Magazines for Kids

Magazines are a great way to get your kids interested in reading. Erica from the What Do We Do All Day blog has done the hard work of rounding up a list of 16 magazines for  preschool and grade-school aged kids. Our family has had experience with the Ranger Rick (and the preschool, My Big Backyard now called Ranger Rick, Jr.) and Highlights for Kids. One that I have never seen before is Ask, a science magazine for kids 7-9 or 10. For older kids, they publish Odyssey.

Kids love to get mail so magazines make great birthday or holiday gifts, especially since the gift lasts the length of the subscription.

More Best Books of 2013

Horn Books and James Patterson’s Read Kiddo Read blog have published their list of best children’s books for 2013. You will notice a great deal of overlap with the Nerdy Award finalists and between the two lists. There is a book to please very kid. Check it out!

On a Beam of Light: A Story of Albert Einstein

Jennifer Berne uses Albert Einstein’s curiosity to take the reader on a journey through his life. Even as a young boy, he was curious about the world around him. A gift of a compass helped him to see that there were hidden mysteries in the world and he wanted to understand them. One day while riding his bike, he looked at the beams of light coming from the sun to the earth. He imagined himself racing through space on a beam of light. Albert began reading about magnetism, gravity, light, sound and numbers. But he still had questions. He keep on reading and wondering and learning.

The illustrator, Vladimir Radunsky, helps to visually illustrate the scientific concepts that Albert was thinking and wondering about: motion, the universe and his famous equation, E=mc² . Right to the end of his life, Einstein was thinking about and working on questions.  But still there are many questions to be answered; maybe you or your child might become one of the scientists who will answer one of them.

At the end of the book is more information about Einstein’s life and his thought experiments, as well as a list of more books about Albert Einstein.

Several copies of   On A Beam of Light can be found at the Sonoma County Library. The AR level is 4.5.

Juno Mission to Jupiter

It it has been my experience working with elementary grade students that many of them are fascinated by space. Bill Nye (The Science Guy) has a new web series in conjunction with NASA to explain the Juno mission to Jupiter. In an interview on NPR this morning, Bill Nye said that his show was aimed at an audience of ten year olds, as that seemed to work for a wide range of ages. As of today, there are five episodes of Why With Nye with a new one set to air tomorrow. The topics include: the Juno Earth flyby, the super storm on Jupiter and is Jupiter like a piece of the Sun? In two to four minute episodes, Bill Nye uses props and geeky humor to give you the answers. Check it out!

Fly Guy Presents: Space

Tedd Arnold is back with a new non-fiction book about space starring two of his fictional characters, Buzz and Fly Guy. Buzz and Fly Guy go on a field trip to the Space Museum in Fly Guy Presents: Space. Like his previous non-fiction book, Fly Guy Presents: Sharks, this book is part live “action” and part scrapbook. All the photos come from NASA and satellite images. They learn  about the solar system, the sun, planets and the moons orbiting the planets. They also learn  about meteoroids, comets and asteroids. They learn about the sun’s gravity, that it acts like a giant magnet keeping the planets in orbit around it. We meet famous astronauts and learn about some of their accomplishments and about some of the equipment needed to get to space and even to live in space. This is a great introduction to space for kids who only know about it from Star Wars movies.

Tedd Arnold includes pronunciation guides to big, perhaps unfamiliar words like universe (yoo-nih-vurs). The Scholastic reader level is  2nd grade and appeals to K-2nd graders. The Sonoma County Library has several copies of the book. It is also available through Scholastic and other booksellers.

3-D Thrillers! Space

Not every child is interested in a narrative. Some, like Joe  Friday want “just the facts”. The 3-D Thrillers series  provides just that. There are books on the Ice Age, monster trucks and  T-Rex. As well as bugs, sharks and snakes. All come with a pair of 3-D glasses so you can see the pictures in all their  glory. This book, 3-D Thrillers! Space by Paul Harrison is kid tested and approved. My second grade tester is knowledgeable about space but learned a few things he didn’t know. He also found it easy to read because he knows words like galaxy and universe. It is recommended for grades 1-3.

The book is out of stock on the Scholastic website but you can check back to find it here. If you have a space obsessed grade schooler, he or she will enjoy the book.

Fly Guy Presents Sharks

The Fly Guy series is turning to non-fiction in Fly Guy Presents Sharks. If fictional characters like Buzz and Fly Guy narrate a factual book on sharks is it still non-fiction? I’ll leave that to someone else to determine.

Buzz and Fly Guy take a trip to the aquarium. Buzz was excited to see the sharks but Fly Guy was scared. We meet many kinds of sharks, find out how they breathe underwater and learn that sharks have no bone, just cartilage. We look at lots of shark teeth, rough skin made of denticles and learn about  shark senses underwater. Did you know that a shark can hear a fish’s muscles moving underwater? Or that two-thirds of a shark’s brain is used for smelling? Or that baby sharks are called pups?

