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Calling All Early Readers

A great early reader will foster your child's sense of confidence in reading and make them laugh.

 

I love a great early reader. As kids are learning to read, they want to feel a sense of independence and accomplishment.

They also want to tackle big kid books. They feel proud when they can turn to the last page and know that they finished a book all by themselves.

Successful early reader books have few words per page and illustrations that help the child decode the words and understand the story. They also have a fun narrative that is worth working through and some humor as a reward. 


I am profiling three early readers that I love this week. They have all been recognized with the Theodor Geisel award or honor which is given to distinguished beginning readers. An award doesn't necessarily mean your child will enjoy the book, but in the case of these three, I am pleased to say that they are both distinguished and appeal to children.

So let the reading begin!

Title:       Let’s Go for a Drive 

Author:   Mo Willems 

Target:    Preschool - Grade 1 

Series:     Yes

Theodor Geisel Honor Book 

What this book is about:

In the latest Elephant & Piggie book, Elephant decides that they need to go for a drive.  As they collect everything they need for the trip, they do not realize until the end that the one thing they are missing is, in fact, a car!  What will they do now? 

Why I love this book:

First off these books are just fun and funny. With only 6 words per page, Willems manages to create a wonderful storyline that is clever and complete.  The illustrations add so much to the story, and the fact that he has carried the fun to the inside book covers, just keeps the cleverness going! Don’t forget to check them out. 

Who this book is for:

These books are for children just learning to read.  Most of the words are simple and are repeated but he does throw in some challenge words. 

Final thoughts:

Just when I think author Mo Willems may run out of ideas for these two fabulous friends, he comes up with a new and quick-witted story!

To see all my early reader reviews this week, visit my website at www.onegreatbook.com

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Joan J. Strong May 22, 2013 at 11:21 am
Corrections: 1. Straw man attack: nobody is blaming BCS for district-wide growth. Nobody. 2. BCSRead More does not get "half the funding" of LASD. BCS gets about 6500 and LASD gets about 9500. The BCS program for typical children costs about twice as much as the comparable LASD program. BCS is simple an expensive hybrid public/private school, nothing more. 3. Mr. Roode pointed out that there are about 100 or so special ed. students at LASD (I cannot verify this but it seems very low). LASD calls out an annual expense of $7.5 million for special ed. meaning each of these students cost LASD $75,000, not $1,000 as he implied. 4. The law and the courts have ALREADY compelled LASD to give reasonably equivalent facilities and they have. BCS has a lower student/teacher ratio meaning that they have more classrooms for the same number of kids. This is not, legally speaking, LASD's problem. 5. Mr. Roode has yet to explain how the Covington campus could be 16 acres. Further, he continues to spread the fallacy that campuses ACREAGE is even remotely relevant to its student capacity. Campuses are limited by their location and traffic, not how many acres of grass there is in the back. 6. Were it not for BCS, we would have passed a bond in the last election, as the polling shows. BCS litigation has ripped our community apart and has left it with a mountain to climb when it comes to operating in a normal fashion.
L.A. Chung (Editor) May 22, 2013 at 10:37 am
@David R. I think Homestead uses EarthCare Recycling, based on its April 6 E-Waste collection dayRead More publicity (http://bit.ly/10mIV14) : www.earthcarerecycling.com "Recycle FREE your old electronic equipment - working or not! Anything with a plug or PC board inside. Also accepted are non-household batteries, VHS tapes and other media, and scrap metal. Visit www.earthcarerecycling.com for a list of accepted items. "
David R. May 21, 2013 at 10:26 pm
What kind of bins are there? Do you take used CDROMs? How about VHS tapes? Cables and wire?
David R. May 20, 2013 at 01:18 pm
I saw a public report that said most of the discussion related to carpooling and so forth, sinceRead More Blach is separated so much from the rest of the school. You know, things like dropping off both kids at Egan, and then a group of kids headed for Blach share a ride or vice versa. I don't see how any nonparents can really help with that.
mtnview_parent April 12, 2013 at 03:06 am
The only problem with the charter school is that they cause more problem than they solve. TheyRead More want to close Covington, then Blach. So, they don't provide flexibility at all. They keep going to court. This is a case were the remedy is worst than the disease. The original idea is that we have to be creative with the 10th site. Land is scarce, and most likely, we cannot provide the same facility than other school within the district. People are not happy about being moved from their school (with good reason I feel) Solution: provide an inspiring project. May be an immersion program, or a more academic program, or maybe a program to help english learner from K-3. If we don't innovate with a more flexible program, we might just need to redraw the boundaries every 5-7 years. Nobody can foresee the future, but you can build flexibility.
Mitch Caldwell April 11, 2013 at 11:36 pm
Maybe offering a magnet school could help with stability? It can balance out enrollment at otherRead More schools so that attendance boundaries do not have to be redrawn. Isn't the charter school doing that for the LASD district right now?
mtnview_parent April 11, 2013 at 10:36 pm
I saw you had a good discussion on the definition of a neighborhood school. But beyond theRead More definitions, I would like to ask why does palo Alto school District and Cupertino School district have a mix of neighborhood school and some choice school. Those are two high performing district right next to us. Can a choice school be an excellent way to stop the highly disruptive attendance boundary change ? People say I am for statu quo, that I am against change. I feel that family and children need stability, that is why we don't change spouse at the pace the BoT change the attendance boundary. People who want some stability at home (and their school) do make a reasonable request.