Gracias the Thanksgiving Turkey

Tired of this picture?

In Gracias The Thanksgiving Turkey, Joy Cowley puts a spin on a holiday story that will engage children who have had it up to here with pilgrims!

This brightly colored children's tale follows the story of Miguel, a young Puerto Rican boy living in New York City. Miguel is thrilled to receive a present from his father, a truck driver who spends his days on the road.

"Fatten this turkey for Thanksgiving," the note from Miguel's father reads. "I’ll be home to share it with you. Love from Papá."

Conflict ensues when Miguel befriends Gracias the turkey, whom he then hesitates to eat. Problems range from where the turkey will sleep in a tiny New York apartment, to whether or not the turkey can come to Mass. I won't spoil the ending, but kids will love Miguel's struggle over Gracias -- as well as his reunion with his father.

Gracias is characterized by bright pictures and colors, and a multi-cultural dimension makes this story unique in a way that is missing from many more traditional Thanksgiving stories.

For activities to go along with this book, consider the tried-and-true hand turkey: have the kids trace their hands on construction paper and cut out the tracings. Have them give the turkeys names, like Miguel did with Gracias. Talk about pets that they might have or have had, and how to take care of them.

For ideas of other Thanksgiving-related activities, check out this website.

Post by The Reading Connection intern Anna McCormally.


To receive credit for this online training, please fill out the form here.

Using Children's Magazines

Fed up with fiction? Some young readers are hungry for facts on their favorite topics—and that kind of curiosity should never go unattended! Nothing lends itself to a Read-Aloud like a kid who’s eager to learn more about a topic. Sometimes it can be hard to find a nonfiction book that’s not too dry, so don’t be afraid to turn to other media.

Kids' magazines provide great, concise reading material: they’re full of short articles, activities, and brightly-colored pictures. National Geographic Kids, Sports Illustrated Kids, Time for Kids, Click and Dig are just a few of the excellent kids' magazines being published.

Ranger Rick is a good example of a magazine designed for knowledge-hungry kids. It is a monthly children's magazine published by the National Wildlife Federation and narrated by this guy:

The magazine explores different topics about the animal kingdom and great outdoors. It can be great for introducing readers to new topics or exploring ones they already know a little bit about. The design is especially good for short attention spans! Big print, diagrams, and easy-to-read maps characterize the articles, and some of them are tailor-made to adult/kid reading pairs. Consider the article “In search of seashells” from the September 2011 issue.

The article provides activity ideas for kids on a seashell hunt: playing games with the shells, creating art projects, telling stories, and even classifying them using simple classification tools explained in the article. ("'Uni' means one, 'bi' means two" an illustrated girl explains.) All of the activities they describe can easily be turned into a Read-Aloud with a handful of seashells and some other books about the beach and sea animals. Even better, the article is short enough to keep even the most fidgety reader's interest.

For a kid interested in wild animals, Ranger Rick offers plenty of pictures of wide-toothed sharks and true stories about silly animal antics. If a kid is having trouble engaging in the Read-Aloud, stories about monkeys being chased through the streets by policemen in India might just do the trick! After you've gotten your reader's attention, why not keep it by following up with a Curious George story or a non-fiction book about monkeys?

Children's magazines can serve as a great segue into a new subject or as a way to mix things up if they're getting dull. Consider checking them out next time you're at the library if you know you have a particularly bouncy kid.

More activities can be found at the National Wildlife Federation's Ranger Rick website.

Post by The Reading Connection intern Anna McCormally.


To receive credit for this online training, please fill out the form here.

Be prepared to read

We've said it again and again — be sure to read your books before coming to a Read-Aloud. Here are a few reasons why it's important to read ahead, along with some strategies to help your team prepare.

Why should you read the books ahead of time?

• Know what's in the books: There's nothing worse than reading a book to a group of interested kids and turning the page to find a topic that you don't want to broach. For example, some books about pirates discuss human trafficking. This is probably not a topic you planned on bringing up during your fun pirate Read-Aloud. If you still want to use a book with less desirable parts, paper clip together the pages you'd like to skip so the kids don't notice and be sure to alert your teammates.

• Get tips from the author: Many picture books are written with the express purpose of being read aloud. The authors include keys to readers such as text in all caps or italics to indicate that these words should be read loud or in a special voice.   These hints can also indicate an action like "BOOM, BOOM, BOOM" to indicate stomping or "SNIFF! SNIFF! SNIFF!" for sniffing from The Little Mouse, The Red Ripe Strawberry, and the Big Hungry Bear. Reading through the story in advance allows you to find these special parts and know how to read them aloud. 

