March was a busy, busy month at Literacy Toolbox. It was packed full of various literacy celebrations and I wouldn’t have it any other way!
A Preview of Share a Story: The Gift of Reading
I had the honor of hosting a day for the annual Share a Story, Shape a Future blog tour this year. I took a day to preview the awesome bloggers that shared in “the gift of reading” with me!
Read All About It: Literacy Lava 8 is Out!
On the same day, Literacy Lava 8 came out! If you aren’t familiar with Literacy Lava, you must become familiar with it! Literacy Lava is a free pdf magazine lovingly edited by Susan Stephenson, known to most of us as The Book Chook. Four times a year, she puts out this awesome magazine that is filled with tons of literacy tips and tools for parents! In this eighth edition, you’ll find suggestions for developing plot in Writing Tips for Kids, storytelling as a way to bring literacy front and centre in kids’ lives, how to get kids reading, how different aged siblings share read-aloud time, great tips for a toddler book club, ideas for encouraging creative thinking in children, and how to help kids collect words.
Happy Birthday, Dr. Seuss!
March 2nd was Dr. Seuss’ birthday (Theodor Geisel), and so every year on his birthday, the US celebrates “Read Across America” Day! I didn’t write an official post, but shared a picture of my daughter to show how we celebrated “Read Across America” Day.
Story Tellers: Telling Stories Around the House
Have you ever wondered how you could take every day items from around your home and encourage and increase literacy among your children? A piece I originally wrote for the current issue of Literacy Lava, check out a few of my ideas to help you get started!
Share a Story, Shape a Future Literacy Blog Tour: The Gift of Reading
During the second week in March, Terry Doherty of the Reading Tub provides readers across the blogosphere with a feast for the literary eyes! Pulling together bloggers passionate in literacy, she creates a blog tour that seems to get bigger and better every year! This year’s theme was “Unwrapping the Gift of Literacy.” Check out this post to find links to all of the awesome bloggers who shared their “gifts of reading.”
What Would You Miss Most if You Could Not Read or Write? Celebrating World Read Aloud Day!
World Read Aloud Day took place on March 9th, 2011. This global literacy event was started by Lit World, a non-profit literacy organization. Guided by the all important question, “What would you miss most if you could not read or write?” millions of people took part in this event around the world!
Story Tellers: Creative Writing Through Innovative Activities
I had the pleasure of presenting a parent workshop in Woburn, MA in early March. During this workshop, I shared ways that families could integrate writing into their everyday activities. Parents Learn to Help Their Children with Writing was also written about the evening.
Preschool Family Reading Night: Pajama Jam with Dr. Seuss
For the past three years, I have had the pleasure of designing and hosting Family Reading Nights at my daughter’s preschool. She is moving on to kindergarten next year, and so a bit bittersweetly, I say this was my last one. We went out in style of course, celebrating Dr. Seuss’ birthday a bit late with all sorts of Dr. Seuss arts and crafts, snacks, and of course READING!
“We-View” Wednesday: Flat Stanley by Jeff Brown
One Wednesday a month, I write up a “we-view.” My son and I review a book together and both write our own reviews of the book. This month we “we-viewed” Flat Stanley because we were reading it together for our Flat Stanley Adventure Exchange we were participating in!
Chris Singer of Book Dads: Every Story is a Teacher
I had the pleasure of hosting my friend, Chris Singer, as a guest. He wrote a very personal, true story of how books saved him from abuse in his childhood. This is a fantastic post and a must read!
Our Flat Stanley Adventure Exchange
As previously stated, my son and I participated in a Flat Stanley Adventure Exchange, hosted by Trina of Book Loving Boys. We hosted a Flat Stanley for several weeks and quickly integrated him into our lives. He read books with us, played video games with us, and even played football. This is a brief journal of our adventures.
Teach Your Child Individuality with Big Bouffant by Kate Hosford
I completed two book reviews at the end of March. This was one of them! Big Bouffant is a great story that teaches children to be themselves. I loved reading this, especially with my (almost) five year old daughter! It provides a great message!
Shoes for Me! by Sue Fliess
Our final review of the month was of Shoes for Me! by Sue Fliess. This is a cute, rhyming story that led to encouraging my daughter to pick out the correct rhyming word to finish a sentence (a great activity to promote phonemic awareness!).
Whew! And that is Tool Time Rewind for the month of March. March was a long month filled with literacy fun. I can’t wait to see what April brings us!
Don’t forget: ”We-View” Wednesday is back! The third Wednesday of every month is reserved for reviews of books you read with your children. Share yours and your child’s thoughts on the book! To participate, please email me [dlittle [at] linkstoliteracy [dot] com] your review by the Sunday prior. I hope you will join us!
©2011 by Dawn Little for Literacy Toolbox. All Amazon links are affiliate links and may result in my receiving a small commission. This is at no additional cost to you.
April was not as busy as March was at Literacy Toolbox. I took a little time off this month to spend Spring Break with my kids. We had an enjoyable week, but we still had some time to get some literacy learning in this month!
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