Free iPad Books for Kids

Free iPad Apps and Books for Kids and Teens

Tis the holiday season, and finding great free books to load onto you iPad for the holidays will be a challenge.  I will search for the best free iPad books for toddlers, children and teens and share them with you to bring joy to your littler ones on Christmas. The criteria will be the best free illustrated books for toddlers, preschool and preteen books. With over 140,000 educational apps and books on the Apple iTunes store, finding a good free iPad children's book is not an easy task for kids and parents.

My first iPad discovery is an amazing free iPad book from the Chicago’s Lincoln Park Zoo.

Chimps Should Be Chimps

The free iPad  book is called Chimps Should Be Chimps – it is a FREE download from the App Store, and is designed for early readers ages 3 -  8 years. The aim of the book is to raise awareness about the welfare of chimpanzees living in the United States. Often kids see chimpanzees dressed up in human clothes and used in movies, TV shows and commercials… this type of portrayal leaves kids (and adults) with a misguided impression and perspective about chimpanzees. Chimps Should Be Chimps provides kids, and their parents, with a different impression – one that looks at life from a chimpanzee’s perspective. Through rhyming, lyrical prose, the story is told through the eyes of two chimpanzee characters: wise old Poe and his granddaughter Lulu who live amongst other chimpanzees at a local zoo. The engaging story is highlighted with bright, colorful and playful illustrations which seem to come to life with the stroke of a finger on the iPad screen. This multisensory book includes the sounds of waterfalls, music and birds that help bring the characters to life.  The story highlights things that chimpanzees love to do including climbing and swinging in trees, fishing for termites, building nests and playing with other chimpanzees. The story also carefully conveys a message about things that do not make chimpanzees happy, such as being separated from their mother at an early age and being isolated from their peers so they can be used for performance in movies or circuses.

LINK TO FREE iPad BOOK

 

This free iPad kids book launches @ the Apple iTunes App Store tomorrow! December 1^st 2011

The Best Resource For Free iPad Books online is http://en.childrenslibrary.org! They have over 400 free books in their English collections and thousand's in other languages from Mongolian to Farsi.  

Link to hundreds of free iPad books from the childrens library. 

More to come soon! Please share your favorite free iPad apps and books with Reading Sage.

Bloomberg reports 7.7 trillion in loans to big banks and Wall Street

Bloomberg financial news reports 7.7 trillion dollars in US backed loans given starting in 2007 to big banks and Wall Street financial institutions! The real question is, how was this hidden from Americans for the past 6 years.
      Did Wall Street run the US economy into the ground starting in 2005, 2006, and were they rewarded with trillions in low interest loans? Did the US economy need to be resuscitated in late 2006 because of financial mismanagement, and why has it been hidden from the public for the last six years? Have we become a true plutocracy?
     How do we justify giving billions and trillions in loans to save Wall Street Banks yet stand by as our state and public education system are destroyed with billions and soon trillions in budget cuts. Bloomberg news had to fight all the way to the Supreme Court to get the real totals and the names of these financial institution that received these almost free loans. Shame on America for choosing Wall Street before our children and a dream of a quality education.

Interest on the Federal loans was at an amazing 0.01% FREE!

Just think if the Federal Reserve has the power to loan 7.7 trillion dollars in secret, what else are we being kept from finding out? 

The Daily Show with John Stewart: government bailouts 7.7 trillion

Link to Bloomberg Article 

Top 10 Christmas Songs

Top 10 Christmas Songs for Caroling With Children

Classic Christmas Caroling Songs with lyrics

Hark how the bells,

sweet silver bells,
all seem to say,
throw cares away

Christmas is here,
bringing good cheer,
to young and old,
meek and the bold,

Oh how they pound,
raising the sound,
o'er hill and dale,
telling their tale,

Gaily they ring
while people sing
songs of good cheer,
Christmas is here,

Merry, merry, merry, merry Christmas,
Merry, merry, merry, merry Christmas,
On on they send ,
on without end,
their joyful tone to every home
Dong Ding dong ding, dong Bong

 

 

 

 

Cuts to Education

Cuts to Public Education in the Billions 2011-2012
With educational cuts to public schools in the billions what is the future of public education?
The next four years are going to test public school teachers and students resolve with giant class sizes and no budgets for supplies, books, maintenance, and technology. Title I schools are going to feel the pain more than affluent districts that can make up short falls with budget overrides and additional bonds. What is the political thinking and a lack of public outcry that we are balancing state budgets on the backs of teachers and students.Students that receive one to two years of less than optimal academic instruction have almost no chance of graduation. We are packing classes with so many students that even the top students will struggle in this daycare environment. Most States fund daycare and prisons better than they do Title I public schools,WHY?

