Literacy Launchpad

Summer Boredom Buster: Make Your Own Board Game!

noreply@blogger.com (Amy @ Literacy Launchpad) — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 03:21:00 +0000

For some parts of the country, school is just letting out for the summer. In other parts, like where I live, we're already almost four weeks into summer break! So that means the inevitable summer boredom is creeping in a little. Who am I kidding? My kids were complaining they were bored the very first day of summer! No joke!

On one of those first "I'm bored" days I whipped out a Lego board game idea I found on Pinterest. It was an extremely simple game of rolling dice and moving along a very simple board where you gathered or lost Lego blocks till you reached the end. As I played this with My Little Reader, we were brainstorming various ways we could improve on the game. One of my older kids came and joined us and the more we talked about it, the more she wanted to make her own board game. Then My Little Reader wanted to make one too!

So the next day we pulled out cardboard and our big roll of paper, crayons, markers, stickers, and got to work. I sat down to help My Little Reader, and was really excited to implement all our great ideas into our own board game. He had other ideas. He had come up with an entirely new concept (one that I barely understood), and he could not be swayed to use any of my ideas. My assistance ended up being utilized merely for coloring and writing.

But it was OK, because My Little Reader was having a ball and getting to be creative, use critical thinking skills, tinker and design, and imagine his own little story. Because that's what a board game ultimately is, right? It's a little story you (or your pawn) ventures through, and the adventure changes a little each time.

I wrote the words on the game spaces for my son, but he dictated it all and oversaw the process (he's kind of a bossy pants). It was great print awareness practice, as he used words to design the game the way he wanted. Then as we played the game, he got to see the words he came up with being read and used over and over by the game players. Games are great tools for demonstrating the power and purpose of words and print. "Steal another player's treasure" or "lose a turn" can carry great significance toward winning or losing. Especially to a competitive preschooler!

My Little Reader had a ball with his board game! We have all played it many times. He takes great pride in his creation, and loves to see us all having fun with it. This was a spontaneous activity that kept my kiddo busy for quite a while, and helped him practice some of those valuable literacy skills while he was having all that fun!

How are you keeping the summer boredom at bay in your family?

Pen Pals! A Great Way to Keep Them Writing This Summer!

noreply@blogger.com (Amy @ Literacy Launchpad) — Mon, 10 Jun 2013 05:08:00 +0000

Enjoy this flashback tip I shared last summer!

My lovely cousin, Holly, asked me if my kids would like to be pen pals with her kids over the summer and I hastily replied, "Yes!" Holly is a teacher and knows what good writing practice this will be for our kids. I'm thankful for her initiative, as this was one of those things I was wanting to do this summer, but wasn't sure I was going to get around to starting.

Our kids have never met, and so this is a great way for them all to get to know each other. It's also fun for them all to get real mail in the mailbox. And coming up with interesting things to write about, or clever letter-writing ideas, will be cool too!

Holly's kids sent fun little pen pal boxes to mine to get it all going. My kids were psyched to open their package and start using their stuff. My older son did great with reading his letter he received, and my daughter got to writing back immediately (my littlest one was most excited about coloring in his new coloring book)!

My kids of course wanted to pick some fun things out too, and we sent those off to their pen pals last week. I found I fun little "All About Me" worksheet (thank you Pinterest) for my kids to fill out and include in their package they sent. It was a good prompt for them, as they were suffering from a bad case of What-should-I-wriiiiite-itis the day we sat down to write our first pen pal letters.

We're already planning to find some fun postcards to send while we're on vacation later this month. Photos from summer activities will be fun to send as well. I'm hoping we can get creative and keep it fun. Any writing practice is great, and pen pals are a great way for kids (especially little ones) to understand some of the purposes of print.

Share your creative pen pal writing ideas in the comments. How/what are your kids writing this summer?

Creating Captive Readers

noreply@blogger.com (Amy @ Literacy Launchpad) — Mon, 03 Jun 2013 02:58:00 +0000

I have been anxiously anticipating the newest edition of Jim Trelease's Read Aloud Handbook. The waiting has reminded me that I need to be reading and reading and reading with my kids. But if it's not bedtime, then sometimes My Little Reader is resistant to sitting down with a book (he would rather be playing Legos). So I've been trying to get creative with reading to him in moments where he doesn't have much else he could be doing. I've been trying to catch him as a captive audience. And in this digital age we're living in, that's tough!

So here are some ideas of places you might find your child to be a captive reading audience.

1. In the bathtub. Rub-a-dub-dub, they can't easily escape from the tub. I figured that even if my son was playing with his toys in the tub, he still might catch some of what I was reading him. And it turned out that he became more interested in the stories than his toys.

2. The bathroom. We have to do "sit time" every day with our son right now. I could just send him in there to sit by himself. Or I could steal those moments to sneak in a story while he's still and stuck!

3. Appointments and waiting times. I know the go-to these days is the smart phone or Ipad to entertain in these moments. But what if you just happened to "forget" to bring those one day? Or you loaded them up with some awesome storybook apps?

4. The car. I don't utilize my car enough lately. Now I can't read while I'm driving. But my kids will almost always sit and look at a book while they're strapped down in the car. Keep the car stocked with some high-interest books. For my kids that would look like comic books and favorite character stories. Maybe some look-and-find type books.

5. The table. Have nothing to talk about at the kitchen table? Or maybe you're like our family and you need to keep the bickering to a minimum. Whip out a book and start reading. Sure, it sometimes makes it hard to eat your own meal. But when the kids finish eating and clear the table you can finish your own dinner in quiet solitude... maybe with your own book to read!

6. While they are doing a favorite activity. My Little Reader will absolutely listen to a story if a slide up next to him with a book while he's building with his Legos. Especially if it's a Lego City story. I know not all activities allow this, but what about while they're painting or coloring, playing with dolls, or putting together a puzzle?

7. Cleaning time. Hopefully your kids help out around the house and you (and/or your spouse) are not stuck with all the chores yourself. My kids have daily and weekly chores they help with. And chore time might be a lot more pleasant for us all if I pulled out a books and took the time to read to them while they dusted or folded laundry. They have to do it anyway, might as well make the most of the moment! Who knows, they might come to look forward to cleaning time!

8. Create special reading moments. Maybe new traditions or fun surprises that your child might then associate with books in the future - like a reading picnic. I think I might try some breakfast and lunch picnics in the yard this summer with books! We even have little tents I made last summer that would make this extra fun. How fun would it be for them to wake up and find a picnic and stories waiting for them at breakfast!

Have ideas for finding moments to read to your kids as a captive audience? Please share in the comments; I need all the ideas I can get!

6 Beach Books + Literacy Skill-Building Activities!

noreply@blogger.com (Amy @ Literacy Launchpad) — Mon, 27 May 2013 15:07:00 +0000

Anybody else planning a trip to the beach this summer? Ocean? Lake? Pond? A DIY beach in you backyard? Or how about a make-believe trip to the beach?

Some beach reading can bring extra fun to your trip while also giving your children practice with those essential emergent reading skills!

Phonological Awareness
Alphabet Knowledge
Vocabulary
Print Awareness
Narrative Skills
Motivation

All You Need For A Beach (Alice Schertle)- We love Schertle's All You Need for A Snowman and this is a perfect summer counterpart! I love that the kids can participate by jumping in and insisting on each page that there's more you need for a beach than what the text tells so far. You could do great print awareness practice with this one by making a list as you read of all the things you need for a beach. Then let the kids do an art/craft project where they create a beach by working off the list you made together. You could check each item off as you add it to you beach art/craft project.

