The June 2015 Carnival of Children’s Literature Roundup has just been posted. Find some new books for your #bookaday summer reading…
STEAM DIY Activity
Here’s a DIY find from this month’s carnival. Erica at eLeMeNO-P Kids has FREE Reading Calendars for the Summer Reading For Kids Book Challenge. Print one for each child in the family and have fun!
Copyright © 2015 Anastasia Suen All Rights Reserved.
The Long, Long Journey: The Godwit’s Amazing Migration
by Sandra Markle (Author) and Mia Posada (Illustrator)
Booktalk: Crackle! Crackle! Crunch! What’s hatching from that egg? It’s a young bar-tailed godwit. She will spend the summer in Alaska learning to fly, find her own food, and escape from scary predators. Her long, long journey begins in October when she flies to New Zealand. This 7,000-mile flight is the longest nonstop bird migration ever recorded. Follow along on her amazing voyage!
Snippet: The little female bar-tailed godwit at last breaks free of her egg. She steps into the world on long, wobbly legs. It’s nearly midnight, but it’s June in Alaska and still light. A cool wind blows the chick’s downy coat. She shivers, lifts her beak and squeaks, “Peep! Peep!”
10 Myths About Teaching STEM Books and How You Can Teach STEM in Your Classroom Now
Mark your calendars! STEM Friday is participating in the 2015 Summer of Learning professional development series brought to you by Share My Lesson. This free AFT webinar offers one hour of professional development credit.
Overview
Title: Teach STEM Now
Date: Thursday, July 09, 2015
Time: 01:00 PM Eastern Daylight Time
Duration: 1 hour
It’s Nonfiction Monday!
Copyright © 2015 Anastasia Suen All Rights Reserved.
Gordon Parks: How the Photographer Captured Black and White America
by Carole Boston Weatherford (Author) and Jamey Christoph (Illustrator)
Booktalk: His white teacher tells her all-black class, You’ll all wind up porters and waiters. What did she know? Gordon Parks is most famous for being the first black director in Hollywood. But before he made movies and wrote books, he was a poor African American looking for work. When he bought a camera, his life changed forever. He taught himself how to take pictures and before long, people noticed. His success as a fashion photographer landed him a job working for the government. In Washington DC, Gordon went looking for a subject, but what he found was segregation. He and others were treated differently because of the color of their skin. Gordon wanted to take a stand against the racism he observed. With his camera in hand, he found a way.
Snippet:
Twenty-five years old and all but broke
when a magazine spread
about migrant farm workers
inspires him to buy a used camera. That $7.50
is the best money he will ever spend.
STEAM DIY Activity
Try one of these National Geographic Photographing Your Neighborhood ideas.
It’s STEM Friday! (STEM is Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics)
Copyright © 2015 Anastasia Suen All Rights Reserved.
The Dinosaurs Are Having a Party!
by Gareth P. Jones (Author) and Garry Parsons (Illustrator)
Booktalk: The dinosaurs are having a party but things get out of hand and when the boy tries to leave, T-Rex gives chase!
Snippet:
The dinosaurs are having a party.
It starts precisely at three.
But I’m a boy not a dinosaur,
So I’m pleased they’ve invited me.
STEAM DIY Activity
Make your own dinosaur “fossils” with small toys and Plaster of Paris.
This week’s Poetry Friday Round-up is hosted by Carol’s Corner.
Copyright © 2015 Anastasia Suen All Rights Reserved.
Don’t Think About The Purple Elephants
by Susan Whelan (Author) and Gwynneth Jones (Illustrator)
Booktalk: Sometimes Sophie worries — not during the day when she is busy with family and friends, but at night when everything is calm and quiet. Her family all try to help, but somehow they just make her worries worse.
Until her mother thinks of a new approach … that might just involve an elephant or two! But wait, don’t think about purple elephants, whatever you do!
Snippet:
“How silly,” thought Sophie, but when she lay down, closed her eyes and tried not the think about purple elephants.
Straight away a friendly purple elephant appeared in her mind.
STEAM DIY Activity
Make an Elephant Mask.
Copyright © 2015 Anastasia Suen All Rights Reserved.
The Mosquito Brothers
by Griffin Ondaatje (Author) and Erica Salcedo (Illustrator)
Booktalk: After he nearly drowns in a parking-lot puddle, Dinnn Needles is fearful of many things, including flying.
Snippet:
On quiet afternoon, as the family sat next to their puddle under a cloudless sky, Dinnn heard a dragonfly flying overhead. It made an awful sound as it went past.
Dinnn watched the faces of his mother and father closely. They were terrified.
STEAM DIY Activity
Use pipe cleaners and beads to make this Colorful Mosquito.
Copyright © 2015 Anastasia Suen All Rights Reserved.
The Amazing Age of John Roy Lynch
by Chris Barton (Author) and Don Tate (Illustrator)
Booktalk: Look at the Reconstruction period through the life of one of the first African-American congressmen.
Snippet: Searching for more satisfying work, he went from waiter to cook –ah, the freedom to make such a move!– then from cook to better-paid pantryman on board the Altamont a Union transport steamer.
Don is one of my former students.
See the book trailer.
STEAM DIY Activity
John Roy Lynch worked on a steam boat. Make a simple steam boat for yourself.
It’s Nonfiction Monday!
Copyright © 2015 Anastasia Suen All Rights Reserved.
The Ocean Story
by John Seven (Author) and Jana Christy (Illustrator)
Booktalk: The story of the ocean is as old as the earth itself. Overfishing, pollution, and oil spills have highlighted the need to take better care of our oceans so that the story can continue to be told.
Snippet:
(The words on this page are:)
BOY: Why is the ocean so big?
MAN: It needs to be big to hold a story that is very old.
See the book trailer.
STEAM DIY Activity
You are part of the ocean’s story too. Find out How You Can Help the Ocean and see “how your actions have an impact.” Make a poster showing one thing that you can do right now and “share what you’ve learned with friends and family.”
It’s STEM Friday! (STEM is Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics)
Copyright © 2015 Anastasia Suen All Rights Reserved.
S is for Sea Glass: A Beach Alphabet
by Richard Michelson (Author) and Doris Ettlinger (Illustrator)
Booktalk: Enjoy a variety of poetry forms such as free verse, haiku, and ode in this A to Z celebration of the beach and seaside life.
Snippet:
F is for Flip-Flops
Winter is buckles and shoehorns and laces
And wingtips, galoshes, and hightops,
But summer is giggles and smiling faces
And wiggling toes into flip-flops.
See this page inside the book.
STEAM DIY Activity
Write a Summer Acrostic Poem.
This week’s Poetry Friday Round-up is hosted by A Year of Reading .
Copyright © 2015 Anastasia Suen All Rights Reserved.
The Big Ideas of Buster Bickles
by Dave Wasson (Author, Illustrator)
Booktalk: Buster Bickles’s big ideas are always getting him into trouble. But when Buster gets to test the newly invented What-if Machine, anything Buster imagines becomes reality…
Snippet:
From the moment he woke up,
Buster Buster Bickles was full of big ideas.
“Hey, Mom, Look! I’m a flesh-eating robot!”
“Mom, look out!
Laundry Monster!”
“Hey, Mom!
EGGS-ray vision!”
STEAM DIY Activity
Try The What-if Machine online and create some silly scenarios to write and illustrate.
Copyright © 2015 Anastasia Suen All Rights Reserved.