Hello Book Bums families!
This week in the newsletter we're thinking about book worms. We have recommendations for a summer reading series and award-winning titles as well as a rock painting challenge. Dr. Christy also shares plans and resources to host your own hands-on, literary, nature workshop at home - all about worms!
Read on and enjoy.
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Word of the Week
avid (av-id) adjective/describing word - eager and enthusiastic
Avid readers will become regular patrons at libraries and book stores.
Literary Calendar
- On June 27, 1922, the first Newbery Medal was presented for children's literature.
Interested in checking out some Newbery Medal winning books? See the complete list here.
From our Bookshelves
Keeper of the Lost Cities is a series recommended to my ten-year-old granddaughter by a fellow reader who’s on her cheer team. My daughter-in-law asked me about it, but I hadn’t read any of the series. I just finished book one, and I enjoyed it very much.
Avid older elementary school readers can be tricky. They can devour single books so quickly that it can be challenging keeping them reading throughout the week let alone the summer. Having books with depth while remaining within parent-approved subject matter is also often an issue.
Keeper of the Lost Cities has sophisticated content that captures readers’ imaginations and yet it’s appropriate for tweens. The main character, Sophie, is a 12-year-old girl who leaves her human world and enters the mysterious and magnificent Elvin world. There are friendships and family issues, superpowers and social powers at play, as well as secrets and mysteries that keep readers devouring chapter after chapter.
This one gets Grandma’s vote of approval!
Tips for Families
I often talk about promoting curiosity with our children and about interweaving fiction and nonfiction texts on a topic, so I thought I would share a workshop I prepared this summer. Book Bums has already hosted two book clubs as activities for kids in a few different communities to enjoy after attending the Faith Alliance Summer Lunch Program, and we’ll have one more in August.
This month’s exploration featured earthworms. Are you up for an easy worm exploration with some kids you love?
I recommend the following books (and I purchased all I could find), though I’d also suggest that the exploration leader dig into the topic of worms a bit beyond these books so you can share some additional cool facts as well.
First, read Wiggling Worms at Work. Then read Worms to recap the most important information and to enjoy the photographs.
Then, invite the kids to observe a real worm or two. Have them note, aloud, what they’re seeing.
Next, knowing what they know, invite the kids to make a worm out of clay. I’m betting they’re already good at rolling dough to make snakes. To make it into a worm, they’ll need to make segments in their snake shapes with their fingernails or another item with a straight edge. We’re using these inexpensive 6” rulers (that the kids get to keep), and we will also discuss average worm lengths.
In Ohio, the average worm is about 3” long. Newly hatched worms are about an inch long and they function independently from day one. The longest earthworm length recorded in the world was twenty-two feet long!
Next, introduce the term “cross section.” Share that you’re going to reveal what is inside a worm’s body, starting with the head (which is generally more angular than the tail). Note: If you’re not sure which is the head on a real earthworm, know that they most always travel headfirst.
To make a cross-section model, you’re simply adding the parts on top of our clay worms using small pinches of a variety of colors as shown in the image below. I didn’t have students add labels, but I did encourage them to remember them by providing a list of body parts and by reviewing them quite a few times.
“Point to your worm’s brain. Point to the five pairs of hearts. Where’s the crop? The gizzard? How about the intestines? Point to the clitellum. What body part continues past the clitellum? What’s at the very end of your worm?”
I’ve organized the following list so you can note the exterior of a worm: segmented skin, the setae /see-tie/ (hairs or bristles), and the mouth, and then the interior parts of a worm, in order from head to tail.
Note that it is a misconception that cutting a worm in half will result in two worms. However, if a worm is trying to escape a predator as it travels headfirst downward into a hole and it loses a bit of its tail, the worm can survive because the vital parts are toward the head and the tail portion can regenerate.
*Note- I included the gizzard below the crop on the list I created.
To show what comes out of the tail end of a worm, I purchased some worm castings from Home Depot. Kids love to explore interesting things, and what could be more interesting than worm poop?
After allowing kids to explore worm castings (that have no manure-like smell), you can add it to your flowers or vegetable garden to improve soil structure and enhance nutrient availability.
Tips for Raising Readers and Writers
After washing hands, we’ll explore some fictional worms. Read Diary of a Worm. This one is funny! My favorite part is when it says, “May 28 Last night I went to the school dance. You put your head in. You put your head out. You do the hokey pokey and you turn yourself about. That’s all we could do.” Ha!
To promote writing, I created a Diary of ____ booklets so kids can try their hands at keeping a diary. Print one copy of the first page of the PDF one sided (the cover) and then the remaining pages two sided. Fold the pages vertically and cut them in half, horizontally, to create two booklets and add a staple to the center of each.
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Wordology Workshop
• The Latin root sect means to cut.
• It shows up in English words such as section, intersecting, sector, bisect, and dissection.
• Sect is also one of those roots that is its own word in English. It means a dissenting group or a group cut off from the main branch.
• Did you notice a sect word in our worms activities?
Practical Grammar
I read the following message on social media and thought, that should say,
“ . . . you’re the one who.”
Generally, when referring to a person we use the one who, and when referring to an object we use the one that. Like they so often do, rules soften with misuse and what was once considered incorrect becomes acceptable. When speaking and writing in formal settings, let’s stand strong and use proper grammar, please.
News from Book Bums
We have the head of our readers’ reptile at Book Bums, but we need painted rocks to represent the books our students are reading at home this summer to make the body. We have a head and no book-inspired body! Help! It’s too hot to do much outside, so grab some rocks, spread a plastic tablecloth on the table, and get those paints out. Ask your kids to paint one rock for each book they’ve read so far this summer. The rock can be painted any way the kids would like, but it’d be cool if we saw something on the rocks to hint at what books they’ve read.
Here are some cool rocks done by older readers for inspiration:
Tips for Teachers
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Should a teacher ask students what they think the two sounds for o-o might be or should the teacher just tell them? Research makes it clear. Just tell them—with one-on-one instruction, but especially when teaching in a classroom setting.
We more readily recall what is said at the beginning of a presentation and at the end of a presentation, while the middle parts often get muddled. Do we want kids sharing what they think the correct answer might be at the beginning of a lesson or should we just tell them?
Instead of saying, “Debbie, do you know the sounds we make when we see two o’s together in a word? Remember? Do the motions with me. What sounds? Remember the Froot Loops and Cookie Crisp words we made? What sound do those o’s make in Froot Loops? What sound do the o’s make in Cookie (Crisp)?” Meanwhile, twenty other students are zoned out, glad that they weren’t called upon.
Even worse is, “Who can tell me . . .” and awaiting raised hands.
Why would we call on one student (who may offer an incorrect response) and allow the whole lesson to grind to a halt while waiting for a response when we can engage all students with choral responses?
What’s better?
“Scholars, two o’s can say /ew/ or /oo/ (as in book). Do the motions and say it with me, ‘O-o can say /ew/ as in Froot Loops and /oo/ as in Cookie (Crisps). Say it with me again. Two o’s can say /ew/ or /oo/.” The first sound we make is /ew/. If that doesn’t make a word we know, we just flip it to the other sound, /oo/.”
In this scenario, every child is actively engaged making the sounds and doing the motions.
Just tell them, and don’t call on students one at a time while the others silently slobber and slumber. Embrace enthusiastic choral responses and movement so you get the most bang for your buck.
Just for Fun
Can you tell what this student was trying to say? If you’ve ever taught early elementary school, I bet you can at least get close!
Anyone can come to my jacuzzi. (That j is reversed.)
Have I mentioned that our handwriting workshops are coming soon to our West Chester location?
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