Wednesday, April 18, 2012

The Winner of The Trouble on Earth Day Photo Contest is.....

12 years old, Ali Jo Marshall has won a $10 gift card! She took this squirrel picture in her back yard in Snohomish, Washington in the summer of 2011.
What a great young photographer!

This photo reminds me of my main character in Trouble on Earth Day, Shelby the squirrel. Shelby wins an Earth Day poster contest at school and searches her home for things to recycle. Her recycled items save the day when she meets a homeless bluebird. This colorful picture book has 23 pages of activities, songs, games, and recycling crafts. Order your copy on my blog or through amazon or other online book stores.

Moving Through all Seven Days link:http://www.lulu.com/content/e-book/moving-th rough-all-seven-days/7386965# http://www.helium.com/users/406242.html http://www.associatedcontent.com/user/237923/Kathy_stemke_dancekam.html Follow me on twitter: http://twitter.com/kathystemke Follow me on Facebook:http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=6147172660&topic=4910#!/kathymarescomatthews.stemke?ref=profile Follow me on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/pub/kathy-stemke/13/269/285 Add to Technorati Favorites

Tuesday, April 17, 2012

Ruckus Media Group CEO Rick Richter to Present Key Findings on Children’s App Use at Sandbox Summit


CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--()--Ruckus Media Group, the global children’s digital media company, today announced the results of a national study that explores educational app use by children, ages 4-8, and parental preferences in selecting children’s apps. As a featured speaker at the Sandbox Summit, taking place April 17-18, 2012 at MIT, CEO Rick Richter will present on the topic of “Digital Guilt: What Parents Really Think about Screen Time.” In this session, Rick will introduce quantitative research conducted by PlayScience that sheds new light on how children and parents select and engage with educational apps.
“As more and more children engage with tablets and choose to read or listen to stories on mobile touch devices, it’s important that parents understand what to look for in an app”
While the increased use of tablets by young children has been well-documented, Ruckus Media Group set out to learn more about how children interact with apps and how parents select apps for their children. Specifically, Ruckus was interested in the correlation between children’s educational apps and early reading behaviors, as well as feelings of guilt parents experience around their children’s abundant use of touch devices. Following are some top-line findings from the survey on children, ages 4-8, and their app usage on touch devices:
  • More than 60 percent of children read or listen to stories on touch devices
  • 60 percent of children use apps more than four times per week
  • 24 percent of those children use apps everyday
  • 29 percent download apps on their own
Additional findings on what parents are looking for in apps for their children and how they feel about their children’s usage of touch devices:
  • More than 60 percent of parents have more than five children’s apps on their mobile device
  • 39 percent of parents have more than 10 children’s apps on their mobile device
  • 88 percent of all parents are interested in the educational value of the apps they download, but 78 percent of respondents have less than five educational apps for their children on their device
  • 58 percent of parents feel some guilt when letting their child play with their tablet or mobile device
  • Of the parents who have 10 or more educational apps, only 42 percent feel guilty when letting their child play with their tablet or mobile device
“As more and more children engage with tablets and choose to read or listen to stories on mobile touch devices, it’s important that parents understand what to look for in an app,” said Rick Richter, CEO, Ruckus Media Group. “The results of this survey echo our mission to provide a digital environment that finally allows parents to measure the value of screen time. It’s more important now than ever to engage children in apps that are interactive, age-appropriate and keep the parent and the child coming back for more.”

Yesterday, Ruckus Media Group announced the release of the Ruckus Reader, a breakthrough learning program for the iPad featuring digital storybooks that provides parents with personalized feedback on their child’s reading experience. The Ruckus Reader is designed to help young children practice important reading skills and develop a love of reading with characters they love. Moreover, it addresses the needs of parents and caregivers with weekly Reader Meter e-mail reports and an online dashboard that provides details of their child’s progress.

The Ruckus Reader is the first library of mobile apps to deliver a safe and interactive learning environment filled with iReaders (digital storybook titles), eReaders (e-books), narrated video books and videos, and activities for children to enjoy without leaving the library. Ruckus iReaders feature well-loved characters such as The Wiggles, Hasbro’s My Little Pony and Transformers as well as activities designed to appeal to the creative learner, the science lover, the math and the music enthusiast and more from popular brands such as Crayola, SeaWorld, Dino Dan, Cyberchase and VeggieTales.

Developed by educational experts, the Ruckus Reader is designed to match age-appropriate standards determined by the Common Core State Standards.

The Ruckus Reader App is available for free from the App Store on iPad or at www.itunes.com/appstore.

To learn more about Ruckus Reader, please visit www.RuckusReader.com.

