BOOKS FOR CHILDREN, EDUCATION, AND HOMESCHOOLING
Home of Barb's People Builders

Education is our business!
We supply the literature, workbooks, and teaching
materials you need in all subjects, preschool through high school.

Want to know the person behind this website? Check out her writing on Squidoo.

Price codes and discount policy
Prices are subject to change at any time.
Please check availability by email before calling.
Order by title, catalog number,
 and complete price with code letter.

How to find what you need on this site.

Need it now? Try our ebooks.
 

 

Click the link above to see our wide variety of ebooks available on this site for immediate download with no shipping fees. Use your credit card and pay on the ebookdestination site.

 

What's New? / Articles / Catalog / Blogs
To Make a Purchase Order
Frequently Asked Questions / Links
Used Books / Sale / Bargain Books
Keep informed about special offers & new books
 Important Contact Information
Upcoming Events
We accept PayPal and school purchase orders.
 

See our many products you can personalize: greeting cards, keychains, magnets, hats, T-shirts, aprons, postcards, and more at our Zazzle store.
Search    

LITERACY ACTIVITIES AND CENTERS  

 

Balancing Literacy: A Balanced Approach to Reading and Writing Instruction by Caroline A. Coleman. Creative Teaching Press, 2001. 128 pages. Are you wondering what a balanced literature program contains? Or how you incorporate literacy activities into your already busy school day? Just what types of activities are right for your class? This book will help you find answers to these questions. It provides an overview of each component of literary: guided reading and writing; independent reading and writing; modeled reading and writing; shared reading and writing; and interactive writing. You will also learn how to implement these components with literature circles, reader's and writer's workshops, and literacy centers.

This book will help you to access students' needs, customize an appropriate language arts program, and balance out your literacy program. For grades 3-5. BTH-2499. $13.49-D

Bookmaking Bonanza: Creative Bookmaking Ideas to Motivate Beginning Readers and Writers by Kimberly Jordana and Kim Adsit. Creative Teaching Press, 2004. Children love stories-especially those they write themselves. Bookmaking Bonanza includes more than 50 research-based, classroom-tested bookmaking activities that expand writing time into a literacy adventure! Students will transform empty cereal boxes, paper napkins, cardboard tubes, and other household objects into books that explore the five critical areas of balanced reading instruction. They will practice one-to-one correspondence, left-to-right orientation, top-to-bottom orientation, letter formation, using picture clues, and chunking. They will also explore varied literacy concepts such as fiction, nonfiction, poetry, rhyme, and sentence structure. 80 pages. BTH-5139. $12.59-D

  Build-a Sentence: Hands-on Literacy Center Activities by Majella Maas. Creative Teaching press, 2007. The activities in this book move students from the ability to read words to the ability to manipulate words into concrete, meaningful, and readable sentences. Includes full-color word cards, sentence-building mats, and reproducible activities to extend student earning. 56 pages. Grades K-1. BTH-5479. $10.79-D

Build-a Story: Hands-on Literacy Center Activities by Emily Gamis. Creative Teaching press, 2007. Through the interactive, hands-on activities in this book, students use a variety of strategies to read sentences and sequence them into short stories. Includes sentence cards, picture cards, story-building mats, and activities to extend student learning. 56 pages. Grades 1-2. BTH-5480. $10.79-D

Build-a Word: Hands-on Literacy Center Activities by Emily Gamis. Creative Teaching press, 2007. The interactive, hands-on activities in this book focus on two primary spelling patterns: consonant-vowel-consonant (CVC) and consonant-vowel-consonant-vowel (CVCV). Includes full-color letter cards and picture cards, word-building mats, and reproducible activities to extend student learning. 56 pages. Grades K-1. BTH-5481. $10.79-D

 

 

Building Literacy Skills Through Art for grades Pre K - 1 by Jennifer Dorval. Teacher Created Materials. 208 pages. Reproducible activities are organized by objectives:

    Letter Recognition
    Classifying Skills
    Recognizing Rhymes
    Building Math Skills and Vocabulary
    Expressing Feelings
    Storytelling
    Word Recognition
    Story Recall
    Motor Coordination

Each activity has a link to literacy, a materials list, and art project instructions. At the end of the book you will find an Early Childhood Literacy Checklist, reproducible reward bookmarks, a reading record sheet for students, and an illustrated Materials Glossary accompanied by a Materials Index. BTH-2987. $12.99*

Early Childhood Centers. Grades PreK - K

 

