Archive for category: On the Internet

Blocks With Letters On 3

Oh my, this one’s tricky!

If you have a kid who’s a real fan of puzzles, he’ll love the newest Blocks With Letters On online game – their third in the series.

Once again, you have to figure out what word the jumbled letters spell, and then try to manipulate the blocks into the yellow squares.

Sometimes you need to flip the blocks and sometimes you need to temporarily fill a hole with one block and then slide another block over it. You always need to plan ahead, thinking about how the letters need to line up in order to spell the word.

The graphics are very silly and cool, and after every time you spell a word correctly, a little animation plays that depicts the word.

This version of the game is very tricky, so it’s not for young kids but teens who love puzzles will definitely find it intriguing. I noticed that on the BLWO games website they also have a version for the iPhone. Fun!

Here’s an earlier post about the previous two BLWO games.

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Vote on Munsch’s next book

What’s Robert Munsch going to write about next?

You (or your kid) can help him decide.

Munsch has three outlines for new books. Kids can pick which one they’d most like to see made into a book by clicking on the voting button.

Go to Pick-A-Munsch on Scholastic’s website and vote for #1, #2 or #3.

#1 is about a pet rat that escapes; #2 is about a kid who goes ice fishing; and #3 is about a family that lives in a temporarily overcrowded trailer.

You can vote from now until Hallowe’en (Oct. 31) and the book that’s chosen will be published in May 2011.

This little voting game is a great way to connect kids to the writing process and help them to understand how a book comes together.

Actually, it’s going to help me with a children’s book I’m working on. I’ve been trying to figure out how to do an outline of my book–well, here are three great outlines by one of the most famous and successful children’s authors in the world. Great examples of how to sketch out a book outline.

Thanks, Robert! (Er, Mr. Munsch.)

After you’re finished voting, put your mouse over the image that says “Which story is in the lead” and you’ll see which one’s winning at the moment. (Not the one I picked.)

I took this picture when Munsch was at the Mississauga Living Arts Centre doing a presentation and signing autographs. Doesn’t it look like he’s asking that kid, “Which outline should I develop into a book? Really? That one, you think? That one?” But he’s actually just signing an autograph. Psyche!

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Back to school 2010

By Julia Mohamed
It’s nearly back-to-school time! Time to go from running wild and free to becoming a studious student once again. Here are a few ideas to help make the transition as smooth as possible:
Goal Journal
Have your kids contribute to a nightly journal. Begin now, with their anticipations and goals for the upcoming year, and continue to use it as the year progresses. It will help get them into the routine of writing again, and it’ll be great to look back on it later in the year. They can do all of the writing, dictate to you, add some pictures or make it a combination of everything.
Great sites
School means reports and essays. Here are great, kid-friendly websites where kids can search for the answers to questions on just about anything.
Homework Helper
This site offers categories like “Science, History, World, Sports and exercise.” From there, kids can drill down until they find answers to questions they have on just about anything. Includes facts and information on Canada, plus a “World” category.
It’s a non-profit website and each category uses a specialist in the field to write the information and answer kids’ questions. If you can’t find what you’re looking for on the site, you can ask their experts a question and they’ll e-mail you back. They’ll also send parents links to kid-friendly websites.
Published by Pearson publishing, this site offers information and facts on lots of different subject areas, for kids K to 8. It also has an online atlas, dictionary and encyclopedia and some online games and quizzes (for instance, hangman, Star Wars quizzes, an interactive periodic table, Sudoku, how to write a book report and much more.)
Funschool Kaboose
Funschool Kaboose is a Disney site with great information, games and crafts for kids from preschool to grade 6. It also features sections for parents and educators.
Stock up on school supplies
Before heading out, prepare a list of the school supplies you need. Why not make it a scavenger hunt? Be sure to be specific when you’re writing your list: Number 2 pencils, blue and red ballpoint pens, a calculator, white erasers, a one-inch three-ring binder, etc. Refer to our article, Supermarket Scavenger Hunt for details on how to create the perfect hunt!
Reading – every night
Keep reading to your child every night. Create a reading log for your kids. A simple chart with headings including “Date,” “Title,” “Author,” “Number of Pages Read,” and “Amount of Time Spent Reading” can help keep track of how much they read. For every milestone, give your child a reward. Here’s a past GKR article on Reading Reward Charts.
If you only get a chance to do one thing from this article, check out the websites Julia found – they have a great wealth of information your kids will appreciate when they start getting into essay writing time.
Julia Mohamed is a freelance journalist.
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Literacy Lava – excellent (free) resource

Literacy Lava 5

I’ve got an article in the latest edition of Susan Stephenson’s (The Book Chook) great e-newsletter, “Literacy Lava.”

“Literacy Lava” is a free .pdf for parents and educators, and is basically a collection of great articles on helping kids to read.

