Exciting news in the literary world and without further adieu here it is:
Last week, The American Library Association http://www.ala.org/ announced their top awards for the year.
When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead won the coveted John Newberry Medal and
The Lion and The Mouse by Jerry Pinkney won the Randolph Caldecott Medal.
Ta- dah. I love these coveted awards and usually buy both books. Using the power of mnemonics (the only reason I have a college degree) remember Caldecott as in "colouring" is for illustration so you know the "Caldecott" is for illustrating (c = colouring = hint) and using your powers of deductive reasoning one can surmise the "Newberry" award is for story content. are you still with me? Now on to creating Storybags for said books..............
warning: the site American Library Association, one can easily get lost in there for days, weeks, years. Incredible amounts of information, a really big, old library. The internet is for learning afterall.
We enjoy making up stories and I type the stories as they are dictated to me by my budding writers. This is most often accomplished using a simple "text file" on my laptop with the narrator snuggled up next to me. The stories get pretty silly and we invariably end up in fits of laughter. This being said allow me to share an excellent site http://www.storyit.com/Starters/ststart.htm where a picture, a story starter, and an area for you to finish writing the story is presented. There are several options available to the writer(s) within this format. If you enjoy making up stories with your child or would like to give it a go, this is your launching pad. have fun and remember anything goes and the sillier the better.
Just wanted to share three fabulous craft sites on the net. As soon as you are online, before email, before anything, simply log onto to www.freekidscrafts.com. The site features a daily craft (from another site) and the projects are seasonal, fun and easy. The site has a really fun calendar enabling the visitor to revisit past years and projects. Give it a try, you will find yourself checking the site daily.
HP (as in Hewlett-Packard) has the coolest feature, a desktop (very small, attractive) calendar with the "daily surprise". They feature some quality projects. A NEW CRAFT. Delivered to your desktop. Free. – the desktop app brings you a fun, easy craft idea from the HP Creative Studio. one need not download the app and freely pursue the site.
They have everything from albums & picture frames, calendars, cards, invitations & stationary, labels, stickers & puzzles, scrapbooking, iron-on's and more..............................
Really nice features, cute designs and easy picture uploads. Try it out. I've paid a lot for services like this - and this one is free. the addy is: http://h30440.www3.hp.com/daily-surprise/index.html.
Last but not least I would like to share the site www.firstpallette.com where you will find step-by-step guides to kids' crafts. Find free fun and creative crafts, printable craft templates and art lesson plans for kids of all ages.
HAVE FUN
