Recommended Books For Grades 4-6

In 6th grade, my reading arts teacher held a writing contest.  We were to create our own ghost stories and she showed us how to make our own faux hardback novels using cardboard (from a cereal box if memory serves me correctly) and contact paper.

I won by writing a story about a girl and a ghost.  Or was it about a girl who was a ghost?  I don't remember the details but I do remember some of the words I had used that I had found in the dictionary in my attempt to impress my teacher.  

What was my prize?  I got to choose any book from the Scholastic Book Order that periodically was sent home.  I choose a Babysitter's Club book.  Remember those?

Here is a list of recommended books for children ages 9-12:

Charlotte's Web and Stuart Little by E.B. White
Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie
The Railway Children by E. Nesbit
Because of Winn-Dixie and The Tale of Despereaux by Kate Dicamillo
The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis
Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson 
Black Beauty by Anna Sewall 
The Giver and Number the Stars by Lois Lowry
Caddie Woodlawn by Carol Ryrie Brink
The Borrowers by Mary Norton

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Matilda, and James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl 
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle  Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing by Judy Blume  
Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery 
Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens
How to Eat Fried Worms by Thomas Rockwell
Thirteen Ways to Sink a Sub by Jamie Gilson
My Side of the Mountain and Julie of the Wolves by Jean Craigheade George
From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E. L. Konigsburg Ramona Quimby, Age 8 and Dear Mr. Henshaw by Beverly Cleary 
Mr. Popper's Penguins by Richard Atwater  
The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame 
Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

The Devil's Arithmetic by Jane Yolen
The Trumpet of the Swan by E. B. White
Shiloh by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor  
Misty of Chincoteague by Marguerite Henry
Jacob Have I Loved and The Great Gilly Hopkins by Katherine Paterson
Bunnicula by Deborah Howe
Little House on the Prarie by Laura Ingalls Wilder 
The Secret Garden and A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett  
Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred D. Taylor 
Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt 

Swiss Family Robinson by Johann Wyss  
The Jungle Books by Rudyard Kipling
The Boxcar Children by Gertrude Chandler Warner  
Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls
Hans Brinker, or the Silver Skates by Mary Mapes Dodge
Pippi Longstocking by Astrid Lindgren
Doctor Dolittle by Hugh Lofting  The Borrowers by Mary Norton
Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of Nimh by Robert C. O’Brien
Heidi by Johanna Spyri
Harriet the Spy by Louise Fitzhugh  
The Whipping Boy by Peter Sis 

Sarah, Plain and Tall by Patricia MacLachlan 
The Best Christmas Pageant Ever by Barbara Robinson
The Indian in the Cupboard by Lynne Reid Banks 
Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O'Dell  
Holes by Louis Sachar
The Rescuers by Margery Scharp
The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare 
The Wizard of Oz by Frank Baum 
Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling
Percy Jackson and the Olympians by Rick Riordan

Activities for Preschoolers at Home

All of the little ones in my daughter's playgroup are in preschool.  She couldn't go since she was only 2 so I decided to do some stuff at home with her. You may be like me and wonder what you can do at home with them to help teach them skills for when they do go to preschool or even kindergarten.  This is just an overview of things to teach your child and examples of ways to teach the main concepts.  You probably have lots of educational toys (puzzles, games, videos, etc) that you can also use.  You can also take field trips.

How to set up preschool at home:
Pick a weekly or monthly theme and tailor activities around it.  Depending on your child, you may choose to pick two or three days a week where you set aside one or two hours to have structured activities or you may choose to go with the flow and implement them whenever you have time.

Example:
Discuss what day of the week it is and the date
Dress a doll or a stuffed animal based on how cold it is outside
Have a theme and read a story, play a game, sing a song, eat a snack, and/or do a craft around the theme
Do something physical (such as play outside or dance)

Activities:

• Use a chore or reward chart.  My daughter does little things like pick up her toys and help unload the dishwasher (warning: this takes forevvverrrrr)

• Sing songs that teach or just silly songs to dance to.  I wrote a post a few weeks ago about Songs to Motivate Your Kids: From Counting to Cleaning.  Teach them to clap the rhythm to a song.  Hop, march, and jump around (skip if they are able).  Have them do the bunny hop forward and back.

