where the wild things are

“Oh, please don't go—we'll eat you up—we love you so!” 

It’s Maurice Sendak’s birthday today! Coincidentally, I unearthed an old copy of Where the Wild Things Are in the garage last week, and it was Nate’s first time reading it.  Does anyone have any Scholastic DVDs?  This Maurice Sendak one features animated films of Where The Wild Things Are, In the Night Kitchen, Alligators All Around, Pierre, One Was Johnny and Chicken Soup with Rice. The songs are brilliant and really well done, and I especially like the way In the Night Kitchen and Pierre are arranged and sung.  The DVD is great because it has a read-along feature and words are highlighted on the screen as they’re being narrated.

And one more note—does anyone ever turn on the closed captioning on their TV?  It’s a stealthy way to provide more reading practice and exposure to text. It’s one thing that helped solidified Avery’s fluency over this past year (and she loved it).  It’s also great to dialogue with your kids about what they’re watching—opportunities abound for learning new words, asking/answering questions and honing those burgeoning inferential skills.  Asking "why" questions is just one example of the many inferential questions that can be asked and discussed.

Happy birthday to one of the greats in children’s literature, and we’re off to sing “Chicken Soup With Rice!”