Saturday, November 05, 2005
Thought that I s
hould introduce you to one of my favorite resources: Scholastic...Yes, this is the same company that sells books at school book fairs... Scholastic is the largest publisher and distributor of children’s books and is the largest operator of school-based book clubs and school-based book fairs in the United States. The Company is also a leading publisher of children’s books distributed through the trade channel and the leading distributor in the United States of children’s books through direct-to-home programs for children ages five and younger.
I give out book order forms to the children in my family child care. I offer the Honeybee Club for Toddlers and the Firefly Club for Pre-Kindergarten. Not all parents order, but many do and they appreciate the opportunity to buy age appropriate books for their children at affordable prices. Not only do I provide a service for no cost and little work, I gain the opportunity to buy discounted books for my child care as well.
But aside from the book club, the Scholastic website offers great teacher resources and activities in their Teacher area. These too, are categorized by age and I find the Pre-Kindergarten section the most helpful, but this would depend on the children in your care. They provide ideas,online activities, lesson plans, organizers, book recommendations, and much more. There is a Teacher's Store to purchase resources that you may be in search of and you can even sign up to set up your own web page if you don't already have one. It is pretty simple to set up and use.
You can also sign up for a "Teacher Update" e-mail to tell you about new content and upcoming teachable moments and how to utilize them.
If you haven't been to Scholastic, I urge you to check it out. Everything we can do to help promote children's literacy is a great advantage.
