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Jokes for Kids, Just for Laughs

Posted by :Sharon at Quest Teaching On : June 27, 2018
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Category: Uncategorized

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3-in-1 Jokes, Riddles & Tongue-Twisters for Kids

Written by Rob Hilario

 

This book contains roughly one hundred pages filled with one line jokes, riddles, and fun tongue twisters. It is written mainly for an elementary school age audience, but it would be enjoyed by kids of all ages. The book is divided into categories such as animals and pets, school and science, holidays, ghosts and monsters.

The book would provide lots of entertainment for children’s parties or fun for siblings and friends to quiz each other. Any child who loves jokes or practicing tongue twisters would enjoy this book as a gift. Recommended especially for ages six through twelve.

 

Barbara Ann Mojica
Author of the Little Miss HISTORY Book Series

Dragons and Danger

Posted by :Sharon at Quest Teaching On : July 14, 2017
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Dragon Lightning: Dragon Dreamer Book 2

Written and illustrated by J.S. Burke

If you read Book One in this series, you probably already love the complex communities of dragons, octopi and squid that you have encountered. These beautifully described creatures introduce their readers to unique habitats in a fantasy world explained in real scientific terms. Readers become immersed in adventures, while learning about real scientific phenomena like volcanoes, lightning and glaciers.

Book Two introduces us to Drakor who is experiencing the red lightning from a volcanic eruption. He lands on a thin piece of ice. Arak, Taron and Dorali are traveling up north on a wooden skiff. They come upon the injured Drakor and rescue the ice dragon. He is mystified by these golden dragons as well as the octopi traveling with them. Each species will teach and learn from each other. The dragon communities are aware that their communities may face extinction. Their octopi friends under the sea fear underwater destruction.

Readers learn about the “might makes right” society of the ice dragons and the democratic, healing ways of the golden dragons. The peaceful octopi must use force to defend themselves against the squid. Principles of science are interwoven with fantasy and philosophy.

Smooth flowing prose accompanied by simple but elegant illustrations mark this tale as a winner for fans of science, fantasy and adventure. Widespread appeal for pre- teens, teens and adult audiences. What adventures await the dragons in Book Three?

Barbara Ann Mojica

LittleMissHistory.com

 

ANTS: Amazing facts and more!

Posted by :Sharon at Quest Teaching On : June 30, 2017
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Category: Reading

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Ants: Amazing Facts about Ants with Pictures for Kid

Written by Hathai Ross

The author packs a lot of information into this reference book about ants. Many kids enjoy watching them while exploring outdoors or under glass in an ant farm.

These fascinating creatures live in all parts of the world except Antarctica. More than 12,000 species have been alive for millions of years. Ants live in colonies and are social insects with designated roles. Broadly speaking, there are queens, workers, and male ants. The queen is the largest in the colony whose only job is to lay eggs. Male ants’ only responsibility is to mate with the queen. Worker ants feed the larvae, defend the colony, and remove the waste.

Ross spends a bit of time describing Argentine, Pavement, House, Carpenter, Crazy and Fire Ants. The author describes their appearance, environment, daily life and interesting characteristics. Amazing facts include their exceptional strength, being able to carry twenty times their weight, and the fact that they fight till the death. Ants usually crawl in lines because they are following the pheromones of ants that have crawled before them. There are one million ants for every single human living on earth.

I would have liked to see more photos included in the book. At times the text begins to sound like a list of facts rather than a story about ants, but this book is an excellent reference for children who are interested in these fascinating creatures that are all around us. Recommended especially for young scientists in the eight to twelve age range. Good starting point for a research project.

Everything You Wanted to Know About Owls!

Posted by :Sharon at Quest Teaching On : May 25, 2017
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Category: Reading, Science

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Owls: A Children’s Book About Owls: Types of Owls, Owl Facts, Owl Life, and Owl Images

Written by William Widman

There are more than 200 species of owls living on every continent except Antarctica. They live in forests, deserts and the tundra. Owls are raptors or birds of prey. They might be as small as six inches or as large as three feet. Owls are territorial and tend to reuse their nest. They have huge eyes and excellent hearing. Their specially designed wings enable them to be silent in flight and their feather colors help them to camouflage themselves. Sharp and powerful talons and claws assist in capturing and holding prey. Many owls have names determined by their environment like barn owls and snowy white owls. Different types of owls emit different calling sounds; the Great Horned Owl makes the familiar, “Hoo, Hoo sound, while the Barred Owl vocalizes a call similar to a monkey.

