Guides and Goodness Galore!

 Today has been a thumbs-up kind of day!

First of all, an interview I did discussing teacher guides with the highly respected TeachingAuthors.com went live today. In it, I talked about my take on creating companion guides for books written for kids. Below is a wee snippet from today's post.

As a classroom teacher, I scoured countless guides and activity games in search of lessons that would enhance the reading experience for my students. I looked for clever games, interesting new ways to practice vocabulary, dramatic interpretation, and introspective discussion questions. And, when I connected with the content of a companion guide, I kept that particular book in a prominent place on my classroom bookshelf to be used time and time again. Like the good resources I used back then, I now work to create guides that will keep the book in the heart of the child reader and the hands of those who care for them – my mantra.

And then, if the TeachingAuthors.com post wasn't wonderful enough, a friend and fellow RA from LA, Alexis O'Neill acknowledged my work on the current SCBWI Bulletin. In her article "Creating Teacher's Guides for Your Books", she notes that I state that guides fall into three main categories: Teacher's, Activity, and Discussion guides - and I do! Alexis also touts the work my compadres and I have been doing at ReaderKidZ.com.

Well, I've certainly been feeling the love today! Thanks, TeachingAuthors.com, Alexis, and SCBWI for the nods.

Today's been absolutely amazing. I can't wait to see what great things tomorrow will bring.

Snuggle Mountain - A Guide for an App

Each guide that I create offers its own interesting slant. Each are great fun to do in their very own way, and the lovely Lindsey Lane's Snuggle Mountain was no exception, at all. For you see, this charming picture book is now being sold as an app (and sales are going quite well, I might add). Lindsey and illustrator Melissa Iwai have taken a flying leap into new, uncharted e-territory, and I am thrilled have a chance to tag along for the ride.

Lindsey and I often chatted about making a guide. Being that this book/app is so unique, I wanted to create something that would offer teachers, parents, and librarians something substantial to pull from, something that they would use time and time again. The Traits entered into our conversation. I happen to love working with the 6 + 1 Traits of writing. Kids respond so positively to the method. The activities are clear, lively, sound, and so kid-centered. Being that they are founded on the child's creativity rather than stringent academic confines, the work that comes from the young writers is delightful! So, why not make a Traits guide for this delightful picture book/app? Woot!

The guide consists of a number of lessons all centered on the text and illustrations, rubrics to evaluate each trait, writing paper, and a very cool poem page (my fave!). To best benefit from the guide, have the book or app in hand, as the lessons require close consideration of Snuggle Mountain before letting those creative minds soar!

A Shoebox Guitar

I have to say that when Kelly Bennett asked me to make a guide for her newest picture book One Day I Went Rambling, I was stoked! This book celebrates the unbridled creativity of a free-thinking child like no other book I've ever read does...which totally speaks to the true Simple Saturday spirit that resides within me.

Without giving too much of the story away, the protagonist sees the world in a marvelous, creative way as demonstrated when, in his eyes, an old women's slips become sails, a weather wooden crate becomes a pirate ship, and a pop top becomes treasured jewels. The kid is cool. There's no getting around it.

In one of the final scenes, the protagonist leads a rag-tag band of neighborhood kids in a parade, of sorts. To illustrate the final scene and the theme of this darling book, when Kelly contracted me, she stated that she wanted me to orchestrate a homemade band. Truly music to my ears!!!! Rock on.

So, in celebration of Kelly's latest picture book success, let's begin with the string section. Let's make a Simple Saturday shoe box guitar! It's so, so simple to do. All you need to make this accoustic wonder is a handful of rubber bands, a shoe box and some scissors - for real!

Simply cut a sound hole (Thanks, Wikipedia) out of lid of the box. Then, lengthwise, stretch the rubber bands over the sound hole. Now close the box and you're in the music business, baby!

 Pretty slick, huh?

Through the course of the guide I created homemade instruments to fill the brass, percussion, string, and the woodwind sections of the orchestra. Plenty of symphonic Simple Saturday fodder for a long time, my dear friends. Plenty.

Meat Tray Block Printing - Inspired by Ellen's Broom

Y'all, this is an incredible book founded on the celebration of everlasting love between a husband and a wife and it ROCKS! Kelly Starling Lyons' tender poetic prose nails the inquisitive nature of Ellen, a young girl learning about great happiness born from hardship - all in the name of marriage and of freedom.

