The Measure of a Good Book!

Some of my favorite books to share with children are the ones that cause them to gasp out loud and shout, "WHOA!" My kindergarten classes have been amazed by the book Actual Size by Steve Jenkins. Its large format is the perfect showcase for his illustrations: animals both big and small created at "actual size". Many animals are tiny enough to be shown whole, but the pages that feature the largest animals can only accomodate a face, or even just an eye! (Did you know that just the eye of a squid can be 12 inches in diameter?!)

The children have been learning about inches and measurement in Mrs. Smith's class, so this seemed like the perfect time to share this remarkable book. I gave each student a ruler to hold while I shared the book, and we stopped lots of times so they could take turns measuring the animals on each page. (Yeah, they also spent some time measuring themselves and each other!) One ruler wasn't long enough to show the length of the Alaskan brown bear, so we figured out that 13 students could stand up and hold their rulers end-to-end! (I asked the students if it would be okay to overlap our rulers since that made them easier to hold, but they said that would make our line too short.)

The saltwater crocodile, at 23 feet long, posed an even bigger problem. (Heehee - pun intended!) We didn't have 23 students to show how long this monster reaches, so we measured a length of string instead.

They were so enthusiastic, I waited to collect their rulers until after their book selection time!

And the Winner is...

Never Smile at a Monkey by Steve Jenkins

is the winner of the 2011

Rhode Island Children's Book Award!

Across the state, 7,241 children voted for their favorite of the 20 nominees, and Never Smile at a Monkey won with 1,322 votes!

Our Ashaway School students picked Aventures in Cartooning as their favorite. That book came in second in the state with 1,130 votes. Pretty close results!

Even though only one of our students selected Never Smile at a Monkey as their favorite of the books, 18 of them awarded it a gold star. That means they loved it! I'm happy to say that most of the stars on our chart of books read are gold. There are also lots of silver stars ("It was good"), a handful of red stars ("It was okay") and some blue stars ("I didn't like it"). We discussed that there is a wide variety of books on the list and that it's okay not to love every single one. What's important is trying out some titles that might be different from the books they tend to pick out on their own and to explore a new genre, format, or author. When I asked the students if anyone really loved a book that they normally wouldn't have selected, most of their hands went up with lots of enthusiasm! I consider that a true success!

Keep reading, 4th graders!

The Rooster Games

will be here

before you know it!

Travel the World Inside a Book!

We are getting ready to celebrate Reading Week, which will take place April 4-8! In honor of this year's theme, Travel the World Inside a Book, each class will be creating a poster that features a particular country (the list is provided below). We invite students and their families to look for some information about these countries and even bring in a picture or two to share with the class. Students: please write a caption to go with your picture that explains what is being shown! You could print out a map, a photograph of an important landmark, pictures of traditional clothing...explore together to see what you can find!

Here are some kid-friendly websites to try:

IMAGES

http://www.pics4learning.com/index.php

http://www.picsearch.com/

IMAGES AND INFO

http://kids.yahoo.com/reference/world-factbook http://www.kidsclick.org/midcoun.html

...AND MORE!

http://ashawayschoollibrary.yolasite.com/countries-resources.php

On Friday the 8th, the classes will "travel the school" to "visit" the different countries. Students might share some words or phrases they've learned, posters they've created, etc. Also, we know that some of you might have money, clothing, or other objects from travels that could go on display. If so, please send a note to me or the classroom teacher so we can create a list of potential resources! Thanks, and have fun!

KS - China

1B - Japan

1A - England

12C - France

2L - Italy

2P - Ireland

3A - Egypt

3B - Colombia

3V - Spain

4Y - Germany

4O - Morocco

WacKy Wednesday!

Happy Birthday, Dr. Seuss!

In honor of Dr. Seuss's birthday on March 2nd, Ashaway School enjoyed a very "Wacky Wednesday"! The fun day began as the students assembled in the gym after getting off their busses. They were surprised when the teachers switched spots and the "wrong" teachers brought them to class! Each visiting teacher enjoyed a morning meeting with a bunch of new faces before returning to her own classroom. All day long the teachers and students got to show off their fabulous outfits, dressed in their wacky best! (Go to the school photo album at http://kmman.magix.net/album to see some very silly shots! This is a picture of our music teacher, Mrs. Sherman, outside the door to the library.)

In the library, there were LOTS of wacky things for the students to find. How many can you find in this picture? It's okay to ask a student to help! :)

In library class, I used my new IPEVO USB camera to project the pages of "Wacky Wednesday" onto the SmartBoard so that all the small details could easily be seen by the students. The children took turns going up to the board and tapping on all the wacky things in each picture. They loved watching the pointer jump to the spot that was touched, and it was a lot more fun to be able to share the book in an interactive way!