Pumpkins Pumpkins Everywhere!

Our third graders recently completed a book report in which they had to read a mystery and create a pumpkin of a character in the book. They were so creative and had so many good ideas! Here are some of the results on display in the media center.

Magic Tree House

Geronimo Stilton

Cam Jansen

Cam Jansen

Chet Gecko

And The Votes Are In!

President Barack Obama was re-elected last night. If you are interested in reading more about him, check out some of the books in our library about him, his job, and his family! We also have a lot of books about elections, government jobs, and other branches of government. Have fun reading!

Rick Riordan Fans!

 I admit I am a big Rick Riordan fan. I finished Mark of Athena  this weekend already and now have to wait a whole year for the next one! I love that some of my kids are big fans of his also though. A group of them have checked out all of his books and love to get them at book fair. I was beyond excited for them when Bookmarks emailed me to ask if we might want 4 free student tickets to give away for a Rick Riordan event at Wake Forest University last Friday night.

Yes, please! 

Some of the winning submissions

I talked to our fifth grade teachers and curriculum coordinator to decide how to give away the tickets. We settled on having the interested students write a letter about why they wanted to win the ticket. I chose 4 students and it was the highlight of my day to tell them they won! They were so excited and I passed out the tickets. One student's dad was kind enough to send me a couple of pictures from the event. I was hoping they would get to meet Mr. Riordan, but he had pre-signed the books. They did get to submit questions and enjoyed his talk though.

Getting ready to get started

Thank you Bookmarks!! What a great event and the students were so excited to win the tickets!

Rick Riordan during the event

With their signed books!

Finding Fiction

I wanted to help my second graders work on being able to better find books they wanted on the shelf, and also to show them some books that would be good choices for them to read. So, I combined some book talks with book ordering. We talked about some of the series that might interest them, then at their tables they put them in order by the spine labels so they might be better able to think about how to find them on the shelf. I included books from series such as Geronimo Stilton, Magic Tree House, Cam Jansen, Bailey School Kids, and a few others.

Deciding where to start the ordering

Working on shelf order

Finished order

Smart Board sort to check as a group

 What are some of your favorite chapter book series for younger readers?

Read It Maybe

I saw this on a post on The Book Bug blog and thought it was really cute and might be fun for the kids to see too, especially with all the videos popping up (such as the Olympic swim team) doing the same thing to the song Call Me Maybe. It is a parody of the song, called Read It Maybe. Check it out!

We Give Books

Do you use e-books in your school? I was reminded recently by a colleague about the We Give Books site. This is a great site for e-books and is FREE! They are good titles too, including books like Stand Tall Molly Lou Melon, Llama Llama Misses Mama, DK Explorer, DK Vikings, Human Body Q&A, and more. There are not really any chapter books I have seen, but lots of picture books and non-fiction books for elementary ages mostly. With over 200 e-books and all free it is a fantastic resource in itself, but there is an added bonus. The site says "Simply choose the charity you want to read for and then select the books you want to read. For each book you read online, we donate a book to a leading literacy group on your behalf." It doesn't get much better than free books that give free books when you read them! Check out We Give Books soon and use it with a whole class, on your own, with a small group, or as a center.

Any other great resources for e-books out there?

Edited to add: Here is a link to my ongoing livebinder collection for e-books. 

Welcome Back!

We are back! Teachers are returning to school today, students start back on Monday. We are looking forward to another fun year and lots of great projects! I will post resources as I come across them and projects we try out here at Caleb's Creek, so please check back. Let me know ideas you have as well or cool resources you would like to share with others.

Here is are some quick pictures from my last post's ideas with the finished setting signs. I made the pictures extra large so you could hopefully read the places on the signs. (I hope it doesn't take too long to load!)

Do you know the books all these settings are from???

Where Should We Read Next?

I recently saw and loved this idea from the blog Adventures of Library Girl., but have not started it yet. I am letting it sink in over the summer and decide if I have a good spot for it. I am also debating doing places or genres or what if we do it. Mrs. Lodge's Library blog has also tossed around the idea and started a list in her post and in the comments of places for an elementary school.

Here are some option that I am thinking about for now based on what seems to be popular with my students:

• Hogwarts
• Sunset Towers
• Camp Half Blood
• Brooklyn House
• Narnia
• Wayside School
• Black Lagoon
• Emerald City
• Bayport
• River Heights
• Droon
• Bloor Academy
• 100 Acre Wood

  Can you think of anywhere else to add?

Free Books for Reading!

Did you know Barnes and Noble has a summer reading program? Just read 8 books and complete the reading journal including title, author, and who you would recommend the book to and then take it to your local store. Then, you can choose a free book from those listed on the log. (I don't know all of them, but I saw a lot of great titles to choose from as the free choices!) The site even has suggested books to get you started. Check it out!

Also, don't forget to check and see if your local public library has a summer reading program - ours in Forsyth County does! You can count the 8 books for Barnes and Noble on your library log too.

Even if you don't participate in a summer reading program, keep reading during all those dog days of summer!

Source

Summer Reading

A parent came in today to talk to me about suggestions for books that her fourth grade daughter might like since she got very interested in The Ghost of Crutchfield Hall recently, but hasn't been interested in many others. I suggested books by Betty Ren Wright, the new Titanic series by Gordan Korman (since she was also interested in Titanic and I thought it combined the two), and The Westing Game. Any other title or authors anyone wants to suggest?

