Hello Book Bums families!
Do you remember that famous catchphrase, "It's time to make the doughnuts," from a 1980s ad campaign? Well, this week we're all about doughnuts. From books and activities for all ages to the famous Donut Trail, we share everything you need to have a spring doughnut celebration. Since we are who we are, we also share some word knowledge about the sweet treat and a doughnut poem.
Read on and enjoy!
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Word of the Week
effulgent (ee-full-jent) adjective/describing word - radiant, shining brightly
The children's faces were effulgent on Easter morning as they beheld their baskets full of treats.
Literacy Calendar
- April is National Poetry Month!
- As in past years, we'll share some poetry with you each week this month.
- Today we offer a fun poem to go with our sweet, round theme.
Pause for Poetry
From our Bookshelves
Because I’m sharing about Butler County, Ohio’s Donut Trail in this edition of our newsletter, I’m sharing not one but eight kids’ books about donuts! I’ve listed them in order from books for the oldest readers (independent readers) to the youngest (toddlers). You should know that I have purchased each of these books—some many times!
At Christmastime, I had a thematic focus for kids’ activities when our families came over for some holiday fun. I never want the kids to be bored when they’re with me, so I gifted books and provided lots of activities all featuring doughnuts.
After seeing the books I chose, you can also find LOTS of donut themed activities I had for the kids to enjoy while their parents played games at the larger table. We hosted this holiday event at our West Chester Book Bums, so we had lots of tables to set up activities and the kids just moved to the tables that interested them.
These are the donut books I selected:
The Doughnut King is a great book about a boy who’s finding his place in a new community, and how a recipe turned him into a donut entrepreneur.
Donut Dreams is a book for tweens who enjoy reading about family, friends, achieving their dreams, and donuts of course.
Dozens of Doughnuts is a rhyming book about a bear who shares her donuts (even when it’s hard) with her animal neighbors.
Donut Chef is a rhyming book about a man who opens a donut shop, and then a competitor opens another shop. Things get a little crazy. Then the Donut Chef gets back to what folks like best.
When Dinosaurs Came with Everything is about a boy and his mom who get a free dinosaur with their order of a dozen donuts and all the craziness of a day when dinosaurs are given away by every business owner.
If You Give a Dog a Donut is another circular story by Laura Numeroff that kids are sure to enjoy.
D is for Donut begins with “A is for apple fritter . . . “ and it continues through the most mouthwatering alphabet I can remember. There’s a recipe in the back too.
Donuts! Is perfectly shaped for toddler hands, The pages are thick and the images look delicious. You can guess which donut will come next.
Next are materials I’ve purchased for donut-themed fun. This first one even the grown-ups got into. We made tiny donuts (by the dozens) and displayed them in these darling boxes with window openings. We have enough supplies that we can make donuts every time we get together until next Christmas!
These boxes were so cute, and folding them to make them into the proper shape was so much fun for the kids. It’s like magic!
The colors and texture made making donuts an absolute pleasure! We added icing, and sprinkles, and all the gorgeous goodies.
All kids love Legos, so I had this donut food truck out to put together. It was put together at least twice!
We all enjoyed putting this puzzle together. A couple of kids got the puzzle started, but they moved on to another activity, and a few others finished it up.
No one played with this toddler toy that night, but the kids love playing with it while they’re visiting with Grandma and Grandpa.
I purchased these donut stickers on a whim, but I believe everyone made at least one donut face. We still have lots left over for more donut sticker fun in the future too.
This is just your basic memory game with really cute donut pairs to match. I use only six at a time with my younger grandsons. They’re catching on! Mostly they just love holding the stacks of donuts in their hands and looking at the designs.
These are cute donut-shaped note pads that I got to motivate them to do some writing.
I used these donut-shaped hole reinforcers to invite kids to add a dozen donuts stickers to a letter d that I cut out to remind them what a d looks like (compared to a b). It’s like a donut and then a twist right next to it! I hung lots of d’s as well as some other letters on a wall, and preschoolers went around pointing to the letters and said “That’s a d--/d/” or “Not a d.”
I used these donut tubes as décor.
This is the cutest donut stacker for the babies!
Of course, we also had a dozen donuts from Stan the Donut Man (just down the plaza from Book Bums, West Chester) who has seriously delicious donuts. Our family thinks that the glazed twists and the glazed blueberry cake donuts are the best EVER! They’re all so good, and if you’re going to indulge in some sweets, we think you should stop in and visit their shop.
Wordology Workshop
- The word dozen, meaning a group of twelve, comes to us in modern English from an Old French word, dozaine, meaning the same thing.
- Further back, it comes from the combined Latin roots meaning two + ten.
- The term baker's dozen means thirteen instead of twelve and is a sign of honesty and goodwill.
Tips for Families
Well, Butler County (in Ohio) is famous! People actually visit our county from other states to participate in the Donut Trail.
Here’s how it works:
First you visit this website to get the sweet details about the trail.
You have to have this passport with you and you must ask a donut shop employee to stamp your passport at each stop.
