Open up early readers’ imaginations with this creative fictional story! As part of the Explore & Learn series, this book about the functions of various tools helps adults balance structured learning time and free play. Tool Talk Engages early learners with a clever rhyme and whimsical, full-color illustrations that show tools conversing with one another about their uses - Provides a rich shared reading experience for children who are early and developing readers - Supports thematic learning by focusing on the big idea theme How Do We Make and Explore Our World? and the unit theme Building Things - Includes a note for educators and parents to help extend learning From a shovel to a screwdriver, our world is full of tools. Find out what these tools can do by listening as they talk to each other in this easy-to-read fiction story. Perfect for early childhood education or any prekindergarten classroom , this book develops early literacy while nurturing young minds. Early learners need to see their lives and experiences reflected in the fictional stories they encounter. Build fundamental skills while stimulating your child’s curiosity and creativity with this fiction book! "These titles have overarching themes of the world surrounding children, and how they can learn and react to different places and ideas they'll encounter as they grow. Ideas presented in extension activities found at the end of the book will encourage continued learning through conversation and play. VERDICT: A diverse set of stories for a wide span of emerging readers."-- "School Library Journal on the Exploration Storytime series" "Dona Herweck Rice is the prolific author of books, stories, and poems for children of all ages. She's written hundreds of books and more on just about every topic under the sun, from acrobats to zucchini and everything in between. She has also written award-winning books and curriculums for educators, especially on the subjects of writing and language arts. In fact, her first publications were a series for teachers on how to teach writing in the classroom. She spearheaded the development of Write TIME for Kids, which earned the Golden Lamp award for curriculum from the Association of American Publishers. Her writing is featured heavily in such acclaimed series as Focused Phonics, Untold Stories, Fiction Readers, Nonfiction Readers, Learn and Create, and more. Dona's best-selling children's title with more than 13,000 copies is How Plants Grow, and her most recent titles include dozens of books for the Exploration Storytime series, two titles in the Curious Me!™ board book series, and Ride with Rampage in partnership with the Los Angeles Rams. When Dona visits classrooms to talk about being an author, the most requested titles include History's Mysteries, Bad Guys and Gals of the Wild West, and Oh, Rats!––the latter being one of Dona's particular favorites. Dona is the creator of Cam E. Chameleon, the enchanting little reptile featured in her books The Adventures of Cam E. Chameleon and Cam and Sam's Colorful Adventure. Observant readers can also find Cam singing and dancing throughout the illustrated retelling of If You're Happy and You Know It. Writing is Dona's passion, but she also loves reading, live theater, and handmade arts and crafts, with many artists and creatives in all mediums among her extended family. Dona was a preschool and middle school teacher and is an acting coach for all ages. She lives in southern California with her husband, son, and one cute, silly, and loveable little dog. "