I really enjoyed working on Activity/Discussion Guide. Not only is the story amazing, the illustrations....oh, my golly gosh! Daniel Minter's linoleum block prints blew my socks off! To imagine the patience and skill required to carve away with such delicate precision baffles me.

I spent hours studying the movement of his lines and the expressive faces of his subjects. There is one spread, in particular, that I love in which Ellen and her family are gathered by the fireplace and her father has his hand on her shoulder. So sweet... And, man-oh-man, does Daniel know how to play with color and light for effect. There's a haunting spread that is so tastefully unsettling it will be etched in my memory for the rest of my life. (I'm not telling you which one it is, either. Get the book and see for yourself.)

Simple Saturday crafting, once again! You know the simple drill...meat tray, sharp pointed tool (pencil or pen), paints, brush, and paper. CHEAP!So, let's dedicate this Simple Saturday post to the fabulous art of Daniel Minter, illustrator for Ellen's Broom, want to? There is a detailed explanation of the Styrofoam Meat Tray Block Printing a-la Simple Saturday-esk technique described in the Activity/Discussion guide I made for Kelly. (Close your eyes, Daniel. This might make your stomach roll.)

Where Daniel skillfilly carves his master pieces, I basically used the point of a pencil like trowel and sketched something that, hopefully, resembles a tree. (I see you smirking...Don't laugh.) 

Then I spread black paint all over my meat tray block print and made a print. After my print dried, I used tempera paint to fill in white space with color. What do you think about my apple tree? Pretty spiffy, eh? Not bad for a novice. I'm sure you can do a whole lot better. Try it. Make a meat tray block print. It's fun!!!

And, more importantly, take a look at Ellen's Broom, when you get the chance. Get lost in Kelly's wonderful words perfectly complimented by Daniel's incredible artistic sensibilities. 

 Much like my own! Ha!

Bring on the New Year!

I've just spent the most delicious morning basking in gratitude for the joy in my life and setting intentions for the great new year to come, one of which is to return to my beloved Simple Saturday blog posts.

Truth be told, I've been busy crafting reading guides for a number of great books, many of which are seasoned with Simple Saturday-like activities. You name it - games, crafts, recipes - all kinds of good stuff. And I've been busy blogging with my ReaderKidZ buddies on a regular basis, so I have lots of good ToolBox goodies to share with you, as well.

All this to be said, come back and see me on Saturdays, won't you? You'd best bring some scissors and glue with you, while you're at it. Together, let's craft a stellar New Year!

Want to? 

Kick Up Yer Heels

To make a vibrant guide I first need a lively, multi-sensory, energetic story filled with heart and soul. And my buddy Bethany Hegedus pulled it off without a hitch. She dun good, I tell ya. Real good.

Her Truth with a Capital T is rich, rich, RICH with, as IndieBound says, "...grace and humor and a heaping helping of little-known facts, Bethany Hegedus incorporates the passions of the North and the South and bridges the past and the present in this story about one summer in the life of a sassy Southern girl and her trumpet-playing adopted Northern cousin." How 'bout that?

In regards to making the guide, Bethany gave me a ton of scrumptious literary stuff to work with. In addition to in-depth discussion questions and those ever-important TEKS annotations I created quilt codes, metaphor madness, a Reader's Theatre, and even a recipe for deeee-licious blackberry cobbler. Yum. Yum. Click HERE to get a look at the the guide, if you'd like.

But, for me, the best part are the YouTube video clip selections - in particular The Best Bluegrass Clogging Video Ever Made. Boyeeee! I love this video!! I challenge you to watch it without letting a smile stretch across your face. Can't be done.

Check out the jaunty tilt of the banjo picker's hat, will you? How the the old guy's elbow pumps? Pap Paw snoozing on the settee? And the darling dimpled girl with the dashing smile? Got to love it! In my mind, this video captures the multi-generational heel-kicking love of cultural diversity Bethany so aptly celebrates in her books and in her life.

Think I'll watch it again.

Friday Prep: Kick Up Yer Heels

On of my most enjoyable guides I've made involved clogging. Not the thing that happens when you try to cram a bushel full of apple peels into the garbage disposal and expect it to work. (Think that I have had first hand experience with such a irresponsible act. Me? Never.)

No, I'm talking about the oh-so-energetic-try-to-sit-still-and-can't dance of the official American dance of the Appalachian Mountians. Man-oh-man, I just love it!

