Hello Book Bums families!
Did you know?
• November's flower is the chrysanthemum.
• November 19 is Play Monopoly Day.
• November is the final month of the year with thirty days.
• The month of November is never mentioned in the work of Shakespeare, one of only three months the Bard never mentions.
Bookbums.com is an Amazon Associate; We earn from qualifying purchases. This means that if you click on a link to Amazon.com and make a purchase, We may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. We do recommend the products. Feel free to find them by other means.
Word of the Week
nocturnal (nok-tur-nuhl) adjective/describing word - occurring at night rather than during the day.
Santa is known for his nocturnal deliveries.
Wordology Workshop
• Our Word of the Week, nocturnal, comes from the Latin root noct.
• Noct or nox, both mean night.
• You can find them in words like equinox, which means equal night and day and nocturne, which is a piece of music dealing with evening or night.
Literary Calendar
• November 18 is the birthday of Canadian author, Margaret Atwood.
• Perhaps best known for her novel, The Handmaid's Tale, Atwood is a prolific writer including many books of essays, short stories, and poetry.
• You can explore all her work at her website.
"From listening to the stories of others, we learn to tell our own."
-Margaret Atwood
From our Bookshelves
I have been working on refreshing our front porch for the holiday season and was looking for something to listen to on Audible. For some reason a podcast just wouldn’t do, so I searched our library for something to keep me entertained as I refreshed our white-painted trim. I saw The Christmas Hirelings listed and wondered what it was. I didn’t remember downloading it, but I began listening as I painted and was quickly swept into a story that felt like a mix between a Jane Austen novel and The Secret Garden.
Published in 1894, this story is sweet and sentimental and possesses an old-fashioned charm that I thoroughly enjoyed. Though it’s predictable (curmudgeon + irresistible child = happy holiday), it is also enchanting. The Christmas Hirelings just may be what you’re looking for as we make our way into December. The story, now free on Audible, lasts about 4 hours. It’d be a great book to listen to as a family on a long drive.
Tips for Families
Are you looking for something fun to do with kids around Thanksgiving? How about a Thanksgiving turkey donut? We’re adding directions below, so you can invite your older kids to read and follow them independently if you’d like.
Thanksgiving Turkey Donut
Materials Needed:
donuts with holes in the center
Nutter Butter cookies
candy corn pieces
red Twizzlers licorice (just a bit of one piece needed)
candy eyeballs
toothpicks (or use the tine of a fork)
1. Place your donut in the center of a plate.
2. Stick some candy corn pieces, pointy side down, into only 1/3 of the donut.
3. To decorate the body of the turkey, use a toothpick to dab some chocolate icing from a donut to the backs of two candy eyeballs and “glue” the eyeballs onto one end of each Nutter Butter cookie.
4. Add bits of a Twizzler to make the turkey waddles and add an orange piece of a candy corn candy for the beak, “gluing” them with the chocolate icing (same as you did with the eyes) below the eyes.
5. Stick the cookie, eye-side up, into the donut.
Tips for Raising Readers and Writers
Though the numbers may vary from graphic to graphic, we’ve all seen the stats—and it can be downright discouraging, especially when one knows the great benefits that come from reading books.
Why does Book Bums strive to encourage and inspire reading?
Because reading . . .
1. expands viewpoints beyond everyday lives.
2. boosts general knowledge.
3. Improves vocabulary.
4. promotes orthographic mapping which yields improved spelling.
5. strengthens problem-solving skills.
6. improves brain health and can lower chances of memory loss and cognitive decline.
7. reduces stress and promotes relaxation.
8. improves focus/concentration.
9. boosts empathy and enhances interpersonal relationships.
10. promotes improved writing skills.
11. provides inexpensive and free entertainment.
12. boosts analytical thinking
What can you do to inspire reading with your loved ones?
Tips for Teachers
No Blends
You may have noticed that in the Foundations for Literacy lessons, we do not teach blends such as “s-t-r says /str/.” Here’s why: When teaching phonics, we are always blending. We slide one sound into the next, and we practice a lot, so we get really good at sliding those sounds together and recognizing the words we’re decoding. We often say, “We make the sounds we see, moving from left to right across the words, knowing what we now know about how words work.” The whole phonics game is sliding sounds together. That’s blending.
There is no need for kids to memorize blends as such. We come to know blends as we decode words. We must not delay the explicit teaching of essential phonics lessons because we’re spending precious time teaching blends. Our kids learn to blend by blending. People who learn to blend the sounds in words become extraordinarily efficient, accurate, and fluent decoders.
Our aim is to get the essential phonics lessons in just as quickly as possible. No time to waste on blends.
Practical Grammar
Whose Who’s rite write right?
The original poster (though rife with errant capital letters and is missing punctuation) was correct with its original use of is.
Do you know why?
Someone underlined the word use for a good reason. The use is prohibited. Though the words cell phones and earbuds make it seem as though a plural is at play (and that plural feels like the use of are is required), the subject, use, is not plural. The plural is used within a prepositional phrase.
Consider the following sentence:
The toys from Santa are wrapped in special wrapping paper.
The words from Santa are used as a prepositional phrase to add information about the toys, but the subject (requiring a properly corresponding verb) is toys. The sentence must make sense should the prepositional phrase be taken away.
When we take away the prepositional phrase on the blue poster, we’re left with “The use is prohibited while you are on the clock.” That makes sense, though the addition of the prepositional phrase is needed to fully understand the message. “The use of cell phones and earbuds is prohibited while you are on the clock.”
The most used prepositions are at, by, for, from, in, of, on, to, and with, so be aware.
Test your subject/verb agreement skills.
Quiz:
1. The hard-working elves at the North Pole have only five more Fridays until Christmas.
2. The analysis of Santa’s results are debatable.
3. The material used to make those highly sought after toys is very expensive.
4. Each of the children were invited to meet Santa.
5. Santa’s list with all the names of well-behaved children is tucked inside his pocket.
*Answers can be found at the end of this newsletter.
News from Book Bums
We need volunteers! Beginning in December, The Faith Alliance (with Dr. Christy leading) will be serving third- and fourth-grade students in three Lakota schools (Adena, Freedom, and Union). The Faith Alliance is hiring a lead teacher and an assistant teacher for each building, and we’re currently recruiting volunteers.
If you’re local to the greater Cincinnati area, we sure could use your help! Volunteers need no formal training for they simply sit in on the lessons and then help kids by 1) smiling and making the kids feel seen and welcome, 2) keeping the kids engaged by redirecting and reinforcing the information presented, and 3) playing games with the kids so they have someone saying, “Yes! That’s right!” or “Wait a minute. What sounds do those letters represent again? Try that again remembering the rule we know.”
Many volunteers have been working with us for YEARS and they absolutely love it!
Afterschool volunteers would need to arrive at their selected buildings, once a week, at around 2:55 p.m., and they’d leave at about 4:30.
We still don’t know which schools will be meeting on which days. We’ll share more when Lakota provides that information.
High school students are welcome! Please invite students who need volunteer hours to contact us.
Email Dr. Christy at [email protected] if you’re interested in serving your community in this way. It’s so much fun, and you may even learn something you didn’t know about how words work too!
Just for Fun
Practical Grammar Quiz Answers
1. correct
2. incorrect
3. correct
4. incorrect
5. correct
If you know someone who would benefit from our newsletter or tutoring at Book Bums, please share this email with them! Thank you.
Copyright © 2024 Book Bums, All rights reserved
Our mailing address is:
7967 Cincinnati-Dayton Road Suite L
West Chester, OH 45069