The post Twice-Told Tale Reader in Print on Amazon (and as a Kindle/Ebook!) appeared first on Character Ink.

When my kids were little, we didn’t have electronics, etc. (except for our beloved GeoSafari and MathSafari!), so gift giving was a little simpler. We did, however, give a balance of educational items and fun items (just like I am doing with my grandbabies!). Our kids loved school and learning, so they looked forward to getting “school” things for Christmas besides the many wonderful toys we got them–for the most part. We had a couple who didn’t love school as much as the others (though we still had high expectations for them!), so I understand the need to make learning more fun for some kiddos! Enter my two readers/coloring books. I am excited about these print books (available from Amazon) as they have the fun of exciting, well-known stories and coloring pages AND text that can be used for reading aloud to the child or as a reader for them.

Above are some links to books I use and love. I am an affiliate for Amazon.com. If you click on the links I will earn a small commission. Thank you for your support of this blog!

I published two of these in the last year—Read and Color, Mowgli and Read and Color, Beauty & Beast. They both have these great benefits:

+The engaging text is perfect for emerging readers to practice their word calling skills. However, the text is detailed enough to actually discuss and learn from—thus, building comprehension skills.

+Each one provides the perfect opportunity for parents and grandparents to read aloud to their favorite children—before or after the coloring pages are colored with crayons, markers, or colored pencils.

+Both are available in print and download form.

And….here are the descriptions of each book! You won’t be disappointed in these engaging coloring books!

Color and Read, Beauty & Beast

This lovely coloring book and reader is 45 pages long. The engaging text is perfect for emerging readers to practice their word calling skills. However, the text is detailed enough to actually discuss and learn from—thus, building comprehension skills. Section I contains the a short story of the original Beauty and the Beast story at a second to third grade reading level. Section II introduces children to the characters, giving funny and cute information about each one in a short paragraph that is perfect for reading aloud and for discussion.

Finally, Section III teaches new readers about the types of castles that were popular during the Middle Ages. These short passages are perfect for reading and for writing from. The pictures are delightful! Students will love coloring the scenes from the original story. They will have fun with the individual character pictures in Section II.

Lastly, kids will be challenged with the detailed castle pictures in Section III. Delightful pictures to color coupled with appropriate, yet challenging text, will engage your young student for many hours. The pictures are also appropriate for the pre-reader.

This book provides the perfect opportunity for parents and grandparents to read aloud to their favorite children—before or after the coloring pages are colored with crayons, markers, or colored pencils.

This book is available for purchase in print and download form.

Click here to preview the coloring book!

Color and Read, Mowgli

The Color and Read, Mowgli! book is a 66 page reader, coloring book, and story book all in one! It is a product in our Book-Movie-Book line-up, which contains books and materials based on an old book that is a modern-day movie. This series is a fun way to get children interested in old books—watch the movie; read the original (or a version of it) book; and read, write, or color in/about the movie/book with one of our BMB products!

Color and Read, Mowgli! is much more than a coloring book! The whimsical, detailed pictures will definitely delight young artists. However, another benefit is the two texts that are provided—a larger, bold-font text for a young reader to read to himself or aloud to someone for reading practice and a smaller-font, more detailed text for adults to read to the child.

Section I contains “Meet the Characters,” pictures, beginning reader text, and advanced reader text about the characters in The Jungle Book. Section II contains “The Story.” Full page pictures and the two text levels fill this delightful section.

This book is available in print and download form.

Click here to preview the coloring book!

P.S. What do your kids like to color with? What are your favorite educational coloring books right now? My kids used to love the Dover ones!

The post Two Coloring Book Readers: Mowgli and/or Beauty and the Beast appeared first on Character Ink.

Most of you know me by now. And you know that writing, along with parenting, is a true love of mine. I began writing curriculum for a home school publishing company out of Chicago twenty years ago—then we opened our own small press publishing company fifteen years ago. And, in total, I have written over 100 books and 50,000 pages. (It didn’t seem like that many since I just wrote a little every day of my life!)

A small portion of that has been our parenting book, parenting seminar, blog posts, etc. However, most of that has been language arts, writing, reading, spelling, speech, debate, etc., materials. (I’ll post links to the ones at our store in the P.S. below!)

