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by Renee Kirchner, Teaching Tips Contributing Editor

Prediction is an important reading skill that children must develop. It helps them to understand stories and create meaning as they read. Teachers can help children learn how to use clues from a story to predict what will happen next. One of the best types of text for teaching predicting is the circular story.

Circular stories follow a pattern. They end the same way they began after following a series of predictable events. Talk to children about other things that follow a circular pattern such as seasons or an animal’s life cycle. Explain that every year we have four seasons: winter, spring, summer, and fall. We always have four seasons and we can predict the type of weather to expect because it follows a circular pattern each year. Let them know that some stories are predictable, just like seasons, because they follow a circular pattern.

There are many fine examples of picture books that you can use to teach prediction. Read some of the stories listed below and ask children to predict what will happen next when you read. It might be helpful to draw a circle on the board and write out the plot points. This will illustrate how the story comes back around to the place that it started.

Picture books with circular plots:

The Relatives Came by Cynthia Rylant

When relatives arrive from Virginia, the house is filled with people and good times. There are so many relatives that they can’t all eat at the same time and they sleep on top of each other. At summer’s end, the relatives leave and the house seems big and quiet again. But, the relatives will be back again next summer.

Stephanie’s Ponytail by Robert Munsch

Stephanie arrives at school one day with a ponytail. The next day, all the girls are wearing ponytails, too. Stephanie wears her hair differently every day trying to thwart the copycats. Finally she tells her classmates that she is going to shave her head. The story has a surprise twist ending. The cumulative text is great for teaching how to make predictions.

If You Give a Mouse a Cookie

In this modern-day classic, one simple act, giving a mouse a cookie, triggers a whole set of other events. The demanding mouse needs a glass of milk after eating the cookie and so on and so on. Children will enjoy guessing what the mouse will need next.

Too Many Tamales by Gary Soto

Maria thinks that she lost her mother’s diamond ring in a batch of tamales she was making for Christmas dinner. When her cousins arrive, she tells them the problem and they help her look by biting into each of the tamales. Soon all of the tamales are gone and they have to make another batch.

Seven Little Rabbits

Seven little rabbits go down the road to visit their friend toad. This repetitive text keeps children guessing if any of the rabbits will make it to toad’s house. One by one they get tired and need to take a nap. The rhyming text makes for a great read aloud.

by Renee Kirchner, Teaching Tips Contributing Editor

It’s only natural for kids to want to pack away their books during summer vacation. They want to play with friends, swim, and ride their bikes. However, a summer spent without books could cause their current reading levels to drop before school starts in the fall. If you make summer reading a pleasant pastime, kids will be more likely to pick up a book.

Summer is a great time for kids to branch out and try reading something new. In summer there are no book reports or projects to complete when they finish a book. Reading should be for pure enjoyment. Encourage your children to read books from many different authors and genres. If they normally read mysteries, suggest that they try biographies, historical fiction, science fiction, or poetry. Don’t limit summer reading to hardcover or paperback books either. Children would probably enjoy reading comic books, magazines, and newspapers also. The objective in the summer is to make reading fun.

Learning how to choose their own reading material is an important skill for young children. Children are more apt to read a book if they select it. Parents can model book selection by taking their children to a library or a bookstore. Pick up a book and look at the cover. Next, flip through the pages and read the jacket out loud. Let your children hear your thoughts. For example, “I love books by this author. I’m so glad he has written another one. I think I’ll check it out and see if I like it.” Children also need to understand that it’s ok to not like a book. Everyone has started a book and then decided it wasn’t for them. Children do not instinctively know that it’s ok to not finish a book if they don’t like it.

Children might become overwhelmed when they see the huge selection of books available at the bookstore or the library. It might be a good idea to visit some websites and get some book recommendations first. Here are some excellent websites to try:

RIF (Reading is Fundamental

The RIF (Reading is Fundamental) website if full of great information. There are fun summer activities for families that are centered on reading. The website also has recommended reading lists broken down by children’s ages and interests.

KidsReads.org

This website is excellent if your child is looking for the newest releases. Each month a new selection of books are reviewed and posted. Frequently there are in-depth author interviews on the website so kids can read about their favorite authors.

American Library Association

The American Library Association has lists of recommended reading that will please everyone. The lists include classics, paperbacks, Newbery Award books, Caldecott Award books, and many others. Children will never run out of book suggestions after visiting this site.

This summer can be a great adventure for your children when you mix free time with some great books. Have a great summer and happy reading.

Happy Independence Day, USA!

Here are some facts about the United States flag and a fun craft for Independence Day

from Renee Kirchner, Teaching Tips Contributing Editor

President Harry S. Truman designated June 14th as a National Holiday in 1949. On Flag Day, Americans fly the flag in front of schools, offices and homes. Students learn about the history of the flag and how to treat the flag with respect.

The modern day American flag has seven red stripes and six white stripes. The top left corner is blue with fifty white stars. The thirteen stripes stand for the original thirteen colonies and the stars represent the fifty states. The red stripes represent England and the white stripes represent the United States.

