Second Story Window

Second Story Window Summer Reading Challenge

And now we'd like to tell you about the  

Second Story Window 2011 Summer Reading Challenge! 

Read 10 new books and you can earn a free $5 game from our shop. One game per child. Parents can read books to a non-reading child. Download the form here. E-mail photos or scans of completed forms to sstorywindow@gmail.com and specify which game you would like from our shop. Now get reading!

Questions? Leave them in the comments!

summer reading programs

 image via

Boy have we been busy lately! But don't be too sad about our blogging absence, it's because we're working on so many fun new things for the shop.

Let me tell you, there are so many great programs going on right now encouraging summer reading. Here's a quick run down of some programs from major retailers, most of them involving free books or other rewards!

Barnes and Noble Summer Reading
Grades 1-6 - earn free book from selected titles by reading 8 books & turning in completed journal to B&N; store before 9/6/11. Information here.

Borders Summer Reading
Kids 12 and under earn free book from selected titles by reading 10 books & turning in completed form to Borders store between 6/1/11 and 9/5/11. Information here.

Half Price Books Summer Reading
Kids 14 and under earn $5 Back to School Bucks by reading at least 600 minutes in June & July. Turn in reading log July 25-Aug 7 to receive reward. Information here.



Pottery Barn Kids Summer Reading
Kids 10 years and under complete one of the reading lists to earn a free book. 5/31/11-8/24/11 See the list here.

TD Bank Summer Reading
Kids 18 and under read 10 books to earn $10 to be deposited into their TD Bank Young Saver account (or used to open a new one). Form must be returned to local TD Bank location. Information here.

Chuck E. Cheese Summer Reading
Kids earn 10 free tokens for reading every day for 2 weeks. There are other rewards charts available at this link, as well. Limit 1 redemption per day. Information here.


Kids Bowl Free
Kids within age limits specified by participating bowling centers can receive 2 free games a day, all summer long. Information here.

PBS Kids Summer Reading Challenge
A free 6 week program to help kids discover the joy of reading. Chances to win prizes daily. Information here. 

Check back tomorrow for information about the Second Story Window 2011 Summer Reading Challenge where each child can earn a free game from our shop by reading 10 new books.

April Fool's Day!

Ha ha! The joke's on us! We didn't get this posted in time for April Fool's day fun, but hopefully you can get some use out of it regardless.

It's a homophone riddle book for your little jokers to complete. Print the pages, cut in half, and staple in order. Voila! A lesson and a giggle in one!!



Download the pages here.

Reading is Fundamental

I teach at a Title I school. That means a significant portion of the student body lives in poverty.
In the US, about 61% of low income families have NO books in their homes. Some people might believe that the book shortage is because I've hoarded them all, but that, regardless of what you've heard, is not true. I would happily share all my books. Well, most of my books. Okay, I would happily share some of my books. :)


The good news is that my students don't have to wait for my generosity before they get something to read. That's because we're part of the RIF program.


Reading is Fundamental (RIF) is the nation's largest children's literacy nonprofit. From the RIF website:

We prepare and motivate children to read by delivering free books and literacy resources to those children and families who need them most...Planting seeds of inspiration in our nation’s most vulnerable children is what RIF and a network of more than 400,000 volunteers do.

Our school participates in the Books for Ownership Program (BFO). Thanks to a partnership with Nestle, we get to celebrate RIF days 3 times a year. And that means my kiddos get their own book to take home.

Part of the BFO guidelines is that every student has a choice of which new book they get to keep. If I have 25 kids in my class, I offer 28-30 books so even the last child gets a choice. Also, the order for choosing books must be randomly assigned. Coming up with different ways to choose kids, and keep with a theme, can be tricky! I'm sure somewhere there is a repository of fabulous RIF day ideas, but I have yet to come across it. Since some other teachers might be in the same boat, I thought I'd share some of what my class has done.

On our RIF days, we celebrate reading all afternoon. I usually leave book choosing as the grand finale. In November we had a "Devour a Good Book" theme. We shared which books are "delicious" to us and then participated in Scholastic's Classrooms Care challenge of reading 100 books. In keeping with the food theme, we read The Incredible Book Eating Boy and wrote out "recipes" for a good book. Then we ended the festivities by choosing an apple/number.

I die-cut a bunch of apples and wrote a number on each.


I had a small scallop punch handy, so I used it to take a "bite" out of the apples. The kids got a huge kick out of the idea that I'd eat paper apples!

