23-year-old Karina Garcia has made a career out of slime! She’s a YouTuber who has gone viral with her slime tutorial videos, and my Penworthy Pick is her new book, Karina Garcia’s DIY Slime. The book has fifteen simple and fun slime recipes that the kids are asking about when they want to make their own slime at home. Each recipe is detailed with full-color photos and step-by-step instructions. Kids will learn to make liquid gold slime, glow-in-the-dark slime, and balloon slime, to name a few. Tips on how to store the slime are included, and all the recipes are borax free. My own kids have had a ton of fun making her slime recipes and it has entertained them for hours. This one would be a great addition to your makerspace!

By Michelle Ekstrom, Penworthy Representative

The development of information literacy skills allows students to become astute and thoughtful consumers and creators of information. October is Information Literacy Awareness Month, offering a great way to introduce or reinforce this necessary skill set to your young readers. We’ve put together this round-up of helpful resources and articles by fellow educators:

• SOS for Information Literacy - Lesson plans and teaching ideas; one of the Top 25 Best Websites for Teaching and Learning by AASL
• Critical Analysis and Information Literacy by Judy Willis, MD on Edutopia.org
• 13 Tips for Teaching News and Information Literacy from School Library Journal
• The Common Thread: Weaving information literacy skills to engage learners from Kathy Schrock
• Media-, News-, and Information-Literacy Resources for Students from Common Sense Education
• Teaching Information Literacy Skills from Reading Rockets
• 10 Hilarious Hoax Sites to Test Website Evaluation
• TED Ed lessons – videos related to information literacy
• A good idea - Resources for parents on information literacy from an elementary school website
  
  

Information Literacy encompasses knowledge of one’s information concerns and needs, and the ability to identify, locate, evaluate, organize and effectively create, use and communicate information to address issues or problems at hand; it is a prerequisite for participating effectively in the Information Society, and is part of the basic human right of lifelong learning.
–The Prague Declaration of 2003, “Towards an Information Literate Society”

Cows unite! Farmer Brown's cows find an old typewriter and start sending him messages demanding better working conditions. Farmer Brown refuses to give in to their demands, so of course they go on strike and are soon joined by the hens. Doreen Cronin’s classic, award-winning picture book has been made available in a leveled reader format (Level 2, for children starting to read longer sentences). The story is hilarious and original, and Betsy Lewin's comical illustrations pair perfectly with the simple, funny text. It’s also a great and simple way to start a discussion on labor movements and working together. The twist at the end involving the mediator duck feeling empowered to make his own demands will leave young readers laughing.

A fun “Letter from the Pig” writing activity to go along with the book is available for free download here.

Lauri Streeck, Penworthy Representative

Penworthy is closed on Monday, September 4th in observance of Labor Day. Wishing you and your loved ones a happy and safe holiday!