About Ruckus Media Group
Ruckus Media Group creates interactive applications for mobile devices designed to entertain and educate children ages 3-8. Launched in September 2010, the company’s centerpiece is the Ruckus Reader (released April 2012), a breakthrough learning program for the iPad featuring digital storybooks that delight children with interactive content from the most popular names in entertainment (Hasbro, Crayola, SeaWorld, The Wiggles, Cyberchase, Dino Dan, Veggie Tales). Parents are provided with an innovative reading assessment tool and personalized feedback on their child’s reading experience.

Previously released award winning digital storybooks include the #1 iTunes best-selling and Mom’s Choice Gold Award winner “My Little Pony: Twilight Sparkle, Teacher for a Day,” based on the ever-popular Hasbro toy characters; Parents’ Choice and Mom’s Choice Award winners “Spot the Dot” by pop-up legend David A. Carter, and “Chuck & Friends: Friends for the Long Haul;” About.com Readers’ Choice Award winner and Best App Award finalist “A Present for Milo,” written and illustrated by Mike Austin; “The Velveteen Rabbit: Told by Meryl Streep” and other read-play-and-record-along classic animated storybook apps.

For a full listing of titles and additional information, see our website http://www.ruckusreader.com and the Ruckus Media Group iTunes page and follow Ruckus on Facebook and Twitter.

Contacts

PAN Communications
Nikki Festa, 617-502-4300
Ruckus@pancomm.com


Kathy Stemke's websites:
Moving Through all Seven Days link:http://www.lulu.com/content/e-book/moving-through-all-seven-days/7386965# http://www.helium.com/users/406242.html http://www.associatedcontent.com/user/237923/Kathy_stemke_dancekam.html Follow me on twitter: http://twitter.com/kathystemke Follow me on Facebook:http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=6147172660&topic=4910#!/kathymarescomatthews.stemke?ref=profile Follow me on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/pub/kathy-stemke/13/269/285 Add to Technorati Favorites

Thursday, April 12, 2012

Nancy Stewart Books Blog: L is for Live Earth Day by Kathy Stemke

Nancy Stewart Books Blog: L is for Live Earth Day by Kathy Stemke: Today I'm happy to welcome Kathy Stemke to the blog.  She is a fellow author, Editor and Freelance Writer at DKV Wr...

Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Winning Photos for our Beautiful Earth and Unusual Friends!

The book tour for TROUBLE ON EARTH DAY has been awesome! So many old and new friends have been participating in voting for their favorite photos in two catergories.

The first winning photo comes under the category of OUR BEAUTIFUL EARTH.

AND THE WINNER IS:

This little mouse edged out gorgeous sunsets, newborn horses, a tree shaped like a dancer, and majestic mountains. Bravo!

This winning photo comes under the category of UNUSUAL FRIENDS!


AND THE WINNER IS:


The expression on this monkey's face stole the hearts of many commenters to eek out a win. Sometimes opposites do attract! Way to go Monkey!

There are two more contests that beg your participation. On April 13th please go to  beautifulmomentsofjoyandpeace@yahoo.com and vote for Our beautiful Earth Part two.


THERE'S STILL TIME TO WIN A GIFT CERTIFICATE!


Throughout the book tour visitors will be asked to send their best EARTH photo to dancekam1@yahoo.com to be displayed on the last day of the tour. A winner will be selected and awarded a $10 gift card.
HAPPY EARTH DAY!
Moving Through all Seven Days link:http://www.lulu.com/content/e-book/moving-through-all-seven-days/7386965# http://www.helium.com/users/406242.html http://www.associatedcontent.com/user/237923/Kathy_stemke_dancekam.html Follow me on twitter: http://twitter.com/kathystemke Follow me on Facebook:http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=6147172660&topic=4910#!/kathymarescomatthews.stemke?ref=profile Follow me on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/pub/kathy-stemke/13/269/285 Add to Technorati Favorites

Tuesday, April 10, 2012

Karen Cioffi Writing and Marketing: Trouble on Earth Day Book Tour Review

Karen Cioffi Writing and Marketing: Trouble on Earth Day Book Tour Review: Earth Day is approaching and Kathy Stemke is touring her book Trouble on Earth Day . Along with great guest blogging stops, Kathy is offeri...

Monday, April 9, 2012

Recycling Crafts for Earth Day

Earth Day is approaching. Celebrate with me on my book tour for Trouble on Earth Day by doing some recycling crafts with our children. Show them that helping the earth can be fun!

Snake Craft


This is a craft and a fun toy all in one! Preschoolers design their snake and then they can take it for a “walk” by pulling it along with the yarn.

What You Need: paper towel tube, scissors, tempera or poster paints, googly eyes, scrap of red felt, red yarn, glitter glue, paintbrush, glue.