Then I taped a string to the back of each. Because the kids would be pulling on these, I taped the strings, then folded it over and secured it with a 2nd piece of tape. That way no one could pull the string loose.

I put the apples in a little bushel basket that I had lying around and they each picked a string to pull on. It took some finagling to keep everything from knotting, but it worked out okay.

November 2009, our theme was "tackle a good book." I gave each child a picture of a football helmet and a jersey. They each got to choose their own "number." I kept a list on the board so no one did duplicates and so they could remember what they picked (you know how kids' memories are!).

At the end of the day, I gathered these and used a pocket chart to make a concentration game.


It didn't work out too well until I stopped having them turn the cards back over after their turn. Then things went much faster. When a helmet and jersey number were matched, the owner of that set got to choose his/her book.


Sometimes we play musical reading chairs. While the kids are out of the room, I write a number under each chair using an Expo dry erase marker. Then I have each child choose a book from the class library and move their chairs to sit in an outward-facing circle. They read in their chair for a few minutes. Then I ask them to put their books under their chairs and stand up. I play music and they walk around the circle musical chairs style. When the music stops they sit in a new spot and read someone else's book (no one is out). After a few rounds, books are returned and the children take their new chairs to their desks. Then they can check which number they have.
One year we had a beach theme and I let the kids bring towels from home to "lay-out" on while they read. They got to add a paper flower to their leis for each book they finished and as a class we read some fun oceany books like Bats at the Beach and Scaredy Squirrel at the Beach.

My very favorite RIF celebration is one I've done for a few years, "Books are Magic." We read a Shel Silverstein poem called Magic Carpet and talk about how not using your mind is as sad as having a real magic carpet but only using it as a rug. As a class we do a readers' theater about the magic of the library and read Miss Smith's Incredible Storybook. I give the kids time to read, but I interrupt them occasionally with the Whole New World song from Aladdin. Then we sit on our pretend magic carpet and fly to a new place. When we arrive I read them a story from a different place or even a fictional setting.

Before they choose their books, they pull a rabbit out of my magic hat. The dollar store had these magician hats recently and...are you ready for this?...THEY STORE FLAT! I was so excited that I did a happy dance! I can use it for this one thing a year, put in my file, and not have to worry about it for another 12 months!

I die-cut a bunch of white rabbits and use a white crayon to number them. Then I tucked them all in my hat's secret compartment. I had the kids say some magic words and--hey presto!--I've got a hat full of rabbits! I have the kids get a "magic marker" (dark colors work best) and color over their rabbit.

Abracadabra! Reading fun for everyone!

For more information about RIF or how you can donate to help these sweet little ones get excited about reading, check out the Reading is Fundamental website.

December Book-a-Day 11: The Story of the Nutcracker Ballet

The story of the Nutcracker is a ubiquitous, but delightful, part of December.

Book

The original book, published by E.T.A. Hoffmann in 1816, is much darker than the familiar ballet. There are curses to break, a seven-headed mouse king to defeat, nightmares, and extortion. The ballet follows the basic outline of the book's plot, but leaves out much of the disturbing back story.

Several picture books retell the friendlier and more popular Tchaikovsky ballet version. My grandmother gave me a copy of Deborah Hautzig's book in the 80s--my first introduction to the Nutcracker.

I loved reading it as a little girl, and I love reading it to my class every year. While there are many other retellings available this is my favorite for two reasons:
1) the text is brief! There's nothing worse than trying to do a read-aloud with a wordy book!
2) Diane Goode's illustrations are delightful marzipan confections.

Activity

One of my favorite post-reading activities is to have the kids dance!


Years ago, I came across a creative dance lesson using the Waltz of the Snowflakes music. I don't remember the source and no search engines have been able to help me track it down. You can download a copy of it here and if you happen to know the original author, please let me know!

December Book-a-Day 7: Who'll Pull Santa's Sleigh

Santa's reindeer are sick! With Christmas Eve right around the corner, what's a jolly old elf to do? Audition some replacements, of course!

Book

Who'll Pull Santa's Sleigh Tonight by Laura Rader is a great book to use with a discussion of problem and solution. Santa's balloon sleigh caused quite a few giggles with my class and they were full of suggestions to solve Santa's problem. They loved seeing the would-be helpers. In the story, Mrs. Claus eventually comes up with the perfect reindeer cure: hot cocoa.


