10/9/2015: Anniversary of the First Two-Way Telephone Conversation

Alexander Graham Bell and his assistant Thomas A. Watson held the first two-way long-distance conversation on October 9, 1876, when they spoke to each other by telephone over a two-mile wire stretched between Cambridge and Boston. 

Earlier that same year, On February 14, Bell and an American engineer named Elisha Gray both filed patents with the U.S. Patent Office for early telephones. There is debate about who got there first but Bell received the patent, and a few days later he succeeded in getting his telephone to work using elements similar to those of Gray’s.

Do your students enjoy learning about famous inventors? My first-grade Level F reader Alexander Graham Bell combines reading and social studies activities to provide interesting facts about Alexander Graham Bell, inventor of the telephone. Your students will build their vocabulary and improve their reading comprehension as they read the story, answer questions, and have fun with the puzzle!

3/3/2014 Happy Women's History Month: Helen Keller Meets Anne Sullivan

It is now officially the month of March, Women’s History Month!

On this date in 1887 the famous activist, speaker, and writer Helen Keller met her longtime teacher and companion Anne Sullivan for the first time, when Keller was six years old and Sullivan was twenty.  Helen Keller was left deaf and blind after an illness when she was only a year old.  Helen Keller’s parents were advised by a doctor to visit the inventor and scientist Alexander Graham Bell.  Bell put them in touch with a school for the blind, and the director asked former student Sullivan, who was visually impaired herself, to tutor Keller.   Sullivan taught Keller how to spell word, and the read and write, by having Keller touch different objects and then writing the words on her hand.  

Eventually, Helen Keller learned to speak, as well as learning how to read braille and use sign language.  Your class can learn more about Helen Keller’s life and accomplishments in my original reader Helen Keller: Spelling W-A-T-E-R.  This third-grade level O reader comes with five companion worksheets which reinforce literacy skills involving reading, language, spelling, and writing. Specific concepts, skills, and vocabulary targeted in this reader are listed on the first page of the story.

Another of my original readers, Alexander Graham Bell - Inventor of the Telephone is a first-grade Level F reader that provides interesting facts about Alexander Graham Bell.  

Helen Keller: Spelling W-A-T-E-R is one of the books in the collection "Famous Women in History - Leveled Books for Grades 2 - 4" which features stories about eight women and their contributions to history, perfect for celebrating Women’s History Month:

Amelia Earhart - Airplane Pilot (level L)

Abigail Adams - First Lady & Crusader for People’s Rights (level L)

Clara Barton - Founder of the American Red Cross (level N)

Maria Mitchell - Astronomer (level N)

Helen Keller - Inspirational Speaker (level O)

Ellen Ochoa - Astronaut (level P)

Laura Ingalls Wilder - Pioneer and Author (level P)

Millie Hughes-Fulford - Scientist in Space (level R)