Timeless Treasures
By Patricia Broderick and Allen Raymond

The Twins
Twin Sisters Productions does wonderful work in producing music for learning. From very early childhood – How To Dress Without The Stress to The Power of Classical Music, the CDs are just perfect for home and the classroom.

There are books, cassettes and cds available in social studies, science, math, foreign languages and preschool learning. There are even a variety of Musical Play-in-the-Box items which provide all you need to present plays in your classroom.

We'd like to tell you about one of the new CDs we just saw. It's Speechercise™ – a musical workout for your mouth (for ages three through six). Practicing the skills and drills recommended by the Speech/Language Pathologist can be a pain…when they're not accompanied by music. This CD allows you to focus on mouth movements, basic vowel and consonant sounds, complex consonant-vowel transitions and advanced word-level strings.

There's a Parent Guide with helpful, detailed information, worksheets and activities to reinforce the Speechercise workout. This product shows the care and attention integral to all Twin Sisters' materials. The CD with the guide is $12.99. You can try your local school supply store, or order directly (plus s/h) from Twin Sisters.

Be sure to ask about those wonderful classical music cds Twin Sisters has produced. They'll transform your classroom.
Twin Sisters
www.twinsisters.com

Idioms!
We received some great new titles from Kids Can Press, but one really caught our eye. Monkey Business is a riotously colorful book of animals illustrating what various idioms actually mean. This can be fun at many levels.

In each of the pieces of art (one for each idiom), there's a monkey hidden somewhere. Great for sharpening figure-ground skills. $16.95

We also received a new version of Jabberwocky, ($16.95). Now there's word play! For older kids there's The Mob – Feather and Bone, The Crow Chronicles ($16.95). All these titles are worth checking out at your local bookstore.
Kids Can Press
www.kidscanpress.com

Curriculum Associates
Sure, your kids can read…but just how well? So often the world equates decoding skills with reading. Now, there's a new program from Curriculum Associates designed to help students become more competent readers.

The program, NAVIGATE the Course of Strategic Readers, features eight key strategies: asking questions, determining importance, inferring, making connections, predicting outcomes, returning to the text, summarizing and visualizing the text. Obviously, comprehension takes a giant leap forward when these skills are mastered.

NAVIGATE is a 12-week reading program that provides students with opportunities to learn, use and adopt the strategies of competent readers. There are six units in the student book. The central element of each unit is a text for students to read. There are three fiction and nonfiction text selections, each featuring a different genre. The text for each unit is chunked into smaller portions.

There are 10 lessons, divided into three parts, in each unit. The first part has the student complete Prereading Activities. Students use prior knowledge to make assumptions and also learn about the highlighted genre.

The second part of the unit, consists of Reading Activities. Strategies are modeled and students are introduced to a variety of literacy terms.

The third part consists of Postreading Activities focussing on vocabulary activities, returning-to-the-text, multiple choice activities, summarizing and reconnecting with the prereading activities.

The student's books are paperbound, 125 pages, 10 3/4 x 8 1/2. Type is a decent size, and there's just enough of it on the page. A 44-page Teacher's Guide, complete with teaching suggestions and ideas critical to effective implementation, is included as is a Reading-Genre chart of the six reading genres in the text.

There will be, ultimately, eight books in this program. We saw books C and H. Student books are $7.95 each and the Teacher Guides are $6.95.

Our recommendation? Take a look at this program as soon as you can. You'll find the kids will enjoy the process and be well equipped for those ubiquitous state tests. It's reasonably priced and gets the job done.

Curriculum Associates products are as solid as you'll find.
Curriculum Associates®, Inc.
curriculumassociates.com

Polaroid Education
The Polaroid Education Program is one that we forget from time to time, but it can add so much to our classrooms; it can be an exciting element in activities clear across the curriculum. And we know the activities work – they were created by teachers for teachers.

Basically, there are six modes of visual learning as a framework: Exploring, Recording, Communicating, Expressing, Motivating and Imagining. Through the Polaroid program, teachers learn how to use instant photography to create a visual learning classroom that is a lively and engaging learning environment.

