Looking Back to December Past

Towards the end of each month in 2011, I've been revisiting some articles I've written in 2009 and 2010. Not only does this mean new readers of the blog may find something useful otherwise buried in the archives, but it also reminds me of content I can refer to when I write new articles.

2009

Are We Having Fun Yet? Incorporating fun and purpose into what we want kids to learn. And a video from Fun Theory.

The Book Chook Makes a Movie My first effort at turning a simple story into a movie.

The Book Chook in Love My love affair with the game, Questionaut - delightful art work and lots of reading.

On the Go, or On the Chair Book Chook ideas for incorporating movement into a child's day, including literacy activities and screen time.

Bless this Chick My favourite avatar maker. Great place for you and your kids to play online dress-ups.

Bed Time Goes Better with Books Some Book Chook favourites for sleepytime.

2010

Holiday Learning Fun Lots of Book Chook ideas for sneaking some learning into the holiday season.

Just for Fun Clips, sites and games - a stack of fun for you and your children.

What's the Use of Word Clouds? Some ideas for using Wordle and other word cloud makers.

Creative Prompt - Start with Illustrations One of the Creative Prompt Series, this article suggests ways to start with images to get kids creating.

Are Manners Important? A Book Chook rant. Do good manners open doors for us? What do you think?

Creative Prompt - Two Word Poem Another in the Creative Prompt Series, use this easy idea from poet, Lorraine Marwood, to get your kids started with poetry.

Encouraging Kids to Read and Write Poetry Guest post from poet, Lorraine Marwood.

Creative Prompt - Start with a Hero Kids love heroes, so why not start with the hero as a prompt for even more creativity?

If you're interested in children's book reviews from December '09, '10, or indeed the many other articles from that time, try those months in the Blog Archive widget in the right sidebar, which has a drop-down menu. Find all children's book reviews by clicking on the right sidebar button, Reviews.

Children's Book Review, Handa's Surprise

Here is a guest review of children's picture book, Handa's Surprise, from passionate children’s literature supporter, Sue Stirling. Sue has a new blog where you'll find great literature activities. Find more children's book reviews by clicking Reviews in the right sidebar. 

Handa’s Surprise, written and illustrated by Eileen Browne and published in 1994 by Walker Books, brings a taste of Africa to both children and parents. Bright, rich colours and ‘life-like’ character drawings pull us into the different and exciting world of an African village.

Handa is a little girl who decides to visit her friend Akeyo, and bring her a basket of delicious fruit. As she walks along the dusty road, she wonders which fruit will be Akeyo’s favourite. On her way, some cheeky animals spy fruit in the basket and find different ways to take it! There’s a lovely surprise at the end that will delight children for many years. The story has appeal for younger children as they watch the way the animals find their favorite fruit. Older children enjoy the expressive language such as the sweet smelling guava and the creamy green avocado and the surprise ending!

Handa’s Surprise is a joyous, colourful book journey. Revisiting the story several times encourages children to match animals to fruit, and remember which animal was first, second and so on. The story naturally incorporates opportunities for language development as children try to predict which fruit Akeyo will like. Classrooms can incorporate literacy take home bags with supporting resources and activities for parents to enjoy with their children. Matching card games, colourful masks and fun fruit recipes would all add and extend children’s learning and enjoyment of the story.

As an educator, I‘ve found this story offers many wonderful opportunities to develop children’s artistic and creative abilities. Kids enjoy drawing, and discovering different textures, shapes and colours found in some of the more unusual fruits. Small drama productions have bring great delight to children as they retell the story and re-create the animals with wonderful masks and costumes and hand painted backdrops.

The cultural aspect of the story gives children an insight into different ways people live and dress thereby giving them a glimpse into the world outside the one they live in. I love the way the story can’t help but encourage rich, oral language! I love the versatility of the story as it can be a wonderful ‘lap time’ story, just adult and child together enjoying the cheeky animals and the rich colours. It can be a story with a group of children focusing on different aspects, maybe the use of the colours, the different and diverse animals and the intriguing ending. It can be a whole group story with children taking small drama parts and re-enacting the story.

