Children's Books - Keeping up

I was talking with someone about children's fiction and they asked me how I kept up with what was being and had been published. This coincided with my frustration at finding out about several books that I'd missed. Normally I just go and browse in Waterstone's. Occasionally, when we visit London, I'll do Foyle's and the second-hand bookshops around Shaftesbury Avenure.
There are a couple of good websites. For keeping up to date, I subscribe to the lovereading4kids newsletter

http://www.lovereading4kids.co.uk/

whereas for exploring an author and reviews, there are various sites

http://booksforkeeps.co.uk/
http://www.guardian.co.uk/childrens-books-site

and individual author sites

The two books that I'd missed being published were Frank Cottrell Boyce's second Chitty Chitty Bang Bang book (Race Against Time) and Riddell & Stewart's The Phantom of Blood Alley.

To be truthful, a lot of my books come from charity shops as they are so affordable. I picked up a hardback, first US edition of Clay by David Almond at the weekend in Newcastle for £1.99. It was even signed. I know I'm sad but to think that the person who gives me so much pleasure when I read their book (and David Almond is certainly one) has actually held my copy.

Not all my purchases give me pleasure. Some I get quite screwed up over. More about that in a future blog.

Animation Club - First Meeting

The children and I both turned up ready to get going. A quick chat and then on with it.
Not quite! The PCs were being upgraded so we had to use the laptops. They took an age to boot, some just died, but we did get PowerPoint loaded and started to animate.
Two stumbling blocks. The resources were on my hard drive and I couldn't get them onto the school's system. Secondly, I've been using PowerPoint 2010, the school uses 2003.
The children were fantastic. They applauded my example, were supportive of each other and very patient. By the next time we meet, we'll have the PCs purring and the resources (anim gifs, backgrounds, props, characters and sound effects) in place. 

Our theme is going to be Superhero Saves Christmas. What super-power will their hero have? What tragedy will they turn on its head?
My basic storyboard is below.

My  try at animation in ppt as an anim gif

Just out of interest, when we were at the Wellcome Museum last weekend, I noticed they had a section about Superheroes or rather making humans super. How do you really give humans superior strength and senses? Visit their website for some ideas and information.

Too Noisy - an app that works.

One group I was teaching today was a bit excited and noisy so I produced my iPad and ran the Too Noisy app. I'd never used it before and was sceptical about its effectiveness. The children did quieten down, regularly looked at the app on the shelf and kept the noise in the green zone.

Too Noisy screenshot

If you've got an iPad, maybe you'd like to try it or one of the other similar products in the App Store.

Meat, Fish & Alternatives

This short blog leads on from my two on Healthy Living. 

Firstly, children seem to find it difficult to distinguish between the food "chemicals" and food groups we talk about. Teachers should pay particular attention to this and try their best to clarify the situation. 
This reminded me of confusion caused by a local organisation which provided free school support on Healthy Lifestyles. After they'd been into schools, pupils came to my sessions talking about "meat, fish and alternatives". They knew different meats and different fish but had no idea what "alternatives" were. Many believed the "alternatives" was an actual protein food!. There is a moral hear about using outside bodies - be wary and be prepared to challenge.

Similarly, in the last couple of days pupils have grouped "fat and sugar" together and had a different set called carbohydrates. They were unaware that sugars are carbohydrates and should be placed in that group. We need to be clear. I think fat and sugar were linked because they are "energy" foods or because they were foods you should limit your intake of.

Healthy Living - Day Two

Today was divided into three sessions rather than two and I worked with Y3/4. I tried to cater my lecture to them and changed my video example to be less extreme. Yesterday I used a public information film likening smoking to Russian roulette whereas today it was a cartoon about nicotine addiction. 
After a quick recap of 2Simple 2Publish Leaflet, we were away. Pupils chose images to attract attention to their leaflet and added in relevant explanatory information. They did a brilliant job and, as the last group had slightly longer to work on their leaflets, several finished and printed them out with obvious pride in their creations.

See also two parallel blogs "Meat, fish and alternatives" and "Noisy Time".

Healthy Living - Day One

Today I was working on Healthy Living with Year 5 & 6. IT was a minor problem, almost predictably, with software going missing and the projector determined to have its filters cleaned even though they'd only just been done. However, the two session went really well.

First, my lecture was well received and the children showed a good depth of knowledge and participated with enthusiasm. We sang along to "Skin" by Roy Bailey and listened to a poem, "I wish I'd looked after my teeth".

I could have predicted a slight hiccup when talking about foods and food chemicals. I wish I'd had more time to clarify this for them. Similarly, linking sugar with carbohydrates where I could have done with my "popper beads".
The activity today was Comic Life and didn't they do well. I reminded them of the software, pointed them to the images and asked them to produce work we could print and circulate to parents. I was very impressed by their design skills as well as the content of text boxes and speech bubbles. 

One more point. I should have had a list of keywords for the children. I had intended to use the projector in the room but it was broken. Tomorrow I'll have a printed list.

Death - A self-portrait

Another blog about our London trip. 
We went to the Wellcome Museum near St Pancras Railway Station to see this exhibition about Death. It was fascinating. 

Highlights for me were:-
    - the paintings of James Ensor
    - two Japanese paintings showing "frollicking skeletons"
    - a series of prints of War by Otto Dix from 1924.
    - a huge plasticine sculpture from an Argentinian collective, Mondongo
    - some fabulous carvings from around the world.

Mealtime in the trenches - Otto Dix

Skeletons warming themselves - James Ensor

The exhibition has only just opened and goes on until the 24th Feb 2013. If you're in the capital, give yourself a treat and go see it. The other parts of the museum are equally as fascinating and provide hundreds of talking points about the human body, the human condition and medicine.
The gift shop has some fun things and some very expensive jewellery.
PS Photography isn't allowed so these images are from the wonderful web.
PPS See also my blog about Dia de los Muertos.
PPS Apparently some people are now appointing executors to deal with their "virtual" legacy - tweets, blogs, emails etc.