For today, I wanted to give you a free sampling of my Directed Writing Approach. You can choose the book/level you would like out of one of my monthly downloads. (So far, we have our Book-Movie-Book monthly downloads up—writing projects based on old books that are modern movies—and now made into “books” again for kids! So much fun!)

In all of my books I use the same approach—the aforementioned Directed Writing Approach. This means that every lesson is laid out in a directed manner. No guess work. No vagueness. No writing prompts. The writing projects take students from start to finish with every skill that the student needs to complete the project included in the lessons.

I love teaching kids—and I love seeing the light bulbs go off—and seeing them succeed in their writing. (Oh, and my books are tested in our local Cottage Class programs by over 100 kids each semester!)

I hope you enjoy this FREEBIE—print it off and use it with your students or with a small group. They are fun and interesting….kids love them! (And so do parents!)

Be sure to get yours by August 15….the freebie will come down then.

Click HERE to get your FREE book!!

Here are the ones to choose from:

This Level I book is designed for elementary students and contains the following projects (from pre-writing through final product with all the instruction and skills needed for each assignment): Beginning Writing Boxes—The Jungle Book story; Paragraph House Outlining and Descriptive Writing—Animals of the Jungle; Sentence-by-Sentence Outline Over Given Material: Meet the Characters From The Jungle Book.

This Level II book is designed for upper elementary/middle school students and contains the following projects (from pre-writing through final product with all the instruction and skills needed for each assignment): Retelling Given Story; Finish-This-Scene Original Story; and Original First Person Essay From Character’s Viewpoint.

This Level III book is designed for junior high students and contains the following projects (from pre-writing through final product with all the instruction and skills needed for each assignment): Expanded Writing Boxes With Beauty and Beast Story and Original Essay of Three Castle Objects You Would Choose as Friends.

This Level IV book is designed for beginning high school students and contains the following projects (from pre-writing through final product with all the instruction and skills needed for each assignment): Sentence-by-Sentence Outline and Story Over Expanded Beauty and Beast Story, Part I; Original Comparative Descriptive Essay—Before and After the Beast and the Prince; and Original Research Report on Something From Beauty and Beast’s World.

This Level V book is designed for upper high school students and contains the following projects (from pre-writing through final product with all the instruction and skills needed for each assignment): Predator and Prey Original Short Story; Original Comparative Descriptive Writing–Before and After– Mowgli and Shere Khan; and Original Expository Essay–Character Analysis of a Jungle Book Character.

Click HERE to choose your FREE book!!

Write On,

Donna

P.S. Here are the various books and downloadable products available at our our store!

Meaningful Composition

CQLA

Language Arts Downloads

Write On

Really Writing

The post Free Month-Long Writing Book From Character Ink Press! appeared first on Character Ink.

We get asked a lot lately about how many of our products are now downloadable. Turns out that making 300 to 1600 page books into individual downloadable lessons and booklets takes a whole lot more time and effort than I envisioned! 😉

But we are doing it….little by little! This post will give you a little glimpse into what we have done so far and what our plans for the future are!

1. Write On, Mowgli; Write On, Peter Pan; Write On, Beauty and the Beast–our darling Book-Movie-Book month-long writing booklets are all available now (fifteen total!). We will be adding Write On, Christmas Friends this fall with some amazing holiday writing lessons that I have been testing over the past two years (with amazing samples of all of the projects!). Click HERE to view our books.

2. Really Writing was my original brainchild for converting Meaningful Composition writing assignments into downloadable monthly booklets for homeschoolers and brick and mortar schoolers. They are cool books–but the branding has kind of been all over the place….so look for these to change to Write-for-a-Month this winter (at our store and our Teachers Pay Teachers store). In the meantime, we have a few of them up as RW and dozens more to go up soon! Click HERE to view our books.

3. We have very gradually been getting other language arts downloads up. We have offered several of those as freebies on the blog and in our newsletter. These are cool booklets that REALLY work! We have our “How to Complete the Checklist Challenge,” “How to Write From a Source,” “How to Use Our Writing Boxes,” “Preposition Practice Packet,” “Think Fast Grammar Quiz and Answer Key,” “Write On Audio and Booklet Set for Teachers,” and much more! Click HERE to view our other Language Arts downloadable products.