Much to everyone’s delight in 2002, Eileen Browne wrote and illustrated a second book, incorporating Handa and Akeyo. Handa’s Hen sees the two friends looking for Handa’s hen, and making discoveries along the way. A wonderful set of stories to be kept and loved by children, parents and educators alike!

Sue Stirling started working in a Child Care Centre in her late teens. She was privileged to have an amazing mentor who made it her mission to teach her about children, their development, and play, and how to engage children in authentic experiences. At her insistence, (which she will always be grateful for), she trained as a Child Care Worker. This led her to work in Princess Margaret Hospital for Children (Perth) as a Play Assistant. She enjoyed providing fun and engaging experiences for children during their stay in hospital. What continues to amaze her is children’s resilience and ability to overcome difficulties. 

From there Sue went to work in a variety of day care centres caring for children from 0-5 years old. Sue had the opportunity, when her boys were young, to write articles for the publication, Infant Times. She trained as a Teacher’s Assistant and worked with Kindergarten and Pre-primary children. After being some years in this role, she enrolled in a K-3 Teaching Degree and finished in July this year.

The Book Chook will be taking a short break. See you back here December 30.  

Making Posters at ArtSkills

ArtSkills is a website where you and your kids can make posters. You need to register - a simple process. Then you can check out posters others have created in the Poster Gallery, or make your own.

The poster wizard offers you a range of templates to help you get started. They are customisable, so you can add text, images, change colours and fonts etc. I needed an undo button when I tried a text alignment that looked poor with the number of letters I chose. I couldn't find one, so I had to start over, but that didn't take long. When finished, you can save your poster, and the site will email you links for further action on it eg a printable version, and a version that is best for you to use to reconstruct your poster by hand.

I like that ArtSkills offers a pdf booklet about the basic poster making process, as well as lists of possible topics, and lots of tips and help. There's even a 60 minute emergency poster guide for parents - "Mum, I just remembered, I have to make a poster for tomorrow!" The advice is for real life posters, as well as digital ones.

Art Skills goes on my list of websites that encourage children's literacy. It's also a good resource to remember when you need to customise and print a poster that advertises your garage sale or meeting. Find other poster making resources in Book Chook Favourites - Making Posters.

Review, Lotta Children's Magazine

I'm excited about a new find - it's Lotta magazine for 5-10 year-old kids, and is specifically designed for school holiday fun. It's completely ad-free, and will be released four times a year for the school holidays. $10 per issue for 60 pages makes it good value for money, and both Australian and international customers can buy it online.

Each issue will have a theme. The first is The Story Issue. All of its arts, crafts and activities are inspired by classic books and fairytales. I really like the range of activities, and the way they involve kids in purposeful and creative fun. It's jam-packed with stuff kids will really want to do, creative stuff, fun stuff, and yet still things we adults figure will help them learn, too.

Lotta magazine: The Story Issue is visually very appealing. The format is about paperback book size, ideal for young hands. Clear photographs accompany step-by-step instructions and the finished products are really enticing. I also love that there are pdf activity templates to accompany each issue freely available at the Lotta website.

Although it's aimed at children, I can see teachers and librarians grabbing this attractive publication. The activities in it are perfect for discussing visual literacy with kids, and make great models of factual text types. There are also activities that slot nicely into the English curriculum - like the Story Starter cubes, which will work as prompts for storytelling or narrative writing. You can see more activities in the little video on Lotta's Facebook page.

If you're looking for a gift for that special child, or just hoping to steer your kids towards creative play  these school holidays, check out Lotta - it's a lotta fun!

