Pop! The Invention of Bubble Gum

Does your child love bubble gum?  Have you ever thought about how it was invented? Pop!  The Invention of Bubble Gum by Meghan McCarthy shares the very interesting story of how bubble gum came to be!  

This is such a cute story full of information about bubble gum. Throughout the story you begin to wonder if bubble gum will ever be invented.  It was not an easy process!  This story is great for asking questions.  Readers should always ask questions before reading the story, while they are reading the story and after reading the story.  When readers ask questions, it shows they are active in the reading process.  Comprehension cannot occur unless the reader interacts with the text.   

Before reading activate your child's schema (background knowledge) and to get them thinking about gum:

1. Say the following to your child: What do you know about bubble gum?   Let your child answer.  Then share what you know about bubble gum.

2. Say the following to your child:  I wonder how bubble gum was invented.  Let your child share their thoughts and then share yours. 

During the story encourage your child to use some of the following thinking stems to ask questions:

• I wonder...
• What if...
• Why...
• How could...

After the story generate some questions you and your child still have about bubble gum.  What else would you like to know about bubble gum?  Your questions can lead to more learning about bubble gum!  

Be sure to read the end pages!  There is a ton of interesting facts about bubble gum.

Extension Activity:

This book easily lends itself to a science experiment!  

Question:  Do all brands of bubble gum create the same size bubble?

You will need:

1.  At least three brands of bubble gum

2.  Ruler

3.  Paper and pencil for recording findings

• Have your child make a hypothesis.  Do they think all bubble gums are created equal?
• Have your child chew a piece of bubble gum for thirty chews.  
• After chewing thirty times have them blow a bubble.  
• Before the bubble breaks, measure the bubble. 
• Record how big the bubble is on a recording sheet. 
• With the same brand of gum, repeat the process 2 more times (it is best to use a new piece each time). 
• Find the average of your three bubbles.
• Complete the entire process again with each brand of bubble gum!

Let me know what you find out!

Queen of the Falls

I am a huge Chris Van Allsburg fan. In my opinion, he is a masterful story teller.  Some of his most popular books are Jumanji, The Polar Express, and Two Bad Ants!  When Van Allsburg publishes a book, I know it is going to be worth buying.  As soon as Queen of the Falls was published, I ran to the bookstore to pick up a copy.  Van Allsburg did not let me down!

Van Allsburg usually writes fantasy stories. However, this story is much different.  Queen of the Falls is the true story about Annie Edson Taylor.  Never heard of her?  Don't worry, I had not heard of her eigther.  Annie Edson Taylor was the first person to go over Niagra Falls in a wooden barrel!  Van Allsburg does a great job of recreating Annie's daring ride across the Falls.  It is an exciting story that will keep children's attention and will also teach them a valuable life lesson.

Take a minute and watch Chris Van Allsburg talk about the making of this book!




This is a great book to read just to build schema (background knowledge).  I know I added new information to my mental files by reading this book.  It is also great for inferring.  When you read this book with your chid, I guarantee you are going to predict what is going to happen next!


Below are some questions to guide your thinking conversation with your child:

1. Read to, "Many in the crowd cried out; then all eyes were frozen on the churning water below" and ask your child:  Why do you think people cried out?  What might be happening?

2. Read to, "She was forced to say goodbye to her final student and close the school" and ask your child:  How do you think Annie feels?  Why do you think this?


3.  Read to "Annie Taylor would go over Niagra Falls in a barrel" and ask your child:  Why do you think Annie wants to go over Niagra Falls?  


4.  Read to "She looked at her drawing and was certain she would be safe no matter how violent the ride" and ask your child:  If you were the foreman, would you agree to make the barrel? Why? Why not? 

5.  Read to "...she was nothing at all like the death-defying dare devil she was determined to become" and ask your child:  Why was Frank surprised?  What do you think a dare devil looks like? 


6.  Read to "Billy tied one end of a rope to the barrel and the other end to the boat" and ask your child:  What do you think Annie might be feeling?  What would you be feeling? 


7.  Read to "They knocked the lid off with a hammer" and ask your child:  Make a prediction.  What do you think is going to happen when they open the barrel? 


8.  Read to "Excited crowds quickly lost interest when they discovered the fearless Queen of the Falls was a little old lady" and ask your child:  Why do you think people so disappointed when they see Annie?  What do you think the people expected to see?  


9. Read to the end of the story and ask your child:  What lesson do you think Annie learned?  


Extension Activity:


If you want your child to really use their brain this summer (and you do not mind a little mess), I have a GREAT extension activity for you.

If Annie would have tried to go over the Falls in a regular barrel, the barrel might not have made it.  Even if the barrel made it,  Annie might not have survived without the extra padding of pillows.  The book shares that you can put an egg in a can and drop it to the floor.   The can will not be damaged, but the egg might be broken.

Challenge your child to see if they can put an egg in a can and drop it to the ground without the egg breaking.  Work with your child to develop a few "barrel" designs for the egg to travel over "the Falls".  Try it out.  What would be the best container to use?  What might you use for padding?  If the egg breaks, come up with a new and improved plan and try again!

If You Hopped Like a Frog

Did you know a frog can jump twenty times its body length?  If you could jump 20 times your body length how far could you jump?  Well, if you are 4 1/2 feet tall you could jump from home plate to first base!  That would be super cool.  


The book If You Hopped Like a Frog by David Schwartz shares what you could do if you possessed the abilities of animals!  This book is one of my all time favorites.  It really gets kids (and adults) thinking.  Not only does it get you thinking, it gets you thinking about MATH!  This is such a great book to share with your child during summer vacation because it will help keep their math skills fresh!

