The Book Chook

Make a Video with Kids at Pixorial

noreply@blogger.com (Susan Stephenson) — Thu, 23 May 2013 19:00:00 +0000

Making movies with kids is a wonderful learning activity. Children get to develop communication skills, think creatively and critically, and express themselves via digital media. I value any opportunities for kids to develop digital literacy skills in a natural way, under the guidance of a parent. Making movies meshes well with modern family life, and gives parents and kids the chance to share a creative project.

Pixorial is a web-based video editor I explored recently that lets you upload, edit and share videos. The interface is very clear and simple, and the free account allows you 7GB of storage (about 150 videos.) Pixorial support is truly outstanding, making it an excellent place for parents to teach kids how to use a video editor.

Here's Pixorial's summary of what you can do there.

"The “Add Video” menu at the top of the screen is where you can upload video, film with a webcam, or send us vintage media to convert.

You can organize your videos on the left-hand side of the screen: find all of your videos under “All Videos,” or put them into folders using the “Add Folder” button.

“Create Movie” leads you to our quick and easy video editor where you can combine and edit video, add text, transitions, music and more.

The “Edit” button allows you to trim, split, or rotate a single video clip.

The “Actions” menu allows you to share your video via social networks, blogs and websites, create a DVD or send a videocard." ~

One function I like with Pixorial is that Movie Creator allows you to combine photos to make a short movie, as well as the usual titles, transitions etc. Even if kids don't have access to a video camera, they can combine pictures to tell a digital story here, by uploading photos and adding text blocks in between the way I did in my sample, embedded below. (Here's the direct link.) Users have access to Pixorial's library of music tracks as backgrounds. There's a special PDF support document designed for students that explains the basics very well. Pixorial makes it easy to email a finished video, embed it, or share it to Youtube and other social media sites.

At Pixorial, kids could upload their own drawings or art work, photos they've taken at school excursions or family holidays, or, of course, video or video clips. They could create a simple narrative, a poem or explanatory captions to go with their pics.

Video: Dreaming

Dreaming

Children's Book Review, Night Watch

noreply@blogger.com (Susan Stephenson) — Tue, 21 May 2013 19:00:00 +0000

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

Night Watch is a children's picture book written by Phil Cummings, illustrated by Janine Dawson and published by Working Title Press (2013.)

Giraffe, Elephant, Hippo and Baboon all live by the lake, happily going about their own business, until one day Giraffe spies the shadow of Lion - prowling, creeping, stalking, sneaking. What are they to do now?

Cummings has given us a polished gem of a picture book story. He shows us the contented lives of Giraffe, Elephant, Hippo and Baboon, their happiness, the noises they make and the way they respect their animal neighbours without living in their pockets. That all changes the day Giraffe sees something - prowling…creeping…stalking…sneaking. Lion slinks away but the animals know he'll be back. And that's when Baboon gets an idea.

Dawson's lively, illustrations are full of character. They really add to the humour of the text and the drama of each situation. Kids will particularly enjoy the giant scary shadow page!

Recommended for ages 3 - 6, I think Night Watch will make a fine inclusion to a library's resource box on the theme of bullying. Kids will draw the parallel between Lion and other bullies, and rejoice when he is trounced by Baboon's plan. The book also serves as a prompt to talking to kids about shadows and shadow theatre. Night Watch makes a fun read-aloud and is a perfect choice to follow up with improvisation or reader's theatre.

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

Have Fun with Fungooms

noreply@blogger.com (Susan Stephenson) — Sun, 19 May 2013 19:00:00 +0000

Have Fun with Fungooms

by Susan Stephenson, www.thebookchook.com

Lots of parents I know try to balance the amount of screen time their kids get. I think that's an excellent idea. Sometimes kids lives are so switched on, or so full of extra-curricular activities, that they don't get much time for two very important things: creative play and sharing books. However, when it IS screen time, it's nice to have options for screen activities that are gentle, entertaining and wholesome. So I'm always on the look out for such options when I wander around the internet.

Recently I stumbled across Fungooms and wanted to tell you about it. At Fungooms.com, each Fungoom character has a studio, where kids can try different activities. For instance, in Looe's studio, kids can change Looe (starry head dress character in top screen grab image) to make a different-looking Looe - an avatar that can be printed out. You can check out the new Looe I created, below left.

There's also a cog puzzle which becomes a bed time clock, balloons to inflate, children to tickle, a virtual felt board to arrange, and a sculpture to reveal. Mena's studio has stories for kids to watch/listen to. Bodmin's room has games pre-schoolers will love - e.g. cars that collect letters of the alphabet and whales that bump numbers. Other Fungooms also have studios for kids to explore, encouraging mouse use and prediction.

The Fungooms website reminds me of Poisson Rouge in some ways - it's a nice place for kids to explore with their parents and giggle over things together. There are ads but they aren't intrusive. The music is gentle, relaxing. There are no directions, just an implied invitation for kids to explore, experiment and create.

You can find out more about Fungooms via the video below.

If you're interested in websites that encourage creativity and target pre-schoolers, you might like to read:
Create with Fish - Poisson Rouge
Little Treasures
Preschool Learning - The Play School Website
Playing with Art at CBeebies

Let's Prepare Our Kids for the Future

noreply@blogger.com (Susan Stephenson) — Thu, 16 May 2013 19:00:00 +0000

Let's Prepare Our Kids for the Future

by Susan Stephenson

Regular readers of The Book Chook will have picked up by now that I believe strongly in the importance of play as the way kids learn best. When children start school, I think we should maintain this attitude of learning through play as much as possible. It seems a no-brainer to me that kids learn best when enjoying themselves, and when they're engaged in thinking creatively and critically about their learning.

Recently, I watched a video that suggested education is NOT preparing kids for their lives in the future. Kids may be learning to pass multiple choice tests, but are they acquiring the skills they will need to adapt, create, design, hypothesize, and innovate in their future jobs? Many jobs in the future haven't been invented yet, so all we know is that children will need to think divergently, not colour in the bubbles of a test paper.

I hope you'll take the 12 minutes to watch this TEDxCreativeCoast video below. Maybe we can't all have website designers in the classroom to guide our kids. But I believe we can include design tasks in our curriculum and creative thinking skills in our lessons that empower our young people and give them respect as our fellow learners.

You might also be interested in Sticks and Stones May Break Your Bones, Children's Creativity and Play, and Activities for Children's Book Week, 2013.

Children's Book Review, Once Upon a Slime

noreply@blogger.com (Susan Stephenson) — Tue, 14 May 2013 19:00:00 +0000

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

Once Upon a Slime was written by Andy Griffiths, illustrated by Terry Denton and published by Pan Macmillan (2013).

- Have you ever wondered where ideas come from and how stories are made?

- Would you like to know the true stories behind some of Andy and Terry's books and characters?

- Are you looking for simple, practical and inspiring writing activities?

- Would you like to discover 45 great ways to have fun with words and pictures?

If you answered YES to any of these questions, then this is definitely the right book for you!

Designed for teachers, students and young aspiring writers, Once Upon a Slime contains 45 fun writing and storytelling activities, such as lists, instructions, cartoons, personal stories, poems and pocket books.

Examples from Andy and Terry's books are used throughout to demonstrate techniques and to inspire readers to have as much fun playing with ideas, words and pictures as Andy and Terry do when they get together to create their crazy books.

Who better for kids to learn about real writing from than a real author? Andy Griffiths is not just real, he's a household name in children's literature all over the world. But let's face it, his qualifications and reputation are not what will make kids grab this book. They will enjoy the fun, the nonsense, the visual gags, and the fantastic Denton-style cartoons. Unbeknownst to them, wedged between the tight underpants and Little Green Snotting Hood, they'll pick up excellent tips for getting started as writers. Suggestions and models like fake news articles, crazy quizzes, creating superheroes, jokes, cartoons and even a random idea generator will have kids itching to create - wonderful idea!

