The format of this presentation is simple and fun.  We will read a picture book, and then we will discuss ways to integrate technology into various curricular areas based on that book.  Even though we are using picture books for this session, the activities are appropriate for all age levels, K-12.  And, even though we are using picture books for this session, I hope you will expand your minds, think outside the box, and use these ideas to come up with other activities for ANY book you might read with your class.  Have fun, and READ, READ, READ!

NOTE: If your students do not have e-mail, which is required for signing up for most of these sites, they can easily create a disposable email address for this purpose at Dispostable. (Thanks, James Gubbins for this tip!)

Skippyjon Jones, a Siamese cat, dreams of becoming El Skippito, who is really a Chihuahua. El Skippito gets to wear a mask and cape. He’s a great swordfighter and speaks with a Spanish accent and uses real Spanish words. Kids of all ages (adults too!) love the Skippyjon books!  Click here to view a webisode of Skippyjon Jones in his latest book, Class Action.



So how can you integrate these books across the curriculum?  Here are a few ideas for ya:

• Have students jot down all of the Spanish words they hear as you read the book.  Then, they can use a Spanish/English online dictionary to translate the words into English.
• Then, they can create online flashcards using Flashcard Machine or Quizlet to study these or other words they are learning in Spanish.
• Have the students act out this Skippyjon Jones play.  Record it and stream it live using Ustream or another live streaming tool.
  

We just started using Skippyjon for a schoolwide project.  We are asking students and teachers to take him with them on trips, so that he can travel the world!  The project just started, but kids are already asking about taking him with them on Winter Break.  We are keeping a Google Map of all the places Skippyjon has been. We can't wait to see how many places he gets to this year!

_Mathematician David M. Schwartz and illustrator Steven Kellogg join forces to knock complex numbers down to size, with some help from Marvelosissimo the Mathematical Magician. It's a math class you'll never forget!







This book opens the door for so many ways to integrate technology.  A few examples are:

• Discuss what it means to exaggerate - "I have a million hours of homework to do!"  Students can calculate how many years from now a million hours would be.  They would be surprised at how long it would take to finish their homework! 
  
• A million is a lot.  Ask students if they know about other large numbers.  Hopefully someone will come up with "infinity."  What does this mean?  They can write their own definitions of infinity and create a VoiceThread with all of the definitions.
• Keep an online journal or a blog of "A Million or More."  As students study different topics in different subject areas, they can write about things that have a million or more.  "There were 6,000,000 Jews killed in the Holocaust."  Or, "Some scientists say that the average adult human body is made up of "50 million million" (or 50 trillion) cells." 

There are a million ways to integrate this into the curriculum!  :-)  One great way to integrate technology with this book, and a very popular way to use technology in mathematics, is for students to create a mathcast.  Mathcasts are screencasts (screen movies of writing with voice) that focus on mathematics.  In this mathcast assignment, the student would select an object, and determine how much a million of them weigh.  Or, to make it more challenging, they can figure out how many of that object they would need to equal 1 million pounds!  The example, the mathcast explains, using mathematics, how to determine the weight of 1 million cans of soda.  For this example, I used Screencast-O-Matic to capture the screen, and Microsoft Word to do the math problem.  Trust me, the kids' mathcasts are SO much better than mine!  Click here for some high school student mathcasts.  And, check out some sample third grade mathcasts.  There are better tools for the latter, such as VoiceThread, Paint, KidPix, or any drawing program.  But, if you are on a tight budget, a word processing tool is fine.  Or try one of the free online whiteboard programs, such as Skrbl, Scriblink, Dabbleboard, or Scribblar.

_Ruth was so excited to take a trip in her family's new car! In the early 1950s, few African Americans could afford to buy cars, so this would be an adventure. But she soon found out that black travelers weren't treated very well in some towns. Many hotels and gas stations refused service to black people. Daddy was upset about something called Jim Crow laws.  Finally, a friendly attendant at a gas station showed Ruth's family The Green Book. It listed all of the places that would welcome black travelers. With this guidebook—and the kindness of strangers—Ruth could finally make a safe journey from Chicago to her grandma's house in Alabama. Ruth's story is fiction, but The Green Book and its role in helping a generation of African American travelers avoid some of the indignities of Jim Crow are historical fact.

