Tag Archives: corona virus pandemic

Apr28

Interview with Chris Lewis

Posted on by
Standard

I’m starting this week out with a great support picture book for your little ones to understand the COVID19 situation, and help them become informed in a child friendly way. Chris Lewis wrote this book with fellow colleagues to help support parents explain to their younger children what is going on in the world. Haley and Comet Learn about COVID-19 is available as a FREE picture book and is available in Indonesian and Portuguese translations. I had a chance to talk to Chris Lewis about his writing routine, future projects, and what writing means to him.

1) Do you have a writing routine? Share what works for you.
Chris Lewis: After I have eaten with a cup of tea in the evening.

2) What subjects would you like to write about in future projects?
Chris Lewis: Business and technology subjects target and younger readers. Change Management and testing is on the cards.

3) What is writing to you in one sentence?
Chris Lewis: A privilege and a joy I am working every day to get better at.

Covid19PictureBkcoverHaley and Comet Learn about COVID-19 tells the story of two twins, Haley and Comet. They are confused about why they are not allowed to visit with friends, and their big brother isn’t allowed to go to school. Discover the journey the twins go on to find out how COVID 19 has affected their lives. This story is written for 5 years and up.

Haley and Comet Learn about COVID-19 is available at the following eBook store links:

English version: https://books2read.com/u/mVw5Y5
Indonesian version: https://books2read.com/u/bMpdg5
Portuguese version: https://books2read.com/u/mKDMqP

Apr19

Interview with Martika Shanel

Posted on by
Standard
AuthorBiopicMartikaShanel

Martika Shanel has written the inspirational picture book, I Am Loved & I Love Me

I’m still working hard to find helpful, supportive books for children during these crazy times. As a parent, one thing you might be searching for is a supportive book for your child’s mental well-being during the stress of the outbreak. I think I found something that can help.

I’ve located a marvelous book by author, Martika Shanel. She’s written a book to inspire youth to look inside themselves for love and acceptance. I Am Loved & I Love Me is a picture book that helps build an essential foundation at an early age and to help them build self-love with positive affirmations. I had the chance to talk with Martika about her childhood memories, what she has planned for future projects, and what writing means to her.

  • What is your favorite memory from reading as a child?

Martika Shanel: Getting to escape to other worlds is my favorite memory from reading as a child. And I enjoyed the fact that the selection of those worlds were endless–a remarkable concept to embrace at that time. I remember the library being my solace.

  • What projects would you like to write about in the future?

Martika Shanel: In the future, I would like to write books that help children build and solidify their foundation of self-love and acceptance at various stages of their formative years, even into adulthood. An outlier subject, for me, is writing a thriller novel that I have yet to mentally release (I cannot wait to get started!).

  • What is writing to you in one sentence?

Martika Shanel: Writing is a liberating medium, allowing one to release thoughts and move others in a multitude of directions.

I Am Final CoverI Am Loved & I Love Me helps promote positive affirmations with children. With uplifting talk and beautiful illustrations, this book will reinforce the significance of talking positive about oneself and looking towards your own inner beauty. This would make a great daily affirmation routine for any child during these uncertain times.

I Am Loved & I Love Me is available at https://www.insparead.com/merch.

For more information on Martika Shanel, visit her website at: www.martikashanel.com.

Apr1

Day 10: Last Day of The Lost Secret of Fairies FREE online Novel Study w/ essay test

Posted on by
Standard
imgres

Final Day of The Lost Secret of Fairies Novel Study: Final Exam Day!

Welcome to the final day of The Lost Secret of Fairies free online novel study. As of just an hour ago, as I’m writing this, the California governor has announced that California schools will be closed for the rest of the academic year, and maybe some changes will happen in the fall in regards to reopening schools. I could tell this was going to be for the long haul, and I am happy to be completing the support for parents in my home state, throughout the US and from my statistics, throughout the world.

I wrote my books for children and used the writing of them as instruction when I was in the classroom. To include them for novel study instruction to help teach reading seems to complete the circle of learning they were created for. I’m happy to have brought you this online novel study for my first book, and I would love to hear any feedback you have about using it.

summer1The Lost Secret of Fairies Novel Study Essay Test

So, with that said, here is the final activity to go with the novel study, the final essay test. If your child or student has been completing all the activities, including the summary, character change response worksheet and the theme/message worksheet, your little one is all ready for the essay test. They should have all the time they need to complete it, and they can use the book and their journal notes to help find examples and support.

