Ashaway Poets!

I had SO much fun reading the poetry that our students created on the website I posted last week!  Most of them chose to create an acrostic, but I got a few diamante and shape poems as well.  If you stop by the school, please take a look at the display on the bulletin board in our foyer!

In case you don't get a chance to see them, I will share a few with you here.  I hope you enjoy them!

 

Flower and Weed

by Avery

flower,

care, water,

keeping, loving, smelling,

comes up as beautiful, comes up as a menace

devastating, unloving, growing,

plenty, multiplies,

weed

Doughnut

By Sulli

Delicious

Outstandingly good

Unlike eggs

Gorgeous

Hunger-inducing

Notably tasty

Usually Round

Tease my tastebuds

Dogs

By Haiden

Dog,

Cuddly, Furry,

training, jumping, licking,

German Shepard, Dalmation, Goldendoodle, Chihuahua

barking, panting, loving,

cute, loud,

Canine

Spring

By Drew

Sun in the sky

Pansies sprouting

Rain falling

I love to play

New flowers

Gardening

A Challenge for Poetry Month!

April is Poetry Month!

I am challenging my students and their families to visit a really great website, ReadWriteThink, to create an original poem.  The website walks you through each step (including brainstorming!) and allows you to print your finished poem, and you can even save your work to your hard drive to keep.  All students who create a poem using one of the links I've listed below will have their work put on display and will receive a prize for their efforts! 

"Gosh, Mrs. Mann, are you trying to encourage people to visit your blog while giving your students something fun to do over vacation?"   

"Why yes, yes I am!  Feel free to share this link with others!"

Click here to create an acrostic poem!

Click here to create a shape poem!

Click here to create a diamante poem!

If you don't have a printer at home, just save the poem to your computer and email it to me as an attachment.  My address is kmman@chariho.net.  You are also welcome to contact me with any questions.

Have fun!

p.s.  You can "friend" us on Facebook and receive a notification whenever the blog is updated! 
Just search for "Ashaway School Library".

3rd Grade Poetry Share

My third graders have spent a lot of time lately learning about library organization and how to use the online catalog, so I thought they'd enjoy a journey back into the wonderful world of literature.  April is Poetry Month, and I filled their tables with volumes of poetry and invited them to explore the pages.  The room was truly filled with "joyful noise".  I told them to let me know if they found anything they'd like to share aloud with the class, and they really got into it!  So many students were disappointed that we ran out of time that they volunteered to stay after school to get another opportunity.  A group of 10 stayed after for "Poetry Club" last week, and another 10 plan to stay after next week!

I was really impressed with the variety of poems that the students selected.  I must admit that I expected most of the students to go right to the familiar collections by Shel Silverstein!  His work was represented (and rightfully so), but we also heard poems by Judith Viorst, Emily Dickenson, and Jane Yolen.  If you would like to see some examples, videos are available here: http://ashlib.wikispaces.com/3rd+grade+poetry.

Illustrators at Work!

Our first graders have been enjoying stories written by Audrey Wood in library class. We have been comparing the styles of the various illustrators of her books, including Don Wood (her husband), Bruce Wood (her son), Mark Teague, and herself! Then the students took on the job of illustrator and created their own version of Audrey’s “Quick as a Cricket”.

Her son creates his illustrations on the computer, so I decided to let my students try their hand at this medium. We don’t have the program that Bruce uses, but the children did a wonderful job with Microsoft Paint!

We discussed the steps that are taken when a book is being created, beginning with the author's manuscript. Many times it is the publisher who selects the illustrator and not the author. I challenged the students to imagine that they had been given the assignment by a publisher to create the illustrations for a book. I read "Quick as a Cricket" to them but did not show them the book until after their own illustrations were done. This is what a book illustrator must do: imagine what sort of picture will help to express what the author wants to say.

