Robin!

Also called the American Robin.

A wild turkey!

“We LOVE your stories. I am obessed with the story Vulture View, and built a whole lesson around it, teaching kids all sorts of weird stuff about the adaptations of vultures. We even built our own models of carrion and hid them around the forest while the vultures (my co-teacher and I) hunted for them! It was one of the best lessons we’ve taught and really stuck with the kids.”

This quote is from Chrissy Larson, the teacher Balsam of the Nuts about Nature Preschool run by the   Portland Environmental Education Department. She wrote to me this week. Below are some photos she took of her activities.

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There’s nothing like watching an experienced librarian working with young kids during storytime. It’s a dance! It’s an art. Experience helps. But what if you are just starting out?

Perhaps this resource will help. It is a checklist for evaluating the literacy value of storytimes.  It is provided by ALA and is based on the literacy work of Elaine Czarnecki and Gilda Martinez and John Hopkins University, Center for Reading Excellence. It’s not written as tips, per se. But you can work backwards to see what techniques enrich the reading experience.

Wyoming Reads!  Thanks to the Sue Jorgensen Library Foundation, approximately 7,000 Wyoming 1st Graders will receive a free hardback book. They can choose from six books and one of them is Vulture View! They will receive the books at one of 35 celebrations on May 19th. 

Look who was in the front yard on April 5th? That’s right. A Canada goose. Of course this is the perfect animal to celebrate my new book, being released this month:  Honk, Honk, Goose: Canada Geese Start a Family. Fortunately the snow melted a day later.

Additional posts for family fun:

Raising a Young Scientist

Nurturing Your Young Author