Poetry Café

Our inaugural Poetry Café was a big hit this morning in the Media Center! April is National Poetry Month and I encouraged families to celebrate it by reading poems together at bedtime (or anytime!). When read aloud, poetry is a fun and meaningful way to improve fluency and expose kids to figurative language and other literary conventions. Families attending the Poetry Café were asked to bring 1 poem to share with the group. Several talented Club students shared an original poem. In addition, there were sibling readings, family readings, and even one poem in Spanish! Shel Silverstein was the most popular poet shared but we also listened to poetry by Octavio Paz, Louis Armstrong, Eve Merriam, Jack Prelutsky, and many others.Below are two short clips of readings shared--one in English and one in Spanish!



As families arrived they grabbed breakfast and sat down to read poetry from our Media Center collection. This informal time also gave families a chance to interact with one another and make some new friends!

I kicked off the readings by sharing a poem titled, "Calling All Readers!" from the book Bookspeak: Poems about Books! by Laura Salas.


Next I asked for volunteers to recite the poems they brought to share with the group. This enthusiastic 3rd grader was the first to volunteer and recited an original poem about a polar bear. :)

It was neat to see families do a reading together. Some students were nervous but our kind audience made it a little easier to have the courage to share. 

I was so impressed with the poise and confidence displayed by this 2nd grader! 

At the end of the Poetry Café I invited students to choose a new poetry book to take home and read with their families. There was much excitement at the book table!

Thank you to all the families who came to our first Poetry Café. I hope you will continue to share poetry with your children at home and enjoy reading together! 

K/1 Meteorologists!

I had so much fun working with Mrs. Overby's K/1 class (and Ms. Lassiter, their student teacher) to create weather reports! This project was one of the culminating pieces to their weather unit in Science. Each group was assigned a season and had to write a weather report that reflected a typical day of weather during that season. The kids worked together to create a background and write the report. We had fun pretending to be the meteorologists we see on TV! :) Enjoy our live weather reports below! 

Battle of the Books

Congratulations to our 4th and 5th grade Battle of the Books team for placing 3rd in the district finals last week! This dedicated group of students began reading the 18 chapter books on the NC state list last summer. They met weekly in the Media Center for team meetings to discuss the books, strategize, and practice battling. Team members had to exhibit good sportsmanship and collaborate with each other to answer questions about the books. Battle of the Books is a wonderful way for readers to connect with their peers through quality literature and broaden their typical reading scope.

These students should be commended for their hard work, dedication, sportsmanship, and book knowledge! Well done, manatees!

Glad to be back!

Thank you all for your warm welcome as I returned from maternity leave on March 1st. Mrs. Derby did a wonderful job in my absence!

I would like to introduce you to the newest little reader in our family, Jack Henry :)

Global Read Aloud 2015

I had the honor of participating in the Global Read Aloud this year with my K-2 Humanities Club. It was so much fun to make this cultural reading experience come alive for the students. The Global Read Aloud was started in 2010 with one goal in mind: one book to connect the world. Pernille Ripp, the teacher who created the Global Read Aloud, explains how it works in the video below:



The Global Read Aloud offers several choices for reading: chapter books and an author study. This year's author study focused on Amy Krouse Rosenthal, author/illustrator of stories that inspire creativity and individualism like Exclamation Mark, The Ok Book, and Chopsticks. Her books fit perfectly with our aim to integrate the humanities into our core curriculum. 

The Global Read Aloud encourages teachers to connect with a classroom in a different part of the world and we were lucky to find a first grade class from King City near Toronto, Canada. Each week we read a new Amy Krouse Rosenthal book and discussed it with our friends in Canada via Skype or through Padlet.

Created with Padlet

We loved learning about their school and comparing the things we had in common while discovering what makes us unique. The students at the Canadian school are learning French but are learning Spanish! We found out they play some of the same games we do at recess. It also stimulated the students' curiosity about Canada and we used Google Earth, eBooks, and print books to learn more about the country. 

Each week during clubs I gave the students the opportunity to have quiet reading time with Rosenthal's books. Even though we focused on one or two particular books a week, I wanted the students to have exposure to all of her stories. The students love to buddy read!

During centers students had the choice of visiting the computer center to listen to eBooks and watch book trailers of Rosenthal's books. They also enjoyed building with pattern blocks at the activity center.

Literacy centers gave the students a chance to respond to Rosenthal's books through writing and drawing. 

One day when our Canadian friends were not available to Skype with us, we found a class in Detroit, Michigan, who wanted to connect. Twitter and Edmodo make it easy for educators participating in the Global Read Aloud to share ideas and form partnerships. It was fun to do a shared reading via Skype of It's Not Fair! After the read aloud, students introduced themselves and asked questions to learn more about each other. This is the beauty of the Global Read Aloud--using books as a bridge to form new friendships and broaden students' understanding of the world around them. At Club Boulevard our vision is to help students grow as human beings and authentic experiences like the Global Read Aloud serve as a vehicle for helping us accomplish this goal. 

One of the last books we read together was Exclamation Mark! In this book we learned that each one of us is unique and our differences make us special. I asked the students to think about at least one thing they are good at and write about it. We used the Educreations app to create a short slideshow of their work. 

I would encourage any educator to participate in the Global Read Aloud. It is a free, easy way to make meaningful global connections through literacy and technology, and encompasses everything we try to teach our students as a humanities magnet school. Certainly one of the highlights of the semester for me (and for the students, I hope!)! For more information, read the FAQs on the Global Read Aloud site: http://theglobalreadaloud.com/info-for-2015/frequently-asked-questions/