This 350-page book makes a great gift for young writers who want to learn more about the craft of writing. Griffiths fans will appreciate the way their hero provides explanations and comments on his creative process and life. Teachers will love it too - there are so many truly fun ideas that will get their students writing. I guess the sentence that resonated with me most was this: "You don't have to be a great artist - or a great speller - to be able to have a great time with words and pictures." Encouraging kids to play with words and images is a truly worthwhile thing for we parents and teachers to do. Thank you, Andy!

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

Create Stories at Storyboard That

noreply@blogger.com (Susan Stephenson) — Sun, 12 May 2013 19:00:00 +0000

Create Stories at Storyboard That

by Susan Stephenson, www.thebookchook.com

Storyboard That offers an online place for kids to create digital stories. Its main purpose is as a visual aid for communicators e.g. in the business area, but it would also make a useful place for kids to storyboard short videos or plan other projects. Telling digital stories that include speech bubbles is an excellent way to sneak some writing into kids' play. Younger kids will just have fun expressing themselves visually with a range of characters and other elements.

To start: choose between 3 or 6 cells (frames). Once you've decided, Storyboard That is similar to most comic editors, offering you backgrounds (scenes), characters, speech bubbles (textables) and wireframes (screens and widgets.)

There's a good variety of characters - select adults, youngins, silhouettes, funky and animals. Drag any element to a cell, and then you can edit it via a pop-up menu.

You need to create an account to save your work. With the free plan, you can save up to three storyboards a day. A storyboard can be embedded into a blog, emailed, and exported into PowerPoint. The PPT option is not much use unless you upgrade from the free account, as it's hugely watermarked by the site. I did embed the Storyboard I made, but it was much too wide for my blog, and I couldn't see how to alter the width in the html. So what you see above is a screen grab.

There are also a couple of useful pages with tips, FAQ, and lesson plans.

If you're interested in digital storytelling with kids, you might like to download my free PDF, Using Comic Editors with Kids.

Why Reading Really is Magic

noreply@blogger.com (Susan Stephenson) — Thu, 09 May 2013 19:00:00 +0000

Why Reading Really is Magic

by Mem Fox

Reading is magical because it brings parents and children together for fun, bonding and giggles. It also helps promote a children’s brain, social and language development. Reading aloud to young children, before they reach school age, is especially important to foster a love of books and reading. Children need to hear a thousand stories before they can begin to learn to read. Children learn language from books and reading aloud, more so than learning the alphabet or letter/sound relationships.

It is my firm belief that, if kids know six nursery rhymes by the time they are four, they are more likely to be in the top reading group at school by age eight. It is also part of the reason I decided to write my latest children’s book, Good Night, Sleep Tight. The book revives seven classic nursery rhymes for new generations. Nursery rhymes and books with a lot of rhyme, rhythm and repetition, help children remember and learn language patterns quicker and more easily. Use the same lively ‘tune’ every time you read to your child. Children become familiar with books and will better remember the story through this practice.

To make reading ‘magical’, choose short books that can be read three times in ten minutes. These books should have lots of colour and pictures to stimulate your child’s imagination. Playing games with the book, such as letting children finish the rhymes and finding the letters that start with your child’s name and yours helps them focus on the things on the page.

Always make reading books to your children the last thing you do before their bedtime to help them relax at the end of the day. Having said that, reading can happen nicely at any time of the day, particularly when children are tired or fractious: it’s a calming thing to do, and very loving. But it’s not just about your reading; your presence is what’s most important to a child.

BIO: Mem Fox has written over 40 books for children among which are the perennial favourites: Possum Magic, Time for Bed and Where Is The Green Sheep?; and several books for adults also, including her best selling book for parents: Reading Magic: how your child can learn to read before school and other read aloud miracles. Her books have been translated into 19 languages.

Mem Fox was an Associate Professor of Education at Flinders University in Adelaide where she taught teachers for 24 years until her early retirement in 1996. She has received many honors and awards from various Australian governments and other organisations for services to literature, as well as three honorary doctorates for her work in literacy. She has visited the USA over 100 times as both a consultant in literacy and as an author. She keeps threatening to retire but never quite gets around to it as she is always finding something new to write about or shout about.

***Read my recent review of Mem Fox's latest children's picture book, Good Night, Sleep Tight.

Children's Book Review, Arkie Sparkle, Treasure Hunter: Tick Tock

noreply@blogger.com (Susan Stephenson) — Tue, 07 May 2013 19:00:00 +0000

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

Arkie Sparkle, Treasure Hunter: Tick Tock was written by Petra James and published by Pan Macmillan Australia (2013.)

7 treasures
 7 continents 
7 days 
7 books
 6 changes of clothes
 5 suspicious sightings
 4 close shaves
 3 wrong turns
 2 maps 
1 treasure hunter
 p.s. + 1 treasure hunter's helper
 p.p.s. ++ 1 treasure hunter's helper's super-snooper dog

The biggest treasure hunt in the world is about to begin.  Eleven-year-old Arkie Sparkle's archaeologist parents have been kidnapped. With the help of her genius cousin TJ and basset hound Cleo, she must find seven treasures across the seven continents in seven days.

This is the seventh book in a series that's had Arkie Sparkle previously visit Egypt, China, The Arctic Circle, North Carolina, The Amazon, and Australia. This time, Arkie is in Antarctica, racing against time to find the last treasure and defeat Sebastian Sparkle. Kids who enjoy series will love that the central characters and ideas can be enjoyed all over again in this new adventure.

I think Arkie Sparkle, Treasure Hunter: Tick Tock will intrigue kids who are not yet sure if they like reading. There are lots of great features - the format itself is engaging, with a journal entry, side notes, diagrams, and occasional illustrations. Yes, it's a novel, aimed at kids who are 7+, but it's not densely packed text that some kids find so off-putting. The characters are also engaging, and James' writing style is active, with lots of humour. Treasures, a villain to defeat, a supersonic mini-jet, lots of problems to solve despite the pressure of time - all the ingredients needed for a fast-paced and enjoyable read.

Another feature I love is that the vocabulary in the Arkie Sparkle books is not dumbed down. Thanks largely to the character of genius TJ, kids will encounter words like excruciating, katabatic, semantics and outmanoeuvred in this book. Children will also meet cool technical words like nanosecond, microchip and DATAMAX, and pick up all sorts of fascinating facts about history and the world. Those elements are woven into the story seamlessly, adding to the quirkiness and depth of the characters, contributing to our enjoyment of the story.

There's an Arkie Sparkle website. There are also curriculum-based teacher notes for the series, and an ebook available from Pan Macmillan.

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

Switch Kids On to Reading and Writing

noreply@blogger.com (Susan Stephenson) — Sun, 05 May 2013 19:00:00 +0000

Switch Kids On to Reading and Writing

by Brian Rock

As a former teacher and current parent, I’ve had experience in introducing kids to reading and writing. And while there’s no magic potion that works for all kids, I’ve learned that oftentimes the messenger is as important as the message. Even reluctant readers and worrisome writers will warm up to the task at hand when they see that someone else is actually enjoying it. So when encouraging your little ones to read and write, remember to make it fun – for both of you! Here are a few suggestions:

Reading

Step out of routines
Make special times to read. Don’t save reading time for just before bedtime, or it can become another rote exercise like brushing teeth and washing up. Have a reading night where you turn off the TV and let everyone pick a favorite book to read for an hour or so. For younger readers, create special snuggle-read time on weekends or after school. Remember to take time after reading to discuss the book your child has read (or listened to someone else read.) Let them voice their opinions about what they liked best in a story. Even if they focus on illustrations, let them know that you value their insights about books. This discussion time is especially important because it lets even pre-readers feel like they’re part of the reading process.

Lights, camera, read!
Don’t just read a book, act it out. Without donning makeup and costume, you can bring characters to life with a little inflection. Is the character sad? Use your saddest, poutiest tone to convey that emotion. Is the character happy? Unless you’re in a library, let your child feel the character’s joy through your own exuberance and RAISED VOICE. Is there more than one main character? Use different voices for each character. Is your child already starting to read? Let them read the text for one character and you read the text for the other. Some great books for together reading are The Duckling Gets a Cookie!?, Green Eggs and Ham, and You Read To Me, I’ll Read To You.