The author includes photographs of each type of owl, as well as nesting pictures and owls in flight. They are colorful and detailed. He suggests that you carry binoculars and a journal pad while owl watching in the woods. I really enjoyed the links provided within the book that allow the reader to hear and experience the sounds that various owls emit.

Recommend this book for children ages six and older who enjoy reading about animals. Librarians and teachers should consider adding this nonfiction kindle book to their reference collection.

Creating Literacy Centers, Part 2: Using Multi-Media

Posted by :Sharon at Quest Teaching On : August 19, 2016
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Category: Quest Teachers, Reading

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Using Multi-Media to Inspire Learning

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Hi Y’all!

   Last time, I discussed (in an example) that many kids were having difficulty understanding the concept of cause and effect in my class. Then, I found some topics from my curriculum that I could use to create centers. Now, I am going to use those topics to find or create multi- media centers that correlate to my fictitious XYZ curriculum.

Glitter Words

Science: Pollution
A Breathe of Fresh Air

http://www.dec.ny.gov/docs/administration_pdf/c4kairfl11.pdf


New York State Conservationist for Kids magazine

 Create a Poster
Print out the pages and place the magazine at a center. In pairs, students read the magazine articles. Each learner finds some reasons for air pollution as well as and pollution’s impact on the Earth. Then, the partners can create a poster together (like the one on page 5) showing good ozone, bad ozone, factories, power plants, fires, trucks and buses.

Social Studies: The Silk Road
The Silk Road Lesson Plan

http://www.artic.edu/aic/collections/citi/resources/Rsrc_001878.pdf


Provided by the Art Institute of Chicago Department of Museum Education

 Travel Journal
The Silk Road Lesson Plan by the Art Institute of Chicago Department of Museum Education has some great ideas. I loved the idea of a travel journal. I thought having your learners create a travel journal would be another great center.
Learner pretend to travel the Silk Road either as a merchant or a missionary. They can describe and draw their insights and some cases of cause and effect on the trade route. Completed travel journals can be placed on a table or hung on a wall for others to read.

Language Arts: Expository Text on Natural Disasters
Flooding
http://www.watersafetykids.co.uk/pdfs/flooding.pdf
Facts about Hurricanes
http://www.azpbs.org/mastersofdisaster/pdf/Hurricanes/HurricanesLevel2.pdf
Facts about Tornadoes
http://www.azpbs.org/mastersofdisaster/pdf/Tornadoes/TornadoesLevel3.pdf
Gather different natural disaster text at a center, such as the above print outs. Learners can choose one topic for a report. Have individual students pretend they are a newscaster or meteorologist explaining the cause of a faux or real natural disaster, such as a flood happening now, and its effects. Students can create a recording, video, scrap book of photos or PowerPoint in this activity to show to other class members.

 Mathematics: Money Problems Involving Interest
Practical Money Skills

    At this center, provide each student with a bank account book. Sometimes, your local bank might donate lined record books to your students. Each students has a weekly allowance which can be drawn out of a hat. The center has catalogs of various merchandise. Students decide how much they will save or spend over the course of two or three weeks. State that the bank will give interest for money saved. If a student saves only 50 cents a day, a savings account could grow to over  $182 in one year. After two weeks, students reflect on their allowance spending or saving and the reasons for the final amounts in their faux bank accounts.

Interventions
 As an intervention, view the following videos and discuss cause and effect.

Ormie the Pig

Cause and Effect Review Lesson for Elementary Students!

If you have any questions or comments about literacy, I’d love, love, love to hear from you!

Best,
Glitter Words
@ TiePlay Educational Resources

For more ideas, freebies and resources, check out Lynn’s blog and stores.

How to Create Literacy Centers

Posted by :Sharon at Quest Teaching On : July 5, 2016
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Category: Reading

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    When children create and invent, they develop self-esteem and gain a love for learning. Using literacy centers are really ideal for any grade level. Small groups learn to work together, cooperate, and speak in low voices, when needed. Learning centers can be so exciting when mixed with various subject matters.

Analysis of Skills

When looking for literacy center ideas, I first look for skills that need practicing and for most all of the class members. Let say, after an analysis of student skills, that most learners are having difficulty with understanding cause and effect.