This is the 5th edition of the newsletter and it includes:
*my article, on getting your video-loving kid to read;
*developing spelling skills;
*whether graphic novels are real reading;
*encouraging kids to write poetry;
and much, much more.

It’s a tremendous resource, very professionally done, with articles taken from various experts on children’s literacy. Stephenson does it as a labour of love, and to help promote her excellent blog, “The Book Chook.”

I’m honoured to have been asked to contribute to the e-newsletter; I’m in excellent company.

Click here to download a free copy of the .pdf. While you’re on the site, click around and you’ll find lots of gems – including back issues of Literacy Lava.

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Great book: Dumb Bunnies

Dumb Bunnies beats Capt. Underpants.

Ever get so excited about a book you just have to tell someone?
Hayley did – and I’m so glad.

She e-mailed me about the Dumb Bunnies series, which she is enjoying with her whole family (ages 3, 7, 9, 39 and 39).

If the illustrations look familiar, it’s because author Dav Pilkey also does Capt. Underpants (of which I am not a huge fan – but millions of kids are, of course).

That’s why Dumb Bunnies is such a great series. It’s fun like Capt. Underpants, but without some of the edgier aspects. (Such as, say, a school principal in his underpants.)

Every book Dav Pilkey writes has its own website, with printable crosswords, online activities and behind-the-scenes information about the books. Here’s the website for Dumb Bunnies.

There are four books in the series so far. Here’s how Hayley describes her family’s reaction to them:

“Our son borrowed it from the school library last week and we were all laughing at it over dinner one night. The pictures and text are very funny. Our youngest pretended to read it again and again to himself. I guess I will have to break down and buy it.”

Oooh, that Capt. Underpants! Why, oh why, do kids have to love him so and why does he have to be so exhibitionist? Strangely enough, it’s less his underpants and more that he’s the principal of a school who is being humiliated that bothers me. And it’s exactly that that intrigues the kids, of course. Sic ‘im, bunnies, sic ‘im! Grrrr.
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Creating comics online

I made this comic myself – and it was fun.

Imagine how much your child will enjoy creating their own story lines.
And afterwards, they can print them out and put them in a binder, or e-mail them to their friends.

Making comics not only ensures that your child will be reading, it means he’ll be thinking logically about plot lines, beginning-middle-and-ends, character development and so many other things that are important to budding writers.

It’s simple to do – and did I mention it’s free (you don’t even have to sign in).

The software is very intuitive, so there’s no need to “learn” a software program.
You choose one, two or three boxes. Then you pick a character and his or her “mood.” Then you choose a balloon and type in the words.

What I like about this is that it’s easy enough so that kids can do it themselves, but sophisticated enough to provide lots of options for the child to make the cartoon his own.

Visit Make Beliefs Comix and try one yourself. Then let your child loose on the site.

Oh, and you know you and your spouse are gonna end up as characters in your kid’s comic scenarios, right? The sacrifices we make to get our kids reading.

BTW, the image on this post is a bit blurry – but that’s because I’m fairly inept at photoshop, not because of the site. It’s very crisp.

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Kids’ writing contest (note: Americans only)

Here’s a little gift for our friends to the south.

Unfortunately, only Americans can enter this contest. (I’ve got an e-mail in to one of the contest judges to ask why-oh-why they’ve limited it. But I digress.)

It’s such a great-looking contest, that I want to point it out to GKR’s American readers (you know who you are).

Remember Mimi, that large, clown-faced woman from the Drew Carey show? The actress’ name is Kathy Kinney, and post-Carey she started a kids’ reading website called Mrs. P.

Her site is hosting a writing contest for American kids, aged 4 to 13.

The two winning entries will be made into books complete with illustrations. (Let’s hope they won’t be drawn by the same person who did Mimi’s make-up! Paf!)

The site is accepting entries starting Sept. 1, so it would be a great end-of-summer writing assigment for the kids. Uh, unless your kids have already started school? Ours don’t start until Sept. 8 – but maybe Americans have already started.

Oh, someone, please inform me about what’s going on south of Canada these days, because clearly I’m out of touch!
Here’s a link to the contest. Good luck!

Additional info: I received a very thoughtful response from a contest judge and from one of the Mrs. P. website creators explaining why the contest is limited to Americans only.

It’s a legal thing apparently. With gift certificates involved, it would be too difficult to administer internationally (according to their lawyers. Yeah, that’s what I said too. A-heh.).

Anyway, they said that if they get a lot of response from non-Americans, they’ll consider holding another contest that’s not US-exclusive. So there’s your homework, everyone!

