In praise of the toilet paper tube

An empty toilet paper roll is usually a bad thing. The thought sends folks to stores whenever snow is in the weather forecast. Many a household argument has begun with "Who used up the toilet paper?!" bellowed from behind the bathroom door.

The lowly toilet paper roll is a workhorse as far as crafts, science experiments, musical instruments and imaginary play. And best of all, it's free and almost always readily available.  

The next time you are looking for a hands-on activity to do with at your Read-Aloud or with your kids, check out these TP roll ideas.


Science

Read books about buildings like Let's Try It Out With Towers and Bridges by Seymour Simon or your favorite version of The Three Little Pigs. Then try this experiment to see how strong those tubes really are. 

Read Me and My Amazing Body by Joan Sweeney and then make a skeleton of TP tubes. 

Read Roller Coaster by Marla Frazee and then build a marble run.

Find your favorite version of Jack and the Beanstalk or read Growing Vegetable Soup by Lois Ehlert and then grow some seeds in a tube. 










Read Once Upon a Starry Night: A Book of Constellations by Jacqueline Mitton and then make a TP telescope and look at the stars.

Read about motion, vehicles or rockets and then make balloon-powered cars, a rocket, or a ping pong ball launcher. Read Sheep Blast Off by Nancy Shaw, Forces Make Things Move by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley, Poem-Mobiles: Crazy Car Poems by Douglas Florian for inspiration.

      


Music
Read about your favorite musicians or try the Happy Hedgehog Band by Martin Waddell or Punk Farm by Jarrett J. Krosoczka and then make your own TP roll band!
Kazoo 

Maracas  and shakers 

Xylophone  











The internet had lots of ideas for animals and other toilet paper roll crafts. You'll find binoculars, superhero wrist cuffs, flowers, wreaths, games and lots of other ideas. Just pick a book related to your craft, or one that is about imagination (like Not a Box by Antoinette Portis) and dive right in.


   

  


If you're inspired to use toilet paper rolls at a Read-Aloud, check with The Reading Connection office.  We have a good supply.  

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

Interactive Books

There are SO many kids books available today. Books to take into the bathtub or to attach to a stroller, books with flaps, books with textures, books with multiple endings, sticker books, maze books -- the variety is mind-boggling. 

Interactive books are a great way to get kids excited about books. Whether lifting flaps, searching for clues or chiming in, these books require the reader's engagement. 

Interactive books can build skills. Touch-and-feel books build sensory awareness as kids finger soft fur, smooth balls and sticky frog's tongues. Books with flaps can help build toddler's prediction and fine motor skills. Kids who have tons of energy can pour their effort into lifting all of the flaps a book has to offer. 

Interactive books also allow kids to help "read" books well before they are able to read the words on the page. In the video below, an18-month-old helps read Where's Spot? by lifting the flaps and responding to questions.

Interactive books for babies and toddlers include the following:

• Books with flaps, including Where's Spot? by Eric Hill,
• Touch-and-feel books, such as the DK Touch-and-Feel series and Tails by Matthew Van Fleet,
• Books made with interesting materials like pages of cloth or plastic,
• Books that make noise (such as animal sounds) or play music.
• Books with finger puppets, such as The Very Hungry Caterpillar Finger Puppet Book.

Interactive books are just as important for older kids. Interactive books -- like sticker books, search-and-find books and books with optical illusions -- can be some of the few books that appeal to kids who are intimidated by a page full of text. Having fun and feeling successful with interactive books will help these kids see themselves are readers.  

For kids in the upper elementary grades, the Choose Your Own Adventure series by R. A. Montgomery is popular because it gives kids the power to determine how the story unfolds. At the end of each section of the story, readers decide between two options, each of which leads to different plot developments. The series has recently been expanded into versions for younger readers. 

  

Interactive books for school-aged kids include the following:

• Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus by Mo Willems,
• Sticker books,
• Search-and-find books, such as the I Spy or Where's Waldo?,
• Books structured with readers' participation, such as Press Here,
  
• Quiz books,
• Choose Your Own Adventure books,
• Books with complex illustrations Graeme Base's The Eleventh Hour:  A Curious Mystery.

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

Author Study: Roald Dahl

Best known for his wonderful characters from kids books -- Willy Wonka, Matilda, the Foxes and the BFG -- Roald Dahl was a many-faceted, multi-talented author. In addition to his books for kids, he wrote ribald and bone-chilling short stories for adults ("The Smoker") and the screenplay for the James Bond movie, "You Only Live Twice."

