Reading Ideas

Reading aloud: Don't be fooled: even older kids like this special time at bedtime. You can also sneak in some reading while kids are eating dinner or working on a craft. The Read-Aloud Handbook by Jim Trelease is the premier guide. For short reads, try this new collection by Harold Bloom, editor, Stories and Poems for Extremely Intelligent Children at Bedtime.
Talking Book: Our local library offers free 3-week downloads of talking books (ebooks too) through OverDrive Books. The Overdrive collection contains many Newberry books and other highly regarded books. It is also terrific for long multi-volume collections and there are many to choose from. Listen to books while your child is busy with other things like arts and crafts and you're trying to get dinner on.
Reading aloud together: buy double (even triple) copies and alternate paragraphs while reading aloud (2x Trumpet of the Swan; 3x Call it Courage; 2x Seabird)
Reading Roles: some terrific reading role ideas from Mrs. Kubler's 4th Grade Reading Group Wiki for Bud, Not Buddy
Silent Reading:

His Dark Materials

His Dark Materials Trilogy by Philip Pullman

The Golden Compass (10:33)

The Subtle Knife (8:55)

The Amber Spyglass (14:53)

We listen to this trilogy on OverDrive Books from our local library. This free service allows us to download talking books (and ebooks) to our computer for three weeks. After that, they are re-absorbed into cyberspace.

Quote from Philip Pullman: "I have maintained a passionate interest in education, which leads me occasionally to make foolish and ill-considered remarks alleging that not everything is well in our schools. My main concern is that an over-emphasis on testing and league tables has led to a lack of time and freedom for a true, imaginative and humane engagement with literature." (P. Pulman's website)

Vocabulary: dust, intercision, alethiometer, intention craft, telescope, lodestone resonator

Resources:

The Science of Philip Pulman's "His Dark Materials"

Races and Creatures in His Dark Materials

Characters of His Dark Materials

Encyclopedia from Bridge to the Stars (lots more resources including maps on this fan site)

TeachIt.co.uk (10 printable exercises including "Scientific prefixes and suffixes"