Who wouldn’t love books at this school in Lexington, SC? Librarian D’Etta Broam is a book dynamo. Yes, she really did meet me in this vulture hat to honor Vulture View. Of course, there was that on camera interview I did with their local vulture puppet, “Bill,” who rather likes the word REEK! (more…)

Here are some more great educational ideas from Indian Hill Elementary in Cincinnati, Ohio. These are from a school visit week in Feb, 2009. The first ones extend STARS BENEATH YOUR BED: THE SURPRISING STORY OF DUST.

Thank you, librarian Jonelle Hamou, for contributing this project. 3rd and 4th grade students at Frederick Douglass Elementary, in Winchester, VA, investigated science and art in connection with STARS BENEATH YOUR BED: the Surprising Story of Dust. 

Students use ink pens to color parts of coffee filters, then fold each filter into a pie-piece shape. (more…)

Stars Beneath Your Bed

English/Language Arts Standards

K.1.1 Identify the front cover, back cover, and title page of a book.

K.1.2 Follow words from left to right and from top to bottom on the printed page.

K.1.3 Understand that printed materials provide information. (more…)

Let’s begin our physical science storytime. Physical science studies the non-living world around us: air, water, wind, rock, minerals, glaciers, all sorts of things. But these non-living parts of our world also play a big part in our lives, and other animals’ lives, too. So, we’ll begin with an animal you might have seen…vultures! (more…)

Wow, Knox County, OH schools had fun with my books!. What extraordinary teachers and students. The countryside near there is beautiful, too.

In 2006 STARS BENEATH YOUR BED won a big award from the American Association for the Advancement of Science. It was in conjunction with Science Books and Films and Subaru. Jeff and I traveled to St. Louis to accept the award for Best Science Picture Book of the year! (more…)