Flotsam (David Wiesner) - A wordless picture book in which a boy discovers a magical underwater camera that has washed up at the beach - Flotsam! What a discovery it turns out to be! This is a great book for introducing new vocabulary to your kids or students! Talk about what "flotsam" is (floating debris or treasures that wash up on the beach from the ocean). Then bring your own magnifying glass and camera to the beach and see what flotsam you can find. Who can find the most unusual flotsam? The largest? Smallest? Most colorful? Give your kids some book handling practice by putting your photos in a book and adding text. Let them read their book to family and friends.

To the Beach (Linda Ashman) - Can't we all relate to this story? A family tries to leave for the beach, but has to keep turning back for all the things they keep forgetting to bring along. By the time they have everything they need, it begins to rain. They turn around and go back home. Then , of course, the sun comes back out, so they make a pretend beach in their own backyard. This is a great story to inspire your own backyard beach fun or pretend beach play! We read this one in class and practiced our narrative skills by retelling to story by acting it out with fun props. Then we pretended our classroom was our own backyard beach and we played like we were at the beach! It was a lot of silly fun!

The Boy on the Beach (Niki Daly) - I love this book! First, because it features children that actually look like some of my own children. Also because it's just a beautifully, perfect beach story. We see a "boy" on the beach playing and exploring in various ways. It opens up a great conversation of do's and don'ts at the beach. Do: splash, build castles, play in the surf, enjoy cool treats, bury each other in the sand... Don't: forget the sunscreen, run around so fast that your spray sand on other people, wander off and get lost... At the end of the story we learn the boy's name as he writes it in the sand. This book could inspire some alphabet knowledge practice and fun sand writing of your own! Write your own name in that sand and take a photo! How many different ways can you write each letter of the alphabet (big, little, fancy, with shells, with your body...)? Bring some glue and paper to the beach and write letters with glue on the paper; then sprinkle sand on the glue to make cool, sensory alphabet cards. Send the kids on scavenger hunts by writing a letter in the sand and having them find something on the beach that begins with that letter. There are many fun possibilities!

Commotion in the Ocean (Giles Andreae) - Fun and catchy rhymes about animals that live in that ocean you might be swimming in. Rhyming = Phonological Awareness practice. Yay! Isn't it great when learning is so fun? Talk about which of these animals you think you may or may not see while you're visiting the beach.

A Beach Tail (Karen Lynn Williams) - A young boy draws a lion in the sand and then promises his dad to stay by his lion drawing. He keeps his promise while also satisfying his desire to further explore the beach by giving his lion a very long tail! "Swish-swoosh" the lion's tale keeps getting longer and he keeps getting further and further away from his father. He finally has to use the tail he drew to find his way back to his dad. This story gave us an idea of something to play on our beach trip - we're going to draw trails for each other to follow with something fun to discover at the end! This book was such a delight. Definitely a new favorite!

This short list of beach books will have you practicing all those needed emergent reading skills! These are good skills even for my older, already-reading kids to practice. And all these games and activities are so fun that your children will be practicing motivation too as they see how much fun their reading is creating!

Try These Ideas to Kick Off Summer Reading Fun!

noreply@blogger.com (Amy @ Literacy Launchpad) — Mon, 20 May 2013 11:44:00 +0000

Need to kickstart your summer of reading with your kids or students? Try these ideas!

1. Take a summer reading field trip.

2. Read Swimmy and make something fishy!

3. Write and draw a summer journal/scrapbook.

4. Read camping stories and make cool lanterns!

5. Read Psst! and take a real or pretend trip to the zoo.

6. Surprise your kiddos with reading rewards!

7. Read I'm the Biggest Thing in the Ocean and make squid hats.

Make a Play Mat! Build Letter Knowledge!

noreply@blogger.com (Amy @ Literacy Launchpad) — Mon, 13 May 2013 03:18:00 +0000

My Little Reader has been really into Tonka's Chuck Trucks lately. They have a Chuck Truck show on Netflix, which is the driving the force behind this current obsession of his.

I needed to keep him busy one day while we had a repair guy at the house and so I whipped out some big paper and some art supplies and we made a play mat together for his trucks and cars.

I decided to give the activity an "Alphabet City" theme so we could work in some letter-knowledge practice as well! He loved it!

You don't need any fancy supplies to make this. Basically just some big paper and some crayons (see above). If you don't have a roll of large craft paper, the plain side of some wrapping paper might work as well.

We rolled two lengths of paper out side by side to get the size we wanted, and then used the tape to attach the two pieces together on the back. Then we got to drawing!

Besides the alphabet stickers, we used whatever other stickers we had in our sticker box that might work for our Alphabet City. You could probably think of some cool ideas for your Alphabet City with a lot of those miscellaneous craft supplies in your art cabinet at home!

I just free-handed the road shape. My son told me what directions he wanted the road to go, then I drew it that way as best I could.

My son and I worked together to draw a variety of features on our mat: shops, library, pond, gas station, etc. Be creative, and let your child come up with the ideas as much as possible. My son was struggling to think up some ideas, so I drew some generic buildings and then pointed to each and asked, "What should this one be?" That helped kick-start his ideas.

We named and labeled our buildings and locations as we went. We tried to cover as many letters of the alphabet as we could with our names and labels. I would say the name of a place to My Little Reader and then he would figure out the first letter(s) and find it on our sticker sheet. Then I would write-in the rest of the name next to the sticker (see photos above).

The fun doesn't stop when you're done drawing!

This activity kept My Little Reader busy for hours. Literally. Try it!

Other alphabet play mat ideas your little one might enjoy making and then using with their toys:
- Alphabet Zoo
- Alphabet Kingdom (I'm thinking fairy and princess theme)
- Alphabet Jungle
- Alphabet School
- Alphabet Circus

Grow Jack's Beanstalk in Your Classroom!

noreply@blogger.com (Amy @ Literacy Launchpad) — Mon, 06 May 2013 04:58:00 +0000

When I do one of my fairy tale units with my students, I tell them the story of "Jack and the Beanstalk" and use fun props. My magic beanstalk that grows to the ceiling is my favorite prop! This prop idea came from another preschool teacher that's a genius, and whom I absolutely adore. I wonder if she knows my students have been loving and adoring her beanstalk prop for years now?

You'll need everything mentioned in the photo here, plus some scissors, a pencil, a marker, and a sewing needle (don't worry, it's just to pull the fishing line through your fabric, no serious sewing involved here!) You choose the kind of fabric you want. I think I just chose a soft, cotton fabric that was on sale. Remember that Hobby Lobby and Joanne Fabrics always have coupons online!

I think I got about a yard of green fabric (maybe two?) and I drew a beanstalk on it that started in the bottom left corner and wound up to the top left corner with my pattern, then back down, then back up... And so on and so forth till I got all the way to the end of the right side. This way you use every bit of your green fabric. It's doesn't matter if your beanstalk is drawn and cut straight across the fabric, because it's all going to hang from the ceiling anyway and will be straight when it does. You can trace over your penciled pattern with a marker to make it easier to see, and then cut it out.

Take the end of your clear thread or fishing line and thread your needle. Poke the needle through one end of your beanstalk. You just need to secure it so it can pull your beanstalk to the ceiling without coming undone. Secure it with a good knot. It doesn't have to look pretty, nobody is going to see it anyway. It just needs to hold.

You'll have to measure or estimate how tall the ceiling is in the room you'll be using. Or how tall you want your beanstalk to grow. Your fishing line will need to be about twice that length. Tie your washer to the end where you cut it. The washer will weight down your thread so it stays low where you can reach it to pull. It will keep your beanstalk apparatus from falling down before you even begin.