• Play Simon Says (or Mama Says) or Follow the Leader. This helps them to learn to listen to directions.

• Act out emotions.  Look at pictures of other children's faces and identify what emotion they are showing.

•  Throw and catch balls.

• Draw circles, horizontal and vertical lines, and triangles.  You can use shaving cream or whipped cream also to make it more fun.

• Tape a piece of paper with straight, zig zag, and squiggly lines on a window with a blank piece of paper over it.  Let your child trace the lines.

• Play pretend and encourage them to use their imagination.  With blankets build a tent and pretend to go camping.  Have a tea party with their stuffed animals.

• Crafts are always a good activity.  Folding paper, pasting, coloring, and using safety scissors require some coordination. 

• Teach them their left and their right.  Have them hold their hands out in front of them and take notice of which hand the thumb and forefinger make an "L" for left.  You can also make a game out of giving them directions such as "point to the left", "step to the right", and "raise your left arm" or have a scavenger hunt with directions involving left and right. You can also have them trace their hands and feet and label them.

• Try to get them to sit for a story.  Use funny sounds or props when you read.  Try to get them involved by asking questions.

• Teach them their colors and about fruits by making your own scratch n sniff paints. You can also have a placemat (a piece of letter size paper that you've had laminated) with colored blocks and using foods of varying colors have them put the colored foods on the matching colored blocks.  You can also have them sort legos or blocks by color.  You can also use colored stickers to teach colors.

• You can teach the alphabet by giving your children alphabet cookies and a placemat that you have made with the alphabet and have them match up the cookie with the letters on the placemat.  Have them say the letter out loud to you. Make an alphabet book with the letter and pictures of things that begin with that letter.  Spell out words for them such as their name and teach them the letters.

• Teach numbers by counting foods into piles. This will also allow you to introduce the concepts of big and small by comparing different size piles.  You can count anything with your child.  At dollar stores, they often sell wall decals.  If you can find numbers (or make your own with circular wall decals that you've added numbers to with marker) you can put them on the wall by the stairs if you don't have an open staircase.  This way they can see the numbers as you count the stairs together when you go up and down. You can also do countdowns using calendars or make your own.

• Create an obstacle course for your children using pillows to jump in, have them limbo under a broom handle (set up on two chairs), jump over a piece of tape on the floor, and crawl under a kitchen chair.  Do you remember having to crab walk in gym class?

• Running with a kite or kicking a ball.

• Fill a dish pan with water, beans, or rice and give them a strainer, a little rake, and measuring cups. 

• Help them complete 3-6 piece puzzles (or larger ones as they become more capable).

• Have a doll or a stuffed animal that you can dress based on the weather outside (good way to teach a child fine motor skills and about the weather).

• Teach your child spatial relationships such as in, on top, inside, outside, up, down, over, under, near, and far.  You can have your child sit on a chair or climb into a box or use a stuffed animal to illustrate these concepts.

• Have your child help bake or cook by pouring ingredients in the bowl or mixing.

• Pounding, pulling, and stamping play-doh.

• Teach safety by making a list of rules for your home and letting them decorate it.  You can also use their stuffed animals and buckle them in the car to show them the importance of buckling up.  Determine what rules you want to emphasize first, determine what ones they already know, and go from there.

• Teach manners by modeling what you want them to do.  You may want to pick one or two to stress monthly or until your child has mastered them and continually reinforce them. 

• Days of the week can be taught by talking about the day of the week on a daily basis using a calendar or you can have all of the days written on index cards with magnets attached.  Put the day of the week on the fridge with your child first thing in the morning.

• Teach body parts by making it into a game.  See how fast they can point to their various body parts.  You can also make a large cutout of a doll and then make cutouts of eyes, a mouth, hands, feet, etc.  Have them put the body parts where they belong.  You can do this with clothing cutouts also.

A lot of the time, you teach your child these things just from everyday life when the opportunity arises. 

Here are a list of websites to check out for activities, crafts, and theme ideas:

Curriculum ideas
PreschoolLearning.com
Family Education
abcteach 
First-School
PreschoolEducation.com
Gayle's Preschool Rainbow

Crafts and activities
DLTK
Disney Family Fun
thebestkidsbooksite.com
Enchanted Learning

I also did a post awhile ago about online games for kids (many educational), click here to check it out.

