Wecome back to the first day of school. Start the new year with a first-day lesson that will power student learning right up to the last day of school.

Welcome back. 
    Here's a fun way both to learn about the special individual interests of your new students as well as to motivate their learning from day one of the new school year.
    Just warm everyone up by reading one of the best books for career inspiration of all time – KBN's classic What You Don't Want To Be When You Grow Up.

Smart career advice
for a smarter future.

You can project the book up on your classroom wall and let everyone enjoy reading it together. But of course, that's what you don't want to be when you grow up. So what do you want to be?
    Invite each student to think fresh this year and come up with a career for their future that would really be sensational. Something they really want to do. Then instruct them to write it down, and illustrate it with a picture so great that everyone else will maybe want the same career, too.
    And when they all get through, invite them to stand up, introduce themselves and tell the rest of the class what they would someday like to do. Discuss the ideas together, and point out what they'll be learning this year to help them take the next steps to their dream. The new math skills. The writing experience. The scientific ideas. The social studies experience. The leadership skills.
    Then, put all of their ideas and illustrations in one book they can look at throughout the year – and watch them get excited all over again, every time, about what they're learning every day. Right up to the last day of school.

How to survive the last week before Christmas in a room packed with thirty candy-cane wired kids. Just turn down the lights, project The Christmas Carol up on your classroom wall – and read!

     Let's be realistic.
    This is not going to be a standard week in which you study the history of the Pilgrims or math multiplication tables.
    This is going to be a week of pure Christmas cards, present making for mom and dad, dancing, singing, caroling, slurping down eggnog and apple cider and looking around the corner for Santa Claus.
    And yes, on thursday or friday Santa will probably show up.
    No serious learning is going to happen in any American classroom this week at all. But wait – maybe your students can have fun and actually learn something, too.
    Just go to your computer, go to KBN, and open up KBN's exciting flashbook edition of A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, complete with its marvelous original 19th century illustrations.
    Then dim the lights and read this classic tale together.
    Dark. Scary. Fun. Shocking. And thrilling.
    But also good for classroom conversations about history and maybe building some new vocabulary, too.
    You can read the story to your students or, much better, let them all read the story to you.
    Happy Holidays from KBN!

How to use KBN’s new Read At Two literacy project for extra teaching power in your regular Pre-K to First Grade Classroom.

     Have you ever wondered what it would be like if your First Grade children, your Kindergarten students, and even all those wiggly Pre-K learners could walk through your classroom door on the first day of school already reading?
    The new KBN fast-track Read At Two literacy project – developed for pre- Pre-School early reading at home – is an important first step toward making that happen.
    The bright, carefully-designed foundational reading books provide the core teaching materials to help children begin to read even before they are two. These KBN books are all free, of course. And the Parent Handbook tells parents and other pre-school caregivers exactly what to do.

    Unfortunately we’re not quite there yet with universal reading at two as a national educational initiative or standard parenting home practice.
    The good news is that these same early reading development strategies, with their expert foundational content and new KBN projection reading technology, are also here in our new Pre-K and Kindergarten book categories. And teachers from Pre-K through First Grade can now use these fresh early reading books in the classroom – to provide valuable learning advantages to young readers every day.
    Here’s how it works.

1. You can really teach what children need to learn.

    All of the books in KBN’s Read At Two series, Pre-K series and Kindergarten series are designed to help children learn the core elements of literacy competence identified by both state and national educational standards, right from Pre-K through First Grade.
    Inside of each book in the Pre-K and Kindergarten series you'll find an abbreviated learning standards page to help identify the book's specific learning benefits and pedagogical strategy, with a separate printout of the complete learning standards provided as well.
   