If you do not have a drop ceiling to use, you could secure a nail, or 3M hook to the wall to drape your fishing line over. If you do that, you don't have to worry about using a paperclip. Just make sure your nail or hook is high enough to inspire some awe in your kiddos when the beanstalk grows!

I pull the line and make the beanstalk grow, then "chop it down" myself, when I first tell my students the story. But when the story is done I let each student have a turn to pull the line and make the stalk grow. We pretend they're Jack and say things as they pull the line like, "Wow, _______, your beans really are growing! Amazing!" Then I hold the line for them and let them use the toy axe to swing at the stalk and chop it down (let go of the line when you want to let the stalk fall). Be careful when letting them swing the toy axe. I've had a student or two get bumped by some very enthusiastic axe-swingers!

At one point I was using my own homemade faux axe with my students. I made it with cardboard, the cardboard roll from inside an aluminum foil roll, some paint, and some hot glue. It worked great for a couple years, but eventually broke.

We do this story the last week of our fairy tale unit, and it's always a fun finale. I hope it works great for you. Let me know if you have any questions and I'll do my best to answer them! And let me know how it turns out!

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The Ultimate Tips for a Magical and Affordable Disney Trip!

noreply@blogger.com (Amy @ Literacy Launchpad) — Wed, 01 May 2013 04:57:00 +0000

Summer is swiftly approaching, and that means vacation time! We took an amazing trip to Disney World last summer, and I think a big reason it was so amazing was because I did TONS of research before we went. In true Literacy Launchpad style I read every Disney World planning book I could get my hands on from the library. My research paid off. Yay for books! We didn't spend a ton of money, pretty much didn't wait in ANY long lines, saw everything we wanted to see, truly enjoyed ourselves, and came back with family memories we'll forever cherish (Aww!). AND we were there during one of the busiest (and hottest) times of the year! Impossible you say? It's not! And I really, really wanted to share with you all some tips that made our trip so fantastic. I hope they help you too!

Consider this off-topic post a public service to you, my lovely readers!

Turtle Talk with Crush (Epcot) was one of our favorite things. Giggles all around.

1. Look into Disney's Youth Educational Series (YES) Program. Your child(ren) attend a three-hour class during one day of your trip. There are quite a few classes to choose from, and they are taught with Disney fun! With enrollment in the YES Program, you then get special, deeply discounted Disney tickets for your entire family. We saved at least 40% on our tickets this way. You can choose what kind of tickets you want (Park Hopper, Fun Your Way, etc) and how many you want (2-day, 5-day, 7-day...). It's an awesome deal, and well worth it. Mel enjoyed the class. Mary not so much (she mostly didn't like that she was the oldest in her class), but again, it was well worth it. (Note: There have been some recent changes to this program. Look into it. If this option doesn't work and you're a homeschooler, look into registering your trip as a "field trip." I know a friend that did this and got discounted tickets that way.)

2. Read some Disney Guide books. This made the anticipation of the trip that much more fun, and helped optimize our enjoyment of the trip. I learned the best times to get to the parks, the rides and attractions worth visiting and those not worth bothering with, what might scare my youngest and what he would love, the yummiest snacks to get while in the parks, how to avoid crowds, etc. You can find guidebooks at your local library or Amazon.

This is the best one to read in my opinion!

Dole Whips from Aloha Isle in Magic Kingdom - a must!

I also did research online and found tips on what to pack for in the park, fun t-shirt ideas and things for us to make for our trip, fun and thrifty souvenir ideas, etc.

I gathered some of these ideas on a Pinterest board HERE!

3. You can download software and/or apps to help minimize your wait time in lines, and to help maximize the number of rides and attractions your can make it to. We used touringplans.com, though we didn't end up following any specific touring plans. I had read enough books to know which rides to hit first, and which ones we wanted to make it to most, so we used the app to track wait times for the rides and attractions we wanted to make it to and created our own custom touring plan while we were on the go in the parks each day.

In addition to the touringplans.com app, my husband put a Disney World app on his phone that helped us track where the characters were at in the park each day. It also included maps and wait times.

I definitely recommend using these apps!

Riding the teacups with no wait and hardly any other people. In JULY!

4. Get some of your fun stuff BEFORE you get to Disney. We saved money by making our own autograph books for the kids before we left. I bought little photo albums at the dollar store and some Disney stickers (Dollar Tree too) and customized a cover for each kid's book with their name on it. Then I hot-glued scrapbook paper to alternating pages in the book (on top of the plastic that you slide the photos into) and put some stickers on the scrapbook paper pages in the corner. These were the pages that the characters signed, and alternating them with empty pages in the photo album gave us a place to put a photo of them with each character they met. I wasn't sure they would care so much about meeting the characters, but they couldn't get enough of it. It was one of the most precious parts of our trip, I'm really glad we made time for it... And I'm really glad I didn't wait till we got to Disney and have to pay $15 a pop for their autograph books.

We also ordered a set of Disney trading pins on ebay and divided them between the kids, so they could put them on lanyards and trade pins while in the park (a fun little Disney thing that's new since the last time I visited 5 years ago). We bought Disney lanyards at our local party store for $1 each, but were disappointed when we discovered that the pins fell off these lanyards WAY too easily. We ended up buying new lanyards in the park (a splurge) and the pins stayed on much better (though there were still a few that didn't seems to ever want to stay on)! Weird. But the kids enjoyed trading with Disney cast members as we toured the parks. They probably didn't enjoy it as much as they enjoyed the autograph books though.

Pin trading. Cast members will always trade with you, up to two pins.

I know some people buy Disney souvenirs at Disney outlets and dollar stores and such before their trip and then give their child a souvenir each day of vacation without spending the big bucks on souvenirs in the parks. A great idea! We didn't want to create the expectation in our kids that they need to get something everyday of vacation. Instead, we put their lanyards, autograph books, some pens, a Mickey stuffed animal, and a few small trinkets in a gift bag and left them out for them to find the first morning of vacation. The rest of vacation we had clear guidelines on what we would and wouldn't be spending in the parks, and the kids had their own spending money they had saved up and brought along to use. This worked great for us.

5. Get to the parks at opening. I had my doubts, but it's true what everyone says, you will get on tons of rides with hardly any wait at all if you get there when the park opens. We visited at the end of July, which is one of THE busiest times of the year to visit, but we hardly waited in any lines. No lie. It felt too good to be true. It really wasn't till about lunch time when lines would start to get longer, and by that point we had already had a solid 3 hours of riding stuff line-free! You don't have to be one of those crazy people, pushing your way through the crowd and sprinting to get to the rides first. Just be somewhere in the crowd at opening and you'll be golden.

6. Utilize Fast Passes and Rider Share! Be sure to get a new Fast Pass as soon as your previous Fast Pass allows you to (which is usually only about an hour or two after you get it, even if you have to wait longer than that to use the fast pass). Send one person into the park with everybody in your group's tickets. Let them run ahead and get Fast Passes and then meet up at the first ride you all want to go on. You only ever need to send one person in your group to get the Fast Passes.

Rider Share allows you to get a Fast Pass for 3 people in your group for a ride or attraction that a child in your group is too little (or too scared) to ride. The idea is that someone waits with the child while the rest of the group stands in the stand-by line for the ride. Then when they get off, you can use the Fast Pass for the person who waited, plus two other people in your group, to get on the ride without having to wait in the stand-by line again. This helped our big kids get to go on some rides multiple times with no wait. I'll admit, we milked the Rider Share thing and this cut down on our wait times in a big way!

