CONTACT: Dianna Cleveland
111 Corporate Drive, Ste 240
Ladera Ranch, CA 92694
(800) 375-2926 Ext. 701
Email: dcleveland@playbooks.com
Playbooks Reader’s Theater Helps Students Become Fabulous Food Detectives
Ladera Ranch, CA - (August 14 , 2008) - Playbooks, Inc. releases its newest title, Fabulous Food Detectives, written by children’s book author and editor, Susan Ingebretson. Its theme of healthy eating helps kids take a look at what's really inside processed foods while at the same time captivating readers with a creative quest.
In the book, sisters Kayley and Madison, invent a robot dog for their Science Fair that can taste any food and announce its ingredients. They are inspired by their father “The Zesty Chef,” and his theme of healthy eating on his own TV show as he demonstrates cooking with fresh, whole foods. As with all new inventions, there are a few bumps and surprises along the way. Through their efforts to demonstrate the ingredients of healthy foods, they discover a tool for detecting the opposite! Strangely, their robot dog malfunctions when presented with processed foods containing artificial or unhealthy ingredients (such as chemical preservatives or high fructose corn syrup)--just like our bodies don’t work at their best when we eat unhealthy foods. Supplemental materials included with this story help kids learn how to read and understand food labels. Activities even include plans for conducting food-related science experiments with taste tests (such as having students try raw sugar and compare it to refined sugar) that teach kids that healthy and unprocessed foods can actually taste good!
The story is written in Multi-Leveled Reader’s Theater format, making it an effective tool for improving reading fluency in the classroom. Reader’s Theater is engaging for students, requires no memorization, and is an easy way to practice “Repeated Guided Oral Reading,” the best proven method for building reading fluency. Fabulous Food Detectives, designed for students in Grades 4-6, has six character roles written at four reading stages. Each character’s dialogue appears in different colored text. The varying levels included in the story allow higher level readers to model fluent reading and vocabulary for lower level readers. At the same time, less fluent readers often show a greater aptitude for role-playing and will encourage more creative expression among their classmates. Reader’s Theater has been rapidly growing in popularity in schools and out-of-school programs as a powerful reading tool. Playbooks® Reader’s Theater stories are used widely across the country for improving reading fluency and nurturing a love of reading in students from Grades K-12.
About the Author
Susan Ingebretson is a writer and editor who enjoys volunteering as a classroom reading advocate as well as writing stories for children. Interested in health topics, she’s written several nutrition and fitness-related articles for online ‘zines and print magazines.
About Playbooks® Reader’s Theater Company
Playbooks, Inc. is located in Ladera Ranch, CA and is a leading supplier of Reader’s Theater scripts and classroom story sets to the educational market. For more information, call 1-800-375-2926 or visit http://playbooks.com/NewsArchive.shtml.