Fun and Easy Ways to Make Digital Art with Kids

Warholize

If you've been following The Book Chook for a while, you'll have picked up that I love to find simple ways to play with images and make digital art. After three years, I'm no closer to being an artist than I ever was, but that hasn't diminished my enthusiasm one jot or tittle.

Today I'd like to share some web resources I believe are simple enough for children to use to create a digital image (with supervision), and have fun with it. Many of them use Flash. For most you'll also need to capture the image you want by taking a screen picture with Grab or Jing or whatever program you have. Once you've captured it, the rest is up to you.

Scrap Coloring

Scrap Coloring This is one of my favourite resources - I wrote about it in Make Your Own Mandala and Scrap Coloring. As you can see in my image here, putting patterns inside a child's name would be a fun way to decorate a t-shirt. Go to the name page if you want to do this with your child.

The Scribbler Create a simple drawing and Scribbler does the rest, tracing over and creating interesting line patterns.

Kaleidoscope

Kaleidoscope Just like a real kaleidoscope, start a pattern and your lines are mirrored and multiply.

More Me You The faster you gesture, the more the line width increases, resulting in interesting abstract art. Kids could experiment with writing their names, and adding swishes and swirls.

Graffiti Creator

Graffiti Creator This generates graffiti words. Put the words you want into the box and play with the settings until you generate what you want.

ZigZagPhilosophy This is interesting. Have fun building up lines a little like sand falling from above. Then grab the design you like.

Crayola Digi-Color I wrote about Crayola's online drawing tablet in Colour Me Crazy.

Jackson Pollock Click and drag with your mouse to change colours and get Jackson Pollock-style patterns.

Warholize Me Upload a photo, choose a colour and a saying, and click. Instant Warhol style photo. See top.

Iconscrabble

Iconscrabble Type text up to 18 characters into the box (Begriffe eingeben). Click Scrabble to see your phrase in letters. Press Bild herunterladen to generate a png image of your phrase and save it to your computer. Read more in my article.

Bomomo

Bomomo Choose one of the icons at the bottom of the screen, then click or drag on the screen and see what happens. Repeat.

Aminah's World Click on Create your own artwork. This loads an art creator where you can choose all sorts of objects to build a collage. Print. Or Save offers you an option to save the art work to your computer as a jpg. Read more in my article.

Word Cloud Generators like Wordle are an interesting way to generate an image of text. Read more in What's the Use of Word Clouds?

PicassoHead

PicassoHead Drag face elements to your canvas and play! Read more in Picassopation.

Okay. We've had a ton of fun, and maybe even learnt a little while playing with these image generators. But what can we DO with our creations?

Your imagination's the only limit. Here are some ideas I came up with. Please let me know via comments, email (thebookchook (at) gmail.com) or via The Book Chook Facebook page (big red button in left sidebar) if you have any more suggestions.

*Make a card, digital or print to send to someone your child loves
*Create your own screen saver
*Decorate a t-shirt or some other item of clothing
*Make 12 different images and create a calendar for someone as a gift
*Recreate what you've made digitally with paint or crayon
*Print out what you created digitally and use it in a collage

UPDATE: I'm linking this post up to the January Teaching Ideas Blog Share Linky Party.

Children's Book Review, Where Are Santa's Pants?

Children's Book Review by Susan Stephenson, www.thebookchook.com

Need another suggestion for a bookish Christmas gift? Where Are Santa's Pants? is a great choice for a stocking filler. Created by Richard Merritt, it was first published by Little Hare Books (2010), an imprint of Hardie Grant Egmont.

I LOVE puzzle books, (as you probably picked up in my Where's Wally review), and I know kids do too. Apparently dieting has caused Santa's pants to fall off, so he needs help to find them. But that's not all children must do - there are other visual problems to be solved on each page.

HO HO… Oh No! Santa's lost his pants! It is the middle of Christmas, the crowds are out in full, and Santa has lost his pants. The trouble is, he doesn't know where he lost them. Was it at the department store? Was it on the beach? Was it at ice rink? Or was it at the railway station? This ultimate seek-and-find puzzle book is crammed with hilarious detail … and Santa's pants are to be found somewhere on each spread.