It felt like we always had a Fast Pass or a Rider Share and never had to wait in any lines (it helped to be able to check-off a lot of our must-dos early in the day when there were pretty much zero lines)! I think the only big line we waited in all week was to meet Buzz and Woody, and that was because it was a spur-of-the-moment decision by the kids, and there was no Fast Pass on that.

7. Stay at a condo near Disney. We have never stayed on property, and have always immensely enjoyed our Disney vacations. I'm sure on-property vacations are awesome, but if we're thrilled already with a non-property lodging option, why raise the standard and price tag of our vacation unnecessarily, right? Ignorance is absolutely bliss in this case! We rented a very affordable, three-bedroom condo that was literally right down the road from Disney. It took us only a few minutes to get back and forth from Disney. We had plenty of room to spread out (the kids had a room, Hubby and I had a room, my mom had her own room). There was a fantastic pool, waterside, and playground at the resort where our condo was, although we ended up barely using any of that. There was a full washer and dryer so we could pack light and didn't have tons of laundry to do when we got home from our trip. And most importantly, it had a full kitchen! We saved tons of money eating breakfast at home each morning before we headed to the parks. And we usually packed a lunch to bring into the park with us, and/or came back to our condo to cook dinner. So we usually only ever ate a maximum of one meal out each day, sometimes none!

8. Bring a lunch into the park, as well as plenty of drinks. Did you know you can bring a soft-sided cooler into Disney? You can! We brought two coolers each day; one for our lunches and munchies, and one for drinks. We would freeze juice boxes and water bottles (Gogurts too!) and so we always had plenty of cold refreshments throughout the day. And bringing munchies saved us money and avoided meltdowns in those moments when the kids would suddenly utter, "I'm hungry!" And we discovered that finding a bench or table in the shade and unpacking our own lunches was much easier and more relaxing than battling the lines and crowds in the restaurants at meal times. Plus, we found that most of the restaurants in the parks had pretty limited menus (like only pizzas in one restaurant, or only chicken in another), and so packing our own lunch was more of a guarantee that everybody would be pleased with what they ended up eating.

9. Know when to leave. There was only one day that we stayed at the park the entire day. The other days we usually headed back to our condo in the late afternoon to cook dinner and get to bed at a reasonable time. It was never a battle with the kids, because by getting there at opening, we had plenty of time to go on everything they wanted to go on (and more) by afternoon. Still, they were thoroughly EXHAUSTED even with leaving the park early. I think on our next trip we will plan a longer stay and work in more rest days, or just plan less days at the parks so we can work in more rest days.

10. Sanitize! We did not make a point of doing this well. And I think all the germs at Disney, coupled with not enough sleep while on the trip, and grueling days at the park, was why we ended up with two sick kids in the car on the way home. I have heard from several other people since that their kids were sick by the end of their Disney trip as well. I don't know if sanitizing our hands better during the trip would have helped avoid this, but it couldn't have hurt. Maybe upping your vitamin in-take for the week preceding your trip, the week of your trip, and the week after your trip might help your kids avoid the sickies too. It wasn't a fun way to end the trip, but they did OK with the car trip (it was actually a pretty quiet trip home) and we all felt the trip was still awesome, despite the sickies at the end.

11. Bring Grandma with if you can! Ha! My mom came along on our trip and it was so fun having her there. Logistically juggling the various wants and needs of our three kids (each 4 years apart in age) was much easier with another adult there. And I loved getting to spend time with her all week, since we live eight hours away from each other. She let David and I have a date night at the Magic Kingdom one evening, and a movie date night another night. And then David let her and me have a girls' night out together at the Magic Kingdom on another night. So special!

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Leave your questions in the comments and I'll do my best to answer them and help you out further if I can!

All About Cats!

noreply@blogger.com (Amy @ Literacy Launchpad) — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 11:23:00 +0000

(Photo from ashastergiou.tumblr.com)

A kitty cat and a good book go together almost like peanut butter and jelly, right? Our family loves cats. And this week we lost a family cat to a terminal feline disease. We are all brokenhearted, and so this week's post is in our beloved Flash's honor. Goodbye, to one of the sweetest cats we've ever known!

Here are some of our favorite cat books! This week we are going to read some of these and remember our gone but not forgotten pal!

And here's a link to a Pinterest board I made with cat craft and activity ideas! My son wants to "make a cat craft to give someone in our family so they can remember Flash and not be so sad." I think that's a great idea.

Books Foster Empathy and Compassion!

noreply@blogger.com (Amy @ Literacy Launchpad) — Sun, 21 Apr 2013 05:08:00 +0000

The world can be a crazy, scary place. We all want to provide our children a good and safe world to grow up in. The reality is that we don't have much control over that. But there is something we can do to be actively making the future of this world better: read to our kids!

An article I linked up to recently on the Literacy Launchpad Facebook page talked about ten things that happen to our brains when we read. One of those things is that when we read about an experience, it makes our brains think we have actually experienced it:

Reading about experiences is almost the same as living it:

"Have you ever felt so connected to a story that it's as if you experienced it in real life? There's a good reason why: your brain actually believes that you have experienced it. When we read, the brain does not make a real distinction between reading about an experience and actually living it. Whether reading or experiencing it, the same neurological regions are stimulates. Novels are able to enter into our thoughts and feelings. While you can certainly hop into a VR game at the mall and have a great time, it seems that reading is the original virtual experience, at least for your brain." (Open Education Database)

Another article on Oregon Live talks specifically about the genre of fiction and how effectively it fosters empathy:

"Reading fiction... attunes us to the complex, unpredictable activity going on behind the names and faces that we meet. It trains us to recognize the individuality that makes everyone irreplacably unique. Reading fiction leads us to understand that each individual perceives, like me, a world -- but the world they perceive may be quite different from mine. Indeed, as a form of expression, creative writing -- like music, dance and the visual arts -- gives us a chance to convey our worlds to others." (Oregon Live)

So by simply reading to your children every day, you are helping them to become a better person, not just academically and intellectually, but by their character! Reading to your child helps them to imagine themselves in someone else's shoes, and builds up compassion within them.

All it takes is reading books, but there are some extra little things you can do to help your child think a little deeper on what is being read to them.

1. Ask questions at a few key points in the book, like, "I wonder how this character feels right now," or "Do you think these characters can ever forgive one another? How?"

2. Point out facial expressions and body language of the characters. Talk about how these are clues that tell others how we're feeling on the inside.

3. Relate the story to your child, their own life, things they have personally experienced. "Remember when your friend forgot your birthday like happened to the little girl in this book? Did you feel the same way she did?"

Questions like these help your child understand other people, and also helps them see how other people might understand them.

These are some great book lists floating around (check Pinterest) that give tons of suggestions for picture books that might particularly help foster empathy and compassion in kids. At least for today I am going to shy away from trying to put any picture books into that box, or to even suggest that there is a box that would include or exclude certain books from fostering empathy and compassion. The truth is, any fiction book can serve this purpose, whether it's a book about death, or a book about going grocery shopping with mom. There is value in a child "experiencing" the world of another, no matter how greatly significant or horribly mundane of an experience it might be.

If you read to your child regularly, you are already fostering empathy without even trying. Keep it up! You are adding something good to our world!

