Better Together: The Louisiana Purchase & A Musical Journey in the Footsteps of Lewis & Clark

Since 2008, Elaine Landau's The Louisiana Purchase: Would You Close the Deal? has been one of the most adored social studies titles released by Enslow Publishers.  Landau's book, written for students in grades 3-4, teaches the Louisiana Purchase through a series of segments in which a historical situation is explained and the reader must decide on a course of action.  Primary sources and illustrations are a constant throughout the book.

A Musical Journey in the Footsteps of Lewis & Clark, created by our own president, Mark Enslow, with his wife, Anne Enslow, and a band of talented musicians, is a unique musical history of the Lewis & Clark expedition.  The album contains a mix of narration and performances of historical songs from Lewis & Clark's era.

Making these two resources available to students learning about the Louisiana Purchase and the Lewis & Clark expedition is a great way to give them a deeper understanding of the overall time period while providing the materials needed to create great reports.

Check out Enslow.com for these and other great non-fiction titles!

Great Elementary Non-Fiction for Thanksgiving (and you can win them!)

Thanksgiving is right around the corner, and it's a great time for kids to learn about Thanksgiving while building their literacy skills. Enslow Publishers' non-fiction expert authors believe that reading informational texts should  be educational and fun.  With that in mind, here are three great, Common Core correlated, Thanksgiving books to make sure that young readers have an educational and fun Thanksgiving.  As a side note: if you like any of these books, be sure to check out our Pick-A-Page giveaway (details at the end of the post).

Thanksgivng Day, by Dorothy Goeller, is a delightfully silly reader for children just beginning to read. Featuring bright illustrations and simple text with one sentence per page, Thanksgiving Day is great for kids reading alone or with an adult. Common Core Correlations for Thanksgiving Day can be found here.

Storyteller Randel McGee's Paper Crafts for Thanksgiving shows young readers how to make their own Thanksgiving crafts while learning about the holiday.  Paper Crafts for Thanksgiving contains easy step-by-step instructions as well as reproducible templates for all of the crafts shown in the book.  Common Core Correlations for Paper Crafts for Thanksgiving can be found here.

What is Thanksgiving?, by Elaine Landau, introduces early readers to the traditions of Thanksgiving with beautiful photos and carefully crafted text.  To further engage the reader, What is Thanksgiving? features an activity where the reader constructs a "Thank-You" poster to give their thanks to the community for Thanksgiving. Common Core Correlations for What is Thanksgiving? can be found here.

Our Pick-A-Page Giveaway is still going on!  To enter the giveaway, go to our e-catalog and pick a page of titles you would like to receive for free. Like us on Facebook and leave a comment on Facebook, letting us know which page you would like to receive, and how those books would benefit your school/library. For everyone who enters, they will receive one book from the page they requested. One winner will be chosen at random at the end of the week, and that person will receive a copy of every book on that page. The winner will be announced on Facebook sometime next week!