Dahl's writing for children draws on experiences he had growing up.  He often depicts kids encountering, and  enduring and outsmarting, badly behaved adults. Although his books have a fairy tale quality to them, Dahl never talks down to kids. His stories acknowledge the imbalance of power in the child/adult dynamic and the ridiculous situations kids face at the hands of grown-ups. He crafts his memorable characters and surprise endings in witty language and imaginative word play, making his books perfect for reading aloud.

Ask the nearest kid -- Dahl's books and characters will surely be cited as favorites. Kids love his mischievous characters, original word play and, last but not least, his "kid power" message. His books are also well known among kids because several have been made into successful movies.  ("Fantastic Mr. Fox,"  "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory," "Matilda,"  "James and the Giant Peach" -- Hollywood has been a big Dahl fan!)  

His novels include the following:

• James and the Giant Peach
• Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
• The BFG
• Matilda
• The Witches
• George's Marvelous Medicine
• The Twits

Try reading a passage from one of Dahl's novels to give kids a taste of his memorable characters and invented words. 

He also wrote several shorter works, quick reads perfect for novice readers and listeners.

• Esio Trot
• The Enormous Crocodile
• The Giraffe, the Pelly and Me
• The Magic Finger
• The Fantastic Mr. Fox

Quentin Blake illustrated most of Dahl’s books. Even Dahl's full-length novels have illustrations, but the shorter ones have illustrations on nearly every page.  For example, The Giraffe, the Pelly and Me is 79 pages long, but approximately 40 of those pages are illustrations.

Don't leave Road Dahl land without taking a look at his Revolting Rhymes. These edgy, fractured fairy tales may appeal to more sophisticated listeners who are already familiar with the original versions. (Beware: some contain PG-13 language. "Cinderella" is an example.) Read them all the way through yourself to assess appropriateness and your comfort level before you read them with kids.

Many of Dahl's stories have detailed passages about food that kids will love. His book, Roald Dahl's Revolting Recipes, has recipes for many of the delightful dishes in his stories like stink bug eggs, lickable wall paper and eatable pillows. Kids will love cooking up some Dahlicious treats after hearing some of his stories.

If kids want to know about Dahl's life, they can check out his autobiographical works Boy and Going Solo. Boy explores his life up to age 20. Going Solo chronicles his experiences as young adult, including his time as a World War II pilot. They can also take a look at D Is for Dahl, a collection of biographical fun facts, arranged in alphabetical order and illustrated by Quentin Blake. 

The Roald Dahl website is chock full of information, photographs, timelines and activities, as is Quentin Blake's. A more basic fan site, RoaldDahlFans.com, has trivia, games and a gobblefunk translator where you can translate English into the language spoken by the Big Friendly Giant.  And last but not least, here's a quiz about Roald Dahl and his books from the BBC.

Roald Dahl's books are so beautifully crafted that they are beloved by children and adults alike.  His characters, inventive language and independent, problem-solving kids make his books a pleasure to read with children. Best suited for one-on-one bedtime reading or reading aloud to a group of older kids, he's one of the most beloved children's book authors of our time.

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

Blue-footed boobies and whingdingdillies

If you are looking for a Read-Aloud theme that is light and fun, try this one about odd and unusual animals. This theme provides an easy way to include both nonfiction and fiction selections, as well as real and imaginary animals.

One volunteer's recent trip to the Galapagos Islands provided inspiration for a team from Next Steps (New Hope Housing). Some of the animals of the Galapagos Islands exist nowhere else on earth, and some have evolved to have highly unusual features. The kids loved seeing this volunteer's photos of animals she had seen and could tell stories about -- blue-footed boobies, marine iguanas and giant tortoises. Connecting the content with real-life experience helps kids understand the information and builds excitement.

If no one on your team has taken a trip to the Galapagos Islands, the library is a great source of books on the animals of the Galapagos; an internet search on "animals of the Galapagos Islands" will also yield wonderful photos.

Or, drop the Islands angle altogether and introduce the kids to your favorite quirky animals:  platypus, emus, angler fish, sloths or geckos that can regrow their tails. The animals section of the library will give you lots of options!  



You'll find fiction treatments of silly animals just as much fun.  

William Wegman's famous Weimaraners dressed as humans are a great example of visual humor that kids can appreciate. In this video, he introduces his new book, Flo & Wendell.  

Bill Peet and Dr. Seuss are authors famed for their imaginary animals. Peet, an animator for Walt Disney, develops a story around his imaginary animals.  Seuss' animals are more likely to appear as a name and a drawing in a larger narrative.   