The spreads in this children's picture book are nicely detailed so finding something specific isn't easy. A cursory glance won't locate the pants! There are also lots of tiny scenes to be exclaimed over and shared with friends. Kids learn that problem solving takes application and perseverance by completing puzzles, and have fun at the same time. Win/Win!

Read KBR's review of Where Are Santa's Pants? Find more bookish suggestions for Christmas at The Book Chook in Ideas for Children's Christmas Gifts, or by clicking Reviews in the sidebar at right.

Three Dice Games Your Kids Will Love

One thing I love about dice is that they're portable. Throwing some dice and pencil and paper into a bag takes only a second. Dice games are a great way to entertain kids while sneaking a little learning in too. (Grammatical note: I plan to use "dice" in this article as both singular and plural, following what has become common practice.)

Dice encourage kids to learn how to manipulate numbers. Playing dice games is a good way for children to learn game skills like taking turns, staying on task, mentally adding numbers, observing others' game play and keeping/recording scores.

Another useful thing about dice is with kids' own invented games. Including dice will add an element of chance which the young creator can factor in. Making new games is a wonderful activity for kids - it provides opportunities for the development of all sorts of learning skills. Read more about the process in my article, It's Fun to be Frugal.

Here are some dice games I like:

Tower: I invented this game for my Kindergarten kids. It's simple enough for pre-schoolers to play, provided they can count dots to 6. As well as dice, you'll need some blocks that can be added to each other vertically to build a tower. You can play with two or more people.

The aim of the game is to build a tower that doesn't collapse. The first child throws the dice, takes that number of blocks and begins his own tower. Second/third child follows suit. The child with the last tower standing "wins". Try again.

With older kids, you could add another dice and have a possible total of 12 per throw. The kinds of blocks you use will make a difference to the game eg wooden blocks vs Lego vs Unifix. Joinable blocks will perhaps begin to lean and fall - experiment and ask kids to predict which will work best.

I know it's simple, but young kids need simple games. Most children love to try balancing blocks on top of each other, so this is where the fun part comes in. Meanwhile, they're practising one-to-one correspondence with dots and blocks.

Pig: I love Pig because of the risk-taking, and because it can be played with enjoyment by kids and adults together. There's a little Maths involved, because children must add their scores. Read the rules and a sample game in this wikipedia article.

Yahtzee: The boxed game of Yahtzee is reasonably priced, or look for it at Garage Sales or markets. If you lose some of your game, or run out of the score pad, make your own version and print it off using this wikipedia article as a guide. Basically, the game involves throwing five dice at a time, in an attempt to get different poker-related combinations of dice.

Lost the dice you thought were in the games cupboard? Never fear! Here's a dice simulator. The same site describes some other dice games, including Beetle and Craps. Education World have many card and dice games to practise Maths skills. KBConnected has many excellent links to dice resources.

Next time you're taking a trip, don't just pack the books and snacks, add some dice, and pencil and paper!

Original public domain image above from Wikimedia Commons, added to by Book Chook at Picnik. 

Offer: Free Script for Literacy Groups – Guest Post

Read the guest article below to learn about a wonderful offer from Hazel Edwards for literacy groups in Australia's Year of Reading (2012.)


Best known for the classic ‘There's a Hippopotamus on Our Roof Eating Cake’ series, which is now a short film, Hazel Edwards writes for adults & children, runs non-boring writing workshops and is a regular keynote speaker. Hazel’s 200 books explore settings ranging from Antarctic expeditions to difficult personalities.‘Coping successfully with being different’ is a common theme in her fiction.'f2m:the boywithin', co-written with Ryan Kennedy via Skype, is a 2011 White Ravens selection.

Hazel uses performance scripts for literacy as well as junior e-mystery series such as 'Project Spy Kids' which stars sleuth Art, a resourceful non-reader.

