Posts tagged Rebus

For a quick, free Valentine to email to someone, send this:

Happy Valentine’s Day! Click here:

http://www.jeanmarzollo.com/books/iloveyourebus.html

In this busy holiday season, I thought you might like to know where you can find free eBooks to entertain kids.  These are all on my website www.jeanmarzollo.com.  All you have to do is click the button at the top that says Free eBooks.  Note: you’ll find a musical “Jingle Bells” under “Rebus Songs & Games.”

Please note that some of the eBooks require a Flash-enabled device.

I recently had the pleasure of visiting two separate kindergarten classes at this time of year (June) when the kids are headed to first grade.   In both classes I gave the teachers copies of the new square 8” x 8” I SPY paperback books: I Spy Animals, I Spy A Funny Frog, I Spy Letters, and I Spy Numbers.  “Do you think your students can read these books?”  The teachers flipped through the books and said yes.  “Do you think you could call on a child to come  up and read it to the other children, just like teachers do?”  The teachers said yes.  I observed that each teacher called first on a child who could already read.  There are usually a few in each kindergarten class at this time of year.  These first children proudly demonstrated reading like teachers.  Then the teachers called one by one on other kids who, normal for their age, were just beginning to learn to read.  They loved being “teacher” and read aloud, helped by the rebus pictures in the book.  Some read just a few pages and called on others to read the next ones.  Most of the children wanted to be called upon.  I felt joy at seeing how much the kindergartners liked being to read.  They needed a little coaching from their teachers, who wisely moved near them to offer advice.  As you probably know, there’s a lot of pressure on kindergartners today to exhibit reading skills.  I am happy that these small square paperbacks help them.

Over the years I have received many letters from kids.  These days of email, twitter and Facebook, I’m impressed and glad that teachers are still teaching letter writing skills.  Most of the letters I receive by mail are set up exactly the way I learned when I was a child.  In a recent letter from South Africa, an 11-year-old girl asked a question about a riddle on page 19 of I SPY SPOOKY NIGHT.  She noted that in the riddle I ask for “a big red box with a rebus clue.”  She found the box but needed help reading the rebus. I wrote back to her that a rebus has pictures that stand for words.  Since she wrote such a lovely letter to me, I told her what the rebus clue said, but I’m not going to tell you.  I will, however, give you a clue.  The first word in the rebus message is “Go.”

In 2011 I received a letter from an 8-year-old boy who lives in the Midwest.  He wrote these profound words that I often quote:  “I like I SPY because it is very hard.  Some things are very close to other things. It is a really big place.”

My favorite recent letter is from a child in South Dakota named Riley.  I don’t know if Riley is a boy or girl, and I don’t know Riley’s age.  I think that Riley’s teacher suggested that students writing to authors ask interesting questions.  Riley wrote:  “I love your books.  The I Spy books are hard and cool.  Do you like mustard on your hamburger?  Do you like baby pugs?  Do you like pizza?”  I wrote back and answered no to the mustard, and yes to the pugs and pizza.

Each of these three letters is written from the heart.  I commend the teachers and students because that’s one of the most important qualities in good writing.