How to Use Your Child's Interests to Make Reading Fun

noreply@blogger.com (Amy @ Literacy Launchpad) — Mon, 15 Apr 2013 13:07:00 +0000

Something magical happened with my son last week. I have been very frustrated and discouraged that for quite a while now, My Little Reader has not been the least bit interested in listening to Bible stories. He enjoys books, but when I pull out the Bible, he will literally stick his fingers in his ears. Sometimes I can get him interested in a Bible story presented in a picture book format. But there are only so many of those, and they often cover only the same few Bible stories. Even children's Bibles don't interest him.

My Little Reader loves Legos though. Can't get enough. We picked up a book from the Brick Bible series that told the Christmas story using Legos. My boys loved it. They were mesmerized.

Then I found more books in the Brick Bible series. We borrowed the New Testament Brick Bible from our local library. I started it with my little guy the first day we brought it home, and I think we read every story in it that same day. He couldn't get enough. And we have since reread the stories in it several times, per his request!

My Little Reader jumped up from reading this book with me and decided he wanted to make his own Garden of Eden with his Legos, just like in the Brick Bible. He got straight to work. And he kept on happily working on it for quite a while.

It was a joy to see him having so much fun with a Bible story.

I had found the right book!

Maybe your child doesn't dislike Bible stories; perhaps you're having a tough time getting them interested in books period.

It's amazing the kinds of book choices that are out there. There are books your child will enjoy! To find them, try starting out by thinking about things your child already loves. Interests they have, maybe even shows they watch (I was surprised to find graphic novel versions of some TV shows my daughter watches, and she gobbled those up). Then get on Amazon and search whatever that thing is in their book department. You'll be amazed!

Or ask your local children's librarian. Again, you'll be amazed!

Have you tapped into your child's or students' interests to get them excited about reading? Tell me about it in the comments!

Turn Your Car Into A Literacy Learning Lab!

noreply@blogger.com (Amy @ Literacy Launchpad) — Mon, 08 Apr 2013 18:51:00 +0000

How many hours a week do you spend riding around in your car with your kids? Far more than you would like I'm guessing.

What if you could put that wasted time to good use for your kiddos? I like to fill up my car with great books, toys, and various educational-type items that will engage my kids' minds a bit and help keep them all from driving me nuts. If you have a DVD player in your car, there are even some videos that can be awesome for entertaining and teaching while in the car! Really!

Watch the video and I'll share my ideas with you!

Do you keep things like this in your car for your kids. Share your ideas in the comments!

Happy Reading Moments

noreply@blogger.com (Amy @ Literacy Launchpad) — Tue, 02 Apr 2013 04:28:00 +0000

I wouldn't call my kids avid readers. One or two of them might be heading that direction, but I still have to encourage reading, or bedtime might be the only time it happens. And life has been busy lately, and there have been plenty of days when it only happens at bedtime. Oh, and naptime too!

Yes, my kids like books. But like most kids (and adults), they can often be pulled other directions by life's busyness and distractions. I savor the moments I find my kiddos reading with little to no prompting from me.

... Like at Chick Fil A. I love when there's a book in the kids meal, and my son begs me to read it to him instead of playing on the playground. This was one from the Franklin series. And he also still pulls his Chick Fil A Cowborg comic books from his bookshelf for me to read to him (his big brother is getting sick of them).

We visited our local used bookstore and spent a fortune on all the books the kids carefully selected from the shelves.

I cracked up when I found these books on our used bookstore visit. The top title is my 4 year old's excuse for not doing what I ask, and the bottom title is my 9 year old's excuse.

This is where I can find My Little Reader on the day his Lego Jr. magazine arrives in the mailbox.

When my 9 year old is bored, he will resort to reading aloud to his little brother. Love catching them in these moments.

My 4 year old also enjoys his Turtle magazine subscription!

The TV is right there, and yet she's curled up with her Nook! Yay!

She told me this past week that reading has become like watching TV to her. She says she doesn't want to stop reading. Have I mentioned she's gone up almost 2 reading levels since November? Very proud of her.

Caught him reading a book from his Easter basket behind a chair.

And just to keep it real, I will add to all this that my kids are total screen enthusiasts as well. We put limits on screen time, but could stay glued to it all day if we let them. There sure is more and more stuff competing with reading time now, isn't there? How do you encourage reading at your house?

Catch Them Reading and Learning!*

noreply@blogger.com (Amy @ Literacy Launchpad) — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 02:19:00 +0000

Have you caught your kids learning lately? Isn't it the best when they don't even realize it's happening? In our house, literacy learning is pretty laid back. I try to provide opportunity, encouragement, and example and then let my kids pick it up from there.

We bring books and learning toys along in the car sometimes. Like our Word Whammer and Fridge Phonics!

We find fun ideas online like doing a library scavenger hunt. The kids really loved this, and did awesome with it. I was really impressed to see my shy, eleven year old do this pretty much all on her own, even asking the librarians for help (without me having to go with her) when she needed it! It helped us all learn some things about our library that we didn't know! And we stopped for some cold drinks on the way home as a reward for all our hard scavenging.

We have a variety of books and things around the house that the kids can pick up at any time and play with. This one is a book that has magnetic pages and letter magnets to spell words with.

We do bedtime stories every night. With all our kids. Mommy and Daddy take turns doing the reading.

My boys have been digging books like the Franny K Stein series and the Lunch Lady series at bedtime. My older one is still learning to read (ELL), but he often takes a flash light to bed so he can glance further ahead in our stories. The graphic novels are especially good for this. He also really loves his Action Bible.

We remember things from books like, "Hey, this is a waterspout, just like the one the Itsy Bitsy Spider crawled up!"

Sometimes we can't wait till we get home to dig into our library finds!

We do word finds on the back of our animal cracker boxes.

We re-read our favorite books over and over and over again. (Even when Christmas has long since passed.) Isaac especially likes this book because he can "read" it all by himself. Another one he likes to "read" himself is One Boy.

Isaac likes to do his "reading homework" with his Leapfrog Tag pen. I've been trying to get my big kids on board with it too (because it would be great practice for them too as they learn to read), but they don't enjoy it as much.

Storybook apps are always a hit. The Monster At the End of This Book is probably the current favorite.

We read books at the kitchen table a lot... Even though it's a dangerous thing to do with a library book.

Sometimes my kids get a bedtime story read to them, and sometimes they wait till the end of the day to practice their reading and so they have to do the bedtime reading. Having the cat snuggle up and listen too always makes it extra fun!

We go to special reading events like celebrating Dr. Seuss' birthday at the library!

Sometimes I find surprises by the bookshelves... like my kids and their friends curled up with books. This truly did happen. The girls were searching my shelves for AR books for school, and my son joined them.

I also catch my kids in spontaneous acts of writing sometimes. On this particular day (earlier this week) my son felt compelled to sit down and write a card to Santa about his "bad" cat.

So there's our randomness. Hope it can maybe help inspire some literacy randomness at your house too!

What are some literacy activities you catch your kids doing?

*Today was a Literacy Launchpad rewind of one of my favorites!

DIY Writing Center

noreply@blogger.com (Amy @ Literacy Launchpad) — Tue, 19 Mar 2013 11:48:00 +0000

Today is the first of many more Literacy Launchpad videos to come. I will soon be fully launching the Literacy Launchpad Youtube Channel. My Video Producer husband is holding my hand through learning how to put these videos together mostly/partially myself. I'm so excited to have the opportunity to make what I do each week at Literacy Launchpad accessible to so many more people! Let me know how I'm doing, share this week's video, and be sure to subscribe to Literacy Launchpad on Youtube so you don't miss any coming videos!

Reading and writing go hand in hand. So don't forget to create writing opportunities for your kids and students just like you create abundant reading opportunities for them!