• Find hidden treasures:  Reading through the books in advance lets you examine the illustrations and overall design. Look for details or patterns in the pictures to spark the kids' interest. Some design features, such as page breaks, support getting the kids to predict what will happen next.  When a sentence leaves you hanging as you turn the page, pause and let the kids predict.

• Link activities to the books:  In Harry Potter Mr. Olivander says, "The wand chooses the wizard." At Read-Alouds, sometimes the book chooses the activity! When you read a book in advance, you allow it to drop the activity into your hands. For example, if you read How I Became a Pirate by David Shannon, make a treasure map like the character Jeremy Jacob does. This will allow the kids make a concrete connection between what's in the book and the real world.

What is the best way for your team to be prepared?

• One team at ALIVE! House recommends that everyone on the team bring some books on the theme to the Read-Aloud. This way, each person is familiar with the books he/she brought and is prepared to read them to the group. This also facilitates small group reading by providing more books to use.

• A volunteer at ARHA who usually brings the books for her team solves this problem by reading the books in advance and then putting sticky notes inside the books for other readers to reference. Her teammates arrive to the Read-Aloud a few minutes early, flip through the books and read the notes so they are prepared to read to the group.

Does your team have other ideas?  Share them in the comments below.


To receive credit for this online training, please fill out the form here.

Report Feature: Unexpected Endings

Learn more about a Read Aloud from the Berkeley, where kids ages 4 to 10 heard stories with unexpected endings, and then enjoyed an unexpected ending of their own!

 

Books

• Guess Again! by Mac Barnett and Adam Rex
• Beware of the Frog by William Bee
• The End by David LaRochelle
• Tadpole's Promise by Jeanne Willis

Activity 
After a summer hiatus, the fall kick-off event for the Berkeley was the "unexpected ending" Read-Aloud. The unexpected ending for the evening was an ice cream social. 

Additional activity ideas:

Create an outlandish story by the group. An adult begins a story with a traditional start. "Once upon a time there was a little boy who lived with his family in a small cottage in the woods. One day, he went out for a walk, only to find...." Then, let each Read-Aloud participant contribute to the story with the most unexpected twist they can think of. For example, "...an orange octopus wearing a top hat and eating 8 lollipops." The story should continue from person to person until every child has had a chance to add his or her outlandish details.

Rewrite traditional fairy tales or nursery rhymes. In this activity, children create new, unexpected endings for familiar stories. What if Little Red Riding Hood stopped for a picnic, eating all the snacks she was supposed to bring to Grandmother? What if Grandmother captured the Big Bad Wolf and kept him as a pet? What if Cinderella decided she'd rather go to library instead of the ball? What if Snow White got super powers from that poisoned apple? This activity will stimulate great discussions among the kids. At the end, they'll enjoy drawing a scene from their favorite version.

Roll with the ideas the kids produce and have a great Read-Aloud with unexpected endings! Use the comments section below to let us know your ideas for an unexpected ending Read-Aloud or share some of the stories created in your Read-Aloud. 


To receive credit for this online training, please fill out the form here.

Read-Aloud Planning Advice from the Experts--TRC Volunteers

Who better to teach TRC volunteers about planning and conducting winning Read-Alouds than other volunteers?  In the October 2011 Volunteer Seminar, three highly successful Read-Alouds, conducted during summer and fall of 2011, were highlighted because they demonstrate some best practices in planning and implementation. A big thanks to Kim Gilliam, Rebecca Smith and Margaret Roberts for sharing their stellar sessions. Read on for techniques to use in developing your own themes or feel free to use these Read-Alouds just as they're written. 

• Beach Read-Aloud at ARHA with kids ages 4 to 8.
• Human Body Read-Aloud at Independence Place with kids ages 6 to 9.
• Illustrations Read-Aloud at Artemis House with kids ages 5 to12.

ARHA kids go fishing

Appeal to the five senses: We understand best when multiple senses are engaged. Listening to a book engages the sense of hearing, but what if you could engage all five? To appeal to multiple senses in a beach Read-Aloud, bring in sand and shells to touch, seaweed to taste, ocean sounds to listen to, salt water to smell or pictures of a recent trip to the beach to see. Bringing these items gives the kids more ways to experience the theme and builds their background knowledge more thoroughly.

Include a game or physical activity:  Games and physical activities bring your theme to life in the time and space available. At a beach Read-Aloud, use paper fish with magnets and wooden rods with paperclip hooks. At a human body Read-Aloud, play "Operation" and give the kids a shot at being a doctor. Experiencing your theme will build kids' vocabulary and general knowledge.