2. You can give every child the support of an extra one-on-one teacher – right at home.

    When teachers and parents can both work together to help a child discover the power and satisfaction of reading, parents naturally want to participate and encourage their children more.
    And because our new KBN Read At Two program handbook is actually parent-oriented, you as a teacher can use it to direct and encourage more active parent interest and invaluable learning reinforcement – by reading the same free KBN page-turning books with their children either in a traditional on-paper book format or live and on-line right at home.
    Of course when parents discover KBN’s new Read At Two program early, and actually begin teaching their children to read one or two years before the children arrive at school, it’s just so much the better. Why is such a very early reading pattern with toddlers so important?
    As discovered through a major longitudinal study by educational researchers Hart and Risley [The Early Catastrophe: The 30 Million Word Gap by Age 3, In: American Educator, Spring, 2003], a child’s vocabulary use at age 3 is strongly predictive of both language skills and reading comprehension at age 9-10. And many parents, although they may love and nurture their children in other ways, simply don’t actively speak and converse with their toddlers enough to build their vocabulary and related cognitive powers to the level necessary for higher learning success.
      That’s what daily reading with books can achieve. And that’s what KBN’s new national initiative is all about.

3. You can have more fun teaching while your class learns more.

    Early learning is all about play and fun. With the excitement of KBN’s fresh live bookcasting™ technology you can enable all of the children in your classroom to share the same big reading experience together, projected live and bright up on the classroom wall.
    Even a foundational book can become a major page-turner!
    And that means high-impact teaching also becomes a lot easier on the teacher.

4.  You can use different books to differentiate early learning, too – and help children with special needs learn to read more quickly.

    Finally, when a child arrives in your classroom with a learning disability, or speaking a different language, you can immediately reach for KBN’s basic-word books to do something about it. Often children with special needs require more time and focus on very simple text
concepts until they can master even basic reading schemas.
    And ESL readers, just learning the language, can be helped to build an active vocabulary by reading works with a tight focus on common utilitarian language for objects, actions, feelings and experiences.
    Along with KBN’s Read At Two, Pre-K, and Kindergarten  book series, of course, your whole class will enjoy the special pleasure and excitement of reading all of the free books in the fast-growing Kids’ Book Network library.
    All teachers and schools, of course, can help us spread the word about Read At Two to every parent of every student in their school – to help all the next incoming Pre-K students arrive at school more learning-smart and school-ready.

Remember, March 17 is now an official KBN national holiday for 3 million American teachers.

     That's because this year, once again, all any teacher has to do on March 17 is (a) wear green socks to school, (b) go to the KBN website, and (c) click on KBN's landmark sociological study of Irish immigration to America Why We Wear Green On St. Patrick's Day.
    That's it.
    No special site registration, nothing else required.

    Let KBN do all the work.
    You can just kick back and project this special book for everyone to read – with pages turning – right up on your classroom wall.
    Bookcasting is an instructional advantage like nothing else today. It automatically assists both teaching and learning – with everyone reading on the same page and everyone reading together.
    You can also download a complete, comprehensive 18-page Why We Wear Green lesson plan featuring two one-hour instructional sessions.
    Your students will learn about Irish history through the lesson plan's photographs, maps and illustrations. And they will learn, as well, that all people have faced rejection, and all people rise up from mistreatment through self-affirmation and celebration.
     Using conceptual framing – with forms and teaching samples provided – students will also develop an appreciation of who they are themselves, and understand that their heritage is to be celebrated.
     On March 17, with KBN there to help, a teacher can pretty much just relax, read, teach, drink lime punch and celebrate.
     Happy St. Patrick's Day!

A story of Christmas everyone can share.

    Last holiday season KBN proudly introduced the original Dickens classic A Christmas Carol on the KBN website. Everyone loves this very special story of the winter season, so this year we're introducing it again – for the first time in our exciting live, on-screen bookcasting™ format.
    Now you can actually project the enduring tale of Ebenezer Scrooge, Marley's Ghost and Tiny Tim right up on your classroom wall! 
    Everyone in your class can enjoy the story together – whether you choose to read it to them or they prefer to read it to you.