We took a trip to Mountian View, Arkansas once when the kids were pint-sized...a little family trip that will be forever warmly nestled in the folds of my heart. There I saw cloggers in action for the first time in my life and I was mesmerized! Still am.

Tomorrow I'll give you a little taste of what I'm talking about. Woot!

Guiding You to Pattison's Prairie Storms

These are winners. Some of the best!!!!!

I'm not only talking about the guides I made for Darcy. Oh, no, no, NO! I'm talking about the month-by-month lively, visual and textual descriptions of life on the prairie you can find in the book itself...and I ain't a-kidding you. Together, Darcy and illustrator Kathleen Reitz have created a treasure that will last the academic test of time, my friends. This book is incredible...for real. It is one that, if I were in a classroom today, kiddos would be working it. And I do mean work. Here's why...

The guides that I made for Prairie Storms are deliciously lavished with a study of mathematics, the passage of time, seasonal study, flora and fauna taxonomy, the food web, weather patterns, a weather map, biomes, and - like the cherry atop a blob of whipped cream - a science experiment specifically created in Simple Saturday-like structure to compliment the specific weather pattern depicted in each sensational month.

Yep. That's right. I'm talking twelve of those suckers. Twelve super fun, inexpensive, biome-specific scientific experiments. And...guess what...after you buy the book, Darcy's giving the guides away. Yep. Free for the taking!!!!!

Click HERE for more info about Darcy, the monthly guides, and all the other stuff my little buddy's involved with. And, when you do contact her, tell her Simple Saturday sent ya. She'll get a kick out of that!

Prep: Home on the Range

When you stop and really think about it, the prairie is a happening place.  There's whole heck-of-alot more to it than waving wheat fields and a sky spreading out as far as your peepers can see. Oh yeah, it's really a jungle out there, I'm telling you!

Tomorrow we're going to look at a series of guides I made for an awesome non-fiction picture book that takes a close, close look at the prairie's fab flora and fauna, as well as studying a year's worth of weather patterns. These guides were such fun to make because I learned so ding-danged much while doing so!

So, to put you in the mood for tomorrow's mellow prairie stroll, I asked my old buddy Marty Robbins to strum a little tune for us. You know this song. Come on...join in. And a-one and a-two...

Oh, give me a home where the buffalo roam, where the deer and the antelope play....Where seldom is heard a discouraging word, and the sky is not cloudy all day. Home, home on the range...

Simple Saturday: Princess Posey and the First Grade Parade

Okay, my dear Simple Saturday friends. The guide I'm sharing today has been created for the most delightfully darling early chapter book I have ever read...and compadres, I've read a bushel of them. For real.

Princess Posey and the First Grade Parade, written by my partner in crime, Stephanie Greene, and illustrated by cutie-patootie Stephanie Roth Sisson, is the first book in series starring a charmingly complex first grader named Posey, whose persona is altered when she dons her pink tutu. The moment that circle of pink netting wraps around her tiny waist Posey is transformed into --- drum roll, please --- super-confident-ever-invincible Princess Posey!Well, in her six-year-old mind anyway.

The guide I made to compliment this treasure contains not only discussion questions, a compare and contrast activity, a word bank game, and a magic letter 'e' activity, there is a folder game that I'd like for you to take a look at. Access the guide HERE  to get a gander. 

To make the game you'll need a letter-sized manila file folder, glue, a paper clip, a pencil, some game movers, and download the game board. The directions to create the game are all spelled out in the guide. It's fun. Trust me.

I have to say though, that playing the game with the book by your side would be even more meaningful. And, if you have a new first grader who is in any way anxious about going back to school, Posey will help qualm any fears.

She's sweet that way.

Simple Saturday: Pudding Popsicles

We're going to do something a little different tomorrow. Change is good, right?

 Not to worry. We'll still be making something simple on Saturday, in fact tomorrow's treat with be deliciously divine! If you bring some milk, a box of instant pudding, a small Dixie cup, and a popsicle stick with you tomorrow, I'll show you how to make the most delcious pudding pops this side of border.

The deal is tomorrow we're going to feature an amazing picture book that I made a guide for, as well. The recipe will be found inside the guide. I'm not sure what you're going to like the most...the book or the pops. 

Now...quit that salivating on your keyboard, will you? See you tomorrow.