When we’re stuck inside, there may be no better time to dream about the great outdoors – walks in the park, riding bikes, a game of tag … and what about that perfect playground?
All through my book Busy Builders, Busy Week! young readers find clues as to what our animal characters are constructing. They start with a plan. And, of course, the ending is a pure delight.
Today is the perfect day to design your own dream playground … and satisfy some STEAM learning standards along the way. Check out my next low-tech, at-home learning project below. And as always, if you’d like to e-mail me pictures of your creations, I’ll post them on my blog. And while you don’t need my book Busy Builders, Busy Week! in front of you to do this activity, it’s always a bonus if you do. You can buy it right here.
For more activities explore all of my FREE and fun Curriculum and Storytime Guides linked to learning standards at: https://jeanreidy.com/schoolslibraries/
And for a complete list of all of my low-tech, at-home learning activities so far, click on the #kidlitquarantine category. There will be more posted regularly.
Have fun. Stay safe. And stay well.
Jean
Students at Emerson Elementary in Elmhurst, IL – under the direction of awesome librarian Lauren Blanford – were the first to try this fun activity. And it’s a perfect STEAM project to try at home.
Hi all,
With the grand ALA award celebrations swiftly approaching (and yes, I’ll be rising early to tune into the live stream of excitement) other awards sometimes get overlooked. One of those is the Charlotte Zolotow Award – it is one of the only major awards given for picture book text. Here’s the description from the award website:
In the “treats” category today – TRUMAN has been selected as a Parents’ Choice Gold Award Winner! Lucy Ruth Cummins and I are so VERY honored. No celebratory donuts handy. But then again, all that Halloween candy is just sitting there … hmmmmm.
I love when a reviewer so completely understands a book.
“Most picture books chronicling the first day of school focus on the small humans experiencing that rite of passage, but here the star is one such child’s intrepid pet tortoise. Truman lives in the big city with ‘his Sarah,’ who leaves one day with a backpack. She also places two extra green beans (uh-oh) in his tank and tells him to be brave. When, from the window, Truman sees her board the #11 bus going south, he knows he will have to go after her. Thus begins his slow-moving journey…across the living room, the pink floor rug being the most daunting obstacle: ‘Without Sarah, their home seemed vast and uncharted and unsettling.’ Just as he’s about to slip under the front door, Sarah returns, touched by his bravery and determination. At the heart of this story, paralleling a child’s own first journey into the unknown that is school, is the affectionate relationship between Sarah and Truman (Sarah regularly kisses her finger and touches it to his shell), and there’s much humor and drama in Truman’s exertions. Cummins’s relaxed-line, mixed-media illustrations bring the family’s cozy world to life, and the occasional use of a larger, bolder font emphasizes the heroics needed for Truman’s journey.
Walking to the store reminds me of my once “big city” life. And while today I heard no honking taxis or growling trash trucks or shrieking cars, I did buy a big city newspaper and a donut … because it’s not every day that a tiny urban tortoise makes his New York Times debut.