Students will understand the concept of cause and effect.

Research Topics

    A teaching team can then look for topics that are introduced in the school’s established curriculum that relate to cause and effect topics. I end up finding some topics that could involve cause and effect quite easily.

 

Cause and Effect Topics in XYZ Curriculum

Science; Pollution/ Waste in Our World
Social Studies: The Silk Road
Language Arts: Expository text on Natural Disasters
Mathematics: Money problems involving interest

Search for Sources

I then look for sources, (worksheets, activities, stories, games, comic strips and hands-on activities) that goes along with the specific topic to introduce to a literacy center.
For an intervention,  I try to incorporate  mini-lessons for students with various learning mode preferences. For the Birds and Cause and Effect with Music are funny, short and wordless videos that can lead to a cause and effect discussion.

 For the Birds

This video was created by Pixar.  Learn more about it at: http://www.pixar.com/short_films/Theatrical-Shorts/For-the-Birds

Cause and Effect with Music

This video was created by KLM videos for schools at: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0aO7spGHNCot8Dqq0HIN-g

  In How to Create Literacy Centers Part 2, I will show you what activities I found or created  for each subject matter,  along with some interventions. Until next time….

Best,
Lynn

For more ideas, freebies and resources, check out Lynn’s blog and stores.
http://www.tieplayeducationalresourcellc.com/
https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Tieplay-Educational-Resources-Llc
https://www.teachersnotebook.com/shop/TiePlay+Educational+Resources

Raspberry Red Goodness from Mother Earth

Posted by :Sharon at Quest Teaching On : April 25, 2016
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Category: Quest Teaching, Science, Social Studies

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Raspberry1The sun is shining and the birds are singing. I notice a few wild raspberries blooming among the shrubbery, and it reminds me of walking with my children happily collecting and eating the berries as we ambled through the countryside. Today we don’t find nearly as many bushes growing untamed along the roads as more construction and fewer farms are seen in my area. Still I wondered where did these berries come from and how did they get here.

There is some archaeological evidence that Paleolithic cave dwellers ate raspberries. Red Raspberry, or Rubus idaeus, is native to Turkey and was gathered by the people living in Troy as early as the first century B.C. Rubus idaeus means bramble bush of Ida named for a nursemaid and the mountains on which they grew in Crete. During the Hellenistic Age they were associated with a Greek fertility myth that the berries were white until Ida, the nursemaid of Zeus, pricked her finger on one of their thorns and stained them red. Later on the Romans conquered vast territories and spread the seed of raspberries throughout their empire as evidenced in archaeological ruins of buildings and forts. These berries are mentioned in the fourth-century writings of Palladius, first Christian bishop of Ireland. During the Middle Ages raspberries were used for food and medicine. Artists employed their red juice in paintings.Only the rich could afford them until King Edward I in England encouraged their cultivation and made them popular in the late 13th century.Raspberry2,pic

The red raspberry may have originally come to North America with the prehistoric peoples crossing the Bering Strait. Explorers arriving in North America found Native Americans eating berries of all kinds. They dried them to use while traveling. European settlers brought seeds and new species of hybrid plants. In 1737 William Prince established the first plant nursery on the continent in Flushing, Queens, NY, and raspberry plants were listed for sale. Estate records from George Washington’s home in Mt. Vernon, dating from 1761, reveal raspberries being cultivated there. One hundred years later, more than forty varieties of raspberries were known throughout America.

Luther Burbank introduced many raspberry hybrids to Americans. He produced a multitude of crosses providing an unlimited variety of qualities. These raspberry plants may be a bush or a vine that grows up to three feet high. Their fruits are ready to eat right off the stems and separate easily by using your fingers, as long as you are careful of the prickly thorns. Wild berries supply food for birds and small animals. Many useful products are gleaned from raspberries: jam, jelly, juice, pies and ice cream. Health benefits are limitless. Raspberries contain high amounts of antioxidants that are believed to fight cancer and heart disease. The high content of Vitamin A, Vitamin B1, B2, and Vitamin C, and Niacin keep our bodies strong. In addition the minerals of calcium, phosphorus, iron and potassium benefit all.

Today more than 70 million pounds of raspberries are sold within one year. So take a walk this spring to see if you can find some of these tasty and healthy raspberries.