    A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens was first published in a British newspaper, in a serialized format, in 1843. Republished here again on paper – in a "serialized," five-part format – our special edition of of the story was carefully prepared by scholars at the University of Virginia Library and has been made available to KBN with their kind permission.
   Teachers not familiar with A Christmas Carol may wonder if a work with such a religious-oriented title is appropriate for the public classroom. Happily the correct answer is yes. 
   It might come as something of a surprise, but the work is completely focused on the personal moral behaviors of the characters during a traditional holiday season of goodwill, and except for the title does not actually mention anything about religion – except, perhaps, the universal principle of charity and caring shared by all of humanity.
   The lively dialog of Dickens not only makes the story feel more immediate and personal to young readers today, it makes A Christmas Carol a wonderful work for students to share in the form of "readers theater."
    Our thanks once again to the University of Virginia.

The Vileburgers are back. Uh-oh, this could be so big it's scary.

       Just to remind you if you haven't looked around and noticed the pumpkins all over the place that every child in your class will be incredibly excited about reading KBN's Halloween thriller, The Vileburgers.
      And the sooner you get started the better.

      After all, Betty has to track down her lost archeologist parents with the help of the most incompetent family of ghouls in New York and her parents are lost in Texas.

      "City Slickers meets Ghostbusters in this short, goofy tale ... enjoyably ridiculous," according to Kirkus.
      "Replete with elements of magic, humor and wit, Uncle Henry's new Halloween classic is an imaginative adventure ... hilarious cast ... sure to rouse a chuckle," Bookwire suggests.
      And best of all, it all comes with an electrifying lesson plan, featuring readers theatre, which we promise will make your hair stand on end, your eyes spin and your ears wobble.
      Education in October doesn't get any more fun than this.

Perhaps the best classroom project in 200 years.

     Once again, KBN has made starting out the new school year easier than you ever thought possible.

     September 16 marks the 200th anniversary of Mexican independence, the moment of the historic Grito or corageous shout for independence by Fr. Miguel Hidalgo, and for this very special day KBN is very pleased to bring you a very special project.

    It starts with a special Bicentennial book, El Grito, written and illustrated entirely by the students of Solano Avenue School in Los Angeles. Your whole class can enjoy this book together, projected on screen or viewed directly on any computer monitor in our convenient flashbook bookcasting™ format. We hope that it becomes the first of many student-created book projects KBN will be able feature this year, and that it serves as an interactive inspiration for students everywhere to become exited about writing more books of their own.
     But the project also features a student-filmed video, found on the KBN homepage, of the corrido in El Grito. The corrido – be sure to zoom in on the image – was performed live and sung by its original young authors, on the school campus, along with the famous composer and presidential Medal of Arts winner Lalo Guerrero, who wrote the music. We hope that the hand-held video also inspires your own students creatively – to write and perform more of their own original songs.
     And finally, talk about revolutionary –  our El Grito project includes a comprehensive lesson plan on Fr. Hidalgo, El Grito, and the story of the Mexican Revolution for students at every grade level.
     KBN and teachers. It's going to be an exciting new year.

Looking back on KBN's amazing Year One.

      Both the Kids' Book Network and the teaching year started last September 1,  and on June 24, 2010, both KBN and our teacher colleagues concluded an amazing year in U.S. education.
     Reflecting on what we've accomplished in Year One, it's clear that we've come a long way in less than ten months.

      First, we introduced the concept and practical possibility of free, self-made books for every child in the world. Picture books, coloring books, adventure books, puzzle books and literary classics. Even one book in eight languages.
      Our original KBN books are witty and fresh books you can download, print and form into classic on-paper, page-turning quality books to read and share with friends and family, at home or in the classroom.
      Next, we introduced the exciting and unique device-free reading technology of live on-screen bookcasting. And suddenly reading is more fun and exciting than ever.
      The Kids' Book Network website has now been identified as an information resource for young readers from Kindergarten through Grade Six by the official California Learning Resource Network. And we're pleased to see that visitors from around the planet have begun to discover KBN – from Australia and Brazil to China and Russia.
      Now, while most U.S. schools are enjoying a well-earned summer vacation, KBN will continue working on even more new surprises for both teachers and young readers in Year Two.
      Including many more fresh and original KBN books. As well as important new ways to make your classroom teaching more effective and easier, too.
      It's really all about the KBN mission.
We want every teacher to succeed, we want every child to read.