This touching story is another excellent book for students of all ages.  Even the youngest students can relate to feeling bad about not being treated well.  It is great for character education.  And, the fact that The Green Book actually existed is something that older students can discuss and debate.  Why not have your students create a journal or blog from Ruth's perspective?  It can be a daily journal that shares how she feels each day based on the reading of the story.  We want do not need our students to learn more and more (width), we need them to learn deeper and better (depth).  Get your kids thinking!

For this activity, students can do it a few ways.  Using Google Maps, they will create their own map with several stops.  It can have all the stops that Ruth made, or, to have them learn "deeper," they can review The Green Book, and determine a trip of their own (perhaps from Chicago to Florida, or New York to Georgia), with all the places they would stop, keeping in mind that the places MUST be in The Green Book.  This example shows all the places listed in the Negro Traveler's Green Book.

_This ingenious picture book of historical fiction (or is it fiction??) about our 16th president of the United States is a tale of two boys who get themselves into more trouble than bear cubs in a candy store during the year 1816. Abe is only seven years old, and his pal, Austin, is ten.  Abe and Austin decide to journey down to Knob Creek. The water looks scary and deep, and Austin points out that they don’t know how to swim. Nevertheless, they decide to traverse it. I won’t tell you what happens, but let’s just say that our country wouldn’t be the same if Austin hadn’t been there to help his friend.



People of all ages, kids and adults, love this story.  Young kids can relate to having fun with their friends and the importance of being careful, and adults understand the important message that what we do matters!  As the author asks of the book's readers, ”Remember Austin Gollaher, because what we do matters, even if we don’t end up in history books.  Yes, let’s remember Austin Gollaher, who, one day long ago, when no one else was there to see, saved Abe Lincoln’s life.  And without Abraham Lincoln, where would we be?”  So, how can you use this story across the curriculum and integrate technology to improve student learning?  Here are some ideas:

• What are some other morals?  Once the students determine what a moral is, make a Wordle with many different common morals.  Is there a term that shows up often?  Or, have students prioritize their own morals.  If there is a list of 10, then have them create a Wordle in which the first one is typed 10 times, the next is typed 9, etc.  This will show the importance of each moral in a visual format.  Here is an example of a nice Wordle with a list of morals (not prioritized).
• Use this book as a segue to learning about Abraham Lincoln.  Use Capzles or try Timetoast.  There are several online timelines out there.
  

This fun activity is probably best for students in grades 7-12.  Have the students create a "Fake Facebook Wall" of either Abraham Lincoln, or another historical figure.  There are some excellent examples of fake walls here.

Babysitting mishaps, lazy summer days by the lake, and silly childhood pranks are remembered in this amusing memoir of the life of an adventurous young boy growing up in a family with six brothers.

Born in 1954, the second of six brothers, he writes about Catholic and military schools, buying gifts, chores, and hand-me-downs—all familiar experiences related with a specific Scieszka twist

The whole story of Knucklehead is about Jon Scieksa family and their relationships. Jon has 5 brothers, a mother who is a prenatal nurse and a father who is an elementary school principle.

• There are lots of hilarious stories in this book.  One of the stories in the book is about a family car trip from Michigan to Florida. While they were eating the family cat somehow got a hold of one of the candies, a pecan roll with gooey caramel in the middle. Have you ever heard that people foods aren't very good for pets? That cat ate part of the pecan roll and then started to – ack!- cough and – ack! – gag – and – ack! - and eventually threw up that candy all over the lap of the littlest brother. Now this little boy had just eaten a big lunch and a lot of candy himself. He looked at that mess of cat sick on his lap and – well, you can probably figure out what happened. The brother next to him looked down at where his brother and the cat both got sick.  When he and saw – urp! – he got sick too. One-by-one the brothers threw up, and by now their Dad is frantically trying to get the car off the freeway so that they can get out of that stinky car!  