I can't think about hot chocolate without craving a warm mug full! Of course, that's not going to work since I should be headed to bed, but why not fix some for yourself?

Hot Chocolate

I'm sure Alton Brown has hot chocolate down to a science, but these days I'm jonesing for the snickerdoodle kind. I'm so addicted that I happily drive to the divey coffee shop next to the Greyhound station so I can get my fix. :) I've tried making cinnamon hot chocolate (aka Mexican hot chocolate) at home, but it DOES NOT come out right. I quick perusal of Google's resources makes me think that the key is to use a cinnamon stick since ground cinnamon leaves behind a powdery pile. I may have to give this recipe a try.
If cinnamon HC doesn't ring your bell, this site has 25 hot chocolate tips. One of them is bound to tickle your sweet tooth!
Happy drinking!

December Book-a-Day 1: Counting To Christmas

Each day in December we will be sharing one of our favorite Christmas storybooks and an activity to go along.


Book

Counting to Christmas by Nancy Tafuri appealed to me because of the pictures. The text is very brief: "Days 1, 2, and 3 I paint, cut, and paste." But the bright pictures are enchanting!

The story details a young girl's December preparations leading up to Christmas. At the end of the book we see how everything she's been working on ties into her Christmas celebration. The peek of a passing Santa gets my students very excited!

From the Library School Journal:

This special book is about the love and spirit of the season, and successfully demonstrates how to celebrate Christmas without the overwhelming commercialism so often associated with it.

Activity

In the back of this book, you'll find instructions for making the girl's Christmas crafts. Why not give one a try? There are popcorn strings and Christmas cards and everyone's favorite pine cone/peanut butter bird feeders!

 

We're linked up at Tot Tuesdays.

Wednesday Words-- Synonym Turkeys

The third grade at my school does Synonym Turkeys every year. The students choose a word and write it on the turkeys' bodies.

Then they look up their words in the thesaurus and write synonyms on the feathers (sometimes with correct spelling, sometimes without. :) )



My favorite was this one from a horse crazy little girl:

Wednesday Words--Turkey in Disguise

Considering the books I read to my class each November, it's a wonder any of them actually sit down to a plateful of turkey on Thanksgiving! No worries, though, they're still counting the days until they can savor mom's home roasted turkey goodness!

So far we've worked our way through:
[Click on the covers for more information about each book.]


We've seen turkeys disguised as snowmen, children, art models, Hollywood agents, and pizza delivery boys. Maybe I missed something, but I thought turkeys were rather dimwitted creatures. Oh well, let's not be bothered by fact--it's time for some fun!

Apparently there's a well established tradition of having children disguise a (paper) turkey as a Thanksgiving art project. I'm sad I've been missing out on this! Lynne shared these pictures from her class.

The kids made a disguise for their bird and then wrote: "Turkey? What Turkey? I'm not a turkey, I'm a ______. Maybe you should look at a _______."

So cute! I love the turkey gnome!

If you're looking for more turkey inspiration, check out this site. (Scroll down.) There's even a turkey rodeo queen!


Littlegiraffes.com suggests a prompt for some undercover turkey writing.

This is a patterned writing activity for practicing nouns, verbs, describing words, and quotation marks. Each turkey disguises itself as another animal to fool the farmer. Make three columns on the board: Animal Names, Animal Actions, and Animal Sounds. Then brainstorm ideas.
This is an example:

I could be a ________. (pig)
I could ________. (roll in the mud)
" _____, ______," said the turkey (oink oink)
"Oh!" said the farmer, "It must be a ______!" (pig)

You can even toss in the song Five Fat Turkeys Are We.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_yWteO_UgEQ?fs=1]

I can't wait to try this out with my little turkeys! This guy is just begging for a new look, don't you think? You can download the .pdf from teachers.net.


But if your Thanksgiving disguise need run the other way, Designs With Heart has a pattern for making a turkey mask. If you try it out, just make sure to keep your running shoes on!

Wednesday Words--Veterans Day

Veterans Day resources are hard to come by! So I made my own. It's a printable book that discusses Veterans Day AND Remembrance Day for our friends in Canada, Australia, and Britain (although I did keep the date as November 11 instead of 11 November :) ).

You can download the file here.

I hope your little patriots enjoy using it and gain a greater appreciation for the sacrifices so many people have made to ensure our freedoms!

If you're looking for additional Veterans Day resources, make sure and check out the wonderful ideas at VA Kids.