Hello Book Bums families!
This week we are thinking about spring. Warmer weather is a great time for new experiences and new books! Whatever you like to read, think about taking your reading outside to a porch, a picnic, or a park.
“Books give a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and life to everything." - Plato, philosopher
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Word of the Week
prognosticate (prog-noss-tuh-kate) verb/action word - to try to predict the future
Many basketball fans prognosticate about the NCAA tournament as they fill out their brackets.
Literary Calendar
• March 25 is the birthday of author Kate DiCamillo.
• Kate DiCamillo's books can carry a young reader through childhood from the Mercy Watson books and Bink and Gollie for early readers to Because of Winn Dixie and The Tale of Despereaux for more skilled readers.
Tips for Families
To celebrate spring, we’ve got a few items to recommend. They might make terrific Easter basket treats if those are a part of your springtime family traditions.
Educators have long known the power of pairing a fiction (not fact) book with a nonfiction (fact-filled) book, and you can enjoy some fun times together while learning lots of information about chickens!
First, you can crack open an egg and talk about what you see there. This exploration is absolutely captivating for kids. We’ve included a diagram, below, so you can rock the egg facts. The best part is that tiny white dot. Maybe you’ve never noticed it before. That’s where the chick would begin to form if the egg was fertilized. You’ll want to remind your kids that chicks can only grow in fertilized eggs. The eggs we purchase at the grocery store are not fertilized.
Check out this website. It’s got so much good stuff!
If you color Easter eggs, you might want to have a sharp white crayon handy. Kids LOVE to write their names on the eggs and watch those letters appear when the eggs are dropped into the dye.
From our Bookshelves
Where do Chicks Come From?
Kids LOVE to learn cool facts, and this book is filled with them!
The Wolf's Chicken Stew
This is an adorable book with lots of opportunities for teaching your kids. It’s a great inspiration to practice counting to one hundred, too! Add some Peeps and you’ve got some great springtime fun!
Tips for Readers and Writers
Have you ever wondered why the word one is spelled the way it’s spelled? I sure have. I’ve had to explain to children who are desperately trying to navigate this language of ours, exactly why words are spelled the way they are. I introduced the word one on the first day of school; day 1. It was a great way to launch math concepts, and I always began the lesson by spelling the featured number word on the corresponding day. Admittedly, the first (and second) day was especially tricky. However, after digging into it, I realized that it’s not just a “dumb” spelling.
Here's the thing: We see lots of words that mean one or a single thing that are spelled similarly.
Consider these words: once, only, alone, lone, loner, lonely
The English language is a bit tricky because LOTS of spellings represent speech sounds while other spellings represent word meanings.
Remember the recent newsletter that reminded us about the not so illogical use of a w when spelling of the number word two? It’s related in meaning (even though we don’t voice the sound) to words such as twin, twenty, twice, twilight, and between.
We know it can be tricky to explain, especially when we weren’t taught about this when we were kids.
Wordology Workshop
• Remember that the Latin root lit means letter.
• How many examples could you think of? Here are some of ours: literature, literacy, illiterate, litany, and literal.
Practical Grammar
Apostrophes are used in a few ways, but the main two are:
1. to indicate missing letters in contractions (can’t, we’ll, isn’t), and
2. to indicate possession (that something “belongs” to someone or something).
To indicate possession with singular nouns, add ’s at the end of the word. This also applies to names and other proper nouns.
• The book’s ending was quite surprising.
• Cincinnati’s nighttime skyline, when entering Ohio traveling north on I-75, is always welcoming.
• Determination and hard work led to Milton Hershey’s success.
• While at Disney, I wore a dress that looked just like my favorite princess’s dress.
To indicate possession with proper nouns that ends in s, most style guides – including APA and MLA – recommend adding ’s.
• Doris’s new haircut was alarming.
• We’re going to the Williams’s house.
• The details of Jesus’s life remain a matter of debate
Most plural nouns already end in s. In this case, to indicate possession, add only an apostrophe to the end of the word. This also applies to words where the singular and the plural take the same form.
• The flood destroyed the beavers’ dam.
• We present new evidence of the pirates’ intentions.
• The two species’ habitats are very different.
Tip-
To help kids distinguish between apostrophes and commas, we often point our fingers upward and say UP-postrophe. The hint is in the very word itself. When writing, it’s helpful to remind students that apostrophes are always up, off of the baseline. When teaching about commas, we often say CALM-uh-down to remind kids that commas are down on the baseline.
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