After I showed them their original version of the story on the SMART Board, I shared Audrey Wood's version (illustrated by Don Wood). I emphasized that I did not expect them to anticipate what he chose to depict, and that I didn't think they "got it right" if their pictures were the same as his. I asked the students, "Is there only one correct way to create an illustration?" They discussed their feelings about that and concluded that there are lots of different ways to communicate an idea.

At the end of the last trimester, most of the students had difficulty remembering what an "illustrator" is. Now all the hands go up when I ask for the definition. As one student put it, "The illustrator makes the pictures in a book...I am one!"

You can follow the links below to see the students' work. I really lucked out: by splitting Mrs. Campbell's first graders into two groups and adding them to 1B or 1G, I had exactly the right number of students I needed to illustrate each page in the book! I converted their PowerPoints into Google documents, so you can download or print the presentations if you wish. Enjoy!

"Quick as a Cricket" illustrated by students in 1B and 1C

"Quick as a Cricket" illustrated by students in 1G and 1C

What a Wonderful Week!

All week long, our Ashaway School community enjoyed special events to celebrate Reading Week and its theme, "Travel the World Inside a Book".

For our Kick-Off on Monday, Mrs. Bartkiewicz decorated the foyer with balloons and, during the day, gave each student a FREE, brand-new book (sponsored by our PTO)!

On Tuesday we hosted a Pop and Swap: students were welcome to "pop" in after school to trade their used books for different ones. Once again our PTO stepped up and provided some "pop"ular refreshments (Popsicles and popcorn) and many "pop"ular games (pop-o-matic favorite Headache, along with others that fit in with the theme).

Wednesday started off with a sing-along led by our music teacher, Mrs. Sherman. As part of the song, the students learned how to say "hello" in many different languages.

On Wednesday we also enjoyed some very special visitors. First, students from Chariho High School were guest readers in each classroom (and even in the library!). I was thrilled when some of my former students stopped by to say hello before they had to leave. While the high schoolers boarded their bus to return to the high school, our Ashaway School adventures continued. We headed to the gym where we were all amazed by the illusionist David Garrity, who has entertained audiences around the world. His pro-reading message was very effective, and my entire display of magic and optical illusion books was completely cleaned out in two days!

On Thursday we invited our students' families to join us for a Family Read-In. It was lovely to see students and grown-ups sharing some wonderful books and taking turns reading aloud. This fun event concluded with selected students sharing a poem, song, or excerpt from a book pertaining to the "Travel the World" theme.

Friday's festivities began with an announcement over the intercom: "May I have your attention please. This is Captain Morrone speaking. I'd like to thank you for flying with Ashaway Airlines today, and I hope you enjoy your trip around the world!" Each class was representing a country and had created a display outside the classroom. I was really impressed by all the hard work that went into each display. Many students had come to the library during their free time to do research on the countries they were studying, and I know a lot of time was spent on the projects at home and in the classrooms as well. Throughout the morning, all the students got to "travel the world" by visiting each country. They even had passports and could receive a stamp at each destination!

It was a truly wonderful week!

To see lots more pictures, please visit the school's picture gallery by clicking on this link:
http://kmman.magix.net/album

Hooray for Reading Week (and our PTO)!

Happy Reading Week everyone! And what better way to kick it off than with lots of new books in the library? Thanks to the very successful Scholastic Book Fair, our wonderful PTO provided me with the funds to order some materials for the library. I'm waiting for our new Playaways to arrive, but right at the end of last week I received two boxes of brand-new books! I didn't waste any time getting them processed and on display so that students can enjoy them this week. All of the books you see in the display below came from this order, and most of the titles were specifically requested by students. We got the newest titles in some of our most popular series, including Magic Tree House, Star Wars, Fly Guy, Judy Moody, Ghosthunters, Twisted Journeys, Elephant and Piggie, and Tiger Moth. Hate that Cat by Sharon Creech and Dav Pikey's The Adventures of Ook and Gluk are finally here, as well as some new graphic novels that I know the students will love!

Thank you SO much

to everyone who helped make

the Scholastic Book Fair such a big success!!!