CMIS Evaluation Primary Focus

We last gave a plug for our State Library on 25 May when we blogged their new space for kids, The Place.

Well the up-coming holidays is the time for children to test run the facility by participating in the school holiday program, Boredom Busters.  Read the flyer for an overview of the program.

All from the Books : Children and Teenagers pages of the Guardian:

• Well, the first has to be about Lauren Child.  Here’s an interview with her. Can you believe Clarice Bean is 10?

… her name is not Lauren. “That is true,” she admits when I ask about it. Her real name is?

• The Gruffalo is being animated by the Wallace and Gromit people
• An assessment of the work of illustrator Bruce Ingman

For some great ideas for linking the two main learning contexts of children, for increasing mathematical confidence and for suggestions for some engaging parent involvement at school, check out Improving Primary Mathematics.  Don’t be put off by its unappealing black and white, dense text appearance: there are some really good ideas to be found even with a quick skim.  For example:

- Have children create a record book of Mathematical type activities in which they engage at home. Each record would consist of a photo and a detailed caption describing the maths involved.

- Invite parents into the classroom to share a Maths lesson with the children.  This will demonstrate to parents teaching strategies used today.

If you are a fan of the Frog and Toad stories, you will want to read, listen and see how Arnold Lobel’s daughter has created a new collection of ten stories about the amphibian friends.

The sixth UK Children’s Laureate has been named and it’s none other than Anthony Browne. The man who has brought us Willy the Wimp, unforgettable gorillas, Piggybook and surreal takes on fairytales will be an outstanding ambassador for books and reading. Lucky UK children. Here is some of the new Laureate’s work.

Despite the superb job he has done, previous Laureate Michael Rosen knows there is a long way to go. He reflects on the past two years – there are still plenty of brick walls to dismantle:

I am sitting in a room in the House of Commons with Ed Balls and Jim Knight. To my left are several people who haven’t been introduced, who are probably from “the department”. We are talking about books. I say to the ministers that they’ve put in place a compulsory programme to teach children how to read, but there is no policy on reading books. They look at me blankly… I say that what’s going on is discriminatory. Children who come from homes where books are being read get access to the kinds of abstract and complex ideas that you can only get hold of easily through exposure to extended prose. The rest are being fed worksheets.

Ed doesn’t believe me. He tells me that he visited a school where they had a library in the playground. I tell them that I’ve been making a film for BBC4 about a school that wanted me to help them become what I call a book-loving school. Their school library is a couple of alcoves of old books. They have no contact with the public library down the road. Only a handful of children in the school are reading books. Jim seems interested. “What do you want from us?” he says. “A directive asking every local authority and every school to devise its own policy on the reading of books. I’ve got a 20-point outline that you could send out as a guideline for people to adapt.” “Send it to me,” says Jim. “I have already,” I say. “Send it to me again,” he says, “and let’s meet up after the programme goes out.”

Traditional history textbooks take a back seat to this highly creative presentation of the facts in DK’s Take Me Back.  Read Captain Cook’s Blog or Napoleon’s social networking site, not to mention the myriad other formats you will discover in this book, which is thoroughly satisfying in its visual appeal and imagination.  Wonderfully inspiring for graphic arts.  Definitely one for the school library and for the coffee table at home.

Take a trip down memory lane with Lucy Mangan as she browses the Puffin Archive in Rugby, Warwickshire, UK.  The exercise may also trigger some classic purchases for the school library.