Extend Learning with Picture Books

This is a guest post from Jane Moore, a teacher for more than 26 years. Jane attended our recent webinar about using picture books with tweens and teens, then reached out to share some of her rich experience both in the classroom and from her trainings with teachers. Thank you, Jane!

What a wonderful webinar “Not Just for Kids, How to Use Picture Books with Tweens and Teens” was!! So many interesting, diverse books for all levels of readers!! Teachers, now that you have great reading suggestions for students, what are you going to do with it? How can you maintain students’ interest and extend the learning? Read on for some suggestions that I have!

If you ever wonder if a designer really looks at every single aspect of a book when designing….yes. Yes we do. For this post I asked designer Lindsey Owens to give us some insight on choices behind the design elements in our new Twenty-First Century Books title Natural Satellites: The Book of Moons by Ron Miller — here’s the scoop:

With Spring rolling in and the weather warming up, we better start discussing social and emotional learning before the kids (safely, of course) fill the playgrounds back up! How can we, as adults, show the youth around us the importance of friendship, kindness, and acceptance? These themes are fundamental to our daily interactions and it’s up to us to make sure that the children in our lives understand how to navigate the nuances of human interaction.

In this post, I outline our already released titles as well as some upcoming titles that fit the social emotional mold. Included are fiction, nonfiction, picture book, middle grade, and young adult titles that all aim to make the world better, and make us better as individuals; and they’re all so much fun!

Cones from a spruce tree crunch under your boots. You pause to rest on a rock covered in green moss and colorful lichens. From a nearby treetop, you hear the high-pitched song of a magnolia warbler. To an experienced explorer, the signs are obvious. You’re in a boreal forest!

Climate change is not simply a problem for future generations. Hothouse Earth examines how science, politics, and social justice must all be part of the equation to counteract climate change.