What to give Mom for Mother's Day.

     With Mother's Day now only a few days away it's time to help your class prepare a special gift for Mom. A card with hand-colored hearts is always nice. Moms can't get enough of those no matter how many they already have filling a shoebox in the back of their dresser drawer. Plus, eighty years from now they can pull them all out and show them to their child who by then will have a shoebox full of cards from his or her own children, who by then will have a shoebox which, well, you get the idea.
     You've got to get out the crayons and make some cards, for sure. But this year, in that card, why don't you try something different and ask all the children in your class to ask and answer a wonderful question. On the outside of the card they can simply write, "Mom, you're the best because ..."
     And then inside they write as many reasons they can think of.
     Like,
     1. You make pancakes sometimes. 2. You wash my socks even with all of that mud on them. 3. You're really nice to Bowser. 4. Well, you get the idea. We wish we could be there to see what your children come up with. It's always magical.
     But this year why don't you also add in something else Mom will really like, maybe even more.

     This year why don't you have everyone in your class download, print, and form one of KBN's super-easy, one-piece-of-paper microbooks. Then take it home to Mom and read it to her.
     We have a special heart-tugging KBN picture book designed for just that purpose.
    Mom might actually weep, not only to see her child reading with such passion, but because of the book itself.
     I'm So Glad You're My Mom!
     From all of us at KBN to all of you out there with only four days to get ready, Happy Mother's Day.

How to improve those national student test scores.

     As we move into the annual test-every-child season you might want to consider one of the best methods ever devised for keeping students alert and focused during those endless days of exam after exam. It was devised, actually, by a desperate Russian elementary school teacher named Lester Pavlov.
     You have to make exams more fun, and to make them more fun there has to be some immediate reward. The exam, then, becomes an interesting game and the student becomes more actively engaged in trying to remember everything he or she knows to win it.
     Personally I never had more fun in 5th grade myself than with those daily spelling bees in which the whole class stood up along the blackboard and got knocked off, one at a time, until only one student was left standing. Usually it was Marcy Cotton but sometimes I got lucky and that occasional gratification was all I needed to keep alert every time.
     So how do you overcome test fatigue, attention drift and other problematic test factors today? You might try this.
     First tell the class that they will win a prize for different test scores. One top prize for a perfect score, another prize for just 1-3 wrong answers, and perhaps yet another prize for only 4-5 wrong answers. Devise your own prize system according to the kind of test and results you might generally expect, and try to deliver the results of the test and prizes on the same day or within the week.
     Results for the individual student on state and federal tests may not be available for some time, but do not let that deter you from installing your prize program for ordinary day-to-day content tests, standards tests, and any form of review and practice tests. In fact, that's where it will help your national test scores the most.
     Remember, it's Pavlovian. The increased fun of test-taking will carry over into the larger exams which are key for state and national school evaluation.
     Plus, once you try our tests-are-fun methods you'll be pleasantly surprised at how, all of a sudden, some students just seem to wake up and actually know a lot more than they might have appeared to know before.
     So what kinds of prizes should you offer? Now we get to the best part.
     You've heard of the National Book Award for excellence? Same idea, only right in your classroom.
     Instead of prizes like candy crunchies, which only promote student obesity and tooth decay and are not so good for their teacher, either, now you can give your students the very special prize of an honorific KBN book. We hope that by now your students have already learned how to download and make books from our free KBN book library, but perhaps they have just been making books in black & white format. So as a special prize they might now be awarded a KBN book in full color.