You can stop by or mail your completed Passport to: Travel Butler County 8756 Union Centre Blvd. West Chester, OH 45069. If you have any questions, call 513-860-0917 or visit BCDonutTrail.com.
Tips for Raising Readers and Writers
The traditional spelling is doughnut, but today we often see the shortened spelling, donut. This spelling has become standard practice. Can we agree that . . . when in doubt, we’ll use the “more correct” spelling? Let’s use the one that is incontestable. It’s only three more letters. And we can do hard things.
Doughnut Facts
- Doughnuts were popularized during WWI when Salvation Army workers served them to soldiers to boost their morale.
- Today, the average American consumes roughly 63 doughnuts annually.
- The first Friday in June is National Doughnut Day.
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Practical Grammar
At Book Bums, we explicitly teach kids about those tricky words with o-u-g-h. When we do so, we use this meme:
Show students the word tough. Explain that there are some words with o-u-g-h that are very tricky and that they are going to learn some tips and tricks to help them correctly read these wacky,lookalike words. Tell them that, yes, it’s tough, but they can do it!
It might be helpful for you to share some words that tend to trip YOU up when you’re reading.
For example, the words county and country used to trip me up when I was reading—probably because the context for one is very similar to the other: they’re both places. Now, however, I have a quick trick that ensures I read these words accurately. You see, I taught my eyes to peek to see if there’s an r. I know that if there’s an r, the word is country. If not, it’s county. For me, that r is the “dead giveaway.”
First, we examine the word tough noting that this word is, well, tough. Notice that this word sounds like it’d be spelled t-u-f-f. It’s like the o shouldn’t be there, and the g-h says /f/. Weird.
2-Next, show the word though. Share what it says. Compare it to the first word, tough. Notice what is the same and what is different. This word has an h after the t. Tough doesn’t. And the whole pronunciation is different. Explain that the t-h this word says is a buzz and it sounds like it’d be spelled t-h-o, like go and no. The u-g-h says absolutely nothing.
3-Next, show the word thought. What’s the difference between though and thought? They’re exactly the same, except for the t at the end of thought. That’s the dead giveaway. There’s a t at the end of thought. It seems like it would be spelled t-h-o-t, but there’s a u-g-h that doesn’t say a thing.
4-Next show the word through and share what it says. Invite your students to notice the difference between though and through. They’re exactly the same, except through has an r after the t-h. That’s the dead giveaway. Plus, through has a hole (letter o) right through the middle of the word. Have the students pretend to poke their fingers right through the o in the middle of the word through.
5-The next word is throughout. It’s through with the word out at the end. This one’s pretty easy to spot because it’s so long. And it’s easy to spot the word out—though we don’t like to look for little
News from Book Bums
We’re getting ready to introduce ourselves to the staff members at Monroe Early Childhood School and Wyandot Early Childhood School. We’re taking some post-spring break treats for the staff members along with some information about Book Bums, so they know we’re opening a new location in their neighborhood!
If you know anyone who works at either building (or both!), please put in a good word for us! It’s difficult to trust a tutoring center that has no big chain name recognition. Of course, the folks at Wyandot know us from the after-school programming we hosted there through the Faith Alliance as well Lakota’s Summer School programming we hosted last year, but hearing about our effectiveness with your kids may just be what a teacher needs to hear to feel comfortable recommending us to parents.
Thanks in advance!
Tips for Teachers
When cueing a student who miscalls a word as s/he’s reading, there are some important things to remember.
First, please don’t just provide the correct word—at least not very often. Instead, if the word has sounds you’ve explicitly taught, invite the student to “Make the sounds you see. Put your finger under the word, make the first sound, and the next, and the next. That’s it!”
If she’s forgotten a rule you’ve taught her, keep your eyes on your text and indicate that she must keep her eyes on hers. Say, “Oh. I see an o-u. Do you remember the most common sound for o-u?” Often the student says, “Oh, yeah . . .” and off they go. The primary prompt is to direct them back to the code.
If it’s a word you’ve not yet equipped her to decode say, “I’ve haven’t shared this with you yet, but (for example, w-r just says /r/). Then, using what she now knows, off she goes.
If she continues to struggle, you put your finger on top of the word in her book and have her put her finger below the word, and you make the sounds together. Note that every move you make keeps the child focused on the text.
If she shows confusion and does not recall the lesson (the letters, the sounds, the motion), invite her to look at you and you do the motion and make the sound/s. For example, you would say, “O-u and o-w (usually) says /Ow!/,” and then go back to the text.
If there are so many errors that your reader is frustrated, you may be in a book that’s simply too challenging, AND it’s clear that you must return to the lessons that address any sound spellings that are tripping her up.
It is quite rare that students need to go back to a previous lesson, but it happens. Just go back to the word cards, the game boards, and the spelling to do all you can to write those sounds into her orthographic memory.
Of course, if it continues to be a problem, let me know and I’m happy to help any teacher—at Book Bums and beyond! Email me at christy@bookbums.com. I’m only an email away.
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