Hello Book Bums families!
Does your family enjoy puzzles? Every day, even without a subscription, your family can try some puzzles from The New York Times. Connections is a puzzle that requires considering all the meanings and associations of a word and looking for common threads. It's a great one to work on with a team!
This week in the newsletter we have summery book recommendations, crafts and activities for your kids, and news about handwriting workshops. Enjoy!
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Word of the Week
deluge (del-yuj) noun/person, place, or thing -a drenching rain, or an overwhelming amount of something
The deluge of requests for Taylor Swift tickets overwhelmed the system.
Literary Calendar
• Do you enjoy mythology re-tellings?
• July 24 is the birthday of writer Madeline Miller, author of Circe and The Song of Achilles.
• You can dig into Miller's books at her website.
• If you're looking for more novels rooted in mythology, check out this article full of recommendations.
From our Bookshelves
I purchased Our Pool by Lucy Ruth Cummins, on a whim—and was thrilled to learn that it is absolutely gorgeous in every way!
The illustrations are a feast for the eyes, and the text is pure delight.
You could use Our Pool to introduce kids to alliteration (Everyone is sweating, and smiling, and skip-stepping . . .), and onomatopoeia (Lockers clank and locks cachunk . . .).
There’s a great two-page spread that would be perfect for teaching kids that quotation marks are used to show exactly what a person says.
The author uses white space to guide the reader’s pacing and other creative spacings of letters and words to complement the text.
You will find examples of metaphor (It’s an ice-cold bowl of City People Soup.) and simile ( . . . we all freeze like statues for a moment . . .).
You’ll also find lots of ways to engage the little ones you love in the story by discussing what the writer is sharing and comparing it to their own experiences.
There are words to notice together such as shallow, shrill, and shrieks, and there’s even a cliff hanger where kids can make predictions.
Whether you’re looking for a book that provides opportunities for sharing how our language works and the beautiful tools great authors use to make their writing magical or you just love snuggling with kids and sharing beautiful text and illustrations, Our Pool is a beauty.
Quick question . . .
Are you an inch slowly-slowly-slowly, one toe at a time, teeth clenched and goose bumps growing all over your skin kind of pool person?
Or are you a JUMP-RIGHT-IN! all-at-once and oh-so-quick type of pool person?
Tips for Families
Do you have some stray socks that don’t have matches? Either make a cute little sign like the one above or use those socks for a fun activity for the kids that provides an opportunity for them to demonstrate being responsible too. All you need is some potting soil and a big spoon, grass seed, some of those oddball socks, rubber bands, a hot glue gun and some wiggle eyes, a cup with water, and a plastic plate. On a nice-weather day, take the kids outside with all those supplies and get to work.
First, place the grass seed (1/4 cup, +/- depending on the size of the sock) in the toe of the sock. Add enough soil to fill the sock until it’s full and looks like it could be a cute little critter. Tie off the sock with a rubber band and orient the grass seed to the “top” of the sock. Use a glue gun to add wiggle eyes, then place the filled sock on a plastic plate and soak it with water. After a few days, “hair” will begin to grow. Kids can water their sock pets to keep them moist, give their critters haircuts, and keep them growing for quite some time.
Tips for Readers and Writers
Whether it’s documenting making those cute grass-haired sock pets or another activity, invite your kids to document an event by having them take pictures as they do the activity, print the ones they like, place them in chronological order, and then add words to describe what was happening in those images.
You can use an inexpensive photo album like this one from Amazon to organize the photos and the kids can use blank 4 x 6 index cards to add text. These activities are best received when there’s an authentic audience to share the finished product with. Whether it’s Grandma and Grandpa, a neighbor across the street, or a YouTube audience, knowing someone will be viewing their work will be an incentive to do their best.
Practical Grammar
The abbreviation e.g. comes from the Latin exempli gratia, meaning “for [the sake of an] example.”
The abbreviation i.e. comes from the Latin id est, meaning “that is” or “in other words.”
Both are used to add to something that was mentioned earlier in a sentence.
We use e.g. to provide an incomplete list—sometimes comprising only a single item—of clarifying examples.
We use i.e. to provide either a complete list of clarifying examples or a clarifying statement.
Tips for how to remember when to use which:
E.g. sounds like “egg sample.”
I.e. means, essentially, “in essence.”
When writing e.g. or i.e., always use a comma after the abbreviation/before the words you’re listing—even if it’s a single word.
Wordology Workshop
• The Latin roots curr and curs mean run.
• You can find them in words like current, curriculum, and cursive.
• In cursive writing, the letters are connected, they run together.
• Can you see how the idea of running is part of all the words? Can you think of more examples?
Just for Fun
News from Book Bums
One of our most popular Book Bums workshops was the handwriting workshops. Parents and kids alike actually loved it! Though we’re too busy with tutoring to host our hour-long Monday through Friday workshops at Book Bums, we are making the content and materials available for online purchase. Interested? We’ll have more information in next week’s newsletter and on our Facebook page.
Here’s the gist:
You can lead your kids through the lessons, or a babysitter or a teenaged neighbor could—anyone your kids will look forward to spending an hour with, each day for at least five days in a row, will work.
• You’ll receive videos showing the letter formations in a sense-making progression where we’ll share practical, game-changing tips and tricks for mastering every letter—even those darned b’s and d’s.
• You’ll receive downloadable handwriting paper choices and a PDF showing the letter formation progression at a glance.
• Your kids will learn to use tidy and efficient letter formations, they’ll strengthen their fine motor skills, and they’ll improve their stamina so they can write for extended periods of time.
• Your kids will be better able to focus on their ideas and word spellings when they don’t have to think about things like, Which one’s a b?
• Your kids will no longer use uppercase letters where they’re not required.
• This instruction promotes an easy transition into cursive writing which is now back in many curricula.
• One often unsung benefit of explicit, systematic handwriting instruction is that kids learn to embrace a growth mindset. They discover they can change a habit that’s not serving them when they 1) decide they can do it and 2) are open to receiving instruction from a coach.
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