Look for books with fantastic illustrations: Try organizing an entire Read-Aloud around books with compelling or intricate illustrations. Start with a book such as Animalia by Graeme Base.  This is an ABC book with intricate illustrations that works effectively with both young and older kids. You can decide to use books with the same illustration style or, to deepen the conversation, mix in books with different illustration styles such as photography, collage or painting.

Sing! Kids love silly songs. Books like Take Me Out of the Bathtub and Science Verse put silly words to traditional tunes like "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" and "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star."


Include nonfiction: Kids are eager for facts and love nonfiction books. Many nonfiction books have great photographs and many even rhyme. Try I Wonder Why I Blink by Brigid Avison for a human body theme or What the Sea Saw by Stephanie St. Pierre for a beach theme.

Allow for creativity: Include an activity that allows the kids to express their uniqueness. Kids can create their own ABC illustrations, inspired by Animalia, by cutting pictures out of old magazines and catalogs and making a collage. Make a paper-plate aquarium with cellophane and cut-out fish in a beach-themed Read-Aloud. Having an open-ended craft allows the little ones to do what they can and still feel productive, while the older kids can to make their creations as elaborate as they like.

In addition to the great themes and tips from TRC volunteers, TRC staff also provided outlines for some favorite Read-Alouds for volunteers to re-create at their own sites. If you're ever lacking an idea, feel free to use any of these.

Independence Place kids exploring
a Mad Science Read-Aloud with
their hands.

• Animal Mysteries
• Cooking from the Garden
• Mad Science
• Pirates
• Popcorn
• Soccer
• Teamwork
• Wordless Books
• World Records

To receive credit for this online training, please fill out the form here.

Helping Kids Choose Books

Do you know that feeling of excitement and infinite possibility when you walk in to a book store and know you can pick anything you want? And the delight and anticipation as you open your new book for the first time?

That's exactly what we want for our TRC kids when they choose books at the end of each Read-Aloud.

Kids tell us that their favorite part of the Read-Aloud is when they get to choose a new book to keep. And reading research tells us that getting to choose is as important to building reading motivation as fun experiences with books and reading role models.

So how do you help a child choose?

Familiarize yourself with the give-away books so that you know what is available. Be prepared to talk with the kids about the different types of books. Describe different genres. Introduce new authors and illustrators. Turn them on to a new series.

Bring a book to life. If a child is wondering if she'll like a book, read some of it to her. Point out rhyme, repetition, illustrations, chances to guess what happens next, humor, suspense, and interesting characters.

Help the kids be “great book detectives” by examining available clues:

• Cover—is it appealing?
• Author or illustrator—do they know them? Like them?
• Excerpts or reviews on the back or inside the cover
• Is it part of a series they’ve read and liked?
• How long is it?
• What do their friends know about it?
• How does it read? Try the first page and see.

Pay attention to the kids at your Read-Alouds. Notice what kinds of books or experiences excite them. Ask them about their likes and dislikes. Then, play matchmaker between the kids and the books.

Most important: let kids choose on their own. Please don’t stop children from taking books that you think are too easy or too hard for them to read. Kids, just like adults, are drawn to books for all kinds of reasons—memories, dreams, curiosity. Books can comfort a child or encourage one to try something new and challenging.

Only if a child asks you if a particular books is too hard for her to read, have her try this Five Finger Test.

Our goal is to have each TRC kid leave a Read-Aloud with a book he or she is excited to read!


To receive credit for this online training, please fill out the form here.

Book Feature: Llama Llama Red Pajama

The week of October 3, 2011, The Reading Connection is participating in Jumpstart's "Read for the Record."  The goal of the event is to get two million people to read the same book, Llama Llama Red Pajama, on the same day to call attention to efforts to end the early education achievement gap.

Little Llama is all tucked into bed when he realizes he needs a drink. He calls down to his Mama Llama, but she's busy washing dishes and a phone call and doesn't come right away. Her delayed response distresses Little Llama to the point of a quite amusing meltdown. As in each of the Llama Llama books, the story ends in calm, reassuring words of wisdom from Mama Llama.

To make a llama themed Read-Aloud, try other Llama Llama titles including:

• Llama Llama Mad at Mama about a not-so-fun shopping trip
• Llama Llama Misses Mama about going off to preschool
• Llama Llama Holiday Drama about waiting for the holidays to arrive
• Llama Llama Home With Mama about being home sick from school

Another good rhyming llama book is Is Your Llama a Llama? For activity ideas, check out the Llama Llama website.

Thanks to the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards, each child attending a Read-Aloud session this week will receive a copy of Llama Llama Red Pajama.


To receive credit for this online training, please fill out the form here.