April E-Newsletter for Playbooks Reader's Theater

Reader's Theater for At-risk Students
in Summer School

Playbooks Reader's Theater will be showcased at the upcoming National Conference on Summer Learning sponsored by John Hopkins University and held in Chicago, IL on April 16-17.

Playbooks is also holding an Interactive Reader's Theater Workshop in Chicago, April 18 at the same location.
Click here for details.

Making Summer Learning a Funding Priority

Request a custom Summer School Kit at no additional charge
by calling us at 1-800-375-2926.

Ordering is as easy as choosing
one of these options, printing
the form and attaching it to
your Purchase Order

Start with our Most Popular Kits

Healthy Themes Kit for Grades K-5
for only $299 and includes
7 story sets all with a Health/Nutrition/Fitness theme.

Budget Kit for Grades K-5
for only $449 and includes
11 story sets.

See our other Grade Level Kits
for Grades K-12

Earth Day 2009!

Earth Day is celebrated on April 22, and over the years, many important landmarks have been reached on this day. With the first Earth Day in 1970, various organizations that fought against oil spills, pollution, species extinction, and the destruction of wilderness realized they had many common goals! It was the birth of the modern environmental movement. Earth Day in 1990 focused on increasing awareness of the importance of recycling, while Earth Day 2000 spread the message of the need for clean energy sources. In the new millennium, participation in Earth Day projects and festivities has only grown!

YOU can educate your students on earth-friendly living while building reading fluency at the same time by using some of our Reader's Theater stories in your classroom!

This month's featured story, A Squirrel in Time, follows the tale of two young girls, Shawna and Nikki, who decide to take action in their community. Through amazing and unexplainable circumstances, they see the bad things that could happen in the future if an old, beloved tree in their very own park is cut down. They see that animals will have no home and the earth will not be as beautiful. With the help of a little squirrel friend, the girls organize a project to renovate the old park so that people will use it again, prompting those who planned to cut down the tree to change their thinking. Shawna and Nikki preserve the tree and bring new recognition and excitement to their favorite park!

Another Playbook® to keep in mind for Earth Day is the newly released sequel in the "Great Rhyme Travel Machine" series, Saving Planet Earth. In this adventure, Marcus, Melinda, and Kelly meet John Denver and Rachel Carson, two inspirational activists in the environmental movement. With some encouragement, the students decide to write a song to share with kids and adults everywhere about what they can do to help planet Earth! Learn more about this story below or by clicking here.

What Can Your Students
Do For Our Planet on Earth Day?

(Image) A Squirrel in Time Oak tree illustration

Here are some ideas you can use at your school to get students involved in Earth Day 2009:

Litterless Lunches: Hold a contest to see which classroom makes the least amount of garbage at lunchtime during Earth Month.

Composting: Introduce an outdoor compost receptacle or a small indoor worm composting bin to your school.

Schoolyard Or Community Clean-Up: Organize a schoolyard or community clean-up. Remove garbage from nature sites and shorelines to protect your community’s wildlife and to make the place visually appealing.

Green Up Daily PA Announcements: Read different eco-facts over the morning announcements during Earth Month. Visit http://www.ecokids.ca to get your daily dose of green facts.

Tote-Your-Own-Trash Day: Tote your trash around with you for one day or week to get an idea of how much garbage we throw out! At the end of the day or week, you can develop your own personal action plan with goals to reduce, reuse and recycle.

Source: http://www.ecokids.ca

"I'm Going GREEN" - Inspirational Song Featured in
New Playbook®, Saving Planet Earth

Students learn the song by watching this portion
of the DVD (click play below)

(Top video plays automatically if
Windows Media Player and ActiveX
Control are installed. Press play to
watch second video below.)
* If the video does not play, install
Windows Media Player.

If the video to the left does not
play for you, click here to listen to
the song in .wav format!

Just released, The Great Rhyme Travel Machine Presents: Saving Planet Earth is accompanied by a song entitled "I'm Going GREEN" which suggests practical and easy things kids (and their parents) can do to be kind to the environment, and how to share this information with others.

The book set comes with a DVD recording of the song performed with kids with on-screen lyrics to help students learn the song.

A message from Playbooks® Kids!

"We know that we’re just kids,
but we want to save the earth!
We’re here to spread the message,
telling people what it's worth.
So listen to our song,
as we spell it out for you,
and we hope you'll want to be
a greener person, too!"

G.R.E.E.N.
G is for thinking Globally
R is for Recycling
E is for the Energy you have inside
E is for Every drop of water you conserve
N is for your Neighbors to pass on
the global dream

(Image) Earth People Recycling

Reader's Theater Exercise 17:
Creating Earth Day Themed Reader's Theater For Fluency and Building Community Citizenship

Last month's Reader's Theater Exercise helped your students activate their minds to the fullest potential for learning by combining physical activity with a Reader's Theater rhyme or rap. This month's exercise is designed for Earth Day on April 22, and provides basic information on "green living" that students will need to write, practice, and perform their own Earth Day themed Reader's Theater scripts.

Teaching kids about how they can live in order to protect and preserve our Earth is a valuable and crucial lesson to instill. Hands-on activities and projects are useful and inspiring, but with academic curriculum pressures there may not be class time to devote to planting trees or cleaning up the school grounds. Luckily, Reader’s Theater can provide a way for students to both work on essential reading skills and develop their citizen mind sets as members of their communities and our planet.

The following Reader’s Theater Exercise teaches students about environmentally friendly ways of living, asks them to draw a poster advertising a school Earth Day event (imaginary, or real!). Students will then be instructed to write a Reader’s Theater script in which they (themselves and classmates) organize an Earth Day event, design a presentation on things you can do to help the Earth, or discover something interesting about nature or helping the environment. This allows students to practice and get used to the idea of taking action to help the environment when the school cannot help them actually take part in an ambitious project this year.

Click here to get this month's free Reader's Theater Exercise
for improving reading fluency and teaching environmental awareness.

This Month's Featured Story

This Month's Special

This month, get $20 off
when you order our
Healthy Themes Kit!

Use Coupon Code:
HealthyApril-7782
_____________________

Grade Level Kits
After School Kits
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Staff Development Workshops for Implementing a Reader's Theater Program

Click here for
information about
workshops available

(Image) Educators at Our Reader's Theater Workshop

Schedule an On-site
Workshop for Your Staff
Call for a quote:
1-800-375-2926, Ext. 705

(Image) Rhyme Travel book cover

A Squirrel in Time

An Original Playbook® Story

Content for Grades 1 - 3
Reading Stages 1 - 3

Written by: AJ Namisniak
Illustrated by: Chris Fregien

Synopsis:
Going to the park for a picnic was a nice, normal thing to do. Nothing ever happened at the park, especially at this old, rundown park in Appleton. But Nikki and Shawna were in for a very unusual surprise. A simple ride on a merry-go-round took them much farther than they ever could have imagined. It brought them to the future! Arriving at their strange destination, they encountered an extraordinary individual, a talking squirrel, who urgently needed their help. Nikki and Shawna agreed to make changes in their own time to save the squirrel family in the future, but they would need the help of the whole community. Would the community join together? If so, all they needed was time.

Click here to view summary and image of each character.

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