Celebrate reading and Dr. Seuss’ birthday March 2 with Target and the National Education Association for Read Across America Day. On Saturday, Feb. 25, 2012 from 9 to 11 a.m. Target is partying early for Read Across America Day. Visit Target Saturday morning and you’ll receive a reusable Target bag filled with activities for children,... [read more ]

Kids in upper elementary, ages 8 – 12, read middle grade books. I’ve been reading some great ones and have finally gotten a chance to review the best of the newly published middle grade books. (Look at these piles! And these are just my favorites, not everything I’ve read . . .) The Grave Robber’s Apprentice by Allan Stratton Our... [read more ]

Knock, knock! Who’s there? Peas! Peas who? Peas read a new Valentine’s Day picture book. (. . . yeah, I probably need to skip the joke writing . . .) New Valentine’s Day Picture Books: Mr. Prickles A Quill-Fated Love Story by Kara LaReau, illustrated by Scott Magoon Mr. Prickles and Mrs. Pointypants learn a valuable lesson about... [read more ]

Thank you to who?Comics for sponsoring this post and encouraging my child to read biographies in comic book form! Please click here to learn more about the app. And follow who? Comics on Twitter for updates. I love encouraging kids to read biographies in February since it includes President’s Day and is Black History Month. So when offered... [read more ]

Let’s continue education month here on Imagination Soup by looking at best practices for encouraging divergent thinking in children with reading and writing workshop. Linear thinking, or convergent thinking, is about learning facts, follow instructions, and solving problems with one right answer. Divergent thinking is generating unique solutions... [read more ]

Now that you’ve learned or refreshed your memory on the differences between convergent thinking and divergent thinking, let’s look at the application in learning. Can you determine which is which? It’s important that you can because it’s up to you, parent or teacher, to advocate for more divergent learning in the classroom. Linear... [read more ]

Becoming a playwright will get your kids writing, it’s a writing activity that engrosses young writers. Kids get to see what they wrote in a live performance and that in itself is very motivating. Steps to Writing a Play 1. Characters Pick the characters in your story. We used Christmas toys to get started. JJ wrote a play about (see photo... [read more ]

As we finish 2011, I thought I’d share the most popular posts of the year and chat with you about 2012. Like last year, January will be all about learning and education topics. And, last year was a dozy for me because of what I wrote in January. If you are new here, you can start with this seemingly innocent post which started an avalanche of... [read more ]

Guest post by Ellen Notbohm, author of Ten Things Every Child with Autism Wishes You Knew, and Veronica Zysk former Managing Editor of Autism Asperger’s Digest. *Note from Melissa: I find this post is helpful for all kids, as well as kids on the autism spectrum. Children with autism love absolutes, and one of life’s absolutes is that everyone... [read more ]

Don’t forget about buying non-fiction books for your kids. Your elementary-aged and middle-grade readers will devour these six titles; and they’ll make great gifts for the upcoming holidays. So, in no particular order, here are my recommended non-fiction gift books. Harry Potter Page to Screen: The Complete Filmmaking Journey by Bob McCabe Last... [read more ]

Do ipad book apps count as books? Some bibliophiles argue that they don’t, insisting that book apps are more game than book. But, I disagree. I think it’s great that kids can access books in this new way. Sure, there are interactive game-like elements, but in a quality app, these don’t have to be distracting and can add meaning to... [read more ]

Our word collection started when JJ’s teacher read aloud Donavan’s Word Jar to her class. JJ wanted to start a word collection jar at home. Of course, I was happy to oblige! Then, when Rachelle of TinkerLab challenged me to blog about using old magazines, I thought word collections would be the perfect fit. Here’s how we made word... [read more ]