Canadians (and Brits and everyone else – again, you know who you are)… do check out the Mrs. P. site. It’s quite a major site and clearly they’ve got a lot invested in it. I found it a bit cumbersome to download, and everything had rather lengthy introductions before the “good stuff” so you should check it out before sending your kids there. However, there is quite a lot of content on the site, from games to Mrs. P. reading aloud.
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Internet word game

Once again, I’m going to help you be a cool parent.

You want your kid to read. Your kid wants to play computer games.

The website promises, “64 levels of mind-numbing word action.”

Mind-numbing – well, kids love that in a computer game (did you know that when kids play Nintendo they don’t blink? It’s true. Watch your kid sometime. It’s eerie.)

And word action – well, you love that.

Which makes BWLO the perfect game to entice kids to work with words.
In a nutshell, the game gives you some blocks (with letters on), which you move around to make words. Since the blocks only move certain ways, you’ve got to figure out which block to move first, which to move second, etc., to create the desired word. So there’s a logic element to it.

Plus, the words aren’t given to you. You have to figure out from the scrambled letters, what the word should be. So there’s a literacy element.
The reason this game will make you a cool parent, is that the game’s not a pushover. It’s not like those academic sites that claim to have “fun” games. This really is a legitimate game in its own right – it just happens to be a fairly healthy one.
You should definitely try these games yourself. More Blocks With Letters On is, as one reviewer put it, “freakishly difficult.” Some of the letters change before you can place them, so of course it’s even harder to figure out the words. Try the first one first, before the sequel. And then let your kid show you how to play the second one.

I know I haven’t been blogging as much lately – that’s summer for ya. But I have tons of ideas, tips and resources up my sleeve. I’ll post more often, I promise. In the meantime, thanks for visiting the site. I appreciate everyone who finds this blog, and enjoys it. Thanks for coming.
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Alice in Wonderland – the trailer

Click on this image for a larger version. (It’s worth the click.)
Disney has put its trailer for Alice back on YouTube.

(They musta read my blog post telling them to put it back…)

The trailer is quite something. Very exciting and Burton-esque, dark and whimsical, with that heart-pumping music that gets you going.

I predict that the movie is going to spark a run on the book, so get yours now while the gettin’s good.

The movie is due out March 2010.

I told my son that Johnny Depp is doing the movie, and he’s already excited about us reading the book together. It didn’t hurt that I also mentioned that Helena Bonham Carter – the kids know her as Bellatrix Lastrange from the Harry Potter movies – is playing the Red Queen.

Thanks, Burton and Depp, for getting my kid (and countless others, I’m sure) reading!
Here’s a link to the trailer.
And here’s a link to more stills from the movie.
Oh, and OK, just for fun here’s a link to the trailer for New Moon, the next Twilight film they’re making.
Thanks to ComingSoon.net for these pictures.
Oh, and I’m filing this under “five-minute ideas” as well, because I think a wonderful way to “get your kid reading” would be to share the trailer with her and show her the stills. Talk about the book, and the characters, and soon she’ll be champing at the bit to read it. And then it won’t be a five-minute activity, it’ll be an every-night-reading activity. “O frabjous day! Calloo! Callay!” (And if you don’t know what that means, you need to read the book again yourself.)
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Potter Puppet Pals

Here’s something cool you can share with your child.

It’s unique, cool and fun – and it’s related to reading. And maybe your kid already knows about it, or maybe you’re about to be the coolest parent ever.

It’s Potter Puppet Pals.

It’s a series of videos on YouTube, and I’m not kidding they have, like, two million views each. Million. As your kid would say, “it’s siiiiick.”

I have no idea why these utterly ridiculous puppet shows, each one to three minutes long, featuring characters from the Harry Potter series, are so darned compelling. But they are. And funny!

Actually, you know what? I can’t explain. Check it out for yourself.
Start with The Mysterious Ticking Noise, and then Wizard Swears (there’s no swearing), and then School is for Losers (not as bad as it sounds – and just 30 seconds long).

You should definitely watch them first, just to make sure they’re appropriate for your child. But while the humour’s a teeny bit edgy, it’s all in good fun.

Here’s the great part – if your child hasn’t read the Potter books, he’s not going to “get” the videos. So, the videos are a great incentive for reading: “Read the first Harry Potter book and then I’ll let you watch some cool YouTube videos I found.” Or a reward, “Since you read that Harry Potter book, I’ll show you something really funny on YouTube.”
Coooool parent.

This is the kind of cool thing that we parents need to have in our hip pockets. And seriously, that Snape puppet? Now that is funny.
I’ve provided the YouTube links to the videos. There is also a Potter Puppet Pals website that has ‘em. The problem with the website is that it has extra stuff that may not – or is definitely not – appropriate for kids, such as users’ comments. It’s not a bad site, but you need to watch it with your kid to avoid the inappropriate stuff. On the other hand, if your kid is over 15, give them the website and tell them – “go nuts!”
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