How to use this Page

Thank for your following me on Day 4 of my 6-day virtual tour for my books, heart2heart and Turning Points. Yesterday, on Day 3 of my tour, I shared some tips for teachers to help them see how to use my books in the classroom. Today I'd like to give more tips for teachers or anyone interested in how we learn. Just go to www.friendlyuniverse.com to find out more about courses available there, accredited through our partner Portland State Universty. Here are just a few of the course titles we offer:


Creative Brain – Multiple Intelligence Classroom
Intelligence Reframed: MI Learning Stations
Transformed Anger: The Surprising Purpose of Anger
Managing Innovation-How Great Teachers Inspire Their Students


You can also take our self-quiz to learn more about your own learning styles or have your students or your own children take the quiz. Just click here to take it online right now:

http://www.friendlyuniverse.com/quiz/NewSQQuiz.swf?d=550x400

And here's a short video to watch with more information about my books and the work I do:

by Kathy Stemke

Effective readers use pictures, titles, headings, and text, as well as personal experiences, to make predictions before they begin to read. Predicting involves more than trying to figure out what happens next. As kids find evidence to form hunches, they also ask questions, recall facts, reread, skim, infer, draw conclusions, and, ultimately, comprehend the text more fully. It’s important to use this strategy in preschool.

A great way to introduce your class to prediction is to model the process by thinking out-loud. Show them the cover of a book you found at the library. Say, “Looking at the cover, I thought this book was about the love of a boy for his dog. Maybe the dog plays with the boy. (You could use Champ’s Story: Dogs Get Cancer Too! by Sherry North) When we use what we know to guess what will happen before we read a book, it’s called predicting. The happy faces on the cover were my clues.” Ask the children for their predictions.

As you read the book, stop at important points and evaluate your prediction. Later we see the boy crying and a bandage on the dog. Ask the children to rethink their predictions. Ask them what they can learn from the illustrations. Don’t worry the dog gets better and there is a surprise ending.

Here’s an activity for Fur and Feathers by Janet Halfman:

Follow the Clues Activity

Put one candy heart in a paper bag for each student and tape it closed.

In a teacher’s bag put a piece of fur, a feather, a pin cushion, a jar of slime, sequins, pinecone scales, plastic wing with black dots.

Tell the children they are going to be detectives and solve a mystery. They have to look for clues and guess what’s in their bag. On the chalkboard write the word “prediction.” Pointing to the teacher bag say, “First, let’s guess what’s in my bag.” Guide students as they make a prediction about what might be in the paper bag. Ask what clues they are using to make their prediction. For instance, suggest that size, lack of movement, smell, or weight might limit their guess. Once you have gathered student responses, write them on the board. Open the bag, and take out the fur. Let them revise their predictions as needed, emphasizing that you have more information to use now. Ask how fur is used, and do they have any fur at home? Take each item out of the bag and ask what it might represent. State that this process is the same when you read a book. Your predictions change based on the information you gather as you read. Show the cover, title, and some illustrations of Janet Halfman’s picture book. Ask students what the items might have to do with the story you are going to read. Make final revisions to the predictions emphasizing that the prediction changed based on the information you gathered.

Read, Fur and Feathers to the class. Watch the children’s eyes light up as they discover each item is used in the book to cover the animals that lost their coats in a windstorm. When you finish the book, ask the children to guess what’s in their own bag. Let them open the bag to find the candy heart, which coincides with the surprise ending of the story.

By adding just a few simple questions and activities to your story time, you can help children be

by Sharon Blumberg

I teach Spanish to seventh grade students. After students and I return from holiday vacations such as winter and spring break, I need to mentally transition myself back into the school routine. If I need to do this, I figure my students need assistance with this, as well.

Sometimes, I ask my students individually to verbally share with the class what they did over break, or what they will be doing, if a break is about to begin.

One activity that encourages written literacy, and fluency along with self-expression, is what I refer to as Holiday Participation Strips or Tiras de Participacion in Spanish. Since most of my students are beginning Spanish language learners, they need to write on their notecards in English. I ask them to write at least four to six sentences in English about their favorite activities during vacation. Beforehand, though, I share and talk about my own highlights with them - to model and encourage an atmosphere of sharing.

This activity encourages written fluency because students are writing about enjoyable activities from their holiday vacations. They are also writing about a high interest topic they are quite familiar with, themselves! So even students who do not participate in the writing can individually reflect upon their experiences as a means to transition themselves back into school life, socio-emotionally. A few students sometimes ask to read about their experiences to the class before turning in their completed cards.

Since this activity is not part of the Spanish language curriculum, I don’t require everyone to take part in it. They have an option. I like giving students choices from time to time. Students who turn in a notecard to share receive credit. Students who choose not to participate will not have it count against their participation grade.

I tell students ahead of time that I will display the notecards for their classmates to read. Some students turn their cards in, but write a note saying they don’t want their card publicly displayed, and I honor that choice.

After collecting the holiday participation cards, I paste them on sheets of construction paper by class periods, laminate them, then post them on a display wall. Students occasionally peruse through the writings. They are allowed to read the cards during circulation opportunities within the classroom.

Their highlighted activities fall under a number of categories. Students enjoy writing about going shopping in Chicago, traveling with their families to exciting destinations, visiting with relatives, socializing with friends, watching movies, attending parties, receiving presents, and how they celebrated the holidays. Many students have written that they enjoyed sleeping later and having the time to watch television shows that they did not typically have time to watch.

The most exciting part of this activity for me is to read the little things that make my students stand out in unique ways. The contributions come under many categories, but all are written in their own personal ways. For example, one student shared that it was the first time he had traveled in an airplane.

This is a writing and reading activity that enhances literacy skills in the classroom. It fosters connecting instruction as we, together, transition full circle back into the classroom and the curriculum.

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Learn more about Sharon Blumberg on OUR STAFF AND FACULTY page.