Celebrate books
Make trips to the library or bookstore special occasions instead of errands. Let your kids see other children enjoying books. Let them linger, browse and choose their own books. It’s a special feeling when one book out of hundreds on the shelf “speaks to you.” Kids have so little autonomy in their lives, let them enjoy this one freedom of choosing their own book and it will make reading that much more special for them.

Writing

Tell stories
It’s hard enough to memorize historical dates and multiplication tables, but at least once you memorize them they don’t change. Creative writing is never the same twice, and for some kids that really takes them out of their comfort zone. So even before writing comes up in school, you can help develop your child’s creative skills with some pre-writing exercises. Start by telling them stories, let them see that it’s OK to make up something on your own. If you don’t feel comfortable in your own storytelling skills, borrow from the classics. Make a fractured fairy tale about Goldilocks and the three skunks or Snow White and the seven leprechauns. Just change one or two things from a story you know well to create your own story--some storytellers even get paid for doing this! Let your kids suggest some of the changes and they’ll be engaged and excited about the creative process that will one day become writing.

Play games
Knock, knock. Who’s there? A learning opportunity disguised as play. Who? Orange you glad I didn’t say banana? Huh? No matter how silly the joke, encourage kids to play with words. Tell knock knock jokes. Make up rhyming games (I saw a cat and he sat on a ____). Use puns and make sure your kids understand them. Get your kids used to the idea of playing with words. Then when they are given their first writing assignments, they’ll already have experience with the creative process.

Praise
When your kids finally begin to put pencil to paper, don’t worry about spelling mistakes or sentence fragments or even if the stories don’t make sense. For younger writers, encourage their efforts and let them enjoy the fun of the creative process. Take time to find something you like in everything they write. Compliment them on a specific character or event in their story and they’ll see that you care. They’ll get the joy that all writers feel when they connect with an audience. Then they’ll enjoy the process and want to write more. And as they write more, their writing skills will continue to improve naturally.

BIO: Brian Rock is a children’s author and former school teacher who lives in Chesterfield, VA with his wife, daughter and of course, his many imaginary friends.

He has enjoyed writing stories since he was old enough to hold a no. 2 pencil. Although he was once put out of class for writing too many stories, he went on to receive a master’s degree in Creative Writing and Children’s Literature from Hollins University. Along the way, Brian has performed as a stand-up comic, worked as a “McCountant,” and written award winning country songs. He also contributes to the Richmond Children's Writers blog.

His first children’s stories were published in the Roanoke based children’s newspaper, Kid’s World. His poems have been published in Highlights for Children and Poetry Train. He currently has four published picture books: DON’T PLAY WITH YOUR FOOD!, PIGGIES, WITH ALL MY HEART, and THE DEDUCTIVE DETECTIVE.

Learning Activities for The Wrong Book

noreply@blogger.com (Susan Stephenson) — Thu, 02 May 2013 19:00:00 +0000

Learning Activities for The Wrong Book

by Susan Stephenson, www.thebookchook.com

As I mentioned last week, 11.00 am on May 22 is National Simultaneous Story Time in Australia, when hordes of eager kids and adults share a picture book in libraries, schools, homes and other places around the country. In 2013, the book everyone will be sharing is The Wrong Book by Nick Bland.

The Wrong Book is one of those special children's picture books that are not so much a linear story as an invitation to play. This makes them perfect to use as a read aloud with a group of kids you don't know, or a group that is not yet used to listening to a story requiring concentration and imagination. In my experience, kids love these bookish games! They remind us that, most of all, reading is supposed to be fun and enjoyable.

In The Wrong Book, Nicholas Ickle tries and tries to introduce the subject of the book, himself, but he's constantly interrupted by other characters, ones who don't belong in the story. It's a great book to read aloud and have kids join in.

Let's look at some ways we can extend the literature experience with The Wrong Book:

* Can children think of other stories or rhymes that may feature some of The Wrong Book characters? Kids may recognise Pinocchio or know a nursery rhyme about a Queen. They might know a movie or a book about monsters or recognise rats as being from The Pied Piper of Hamelin. (For more about Fairy Tales, check out my free pdf, Fun with Fairy Tales.)

* The Wrong Book is ideal as a focus for improvisation. Kids could innovate on the main idea, acting out scenes from well-known tales and have them interrupted by something or someone. Or they could re-create scenes from the book, making still pictures with their bodies, then coming to life when a character enters and interrupts.

* Clever Australian Teacher Librarian, Kerry Gittins, has created The Wrong Book song. Listen to it and read the lyrics on Kerry's Library website. Lyrics and music suit the book perfectly!

* Discuss interruptions in general. In conversation, if we need to interrupt someone, the polite thing to do is say "Excuse me…" Would it have helped if the characters had said that to Nicholas? Did they even know they were interrupting? If you say "Excuse me…" does that give you an automatic license to interrupt?

* Some kids might have read the book, Interrupting Chicken by David Ezra Stein - it makes an excellent choice to study in conjunction with The Wrong Book. Kids can look at the way two different author/illustrators interpret a similar theme.

* There's a great joke many kids will know:

Knock, Knock.
Who's there?
Interrupting cow.
Interrupting cow wh--MOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!

Can children innovate on the joke and interpret it visually?

* Right and wrong are opposites. What other opposites do kids know? How many opposite pairs can each group record in two minutes? five minutes?

* What other characters could the author have included in the story? Have kids use the model: "My name is Nicholas Ickle and this book is about …… Will you please go away!" After they have innovated on the text, they could compile their own individual books or a class book.

* Play a game where one person dresses up, then goes outside and makes changes to their appearance. When that person returns, kids need to identify what's wrong/different.

* Can kids draw pictures of strange or "wrong" things? What would a swimming teapot, a sardine ice-cream, or a bike with square wheels look like? What would the consequences be?

* Children's magazines often have two pictures side by side. One picture has slight differences to the other that kids must identify. Can children create their own "What's Wrong?" picture puzzles for a friend? I created the two scenes above with ComicsHead, an iPad app ($2.99), and added more detail with Ribbet, an online photo editor. Younger children might enjoy creating two different avatars or characters for someone to spot differences. I used TinkaMaker, a free iPad app, to create the two different Tinkas below and again added more detail with Ribbet.

* For older kids: why did the wrong characters arrive at the book anyway? Can you imagine a situation where a mistake was made or did someone deliberately send them to the wrong book?

* Discuss: Would you rather be right for the wrong reason or wrong for the right reason?

* When discussing the story with older kids, have them look at the characters. What do we know about them and how did we work that out? Have kids experiment with creating a character, or avatar, to represent themselves or someone they might like to be. Below you'll find a ThingLink collage with a few of my favourite avatar creators embedded in it. Hover your mouse over each to find links to some great websites where kids can create avatars (with supervision, of course.)

* The Wrong Book is also available on iTunes as an iPad app for $Au4.49. Read My Book Corner's review of the app.

Find more ideas in Scholastic's Teacher Notes, My Book Corner and at ALIA's website.

If you've enjoyed this post, or any others at The Book Chook, I'd love you to help me spread my literacy, learning and literature ideas by promoting via Twitter, Pinterest, Facebook, StumbleUpon, G+ or any other way you decide.

Children's Book Review and Giveaway, Nanny Piggins and the Race to Power

noreply@blogger.com (Susan Stephenson) — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 19:00:00 +0000

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

I love books that lure kids onto the magical pathway to reading by offering humour and entertainment, don't you? Do you remember my enthusiasm for the first in R. A. Spratt's Nanny Piggins series, The Adventures of Nanny Piggins? Today I'm pleased to not only bring you my review of the latest in the series, book 8, Nanny Piggins and the Race to Power, but also offer a free copy of the book to one lucky The Book Chook reader who is also an Australian resident.

Nanny Piggins and the Race to Power was written by R. A. Spratt and published by Random House Australia (2103).

A vote for Piggins is a vote for cake!

