This afternoon I’m giving a presentation to school teachers attending the Sandberg Literacy Institute at University of Toledo. Part of my job is to give them ideas of how to use Hanni and Beth: Safe & Sound in the classroom. I figured heck, as long as I’m gathering resources to share with these teachers this afternoon, why not also share these terrific resources with you, my loyal blog readers?
An entire lesson plan devoted to Hanni and Beth: Safe & Sound is right there for the taking on a web site called Learning to Give. The site suggests “Reading Experiences to Inspire Acts of Kindness,” and features lists and lists of activities for kids who read our book. Example:
During Reading
ASK: How does Hanni keep Beth safe during the day? What senses does Hanni need to use to help Beth?
SHOW: Look at the pictures of Hanni guiding Beth.
CONNECT: How is the way that Hanni takes care of Beth similar to how your parents or friends take care of you, or how you help others? For example, have you ever helped a younger child or elderly person cross a street or perform a task? Imagine what kind of help you would need if you could not see or hear or if you could not move easily.
The site also mentions Braille:
In addition to having special dogs to help them get places, those with a visual impairment also have a special alphabet that helps them read. This alphabet is called Braille. It is made up of dots that are raised off a piece of paper, so a person can feel them. All letters are made up of a combination of six dots. For more information, go to the Monroe County Women’s Disability Network webpage on Braille. Practice writing your name in Braille.
You can order Hanni and Beth: Safe & Sound in a special print-Braille format (no illustrations) from Seedlings Braille Books for Children. Braille words appear directly under the printed words, providing visually-impaired children and their sighted parents and teachers a wonderful way to enjoy learning together. The Seeing Eye also offers oodles of resources for teachers and librarians.
And finally, this fantastic resource: Hanni and Beth: Safe & Sound is one of the books on the Martha Speaks Read-Aloud Book Club list. Each book selected for the Martha Speaks Book Club is coordinated with a Martha Speaks episode on PBS. For Hanni and Beth: Safe & Sound, PBS suggest kids watch an episode where Martha wants to pursue her dream of becoming a real firehouse dog, but then realizes the job is not as easy as it seems.
You can download this episode from the PBS Kids site here.
The Martha Speaks Read-Aloud Book Club resource guide is three pages long so I can’t go into all the details here. It does suggest inviting a special guest to read-aloud sessions, so if any of you teachers or librarians are thinking ahead about special events for the next school year, please know: Hanni and I would love to come.
So glad you’re reaching out to teachers and sharing collected lesson plans. I’m so proud to have published such a worthwhile addition to classrooms. Good luck, today, Beth, and thank you for working so hard to promote Hanni and Beth: Safe & Sound. You’re the model author for a small publisher.
Francine
…and Blue marlin Publications is the model publisher for a small author, Francine! Funny, at the Q&A yesterday one of the teachers said “During your presentation you said you, as the author, helped choose who did the illustrations for your book. That’s not normal for a publisher, is it? Why do you think your publisher let you help decide on the illustrator?”
Answer: my publisher is cool.
Well, actually the answer was longer than that. The question gave me a chance to brag about Blue marlin Publications and also talk about the many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many advantages of working with a small publisher.
Especially when that small publisher happens too be BlueMarlin.
Stu, You’re right — that theme song *is* catchy! Did some research and found out the music & Theme Song for Martha Speaks is Composed by a Canadian named Daniel Ingram. He recently won some award for his work on MTV’s TV series, “About a Girl.” Don’t know a thing about that TV series but maybe the music is good there, too?
Beth…..thanks for sharing. I put this into my Saved Mail folder and next year when I’m back teaching will DEFINITELY use it in one of
my reading groups.
Excellent resources! I am forwarding to all of my teacher friends!!
Thanks, Marilee and Maria! I’m grateful that those folks at that Literary Institute at University of Toledo asked me to give this presentation — it motivated me to finally put these resources together. This Fall when schools ask Hanni and me to come visit, I’ll direct them to this blog, they can pull some resources together before we arrive. Even schools who can’t manage to have us come visit can make good use of these lesson plans, too.
If any of your teacher friends do end up using the lesson plans in class, I’d love to hear from them, find out if the lesson plan worked well, how the students responded.
But I’ll wait until Fall for that – for now, enjoy the summer!
This is so neat! I shared it with my teacher friends. love it!
Must admit, I think it’s pretty neat, too! I appreciate you sharing the links with your teacher friends. If any of them end up using either of the lesson plans in class this fall, I hope they’ll email me or respond via this blog – would love to hear how the lessons “play” with the kids –
[…] in Mayville, Wisconsin had read my children’s book Hanni and Beth: Safe &Sound aloud to their students before I arrived there last week, so when I showed up without Hanni, the […]
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