  Early Learning Skill Cards: Titles in this series are ideal for early learning, bilingual, ELL, or ESL instruction. Each 8.5 x 11 card contains four full-color pictures with perforations for separating them into four 4.25" x 3.5" separate cards. On the back of each full-color card is a blank and white reproducible image of the picture and its name in English and Spanish, A teacher guide is included in each package. PreK-2. Available in eight different subject titles. Follow title link for details

 

From the Page to the Stage: Enhancing Literacy Through Puppetry, Drama, and Retelling by Mary Beth Barr. A Rigby Press publication for teachers of grades K-3. The author explains why drama is important in the development of oral language skills and how to incorporate its use into the curriculum you must teach anyway. She says: "..role-playing, drama, puppetry, and storytelling will not take away from what you teach. Instead they will provide the tools with which to teach the concepts you are already required to present. The material will stay with your students longer and will be more fun for all involved." (p. 14)

This  book covers basic puppetry techniques, making simple and inexpensive puppets, and making puppet theaters.  It also contains finger plays and action rhymes, using drama to support guided reading, and scripts and fun recipes for popular fairy tales. Assessment pages are included, and there are also references and suggestions for further reading. Portions intended for classroom use are reproducible.  144 pages. BTH-1336. $13.46-D

 

Flipping Over Making Words Series. Teacher Created Resources, 2007. These are great for teaching emergent readers how to make words just by flipping pages in a flip book! Each Flip book is accompanied by a word list and several activity ideas for teachers and a variety of reproducible student handouts. Books are available for grades K-3.

    Flipping Over Making Words Grade K by Jessica M. Dubin Kissel. Topics in this book include short vowels, vowel switching, long vowels, and word patterns. 176 pages. BTH-4142. $16.19-D
    Flipping Over Making Words Grade 1 by Jessica M. Dubin Kissel. Topics in this book include short and long vowels, letter blends, double vowels, R-controlled words, digraphs, silent letters, and common endings. 176 pages. BTH-4143. $16.19-D
    Flipping Over Making Words Grade 2 by Jessica M. Dubin Kissel. Topics in this book include short and long vowels, letter blends, prefixes, suffixes,  silent letters, disappearing letters, and double letters. 176 pages. BTH-4144. $16.19-D
       Flipping Over Making Words Grade 3 by Jessica M. Dubin Kissel. Topics in this book include Silent letters,  letter blends, digraphs, irregular word endings, compound words, contractions, common suffixes, and sight words. 176 pages. BTH-4145. $16.19-D

 

Full-Color Literacy Activities Series: The books in this series are designed for busy teachers of young students in grades 1-2.  They provide easy-to-implement hands-on activities which require little or no preparation, in full color, and ready to use. Answers are provided. Each book is $17.99-D

  • Math Literacy Activities by Lorin Klistoff. The hands-on developmentally appropriate activities are built around the latest math standards and will provide students with fun-filled learning experiences that support the following areas of math: shapes, patterns, numbers, time, operations,  fractions, word problems, money, charts and graphs, and measurement. 176 pages. BTH-1437. $17.99-D
     

  • Language Arts Literacy Activities by Lorin Klistoff.  Busy first and second grade teachers will appreciate the convenience of these colorful, fun-filled, ready-to-use learning activities that are based on the latest language arts standards. This book covers beginning sounds, middle sounds, ending sounds, short vowels, long vowels, word families, compound words, contractions, antonyms, synonyms, parts of speech, punctuation, capitalization, friendly-letter format, comprehension, sequencing events, sentence order, and more. 176 pages. BTH-1439. $17.99-D
     

  • Science Literacy Activities by Lorin Klistoff. Busy teachers will love these  hands-on developmentally appropriate activities which are built around the latest science standards. These colorful, ready-to-use activities  will provide students with fun-filled learning experiences that support the following areas of science: five senses; living and non-living things; plants and animals; life cycles; human body; water cycle; seasons; fossils; sink and float; dinosaurs; natural resources; solids, liquids and gases; and magnets. 176 pages.  BTH-1438. $17.99-D
     

  • Social Studies Literacy Activities by Lorin Klistoff.  Busy first and second grade teachers will appreciate the convenience of these colorful, fun-filled, ready-to-use learning activities that are based on the latest social studies standards. This book covers national holidays; historical buildings, statues, monuments and symbols; timelines; historical stories; key figures in history; now and long ago; importance of rules; political system of the U.S.; transportation; origin of food; interdependence of people; and use of a map.  176 pages. BTH-1436. $17.99-D

 

 

