Read This

My class has been studying bread. We're making it, tasting it, dissecting wheat stalks and having an all around good time breading it up. One book that we've read that I think is a great multicultural piece of writing, not just for our study, is the book Everybody Bakes Bread by Norah Dooley.

The main character is sent by her mom on an errand through her neighborhood. Every house that she stops at there is bread coming out of the oven (lucky girl)! The Barbadian family is cooking coconut bread, the South American family has pupusas and the Jewish family is making challah. There are more cultures and more kinds of breads that the girl tries. I love that the author ties together so many people and places from around the world with something as tangible to kids as bread. 

Of course, like all great books that talk about food, there are recipes for the breads at the end of the book. You could work through the recipes on chilly fall afternoons. Yum!

Write it Together

A sure fire way to get a reluctant writer going is to write a story together. Think of  a story (one from real life will yield more details) together, get out the paper and pencils and get to work. 

Think about what your kiddo could use some help with. If your little is working on writing sight words at school, you could do the longer words and leave those up to them to write. Or if your child is figuring out how to sound out a whole word, you write the short words and leave the longer more sound intensive ones up to them. 

Either way, get the writing juices flowing and have fun together.

Check It Out!

image courtesy of 5 Orange Potatoes

from around the web:

• let a famous actor read your little a story by online video. (via Story Line Online)
  
• A list of Fall harvest books (via Reading Rockets)
  
• Take a look at literacy activities for early readers (via Literacy Center Education Network)
  
• Guide your little in writing a list poem. (via Lets Explore)
  
• More chalk board paint love. (via The Style Files)
  
• How to make a leaf mask and free download. (via 5 Orange Potatoes)
  

eensies weekly wrap up:

• Plenty of ideas for after-halloween activities.
  
• Read one of Maurice Sendak's other books.
  
• Turn left over halloween candy into a math game.
  
• Lots of literacy activities to do with wordless picture books. 
  

A Wordless Book is Worth a Thousand Words

I linked to a wordless book post on Friday. Since then I’ve had the topic of wordless books on my mind.

Wordless books can be used for a ton of different activities.

• For the very littles, it’s a great language builder. Have them tell you the story.
  
• Your kiddo can practice using sequencing words such as first, then, next, after and finally.
  
• For the bigger kids, they write down the words to the story. It’s great for the hesitant writer or one who claims she “can’t think of anything to write about.”
  
• You can “read” the story, making up the words as you go along.
  
• Photocopy the pages of the book and mix the pages up. Let your kiddo put them back in a logical order while telling the story.
  

There are tons of wordless books out there. One that I’ve used in the classroom is Pancakes for Breakfast by Tomie De Paola. I also found a list of wordless books here. Happy reading!

Candy Land

Still wondering what you’re going to do with the mounds of candy your little one collected for Halloween? Turn those bites of sugar into a math activity! You know us eensies ladies l-o-v-e a good sorting activity. The collected candy is perfect for a shape sort.

Just have your kiddo (or you) make some shape labels. Unwrap the goodies. Let the sorting begin! Chocolate bars, Twizzlers, gumdrops, and candy corns are all game. Clean up is easy – dessert, anyone?