Book list

Flo & Wendell by William Wegman

If I Ran the Zoo and other books by Dr. Seuss

Cyrus the Unsinkable Sea Serpent, The Whingdingdilly and other books by Bill Peet
But Not the Hippopotamus by Sandra Boynton

Diary of a Wombat by Jackie French

The Cow That Went Oink by Bernard Most
Animal Tails by Beth Fielding

Never Smile At a Monkey by Steve Jenkins
Creature Features by Steve Jenkins
How to Clean a Hippopotamus by Steve Jenkins

In the activity portion of the Read-Aloud, the team at Next Steps worked with the kids to make silly animal masks from paper plates. When the children were told that they were free to make the masks as crazy as they wanted, they got very creative. The volunteers cut the centers out of the plates and stapled tongue depressors (handles) ahead of time. At the Read-Aloud, the kids used colored foam, paper, cotton balls and cotton-tipped swabs to make their imaginary animal masks. It was loads of fun!

To add some movement, play silly animal "Simon Says." "Simon says waddle like a penguin. Simon says show your feet like a blue-footed boobie. Puff up like a puffer fish!" 

For a song, make up a mixed-up version of "Old MacDonald" based on the mix-ups in the book, The Cow That Went Oink. Together with the kids, make up funny combinations of animals and sounds, and then sing your song.

Don't forget to congratulate everyone on their imagination and silliness!

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

Everyone needs diverse books

There is a new resource for new and up-to-date information on diversity in children's books:  in the last few weeks, a new nonprofit called We Need Diverse Books (WNDB) has incorporated and set up its website. 


We encourage you to check out the WNDB website for book lists, testimonials, and to see what the authors, illustrators, teachers and librarians supporting WNDB are saying in their campaign to increase the availability of books that feature children and families of color and with disabilities.

Because a huge majority of the children in our programs are children of color, TRC endorses the idea that more books featuring kids and families of color are needed. To help TRC volunteers find and use more of the books that are available, we've put together some easy suggestions you can use to increase the diversity in your Read-Aloud book selection. 

Increasing diversity in Read-Aloud themes

If you are planning a Thanksgiving-themed Read-Aloud for this month, check out these wonderful choices: Feast for 10 by Cathryn Falwell and Gracias the Thanksgiving Turkey by Joy Cowley. Feast for 10 is a simple book featuring counting and food items as an African-American family prepares for a family feast. In Gracias, a Hispanic boy raises a pet turkey and waits for his father to arrive home for the holiday. 

Instead of the usual "winter holiday" themed Read-Aloud focusing on Christmas and Hanukkah, put the emphasis on New Year's Day. In addition to American New Years traditions, Japanese New Year is also celebrated on January 1. You can further extend the theme to diverse groups by including lunar new year celebrations. Lunar new year celebrations (usually occurring in late January or February) include Chinese New Year and Vietnamese New Year.  Bringing in the New Year by Grace Lin, Dragon Dance:  A Chinese New Year Lift-the Flap by Joan Holub and This Next New Year by Janet S. Wong are some great titles. 

For a Women's History Month (March) theme, increasing the diversity of women featured can be easily accomplished by looking at books by well-respected author and illustrator Jeanette Winter. Winter's picture book biographies include Wangari's Trees of Peace, a Story of Africa, (about Nobel Peace Prize winner Wangari Maathai, Kenyan environmentalist) and The Librarian of Basra, A True Story of Iraq. Balance these stories of far away places with Winter's biographies of American and English women, such as Jane Goodall (The Watcher: Jane Goodall's Life with the Chimps) and Georgia O'Keefe (My Name is Georgia:  A Portrait). 

For a back-to-school Read-Aloud, consider including No English by local author Jacqueline Jules, which follows the adjustment of Diana to her seatmate, Bianca, who speaks only Spanish. Thank You, Mr. Falker by Patricia Polacco, is the author's  story of her own struggle with dyslexia. 


Although the following chapter books are too long for the traditional Read-Aloud, the Joey Pigza series (Joey Pigza Swallowed the Key is the first book in the series) by Jack Gantos is a funny and illuminating series about Joey's life with ADHD. Wonder by R. J. Palacio, is a thoroughly enjoyable story of a boy with facial-cranial deformities and his adjustment from home-schooling to school. Keep them in mind for kids who ask for suggestions. 

It's not hard to make diversity a part of your Read-Alouds. Your fellow volunteers have put together wonderful Read-Alouds that exemplified diversity. One team conducted a Read-Aloud on the theme of dance that included a visit from a Bolivian dance group. Teams have also enjoyed implementing Read-Alouds on jazz music, a subject that children's book giant Chris Raschka has treated in several books. (Charlie Parker Played Be-Bop is just one.) Finally, one team chose Africa as a theme.  The kids loved it!  

If you find yourself stymied, the children's librarian at your local branch will be glad to help. Or contact us at the TRC office. We have lots of suggestions!





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