Barbara Ann Mojica

Little Miss History

Teaching Students About Sky Science? This Read Will Launch New Understanding

Posted by :Sharon at Quest Teaching On : August 19, 2014
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Category: Science

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JessieJessie is a historical fiction that follows the lives of the Cole family as they are removed from their home on Merritt Island, Florida to make way for the growing manned space flight program. They relocate across the Indian River to the small town of Indian River City where the four teenage boys must learn to cope with a new school, bullies, social changes, and family separation as they watch with anticipation America’s race to the moon.

I was born the same time the Space Shuttle program was ramping up, and nearly ever kid I knew had at least one parent working at the Space Center. I will never forget the day we watched the Challenger launch and knew the instant it had all gone wrong. The announcement of the end of the program was heartbreaking, but it gave me the spark to jump back in time to see how our space adventure started. I had a basic knowledge of the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo missions, but my research gave me a new appreciation for the men and women who took a leap of faith and invested themselves so passionately into creating new technology. This story focuses on the astronauts, but every person who worked behind the scenes was just as important, as those brave enough to climb atop the rockets and race into the sky.

 DISCUSS IT WITH YOUR CLASS 

(These questions can also be accessed in free pdf form here):DiscussionQforJessie

Scan

  • What was the space race and why was it important?
  •  What do you think is next for the space program?
  • How do you think this story would have been different if it took place from 2000-2009 instead of 1960-1969?
  • What scene resonated most with you personally in either a positive or negative way? Why?
  • Did any of the characters remind you of yourself or someone you know? How?
  • Were there any moments where you disagreed with the choices of any of the characters? What would you have done differently?
  • Have any of YOUR views or thoughts changed after reading this book?

In a time when we take for granted so much of the technology we have, I hope this story will reawaken a desire to learn more, to strive for new frontiers, and open our eyes to strength of our own dreams. I kept a list of the he resources I used and I’m happy to share them with you. I hope you will find them as inspiring as I do.

RESEARCH

I did a great deal of research for this book. There are a number of books I would recommend as additional reading:

A history of Kennedy Space Center by Kenneth Lipartito

Brevard: On the Edge of Sea and Space by Elaine Murray Stone

History of Brevard County, Volume 2 by Jerrell H. Shofner

Moon Launch! A History of the Saturn-Apollo Launch Operations by Charles D. Benson

Memories of Merritt Island by Gail Briggs Nolen

My two personal favorites were:

Live from Cape Canaveral: Covering the Space Race, from Sputnik to Today by Jay Barbree

Gemini! A Personal Account of Man’s Venture Into Space by Virgil “Gus” Grissom.

Jay Barbree also recently released a book on Neil Armstrong that I am greatly enjoying.

I had the chance to tour Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.to see the original launch sites used during the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo days.

I saved many of the videos I used for research on my YouTube channel, including original news footage of launches and even the Apollo 11 moon landing.

Of course I used the NASA.gov website extensively as well as archive.org for audio of misson control during the launches. NASA also has a website for educators and students to learn more about what is going on now with the International Space station, aeronautics, aviation, black holes, constellations, and more.

Meet The Author: 

Rebekah Lyn is a popular Indie writer with a strong following of loyal readers who enjoy her inspirational novels of Faith, Adventure, and Hope. She is a Christian with a heart for new beginnings, and her desire is to reflect that in each of her books.

She received her Bachelors degree in Communications from Jacksonville University, Jacksonville, Florida and her career immediately introduced her into the life of event planning, media coordinator, and client interaction. She has been employed for nearly 20 years by a Fortune 500 corporation in Orlando.

Rebekah is a sandal-loving native Floridian, growing up in Titusville, Florida, within sight of the Kennedy Space Center. This was an exciting time to live on the Space Coast, with launches taking place on a regular basis. Growing up, the best place to watch a launch was at the edge of the Indian River, just blocks from Rebekahʼs home.

You can connect with Rebekah online at:

 Website: http://www.rebekahlynbooks.com

Blog: http://www.rebekahlynskitchen.wordpress.com

Twitter: http://twitter.com/RebekahLyn1

Facebook: http://facebook.com/authorRebekahLyn

Email: authorrebekahlyn@icloud.com

Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5444665.Rebekah_Lyn

Independent Authors Network: http://www.independentauthornetwork.com/rebekah-lyn.html