Supplies for your writing center can be found at dollar stores, office supply stores, craft stores, thrift stores (one of our favorite places), and even yard sales! It doesn't have to cost a ton of money, and actually, it's better if it doesn't because then you won't feel frustrated if something from your writing center gets lost or broken (happens frequently at our house).

Writing centers can be stationary, and remain at one table or desk where your students can come and go. Or you could have a portable writing center, contained in a box or basket, and it could move from place to place around your home or classroom. You could even bring the writing center in the car!

Some ideas of items to include in your writing center:
- envelopes
- writing pads
- clip boards (this is especially handy if your writing center is portable center that moves from spot to spot)
-pencil sharpeners
- pencils
- erasers
- cards
- highlighters
- fun stationary
- printed materials grocery store ads, books, magazines, letters you have received in the mail... anything that could be used for inspiration
- dry erase writing cards, or boards
- chalkboards
- tape
- stapler
- calendar/planner
- paper clips
- folders
- notebooks
- sticky pads
- old phones or computer keyboards for playing office
- fun pens
- pencil holders and cubbies for organizing
- stickers
- rubber stamps

A few ideas for themes in your writing center:
- Teacher/Classroom (chalkboard, lesson planning books, workbooks... )
- Office (old phone, calendar, computer keyboard, general office supplies... )
- Grocery List-Making (grocery ads, coupons, notepads, calculators...)
- Hotel Manager (I loved to play this as a kid. We would use an old phone and a journal calendar and pretend to book reservations for guests.)
- Restaurant (small pads of papers, menus, toy cash register... )
- Author/Illustrator's workshop (blank books, writing tools, art tools, photos of favorite authors and illustrators working...)

Books mentioned in the video that could be used as writing prompts:

Do what works for you and your family or your classroom. Get as fancy or as simple as you want. And perhaps let your kids' interests guide the direction you take with your writing center.

Do you have a writing center in your home or classroom? What kinds of things do you keep in it for your kids to use?

Robot Zombie Frankenstein: The next book you should add to your collection

noreply@blogger.com (Amy @ Literacy Launchpad) — Sun, 10 Mar 2013 06:05:00 +0000

I was thrilled when Annette Simon allowed me to review a copy of her picture book Robot Zombie Frankenstein. I tend to also be a tad nervous about reviewing picture books, because what if I don't like it??? I luckily did not have to confront that fear with this review, because Robot Zombie Frankenstein was a home run with My Little Reader.

Simon's book tells the story of two robots that get into a friendly game of one-upping each other with various disguises. Zombies, pirates, space-invaders... the fun-factor increases with each page. Who will win this robot-battle? I don't want to give any spoilers, but a peace-offering finally ends the feud, and a friendship is formed by book's end. You'll have to check out the book to see what brings about the peace!

I honestly wasn't quite ready to show my son this book yet when I did. I was waiting for a nice chunk of time to do a solid read through and some kind of planned activity. But he found it sitting in my room and instantly snatched it up and demanded I read it to him. OK, so I know it's cover has some obvious kid-appeal...

My Little Reader is such a Mr. Literacy Launchpad Jr., he saw the layout of colorful geometric shapes on the endpapers at the front of the book and started suggesting crafts and projects we could use these shapes as inspiration for: "Let's make these shapes with paper, Mom, and then glue them together into our own robots..." These endpapers were definitely one of his favorite parts of the book - he kept going back to them even after reading the story several times.

The bold, colorful robots, set against the clean white background was visually appealing to my son and I alike. It seemed to feel accessible to my son, something he got, and could then mock and expand upon in his own creative way. The predictable catchiness of the text had the same effect. I caught my son flipping through the book on his own and "reading" it aloud independently just by the visual cues in the illustrations and being able to recall the incredibly fun and simple text that had stuck with him so solidly after just a few readings.

Robots have such a mass-appeal with kids of a variety of ages. And this book is so creativity-inspiring for little ones. I have bunches of ideas of fun activities to do after reading this book with your kids or students. You'll see some of those ideas in an up-coming video post (I'm in the planning stages of launching a full Literacy Launchpad YouTube channel!).

In the meantime, check out some of the fun My Little Reader was having with this book this week. This was all initiated by him! Love that kid! Love this book!

Buy the book!

Visit Annette Simon online HERE!

Reading with a Theme!

noreply@blogger.com (Amy @ Literacy Launchpad) — Sat, 02 Mar 2013 20:22:00 +0000

Have the winter blah's got you down? Are they making your kids or students a little nutty? I discovered that digging into a theme in reading, while you're stuck digging out of snow and cold can be a great thing to keep everybody from driving each other crazy!

I tend to get a little irritated when I see some teachers coming up with a theme they want to use in their classroom, and then haphazardly throwing any picture books into their theme that seem to correlate - just for the sake of maintaing the theme. I have seen many sub-par books gets a lot of focus and attention simply because they worked with a teacher's theme. Sometimes great books are overlooked because it's not initially obvious that they might work with a particular theme.

How about first finding some great books, seeing if some of them relate to one another, and then creating your own theme that is structured around your reading instead of vise-versa? I know this method is not always possible, but worth a shot from time to time, right? I have found Pinterest especially helpful in this department. I can pin books I like, make helpful notes about each, and organize them by a theme or topic. Then I can easy find and utilize a great book at the right time!

I saw that I had some pet-themed books piling up that I really liked and wanted to read to my students. So I decided that's what we would be reading about at Literacy Launchpad in February! Not surprisingly, the students really enjoyed these stories. I mean really. Sometimes I couldn't get them to move onto an activity because they kept wanting me to read and re-read these books. A great problem to have!

A theme isn't only useful in the classroom though. I have used themes at home with my son, and often I will let his own natural interests guide the theme. Other times I will introduce a theme and watch his interest grow and grow on that topic as we read more and more books on it. I don't do structured units or lessons at home with these books. I simply scatter them about in our reading spots and pick them up to read when we have a moment or two.

You can see the pet books we've been reading at Literacy Launchpad in the sidebar. And here are some photos from the fun we had comparing, learning new information, and playing with these pet-themed titles!

Just Add Picture Books!

noreply@blogger.com (Amy @ Literacy Launchpad) — Sun, 24 Feb 2013 07:41:00 +0000

Looking for an easy way to make an ordinary activity in your home or classroom something special? Just add a picture book! Literally, that's all you have to do.

You might assume I spend my days when I'm at home with my preschooler doing all kinds of creative, throughly planned out, educational activities. I don't.

But when my son pulled his finger paints out of the art cabinet this past week and wanted to get messy, it made me think of Leo Lionni's book Little Blue and Little Yellow. I went and grabbed it off my bookshelf thinking it might be fun to show him a story about mixing colors to inspire him with his paints.

This led to my son mixing his colors, and narrating his own little story as he worked. It was fun and beautiful to watch. I hadn't planned or prepped anything. He asked to do an activity and I just added a picture book!

And here's a short video of my little guy's creative process!

Which Picture Books Should I Keep?

noreply@blogger.com (Amy @ Literacy Launchpad) — Fri, 15 Feb 2013 17:33:00 +0000

I'm a bargain shopper to the max, even (especially?) when it comes to picture books. I spend a lot of time haunting yard sales and thrift stores, looking for a diamond in the rough. Honestly, it usually doesn't take much digging or searching to find great picture books for a steal. And I can't help but wonder why people get rid of some of these great books I find.

Granted, I teach books, so I hardly ever toss any picture books from my collection. I suppose not everyone has that same inclination, eh? So unless you're aiming to be featured on an episode of Hoarders someday, how do you sort through all those books that your kids have outgrown? Do you get rid of them all? Should you save some? If you save some, how many and which ones?