In this riveting eighth instalment of Nanny Piggins' adventures, she sets out to thwart Mr Green's political ambitions by running for mayor herself. Her mission – to proudly fight for Liberty, Equality and Cake!

Is democracy safe? Probably not. Will Nanny Piggins give everyone in the electorate diabetes from too much cake? Most likely. And along the way tremendous adventure abounds. Taking part in a diabolical fun run, being trapped in a sabotaged lift, faking seismic activity, safeguarding the local vacant lot and beating the world pole vault record is just the beginning.

Spratt shows her ability not only to entertain but to keep doing so with freshness and enthusiasm in this eighth novel of the series. The children's father, Mr Green, decides to become Mayor of Dulsford and this precipitates Nanny Piggins into the political arena herself. Somehow or other, Nanny's plans and plights seem to revolve around cake, cake and more cake. I love the way Nanny Piggins is lousy at Mathematics unless it applies to cake, her ingenious methods of solving problems, the way she teaches a bunch of military recruits a thing or two about tactics and formally introduces fictionalised news to Dulsford even though "tabloid newspapers had been doing a similar thing for years."

As in The Adventures of Nanny Piggins, (and I'm sure the rest of the series) there's a laugh a minute. Senior Primary and Junior High kids will appreciate the absurdity and sly digs at …well, almost everything. Luckily, I doubt they'll take as a role model a pig in hot-pink wrestling leotard who scoffs cake!

If your children/students love a series, Nanny Piggins makes a great series to introduce them to. As with The Adventures of Nanny Piggins, the stand-alone nature of each chapter makes Nanny Piggins and the Race to Power perfect for a family read-aloud or class serial. Make sure you show kids Spratt's website and encourage them to delve into even more fun there.

GIVEAWAY: To enter the giveaway of Nanny Piggins and the Race to Power you need to email me (once) at thebookchook(at)gmail(dot)com with "Nanny Piggins" in the subject line. Please include 1. your name, 2. email address so I can notify you if you win, and 3. Australian postal address. The winner will be drawn randomly by a blindfolded chicken on May 7, 2013. I'll contact you via email to confirm, then announce on the blog soon after.

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

Let's Celebrate Star Wars Day!

noreply@blogger.com (Susan Stephenson) — Sun, 28 Apr 2013 19:00:00 +0000

Let's Celebrate Star Wars Day!

by Susan Stephenson, www.thebookchook.com

You may have noticed by now that here at The Book Chook, I love to celebrate. I very much enjoy special days that offer us the opportunity to sneak some literacy and learning into our kids' lives. Star Wars Day will take place on May 4 - May the fourth be with you - geddit? So we have a few days to prepare for the fun.

Star Wars Day would be a great time to visit your local and school libraries to borrow non-fiction, graphic novels, or books set in a Star Wars world. Some of the licensed books have lots of great pictures from the movies and a thin storyline. I must beat back my inner snob about such books because KIDS LOVE THEM. And to me, having kids love to read, having them eager to open the pages of a book, is paramount. If your child is a reluctant reader, starting with books that have lots of great pictures and a small amount of text might be a turning point for them.

Here are some more activities you could try with your kids to celebrate Star Wars Day. Some of these activities involve using internet tools and websites. Supervision is always advised with kids and the internet.

* What could be more fun than a Star Wars party? Kids could have light sabre fights with pool noodles, play Jedi mind tricks on each other, build worlds with LEGO, and watch a Star Wars movie. If you want a full-scale party, read about one in detail at Crack of Dawn Crafts. If you'd like something much simpler and cheaper, Bethany from No Twiddle Twaddle has you covered.

* Create a comic at Star Wars: Trilogy Comic Creator. This is like most comic editors, where kids must select characters, backgrounds etc. They can choose panels, a title page, and work on each panel. Text is not really editable - you need to choose from the built-in offering of sentences. You need to do a screen grab for a digital image, but there's an option to print. It might entrance real Star Wars fans but I found it underwhelming. However, under 12 I am not.

* Have kids create their own wookieepedia where they list and describe favourite characters and scenes from the Star Wars movies. They could dress toys and teddies as Star Wars characters and invite another class to their display.

* Guide children to design a poster with a Star Wars theme. For quickness, you could try Keep Calm-o-matic. How would Yoda say Keep Calm and Carry On? (Calm you shall keep and carry on you must!)

* At school, read Star Wars books, design a Star Wars-like avatar, write a paragraph persuading a friend that the Star Wars character of your choice is the best.

* At home, help kids put made up names into the Star Wars name generator. Great opportunity to explain why it's NOT a good idea to ever use real names online! I discovered: "Your Star Wars name is: Slyug Motan. Your Star Wars honorific name is: Ylgcantar of Codral."

* Explore Star Wars.com with your kids. Games like Star Wars Galactic Spy are perfect to share with younger kids, as the goal is mostly to find small items in detailed pictures. Or try Ewok Village, where you need to build the best home on Endor. There are also some great real life activities, including paper craft printable characters, puppets (Chewbacca sock puppet!), a Death Star piñata, and instructions for how to draw R2-D2.

* Help kids turn themselves into a Jedi by uploading a photo of themselves at Photofunia.

* Learn to draw a cartoon Jawa, Yoda or other Star Wars characters.

* If your kids want to make stop motion videos, check out this excellent example with them: LEGO Star Wars: Storm Trippin'. I watched (and enjoyed!) it right through and could find nothing to stop me sharing it with most primary-aged+ kids. There is LEGO violence with shooting and light sabres but that's kind of what you expect with Star Wars. However, all kids and parents are different, so I recommend you watch it right through before sharing it too. (Around 10 minutes long.)

Book Chook Challenges for kids:

* Set up some Star Wars toys to tell a story and take pictures of them in sequence with your camera so you can share your story with others. If you have time, you could use software to turn your images into a movie, or animate them. Find more details in Visual Story Telling.

* Make a Star Wars pop-up card. Paper engineer Matthew Reinhart has Anakin Skywalker, Chewbacca, Darth Vader and more at his website.

* Choose a Star Wars character and explain to your friends why that character is the best/the strongest/the smartest or your choice of "--est".

* At StarWars.com, in the encyclopaedia, C3PO is described as a "fretful protocol droid". Choose other Star Wars characters, draw them, and give them 3 word descriptions.

* Choose an activity from the DK Star Wars website and have fun with it!

* Rewrite a short piece of text the way Yoda would say it.

* Test your memory with Scholastic's Jedi Trainer game.

* Make a Star Wars toy from paper via Toy-A-Day.

And finally, a quote from one of my favourite Star Wars characters:

You'll find other special days and celebrations here at The Book Chook by clicking "Celebrating" in the blog's right sidebar.

National Simultaneous Story Time 2013

noreply@blogger.com (Susan Stephenson) — Thu, 25 Apr 2013 19:00:00 +0000

National Simultaneous Story Time 2013

by Susan Stephenson, www.thebookchook.com

What is National Simultaneous Story Time?

National Simultaneous Storytime ... is organised by the Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA). It is a colourful, vibrant and fun event that aims to promote the value of reading and literacy, using an Australian children's book that explores age appropriate themes and addresses key learning areas of the National Curriculum for Grades 1 to 6. The event receives favourable media coverage, generates a great deal of community interest and is held annually as part of Library and Information Week.

What does that mean?

It means that each year a picture book, written and illustrated by an Australian author and illustrator, is read simultaneously in libraries, schools, pre-schools, childcare centres, family homes, bookshops and many other places around the country. ALIA

When is National Simultaneous Story Time in 2013?

May 22, 11.00am.

The book chosen for 2013, is Nick Bland's The Wrong Book, published by Scholastic. Why not grab yourself a copy of this delightful children's picture book and read it aloud at 11.00am May 23 with some kids you love? You'll be joining with hundreds of thousands of other Aussies all doing the same activity. Great way to share and promote a love of reading!

On May 3 join me when I share some learning activities you could use to extend the literature experience with The Wrong Book.

Children's Book Review, Interrupting Chicken

noreply@blogger.com (Susan Stephenson) — Tue, 23 Apr 2013 19:00:00 +0000

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

Interrupting Chicken is a children's picture book by David Ezra Stein, published by Walker Books (2013).