Please share your thought and stories!

Why Students Drop Out of School

Why Students Drop Out of School!
Students don't drop out of high school at the age of 16 because they feel socially or academically lost... Students start dropping out of school in the first and second grade, just pretending they are students, when they cant read or write. Students pick up a litany of bad habits (coping mechanisms) from peers as a way to deal with the stress, fear, humiliation, and embarrassment of being a "Loser, Stupid, or Dumb". Students act institutionalized after twelve years of forced school participation (Failure). Always having to be on the defensive is a sure fire way to get burned out to drop out.

many parents that have not taught their child to read before they enter kindergartner have sealed the fate of their child to 12 years of playing ketchup!

I spent most of my time in public school feeling dumb, embarrassed, scared, humiliated, lost, and stupid because of my severe dyslexia and dysgraphia! Sean Taylor

A funny video to remind you and yours of the negative emotions that we may instill in our students!

Dedicated to my class and a brilliant student that is never afraid to ask questions!.

Common Core ELA Test 4th Grade

Common Core ELA Sample Test 4^th Grade

English Language Arts Tier 3 Academic Vocabulary Test

1st Grade LANGUAGE ARTS:ALL DOMAINS
GRAMMAR & MECHANICS
RESEARCH PROCESS
SENTENCE CONSTRUCTION & REVISION

MATH:ALL DOMAINS
COMPUTATION & ESTIMATION
GEOMETRY & MEASUREMENT
NUMBER SENSE & NUMERATION
PATTERNS & RELATIONSHIPS/ALGEBRA
PROBLEM SOLVING

READING:ALL DOMAINS
CRITICAL ANALYSIS
READING FOR LOCATING & RECALLING INFORMATION
READING FOR MEANING
READING FOR VOCABULARY IMPROVEMENT

2nd Grade LANGUAGE ARTS:ALL DOMAINS
PARAGRAPH CONTENT & ORGANIZATION
GRAMMAR & MECHANICS
RESEARCH PROCESS
SENTENCE CONSTRUCTION & REVISION

MATH:ALL DOMAINS
COMPUTATION & ESTIMATION
GEOMETRY & MEASUREMENT
NUMBER SENSE & NUMERATION
PATTERNS & RELATIONSHIPS/ALGEBRA
PROBLEM SOLVING

READING:ALL DOMAINS
CRITICAL ANALYSIS
READING FOR LOCATING & RECALLING INFORMATION
READING FOR MEANING
READING FOR VOCABULARY IMPROVEMENT

3rd Grade LANGUAGE ARTS:ALL DOMAINS
PARAGRAPH CONTENT & ORGANIZATION
GRAMMAR & MECHANICS
RESEARCH PROCESS
SENTENCE CONSTRUCTION & REVISION

MATH:ALL DOMAINS
COMPUTATION & ESTIMATION
GEOMETRY & MEASUREMENT
NUMBER SENSE & NUMERATION
PATTERNS & RELATIONSHIPS/ALGEBRA
PROBLEM SOLVING
STATISTICS & PROBABILITY

READING:ALL DOMAINS
CRITICAL ANALYSIS
READING FOR LOCATING & RECALLING INFORMATION
READING FOR MEANING
READING FOR VOCABULARY IMPROVEMENT

4th Grade LANGUAGE ARTS:ALL DOMAINS
PARAGRAPH CONTENT & ORGANIZATION
GRAMMAR & MECHANICS
RESEARCH PROCESS
SENTENCE CONSTRUCTION & REVISION