My in-laws recently came for a weekend visit and brought along two big boxes of books from my husband's childhood. It was like Christmas for me! I had so much fun looking through them all, seeing vintage editions of some classics, and hearing my mother-in-law tell me about where they came from and which ones were most treasured. I've been reading them with my kids and delight in telling them, "This was one of Daddy's favorite books when he was little!" That is gold! I am so thankful that my MIL hung onto those books all these years.

You don't need to save all the picture books on your shelf, but I think you should save some. Here are a few reasons why:

They make wonderful family heirlooms.
What are you going to read the grandkids if you get rid of all those picture books?
It's great reading motivation for kids to be able to hold, and feel, and experience a picture book from their parents' childhood.

You probably can't, or don't want to, save them all though. So here are a few things to ask yourself, as you consider each book in your personal collection, that might help you decide which ones to keep and which ones to pass along.

Was this one of my child's favorite books? Did they ask to have it read to them often? Do I know it by heart? Was it special to them for some reason?
Was this book special to me as a mom or dad? Did I particularly enjoy reading this one to my child? Does it remind me of my child for a particular reason?
Is there special meaning or significance to this book? Was it a gift from someone special? Was it received on a special occasion? Does it have a personal inscription penned inside the cover?
Is there a personal story that goes with this picture book? Was it the first book your child ever read themselves? Did it get them through a difficult time? Did it help them grasp a difficult concept?

Answering "yes" to any of these questions means it might be worth keeping that book. Even if a book is not a classic, or perhaps not even that good, if it's special to you or your child, it could be worth keeping. Write down on a notecard what makes that book special, why you kept it, and paperclip it into the book. You'll be glad you did, and likely your family will be too!

I'm probably preaching to the choir here when I ask you to not to throw away your unwanted picture books as you sort! Pass them onto friends, family, schools, or Goodwill! I've also seen these bins pictured below that you could drop them in!

My mom was great about saving books from my childhood too. I wrote this post about one particular book that I was so glad she hung onto for us kids!

Have you hung onto picture books your children have outgrown? How do you decide which ones to keep?

A Wintery Print Awareness Unit

noreply@blogger.com (Amy @ Literacy Launchpad) — Fri, 08 Feb 2013 16:14:00 +0000

January turned out to be one of those fabulous teaching months where all my lesson plans went even better than I could have imagined when I planned them! The kids had an awesome month of learning and loving books! We focused on print awareness as we read tales that took us to winter wonderlands. (Hey, at least we got to experience winter weather somehow, right?).

We one we read All You Need for a Snowman by Alice Schertle There are so many wonderful snowmen books out there, but this on remains a favorite of mine... and my students! They always love the interactive quality of it - insisting on the additional elements you need to complete a snowman. It's a great discussion starter with the group and keeps them fully engaged.

We talked about different forms of print we use and see: newspapers, letters, grocery lists, etc. We also talked about words in the books we read and how they never change. We did crayon-resist watercolor painting with this lesson, and had to discover what pictures and words were hidden on our paper. The kids thought this was absolutely magical!

Week two we read The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats. I love sharing this classic, especially since many of my students usually haven't read it yet. This year I checked out a bunch of copies from the library (yay for there always being lots of copies of Caldecott books) and each student was able to follow along with me as I read it aloud. As I read the story, I had the students hunt for certain words and/or letters within the text - like a little scavenger hunt. They loved this, and did so great with it!

Then we played in the snow! Woohoo! Faux snow is always a hit! We had to get all suited up first and put on all the same kind of snow gear that Peter wore. We tried to do the things Peter did in the snow (but on a smaller scale - we used our fingers). And then we just were silly and played. I could barely tear the kids away from the snow when it was time to leave class. What a special lesson that always is!

The last week we read The Snow Globe Family by Jan O'Connor. This was a new one for our winter-reading repertoire, but was a big hit! It was probably everyone's favorite for January. The kids just really enjoyed the wonder of imagining the people inside a snow globe being real and having their own little life. They loved the part where the baby shakes the snow globe and sends the snow globe family flying, along with all their furniture!

Somehow I managed not to get any photos of this week's lesson. But we used our imaginations to create our own little snow globe world. We used paper plates as our globes and drew on them with crayons. Then we added cotton balls (stretched and torn) to make snow in them. We used construction paper as the stand for the snow globe and put our names in glitter at the bottom. You can't do a print awareness unit without having some print fun with the students' names! I let the kids do the glitter process, and they thought it was the coolest when they finally shook the excess glitter off and there was their name - all SPARKLY! They were positively beaming!

A fantastic unit... and now I have to try to stay on par this month. I've got my work cut out for me!

What's your favorite wintery book to read with your students or kiddos at home?

The Power of Encouragement

noreply@blogger.com (Amy @ Literacy Launchpad) — Fri, 01 Feb 2013 04:21:00 +0000

I was recently sorting through a box of stuff my mom kept from my school days. How fun to look back over old Young Authors books, Book It Awards, and writing journals. I decided to open up my old report cards that were in the box too and I found myself reading through the teacher comments from each grading quarter.

Writing was definitely something I enjoyed when I was younger (especially in my fifth grade year for some reason), but I don't remember feeling like I was necessarily gifted in writing, and I don't recall so many of my teachers noticing my writing and encouraging that talent. In fact, I remember my sister being a Young Authors winner one year and I think I decided that she was the gifted writer in the family (If only I had known about the wonderful Bronte sisters at a younger age!). I wonder if maybe I gave up a little on writing somewhere along the way, despite the fact that my teachers seemed to all notice a talent and interest in that area. I wonder if back in my school days I assumed that the encouraging things my teachers told me were just the typical teacher-y things they say to students, instead of recognizing it as genuine praise.

It made me a little sad to read through their notes and realize that I kind of let the writing passion go somewhere along the way. I didn't keep with it like maybe I should have. But perhaps their encouragement was what kept my writing interest alive and kicking during so many of my school years?

I am grateful to have these notes to look back on and see that my teachers saw something special in me. I am grateful that I had teachers that noticed and valued my interest in writing enough to record it in ink! And maybe it's all the encouragement I need to take up an old hobby and get to some writing again!

Teachers, keep on encouraging those little ones! You never know the power your words will have. Even if your students don't appreciate or recognize your praise of their talents now, I bet they will someday!

Lessons in Rhyming and Predicting

noreply@blogger.com (Amy @ Literacy Launchpad) — Fri, 18 Jan 2013 18:20:00 +0000

We spent November of Literacy Launchpad having all kinds of rhyming fun. And December was spent predicting, predicting, predicting!

I've been revamping my lesson plans as I go this year to give them a new twist, and try to help my students understand the skill we're practicing each month even better. These activities mentioned briefly in this post would be perfect to be incorporated into your preschool classroom curriculum, or even to be used at home with your own kiddos.

November had us reading Rhyming Dust Bunnies (Jan Thomas), I'm Your Bus (Marilyn Singer), and Each Peach Pear Plum (Allan and Janet Ahlberg). How much do I love Rhyming Dust Bunnies? A better question would be "How much do my students love it?" The answer: A LOT! We couldn't get enough of this one and its sequel Here Comes the Big, Mean Dust Bunny!. I'm Your Bus was another great one for allowing my students to predict and fill-in the rhyme that would end each page's text.

We brainstormed rhyming words, made rhyming buses, hunted for hidden rhymes in a drawing, and made rhyming signs that were fun to hold up proudly each time we heard rhyming words in our stories.