As you read the book with your child, take time to just marvel in the fun facts.  It is such a fun book with great illustrations!  After reading the story, be sure to read the explanation pages.  The explanation pages hold all the interesting information.  The author does a great job of asking probing questions to get your child thinking! 

You and your child will naturally use your schema (background knowledge) when reading this story.  In fact, the author counts on you using schema to enhance your understanding.   

A great extension activity to this book is to figure out each scenario with your child's statistics and with your statistics!  Compare your results and talk about why the results are different.  This is such a fun way to practice math!   Taking it one step further, you can even write your own version of the book! 

Get ready to have fun with ratios and proportions!  

A Walk in New York

Have you ever been to New York City?  The first time I visited NYC I was overwhelmed.  I remember coming up from the subway and seeing Times Square.  I had never seen anything like it.  Salvatore Rubbino does a great job of sharing the magic of NYC in his book A Walk In New York.  


Pickup the book and you will tour Grand Central Station,  New York Public Library, Empire State Building, and The Statue of Liberty.  The premise of the story is quiet simple: a young boy and his father take a day trip to Manhattan. The father shows his son all the wonderful sights of the city. Rubbino does a great job of highlighting some of the most interesting places in Manhattan. Rubbino shows Manhattan through a child's view, and he also includes interesting facts about each landmark.

This is a great book for building background knowledge.  Every reader brings their own experiences and knowledge when interacting with a text.  If your child has visited NYC they will have a lot of background knowledge to apply to this book.  However, if your child has never been to NYC their background knowledge might be limited.  This book (and your conversations) will help build their knowledge base!  

Before reading the book, pull out a map of the United States.  Find where you live and then find NYC on the map.  This will give your child an idea where NYC is in relation to where they live.  As you read the story be sure to make connections.  You will easily be able to make text-to-self connections and text-to-world connections.   

When you are reading with your child, be sure to model you thinking and make some connections.  You can use the following thinking stems when making connections:

• That reminds me of...
• I can relate to _____ because..

After modeling your connections, be sure to ask your child if they have a connection.

This is also a good book for determining importance. There is just too much information to remember it all!  After each place you visit in the book you can ask your child:  What do you want to remember about _______?

After reading A Walk in New York, your child will have new knowledge of NYC!

There are several extensions you and your child can do with this book!

1. Take a virtual tour of NYC.  Visit all of NYC famous landmarks and read tons of interesting information about each landmark.
2. Explore your city and create your own book.  Take pictures of your favorite parks, restaurants, libraries, theaters, stores, etc.  Find out some interesting information about each place and write your own story! 
3. The story shares an interesting fact about the Empire State Building.  It has 1,860 steps!  That is a lot!  However, most children have a hard time realizing just how many steps that is!  Have your child climb 100 stairs.  I bet they will be tuckered out.  Tell them they would have to do that 19 times to reach the top of the Empire State Building!

Mistakes that Worked

Summer break is just around the corner.  For a lot of kids that means reading will be neglected for a few months.  It is essential you keep reading and sharing books with your child during the summer months!  Did you know children can lose up to two years of reading skills over the course of summer break?


I highly encourage you to make reading a priority.  Since kids are going to be in a play mindset, you are going to have to work a little harder to keep their attention.  Over the next month I am going to share some books I think will keep your child's attention.  I will also share some follow-up activities you can do with your child to keep their mind sharp and fresh.


The first book I want to share is  Mistakes That Worked by Charlotte Foltz Jones.  Kids LOVE this book. This book shares mistakes that turned into great inventions.  Did you know the chocolate chip cookie was a mistake?  So was the slinky and the waffle cone!  Your child will love finding out how some of their favorite toys and food were invented by mistakes!

This is a book you do not have to read cover to cover.  It is a great opportunity to talk about how to use a table of contents! Read through the table of contents with your child and decide what mistake you want to learn about first! Each of the mistakes discussed in the book are only one or two pages long.  Since each story is short your child's attention will not wander.  This book is great for practicing the comprehension strategies of asking questions and determining importance.

Good readers are constantly asking questions about what they read.  They ask questions before reading, during reading and after reading.  When readers ask questions, it shows they are engaged with the story.  Kids love when one of their questions are answered in the text of a story! Sometimes questions are not answered.  However, this just keeps the reader thinking and encourages the reader to do more research to find the answers. Mistakes That Worked encourages kids to question.

Some thinking stems you can use with your child to get them asking questions are:

• I wonder...  
• Why...
• How could....
• What if...

As you read each mistake that worked, be sure to model asking questions.  This will encourage your child to ask questions. Ask genuine questions you have. For example, when I first read about the chocolate chip cookie said, "What if the chocolate chip cookie would have never been invented?  I wonder what Ruth thought the first time she tried the chocolate chip cookie." 

This book is also great for determining importance.  Each story will present a lot of neat information, but what is really important to remember? After reading each story be sure to talk with your child what one thing they want to remember about the invention.  This is also a great way to summarize!  

You can use some of the following thinking stems to help your child determine what is important.

• I want to remember...
• One thing we should notice...
• It's interesting that.

There are lots of way to extend your child's learning beyond the book. 

1. Make or purchase one of the mistakes that worked and explore it with your own hands! Who wouldn't love playing with a slinky after reading about it?  Or making their own waffle cone?  
2. Pick your favorite mistake that worked and do some research about it to learn more. 
3. Visit the United States Patent of Trademark Office Kids' Pages and learn all about past inventions and patents!  Your child can even do a search for patents!
4. Work with your child and create your own invention.  Kids often come up with some of the best ideas!
5. Visit the Invent Now Museum in Akron, Ohio.  It is FREE!  I have never been so I cannot give a review on it.  
6. Sign your child up for a Camp Invention close to your home!