MATH:ALL DOMAINS
COMPUTATION & ESTIMATION
GEOMETRY & MEASUREMENT
NUMBER SENSE & NUMERATION
PATTERNS & RELATIONSHIPS/ALGEBRA
PROBLEM SOLVING

READING:ALL DOMAINS
CRITICAL ANALYSIS
READING FOR LOCATING & RECALLING INFORMATION
READING FOR MEANING
READING FOR VOCABULARY IMPROVEMENT

5th Grade LANGUAGE ARTS:ALL DOMAINS
PARAGRAPH CONTENT & ORGANIZATION
GRAMMAR & MECHANICS
RESEARCH PROCESS
SENTENCE CONSTRUCTION & REVISION

MATH:ALL DOMAINS
COMPUTATION & ESTIMATION
GEOMETRY & MEASUREMENT
NUMBER SENSE & NUMERATION
PATTERNS & RELATIONSHIPS/ALGEBRA
PROBLEM SOLVING
STATISTICS & PROBABILITY

READING:ALL DOMAINS
CRITICAL ANALYSIS
READING FOR LOCATING & RECALLING INFORMATION
READING FOR MEANING
READING FOR VOCABULARY IMPROVEMENT

1.           in rhetoric, an obvious and deliberate exaggeration or overstatement, intended for effect and not to be taken literally, such as "He had a million excuses". (Cf. litotes.)

 hyperbole

 interjection

 idiom

 adverb

2.           the time and place in which something happens.

 superlative

 colon

 simile

 setting

3.           a phrase that describes something by comparing it to some other thing.

 abbreviation

 metaphor

 idiom

 antonym

4.           a word that describes a verb, adjective, __________, or whole sentence. Many __________ in English end with the letters "ly." In the sentence "That extremely hungry cat ate very quickly," the words "extremely," "very," and "quickly" are __________.

 atlas

 caption

 onomatopoeia

 adverb

5.           a short form of a word or phrase used in writing.

 plot

 atlas

 idiom

 abbreviation

6.           a word that connects words, phrases, clauses, or sentences. "And," "but," "because," and "before" are examples of __________.

 interjection

 conjunction

 simile

 caption

7.           a story, description, or account of events.

 caption

 setting

 narrative

 abbreviation

8.           a figure of speech in which two different things are compared by using the words "like" or "as." "The cake was as light as a feather" is an example of a __________.

 simile

 plot

 alliteration

 theme

9.           the story line or order of events in a book, play, or movie.

 plot

 idiom

 atlas

 adverb

10.      a phrase that cannot be understood by understanding the meanings of each of its words. The phrase "fall out," meaning "have a disagreement," is an __________.

 set

 caption

 hyperbole

 idiom

11.      the words that describe a picture in a magazine, book, or newspaper.

 abbreviation

 caption

 superlative

 setting

12.      a person considered to be a perfect example or embodiment of some quality or other abstraction.

 caption

 hyperbole

 personification

 set

13.      a punctuation mark (:). It is often used to introduce a series, quotation, or explanation.

 abbreviation

 idiom

 colon

 plot

14.      the repetition of the same sound at the beginning of words in a phrase or sentence.

 conjunction

 set

 abbreviation

 alliteration

15.      a word that has the opposite meaning of another word.

 idiom

 simile

 antonym

 hyperbole

16.      to put in a particular place.

 antonym

 idiom

 set

 interjection

17.      the main subject or topic.

 personification

 idiom

 alliteration

 theme

18.      a short and usually comprehensive statement of what has been previously stated.

 metaphor

 alliteration

 colon

 summary

19.      a book of maps.

 atlas

 plot

 interjection

 simile

20.      a word or expression that shows strong feeling. "Oh no!" is an __________.

 adverb

 simile

 interjection

 theme

21.      the formation or use of words whose sounds suggest the meanings of the words, such as "bang," "moo," or "jingle".

 colon

 personification

 onomatopoeia

 narrative

22.      the form of an adjective or adverb that expresses the highest degree of comparison. The words "best," "fastest," and "most beautiful" are __________.

 atlas

 conjunction

 caption

 superlative