• The whole story about Knucklehead is about Jon Scieksa family and their relationships. Jon has 5 brothers, a mother who is a prenatal nurse and a father who is an elementary school principle. Have the students think about their families. Every family has funny stories. Have the students create a comic strip about a funny event in their family.  If you have ComicLife, that is a great tool for this.  However, if not, there are several free tools to use, such as Make Beliefs Comix, Marvel Superhero Squad, ToonDoo, Strip Generator.
  
• There are some great ways to integrate science using this book.  What actually makes someone throw up?  (The science behind it?)  What is vomit?  The students can research this online.  Check out The Yuckiest Site on the Internet.
  
  

In Knucklehead Jon talks about how he much he hated one chore: feeding the dog and picking up poop. He decided to help with cooking and found he really enjoyed it Jon created a great recipe for Oatmeal.

• What are some of your favorite family recipes? Create an on line Family recipe cook book.
  
• A great tool for this is Mixbook. Here is a sample Class Recipe Book.

   
The Crossing Swords chapters is one of the MOST hilarious in the book.  With six boys in the family and one bathroom the boys developed a system called “crossing swords”  This enabled the boys to use the restroom quickly but with some negative effects for the shorter boys.  It would be great to read this chapter before  

• This is a GREAT chapter as a springboard for several physics discussions, such as force, resistance, pressure.  Although, I would suggest using water guns as a replacement to...well, you get the idea!  Check out this physics problem online.
• There are a lot of other physics concepts that can be discussed based on this chapter.  Check out the Physics Super Soaker website.

There are loads of great ABC books.  These can be used with students of ALL ages, depending on how you use them.  Below are some ideas.  For more ideas, read ABC Books Aren't for Babies from Education World.

• Select a topic, and have kids create an Alphabet Book based on that topic.  You can use Mixbook, Google Presentation, or even VoiceThread.  There are many tools out there that would work.  Here is an example of The ABCs of Chemistry.  And this website was created using the free tool, Wix.com - ABCs of Biology.
  
• Read Q is for Duck, and have the class come up with their own creative ways to come up with the alphabet.  Give each student a letter.  At the end, put each letter on a Mixbook page or VoiceThread slide.  Or, use one of these tools to create an alphabet book in another language.
• And, for those kids who really are just learning their ABCs, there are many, many ABC games online for them to visit if you know where to find them, and if your district doesn't block them!  And check out this article: Sites to see: The Alphabet.  The Web offers kids, parents, and teachers resources from A to Z. Included in the article: Thirty alphabet sites for teachers and students.

A young woman holds her newborn son and looks at him lovingly.

Softly she sings to him:


"I'll love you forever
I'll like you for always
As long as I'm living
My baby you'll be."



So begins the story that has touched the hearts of millions worldwide. Since publication in l986, Love You Forever has sold more than 15 million copies in paperback and the regular hardcover edition (as well as hundreds of thousands of copies in Spanish and French)

This is one of my favorite picture books.  The first time I ever heard this it was read by Wally Amos (yes, "Famous Amos!" at the ICE Conference 2002.  He had the audience in tears!  I decided I HAD to read Love You Forever during this presentation.

So how can this be used in teaching?  Here are a few ideas:

• Use this as a starting point to talk about family, and move on talk about family trees.  There are several online family tree makers, such as Family Echo, Tribal Pages, Lucid Chart (the free version only allows up to 60 objects on the family tree), and Geni, among others.
• OR, if you use this book as a starting point to discussing family trees, students can create a family tree for a character in a book, an historical figure, or get really creative and have them create a family tree for human being, where you can talk about cells splitting, etc. The great-great grandparents, or the start of the "family" might be Electrons, Protons, and Neutrons. (I'm NOT a scientist, but if you teach science I bet you can come up with a great way to do this.)
  
• This book lends itself very well to being integrated into the music curriculum.  Why not ask kids to determine the tune for the song that is repeated in the book?  Younger students can just sing their song, while older students can actually compose the music for the song.  If you have GarageBand, that is an excellent application for doing this.  Or, there is a great tool on line called  Noteflight that is free for up to 10 compositions.
• Here is a sample VoiceThread demonstrating how younger students might come up with and share their own tunes for the song "I Love You Forever."