The program has more than 12 resource guides and activity books available to teachers. New modules are added on an ongoing basis. For more information about the Polaroid Education Program or to arrange a workshop, teachers can contact a Polaroid regional workshop coordinator in their area by accessing the Polaroid website at www.polaroid.com/education or by calling 800-662-8337, ext. E400. Make this contact while you think of it – it will add so much to your classroom.
Polaroid®
www.polaroid.com/education

Windows on Literacy
The National Geographic Society's School Publishing division has added 72 math titles to its classroom reading programs. The original programs debuted in 2001 and combine literacy development with science, social science and math.

The new additions are superb. The math titles for the Windows on Literacy series (grades K-3) demonstrate math concepts in the context of science and social studies. We saw At the Farmer's Market and Animal Records, 16-page gems. As you might expect, the photography is superb. On the inside front cover of each book there are Teaching Notes. There's also a Teacher's Guide and an online guide.

The other (new in 2001) series Reading Expeditions (grades 3-8) covers Math Behind the Science. Now, that's a fun approach for kids. The emphasis for this series is how math is used in the real world. Scientists demonstrate how they apply math concepts to their work. We saw 24-page Puzzling Out Patterns. It's fascinating. Other titles in the series are Crunching Numbers, Decoding Data. How Many Ants in an Anthill?, Number Know-How, Sizing Up Shapes, Thinking It Through and What's The Chance?

These two series are written at various reading levels and in a variety of nonfiction genres including narrative, expository and procedural text.

Indeed, when we think of the information we are expected to read in daily life, providing these tools to kids is invaluable. These small paperback books are inexpensive and definitely worth your time. Find out more about them by calling National Geographic's toll-free number 800-368-2728 or visit www.nationalgeographic.com/education
National Geographic Society School Publishing
www.nationalgeographic.com

Storytime Discoveries
There's a clever series of books from Teaching & Learning Company that includes read-aloud stories that demonstrate physical science, biological science and earth science. It's called Storytime Discoveries.

We saw Storytime Discoveries - Read-Aloud Stories and Demonstrations About Biological Science. This book was great and we thoroughly enjoyed the contemporary rendering of favorite tales. The format involves a discussion of the topic of the story as a pre-reading activity. Then, the story is read aloud and an activity sheet follows.

We can see a lot of learning taking place with this book. The alterations of the familiar tales provide great discussion points. You can always count on Teaching & Learning Company products. For grades 1 - 3, 64 pages, 8 1/2 x 11, paperbound and $9.95 at your school supply dealer. .
Teaching& Learning Company
800-852-1234

Differentiated Instruction
There's a terrific new book from Scholastic Teaching Resources that's right on target: Differentiated Instruction - Making It Work by Patti Drapeau.

We all know differentiated instruction is the way to go, but the how-to can seem pretty overwhelming. This book is a practical, step-by-step approach which deals with accommodating various learning styles, creating tiered lessons, providing student choice, enriching content with global themes, accelerating the curriculum, activiting higher-level thinking skills and designing differentiated learning centers. Whew! It seems daunting when one thinks of the process in totality, but the way this book is structured, there's success for every teacher built into the guide.

The book is structured into five major chapters. Chapter One starts with what differentiation is and is not along with discussion of the various types of students. Chapter Two involves content enrichment: tiering instruction for all students, using key words and phrases to tier instruction and using themes to tier instruction. Chapter Three covers instructional tools: strategies and management systems for differentiating instruction. Chapter Four takes a look at differentiated learning centers and how they fit into the classroom, and there are evaluation and recording tools presented along with alternate layouts for the centers. Chapter Five takes us one step farther into acceleration, and looks at curriculum compacting.

There's a wonderful list of professional resources along with Task Cards, which can be duplicated, for two units.
This paperbound book has 144 pages, 8 1/2 x 11, $19.99. Available through school supply dealers or from Scholastic (remember the s/h charge if you order directly from Scholastic).
Scholastic Teacher Resources
www.scholastic.com