It's time for the little red chicken's bedtime story and a reminder from Papa to try not to interrupt. But the chicken can't help herself! Whether the tale is Hansel and Gretel or Little Red Riding Hood or even Chicken Little, she jumps into the story to save its hapless characters from doing some dangerous or silly thing. Now it's the little red chicken's turn to tell a story, but will her yawning papa make it to the end without his own kind of interrupting? Energetically illustrated with glowing colours and offering humorous story-within-a-story views this all-too-familiar tale is sure to amuse (and hold the attention of) the most spirited little chicks.

Most kids love jokes. I think that authors and illustrators who build on that idea are cleverly helping children love to read. Stein seems to have written a variation of the Interrupting Cow joke. But what a variation! Children will chortle over each interruption and enjoy predicting the next one. Like the little red chicken, folks, kids do mean to be good. It's just that things pop into their heads, demanding to be expressed.

Parents will nod their heads ruefully when they recognise the antics of a little red chicken who is not tired at bed time. The Book Chook remembers many a bed time story that resulted in her good self dropping off to sleep before a story was done. This children's picture book makes an excellent choice for libraries everywhere. I predict Interrupting Chicken will become a favourite read-aloud in homes where great books are prized.

I like the twist Stein gives the story, where little red chicken writes her own bedtime story for Papa. It would make a fun model for children to use in their own stories and pictures. Kids will also enjoy creating abrupt little-red-chicken-style endings for well-known tales. They could write them, design a booklet around them, create a comic, prepare an audio presentation or make a captioned illustration. Great jokes like those plead to be shared! Interrupting Chicken would also be an excellent springboard for a family, class or library collection of favourite children's jokes. Discover more ideas in Let's Celebrate Tell a Joke Day.

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

Fun with Avatars

noreply@blogger.com (Susan Stephenson) — Sun, 21 Apr 2013 19:00:00 +0000

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Fun with Avatars

by Susan Stephenson, www.thebookchook.com

Avatars are definitely engaging. Creating an avatar online is a nice way to involve kids in learning digital literacy skills - they'll learn about menus and buttons, try different effects, and work out what sort of finished product they want. Some kids will choose an avatar that represents themselves, others will choose one representing the way they would like to be, and there'll be kids who want to change avatars daily! Best of all, making a digital avatar is a fun way to create and express yourself online.

Recently, I learnt about ToyStory3Creator. Kids will find it just as cute as I did. I tried to capture my essence in this avatar, below.

If your kids enjoy Diary of a Wimpy Kid books, why not let them try Wimp Yourself? Kids can choose either a boy or girl to customise. I channelled my inner fashionista to come up with the one below.

Similar to an avatar maker, but this time in a free iPad app, is TinkaMaker. You get to choose backgrounds and customise your cartoony creature, then you can email it as a jpg. (TinkaTolli also has a website where kids can create Tinkas. ) My Tinka character reveals a hitherto hidden side of my persona, the side desperate to gambol in a sylvan glade wearing shrunken clothing.

Cartoon Network UK has a Gumball Character creator that's a little different. It enables the creation of characters with objects for bodies. I chose a teapot from the website's image library for my character's body below, but kids can also use a webcam or upload from computer. They then add features to the object like libs, eyes etc. The site warns them not to use a photo of a real person. Again, not strictly an avatar, but it might make a great prompt for a story.

Funny Forgetful Teapot

In my ThingLink, embedded below, you'll find some more of my favourite online places to create avatars. Hover your mouse over each separate image and you will see its link and a short description.

Activities for Children's Book Week, 2013

noreply@blogger.com (Susan Stephenson) — Thu, 18 Apr 2013 19:00:00 +0000

We're getting close to that time of year in Australia when all who love reading and children's books have a huge celebration known as Children's Book Week. School and public libraries will be offering all sorts of activities and fun according to this year's theme: Read across the Universe. The dates for Children's Book Week Australia 2013 are: Saturday 17 – Friday 23 August.

To help in your celebrations, I offer a googol of goodies! I won't be giving suggestions on using the short-listed texts with kids. Others do a far better job with that than I would (e.g. Mrs Mac's Library, Planning with Kids, Book Week for Beginners Wiki.) Instead, I hope to provide a list of more general suggestions that fit this year's CBCA Book Week theme, Read across the Universe, and that encourage kids to play with ideas, collaborate, create, think critically and communicate. You'll find more ideas in last year's post, Children's Book Week Activities, 2012.

1. This year I was asked by the Children's Book Council's Anticipate Appreciate Applaud Sub Committee (NSW) to create a presentation for librarians. To accompany the presentation, I made a booklet which you can download for free at my website. Inside the booklet, you'll find ideas from me about celebrating Children's Book Week with not just books, but lots of web resources too.

2. I put my thinking cap on and came up with an activity booklet that involves kids in thinking creatively and responding to the theme of Read across the Universe. Download it free from my website.

3. You'll also find many more ideas in the post below. I've scoured the internet to find resources and ideas that might help you and your kids interpret the theme.

FOR PARENTS:

In keeping with the Read across the Universe theme, this week might make a great time to nudge your kids towards wider reading. Does your four-year-old only choose truck books from the library? Borrow a different book for yourself that you think he might like, and curl up in a corner chuckling and exclaiming over the "good bits". Chances are, he'll want to join in the fun. With older kids, help them find books in a different genre that might appeal, or choose a completely different subject matter or genre for a family read-aloud.

If you're looking for one fantastic creative thing to do with your kids this year, co-create a book with a Universe/Space theme at Storybird. Here's one you can read that I made called The Pobblepong Hero.
I used artwork from Aleksei Bitskoff. This is the wonderful thing about Storybird, it encourages writing from fantastic picture prompts. If you haven't tried it with your kids/students, I urge you to give it a go.

Photographs can make amazing prompts for storytelling. Check out these digital microscope shots with your kids for a close up clash with nature. Follow that up with trip to your local library to browse books about creatures.

CHALLENGES FOR KIDS

These are extra to the free PDF activity booklet I described in 2 (above.)

* Use Brainy Box to collect the CBCA's short-listed books that YOU would like to see win awards.

* Choose key words from a book by a favourite author. Put those words into Wordle or ABCya Word Cloud and see if your friend can discover the author and book. What well-known children's picture book is represented by the words in the cloud below?

* Find a science project to turn trash into a toy on Arvind Gupta's site. Many of the projects have a space theme. Or design your own project that recycles junk into something fun. Record directions so others can follow your brilliant ideas!

* Think you know lots about comets and meteors? Take this quiz at National Geographic to find out!

* Think you know a lot about the moon? Quiz yourself!

* Create a story: The Secret Life of Our Librarian, The Secret Life of Our Principal, or The Secret Life of My Teacher. Make sure the setting of your story, be it narrative, comic book, or documentary movie, is Somewhere in the Universe.

* Create a trading card at Read Write Think for your favourite fictional character or characters. If you have an iPad, try the Trading Cards app.

* Make a quiz for other kids at ImageQuiz to test their knowledge of some aspect of the Universe. Here's a sample one on our Solar System to give you an idea.

* Test your typing skills with ABCya's simple typing game, Type Rocket, where you make firework rockets explode by typing the letter that appears on each.

LIBRARY COMPETITIONS

Estimate how many books in the library. How many pages?

Choose a library book that you've read. Create (with pencil or digitally) a minimalist graphic that works as a clue for someone else to discover the book you're representing. (Adults, here are some fairy tale posters as examples. Use your discretion as to whether all are suitable to share with kids.)

Ask someone to photograph you while you're reading. Consider setting, whether you want to wear costume or use props etc.

I have more ideas for Photo Competitions in my booklet, Ideas for Children's Book Week Australia 2013.

LIBRARY DISPLAY IDEAS

Use party lights to add a sparkle to your library display. Or try putting a glow stick inside a balloon, then inflating the balloon and tying it off. If you thread cotton through several of the balloon "lights", you have another interesting effect. How about a black light bulb or glow paint? Check out Creative Library Displays for some wonderful ideas you could adapt to Read across the Universe.

