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Reading, teaching, bugs and moreStarting with StoriesEngaging Multiple Intelligences through Children's Booksby Pam Schiller and Pat Phipps
Backed by their extensive experience in early childhood education, the authors present more than 1,500 activities connected to such children's classics as Brown Bear, Brown Bear; Chicka Chicka Boom; If You Give a Mouse a Cookie; Make Way for Ducklings; and Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People's Ears. The authors advise teachers to select a book from the list, read it with students and then, through learning centres, broaden student learning. Suggested activities involve reading, writing, listening, speaking, viewing, constructing, calculating and scientific investigating. Each book selection has a paragraph explaining the thinking skills used. Each concludes with a list of additional books and a “thinking about what we learned” section. An invaluable appendix offers suggestions for family activities: a parents' list of 100 children's books; patterns for Venn diagrams, word webs and story pyramids; action stories; rhymes; fingerplays; and cooking-centre projects. Any creative teacher with lots of time could come up with the activities included in this book. However, the 1,500 varied activities are a treasure trove of time savers for busy educators. Starting with Stories would make an excellent gift for a new teacher or a good inclusion in a professional library.
Gail Lennon teaches distance-education online courses for adults with the Bluewater DSB. More Primary Literacy CentersMaking Reading and Writing Stick!by Susan Nations & Mellissa Alonso
Part One deals with the theory of setting up centres and provides tips for using them effectively in the classroom. In Part Two, theory and practice merge. Part Two has eight sections, each focusing on a specific reading or writing strategy. Each lesson has a clear focus on one or more areas in which students seek meaning: phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary development, fluency and comprehension. The areas are identified clearly as checked boxes at the bottom of each lesson. Also included are recording and observation sheets, graphic organizers and lesson variations, which serve the need for differentiated instruction. Although many practical instructional and assessment strategies are outlined in this book, teachers are advised to incorporate some of their own assessment tools that have worked well with their students. As a sequel to an earlier book, Primary Literacy Centers, published in 2001, this book reinforces the idea that teachers can effectively improve student learning by giving students an opportunity to consolidate their literacy skills and strategies through engaging literacy-centre activities.
Anjana Thom is an early literacy teacher with the Peel DSB. Classroom ManagementCreating a Successful Learning Communityby Paul Burden
Teacher planning is emphasized in chapters on working with parents, establishing standards for appropriate behaviour, understanding how cultural factors influence classroom participation, and preparing for the new school year. Burden also includes chapters on ways to improve instructional skills or respond to specific inappropriate behaviours. He achieves a close look at classroom management practices through the use of vignettes written by classroom teachers, and offers a broader perspective on “what might work when” by pointing readers in the direction of research reports. In keeping with his goal of creating a learning community among students, Burden includes ideas for supporting a learning community among teachers. Many questions highlighted throughout the text are useful for personal reflection and professional study-group discussion. Classroom Management supports individual professional learning and a professional learning community. This is a useful resource for both novice and experienced teachers.
Mary Hookey, now retired, was an associate professor at the faculty of education, Nipissing University. Powerful PresentationsSeven Steps to Successful Speakingby Graham Foster
In Powerful Presentations, Graham Foster provides a seven-step flip chart. He begins with a visual cycle that sets out the seven steps necessary to be effective before, during and after the presentation. Rubrics to be used as evaluation tools and reproducible planning sheets for classroom use are also included. Students are encouraged to regard the content and delivery of each presentation. In the past, it was often teachers or adjudicators who evaluated student speeches. This book provides speakers with the tools to assess themselves and their peers. All junior and intermediate classrooms would benefit from this model.