     You can devise the book prize system that works best for you. A book for the best test score. A book for the best essay on being nice in the playground. A book for the best homework. A book for – well, you get the idea. The more ways you distribute free KBN books to every child in your class the more you will encourage them to read for pleasure and strengthen their interest in personal reading.
     And if you can use the same KBN invention of free books for every child to help improve student attention during test season, well that's pretty good, too.

It isn't just a good idea or luck, it's you.

     Today, on St. Patrick's Day, we wish to thank everyone in our growing teacher community for your help as we work to establish greater awareness of KBN’s free books for children, as well as the availablity of KBN’s new classroom teaching advantages like bookcasting.™
      Luck has nothing to do with it. We simply couldn’t be getting the KBN concept of innovation out there so quickly without your strong support.
      With your help, thousands of teachers across the country today can now use the KBN website to show children the meaning of America’s cultural diversity – and the new classroom power of bookcasting – by projecting and reading Why We Wear Green On St. Patrick’s Day, as well as teaching with the book’s special lesson plan.

      This plan not only reviews Irish history, it provides a practical method for every child, from every cultural and ethnic experience, to gain a new understanding of their own personal values and special cultural heritage – and “to be proud of who they are.”
      Of course it doesn’t really matter exactly who we are on March 17, we all still have to wear our green socks.
      As our KBN teacher community continues to help us reach out to more of their colleagues in education, as well as to more families and children at home, and as they in turn help reach out to others, we at KBN will soon be able to give more time once again to our primary objective – the rapid expansion of our exciting KBN book library.
      We have many fresh, surprising new books for KBN readers now on the way.
      We thought it would be much easier to create a swift awareness of KBN in the halls of education. To the nation’s school districts, at a time of severe budgetary stress, certainly the KBN project is now being received as very welcome news. Through the latest computer technologies, here comes an expanding library of original children’s books, both printable and viewable directly on computer or even by projection, and all for free.
      But getting the word out has not been quite as simple as we all might like.
      The reality is that we still need everyone’s strong and active support – teachers, educational administrators, parents, parent organizations, community organizations, political leaders and children themselves – to tell everyone else that KBN is here.
      With the promise of free books and new ideas for every child in the world.

Why do we all wear green on St. Patrick's Day? An explanation at last.

      Here's some early good news for March.
      Why do we all wear green socks on St. Patrick's Day, even when we're from anywhere and everywhere else on the planet?
      Now teachers can read Why Wear Green On St. Patrick's Day with their class and find out.

      You can read the story to your students from a classic KBN on-paper book, which of course you can download and print for free for your entire class. Or you can read it all together up on your classroom wall, directly from your computer and a projector, in our new KBN flashbook reading format.
      A complete standards-based lesson plan – you'll find it on the Why Wear Green book page – comes with this timely picture book as well, and together they make a very special learning experience for children of all ages.  
      What more can we say at a moment like this? Erin go bragh! 

Let's face it. There's nothing more fun than reading a story you wrote yourself.

      The whimsical new KBN book The Metal Detector, by Amsterdam illustrator Linda Lee, is an exceptional literary project by any measure.
      First because it tells a story that doesn't need any words, almost like a classic silent movie.
      But then because there are no words in the book – the artist's dog, apparently, ate the original story – the KBN reader is invited to develop the story on his or her own, then write their personal word version of the story directly into the book.
      Each book and story becomes unique, and young readers can learn to be better writers by working together in reading groups to share their story ideas.

      The best way to begin, and to introduce this book and story to the class, is probably with a new KBN flashbook reading, projected on a whiteboard wall or projection screen directly from our KBN site shown on a classroom computer. You can show the KBN flashbook to the entire class at once, read it all together, and discuss what's happening in the cinematic flow of Linda Lee's delightful images, and even model as you read some of what your students might later want to write about.
      A small line of metatext on each page is there to help, by suggesting to the reader some elements of the story they might need to explain. In your class discussion you can come up with more ideas and questions together as well, and then write them all on a chalkboard. Classifying the questions is another good way to help young readers understand the essentials of story and character development, establishing motivations, and arriving at logical outcomes, in a way they can use in their independent writing later.
       Finally, after some class discussion, your students can print out and form compact, on-paper minibook copies of  The Metal Detector, one for each student, and let each reader/writer compose their own final version of the story and write it directly into their own personal copy of the book.
      Whether you're reading the story without words or writing a story with your own new words, The Metal Detector adds a wonderful new work to the KBN library of free books for every child in the world.