I am always happy to help suggest books. I love reading and it is my favorite part of my job to help kids find books that get them excited about reading. Ask anytime!

Speaking of reading, don't forget that our public library (and other public libraries in most places) has a summer reading program you can participate in. Kids, teens, and even adults can participate free of charge. You could win a $25 or $100 Barnes and Noble gift card! Check out your public libraries for information.

Most importantly - KEEP READING! Books can help you have some great summer adventures!

Source

Book Trailers

As you might have guessed from my last post, I am experimenting with having the kids make books trailers - similar to book reviews but hopefully a little more like a movie trailer! I mentioned Meet Me at the Corner as a source for some book reviews, but another site I came across was Book Trailers for Readers. There are so many good titles to choose from but the class had recently read Charlotte's Web, so we viewed that one. This would also be a great source for trailers just to show kids when they are at a loss of what book to choose.

We watched the Charlotte's Web review and talked about how they describe the book, story, and characters, but don't give anything away about what will happen. Starting with a question and ending with a cliffhanger are also key elements. The Book Chook also has a post about writing a review for kids that has helpful steps and suggestions. There is also a section there with suggested questions to help guide kids in writing their review. This site is meant more for written reviews I believe, but would still be helpful in writing the script for a taped book trailer.

I am excited to see what the kids come up with!

What are your favorite books you would like to see a book trailer about? 

Meet Me at the Corner

Meet Me At The Corner is a wonderful resource I just came across yesterday. I came across it looking for student book reviews as examples for a class I have making book trailers, and they have a great section of these in their Big Apple Book Club, along with some short videos on creating podcasts. If kids submit a book review that they use on the site (there is a video explaining what to do), they earn a $25 Amazon gift card also! I showed an example review from the site of From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler and the copy I had was checked out immediately and about five more kids put it on hold! I already think I may show each class a review of a book I have in our collection to get kids interested in books they might not usually pick up.

Back on the main page are links with videos of interviews with different people in various careers (such as park rangers, perfume makers, animal behaviorists, a cowboy, a fashion designer, and a Tuskegee Airmen), informational videos for kids about everything from ferrets to pop up books to harpsichord music! This is definitely a source I will be spending some more time digging through to see what else I can find!

What do you like best about Meet Me At The Corner?

Free Books with a Bonus!

I stumbled across We Give Books tonight through a friend's Pinterest post on Facebook. (Can you follow that string of social media?) I have spent a little time looking through it and it looks like a great site! There are some wonderful e-books available for FREE including titles such as Stand Tall Molly Lou Melon, See How They Grow, Llama Llama Red Pajama, The Snowy Day, and so many more. These are the full books online. In addition to access to tons of great books, the website says it has this added benefit:

Read a Book

Choose from our growing library of great children's books

Choose a Campaign

Choose one of our literacy partner campaigns to support with your reading

Share

The more you read, the more books we share with children who need them

So, check it out and use the ebooks while helping others!

Tea Time

A second grade reading group just finished reading Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and the teacher asked if they could use the media center for a tea party as a concluding activity to discuss the book. So, a small group got to use real tea cups, talk about literature, and listen to classical music - and they loved it!

Easter Fun!

Usually I don't get a lot of time for just fun stories and activities with the kids due to all the things we need to cover and I mostly focus more on information sources, Super 3, and things like that. However, sometimes we have a double class and I take the opportunity to have fun with some books and activities with the kids, especially around holidays! Today I had a Kindergarten class and it is the day before Spring Break, so we read a couple of books about Easter eggs, and then I had the kids create Easter eggs using patterns of colors. (I knew they were working on pretty advanced patterns in their calendar time in the classroom by this time of year.)

Here are the books we read and some of their patterns!

Thank you Deborah Diesen!

It started with a blog post about our Literacy Day a couple of weeks ago. One of our Kindergarten classrooms did their door decoration about The Pout Pout Fish and the Big Big Dark. Well, imagine our glee when the author herself left a comment on our blog post! I looked up Deborah Diesen's blog and found her email, and emailed her to thank her. I also asked her if she would be willing to skype with the class and she said Yes!!

On Monday I got a wonderful envelope with a picture of Mr. Fish on the return address label.

I opened it and was so excited to find bookmarks for the students each signed by Mrs. Diesen herself!

 Today was the big day! At 9:00 we Skype called Mrs. Diesen and got to talk to her! She answered lots of questions. Many were typical Kindergarten questions such as what are your kids names and how old are you, but some asked book questions like how did you come up with Mr. Fish and are you working on a fourth book. She was very good with the kids and answered everything they asked her with a smile. The kids learned that often authors and illustrators don't work together to make the books, she has a fourth book coming out soon, and she came up with Pout Pout Fish when she was making faces trying to make her son laugh one day!

 Then, she read us Pout Pout Fish and the Big Big Dark!

 She even taught us hand motions to go with the refrain so we could do it together.

 Strong like a shark!

 We passed out the bookmarks and the kids were so excited! One even put both hands on her face and made a face almost like the Home Alone face she was so happy!

THANK YOU MRS. DIESEN! You made our day and helped this group get even MORE excited about reading!! We appreciate the bookmarks and your time. I think these kids will always remember this experience. I can't say enough about how much we appreciate it and how much we enjoyed it.