New Releases by Ellen Mayer

Teo is in the park with Papi, on his way to his favorite playground! Riding high on Papi's shoulders, he sees birds soaring and swooping above. Just like that, he wants to fly too! At a small puddle, a bird flutters and flaps its wings as it takes a bath. Teo pretends he's a bird, fluttering and flapping his arms. His favorite playground structure becomes a big tree where Teo and his new playmates hop, fly, and soar from branch to branch. Flutter, Flap, Fly! shows how adults can introduce rich, descriptive, interesting words into conversation through playful observation of nature, one of children's important play elements. As the adult follows the children's interest, he adds information and engages in back-and-forth conversation centered on imaginative play. Includes a note for parents, grandparents, caregivers, and teachers by Dr. Kori Baridge.

A toddler and Dad go shopping, searching for a pet fish. They find lots of other fish along the way, but these aren’t fish to feed. Where is the fish to feed? Toddlers will love peeping at the different kinds of fish through the holes. In their conversations, Dad follows child’s lead, expands child’ utterances into complete sentences and adds some new clarifying information. He asked open-ended questions.

Yellow, Red, Green--GO! is a delightful addition to the Small Talk Books(R) math stories. These stories feature a young child and adult talking and having fun, their playful conversations enriching the child's understanding of how math is part of everyday life. Frequent small talks add up to big learning gains! This story explores patterns, an important early math concept. Helmet on, buckle up, and off they go! As mother and young child bike together through their neighborhood to visit grandma, they see many things. They slow down as the traffic light turns yellow, then stop when it turns red, and then pedal forward when it switches to green, not only talking about what the color of each light means, but also about the pattern the lights make as they repeat. What other patterns will they discover along the way?

Yellow, Red, Green--GO! is a delightful addition to the Small Talk Books(R) math stories. These stories feature a young child and adult talking and having fun, their playful conversations enriching the child's understanding of how math is part of everyday life. Frequent small talks add up to big learning gains! This story explores patterns, an important early math concept. Helmet on, buckle up, and off they go! As mother and young child bike together through their neighborhood to visit grandma, they see many things. They slow down as the traffic light turns yellow, then stop when it turns red, and then pedal forward when it switches to green, not only talking about what the color of each light means, but also about the pattern the lights make as they repeat. What other patterns will they discover along the way?

A toddler and Daddy go shopping for a pet fish. On the way they find other fish, but those aren 't fish to feed. Toddlers will love seeing different fish through holes in the pages. Daddy responds to the child 's simple words with full sentences, adds more information and asks open-ended questions.

When spunky preschooler Rosa decides to help out her busy mama, she enlists Grandpa’s help to put away the clean laundry.

A young boy and his grandma are baking a cake together. Little ones will love experiencing the different steps in baking a cake: helping to find the supplies, measuring, and combining the ingredients and then frosting the cake. Speaking in short sentences, the little boy talks with his grandma as they work together.

Follow the adventures of Gift and Box as they travel from Grandma's house to Sofia's front door! Gift and Box are a package, dropped off with love from Grandma at the local post office. But being a package together on a long postal voyage is not always easy. There are ships to board, oceans to cross and bumpy truck rides! Can Gift and Box arrive in one piece? Come along for the ride on this delightful journey of friendship that showcases the wonder of receiving a gift by mail, and the love both a grandma and child feel as they’re connected by a simple package from far away.

Camille is determined to rake her own pile of leaves - all the way up to her knees! She swishes leaves to and fro, watching her pile grow bigger alongside the piles made by Daddy and her little brother, Jayden. WHOOSH! After raking leaves to the top of her boots, a giant breeze blows the pile back down to her ankles. But Camille won't be stopped until she gets the job done - a knee--high pile, the perfect size for . . . jumping in! Leaves to My Knees is a playful introduction to the early math concepts of size comparison and measurement. A note by researcher and mathematics learning expert Marlene Kliman explains how parents and caregivers can use the book to help young children explore different sizes and measurement in everyday environments.

Uh oh! Baby's diaper is dirty. Mama diapers and plays with Baby while lovingly singing her own version of "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star." Diaper changing has never been so fun! As the newest book in the Small Talk Books® series, Twinkle, Twinkle, Diaper You! focuses on the first stage of a child's language development and encourages parents to talk to their baby during everyday chores. Even a diaper change offers the perfect opportunity to foster a special connection. Little babies will be enchanted by the sparkling stars throughout the book.

Uh oh! Baby needs a clean diaper. Mama diapers and plays with Baby while lovingly singing her own version of "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star." Diaper changing has never been such fun! As the newest book in the Small Talk Books® series, Twinkle, Twinkle, Diaper You! focuses on the first stage of a child's language development and encourages parents to talk to their babies during everyday chores. Even a diaper change offers the perfect opportunity to foster a special connection. Little babies will be enchanted by the sparkling stars throughout the book.

Mama and her toddler turn an outing to the grocery store into a fun opportunity to talk, and learn a little math along the way. Mama fills their cart with items in quantities of one and two, and lets her baby hold each item, connecting each action to the number of hands baby has. In this way baby begins to understand simple math. Back home Mama shares one banana between the two of them and baby proudly recognizes two pieces, thus showing an understanding of the concept of two.This joyful story shows adults how to talk and introduce children to the concept of numbers and how math is part of daily life.

When spunky preschooler Rosa decided to help out her busy Mama, she enlists Grandpa's help to put away the clean laundry. Can little Rosa get this big job done before Mama returns from shopping? Join Rosa and her grandpa ona laundry day romp around the house-where their adventures lead to still another surprise for Mama! Grandpa uses some big words as he plays with Rosa-difficult, enormous, terrific, and dangerous. He uses them in ways that are easy to understand. Preschoolers will revel in Rosa's delightful adventure and will love learning big words just like Rosa does.

Baby has fun with Mama as she unloads the dryer, folds the clean laundry, and dresses the baby. Oh no, a sock is missing! When the sock is found and Baby is dressed, it is time to play outside. Little ones will love seeing Baby get dressed and find the missing sock. Throughout the book, Mama talks with Baby about what they are doing.

It is cleanup time, and Daddy and his little one are putting away books, blocks, teddy bears, and train cars, washing hands, and preparing for dinner--all while having fun with math! As Daddy talks with his toddler, he uses spatial-relationship math words and phrases like up, down, inside, outside, next to, and under to reinforce his young learner's understanding. When it is dinnertime, the little one proudly demonstrates an understanding of down when helping to set the table and up while enjoying the first delicious bite!A playful story that models engaging conversations between parent and child, Clean Up, Up, Up! includes a note by early childhood education expert Susan C. Levine that shows parents and caregivers how everyday activities offer rich opportunities to teach early spatial math concepts.This book is based on work supported in part by TERC under a grant from the Heising-Simons Foundation.

Mama and her toddler turn an outing to the grocery store into a fun opportunity to talk, and learn a little math along the way. Mama fills their cart with items in quantities of one and two, and lets her baby hold each item, connecting each action to the number of hands baby has. In this way baby begins to understand simple math. Back home Mama shares one banana between the two of them and baby proudly recognizes two pieces, thus showing an understanding of the concept of two.This joyful story shows adults how to talk and introduce children to the concept of numbers and how math is part of daily life.

Originally published: South Africa: David Philip Publishers, 2014 under the title, Books 'n bricks at Manyano School.