LSOF Essay Test

Grading Criteria

I’ve included a rubric for you to help grade their answers. They should include examples and details of support from the story, their own ideas, and language from the worksheets they used during the novel study. Other words, they need complete sentence answers, topic sentences and closing sentences. The essay test and all the responses this week have been teaching basic essay response language and structure for your child. These are all standards in most school systems in the US and the world.

Below is a Grading Rubric for you to use. Traditional, 1-4 grading is used on these rubrics. If you want to change that from D grade to A Grade, you can. 1=D, 2=C, 3=B, 4=A. But I feel if your child has made an effort, worked hard, includes the language in a complete sentence and uses supporting details, they should get a high grade. It is up to you. As the parent, high praise from you will mean a lot. 😉

For those wondering minds, a passing grade in school that children would be working toward is the 3 on the rubric. It can also be helpful to show your child the rubric so they know what is expected of them before the essay test.

Rubric for Lost Secret of Fairies Novel Study Essay Test

When your child/student has finished the test, and you’ve looked it over and graded it, I’ve included a link to a completion certificate below. You can sign it and give it to your child.

LostSecretNovelStudyCertificate

Congratulations! You’ve completed a reading novel study unit with your child, and they’ve become a better reader and writer!

And that’s about it, folks! I want to thank you and your child for continuing with the novel study, and I hope they enjoyed reading the book. If they would like to continue the series, here are the links below for the three books that continue Wanda’s journey and adventures in the World of Fairy.

grmancover2

Book 2

The Lost Secret of the Green Man (Book 2)

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003LL3MQE

Barnes and Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-lost-secret-of-the-green-man-tiffany-turner/1112041152

Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/the-lost-secret-of-the-green-man-the-crystal-keeper-chronicles-book-2

iApple/iBooks: https://books.apple.com/us/book/lost-secret-green-man-crystal-keeper-chronicles-book/id543028109

dragoncoverlrg

Book 3 

The Lost Secret of Dragonfire (Book 3)

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Lost-Secret-Dragonfire-Crystal-Chronicles-ebook/dp/B079J4R22D

Barnes and Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-lost-secret-of-dragonfire-tiffany-turner/1114782699

Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/the-lost-secret-of-dragonfire-1

iApple/iBooks: https://books.apple.com/us/book/the-lost-secret-of-dragonfire/id616637319

Lost Secret - High Resolution (1)

Book 4

The Lost Secret of Time (Book 4)

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Lost-Secret-Time-Crystal-Chronicles-ebook/dp/B07GJZBPPY

Barnes and Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-lost-secret-of-time-tiffany-turner/1129320107

Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/the-lost-secret-of-time

iApple/iBooks: https://books.apple.com/us/book/the-lost-secret-of-time/id1428309465

Thank you to everyone that have participated in the novel study! I welcome all the feedback and invite you to follow my blog as I continue to post more learning activities and homeschooling support for parents in the future weeks.

Take care, stay safe, wash your hands, and we’ll get through this together!

-Mrs. Turner

***Tiffany Turner is the author of the children’s fantasy series, the Crystal Keeper Chronicles. She has had 18 years experience teaching in California as a public elementary teacher. She is currently tutoring in the private sector and continuing to write full time. 

 

 

 

 

 

Mar26

Day 6: The Lost Secret of Fairies Free Online Novel Study & Distance Learning Support

Posted on by
Standard
imgres

Day 6 of the Lost Secret of Fairies Free Online Novel Study

Welcome to Day 6 of my online novel study for my first book in my children’s fantasy series, The Lost Secret of Fairies. Today, I’ll be including a blog post activity to go along with the next set of study questions.

Here is a link to a blog post written by me on legends and myths in children’s literature. It is part of the standards to study myth and legends in 3rd, 4th and 5th grade. Novel studies and using real nonfiction blog posts is part of the standards approach to reading. To note, fifth grade does study Tale Tales and US folktales for its fairy/folktales. It is called: “Using Legends and Fairy Tales in Books”. I originally wrote this post to be used in this novel study and to support other teachers to have online nonfiction reading material.

Here are the activity directions. It can be used in conjunction with the novel study or as a separate children’s reading activity.