Use kids' own creations. Have them create a cartoon/comic with an online comic editor or software. If you want more information, check out my free PDF booklet, Using Comic Editors with Kids. LEGO DC Superheroes, Creaza Cartoonist and Toon Doo all have elements and backgrounds that can be used to suit the theme. Kids could simply think of one caption to suit a one frame picture or use the cartoon as a prompt for further storytelling.

Use Pulp-o-mizer to generate some covers unique to your school with a sci-fi theme - see example above.

Another display idea, Shoot for the Moon on Flickr.

Have good-natured staff members alienize their own photos with photo editing software or a Photo Booth app and see if kids can recognise them. I used online editor, Ribbet, to distort my own gorgeous features (below) and colour change them. (5:00 am starts are rarely kind to me.)

NASA SpacePlace invites you to print out some great images including posters, brochures, board game downloads and activity books. This is also an excellent site for budding astronomers and scientists to explore.

Download a Word doc of editable speech bubbles for your displays.

Download some great steampunk airships from Girl genius.

Download free printable, Whole Alphabet Banner. Great for composing your own signs for displays.

Download free printable steampunk collage sheets. And be sure to scroll down for ideas involving Google Patents and Wikimedia Commons.

Book Week costume ideas from Kidspot.

SCIENCE RESOURCES

App, NASA Lunar Electric Rover Simulator - A glimpse of what it might be like to support the activities of a functioning Lunar Outpost. (iTunes)

Find out more about our Solar System at National Geographic.

Amazing Space offer free downloadable Solar System trading cards.

Play Space Janitor at National Geographic.

The Scale of the Universe 2. Explore the scale of different objects in the Universe and find out more about them. (I love some of the not-very-scientific language used in this Flash-based activity e.g. "Shrews are great little thingies." Well, yeah!)

Early Learning HQ downloadable space-themed resources.

AND NOW FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT...

Can you see the rocket fins on the library, above? Australian author and librarian, Peter Macinnis, took this photo of the Goddard Library, named after rocketeer, Robert H. Goddard. Peter says,"...if you want a library that is truly ready for reading across the universe, the Goddard Library is it!" Peter is happy to send folk a higher res image if you contact him via his website.

THE END

Or is it? Whatever your plans for Children's Book Week 2013, be they low-key or elaborate, I hope you'll enjoy sharing lots of wonderful books and book-related activities with your kids and students. The Universe is a big place, but if we start reading right now, we might just possibly read all the way across!

If you've enjoyed this post, or any others at The Book Chook, I'd love you to help me spread my literacy, learning and literature ideas for parents, librarians and teachers by promoting it via Twitter, Pinterest, Facebook, StumbleUpon, G+ or any other way you decide.

Children's Book Review, Lighthouse Girl

noreply@blogger.com (Susan Stephenson) — Tue, 16 Apr 2013 19:00:00 +0000

Children's Book Review by Rebecca Newman

Lighthouse Girl by Dianne Wolfer, illustrated by Brian Simmonds, published by Fremantle Press (2009). Review edition is a hardback ISBN 9781921361531 (the book is also available as a paperback $19.95, ISBN 9781921696572).

Fay is a lighthouse keeper's daughter - she lives with her father on a small island off Albany in Western Australia. As ships start leaving for World War I, Breaksea Island is the soldiers' last glimpse of Australia. They send messages from the ships using semaphore and Fay later telegraphs the messages to their families. Then one soldier - Charlie - sends her a message, and the war becomes more personal for Fay.

My name is Charlie. They say you are sending messages to loved ones. I don’t have any loved ones. Can I send a message to you?
Yes.
What is your name?
Fay.

Fay and Charlie send postcards to each other and letters and postcards from other soldiers also start to arrive, addressed to 'the little girl on Breaksea Island'. She reads about her soldiers' travels from Egypt to Gallipoli and she worries about Charlie. Fay cooks for her father and the second lighthouse keeper, shoots rabbits when they are short of food, knits clothes for the war effort, and loads her donkey with supplies from the supply boat. She also writes in her diary - a birthday gift from her father. Then one day, a terrible letter arrives from the war office.

Wolfer weaves fact and fiction to tell Fay's story. The book is based on the real lighthouse girl, Fay Howe, and archival material such as newspaper clippings and old photographs are interspersed with a narrative, charcoal sketches, Fay's diary entries and the postcards. There is also a page showing semaphore code.

If you're looking for a book to add to an Anzac-themed collection, this is a gentle introduction to the concept of war and the impact war had on those waiting at home. Children in middle to upper primary school will find it interesting to compare Fay's day-to-day activities with their own.

Extensive and practical teachers' notes are available from the Fremantle Press site. (Wolfer and Simmonds also launched a companion book earlier this month - Light Horse Boy - which goes behind the scenes of the Light Horse legend).

BIO: Rebecca Newman lives in Perth with her husband and three children. She has always loved children's books (even more than books for grown-ups) and from 2008 until 2013 she was the publisher and editor of children's literary magazine, Alphabet Soup. Now she is the curator of Alphabet Soup's blog. In her spare time she writes children's fiction and poetry, runs writing workshops with small groups of children, and tends a tiny kitchen garden. Her house has more books than bookshelves …

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

Three iPad Apps that Encourage Creativity

noreply@blogger.com (Susan Stephenson) — Sun, 14 Apr 2013 19:00:00 +0000

Three iPad Apps that Encourage Creativity

by Susan Stephenson, www.thebookchook.com

Today I want to tell you about three iPad apps that I believe have the potential to encourage kids to think creatively. Using these apps, kids could tell a story, record a favourite joke or practise writing dialogue between characters.

Comic Book

iTunes

Comic Book is quite a versatile comic editor. it allows you to choose a photo from your camera roll, or take one with the camera. Once you choose the template you want, adding a picture is a simple tap. The image can then be customised by adding speech bubbles and text, adding an effect (I added the effect called Sketch in my comic above), and adding stickers. Some stickers come built in, but you can make in-app purchases of more stickers for around $0.99 each set. I think kids will particularly enjoy the bling, but they'll also use the app to create digital stories.

Once done, the comic can be saved to your iPad as a jpg, exported to iBooks as a pdf or emailed. It's a big file size and I don't see any way to reduce the file before you email.

Strip Designer

iTunes

I reviewed Strip Designer earlier. I particularly liked the function it offers us of creating our own stickers and presenting information visually.

See Strip Designer used by kids in 3/4C at The Junction to demonstrate onomatopoeia. Here's a wonderful lesson plan and examples from the same teacher/class that show how multiple apps, including Strip Designer, work towards children's understanding of the concept of "story".

Comic Puppets Lite

iTunes

Comic Puppets Lite is optimised for iPhone but works on iPad. There is very little for kids to use in the free version, and most elements needs to be purchased. But there is enough that you can get an idea of whether you want to buy it. I must admit, I love this about many "lite" apps - you get to try a less fully-featured version to make sure it's what you really want. Comic Puppets Lite is simple to use, and works well. It's basically a matter of choosing "puppets"/characters, and arranging them in a background, then adding speech bubbles and text. There's also an android version available via Google Play.

Your kids might like Comic Puppets Lite as a way to play with words and images. It's not yet one of my favourite apps but then I haven't gone on to the full/paid version. I think it would be particularly useful for teachers and parents who want their kids to develop dialogues between the puppet characters.

And one more!

I already own Comic Life as a Mac application, so I haven't purchased it for my iPad ($4.99). But I LOVE Comic Life and must mention it as an iPad app here even though I haven't tested it. Find out more about it on iTunes.

Other iPad apps I've recommended at The Book Chook:
Haiku Deck
Night Zookeeper Drawing Torch

Producing Visual Content Online with Kids

noreply@blogger.com (Susan Stephenson) — Thu, 11 Apr 2013 19:00:00 +0000

Producing Visual Content Online with Kids

by Susan Stephenson, www.thebookchook.com

In Visual Literacy - Investigate and Play with Images, I re-stated my belief that picture books are a great format for developing early visual literacy skills, and that we also need to ensure kids encounter a range of different visual formats. Not only must we help kids think critically about what they see, we also need to help them consciously produce visual content that targets an audience appropriately.