Thanksgiving in November. Dickens in December.

    December marks the publication of our second literary classic after The Wizard of Oz. And it marks as well our first cooperative publication with one of America's leading academic libraries.
    The classic A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens was first published in a British newspaper, in a serialized format, in 1843. Republished here just in time for Christmas – again in a "serialized," five-part format – our special edition of of the story was carefully prepared by scholars at the University of Virginia Library and has been made available to KBN with their kind permission.
   Teachers not familiar with A Christmas Carol may wonder if a work with such a religious-oriented title is appropriate for the public classroom. The simple answer is yes, and with its vivid dialog it's a wonderful work to bring to the classroom and share in the form of "readers theater."
    It might come as something of a surprise, but the work is completely focused on the personal moral behaviors of the characters during a traditional holiday season of goodwill, and except for the title does not actually mention anything about religion except, perhaps, the universal principle of charity and caring shared by all of humanity.

   As 2009 moves to a close, more and more registered users are coming to the KBN website as more and more parents, kids, teachers and other educators learn about KBN. And they're giving us some very helpful feedback and new ideas, too.
    For example, beginning in January teachers – and everyone else – will also be able to download many of our books in a convenient powerpoint show format for dramatic classroom projection, so a whole class can enjoy reading together at the same time. The teacher can pace the "page-turning" to the next page just like any on-paper book, to match the readiness of her class to move forward to the next idea in the story.
    And finally, we're beginning to see more and more institutional support as teachers themselves are telling other teachers about our website, and the new opportunities for enhancing literacy and learning in the classroom using the completely free books and materials on the Kids' Book Network.
    Every teacher and educator who has visited and discovered KBN seems to be as excited as we are about our mission – to bring free books to every child in the world.
    And at this special moment of Thanksgiving we wish to thank you all. Thank you for your enthusiasm, ideas and continuing encouragement.

October is National Vileburgers Month and the fun comes with complete lesson plans!

October is always scary if you're a teacher but if you're worried about something really exciting for your class to read you can stop screaming right now.

     According to Kirkus our new KBN action novel The Vileburgers is something like "City Slickers meets Ghostbusters" with an outcome that's "enjoyably ridiculous."

      Bookwire, on the other hand, describes this heartwarming story of incompetent ghouls as "replete with elements of magic, humor and wit," and categorizes it as a "new Halloween classic ... imaginative adventure ... hilarious cast." We of course appreciate their enthusiasm.

     But there's more – because the movie-style criticism from these reviewers is not entirely accidental. Vileburgers was deliberately written by the author in "scenes" rather than traditional book "chapters," and was written as well in the present tense to add additional immediacy and a certain live quality to the story – just like the experience of sitting in a "movie."

     That also makes it the perfect novel for teachers to use with the literacy development practice known as Readers Theater. So when you locate and download The Vileburgers from its location in the KBN Action Books category you'll also find a very complete series of lesson plans featuring Readers Theater, plus a Bloom's Taxonomy-based book report project and what can only be termed some incalculable fun with Vilemathematics.

     Published by KBN here in three episodes, we hope The Vileburgers adds extra fun to your October!

Would life in a totalitarian state really be so bad?

Would a totalitarian state really be all that bad? Here's an interesting teaching idea for Constitution Week.
     Just download our analysis of this issue from the study in our KBN library of free books which explores the possibly underconsidered advantages of some totalitarian states under the title What If Dogs Ran The World? You'll find it in the picture book section.
     First, let your students read this book and enjoy some of its doggone interesting ideas.