  1. Read the blog post “Using Legends and Fairy Tales in Books” by Tiffany Turner
  2. Print out the blog post if possible. Circle or highlight evidence or details you think are important.
  3. Now, answer the question about the blog post below. Write as many details as you can to support your answer using examples from the blog post.
  • How does an author use legends and fairy tales in their book?
  • Use evidence and examples from the blog post to support your answer.

For ELD and/or Special Learning Needs, I would often write out a framed language fill in answer sheet. Below is a handout that can be used for the above question to help create a full paragraph answer using supporting details from the nonfiction article. But this paragraph response sheet below will help all children in language structure and for building academic language.

Once your child or student as filled in their answers, they can recopy the paragraph in their best writing to learn the structure for academic language.

Paragraph Response to Using Fairy Tales

summer1Chapter 9-10: Study Guide Questions for The Lost Secret of Fairies

  1. What was decided at the Crystal Council?
  2. Who is Balkazaar? Why do you think he is behind the Queen’s disappearance?
  3. What are germites?
  4. What would you do if you were in Wanda’s place?

Bonus: Predict how you think Wanda will save the Queen.

Tomorrow, will be more study guide questions and more activities to go along with the novel study. Please comment below to let me know how you and your child, class or other distance learning students are enjoying the novel study and activities.

Until then, keep reading and learning!

Mrs. Turner

(Tiffany Turner)

 

Mar24

Isolation & Psychological Fallout During Corona Virus Pandemic: Poem and Journal Activity

Posted on by
Standard

I want to thank everyone that has been following along in my blog for the last week. I started self isolating on March 12 due to the fact I’m over 50, and have a heart condition. I went through a battle to get back to health through most of 2015, and I really don’t want to go back there. I’ve been through an induced coma, pneumonia, septic shock, all due to my heart blood clot. But I’m not sure if my body could survive COVID-19. So, I isolated or how it feels to me, am hiding from getting this disease.

Then, I saw this poem today on Facebook being passed around. So many people are sharing their art. I would like to share it with you.

“History will remember when the world stopped.

And the flights stayed on the ground.

And the cars parked on the street.

And the trains didn’t run.

 

History will remember when the schools closed.

And the children stayed indoors.

And the medical staff walked towards the fire.

And they didn’t run.

 

History will remember when the people fought.

For their old and their weak.

Protected by the vulnerable.

By doing nothing at all.

 

History will remember when the virus left.

And the houses opened.

And the people came out.

And hugged and kissed.

And started again.

 

Kinder than before.”

By Donna Ashworth

The poem above helped me this morning. Creating art, blogging and writing,  is helping me. But I also feel like I’m waking up in the middle of a dystopian novel each day, and it’s making all the zombie shows and apocalyptic shows more real. I guess this is because I live a lot of the time in my imagination which really helps my writing self. But for a real pandemic, it is creating a fear that I have to face daily.

But now, reality is partially like fiction these days. That makes it kind of weird. Like expecting the vampires and zombies to show up next. I’m sure marshal law is just around the corner like in the Handmaid’s Tale, and too many things in fiction are making an appearance in real life. Maybe the jokes on me, because I imagine all this and write stuff down. Some of it has go to come true, right?

I’d like to give credit to Donna Ashworth and say thank you for the use of her poem. I contacted her on Facebook after I read it, and can see the story of how her poem is spreading and helping others. I’d like to present you with some journaling questions for parents and children in use with the poem to help with journaling on this subject:

  • How are you feeling about being in isolation or the soon to come shelter in place for your area?
  • Write down some of how you’re feeling about the corona virus in your journal. How are you feeling? What fears do you have? What experiences have you had over the past few weeks?
  • How does art help you?
  • What kind of art can you create to express your feelings or experiences about being in isolation or fears of the corona virus?

Feel free to comment below. If you like, you can talk with your children and see if they would like to use the poem above as an inspiration to write in their journals today or create some art. They can paint, write a poem, story, a song, dance, or create what they feel is right.  I taught on 9/11/01 and the days that followed, and I had my students journal their feelings as that disaster in our nation’s history unfolded. This is another time where journaling our feelings can be helpful.

Feel free to use the questions above or even add questions below in the comments. This can be a discussion for my blog community following along with my novel study and homeschooling activities. I’d love to hear how you are feeling.

Take care, and be kind to each other.

-Tiffany Turner

(Mrs. Turner)

For more information on Donna Ashworth, please visit her website/blog:

Ladies Pass It On.