Anna Egan Smucker

 
 
Here are some photos of me at the ABLE Families Afterschool Program in Kermit, WV.  The kids were great.  They were so attentive and enthusiastic, and had lots of good questions about NO STAR NIGHTS.  They had heard the story read aloud earlier in the week and had been doing art and writing activities inspired by the book.  When I walked in they were being served Tabitha's homemade cabbage rolls!  A little bit of Weirton in Mingo County, WV!!  The program, with help from a WV Humanities Council grant, bought each child a copy of NO STAR NIGHTS.  The afternoon ended with an autograph session that allowed me to talk to each child individually as I signed the books.  

 The ABLE Program works to "confront the systemic causes of poverty in northern Mingo County, WV.  Check out their website at http://www.ablefamilies.org and you can't help but be impressed with their important and far-reaching projects. 
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Apple books are popular for teachers to use in teaching students about science - especially during apple picking season.  There is a wealth of across-the-curriculum teaching ideas & resources for teachers with activities for all grade levels at the www.usapple.org educators’ site and at www.nyapplecountry.com/edplansa.htm

Scholastic's Kid Lit Kit blog author Jeremy Brunaccioni posted a really nice review of Golden Delicious: A Cinderella Apple Story in his Picture Book Thursday "Harvest Time" edition. He also reviewed the book Corn by Gail Gibbons and The Best Gift of All which was written by Jonathan Emmett and illustrated by Vanessa Cabban.

The blog is about how teachers can teach with books. The review is about how teachers can use Golden Delicious in their classrooms and is as follows:

Golden Delicious: A Cinderella Apple Story
If you’ve ever read Michael Pollan’s The Botany of Desire and thought the apple information would be useful in the classroom but too advanced for your students, then this is the book you’ve been waiting for. It traces the discovery and distribution of the Golden Delicious. The author’s note is extensive and intriguing enough to make me want to plant some apple trees in my yard.

Activity
Purchase a selection of apples to have a taste testing and graph the results.  Invite a neighboring class or two and compare their graph results.  Bon appetit!

Thanks Kid Lit Kit!