Jim Kleefeld retired from 30 years teaching, only to launch a new career in educational assembly progams. Reading is Magic takes students from Kindergarten through 6th grade into the exciting world of fiction. Weaving plots, story lines and characters into magic tricks, Jim celebrates good literature, both classic and modern. Students will be entranced as characters they know and love are the subject of appearances, disappearances and magical transformations.

Educational Objectives

Routine 1 – The Three Bears: Students will discover ways to alter and extend a familiar story.

Routine 2 – The Billy Goats Gruff: Students will recall details of plot and characters in a story.

Routine 3 – Caps For Sale: Students will read for factual information.

Routine 4 – Alice in Wonderland: Students will value the importance of following directions.

Routine 5 – Johnny Appleseed: Students will use a graphic organizer to recall story facts.

Routine 6 – Literature Snippit: Students will name several genres of literature and cite an example of each.

Routine 7 – Betsy Ross and the First Flag: Students will recall facts from a non-fiction biography.

In Reading is Magic, Jim creates a magical sign to help the Caps for Sale peddlar, allows a student to magically select a book character, and explores how to make helpful use of non-fiction. The highlight of the show is the story of Air-Head Rudy who loses hes head over watching too much TV and magically recovers it when he learns to love reading. As in all of Jim’s shows, there is a lot of comedy and a lot of audience participation.