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  • Create a Lunar New Year Fortune-Teller in this Fun Literacy Craft

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    Create a Lunar New Year Fortune-Teller in this Fun Literacy Craft
  • Celebrate Lunar New Year and Boost Literacy with a Storytelling Lion Puppet

    By . . .

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    Celebrate Lunar New Year and Boost Literacy with a Storytelling Lion Puppet
  • Teach Kids Letter Sounds in this Fun Story Time Activity for Chinese New Year

    By . . .

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    Teach Kids Letter Sounds in this Fun Story Time Activity for Chinese New Year
  • Celebrate Lunar New Year with this Brain-Building Story Time Activity for Young Kids

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    Celebrate Lunar New Year with this Brain-Building Story Time Activity for Young Kids

Create a Lunar New Year Fortune-Teller in this Fun Literacy Craft

January 25, 2021

By Michelle Luke As spring begins, so does a new year for people from certain cultural traditions, including the Chinese tradition that my family follows. This Spring Festival is a time to greet the Lunar New Year and welcome a new animal from the Chinese zodiac. In this tradition, each year is the year of a different zodiac animal. People born in the year of a particular animal are said to possess some of that animal’s qualities. For example, those born in the year of the rabbit are . . .

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Celebrate Lunar New Year and Boost Literacy with a Storytelling Lion Puppet

January 20, 2021

By Michelle Luke We all know reading aloud to kids is great for literacy. And inviting them to retell the stories in their own words afterwards can make it even better. Retelling helps deepen kids’ comprehension and support the oral language skills that underpin successful reading and writing.  In this story time activity, we explore Chinese traditions for the Lunar New Year. In traditional celebrations, a mythical Chinese lion dances in the new year to bring good luck and scare away . . .

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Teach Kids Letter Sounds in this Fun Story Time Activity for Chinese New Year

January 18, 2021

Chinese Zodiac_03

By Chrysta Naron Happy Year of the Ox!  In China, each new year is characterized by one of the 12 animals of the Chinese zodiac. For 2021, it’s the ox. In this Lunar New Year story time activity, we’ll delve into this zodiac by reading Ruby’s Chinese New Year by Vickie Lee. This wonderful book is a modern interpretation of the traditional Chinese zodiac story, filled with the love of a young girl for her grandmother. (It also shares the classic tale at the end of the . . .

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Celebrate Lunar New Year with this Brain-Building Story Time Activity for Young Kids

January 13, 2021

Bringing in Lunar New Year_01

By Chrysta Naron Happy New Year! Lunar New Year, that is. Whether Lunar New Year is part of your family’s traditions or something you’d like your child to learn about, this activity is a fun way to share literacy and learning around this celebration. A book is always my number one choice for diving into any holiday or topic with children. And for this activity, I highly recommend Grace Lin’s Bringing in the New Year. Its vibrant illustrations, fold out pages, and simple text are a joyous . . .

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Three Bookish New Year’s Resolutions Worth Keeping

January 11, 2021

To be honest, I don't want to read for a certain number of minutes per day or tackle a specified number of books in a particular genre. I'm not going to log library and bookstore visits or rate my annual reads in Excel spreadsheets, either. It's just not that kind of year. An intensive reading challenge with numerous deadlines and requirements is more likely to stress me out than spark joy this year.  Even in the best of times, I'm more of a . . .

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Conversation Hearts Activity: Teach Reading with this Fun Valentine’s Game

January 6, 2021

Conversation Heart Feature resized

By Chrysta Naron I love a holiday! Any holiday is a reason to change up our reading games and reinvigorate them with a new theme. (It also gives me a reason to use my copious amounts of glitter.) What better way to celebrate Valentine’s Day and literacy than to weave together love, candy, and letters! This literacy activity lets children draw their own version of those ubiquitous candy conversation hearts and then try to create words with them. Children attempt to make as many words as . . .

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Try this Sweet Alphabet Game and Story Time Activity for Valentine’s Day

January 4, 2021

Love Monster_09

By Chrysta Naron Teaching reading and all the early literacy skills that underpin it requires time and repetition. As a teacher, I always seek activities that keep this practice variable and exciting. And as a certified chocoholic, how could I pass up the chance to mix up Valentine’s Day chocolate and literacy into one fun learning game? This activity begins with spending quality time reading a sweet picture book to your child. A part of Rachel Bright’s Love Monster series, Love Monster . . .

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Fourteen Sweet Picture Books About Love for Valentine’s Day

December 30, 2020

Valentine's Picture Books

By Karen Williams It’s the season of love, and Valentine's Day presents us with the perfect opportunity to explore the concept of love with our little ones. How does love make us feel? How do we show our friends and family we love them? What does love have to do with being kind? These 14 children’s picture books about love reinforce early literacy and offer a wonderful starting point for conversatins about love in all its forms. Whether it’s love for the planet, love for our friends, or . . .

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Celebrate Martin Luther King, Jr. with These 9 Thought-Provoking Books

December 28, 2020

A Place to Land by Barry Wittenstein

By Maya Payne Smart There are hundreds of books dedicated to exploring the life, dreams, and work of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Among picture books alone, approaches to King’s story include cradle-to-grave biographies, roundups of his famous speeches and quotes, and deep dives into stories of the March on Washington, the Montgomery Bus Boycott, his memorial in Washington, D.C., and more.  So how’s a parent to choose which books are best to explore with their child? Here are a few . . .

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DIY Book Craft: Super-Simple 2-Step Elastic Bookmark

December 23, 2020

Elastic Bookmark_Cover

At last! A bookmark that won’t slide out of place and get lost in the depths of kids’ backpacks (or yours). Bookmarks are key tools in raising readers, and we’ve got you covered with this super-simple, two-step bookmark craft that makes adorable, functional page markers in minutes flat. All you need are some simple materials and a bit of creativity—or just start with our examples.   You can easily turn these elastic bookmarks into an awesome holiday craft, gift, or party favor by . . .

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Hey There, I’m Maya!

Maya Smart

I’m Maya Payne Smart, a journalist, book lover, and literacy advocate. I split my time between deep reading and slow writing, often about dynamic women who lift as they climb. My focus? Promoting a #litrich lifestyle for families and individuals. I aim to show parents what it takes to raise fluent readers and to connect people of all ages to great books and authors. I also share productivity tips, interviews, and more, when inspiration strikes.

About   |   Why I Blog   |   Austin Woman Cover Story

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