How You make It: Adult cuts the paper towel roll into six sections of similar width. Preschooler creatively paints the sections, adding glitter glue and other details. Once paint is dry, help preschooler apply googly eyes and glue red felt forked tongue to the “head” tube section. Loop yarn around last section and tie; thread the yarn through the rest of the section, leaving it loose at the head as a leash to pull the snake.




Octopus Toilet Roll

Paint

Cut eight legs

Glue buttons for feet

Google eyes

Draw a mouth


Make a pebble Jar Vase

1. Clean a large pickle jar. (4 ½” diameter)

2. Glue a 2” to 2 ½” jelly jar inside the pickle jar.

3. Place small rocks or pebbles between the two jars.

4. Tie raffia or vines around the rim of the pickle jar.

5. Fill with dried flowers.

Remember to help the Earth and have fun on Earth Day with recycling crafts!










Fourteenth day-Recycling Crafts
http://educationtipster.blogspot.com/2012/04/recycling-crafts-for-earth-day.html


Thirteenth Day-Carolyn Howard-Johnson

Twelfth Day- interview with the illustrator
Eleventh Day

Tenth Day
Eighth Day of Trouble on earth Day Book Tour
Seventh Day of Trouble on Earth Day Book Tour
FREE EARTH DAY CARD FOR KIDS
FREE EARTH DAY CARD FOR ADULTS
Sixth Day of Trouble on Earth Day Book Tour-book Review

Fifth Day of Trouble on Earth Day Tour- Book Review
Fourth day of Trouble on Earth Day Tour- Fun Squirrel Facts
Visit third day of Trouble on Earth Day Book Tour
 
Celebrate Earth Day with Pictures First day of book tour for Trouble on Earth Day
 http://www.associatedcontent.com/user/237923/Kathy_stemke_dancekam.html Follow me on twitter: http://twitter.com/kathystemke Follow me on Facebook:http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=6147172660&topic=4910#!/kathymarescomatthews.stemke?ref=profile Follow me on LinkedIn: www.le
din.com/pub/kathy-stemke/13/269/285 Add to Technorati Favorites

Thursday, April 5, 2012

Trouble on Earth Day Book Tour Schedule!


Author Interview

Thirteenth Day-Carolyn Howard-Johnson
Twelfth Day- interview with the illustrator
Eleventh Day

Tenth Day
Eighth Day of Trouble on earth Day Book Tour

Seventh Day of Trouble on Earth Day Book Tour
FREE EARTH DAY CARD FOR KIDS
FREE EARTH DAY CARD FOR ADULTS

Sixth Day of Trouble on Earth Day Book Tour-book Review

Fifth Day of Trouble on Earth Day Tour- Book Review

Fourth day of Trouble on Earth Day Tour- Fun Squirrel Facts

Visit third day of Trouble on Earth Day Book Tour


Celebrate Earth Day with Pictures First day of book tour for Trouble on Earth Day

KATHY STEMKE'S WEBSITES:
Through all Seven Days link:http://www.lulu.com/content/e-book/moving-through-all-seven-days/7386965# http://www.helium.com/users/406242.html http://www.associatedcontent.com/user/237923/Kathy_stemke_dancekam.html Follow me on twitter: http://twitter.com/kathystemke Follow me on Facebook:http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=6147172660&topic=4910#!/kathymarescomatthews.stemke?ref=profile Follow me on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/pub/kathy-stemke/13/269/285 Add to Technorati Favorites

A to Z Challenge: E is for Education Tipster, Kathy Stemke

A to Z Challenge: E is for Education Tipster, Kathy Stemke

Monday, April 2, 2012

Writers On The Move: Young Adult Author Visits

Writers On The Move: Young Adult Author Visits: To foster instant creativity with the young adult age group you must give them activities that assure success without the pressure of judgme...

Sunday, April 1, 2012

My Cousin Carl is Honored in England


My dear cousin, Carl Leckey has written several wonderful books. "The Angel of Mons" is one of my favorites. He has recently undertaken a special project. He raised money from his book sales to erect plaques along the Mersey River where so many gave their lives in WWII. Bravo, Carl!

Moving Through all Seven Days link:http://www.lulu.com/content/e-book/moving-through-all-seven-days/7386965# http://www.helium.com/users/406242.html http://www.associatedcontent.com/user/237923/Kathy_stemke_dancekam.html Follow me on twitter: http://twitter.com/kathystemke Follow me on Facebook:http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=6147172660&topic=4910#!/kathymarescomatthews.stemke?ref=profile Follow me on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/pub/kathy-stemke/13/269/285 Add to Technorati Favorites