Picture-Perfect STEM Lessons

“Picture-Perfect STEM is a powerful tool for guiding instruction. You’ll love how effective this book is, and your students will love learning about STEM.”

345 pages Grade 3-5, (254 pages Kindergarten, 265 pages Grade 1) softcover

These are books to help elementary teachers integrate science and literature.

The lessons include fiction and nonfiction book pairs, background reading, materials lists, student pages, and assessments for each lesson. Also includes the connections to science standards and the Common Core State Standards for both English language arts and mathematics.

Picture-Perfect STEM Lessons Grade 3-5 is a large book that starts with a lot of instructional research type material that I didn’t find of any value to me. Following that are the lessons (there are 10-15 depending on the book grade level) that use the 5E model (engage, explore, explain, elaborate, evaluate). The lessons use featured picture books and additional materials that need to be referenced or purchased elsewhere. 

The book is designed to be used within a curriculum. The lessons aren’t sequential and they are adaptable so you can use them to fit your teaching style and student needs very easily. I like that.

Picture-Perfect STEM Lessons Kindergarten, Picture-Perfect STEM Lessons Grade 1, and Picture-Perfect STEM Lessons Grade 3-5 all follow the same format. 

Bottom line: I think these books are on the pricey side for what I can gleam from them. The part of the book that actually had the lessons was good. Not for you if you are watching your budget or if you want a stand alone curriculum.

Emily Morgan, author of the Picture-Perfect STEM books, provided a copy of these books to help facilitate the writing of an honest review. A positive review is not guaranteed, and all opinions are my own. No other compensation was received.

 

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How to Teach Your Children Shakespeare

Ken Ludwig

Broadway Books

Paperback, 368 pages

A foolproof, enormously fun method of teaching your children the classic works of William Shakespeare

To know some Shakespeare provides a head start in life. His plays are among the great bedrocks of Western civilization and contain the finest writing of the past 450 years. Many of the best novels, plays, poems, and films in the English language produced since Shakespeare’s death in 1616—from Pride and Prejudice to The Godfather—are heavily influenced by Shakespeare’s stories, characters, language, and themes. In How to Teach Your Children Shakespeare, acclaimed playwright Ken Ludwig provides the tools you need to inspire an understanding, and a love, of Shakespeare’s works in your children, and to have fun together along the way.

How to Teach Your Children Shakespeare is a guide and not a step-by-step curriculum. A great resource for literature study, the book covers twenty-five passages of Shakespeare. The learning/memorizing starts with a single line and moves on to complete speeches. And while memorization is key to the teaching concept of the book, it reaches in further to teach the language, vocabulary, metaphors, plots, and so forth, of Shakespeare’s writing. Similar to learning a foreign language, Ken Ludwig’s method incorporates reading, hearing, and speaking Shakespeare.

Having no previous Shakespeare familiarity,  I found this book interesting. I would have appreciated it during our homeschool years and will be using it in a few years from now with my grandson. “No” on intimidation. “Yes” on  fun.

Make use of the free printable QUOTATION PAGES to memorize & AUDIO CLIPS of each passage. link below

The Blogging for Books program provided this complimentary copy for review purposes. No other compensation was received. All opinions are my own. 

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Dear Mr. Knightley

Katherine Reay’s debut novel is terrific!

The story is entirely told through letters. Mostly the letters of Sam, the main character, to the anonymous Mr. Knightley. It is a super book with humor, romance, tenderness, honesty, forgiveness, love, acceptance, and all that. Quotes from the classics, like Jane Austen, are written in Sam’s letters; there’s usually a bit of an explanation that goes with it so that an unfamiliar reader understands what she is referencing. Katherine Reay wrote a novel with quality characters and a believable story. I’d recommend Dear Mr. Knightly for anyone who loves a good story. And I’m looking forward to reading more from Katherine Reay. 

Katherine Reay has enjoyed a life-long affair with the works of Jane Austen and her contemporaries. After earning degrees in history and marketing from Northwestern University, she worked as a marketer for Proctor & Gamble and Sears before returning to school to earn her MTS. Her works have been published in Focus on the Family and the Upper Room. Katherine currently lives with her husband and three children in Seattle. Dear Mr. Knightley is her first novel.

Overview

Samantha Moore has always hidden behind the words of others—namely, her favorite characters in literature. Now, she will learn to write her own story—by giving that story to a complete stranger.

Sam is, to say the least, bookish. An English major of the highest order, her diet has always been Austen, Dickens, and Shakespeare. The problem is, both her prose and conversation tend to be more Elizabeth Bennet than Samantha Moore.

But life for the twenty-three-year-old orphan is about to get stranger than fiction. An anonymous, Dickensian benefactor (calling himself Mr. Knightley) offers to put Sam through Northwestern University’s prestigious Medill School of Journalism. There is only one catch: Sam must write frequent letters to the mysterious donor, detailing her progress.

As Sam’s dark memory mingles with that of eligible novelist Alex Powell, her letters to Mr. Knightley become increasingly confessional. While Alex draws Sam into a world of warmth and literature that feels like it’s straight out of a book, old secrets are drawn to light. And as Sam learns to love and trust Alex and herself, she learns once again how quickly trust can be broken.

Reminding us all that our own true character is not meant to be hidden, Reay’s debut novel follows one young woman’s journey as she sheds her protective persona and embraces the person she was meant to become.

“Dear Mr. Knightley is a stunning debut—a pure gem with humor and heart.” —Serena Chase, USA Today

Includes Reading Group Guide

Plus Bonus Material: Q & A with Katherine Reay and Sam’s Reading List

BookSneeze provided this complimentary copy for review purposes. No other compensation was received. All opinions are my own.

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