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Health & Fitness

Got a new e-device? Play with "Chalk"!

If you were lucky enough to get an iPad, a Kindle, or some other fun e-gizmo this holiday season, check out "Chalk".

If you were lucky enough to get an iPad, a Kindle, or some other fun e-gizmo this holiday season, and you’d like your kids to use it for more than just throwing (understandably) angry birds, get yourself some Chalk.

Chalk by Bill Thomson is a visually stunning wordless picture book available as a Kindle e-book. (If you have a tablet or an iPad, you can download the Kindle app for free and read Kindle books – cool, huh?) Three children find a bag of chalk on a playground. The things they draw come to life. When one of the children draws a dinosaur, how will the children stop it?

Wordless books like Chalk are a great choice for young readers, and not just because they can “read” the pictures to get the whole story. When children read a wordless book with adults, typically the language the adults use to describe what is happening in the illustrations is of a more complex nature than the sentences and vocabulary usually found in picture books for young ones. (Want to know more? Read my article about wordless picture books for ReaderKidZ.com)  I love that Chalk offers a great opportunity for problem-solving. When the dinosaur comes to life on the playground in the story, you can ask your young readers, “What would you do?” Kids can brainstorm how they’d solve the problem and discuss Thomson’s solution – the child who drew the dinosaur draws a rain cloud, which becomes real and washes all the chalk (including the dinosaur) away.

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After you’ve enjoyed Chalk on your device, you can extend the fun with a free drawing app like My Blackboard. Take turns with your kids drawing something that, if it came to life, would cause a huge problem. Then, the other person has to draw something that can then solve that problem.

So, tech it up with your kids with the Kindle book and a fun, free app, or come to the Orion Township Public Library for the paper book and old-school art supplies, but either way, don’t miss out on Chalk!

Find out what's happening in Oakland Township-Lake Orionwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

For more information, please visit billthomson.com.

For more book recommendations and activities, please visit kristenremenar.com.

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