Hello Book Bums families!
The gorgeous days continue here in greater Cincinnati, and we are feeling inspired by the natural world. This week in the newsletter we share some fun ideas for spending time outside exploring and learning with your kids. We're also getting into the spooky spirit with new book recommendations now that October is underway. Dr. Christy shares her third installment of Using Commas Correctly. We hope you are following along!
"Rest, nature, books, music ... such is my idea of happiness."
-Leo Tolstoy
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Word of the Week
synthetic (sin-thet-ik) adjective/describing word - not natural, artificial
Shoes are often made of some natural materials like leather as well as durable, synthetic materials for the soles.
Literary Calendar
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- October 7 is the birthday of author R.L. Stine.
- He is most famous for his spooky series Goosebumps.
- You can visit his website for audio stories, a kids club, and all the details about his books.
From our Bookshelves
For the month of October, we’ll feature some super scary (well, not really scary) books to share with young readers. Not much goes better with campfires and making s’mores than some spooky stories. If you loved Viorst’s Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day, you’ll love this one, too. This book features Alexander’s brother, Nick, and lots of spooky creatures he thinks he sees. His mama tells him that there is nothing there, but Nick isn’t so sure—especially since his mama has been wrong about quite a few things recently. In the end, Nick realizes that though mamas do make mistakes sometimes, sometimes they don’t.
Tips for Readers and Writers
Using Commas Correctly, Week 3 of 8
Week 3- Commas are used to separate independent clauses when they are joined by coordinating conjunctions and, but, for, or, nor, so, and yet.
Example:
Book Bums used to be a café and coffee shop that hosted literacy-focused events, but Book Bums is presently open for tutoring, only.
Use some elbow macaroni noodles to teach your kids when to use commas in their writing! Scoop another handful of those curved noodles, print the attached PDF, and grab some glue. That’s all you’ll need for some fun-focused practice using commas. Share with your kids this week’s featured rules for using commas. Then, have them insert the macaroni commas where they belong on the provided PDF. For beginning readers, you read the text for them. More advanced readers can do this work independently. After you’ve checked for accuracy, have your kids attach their macaroni commas to the paper with some glue. When the glue dries, display your third set of Use Your Noodle activity sheets to review the lessons they’ve learned so far.
Tips for Families
Tips for Families
Loose parts, a term architect Simon Nicholson coined, refers to materials that offer endless possibilities for creative play. Many educators of young children provide materials for explorations with loose parts to promote imaginative play in their classrooms. Loose parts are materials that children can move, combine, redesign, line up, take apart, and put back together in multiple ways. There are no real rules for loose parts except that they are a part of child-centered, open-ended, naturally occurring experiences.
Loose parts can be natural or synthetic objects, but fall is the perfect time to gather natural materials such as leaves, pinecones, acorns, bark, feathers, stones, buckeyes, sticks, and more. Gathering these materials can be just as much fun as playing with them! If you don’t have a lot of options in your yard, visit a nearby park. You can even order items from Amazon.
Kids love creating small play spaces using sticks, stones, and anything else they can find to create roadways, fairy gardens, and play areas for any critters who might be passing by.
This time of year, the buckeye tree in my backyard inspires Easter Egg-like hunts for my grandkids and me. We collect big bowls of these shining beauties and count them and play with them all year long.
Some hemlock trees yield these adorable little pinecones.
A sycamore tree has these cool seed balls.
Kids have a knack for finding the coolest things. Add in some small sticks and loose dirt and you’ll be filled with wonder as you watch your kids create their own little worlds.
The Find & Seek Scavenger Hunt game (available on Amazon) might inspire some more fun outdoor activity. Kids draw some cards with adjectives/describing words on them, and then they are to find one object that could be described using each word. This active game can promote reading/decoding skills, too, if you point out the phonics rules at play. (Sneaky!) E.g., “In this word, the a-r says /ar/ like a pirate, and the g-e makes the g say /j/. The word is large.” If you are unsure about phonics rules and how to easily convey them to children, Dr. Christy has a resource you might find helpful. Just email her at [email protected].
Wordolgy Workshop
• The Greek root syn means with.
• You find it in our Word of the Week synthetic. It's also in words like synchronous and synonym.
• Sometimes you'll see sym instead of syn, for example symmetry and sympathy.
Practical Grammar
Is it phase or faze?
To faze means to disturb, bother, or embarrass. It’s a verb.
A phase is a stage or step. It’s a noun.
To keep them straight: Something that fazes or bothers you might make you want to fight. Phases are stages we pass through.
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