Dorothea Bryant, a retired Windsor and Durham educator, is a student-teacher supervisor for Ontario students at Medaille College, Buffalo. It's All in Your HeadA Guide to Your Brilliant Brainby Sylvia Funston and Jay Ingram
It's All in Your Head, with its vivid illustrations, has four sections: senses, emotions, memory and thinking. It contains both a table of contents and an index for easy reference. Each page has interesting sidebars, with titles like Ace a Test and Dream Phantoms, and colourful illustrations of everyday people doing everyday things. Each section includes activities and brain benders that will appeal to children of all ages, for example: “An Australian aborigine can throw a boomerang so that it can return without bouncing off anything. How can you do the same with a tennis ball?” Answers are at the back of the book. The information is current and relevant and could be used to address or complement several curriculum expectations, from the five senses in Grades 2 and 3 to other health topics in the older grades. The text is a good example of nonfiction writing. Although the book would benefit from more photographs and fewer illustrations, it will be interesting and accessible to many age groups.
Jennifer Wyatt is a Toronto DSB elementary teacher, board trainer and lead mathematics teacher. La psychomotricitéŕ l'école des 4 ŕ 8 ansby Ginette Drouin-Couture and Lise Gauthier-Bastien
The book's seven parts cover body image, lateral dominance, spatial environment, temporal organization and rhythm, overall motor skills, fine motor skills and attention. Each section also includes matrices illustrating the various steps in a child's progress. For example, a six-year-old's maximum attention span is 15 minutes, which makes one think twice about 30-minute lessons. A table on lateral dominance explains why young children get confused over b and d. Mastery of left and right begins around the age of six and a half. The book includes a large number of classroom exercises designed to put into practice everything that has been learned about psychomotor skills. The matrices make it easier to establish links with the curriculum. If you teach at the primary level and want more information about young people, along with a holistic pedagogical approach, this is the book for you.
Ramona Dempsey is a Grade 1 French Immersion teacher at Louis-Honoré Fréchette Public School in Thornhill. The Land of Graws
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Through the use of stories, Pam Schiller and Pat Phipps aim to engage children
of every learning style. The premise is that by connecting children's multiple
intelligences through creative math, drama, music, art and language activities,
teachers motivate students to explore the magic of good literature. 
Starting with Stories, Gryphon House, Beltsville, Maryland, 2006, ISBN 978-0-87659-297-7,
softcover, 256 pages, $34.95, distributed in Canada by Monarch Books, tel 416-663-8231,
fax 416-736-1702 or 1-800-404-7404, 
Whether you are a novice teacher just implementing literacy centres or a seasoned
veteran using them successfully, this book has something for you. 
Paul Burden looks at classroom management as a means for creating “supportive
learning communities for diverse groups of students.” He encourages readers
to clarify their own philosophy of classroom management as they review descriptions
of various models, which are classified according to high, medium and low levels
of teacher control. This provides a guide for choosing approaches that encourage
various levels of student responsibility. 
At some time in our life, we all face the challenge of delivering a presentation
to an audience. Doing it successfully requires an understanding of the techniques
needed to plan and deliver a presentation with efficiency and confidence. 
Author and television host Jay Ingram and author and founding Owl editor Sylvia
Funston have created this nonfiction children's book that explores the human
head. Originally published in 1994, the book was retitled and illustrated for
re-release in 2005. 
In this resource, the authors show how psychomotor development can be given
consideration in the primary classroom, and why it needs to be incorporated
into all of the day's activities. .jpg)
Robert Stelmach (aka Max Tell) has used his studies in creative writing and
theatre to create two entertaining CDs, one each for primary- and junior-age
children. .jpg)
revolving around the narrator's friendship with a hive
of bees. It encompasses a range of emotions, including anger, shame and redemption.
Children who have been plagued by bullies will recognize the tactics. They
will also develop ideas about what might make a bully, and rejoice at the gesture
of reconciliation in the last chapter. 
PickTwo Deluxe is a challenging, fun and rewarding crossword game that allows
players to build personal crosswords. The object of the game is to use all
your letters by building a crossword with the letter tiles. This may sound
simple but it is rather challenging and can take quite a long time.