Songs to Motivate Your Kids: From Counting to Cleaning

One of the ways to get my daughter to move is to sing while we work.  She has started to sing "clean up, it's time to clean up" before nap time and before bedtime.  It makes me smile. I started to wonder if there were other songs we could sing to help motivate her to help me and to help her learn.

Searching the WWW, I came across a comprehensive site called BusSongs.com. Preschool Education.com also had a large list of songs to sing with your children. The sites also include lyrics for each of the songs.

Experts believe that music helps preschoolers develop better abstract thinking skills.  By singing or playing music, they  are also engaging more of their senses.  Studies have shown that when children enter school, they are more likely to do better in the maths and sciences if they have been exposed to music regularly through song or through learning to play music. They also have more focus, play better with their peers, and have higher self-esteem.

Sources: http://www.childrensmusicworkshop.com/advocacy/benefits.html 
              http://kidshealth.org/parent/growth/learning/preschool_music.html#
              
Here are some songs that you can sing with your kids throughout the day .

Dressing
Hokey Pokey (I modify this to get my daughter dressed)
Dressed in the Morning, Getting Dressed, Old Shoes, New Shoes, Let's Put On Our Socks

Eating
Be Our Guest
I'm a Little Teapot
Fruit Salad (from The Wiggles)

Mealtime Song
I'm Getting Very Hungry, It's Off to Lunch We Go, When We Eat Together, and Are You Hungry

Manners
Manners, Table Manners, and Friends

Brushing Your Teeth/Loose Teeth/Dentist
I've Been Brushing, Got My Toothpaste, Brush Your Teeth,  A Toothbrush, 
Brush, Brush, Brush, Your Teeth
There's a Hole in Your Smile, The Dentist's Song

Covering Mouths When Sneezing
Sneeze Song, I Need a Tissue, and Cough or Sneeze

Cleaning up
Whistle While You Work
Heigh Ho, Heigh Ho
This is the Way, Clean Up Time, Clean Up Song

Washing Hands
Wash Your Little Hands, Wash Your Hands
Wash, Wash, Wash, Your Hands

Potty
Potty Songs (from Potty Training Concepts)
Tinkle, Tinkle, on the Potty

Learning
The Alphabet Song
Today Is... , 
Sunday, Monday 
Months of the Year
Shapes
This Old Man 
Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes

 Morals
The Oompa-Loompa Songs
Give a Little Whistle

 Shopping
This Little Piggy 
What Will You Buy, Clipping Coupons, and Shopping Song (from Everything Preschool)

Car Safety
Safety Belts, Seat Belt Safety, The Car Song, and Buckle Up (Scroll down to find the lyrics)

Bath Time
Rub-a-dud-dub
Splish Splash (Elmo version)

Bedtime
Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star
Rock-a-Bye Baby
Lullaby and Goodnight 
Close Your Eyes Go to Sleep 
Irish Lullaby
Hush Little Baby

What Makes a Great Teacher?

As a former educator I love reading education articles.  Someone had tweeted about this article online and I had to check it out.  As a parent, school is looming in the distance for my daughters but even I know how quickly time flies.  I am just getting ready to look at preschools for my two year old.  Can you believe that you have to start calling in January to have your child enrolled in a preschool for September? 

In an age where test scores rule and many parents choose to homeschool their children or use cyberschool, the question is often asked about how to measure teacher effectiveness. The article on The Atlantic is called "What Makes a Great Teacher".   How do you quantify qualities that make a good teacher?  An associate professor at the University of Pennsylvania and her peers seem to have determined a way to quantify perseverance.  It seems that based on teachers in the Teach for America Program (they recruit teachers for urban and rural schools), teachers who persevered, had long-term goals, and were satisfied with their lives made better teachers.  Other predictors included college grade point average the last two years of college and meeting or exceeding previous leadership goals. There are also video links that allow you to take a peak inside the classroom of four teachers who demonstrate effective teaching skills.  

Since we as parents are our little ones first teachers and we continue to be role models, this article and the videos were reminders of how we can better teach our children.  It's not just about subject matter but also about making our children believe in themselves and that they can do whatever they set their minds to.  It is also about consequences and accountability.  It is also about working with our children's teachers to make sure our children are getting the best education possible.  Maybe one day, our children will be at the head of the class.