Of course, we still have our print book lines, Character Quality Language Arts and Meaningful Composition!

Thanks for being a part of Character Ink!

Love and hope,
Donna

The post What Downloadable Products Does Character Ink Press Have? appeared first on Character Ink.

Fourteen down, one more to go! Then we will have all 15 of our Write On downloadable books up for sale at the store, Teachers Pay Teachers, and Amazon! This post is to let you know about one of my faves—the Level IV book of the Peter Pan series. Take a look at the extensive sample pages for this book here at our store, and read on to find out why your kids will love our Write On books—and especially why your upper level students will love Peter Pan IV!

Here is what you need to know about the entire series of fifteen books:

1) They are called Write On (clever, huh?) and then a character’s name:

Write On, Peter Pan

Write On, Beauty and Beast

Write On, Mowgli (Jungle Book)

2) There are five books of each title—five levels:

I—2nd-4th grade writers

II—-4th-6th grade writers

III—6th-8th grade writers

IV—9-10th grade writers

V—10th-12th grade writers

3) Each book comes in print form directly from us (Character Ink store) and in downloadable format from our store, Teachers Pay Teachers, and Amazon.

4) They have a variety of writing types. Each store description tells what types of writing project each level contains.

5) They have our best and newest teaching methods. No vagueness. No writing ideas. You and your student will know what to do every step of the way.

6) Each project has a detailed sample of that project. I can’t stress this enough. All writing books should have a final product showing what the expectations are for the assignment.

7) They are incredibly fun and engaging. We have been testing them for four years now—and our kids love them! (We test all of our books with 100 students a year in various locations—live and online writing classes.)

8) Each book has at least a dozen sample pages to print off or look through where ever they are sold!

Here is what you will find in Write On, Peter Pan, Level IV:

A. This Level IV book is designed for beginning to upper level high school students and contains the following projects (from prewriting through final product with all the instruction and skills needed for each assignment):

I. Essay Writing—Three Reasons Hook Is a Good Villain or Peter Pan Is a Good Hero

ii. Original Story of Someone Getting Away From a Villain on Hook’s Ship

III. An Original Research Report About One Thing of Aspect in the Story of Peter Pan

B. Each project has detailed samples for students to see how the project was written by another student.

C. Each project has in-depth lessons of all of the skills needed in order to complete that project—

I. The 1-3-1 Essay Approach
II. Quotation Inclusion in Essay Writing (with punctuation lessons)
III. Thesis Statement instruction
IV. Directed Brainstorming Boxes
V. Sentence-by-Sentence Outlining, including links/transitions
Vi. Writing With a Series of Three or More
VII. Extensive Checklist Challenges
VIII. Dialogue Writing
IX. Said/Asked/ Exclaimed lesson
XI. Colon use in dialogue—and more!

PIN THIS POST!

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Our newest fourth grade composition book is up! Well, it’s not really new…it’s just one of the last two books of the Meaningful Composition series to be revised. And I am so happy with it!

I am happy for all of the regular reasons: (1) It is completely directed—no guess work, no vague ideas of what a student should do, no writing idea book or prompt book; (2) It follows the same layout—each project is one or two weeks long; (3) It teaches the skills needed to complete each project (when an assignment has the student add a quote, it has extensively quote lessons to teach them HOW to add quotes!); (4) It has the outlining spaces, brainstorming boxes, etc., all within it; (5) Has samples galore; and much more.

(See me, two years and 30 pounds ago explaining the details of MC HERE) 🙂

(Or find out why MC works HERE)

True to all of our second, third, and fourth grade books (and all first semester books for 5 through 9), it has the HOW TO’s in the first section. In this case, it has:

(1) How to Write From Sources Using Our Signature Writing Boxes (super effective writing approach that Cathy Duffy loved that is in all of our elementary MC, Write On, and Write-for-a-Month books);

(2) How to Write From Sources Using Our Sentence-by-Sentence Outlining Approach;

(3) How to Complete Our Signature Checklist Challenge. These are step-by-step lessons on our approaches that fall in the first few weeks of each MC first semester books (2 I through 9 I). (Of course, they all teach these lessons with different level-appropriate materials!)