Literacy  Assessment in the Early Grades: Tips, Tools, and Evaluation Strategies by Laura Townsend. Rigby Press. 176 pages. For grades K-3. This book will supply all busy primary teachers need to make the most of daily observations and assessment opportunities. It has tips for planning and managing assessments, blackline master forms, and strategies for evaluating your assessments. It includes eleven reproducible benchmark books for use with oral reading records as well as the following assessment tools: parent surveys; interest inventories; anecdotal records; alphabet knowledge surveys; reading checklists; oral reading records for the included benchmark books; retelling forms; reading conference forms; comprehension checklists; writing checklists and self-assessments; and writing conference forms. BTH-1221. $16.19-D

Literacy Centers: What Your Other Kids Do During Guided-Reading Groups by Irene Allen and Susan Peery. Creative Teaching Press, 2000. How do you work one-on-one with a student while the rest of the class learns independently? How do you make guided reading possible while keeping the rest of the class "on-task"? How do you provide your students with continuing practice in basic skills to reach each student? How do you integrate the content areas in a way that is fun for your students? Just use this book! It features 19 centers designed for intermediate students and their teachers. These classroom-tested, teacher-approved centers are simple to design, easy to set up, and endlessly adaptable. This book also provides suggestions for center management and assessment, center activities from a variety of learning modalities, lists of helpful resources-such as a list of safe, fun, and educational Web sites for your Computer Center- and reproducibles to minimize preparation and planning time. 144 pages. For grades 3-5. BTH-5478. $17.99-D

Literacy Through Dramatic Play: Stories, Songs, and Rhymes with Reproducible Hats by Diane Dzamtovski. Rigby Press, © 2003. For Pre K-2. Reproducible for classroom use. 96 pages. The stories, songs, and rhymes in this resource have simple plots and memorable characters from a variety of cultures. Patterns for hats and other props are included. Selections for dramatic play are The Bear and the Turtle; The Bear Went Over the Mountain; Goldilocks and the Three Bears; Little Bear, Little Bear (a Spanish Counting Rhyme); Itsy Bitsy Spider; Little Miss Muffet; Anansi and Turtle; There Was a Little Turtle; Little Fish ( A Spanish Nursery Rhyme); The Little Kittens; Hey Diddle Diddle; The Ugly Duckling; The Crab and its Mother; The Lion and the Mouse; Old MacDonald; The Cow on the Mountain (A Chinese Nursery Rhyme). BTH-2574. $11.66-D

 

Take It to Your Seat Literacy Centers K-1: Sacks Full of Learning: an Evan-Moor publication. This has 12 self-contained centers that are easy to make. There are full-color patterns and task cards that can be used with individuals or small groups. Students can practice reading and writing in the following areas: visual discrimination, color words, word families, rhyming words, initial and final consonants, and beginning writing. For more details and a chance to browse the book on line, follow the link in the title. BTH-2712. $22.49-D

Take it to Your Seat Literacy Centers 3-4: Folders Full of Learning, an Evan-Moor publication. This has 16 self-contained centers that are easy to make. There are full-color patterns and task cards that can be used with individuals or small groups. Students can practice the following language skills: analogies, prefixes and suffixes, synonyms and antonyms, main idea, parts of speech, and descriptive paragraphs.  For more details and a chance to browse the book on line, follow the link in the title. BTH-761. $22.49-D

 

 

 

************************************************************************************************

We're in the Pacific Time Zone
Our normal office hours when we answer the phone are 10: 30 AM - 4 PM Monday - Friday.
We answer email and ship at other times, but normally take Sundays off.
 

We prefer you ask your questions about products and availability by e-mail, since that gives us more time to prepare a thoughtful answer and keeps us from playing phone tag. Please remember to put our email address in your address book if you have a spam filter or you won't ever get your answer unless you also leave a phone number. We cannot usually tell you immediately over the phone if a book is here. We have to walk two blocks to check the warehouse, so I usually have to call you back or email you anyway.  We do check our e-mail frequently throughout the day when we are at home. If we should be out, and you leave a message on our answering machine, we sometimes cannot hear the phone number clearly to return your call. Those are some reasons why we recommend you email us first. If you want us to call you, please leave your phone number and time zone.
When you do email us, please do not leave the subject blank or just say "Hi" or "Hello" as the subject. We delete those before opening because a lot of spam messages look like that. 
We have supplied a subject line in the link provided above that will guarantee your mail will be opened fast.
Or call (800)925-8587 (not before 10 AM or after 10 PM Pacific Time)


About Us / Upcoming Events
Back to Home Page /
Privacy Statement (updated in April, 2007)
Articles / Catalog / Awards
Contact Information
Links to our Favorite Sites / Frequently Asked Questions