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| The kids loved when the upstairs room was available and they could spread out on the mats! |
2013 marks the fourth year of the Summer Read Aloud program! Once again, thanks to the support of a Chariho Community Innovative Projects Grant, we were able to purchase multiple copies of the books so the children could follow along with the adult reader. To ensure the quality and long-term usefulness of the books, the titles were selected from a list of books nominated for the Rhode Island Children’s Book Award (RICBA). These 20 books are nominated by a committee of educators and librarians based on their appeal and literary value for children.
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| That is a LOT of books! |
This summer we were especially excited to have enough money to buy multiple copies for the Read Aloud program and two complete sets of all 20 nominees (one each to be used at the Hopkinton and Charlestown Rec programs). At the conclusion of summer, the books will be distributed to the elementary and middle school libraries which will give our students increased accessibility to the RICBA nominees!
At the beginning of the summer, project coordinator Brenda Medina and her husband, Larry, spent some time with me at Ashaway School to help get the books ready for use. This year I designed a label to be placed in every book, and the two of them made sure that every book you see in the picture above received one. I think we were all surprised by how long that one activity took! (Did I mention that there were a lot of books??)
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| The label placed inside every book purchased with the grant money |
Like last year, I started off the first session by introducing the children to the available books with a short "book talk". Then each child was allowed to select which reading group to join. In the past we split them up by grade, but we've decided that it's even better to offer them a choice. Not only did that increase their excitement, but it also introduced them to titles that they might decide to pick up and read on their own! All of the kids were invited to participate in our "Summer Reading Reach-Out" program, which allowed them to borrow books to bring home. (Special thanks to Mrs. Collins, who was willing to take care of the record keeping!) Many of my students bemoaned the long waiting lists at the public libraries and were really excited to "jump to the front" by borrowing one of the books provided by the grant money at their own HopRec!
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| Tessa and Sam, right after finishing The Templeton Twins |
To help them along their way to qualifying for the Rooster Games next spring, my group read the RICBA nominee The Templeton Twins Have an Idea. Tessa and Sam (pictured above) were present for every single one of our reading sessions and will start fourth grade with a star on the "Rooster Games" chart. As it so happens, they have something in common with the main characters from the book: they are also twins!
To learn more about the program's background and goals, you can click on the following links:
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