Then in December we moved on to predicting and read some more fab books. We read If You Take a Mouse to Movies (Laura Numeroff), Mr. Willoby's Christmas Tree (Robert Barry), and Snowmen at Christmas (Caralyn Buehner). It worked out great to choose some rhyming books in December to help continue giving us practice with that skill w had just recently been focusing on the previous month. Is there anything better at Christmas time than some great Christmas books to hunker down with? So cozy. So fun.

We did most of our predicting practice as we read our stories each week, and then we had crafty fun to follow-up our stories. I love how these fun crafts and activities with literature help my students to forever remember these great books that we read in class each week. We recycled like Mr. Willowby and made some awesome Christmas tree ornaments out of egg cartons that would have otherwise been thrown out. We also got creative making adorable snowmen ornaments after being inspired by all the cute snowmen in Caralyn Buehner's book. And we did some drawings to do our predicting with If You Take a Mouse to the Movies! There were a couple rhyming games thrown in there too! What a full and exciting month we had!

Forget the Reading Race

noreply@blogger.com (Amy @ Literacy Launchpad) — Fri, 11 Jan 2013 12:20:00 +0000

My youngest son, My Little Reader, is now four years old and in preschool. It's becoming difficult not to notice now where other kids are with their literacy and reading skills and compare my little guy to them. I see his peers coming to class with him each week, and I'm in preschools every week working with my own Literacy Launchpad students... There's a pressure isn't there, to feel like your kid has to be right where every other kid is academically, or even ahead? I find myself stressing more and more lately that I'm not spending enough time working on this skill or that skill with my son and that he'll be behind all the other kids his age.BUT then I remember all that I learned in my studies in college, as well as in my years of teaching Literacy Launchpad - that it doesn't matter when a child learns to read, it matters how much they learn to love reading. And often, heavy-handed efforts to get our kids to start reading at an early age can leave them not really wanting to read.

I was skimming through Jim Trealease's Read Aloud Handbook this week and he quotes an education adage, reminding parents that "'What we teach children to love and desire will always outweigh what we teach then to do.'" He goes on to say that "The fact is that some children learn to read sooner than others, and some better than others. There is a difference."

I felt encouraged as I read through the pages of Trelease's book. I was reminded of the power of simply reading to my kids as much as I can, giving them a rich literacy environment, and keeping away from flash card drilling and phonics worksheets as a means to teach my kids reading.

Our eduction system seems to push for formal reading instruction at an earlier and earlier age. I've personally experienced parents that push teachers to do reading instruction earlier and earlier. Sometimes I see preschools teaching skills that kids aren't even developmentally ready to handle yet. Often our schools can be very good at teaching our kids how to read, but as Trelease points out, the research shows that they usually aren't very good at teaching them to want to read.

Did you know Finland has higher reading scores than the US, but doesn't begin to formally teach their children to read till age seven? Our focus here in the states, in getting our kids to read early and to read well misses the point. None of that matters if they don't want to read. We end up with kids who read at school and not any other time.

Trelease and the experts and researchers he quotes in his book don't think there's anything necessarily bad about early reading necessarily, but they feel a child should arrive at that skill on their own, without a structured time each day when someone is sitting down with them and teaching them letters, sounds, and syllables.

I'm so glad I took some time to get my head back on straight this week. I'm thrilled that my kiddo enjoys books and gets excited about reading time. I need to forget about the big "reading race" and revel in that. I probably need to make space in our day for even more time to simply read books aloud to my son, and stick some of the phonics instruction books I've been eyeing back up on my shelf. My son might not be diving into the Harry Potter series solo anytime soon, but he sure does love him some books and that's what matters in the long run.

Do you (or did you) ever worry that your child isn't learning certain skills early enough? Do you find yourself comparing your child to their peers like me? Tell me I'm not alone!

Writing Fun as Christmas Gifts

noreply@blogger.com (Amy @ Literacy Launchpad) — Fri, 21 Dec 2012 18:15:00 +0000

If you don't have any ideas for some fun, literacy-inspired Christmas gifts yet, it's not my fault. Ha! I know I've been loading you up with gift posts this month. Sorry, I guess I was just inspired.

Today I'm sharing a little fun gift I made for four of my nieces. They all enjoy writing, and "doing work", and sending and receiving mail. So I ordered some cute little mailboxes from Joanne's and then loaded them up with some neat office and writing supplies. I would have loved something like this as a kid!

I painted the girls' names in the side of their mailboxes, and bundled up all the various supplies. My kids have been watching me put these together and now asking for little mailboxes and stationary for themselves.

Photo by Polka Dot Chair

I think something like this one pictured above would be perfect outside my kids' bedrooms. I love the idea of stuffing all their junk in it that they leave around the house too! Hee. Check out more info on this idea HERE.

I hope my nieces have as much fun using their mailboxes and supplies as I had in putting them all together. Maybe I'll get some mail from them too! Ooo, I should have included some self addressed envelopes! Might have to go throw a few of those in!

Our Favorites At Christmas

noreply@blogger.com (Amy @ Literacy Launchpad) — Fri, 07 Dec 2012 12:49:00 +0000

We all know there are about a zillion Christmas picture books out there. Some are wonderful, and some... not so much. But every family has a stack that stays in regular rotation year after in their family; maybe because it's an awesome books, or maybe because it holds some special meaning for their family. So today I'm sharing my family's favorite Christmas books, and why we like them so much.

If you have kids that love Legos, than you need to check out the Brick Bible series. My boys and I both love the cool Lego illustrations that bring a fun freshness to these Bible stories. And the text comes straight from scripture, so my kids aren't just getting some cutesy little re-telling.

This one is such a sweet story of friendship, and of giving a gift that truly has a lot of thought behind it. My kids love it, and it give me the warm fuzzies every time I read it... without being cheesy.

This is one of the more cutesy Christmas stories, but I like the way it talks about what the creche/nativity set is all about. It's a good discussion starter, and fun to read right next to the nativity set where you can play and discuss as you read. I like the message of it, but it's light and fun too.

I've been reading this one at Literacy Launchpad for several years. All the fun of The Jolly Postman with a Christmas twist on it. It's an especially fun read with kids that are familiar with their fairy tales, but could also be a good way to introduce some - read this book, then read some of the fairy tales it talks about. Maybe write a letter to one of your favorite fairy tale characters when you're done reading!

The message of this book is sweet and subtle. A Christmas tree that is too big for Mr. Willoughby gets trimmed at the top to fit his home. But instead of the top being thrown out - it gets recycled and passed on to someone else that needs a tree. This continues all the way through the book till a mouse family ends up with the teeny tiny top of the tree at the very end. So sweet, and I like that it starts a good discussion about not wasting, and maybe even about reusing and recycling things at Christmas time.

I think The Night Before Christmas can sometimes be a tough classic story for kids to get into and enjoy these days. But this pop-up version makes it so much more fun and interesting to read through, at least with my kids. It's beautiful, of course, and I like just having it out as part of our Christmas decor!

Santa Mouse is a cute little book that my mom read to me and my siblings growing up. And it's a fun little tradition you could start with your kids of Santa Mouse leaving a present on the tree each year. This is much more my speed than the time-consuming Elf on the Shelf tradition!

And of course, who doesn't love The Polar Express? I remember my dad reading this at my house growing up every Christmas Eve. I can still hear his voice every time I read it to my kids or students. And now we have the version with Liam Neeson reading it, which is really beautiful to listen to as well. I like to have it one when we're just sitting around Christmas-crafting or eating our lunch.

Now tell me your favorites! I love to add new ones to our collection!