And then…..the absolute darling-ness-factor of this book……

1) Starts out with an Alice in Wonderland writing boxes lesson

2) Has amazing people for them to write about—-Clara Barton, George Washington Carver, and more

3) Contains a Peter Pan story-writing-from-given-source lesson (darlingx5!)

4) Teaches how to write opening and closing paragraphs using sets of animals that display various qualities

5) Uses “zoo information cards” to outline original animal paragraphs

6) Teaches a book report using a meaningful story that they choose about people who were reconciled to each other (okay..little conflict resolution lesson in there!)

7) Has a perfect balance of given sources and original writing for this tender writing age

8) One of the original projects is interviewing pet owners and writing two paragraphs—what fourth grader doesn’t love pets???

I’m crazy about this book, and I know you and your young writer will be also! But just to be sure you know what you are getting yourself into, go ahead and print off three weeks of the sixteen weeks to try with your kiddos! It’s free….because we want you to love what you are buying before you buy it! Get that sample HERE!

Check out all levels of MC at our store—two semesters of each book for second through twelfth grade students. This is the most versatile writing program you will find—no expensive videos or extensive packages; everything contained in each one semester book; Directed Writing Approach throughout. Add a grammar program to 5th through 12th grade books, and you are good to go.

No need to add a grammar program to the elementary books! The 2 I, 2 II, 3 I, 3 II, and 4 I books are grammar-included, so no other English book is needed.

Click the image below to view MC 4-II in the store!

Click HERE to view our other Meaningful Composition books! 

PIN THIS POST!

The post Introducing the NEW MC 4 II Book! appeared first on Character Ink.

I won’t tell you how many weeks it is til school starts for our “Half-Day Homeschool” or our “Cottage Classes, but we all know how fast summer goes by! I hope you are enjoying your summer break–and getting some good school planning in here and there. To help with the latter, I would like to gift you my Think Fast Grammar Quiz book with detailed answer keys!

One of the ways that I teach writing is by helping students memorize the types of words that they will need to use with commas, semicolons, etc., and the types of words that they will need to use for various expressions (exceptions, giving more info, showing examples, elaborating, etc.).

I teach these to my students through rhymes, songs, jingles, mnemonics, check sentences, and more…..and then they are quizzed on them every week in order to learn them at a snap of their fingers.

This quiz booklet is that.

Here is how our store describes it:

“In this document, you will find Character Ink Press’ (CI) original Think Fast Grammar Quiz (Beginner’s Level and Advanced Level) and page after page of answers divided by category.

In testing my books, I have learned the importance of two things:

(1) Recitation/memorization of the parts of speech that are constants AND

(2) Teaching HOW to use these parts of speech (via my Checklist Challenge—intro packet available HERE).

This free 26 page document will help you with the former—teaching, memorizing, and quizzing the constant parts of speech (those with definite lists).

The quizzes test students (or give practice in) prepositions; Be, a Helper, Link (BHL) verbs, coordinating conjunctions (FANBOYS), interjections, subordinators, and conjunctive adverbs. These are taught in our books (and in the Answer Key) through rhymes, jingles, songs, and mnemonics.

The lengthy Answer Key for these quizzes is divided by categories—even breaking prepositions down to ones taught with a Preposition Practice Pal, with synonyms and antonyms, with compound words, with Check Sentences, and by initial letters. You will not find a more thorough list of these parts of speech anywhere—especially lists with the tricks and tips that CI materials provide.”

Regardless of the grammar, usage, or writing program that you use, the Think Fast Quiz and Answer Key booklet can be a huge help to you. Let me know what you think—and if you need help implementing it.”

Click on the picture below to go to the store—and use your freebie code QUIZFREEJULY (hurry! It’s free only until August 1st, 2018)!

Think fast,

Donna

PIN THIS POST!

The post FREEBIE–Think Fast Grammar Quiz Packet and Answer Keys! appeared first on Character Ink.

