A Child Imagines! Review of "When Nana Says..."

When I read When Nana Says.... by Shannon Moore Fitzgerald, I immediately traveled back in time to when my own children  were little.  Ben, my son, surrounded himself with his toy cars in his bed, driving them on his pillow, naming them, and ultimately sleeping with them.  My twin daughters possessed myriad beanie babies, stuffed animals, and other assorted items which covered their beds.  Sometimes it was hard to find a spot for the child to lay due to the treasured toys.  With all three children, after learning to read, this assortment of animals and cars was ultimately replaced by books piled around the beds---a great imagination in a young child stimulates a love for reading.

The author describes her book on her website (Bold Moves Studio) this way: "Leah Jane is a little girl with a big imagination, who is not quite ready for naptime. When Nana Says… brings readers along on Leah Jane’s adventure that lands her tucked in her comfy bed. Share this story with your preschooler and naptime might just become a lot more fun. When Nana Says… is the first book in the series Another Leah Jane Story, stories inspired by the real Leah Jane, a young girl, with a big imagination, a creative spirit, and a heart full of love."


Although firm with the naptime rule, Nana allowed Leah Jane to embrace her imagination from pretending to be a baby tiger, to a polka-dotted puppy. The artwork is a perfect match to the text  Each page is a treasure--collages of fabric art, embroidery, and applique.  Ultimately, Leah Jane would settle down for her naps, clearly helped along by her love for all things pretend.  

Any child who loves imaginary play will love this book, and will love comparing what he or she likes to Leah Jane's preferences.    Pretend play is the foundation for language and literacy development, and When Nana Says... embraces this fact.

If you are interested in purchasing this, you can purchase here on Amazon.
or check it out on the author's website.

Imagination fosters reading

The author provided me with this book free to review. Other than that, I have no financial gain from the sales.  These thoughts are my own.

AAC Core Literacy Packet for "LOOK" and "GO"

Hopefully, absence makes the heart grow fonder--at least I hope so in my blogging relationship with my readers.

LOOK

 In August, after being retired from speech pathology for seven months, I took a job as a part-time deaf education teacher for my school system. I hadn't worked in the deaf education field since the early '80s, so needless to say, anxiety about the whole job thing crept in incessently day and night, and it took a while to convince myself that I actually was compentent, and could actually do good things with my little crew, ranging from age 3 to age 13 (I'm itinerant so I don't see them in one classroom--I go to four schools).  Life is an adventure, but for my hearing impaired kids, it truly is adventurous, with over half being from other countries--Guatemala, Philipines, and Iran.  I can't imagine the resilience it takes to being moved to another country in middle school and having to learn both American Sign Language and English, while your home and former languages were completely different.   Hats off to all of them!  You students have my undying admiration.    I wish I could highlight them here with beautiful pictures and biographies, but my readers will only be left to imagine.  They will be kept private, as they would want to be, as you and I want to be (except I do blog, so I choose not to be so private :)

GO

So, now that I've settled into my new job, I returned to my love for augmentative communication, core vocabulary, and aided language stimulation.  Here's a packet for helping students learn basic core vocabulary "LOOK" and "GO".   Although most of my hearing impaired children use either speech or some form of sign language as their primary means of communication, I have a few extra special children that benefit from an emphasis on core vocabulary, with their communication augmented by symbol use.

This is a literacy/activity pack to go with the core words “look” and “go”. Core vocabulary words are the most frequently used words by children, and are essential for any augmentative communication system.  This pack meant for the more linguistically challenged students and is perfect for speech/special education collaboration. This is nice for integrating literacy and language activities.  Clip art is from Smarty Symbols, and is copyrighted.  Use the core 36 location board on page 33 to model the words, or use one the student already has.

Enclosed are:

• “Look at Them Go” Interactive Book--pages 3-12

• Icons for the “Look at Them Go” book– page 13

• “Let’s Go Here” interactive book–pages 14-22

• Icons for “Let’s Go Here” –page 23

• “Green Means Go” craft Directions book –pages 24-29

• Communication Board for craft—page 30

• “Look Up! What do you see?” directions and checklist—pages 31-32

• Sample 36 location core vocabulary communication board—page 33

•Extension activities –page 34

Go to my Teachers Pay Teachers store to check out the preview and to purchase if you wish.  If you have extra special students who are struggling with core vocabulary, you may wish to consider this purchase. As usual, if you are a starving CF, or struggling financially, email me at speech40@gmail.com for a copy of this product.

Enjoy your fall weather. It's been warm in NC.  I want the leaves to turn.
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