    Next invite your class to look more closely at each proposition in the book – such as that all children with freckles would be named Spot – and ask them to identify which article in the U.S. Constitution might prohibit such a harsh mandate, and why.
     They'll probably learn a lot more about the Constitution and its principles than any other way and have a lot more reading fun, too!

You know, once the new bulletin boards are up the rest looks almost possible.

With the new bulletin boards up, the books back out of their wrapping and boxes and neatly organized by categories in their easily-browsed baskets – science, exploration, art, history, – some favorite posters back up, and the special chair stenciled with the title Author's Chair in its place of honor, Mrs. Uncle Henry's classroom now looks almost ready to take on a new class of 35 students.

      How's it going with you?
      While many teachers are in administrative and planning meetings this week as schools prepare to open their doors after Labor Day, KBN is prepping, too. We're looking for any problem that our site subscribers might encounter with our website, based on the wide diversity of computer platforms and search engines they might be using.
      One problem we've found seems to be registering on the KBN site if you've got a spamblocker on your e-mail. A spamblocker may not let your registration confirmation note from KBN to reach your mailbox.
      To solve that problem just tell your spamblocker to admit any e-mail from hello@read4free.net. Then try your registration again.
      You'll be a KBN registered user, with full access to the free KBN books library, in minutes.
      Problem solved.
      As far as getting those new bulletin boards up, sorry. We'd like to help you there, too, but you're on your own.

Are you ready for this?

Many teachers who discover KBN immediately will be putting up new bulletin boards next week and writing their first day lesson plans. We understand that you will be busy if not overwhelmed.

      You see that blank bulletin board in Mrs. Uncle Henry's own classroom? I'm the aide who will have to stand high up on a wobbly ladder and put all of her new stuff up.
      So let me suggest a way you can have a much better day on day one. Skip the lesson plan on cartesian planetary motions using real planets. Instead, just set up www.read4free.net as a favorite on the classroom computers and scratch these instructions on your chalkboard:


1. Organize yourselves into groups of 4 students.
2. Go to www.read4free.net, register individually, and look around.
3. Download and print the three simple pages that show you exactly how to make different kinds of KBN books.
4. Then, download the microbook of your choice and make it.
5. Then, download the minibook of your choice and make it.
6. And next do the same with a luxbook.
    All of these books are made with ordinary letter-size paper.


       You may want to assign different groups to make a specific kind of book, so they all don't rush to make the same book, like 100 WORST JOKES OF ALL TIME. Classroom studies show that students race to get this book into their hands before all others. We need to explain why?
       Then, have each specialist group making books show their classmates in the other groups how to make books in each format and size, until everyone can make any form of book. Now maybe if you're lucky, you've reached recess and you can send everyone out to play while you flop on your desk for 10 minutes.
       You might find bookmaking somewhat tedious, personally, but not your students. They love this stuff. That's why, in many cases, it ends up being the students who teach their teachers how to set up something like a powerpoint project. And in fact making KBN books is really very easy. So now we've gotten you through recess. And you're much recovered.
      Next you announce that everyone in class, as registered members of KBN, should download, print, and put together one brand new KBN book that they can take home with them at the end of the day to show their parents, and read to them at home. The books in color are really classy, but it might be cheaper and perhaps strategically smarter to print books for a whole class by printing them only in the black & white versions – permitting your students to color them in themselves with color pencils. Or even to color in later at home.
      Plus, that way you can make printing and assembling a KBN book in color a special prize for turning in a super book report or doing anything else for which you might want to acknowledge award-level behavior or socially-responsible performance. Something which otherwise might receive a star.
      At this point it's probably time for lunch.
      So what should you do after lunch? Why, you should form reading circles and all read books together, of course. Then talk about the ideas encountered in the works, and maybe everyone writes an initial book report.
      While you stand up on a ladder trying to finish those bulletin boards.
      Let me know how it goes, will you?