Because the flag is so familiar, we may think that it has always been the same. This is not true. No one knows for certain who designed the original flag. We believe that Congressman Francis Hopkinson, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, designed the original flag. Even though there is a legend that Betsy Ross made the first flag, historians to not believe that this is true. Before June 24, 1912, there was no standard for the American flag. Flags made before this time had unusual arrangements of stars and odd proportions. President Taft established the proportions of the flag and the arrangements of the stars in an Executive Order. The number of stars on the flag increased each time a new state was added to the United States, but the number of stripes will always stay the same.

By 1912, when Arizona and New Mexico entered the Union, the flag had forty-eight stars. The number remained the same until 1959, when Alaska became a state. A year later, on July 4, 1960, the fiftieth star was added to mark Hawaii’s entry into the Union. The flag today looks exactly like the one we had in 1960.

America’s national anthem, “The Star Spangled Banner” was written about the American flag. Francis Scott Key wrote a poem in 1812 that was later set to music and adopted as our national anthem. The flag flying over Fort McHenry in Maryland after a bombardment during the War of 1812 inspired him.

It is our universal custom to display the flag only from sunrise to sunset. However, when patriotic effect is desired, the flag may be displayed twenty-four hours a day if it is lit up at night. The American flag should be displayed above state or city flags when flown on a flagpole. Occasionally the flag is flown at half-staff. This is a sign of respect for the memory of a public official or in the event of a national tragedy.

Our country honors the flag, which stands as a symbol of our unity as a nation, of our freedoms and of our power. Respect and honor the flag on Flag Day and on all other days during the year.

INDEPENDENCE DAY CRAFT

Handprint American Flag:

Materials
Large sheet of white paper (about the size of two poster boards)
Paint: Red, white and blue
Small sponge in shape of star
Pencils
Ruler

Instructions:
This flag can be made at home, but it will work best as a classroom activity. The completed flag should be displayed on a large wall or bulletin board.
1. Have students draw a box in the top left corner of flag for the fifty states.
2. Using the ruler, draw thirteen stripes on the flag with pencil. Mark the stripes that will be red with a small checkmark. The American flag has seven red stripes and six white stripes. The top and bottom stripes are both red.

3. Have one student paint the top corner box with blue paint.

4. Other students will take turns dipping their hand in red paint and placing red handprints on the stripes marked with the checkmarks. There is no need to paint the white stripes.

5. When the blue paint is dry, have several students make fifty stars by dipping the star sponge into white paint and pressing on the blue area.

By: Teaching Tips Contributing Editor, Renee Kirchner

It is important for elementary aged children to understand the concept of compare and contrast. This concept can be applied to many areas of the curriculum including math, science, and literature. When a child is asked to compare and contrast two different things, they are supposed to tell how they are alike and different. Comparing shows the similarities between two objects and contrasting shows the differences. Children will use words such as both, like, also, and similar when comparing. Words such as unlike, however, and but might be used when contrasting two objects.

Children’s books, both fiction and nonfiction, can be useful tools for teaching the concept of compare and contrast. Select one book with two different characters or choose two books with similarities and differences in character or plot. Nonfiction books will also work well. For example, you could choose a book on reptiles and compare and contrast two different types
of reptiles.

There are two useful tools that teachers use as prewriting activities when teaching compare and contrast: the Venn diagram and the T-chart. The Venn diagram is made up of two or more overlapping circles depending how many objects you are comparing. Each circle contains different information about the objects and the overlapping portion in the middle contains the
similarities.

For example if I was comparing a rabbit with a wolf, the rabbit circle might have herbivore and the wolf circle would have carnivore. The overlapping portion in the middle might contain the word mammal, since both animals are mammals. Of course your student would put more than one descriptive word in each circle. The more detail they use, the better. The T-chart is organized differently than the Venn diagram. If we use the example of the rabbit and the wolf the chart would look like this:

Characteristic Rabbit Wolf
Diet Grass Meat
Animal group Mammal Mammal

Here are some examples of picture books that would work well for studying the concept of compare and contrast:

One Picture Book with Two Characters

Bubba and Beau: Best Friends by Kathi Appelt

Bubba is a Texas baby and Beau is a Texas puppy and they are best friends. They have adventures together and both of them become very upset when their pink blanket gets washed.

Similarities between Bubba and Beau:

Both of them are keen on chewing, neither one is housetrained, and they both disdain soap.

Differences between Bubba and Beau:

Bubba loves the pinky pinky blankie because it smells like Beau and Beau likes the pinky pinky blankie because it smells like Bubba.

Two Picture Books with a Similar Main Character

Cindy Ellen: A Wild Western Cinderella by Susan Lowell

Chickarella by Mary Jane Auch

Similarities between Cindy Ellen and Chickarella:

Both of them have an evil stepmother or step-chicken, a fairy godmother or fairy fowl mother, and both have a prince or a princely rooster.

Differences between Cindy Ellen and Chickarella:

Cindy Ella can wrangle, rope and gallop. Chickarella starts a high fashion business that grows out of making clothes for the ball.

Children can use the examples above to create a Venn diagram or a T-chart and then write a compare-contrast paper about the different characters.

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Note: Although school is out for summer vacation in most places across the country, parents can still read with their children this summer and use activities like this one to have fund with their children as they help them become better readers.