 

The information in the book is presented as part live action and part scrapbook. Buzz is taking notes as he and Fly Guy walk around the exhibit. We get a microscopic look at various kinds of dentricles and a close up of a shark eye that can see in very murky water. The cartoon drawings of Buzz and Fly Guy are superimposed over photos of the sharks. The humor of the series characters is intact. This is a great book for kids who love Fly Guy and for kids who want to know more about sharks. And, by the way, Fly Guy is not scared of sharks at the end.

Scholastic has this book rated at a 3.o grade level (most of the other books in the series are in the 1.4 to 2.4 range).

According to Amazon, the publication date is May 1, 2013, so the  libraries have no copies yet, but it is available from Scholastic, either at the Book Fair or until March 19th at Scholastic/bvusd. 

Monday’s Trip to the Book Fair

Yulupa School is hosting a Scholastic book Fair this week. I had a bit of a list but bought a few other books that caught my eye. I’ll be reviewing the books one by one but I thought I’d let you see what I bought today.

AR level 4.3, 3 points.

AR level 2.9, 3 points

5.3 AR, 5 points

AR 3.2, 0.5 points

AR 1.5, 0.5 points

The following books currently have no AR grade level and test:

As usual, my purchases are heavy on dog books. I also couldn’t resist  a new Fly Guy book or the sequel to a book I just reviewed and one I first read in 1957.

Your Brain on Books

Open Education Database (OEDb)’s online journal  published an article,Your Brain on Books: 10 Things That Happen to Our Minds When We Read. Each of the ten things that happen to our minds when we read is linked to an article that further explains it.

For example: Item 9 Reading changes your brain structure (in a good way). Carnegie Mellon researchers found that children who were  poor readers increased the volume of white matter in the language area of the brain after following a six month daily reading program. The study proved that brain structure can be improved by helping kids become better readers.

On my end of the age spectrum, a 2009 Mayo clinic study found reading a book and other cognitive activities could decrease the risk of mild cognitive impairment. Whew!!

Hat Tip: What Kids Are Reading

Weird But True!

You haven’t lived until you have been followed around by a kid carrying a Weird But True book asking repeatedly, “did you know …?” The books are based on the National Geographic Kids feature of the same name. Did you know that an ostrich can run as fast a race horse? Or that a 300 year old hurricane on Jupiter is still going strong? Or that cold water weighs more than hot water? Did you know that Antarctica is a desert? Or that you breathe in 2,000 gallons of air each day? If you don’t, prepare to be enlightened!

There are five books in this series and an Ultimate Weird But True with a thousand outrageous facts. The Sonoma County Library has a few copies of the Ultimate Weird But True. The iTunes store has a free app called Weird But True for the  iPad, iPod touch and iPhone. If you want to see more than the dozen free facts, you will have to pay $.99 each for the first three packs  or $1.99 for the mega pack.

Yulupa School will be having a Scholastic Book Fair March 4 thru 8. There are usually Weird But True books available at the book fair.

The Water Cycle

The U.S. Geological Survey and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations teamed up to produce this water cycle diagram for kids. It can be downloaded and printed in several sizes and can even be ordered as a placemat in an artistically simpler version.

 

 

You can find the printable versions  here. Thanks to The Children’s Museum of Sonoma County for the link.

Kidsworx Creative Workshop

Saturday, October 6, is supposed to be a beautiful fall day. A great day to take the kids (or grandkids) to the Sonoma County Children’s Museum’s Kidsworx Creative Workshop located in the parking lot of Friedman’s Home Improvement in Santa Rosa. The workshop is from 9 AM to Noon. This month, kids will make “marvelous monsters” and launch them into the air, climb aboard a fire truck, learn about fire safety and play with the Museum-on-the-Go science exhibits. The workshop is free. Friedman’s is located at 4055 Santa Rosa Ave.

Last month, I had the chance to “play” with the Museum’s science exhibits. They are  fun. informative and kid-sized.

Kid Approved Apps

Horn Books has posted a list of recommended apps for preschoolers through the intermediate grades. My grandson, Noah, who spent a week with us during his spring break checked out two of the apps. The first  Mo Willem’s Don't Let the Pigeon Run This App. True to his ideas in his  Zena Sutherland Lecture  this app needs a kid to run it. You can learn to draw the Pigeon with Mo and save your drawing with can be used as the Pigeon character in the story you create with the Bus Driver from Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus. Noah gives this app a thumbs up.

 

Al Yankovic’s book When I Grow Up has been made into an app

Weird Al will read you the book, you can follow along while he reads the book or you can read it yourself. It is Thursday and time for show and tell. Today in Mrs. Krupp’s class the subject is ‘what do I want to be when I grow up’. Our narrator has a laundry list of things he would like to do. Some of the more interesting future occupations have their own games such as Tarantula Shaver and Gorilla Masseuse. Noah gave this one two thumbs up because he loved the tarantula shaver game and it is funny.

This next app was not on the Horn list, but it is one my husband found. It is  called Bats! Furry Fliers of the Night by Mary Kay Carson.

Bats! is an interactive 3-D app to help kids explore the natural world of the only flying mammals. Noah, true to his name loves animals. He loved this app because it was a real book about real animals and fun too.

Nonfiction for Primary Grade Readers

The Horn Book website has a post up about four science picture books on the food chain, Arctic migration, animal communication and  evolution. Check it out.