When kids are playing with images, or creating new images, it's useful to nudge their thinking towards a sense of audience. While I wouldn't take this so far as to interrupt each toddler scribble with a nudge, (!) it might arise naturally in some situations. Say Elfrida wants to make a picture for Grandma, but doesn't know what the picture should be. The questions: what does Grandma like? what do you think Grandma would like to see? nudge Elfrida in the direction of considering her audience. With older kids, more deliberate questions help tease out the intended purpose of an image: what do you want to achieve with your poster? how will people see it? where will they see it? is there a call to action? how will you know if it's effective? what font will you choose? what colours? why?

Playing with image editors and image generators is a wonderful opportunity for kids to develop not just visual literacy skills, but digital literacy skills. They'll pick up an understanding of different digital tools' interfaces, finding elements in common and noticing differences. They'll begin to recognise symbols and menus and how an image can be filtered and refined with them. They'll experiment with combining filters and stamps, and they'll have a whole lot of fun. It's a great opportunity for shared learning, and a natural time to introduce ideas about digital safety and responsibility. The Copyright and Copyleft Wiki is an excellent starting point.

Online, with supervision, kids can manipulate images with image editors like Ribbet, PicMonkey or Pizap. They can import Creative Commons images or take their own snaps to enhance. They can create slideshows and videos via websites like Animoto, PhotoPeach and Pixorial. They can tell stories with visual components at comic editor websites like LEGO DC Universe Super Heroes Comic Builder. Or create story prompts at Aven's Corner Comix, the way I did in the image above. While children are involved in manipulating images, we can nudge them to think about audience, and what exactly it is that they're trying to communicate.

They can even make use of websites that encourage play and image generation. (Sorry to labour the point, but it's definitely best for kids to have SUPERVISION any time they're on the internet.) Here are some websites I've mentioned on The Book Chook, that I like as fun places to play visually. Often, there are opportunities for kids to learn about art here too:

Matisse's Pieces (Toy Theatre) (see image above)

Mr PicassoHead

National Gallery of Art Kid's Page

Mutapic

TimTim

(If you missed my free PDF, Using Comic Editors with Kids, grab yourself a copy.)

You might also be interested in reading:

Online Places We Can Draw

Start Kids Writing with Fun Image Editors

Fun and Easy Ways to Make Digital Art with Kids

Children's Book Review, An Anzac Tale

noreply@blogger.com (Susan Stephenson) — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 19:00:00 +0000

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

An Anzac Tale is a graphic picture book, written by Ruth Starke, illustrated by Greg Holfield, and published by Working Title Press (Penguin) 2013.

When Australia pledges its support to Great Britain at the outbreak of World War I, mates Roy Martin and Wally Cardwell are among the first to enlist.

But what the friends first thought would be an adventure soon turns to disaster The day after the landing at Anzac Cove on 25 April 1915, more than 2000 of their fellow Anzacs are dead. As the campaign drags on, life for Wally and Roy and their new friend, Tom, becomes a battle of endurance against a plucky enemy, a hostile landscape, flies, fleas, cold and disease. The story of the Anzac campaign, including the battle of Lone Pine, is interspersed with scenes of Australians at home to show the shift from popular support of the Empire at the start of the war to profound disillusionment as the casualties begin to mount.

I have to admit, I am still blinking away tears as I write this. Despite the "animal" characters, this is a moving and I feel accurate account of the ANZAC story told from the perspective of an average soldier. It's obvious a great deal of research has gone into this book: the uniforms, the authentic tone of the dialogue, the sentiments expressed by the soldiers, the history revealed - even the slight deviations noted - all contribute to putting the reader right in the thick of the action.

Greg Holfield has done a brilliant job with the art work. There's a wonderful retro feel to it. Even the endpapers have what look to be authentic documents, faded and in the spidery handwriting of the time. At first I wondered about his decision to portray the characters as animals, but it didn't take long for me to become wholly absorbed in the story, and for the heroes particularly to become very real to me.

Like lots of Australians, a big part of remembering the ANZAC campaign and Gallipoli for me is vowing never to let such a terrible catastrophe happen again. As teachers and parents, I believe it's vital for us to share the ANZAC story with our kids. An Anzac Tale puts children into this time and place in Australia's history in a format that's accessible to the majority of them. Senior Primary and Junior High School students, particularly boys, will grab An Anzac Tale for sure. For teachers and librarians, there's the added bonus of thought-provoking discussion questions and activities from Working Title.

Last week I told you about The Treasure Box. I've also reviewed Simpson and his Donkey. These are three excellent books to consider before ANZAC Day. Next Wednesday, we continue with the historical theme with a guest review of Lighthouse Girl.

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

LEGO DC Universe Superheroes Comic Builder

noreply@blogger.com (Susan Stephenson) — Sun, 07 Apr 2013 19:00:00 +0000

LEGO DC Universe Superheroes Comic Builder

by Susan Stephenson, www.thebookchook.com

Here's an engaging comic editor that will delight young LEGO fans. They'll have fun, express themselves and have opportunities for creative thinking, writing, developing visual literacy skills and a whole lot more.

The LEGO DC Universe Superheroes Comic Builder has a nice clear interface, encouraging kids to explore and play. First kids must choose a template. I stuck with one square for quickness. On the right, there are tabs where you can choose from backgrounds, vehicles, characters, speech bubbles/text boxes, word art and props. The text boxes/speech bubbles are editable and can be customised with font and font colour.

There's a panel at top left with general functions like move, or push to back. The lower left panel is able to be dragged where you want it and has functions that depend on the tab you choose, making it possible to enlarge, rotate etc. The top menu bar enables save, undo add/delete pages etc. Once kids are happy with their creation, they can print or save to a computer as a PDF file.

Don't forget there are other great LEGO comic editors if your kids are into LEGO. My free pdf, Using Comic Editors with Kids, lists many.

There's an iPad app called LEGO Heroes Moviemaker young fans will love too. For an example, check out these great movies made by kids at Indirect Observations blog.

How Do Kids Not Write a Book Review

noreply@blogger.com (Susan Stephenson) — Thu, 04 Apr 2013 18:00:00 +0000

How Do Kids Not Write a Book Review

by Susan Stephenson

The most successful article on The Book Chook in terms of traffic is How Do Kids Write a Book Review, which according to Blogger, has had 120 000 page views. Because I'm aware that with some kids, we need to take a contrary approach, I thought I'd share some different kinds of book reviews I've seen. Sometimes, by working out what NOT to do, we can shape our learning towards a more successful technique. Besides, let's have fun with a subject that can strike fear into our very souls!

Here are some book review examples you might like to use in a discussion with your kids. Discussion points could include why such a review might not work too well as a communication, whether kids can think of other unsuccessful approaches to writing book reviews, and finally, what better method would work for each child. Or you could have some fun writing more examples of unsuccessful book reviews.

The short review: I liked it.

The rude review: I would rather have my brain removed by flesh-eating zombies than read this book again. Use it to wrap your garbage.

The my-teacher-made-me-do-it-but-I-haven't-read-the-book review: This is a very good book if you like that kind of thing and frankly I don't. But you should probably read it because it will make you smarter. There are 112 pages in the book. The cover is colourful. It's about a kid who falls down a hole.

The short rude review: It sucked.

The rambly review: Well, there was this kid, see and he went to school one day and it was stormy so he got on the bus but he couldn't see his sister and so he lost her and then his mom got mad only before that the kid named Jimmy found a magic shoe so …

The punctuation-is-against-my-religion review: highjacks at horton house is a good book I think kids from 6-11 would like it its funny and its scary

The vague review: I liked the book because it was nice.

The plagiarised review: Terror in the Marsh is a must-buy if your children enjoy a touch of horror in their fiction. I am an Amazon affiliate so please use the link to buy this book.

