Products for April's spring fever days: Lace-a-Person Puppet kit / King's Castle Jumbo Look-Under puzzle

Teaching Pre K-8, Apr 1995 by Broderick, Patricia, Raymond, Allen

April and kids' high jinks seem to go hand in hand. The outside beckons, and kids' fancies just naturally turn to thoughts of...anything but school. However, we think you'll find several items in this month's column to help you keep things--and kids--moving right along. Whether you choose puppets, handbooks or trade books, you can't make a mistake with any of these super products. Happy springtime...and enjoy a little spring fever yourself.

Specially for you, from Lauri... a great Lace-a-Person Puppet kit This provides four multi-cultural people puppets to be laced (front and back). Additional yarn for the puppets' hair is in the package. Also included are patterns for four sets of removable "career" outfits which are interchangeable from puppet to puppet. The outfits are attached with Velcro(TM). The patterns provide for: a carpenter's hard hat, overalls and hammer; a police officer's cap, cap band, shirt, pants, stripes for pants and shields; a nurse's (or doctor's) smock, stethoscope and cap; and a firefighter's helmet and coat, badge number, shield and axe.

When each puppet is laced together, children (or you) can decorate, add facial features and hair. These are hand puppets and the felt is in four colors--a pinkish tone, and three shades of brown encompassing light beige, medium brown and dark brown. We think this can be a wonderful activity to promote real language in various social studies areas Just $10.95 plus s/h.

And we have to tell you about one more product from those good people at Lauri--the King's Castle Jumbo Look-Under puzzle. Lauri just can't be beat for those wonderful rubber puzzles which are most kids' introduction to acquiring specific spatial skills. The "Jumbo Look-Under" puzzle has 13 large gothic shapes to form the picture puzzle and 20 blue, interlocking pieces to make the surround. Overall size is 16" x 16." "Look-Under" the shapes to see the printed four-piece jig-saw assembly board with the decorated castle rooms depicted. The pieces are, of course, washable, durable and quiet. As language developers and for cooperative learning, these products are absolutely super. $18.95 plus s/h.

Lauri has so many other great products, we wish we had space to report on them all. To learn more about this great company's products, call Clyde Wentworth, knowledgeable and nice president of Lauri at (800) 451-0520.

Theme of the Month... is a 176-page collection of activities from Teacher Created Materials that will take you and your kids through the year and across the curriculum. The book is structured to provide one thematic unit for each month, with content appropriate to the season. However, the whole plan keeps the information flexible, so you, the teacher, are in the driver's seat. You decide how long the theme will last and which of the many activities you'll use. Each theme includes literature selections, poetry, planning guides, writing and language experience ideas, bulletin board ideas, homework suggestions, group projects, bibliographies. The actual themes included are: multicultural folk tales, monsters, nutrition, celebrations, candy, mail, reptiles, ecology and ice cream.

Upbeat, contemporary, and providing rich experiences for primary kids; what more can we ask? This handy 8-1/2" x 11" paperbound book of reproducibles is available through your local supply dealer. Price: $14.95.

Scholastic only publishes... really good things. This paperbound, 96-page, 8-1/2 x 11" book for grades 4 to 8, "Mental Math--Computation Activities for Anytime" is, a handy package of creative ideas to help your kids use a thinking process requiring the individual to invent procedures to deal with the unique computation example at hand. (Pat says she was doing this years ago and no one appreciated her very creative counting techniques--fingers, toes, etc.)

The activities are grouped by the four operations, but the content does not have to be used in any specific sequence. More important is the introduction to the four basic strategies for doing mental computation: decompose numbers, make easy numbers, substitute an equal number and compensation. These are simple concepts you'll quickly recognize when you see the examples in the handbook, so they're no problem to teach.

Lots of the activities included can be shared by kids with their families and that's certainly an added value. For real-world math experiences for your kids, this one's a gem at $10.95.

Who's Where...

Lauri, Inc.

Clyde Wentworth

P.O. Box F

Phillips-Avon, ME 04966

Scholastic Professional Books

Helen Sorvillo

555 Broadway

New York, NY 10012

Teacher Created Materials, Inc.

Rachelle Coombs

P.O. Box 1040

Huntington Beach, CA 92647