Julie Savage (Jules Savage-Milner) who co-wrote 'An 'L of a Difference', also worked in literacy, and is now a management consultant.

Adult Literacy: An ‘L of a Difference’ Approach via Performance

by

Hazel Edwards

I accepted the role of Ambassador for the 2012 National Year of Reading because I’m a readaholic. I read in the bath, listen to audio books in the car and have become obsessed with e-books as a ‘cool’ way of enticing new readers onscreen. A book or play enables you to ‘live’ from another’s perspective for the length of that story.

Caro’s story is that of a 40-ish innovative problem-solver, who is literate by the end of the play. The ‘L’ refers to Literacy, L Plates and the ‘ell of a Difference that reading can make.

15 years ago, I co-wrote the audio play ‘An ‘L of a Difference’ with Julie Savage. It was performed on Radio RPH and printed by Bushfire Press. Much has changed since then, not only my co-author’s surname but our Caro character would no longer use polaroid shots to label her cosmetic business products with customer photos, because she was unable to read. She would use Ipad and the latest digital devices to help her read. (We’ve turned this into a discussion of the latest hi-tech aids to literacy and how actor-participants would ‘update’ the play.) The script is for performance by actors but the content is for those involved with literacy.

We wrote this script 7 computers ago. But the reason for writing the humorous play about adult literacy has not changed. Originally I’d been requested by a 40 something woman for a play. And our ‘Shirley Valentine’ type character was created who ‘trades’ make-over skills with the dowdy tutor. Caro copes with a son on ‘L’ plates, a husband who leaves, forcing her to learn to read, and is helped by a neighbour artist who draws literacy clues. Others in her literacy class typify the reasons and approaches from ‘Could you read this for me, I’ve forgotten my glasses’ to the tradie, whose wife does all the bookwork, or the adolescent who wants his driver’s licence.

Now I’m offering the script free, with extension activities, for community groups to perform in the 2012 National Year of Reading. If interested, see Performance Rights, below. An ‘L of a Difference makes a great discussion-starter for conferences or performance on local radio. Why? Because shared humour is one way of tackling adult literacy, especially via performance, which ‘distances’ the personal issues.

At an author parent talk, a country mother told me, “I’m learning to read with my daughter who is in prep. We’ve learnt to read your ‘There’s a Hippopotamus on our Roof Eating Cake’ together. Is there anything else I can read?”

An L of a Difference
ISBN 978-0-9871575-1-5
By Hazel Edwards ( www.hazeledwards.com) and Julie Savage

Performance Rights:

1. Contact hazel@hazeledwards.com for permission to perform in 2012 National Year of Reading (Australia). Permission will be given for any literacy groups.

2. The script is also available for sale, (if you’re not a literacy group covered by 1. above.)

Sample Discussion Starters/Extension Activities:

• Exactly how did you spend your last 24 hours?
• List everything you would not have been able to do, if unable to read or write.
• For the next 24 hours, try to function without reading or writing. When was it most difficult?
• What difficulties might arise in a household where one member was not functionally literate? Messages? Filling in forms? Street signs? Tax? Driver’s Licence?
• Which technology helps if you are just learning to read?

Children's Book Review, Stew a Cockatoo: My Aussie Cookbook

Children's Book Review by Susan Stephenson, www.thebookchook.com

Are you still searching for that perfect Christmas gift? I gave some suggestions recently in Ideas for Children's Christmas Gifts, and told you earlier this week about Little Treasures which are ideal mini-books for posting. If you know a child who loves to cook, can I suggest you seek out Stew a Cockatoo: My Aussie Cookbook? Written by Ruthie May and illustrated by Leigh Hobbs, it was published by Little Hare, 2010 (imprint of Hardie Grant Egmont.)

