and science additions.
ETA Cuisenaire
www.etacuisenaire.com