The egotistical review: I, Matt, read this book and found it just okay. I could have written a much better book if I'd been bothered. I recommend this book to young kids and dumb kids.

The cookie-cutter review: The title of this book is Horton Hears a What. The author of this book is D. R. Suess. This book is about Horton hears a what. I recommend this book for kids under 6.

The spelling? what spelling? review: Wen you reed this book, you will need to have the lites on becarse its full of horrer.

Of course, book reviews don't always need to be written. You might also like to read Alternatives to Book Reports with your kids.

UPDATE: Thanks to Bethany from No Twiddle Twaddle, I found a Youtube video clip of Book Report from You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown.

Children's Book Review, The Treasure Box

noreply@blogger.com (Susan Stephenson) — Tue, 02 Apr 2013 18:00:00 +0000

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

With Anzac Day approaching on April 25 (a national day of remembrance in Australia and New Zealand), the thoughts of many parents, teachers and librarians will turn to books we can share with kids at this time. I'd like to recommend The Treasure Box, written by Margaret Wild, illustrated by Freya Blackwood and published by Penguin/Viking (2013). I've previously reviewed Wild's book, Vampyre and Blackwood's books, Look, a Book! and The Bicycle.

When the enemy bombed the library, everything burned.

As war rages, Peter and his father flee their home, taking with them a treasure box that holds something more precious than jewels. They journey through mud and rain and long cold nights, and soon their survival becomes more important than any possessions they carry.

But as the years go by, Peter never forgets the treasure box, and one day he returns to find it.

Like most great children's picture books, The Treasure Box is the result of uniting a superb illustrator with a wonderful writer. Both Margaret Wild and Freya Blackwood are national treasures and their collaboration here is inspired. The Treasure Box is a gentle yet dramatic tale destined to become a picture book classic.

I admire the way Margaret Wild has such a deft hand with serious themes in many of the children's picture books she writes. Her writing style is spare - the story is pared down to the important moments. But there is still place for descriptive language to engage our reader senses, and phrases that remain in our minds long after the book is finished - if indeed, a book is ever "finished"?

Blackwood's illustration style is intriguing. The pages of the treasured book become backdrops for some pages, and burnt snippets rain down from the sky in a hauntingly beautiful collaged war scene. Endpapers reinforce this message of survival despite destruction.

The Treasure Box is a wonderful children's picture book for teachers wanting to explore themes of immigration, war or values. Students will be prompted to think about what they hold dear, and how far they would go to keep their treasures safe. I love the book's positive message about the triumph of education over ignorance, and the survival of the human spirit.

Because of Blackwood's inclusion of newspaper fragments in the illustrations, this would be an excellent opportunity to explore Newspaper Blackout poetry with kids. Read more about it at Austin Kleon's website, or check out the way Caroline Lennox applied it with her class. If you'd like to explore collage as an art technique with your kids, this Pinterest board has some interesting examples.

You'll find another review of The Treasure Box with some excellent learning activities at Children's Books Daily.

Next Wednesday, I'll have another Anzac-themed review for you: An Anzac Tale by Ruth Starke and Greg Holfield.

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

Visual Literacy - Investigate and Play with Images

noreply@blogger.com (Susan Stephenson) — Sun, 31 Mar 2013 18:00:00 +0000

Visual Literacy - Investigate and Play with Images

by Susan Stephenson, www.thebookchook.com

Our world is becoming more complex visually. We must help kids think critically about what they see. (We also need to help them develop the skills they need to consciously produce visual content that targets an audience appropriately. I'll be discussing ways we can do this next week.)

One of the simplest ways to develop children's visual literacy and help them think critically is to incorporate questions into the picture book readings we share with kids. I remain adamant that the first read aloud of a book is purely for entertainment, and for sharing the sheer joy and wonder of a story. That means I read with all my skills - voice, face, acting - and forget about questions that interrupt the flow. But good books demand a re-read, and that's when I try to focus on helping kids think about the visual aspects of a picture book.

Here's my very simple method with picture books: TAKE A CLOSE look at the special features of picture books with kids after a re-reading. Encourage visual literacy by discussing illustrations and thinking aloud.

Obviously, picture books are not the only kinds of visual texts. When working with kids, we encounter maps, tables, graphs, story boards, diagrams, street signs, posters, ads, TV shows, movies, websites, and more. It makes good sense as a parent and teacher to take advantage of all these different formats by pointing them out when we notice them in daily life. Encourage kids to share what they notice.

If children are involved with activities centred around images online, it's an excellent time to talk about copyright and Creative Commons licenses with them. Digital literacy and visual literacy both need to incorporate messages about being a responsible consumer and keeping safe online. The Copyright and Copyleft Wiki is a great starting point.

By encouraging kids to play with images - to manipulate them, examine them, use them to tell a story or transmit a message, we're also helping them develop visual literacy skills. This can be done in real life, for instance at an art gallery, at the shops, with kids' own artwork. It can be done with digital image software like ComicLife. It can be done with iPad apps like Haiku Deck or Strip Designer. OR it can be done online.

Websites like Wonderopolis really encourage kids to learn with visuals and text. With the Wonderopolis Wonderizer, kids are presented with a daily image and encouraged to customise that image by adding vocabulary words, text, videos, photos, more images etc. The customisations lead them to explore a subject further, and delve into different formats. I love the idea of encouraging kids to wonder - to speculate about what might be, or what might cause something.

Introducing kids to an online photo editor like Ribbet is another fun way to help them investigate while they play with images. Make sure kids understand the different purposes for using an image - do they need it to prove or demonstrate something or perhaps to add interest to a poster or other project? Most online photo editors are fairly intuitive but sharing a simple project with your kids will teach them a lot.

Another website that helps kids to think critically about images is Image Detective. It helps kids work through a process with some scaffolding where they first pose a question about an image, then gather clues about it to find an answer. Image Detective helps kids tease out answers and supplies further information that leads to a conclusion. Kids can also see the model of a scholar 'reading' an image.

Next week I'll bring you Producing Visual Content Online with Kids with some more of my favourite places kids can do this.

Here are some articles at The Book Chook with more ideas for visual (and often digital) literacy:

Fake Science

Telling Stories with Words and Pictures - Guest Post

Visual Literacy Activities with Children's Picture Books

Visual Literacy Activities with Online Resources

Visual Literacy - Play with Images at Iaza

Use Images to Start Kids Thinking

Creative Prompt - Look to Nature

Fun and Easy Ways to Make Digital Art with Kids

If you've enjoyed this post, or any others at The Book Chook, I'd love you to help me spread my fun with literacy, learning and literature ideas by promoting via Twitter, Pinterest, Facebook, StumbleUpon, G+ or any other way you decide.

Looking Back to January, February, March 2012

noreply@blogger.com (Susan Stephenson) — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 18:00:00 +0000

Looking Back to January, February, March 2012

by Susan Stephenson, www.thebookchook.com

Towards the end of each month in 2012, I revisited popular posts from 2011. Not only did that mean new readers of the blog might find something useful otherwise buried in the archives, but it also reminded me of content I could refer to when I wrote new articles.

In 2013, I plan to do something similar. Four times this year, I'll look back to articles I've published at The Book Chook in 2012. Today, I'm re-visiting popular posts from January, February and March of 2012. Don't forget you can use the right sidebar to find earlier posts, too. Click Creating, Learning, Reviews, Reading, Writing and Celebrating to explore those themes, or try the Blog Archive to browse by months.

Is creativity important in your home? What do you do to encourage imagination, creativity and dreams in your kids? Imagine. Create. Dream.

Hand-selling Books to Kids

Looking Back to January 2011

ABCya - Educational Games for Kids

Ten Writing Challenges for Kids

Resources about Animals

My (Almost) Interactive Prompt for Children's Writing

Looking Back to February 2011

Use Images to Start Kids Thinking

Help Your Kids Love to Read

Looking Back to March 2011

I hope you and your children find some learning treasure or inspiration here at The Book Chook!

(Image Credit Wikimedia Commons, speech bubbles added at Ribbet.)