From snaggers on the barbie to dainty desserts for dames, Stew a Cockatoo is the cookbook that every Australian has been waiting for. Not only is this book jam-packed (no pun intended) with good ol' Aussie recipes but it's full of anecdotal stories about how our cuisine came to be and fair dinkum definitions for words and phrases like ‘bush tucker' and ‘spuds'. Bet you didn't know there were over 10 different types of Aussie sausage - beef snag, chook snag, pork snag, lamb snag, tofu snag, any kind of meat snag, sav, mystery bag and kanga banger.

Recipes range from Damper with Cocky's Joy, to Lord Lamington's Lamingtons, and from Echidna Delight to Scrambled Googs. My favourite is the eponymous Stewed Cockatoo - I just hope young readers realise this particular recipe is actually a joke. But I think I might try the Roo Stew with Bush Tomatoes or the Prawn Skewers. All the recipes seem simple enough for children to follow with supervision.

May has written this book, I imagine, with tongue firmly in her cheek. Both kids and adults will enjoy the humour. Kids are told they'll need an adult to help get "the jumbuck in the tuckerbag." May has also sprinkled interesting historical snippets throughout, along with activity suggestions.

I've always enjoyed Hobbs' cartoons and illustrations. They're an excellent choice to add colour and a cackle of humour to these recipes. Illustration captions, text boxes, sticky notes, and the recipes themselves means Stew a Cockatoo is a perfect choice for parents, teachers and librarians who want to discuss aspects of visual literacy with their children and students.

Stew a Cockatoo: My Aussie Cookbook would also make a perfect gift to send overseas, as it not only introduces kids to typical Aussie foods, but also to Aussie lingo - colourful expressions like "Arvo Tea", "anklebiter", "bikkies", and "Howya goin'?"

Fun and practical! I hope you and your kids enjoy it as much as I did.

Find more Children's Book Reviews on The Book Chook by clicking Reviews in the sidebar at right. 

Children's Book Review, Little Treasures

Children's Book Review by Susan Stephenson, www.thebookchook.com

Just in time for Christmas, or for any time you need a meaningful gift for that special child in your life, come Little Treasures. These captivating miniature children's picture books by Peter Carnavas and published by Australian publishers, New Frontier, come with an envelope for easy postage. Isn't this a neat idea!

There are four books in the Little Treasures series: Sarah's Heavy Heart , Jessica's Box, The Important Things and Last Tree in the City. I've previously reviewed The Important Things and Last Tree in the City, and found Sarah's Heavy Heart and Jessica's Box equally delightful. Carnavas chooses important themes like Family, Environment, Love and Self Worth, and he speaks to our hearts with both his writing and his illustrating.

I love that for not much more than the cost of a birthday or Christmas card, you can send a child a complete little picture book. One book is $Au9.95; the four books cost $Au29.95. Little Treasures are available from all good book stores or directly from the New Frontier website.

Remember, the gift of reading lasts a lifetime!

Find more Children's Book Reviews on The Book Chook by clicking Reviews in the right sidebar.

Take Your Child to a Bookstore Day

With Thanksgiving recently taking place in the USA, I was thinking how lucky I am to live in a country where I have free access to books via our wonderful public library system. And feeling thankful for book shops too. Although online buying is easy, nothing will ever replace the "feel" I get in a book shop, as if I've stepped into a cave filled with treasures.

How long is it since you took your kids to a store to choose and purchase a book of their very own? If you can't remember, consider December 3 as a great reminder! It's Take Your Child to a Bookstore Day. "Watch his face light up as you give him free access, not just to a new book, but to tomorrow."

Being able to choose a book for themselves gives children a sense of control and ownership over what they're reading. They're more motivated to read, and will learn to refine their own choices as time goes by. If the price of books is daunting, consider getting kids a library card and visiting weekly. Again, make sure they get to choose lots of books for themselves. Another great place to find less expensive books is a market or garage sale.

But if you can afford it, do consider visiting a bookstore with your children on December 3!