We are expanding our private tutoring and small summer classes at Character Ink! We have more availability now–and in five subject areas:

1) Writing–sentence, paragraph, report, essay, story writing; all levels; Directed Writing Approach to get non-writers writing immediately! Taught by a writing curriculum author of over 100 books totaling over 50,000 pages!
2) Math–from elementary through twelfth grade….your curriculum or one of our choice; remedial, brush up, SAT prep, and more. Taught by a math professional (former CPA and CMA).
3) Reading–from first grade and up; phonics, reading comprehension, reaching reading fluency, and more. Taught by curriculum author, elementary education degree and master’s work in Reading Specialist.
4) Grammar/Usage–taught in conjunction with writing or alone; parts of speech; punctuation; editing; spelling/structural analysis; and more. Taught by curriculum author and experienced teacher of over 100 students each year in grammar and writing for over 20 years.
5) Science–elementary through high school–basic science, earth science, physics, biology, advanced biology, chemistry; taught by experienced science teacher who has taught all of these subjects to many small groups for over 15 years and is a math professional.

Here is what I am offering so far in small groups and what times Ray has available for private kids. Please note that if I have three or more students interested, I can add an online class or face-to-face class to my schedule pretty easily, so check out my Meaningful Composition samples if you are considering a quick summer writing class for your students!

TWO SUMMER SESSIONS

First Session: Week of June 4, 11, 18, 25, and July 2

Second Session: Week of July 15, 22, 29; August 5, August 12

Ray’s Availability: Any week day or week night in SW Fort Wayne; some Bluffton/Ossian openings here and there; Saturday mornings in SW FW

Donna’s Private Availability: Mondays; Tuesday all day and all evening; some Thursday openings

Private Costs: Private tutoring for Ray and/or Donna is $30 for a 55 minute hour for once a week; $25 for a 55 minute hour for students who come twice a week (or one session with Donna and one with Ray). Students may miss one out of every tutoring session during the summer sessions without penalty (must attend 4/5 or 8/10 total private sessions). More than one miss per session requires a make up session or a payment. (These are summer guidelines only.) We always prefer to make up sessions whenever possible.

Donna’s Online or Face-to-Face Summer Classes—Tuesdays—(Minimum student count must be met)

First Summer Session: Tuesdays, June 5, 12, 19, 26, and 7/3

Second Summer Session: Tuesdays, July 17, 24, 31, and 8/7
*Complete Language Arts remediation for 4th-8th grade students who have not written three or more paragraph reports and essays—Tuesdays 12:00 SW Fort Wayne (We will use CQLA Level A for this class; one month samples are available at the store.) CQLA Summer Cost: $15 per week for a minimum of four weeks each session (preferably all five weeks); plus $10 per each five week session for their book.

*High School Writing/Remediation—grades 7th-12th who have not written four paragraphs or more of all types of writing with quotes, persuasion, and more (Jump Start book)—Tuesdays 1:30-2:45 (This is also excellent preparation for jumping into CQLA or Meaningful Composition classes in the fall!) Writing Summer Cost: $10 per week for a minimum of four weeks each session (preferably all five weeks); plus $15 per each five week session for their book.

*You Choose! –I would love to add an online class or a different in-person class to my line up this summer—check out the MC books at the store to choose a book for your student or group, and I will plan around you! (Note that this year’s in-person writing classes by Donna will be High School Essay in the first semester and Four Research Reports second semester; Jump Start is a wonderful way to get your upper level high schoolers ready for these two classes. Or we could do a creative writing class this summer if I had enough interest!) Writing Summer Cost: $10 per week for a minimum of four weeks each session (preferably all five weeks); plus $15 per each five week session for their book.

Call or text today for more information or to sign up! Decisions as to which classes will run will be made by June 1st and will be based on class enrollment. Donna at 260-433-4365.

The post Character Ink Private Tutoring–Writing, Math, Reading, Grammar, & Science appeared first on Character Ink.

I am so excited about my preposition book! (Yes, I get super excited about grammar!)

And I’m doubly excited that you (our subscribers!) get to see it and use it—for FREE! (Scroll down below to subscribe and get it free until June 15th!)

Aboard, about, above. along, among, around….

Whether your kids sing them, recite them, chant them, rap them, or write them…prepositions are important.

I learned them in chant-like form when I was in school. However, I never knew WHY I needed to learn them.

My downloadable product will teach kids prepositions—in a way that focuses on the WHY, that is, what prepositions really do!

AND with the fun story line of the beloved Beauty and the Beast characters.

