Battle of the Books

Our 4th and 5th grade Battle of the Books team has been working hard to read the 17 books on our list in preparation for the competition in April. Last week I asked the students to give star ratings to each book they've complete so far. The titles in the Wordle below are all the books that received 5 stars (awesome book!). The titles that appear bigger received the most 5 star ratings. Have you read any of these amazing books?

Check out the full Elementary Battle of the Books list here: http://www.ncslma.org/uploads/8/4/7/0/8470189/eboblist2012-13revised.pdf

Click on the Wordle to see a larger view!

December Book Fair

The December Book Fair raised a significant amount of money for our school! Thanks to your generous support, we raised almost $4,000 to spend on books and materials for the Media Center and classroom libraries :) :) :) The Book Fair would not have been possible without the help of many parent volunteers and the PTA--your time and energy are very much appreciated!

Thank you for supporting our teachers by purchasing books for their classroom libraries!



During the Book Fair I held a contest for students to design a poster advertising a fiction or non-fiction book that we have in our Media Center. For every entry, students could enter their name into a drawing to win a book from the Book Fair. I received almost 100 entries and the colorful, informative, and creative posters are on display inside and outside the Media Center. Below are a few pictures of our winners!

One of our very talented teachers, Ms. Linville, made cake pops to sell at the Book Fair. This was a fundraiser for the Kinderstars Program--a summer camp for incoming kindergarteners at Club who may not have had any previous schooling experience. She raised $125 and many families enjoyed eating a cake pop of their favorite Mo Willems character--the pigeon! :) If you would like to give a donation to support Kinderstars, please see Ms. Linville or myself!

Forest Animals and Reader's Theater with K/1

I've enjoyed working with Mrs. Overby's K/1 students on several projects recently in the Media Center. The first project was forest animal research. Each student selected a forest animal and used PebbleGo to learn information about the animal's habitat, diet, and body. They also selected one fact that was unusual or most interesting about the animal. Students recorded information using both words and pictures. Here are a few fun facts we learned:

• Porcupines can climb trees!
• Male deer use their antlers to fight and defend against other deer.
• Hedgehogs roll into a ball when they are scared.
• Wolves live in groups called packs.

You can view the finished products and learn more about forest animals by reading our work outside Mrs. Overby's classroom!

The second project I'd like to share is the reader's theater group. A small group of students worked with me to read and perform 'The Gingerbread Man.' We learned about the words script, character, and expression during our time together. Students became more fluent and expressive each time we practiced. The most exciting part was that we performed for Mrs. Overby and Mrs. Goff's class at the end of the week. We were nervous but it was fun to perform for our friends. Even a few of our families were able to attend!

Family Book Club Night

This week I hosted our first Club Blvd. Family Book Club Night. The families who attended read 1 of 2 chapter books (depending on the interests and ages of the their children) provided by the school.

 



The goal was for each family to read this book out loud together over the course of a month. I strongly believe in the importance of families reading together at home. Make reading a bedtime ritual and your children will grow to love books! Discussing books together as a family is a wonderful way to encourage and promote the importance of reading.

At the book club night, first we had dinner together and discussed some guiding questions at tables while we ate. In addition to pizza, families brought delicious snacks and dessert to share!

Next we split into groups according to the book we read. The Humphrey families moved to the Media Center and the Chicago families stayed in the cafeteria. Each group circulated around to activities connected to the book prepared by Mrs. Husketh.

In this center, students illustrated a character from the book and chose an adjective to describe the character.

Students created the perfect cage for Humphrey with all of his favorite things!

In this center, students mapped out Humphrey's escape route on graph paper. They labeled each place in their bedroom or classroom that Humphrey visited before returning to his cage.

Even though Humphrey is a fiction book, we learned a lot about hamsters while reading it. At this learning station, students completed a non-fiction graphic organizer to demonstrated what they learned about hamsters.

In the last learning station, students invented their own short story about Humphrey's next adventure.

Families who read A Long Way from Chicago created a giant map of all the places in the small, rural town.

They also created character sketches and storyboards of Grandma Dowdel, the spit-fire main character who was full of surprises!

  

All in all, this was an engaging evening filled with learning, discussion, and connecting through great literature! Our next book club offering will be announced after the New Year. We hope you can join us next time!

Book Buddies

We have a tradition at Club Blvd. where an upper grade class pairs up with a lower grade class to read together. We call this partnership "Book Buddies" and students really look forward to this weekly time together. This week, Ms. Fava and Ms. Reuther's book buddies met in the Media Center. It was wonderful to see our 5th grade role models reading to their kindergarten buddies!