Story Time From Space, a project from the nonprofit Global Space Education Foundation features astronauts reading children’s books from the International Space Station. A team of educators and scientists select books to be read that are related to STEM (Science Technology Engineering and Math) concepts. An organization called CASIS (Center for the Advancement of Science in Space) then helps to get the books launched into orbit. Here’s a video of astronaut Kate Rubins reading Rosie Revere, Engineer.
YouTube videos can provide a wealth of information, but often, the related matter can be distracting or unwelcome. With ViewPure, you can watch videos in theater mode without comments or related videos that can clutter the screen with distractions. Simply copy and paste the URL in to the box and click on Purify. The video can then be viewed without the related sidebar content.
Many of us will be able to recall the enjoyment of shared reading: being read to and sharing reading with our parents. However, my research has found that of the 997 Year 4 and Year 6 respondents at 24 schools who took part in the 2016 Western Australian Study in Children’s Book Reading, nearly three-fifths reported that they were not being read to at home.
A sample of these children also participated in interviews, where I asked them how they felt about shared reading. While a few children did not mind no longer being read to, others were disappointed when it stopped. For example, when I asked Jason about his experience of being read to by his parents, he explained:
… they kind of stopped when I knew how to read. I knew how to read, but I just still liked my mum reading it to me.
His experience is common, with other recent research suggesting that more than one-third of Australian respondents aged six to 11 whose parents had stopped reading to them wanted it to continue.
But why is it so important for us to keep reading with our children for as long as possible?
Research has typically found that shared reading experiences are highly beneficial for young people. Benefits of shared reading include facilitating enriched language exposure, fostering the development of listening skills, spelling, reading comprehension and vocabulary, and establishing essential foundational literacy skills. They are also valued as a shared social opportunity between parents and their children to foster positive attitudes toward reading.
When we read aloud to children it is also beneficial for their cognitive development, with parent-child reading activating brain areas related to narrative comprehension and mental imagery. While most of the research in this area focuses on young children, this does not mean that these benefits somehow disappear as children age.
As young people’s attitudes towards reading reflect their experiences of reading at home and at school in childhood and beyond, providing an enjoyable shared reading experience at home can help to turn our children into life-long readers. Continue reading →
Each year our students are asked to think about books that they have enjoyed reading that they would recommend to others. All students are encouraged to read over the summer, and recommendations from friends are a great way to choose books.
This graphic was created by Nebraska public librarian Rebecca McCorkindale who shares her ideas on her blog Hafuboti which stands for HAve FUn BOok TIme. She has created a set of graphics like the one displayed her to represent the diverse people that libraries serve. She has started creating images with Libraries are for Everyone in different languages, such as Spanish, Czech, and Arabic. She welcomes additions in other languages: just e-mail her at Hafuboti@gmail.com and send a translation of Libraries are for Everyone and identify the language for her.
January 20th is U.S. Inauguration Day for the 45th President of the United States, Donald J. Trump.
USA.gov has designed a web site that gives users a behind-the-scene look at this important event. Users will be able to view information regarding the swearing-in ceremony and learn interesting facts about past presidential inaugurations, and see historic documents related to early presidents. You can also learn facts about presidents, vice presidents, and first ladies, past and present and learn about the election. process.
This online strategy game will challenge you to place all the dinner guests around one table.
Play This Game & Help Feed the Hungry!
Here’s an online game that helps a very worthy cause.
Test your general knowledge and do a good deed at the same time. For each correct answer, 10 grains of rice are donated to hungry people around the globe through the United Nations World Food Program.
The opening game is vocabulary, but other categories include math, chemistry, geography, and foreign languages, including French and Spanish. It’s easy to play: just the click the correct answer from one of four possible choices. If you answer correctly, the next question is a little harder.
