For the second year, Reading is Fundamental (RIF) and US Airways are working together to help children nationwide discover the joy of reading.  Starting in April, adults are invited to join the 2009 Read with Kids Challenge and help collectively log 5 million minutes spent reading with kids.  You’ll have the chance of winning a family vacation to the Walt Disney World Resort and more great prizes.  Get on board!  Visit http://www.RIF.org/readwithkids today.

I found out about this challenge a couple of days ago and I hope to spread the word.  So far, our school has logged 500 minutes.  Help make this initiative a success and join the challenge!

Duck! Rabbit! Cover

I recently found the perfect Easter basket book for boys and girls in a wide age range (3-7).   It’s called Duck! Rabbit! The text of the book is super simple, but the pictures provide a clever look an optical illusion in the form of an argument over whether a duck or a rabbit is depicted.  The book illustrates a good point that can be made in many arguments, “It depends on how you look at it!”

Duck! Rabbit! is a delightful read-aloud for young children.  In addition, I love that a digital version of it is available at Amazon.com.  It is perfect for showing in your classroom through a digital projector and whiteboard (ACTIVBoard, SMARTBoard, etc.).  Here’s the link to the digital content on Amazon (You can also find it posted on YouTube, but most schools can’t access YouTube due to filtering.):
http://www.amazon.com/gp/mpd/permalink/m296GUZCI50OD

The artwork in this book makes me think of Eric Rohmann’s bold, expressive relief prints in My Friend Rabbit, a former Caldecott winner.  It would also make a great addition to the Easter basket of young children as it is a simple story of friendship between Rabbit and Mouse told mostly through pictures with minimal text.

Need a new tool to help hook your readers on a particular book? Check out a great FREE resource, Google Earth. Google Earth can help readers experience the setting of their favorite stories through a virtual trip. The software allows students to visit story sites, gain insight into the life of the characters, learn about geography, and enhance learning in content areas.

The first step in your virtual field trip must be downloading the FREE Google Earth program. Just go to:
http://earth.google.com/download-earth.html.  Next, try some of the quick start guides and tutorials that are available so that you can become comfortable with the program before working with students.  Here are a few to try:

Google for Educators 

http://www.google.com/educators/start_earth.html

Google Earth 101 for Educators
http://www.teachinghacks.com/wiki/index.php?title=Google_Earth_101_for_Educators

You can also search for example videos on Teacher Tube, www.teachertube.com.  There is a good video example in the form of a locations tour for the Diary of Anne Frank that shows the capabilities of Google Earth.  While it moves a little fast, it will certainly give the viewer an idea of how you can use this tool to enhance student understanding.

Next, check out the Google Lit Trips (www.googlelittrips.org) for ready-made, virtual field trips created by teachers and students for classroom use.  These are interactive literary experiences that can be downloaded as kmz files (the type of file that Google Earth needs) and are not narrated videos, so they can be customized and narrated by the teacher or by students at their own pace.  They include placemarkers, images/photographs, plot/chapter summaries, discussion questions, vocabulary links, web links, and in some cases, 3-D models.  There are examples at all grade levels to be found on this site.   They include:

Make Way for Ducklings by Robert McCloskey (K-5)

My Brother Sam is Dead by James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier (6-8)

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini (9-12)

The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck (9-12)

The Road by Cormac McCarthy (Higher Education)

Once you get the hang of Google Earth, you may want to create and share your own Google Lit Trips!  Be sure to check out the Google Lit Trip site (www.googlelittrips.org) for resources for educators that wish to build their own trip.