The Gods and Gifts Activity Book is Available Now

My Gods and Gifts Activity Book is available now on Amazon and Barnes and Noble. You may also order it from your favorite local bookstore. Your school librarian can find it at Ingram. The Activity Book accompanies my decodable chapter book Gods and Gifts: Three Greek Myths Retold.

The 218-page resource was created to provide all the tools an educator needs for a complete structured literacy lesson and additional written applications for the general education classroom. In addition, there are 16 different activities SLPs can use to work on the sounds for R, S, L. 

Here's what people are saying: 

"This is the most comprehensive set of literacy activities I have seen in one book!”  - Dannah Fritz Co-Owner of Jacksonville Tutoring Specialists, Advanced Certified in Barton & Accredited IEW Instructor

“As an SLP, I highly recommend Dean's HOT ROD Activity Books to my colleagues! I love these books because they simultaneously target articulation, oral language, and literacy skills. It's a comprehensive tool that not only improves speech but also supports overall language development! This is a must-have for any SLP!” - Ellen Cieszkiewicz Rigg, M.A. CCC-SLP, A/OGA

What a powerful tool for anyone supporting learners! The Comprehension section includes practical strategies to assist learners as they explore texts. Students’ comprehension will be supported by using the PAGES framework to help them think critically about the text they’re reading. This chapter also gives learners signal words and practice paragraphs to help determine what type of text they’re reading. Dean’s story “Bats and Their Amazing Skills” is followed by comprehension questions and the opportunity to cite and explain an answer using the RACE framework. Students' skills and confidence will grow if they utilize these strategies.”    -Jolene Gutierrez, M.L.S., author of Too Much! An Overwhelming Day, teacher/librarian at Denver Academy, a school for neurodivergent learners including those with dyslexia.

The Activity Book includes 50+ Activities to work on the following skills: 

*DECODING – Work on reading short vowel words and closed syllables at the word and sentence level. Includes initial and final consonant blends

*ARTICULATION: Explore /s/ and /r/ sounds, initial blends for both, and final blends including /s/.

*PHONOLOGICAL AWARENESS:  Work on sound and syllable deletion. Develop awareness of rhyme, alliteration, rhythm, and stress.

*COGNITIVE FLEXIBILITY: Sort words by phonological and semantic features.

*MORPHOLOGY: Explore Prefix PRO, Suffixes -S, -NESS, -LESS, -FUL, -EN. 

*STRUCTURED WORD INQUIRY: Use a Matrix to build Word Sums for the base elements REST, HELP, SPECT

*ETYMOLOGY:  Use etymology and character names (Prometheus, Epimetheus, Pandora) to generate words for PRO, EPI, and PAN.

*VOCABULARY: Explore words before, during, and after reading. Build strategies for using context to derive word meaning. Create vocabulary foldables. Play games with definitions and multiple-meaning words.

*SENTENCE AWARENESS & CONSTRUCTION: Combine short sentences using coordinating conjunctions. Answer WH- questions to build sentences. Determine if sentences are complete or incomplete. Decide if a subject or predicate is missing. Determine if multiple-meaning words function within a sentence as nouns, verbs, or adjectives.

*PLOT STRUCTURE: Use the storyboard for story retells and summaries.

*GRAPHIC ORGANIZERS: Support writing at all levels. Create compare/contrast essays.

*COMPREHENSION:  Use the PAGES Strategy. Use signal words to determine text type. Practice answering questions using the RACE format.

*CREATE: Brainstorm funny titles for Zeus' hobby books. Create a list poem to go inside Pandora’s Lunch Box

 

Link to a Preview of my Boom Cards Connect 4 Game to practice words with short vowel sounds- HERE. 

Sign up for my newsletter HERE and receive a free PDF copy of my first decodable book, No Gift for Man, in full color. It is also the first chapter of my black and white decodable book for older kids - Gods and Gifts: Three Greek Myths Retold. Don't miss any of the fun-filled activities I will be sharing in celebration of my new books along with free activities for A Year of AWE: Authentic Writing Experiences.