Our kids (and we!) need to learn prepositions for a few important reasons:

(1) They are the beginning of prepositional phrases

(2) Prepositional phrases can be mentally eliminated from a sentence in order to get to the bare bones of the sentence…since the sentence’s main subject and main verb are not usually found in prepositional phrases, This concept is imperative for subject-verb agreement solutions.

(3) Prepositional phrases are good to use as openers—especially lengthy ones—as they vary sentence structure and rhythm.

I’m all about songs, jingles, rhymes, recitation, and mnemonics for learning parts of speech (and really anything). (My books are full of them—FANBOYS for coordinating conjunctions; Be, a Helper, Link Verbs song; Preposition Check Sentences; Subordinate Clause Opener rhyme; and much more!)

However, when prepositions are learned in songs or recitations, the real reasons for prepositions are overlooked. (Not to mention that they learn about thirty of the over two hundred prepositions….not enough memorized preps to adequately recognize them in sentences and use them for sentence openers!)

That is, students can chant a long list of words, but they do not know how to use them.

(In addition to this book, you can learn more about teaching prepositions in these blog posts, “Why Learn (or Teach!) Prepositions” and “Teaching Prepositions.”)

Enter my Beauty and the Beast Preposition Practice! I use tricks. I use check sentences. I even use toys—a character from the book/movie AND a large castle—to teach prepositions (and practice them).

If you are not subscribed and would like this FREE book download, subscribe here!

Students can use either the black and white “toys” or the colored ones (a large castle and six beloved characters from Beauty and the Beast). Consider how much faster it will be for your kids to learn prepositions with these learning tools:

Beast ran _______________ the castle.

1. aboard – Beast ran aboard the castle.
2. about – Beast ran about the castle.
3. above – Beast ran above the castle.
4. across – Beast ran across the castle.
5. across from – Beast ran across from the castle.
6. behind the castle – Beast ran behind the castle.
7. below the castle – Beast ran below the castle.
8. beneath the castle – Beast ran beneath the castle.
9. beside the castle – Beast ran beside the castle.
10. by the castle – Beast ran by the castle.

But all of the methods within this Beauty and the Beast Preposition Practice have one thing in common: they focus on the PURPOSE of the preposition—to show spatial relationships or time.

This 100+ page downloadable book has eighteen lessons (with student assignments) introducing prepositions in a systematic order: initial letter, with the castle and characters, as opposites, as synonyms, as compound words, with time, and more.

This book also has a jam-packed Appendix section:

Appendix A: Colored and Black and White Beauty and the Beast Pictures to Use for
Student’s Preposition Practice

Appendix B: Think Fast Quiz Preposition Practice for Beginning and
Intermediate Students

Appendix C: Think Fast Quiz Preposition Practice for Advanced Students

Appendix D: Complete Preposition Lists in Categories and in Total (over ten pages of preposition lists!)

When you use this packet, your students will learn prepositions by the boatload—but they will also learn them for their purpose—and have fun as they do!

Save

The post Beauty and the Beast Preposition Practice (FREE book download til June 15!) appeared first on Character Ink.

Classes are underway for the second semester for both Character Ink Cottage Classes and Donna’s Live Online Writing Classes (yay!). I had so much fun with a couple of students in a book that I haven’t taught from for a while that I thought I would give my readers the lesson and video of the class—AND give you a chance to win a copy of the book I am using! Yep–someone will win a free copy of the spiral-bound, print version of Meaningful Composition 9 II: High School Creative Writing simply by watching the teaching video in this post and commenting below that you watched the whole video–and what you learned or liked about it! 🙂 (Homework!)

Here are the deets:

1) Download and print this document here to follow along with the lesson that goes with this video (watch it with your students!).

2) Watch the video of the class.

3) Comment at the end of the blog post what you learned or what you liked about the video by May 31st.

4) Watch the blog for the winner!

If you like learning about descriptive writing, punctuating double and triple adjectives, dividing paragraphs in a one-scene story, using the best words for the job, and more, you will love today’s video! If you need help in teaching outlining, prewriting skills, and more, this lesson will help you. If you’re just curious about my online teaching, watch this video!

P.S. Don’t forget to comment below to be entered to win the drawing on May 31st!

The post Live Teaching Video & REAL Book Give Away! (Free Lesson Download Included!) appeared first on Character Ink.