Prevent the "Summer Slide" with Reading Comprehension!

"Summer slide" is used to refer to the skills or knowledge that students lose when they're not in school during the summer months. The summer slide can be particularly problematic for young readers, as they need to practice their reading and comprehension skills consistently to maintain them.

One of the easiest ways to help combat the summer slide is to set aside a few minutes each day to read with your child, whether they're reading to you or you to them. Asking a few reading comprehension questions will help make sure your child is understanding the reading.

Help prevent the summer slide with these reading comprehension questions for The Cats on Ben Yehuda Street:

1. Why did Mr. Modiano never come inside for tea when Mrs. Spiegal invited him?

2. What does Mrs. Spiegal do with the fish Mr. Modiano brings her? Does Mr. Modiano know? What makes you think that?

3. What does Mrs. Spiegal like about Ketzie?

4. Where do Ketzie and Gatito always wait for Mrs. Spiegal?

5. How does Mrs. Spiegal feel when she can't find Ketzie?

6. Why does Mr. Modiano adopt Gatito?

7. How did Mr. Modiano's feelings about cats change from the beginning of the story to the end of the story? How do you know?

You can find The Cats on Ben Yehuda Street on the Kar-Ben website, along with other fun summer titles!

Lesson Plans and Activities for Yom Hashoah

Yom Hashoah, or Holocaust Remembrance Day, is next week. Are you planning a program?    Many schools and community organizations create programs to observe the gravity of the Holocaust and to educate and create awareness among future generations. Creating compelling programming for schools can pose a challenge, especially for children in younger grades who have not yet learned about the magnitude of the Holocaust. Children's picture books can be important tools for teaching about the Holocaust. Our books give children a first glimpse at history through unique lenses--modern cave exploration, collecting paper clips, a journey into space, and even from through perspective of a neighborhood cat.    We know teachers are busy. We've done the work for you. Kar-Ben has several free guides for teachers. Free and downloadable, these eSource guides provide pre- and post-reading questions, plus suggestions for activities that can be scaled for age appropriateness.    All of our book selections are available as eBooks, too. Using a projector or SmartBoard, an entire class, grade or school can experience these powerful books together.    Benno and the Night of Broken Glass    A neighborhood cat observes the changes in German and Jewish families in Berlin during the period leading up to Kristallnacht, the Night of Broken Glass. This cat's-eye view introduces the Holocaust to children in a gentle way that can open discussion of this period.        Buy the eBook    Buy the print book   Download free eSource            Keeping the Promise   Follow the incredible journey of a small Torah scroll from a Dutch rabbi to a Bar Mitzvah boy during the Holocaust and finally to Ilan Ramon, the first Israeli astronaut, who died on space shuttle Columbia.    Buy the eBook   Buy the print book   Download free eSource            The Secret of Priest's Grotto     According to legend, a group of Jewish families survived the Holocaust by hiding out for months in the 77 miles of caves in Ukraine known as Priest's Grotto. Cavers Taylor and Nicola chronicle their trip to explore the caves and uncover the story of the survivors. Buy the eBook  Buy the print book  Download free eSource       Six Million Paper Clips At a middle school in a small, all white, all Protestant town in Tennessee, a special after-school class was started to teach the kids about the Holocaust, and the importance of tolerance. The students had a hard time imagining what six million was (the number of Jews the Nazis killed), so they decided to collect six million paperclips, a symbol used by the Norwegians to show solidarity with their Jewish neighbors during World War II.      Buy the eBook  Buy the print book  Download free eSource     Planning a program or looking for new ideas? Share with others on our Facebook page.

International Holocaust Remembrance Day: History Through Children's Literature

In November 2005, the United Nations General Assembly unanimously adopted a resolution introduced by Israel that designated January 27 as International Holocaust Remembrance Day. The assembly did so to urge the nations of the world to observe the day so future generations would be spared from history repeating itself.

This year the special theme of “Children and the Holocaust” is the focus of the international observance, with events and programs about the experiences of children. Introducing children to the history of the Holocaust can be challenging, but sharing material that they can most easily relate to—stories about children, families or pets—can be a thoughtful, gentler way to educate young and innocent readers who would have a difficult time conceptualizing the magnitude and brutality of the Holocaust.

As a publisher of Jewish literature for children, Kar-Ben has created books and educational materials (for use by parents or teachers) that can serve as a bridge for children learning about the Holocaust.



Marcel Marceau Master of Mime is a picture book that shares the remarkable early life of the famous mime. From the time he was five, young Marcel, the son of a kosher butcher, wanted to be a performer like his idol Charlie Chaplin. However, World War II intervened and Europe became a very dangerous place for a Jewish teenager like Marcel. Joining the French Resistance, he risked his life to help save the lives of French children, smuggling them across the border into Switzerland. Download the free eSource Guide that accompanies this book.

Benno and the Night of Broken Glass deftly describes Kristallnacht and its aftermath from the perspective of a neighborhood cat. Benno was the neighborhood’s favorite cat. During the week, he napped in a sunny corner of Mitzi Stein’s dress shop, and begged scraps from Moshe the Butcher. He spent Shabbat evenings with Sophie Adler’s family in Apartment 3B. But one night the Nazis came to Berlin. Windows were shattered, books were burned, and Benno’s Jewish friends disappeared. Life would never be the same. Download the free eSource Guide that accompanies this book.
 

Janusz Korczak's Children: In the years between WWI and WWII, young Henryk Goldszmidt dreamed of creating a better world for children. As an adult, using the pen name Janusz Korczak, he became a writer, doctor, and an enlightened leader in the field of education, unaware to what use his skills were destined to be put.  Dr. Korczak established a Jewish orphanage in Warsaw where he introduced the world to his progressive ideas in child development and children’s rights. When the Nazis occupy Warsaw, the orphanage is moved to the ghetto, and when the 200 children in his care are deported, Dr. Korczak famously refuses to be saved, marching with his charges to the train that will take them to their deaths. Download the free eSource Guide that accompanies this book.