Scholastic Book Fair!

Ashaway School Welcomes the Scholastic Book Fair!

This past week the students of Ashaway School visited the Scholastic Book Fair! Our PTO, who runs the event, kicked it off with a fabulous (and free!) ice cream social for all who wanted to stop by and visit on Monday night. After enjoying a delicious Cold Stone Creamery sundae and saying hello to Clifford the Big Red Dog, students and parents had the opportunity to get a jump on their shopping! (To see pictures, go to our picture gallery at http://kmman.magix.net/album.)

Throughout the rest of the week, students visited the book fair. Each class had a time scheduled to go to the foyer which was set up with lots of displays. I am excited to say that a portion of the proceeds from the book fair will go toward buying some new books for the library, and I was also able to select some titles right off the shelves! (And yes, Callie, I did request a copy of Finally!)

It was a terrific week, and I loved watching the students' excitement as they discovered books they were eager to read. To all the PTO members who worked hard to make it happen, and to the many families who supported their efforts, I send out a great, big THANK YOU!! :)

Shapes and Flakes!

This week our kindergartners practiced their shapes using a fun website called Make a Flake. I used the Smartboard to demonstrate how to navigate the program and use the "scissors" to cut shapes out of the on-screen paper. With the click of the mouse, the paper unfolds to display their original design!

Before the students went to the computers, we reviewed some of the shapes they've learned in class with Mrs. Smith: parallelogram, triangle, trapezoid, square, rectangle, and rhombus. (The program only lets them cut straight lines, so circles were out!) See if your child can identify the shapes I cut out in the example above. If you'd like to see what this snowflake looked like when unfolded, scroll down to the bottom!

The students had a terrific time sharing their creations with each other, and even Mrs. Smith got in on the fun!

Evan proudly declared, "I made a trapezoid!" Can you find it? What other shape did he cut?

I hope you like the pictures, and please let me know if you give this fun program a try. Enjoy!

Doing the "Bookie-Lookie"

Our kindergarteners have begun selecting books from the shelves in the library! They have been learning that books in a library are organized and how important it is to put books back where they belong so they don't get lost in the collection. To help them do this, they are learning how to use shelf markers. It's really important that they remember to put the shelf marker in the spot where the book came from before removing the book from the shelf. We've been enjoying a fun song that helps them remember to do this. It's called the "Shelf Marker Song", which was written by Jackie Mims Hopkins, but the kids call it the "Bookie-Lookie"! If you have a kindergartener at home, ask him or her to sing it with you. It might sound silly, but they really love it and it really does help them remember what to do!

THE SHELF MARKER SONG

(sung to the tune of the Hokey Pokey)

You put your shelf marker in.
You pull a book right out.
You look through the pages to see what it's about.
You do the bookie-lookie to make sure the book's just right.
That's what it's all about!
You do the bookie-lookie! You do the bookie-lookie! You do the bookie-lookie! That's what it's all about!

ALL Ashaway students should be able to tell you what each student is doing correctly in these pictures!