This booklet (in English and Spanish) features dozens of fun activities parents can use to build the language skills of young children from birth to age 6. It has a reading checklist, typical language accomplishments for different age groups, and resources for children with reading problems or learning disabilities.
Reading Rocket’s exclusive interview with author and illustrator Henry Cole — creator of Celeste, The Worrywarts, Katy Duck, and many other beloved characters — talks about his early career as a science teacher (who always drew for his students!), why it takes patience to draw what you really see, how he gets those comical animal faces to look just right, and why he loved using a plain Number 2 pencil to create the evocative illustrations for his book A Nest for Celeste.
Establishing daily and weekly routines provides a helpful structure for learning at home. In this article, you’ll find a sample schedule for a typical day and suggestions for how to integrate a learning theme into the activities.
This classroom resource guide highlights solutions for connecting home and school in order to improve student learning and success. Whether you’re a teacher, parent, or district administrator, this guide provides you with relevant and valuable tools and resources for how best to strengthen the bonds between schools, families, and communities for student learning and success.
Learn how hurricanes are formed, how they are named and classified, what to do if a dangerous storm is on the way, and how animals react to storms. Meet “Marvelous Cornelius” who helped his hometown of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. And don’t miss a tall tale featuring Kissimmee Pete and a wild ride with Miss Frizzle and her class through the eye of a hurricane. The list also includes fictional picture books that describe the drama of big storms through the eyes of a child.
If hurricanes and other extreme weather cause anxiety for your kids, you might want to read this helpful article from PBS Parents: Talking Positively to Kids About Scary Weather.
The International Literacy Association is a professional membership organization dedicated to promoting high levels of literacy for all by improving the quality of reading instruction, disseminating research and information about reading, and encouraging the lifetime reading habit. ILA members include classroom teachers, reading specialists, consultants, administrators, supervisors, university faculty, researchers, psychologists, librarians, media specialists, and parents.
Jane Yolen has written stories about toads in space, dinosaurs at bedtime, and much more. In this exclusive video interview with Reading Rockets, Jane Yolen recites the first poem she ever wrote and talks about how to encourage creative writing in kids.
Dr. Cooper-Kahn specializes in helping children manage behavioral, emotional and academic challenges. She has particular expertise in attention disorders and learning disabilities with an emphasis on interventions for executive functioning difficulties.
Kelly Barnhill is the author of fantasy novels for children, including The Girl Who Drank the Moon, winner of the 2017 Newbery Medal. In this interview, Barnhill talks about listening to stories out loud, the importance of magic, her book box, writing nonfiction for kids, her classroom workshops for young writers, and much more.
