Books All Around at Hopkinton Rec!

Today was the third "Reading Thursday" at the Hopkinton Rec Summer Camp, and I'm happy to say that the program is only getting better!  This year the older students (going into grades 3 and up) not only get to enjoy having the story read aloud to them, but they also get to follow along with their own copy of the book! 

2012 marks the third year of the Summer Read Aloud program.  For the past two summers, a single copy of the chapter books read to the older students was borrowed from one of the teachers or a school library.  For this session, we wanted to purchase multiple copies of the books.  Multiple copies enables the children to read along with the adult reader, thereby increasing their exposure to text, comprehension, fluency and vocabulary.  During the course of this school year, I met with Brenda Medina, originator of the summer reading program, as well as two of the elementary reading specialists, Mary Ellen Sposato and Claudia Peduzzi.  Together we wrote a successful Chariho Community Innovative Projects Grant proposal...wooHOO!  (Many thanks to them for supporting our project!!!)

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. At the conclusion of summer, the books will be distributed to elementary and middle school libraries which will give our students increased accessibility to the RICBA nominees.  Students are encouraged to read at least three of the books from the list in order to vote for the winner. In addition, several of the schools (including Ashaway) hold competitions based on the nominees making the demand for these selected titles extremely high.  Typically the public and school libraries maintain long waiting lists for these books, but we anticipate that having easier access to them will result in increased participation and enthusiasm!  That means more reading!

A Fond Farewell to Mrs. Sherman

Here we are at the last day of school!  Today and last week were filled with "lasts": the last time waking up Bear, the last story read aloud, the last book enjoyed and returned.  Of course, these are only temporary "lasts".  There's plenty more fun awaiting us far away in the fall.  But one of them truly marked an ending.

We're going to miss you, Mrs. Sherman!!!

Last week, we enjoyed the last assembly organized by our music teacher, Mrs. Sherman, because she's retiring!  I'm happy to say that she really did manage to go out on a high note!  (Pun intended, haha!) Every grade got to perform, and as always the music she selected was terrific.  I must admit I was especially charmed by the first graders' presentation of The Library Song by Tom Chapin and Michael Mark:

I thought this would be a fitting way to close my last blog entry of the school year: with a reminder to visit your public library!  Don't forget that there are summer reading programs that you can sign up for, and it's completely free.  

I wish you all a safe and happy summer break!

Keep reading!!! 

Bookmark Contest Winner!

Haiden receives her award from Joe Carr -- surprise!!

Mrs. DiFranco, our wonderful art teacher, brought all of the second graders into the library yesterday morning for a special presentation.  All of these students participated in a contest put on by the Washington County Coalition for Children.  The purpose of the competition is to provide a combination of literature and art to help second graders to identify emotions and find positive ways to express their feelings.  After reading a story to them about that theme, Mrs. DiFranco had each student design a bookmark that depicted a feeling.  The winner of the contest, Haiden McKay, received a framed copy of her work, and every student received a bookmark with the design (and some other cool prizes, too).

Mrs. DiFranco reads aloud  The Way I Act

Joe Carr, the "Bookmark Contest Ambassador", also presented the library with a copy of the book The Way I Act by Steve Metzger and extra bookmarks.





You can access local behavioral health services and more information by visiting www.washcokids.org.

Every second grader received a bookmark, a bracelet, and a color-change pencil!

Through My Window: Ashaway Kids Grow Garden

Harvesting

Thanks to the hard work of Ashaway School parents, students and teachers, I have been enjoying the library's view: the Ashaway Kids Grow Garden is getting greener by the day!  Yesterday I took a stroll through the garden during lunch and captured pictures of a very special activity.  Parent volunteers were showing the students how to harvest and clean some of the vegetables, and there was salad for all!  It was so great to see how enthusiastic the kids were (and they loved taking turns using the salad spinner).  And, despite the amount of fresh lettuce that was devoured, I was amazed by how much still remains.  As with all of the plants in the garden, they will be collected over the summer and donated to the food pantry at Wood River Health Services. 

Washing

You can read about the project and view even more pictures by visiting http://www.orgsites.com/ri/kidsgrow/index.html.

YUM!

As we near the beginning of summer, I'll be spending a lot of time ordering new materials for the library.  You can be sure that I've added some titles about gardening to the list!  

Observing

Can you find our well-camouflaged friend?

At the Rooster Games, Everyone's a Winner!

Team Red works together during the "Object Round"

This week at long last my fourth graders participated in the Rooster Games, a kind of "book Olympics".  (You can read more details about it in last year's post by clicking here.)  While we did have a team that earned the most points (congratulations Team White!), I like to say that every student who participated was a winner.  They all enjoyed playing the different games and acting out an original skit for us on the stage, plus every single student who qualified to be on a team was invited to join the pizza party at the end of the day (courtesy of our wonderful P.T.O.).  So how many of our fourth graders were able to take part?  EVERY SINGLE ONE!  I am so proud of them!  We even had two students who enrolled in fourth grade when the school year was already half over, and I explained that they could qualify with fewer books.  They both went ahead and read their five anyway!

Team Orange records a correct answer during the "Multiple Choice Round"

This year I was delighted to see that the books never rested on the shelf for long.  Most of the students didn't stop reading after qualifying with their first five books, and four students went ahead and read every single one on the list.  Wow! 

Four students earned a "Champion Reader" medal by reading all the books on the list!

Team White - Winners of the 2012 Ashaway School Rooster Games!

No Time for TV Week a Success!

No Time for TV Week ended on Sunday, May 20th.  All this week students have been bringing back their papers to show how many points they earned by exercising their minds and bodies, and there are a LOT of them!  This year, over 50% of our students participated in the program and 25% of all students didn't have any screen time for the entire 7 days!  I'll be handing out the prizes for earning at least 100 points next week, but today I got to announce the winners of the $10 gift certificates to the Other Tiger bookstore in Westerly.   

Thanks to the sponsorship of our wonderful Ashaway School PTO, each year I am able to draw the names of 10 winners.  This year however I was able to select 15 winners because the owner of the Other Tiger offered to donate an additional 5 certificates to our school!  A great big THANK YOU to the Other Tiger bookstore!!!

Some of our lucky $10 gift certificate winners!

Exercise Your Mind, Exercise Your Body!

There was a lot of excitement this week in the library when I announced that Monday is going to be the first day of No Time for TV Week!  Many of the students look forward to doing special activities with their families, and of course they don't mind earning special prizes, too!

The third graders in the picture above are showing off some of the great prizes they could earn next week.  (All of these students participated in the program last year and didn't have any screen time for all seven days in a row - great job you guys!!!)

All of the details about how the program works can be found by clicking on the links below.  Each student received a copy of this at school but you are welcome to print another copy if you need it:

Contract page 1
Contract page 2

If you'd like some ideas for activities you can do, please click on one of the links below to access a "No Time for TV" BINGO board you can print out.  (There are three different versions.)  I also recommend visiting the public library and heading for the non-fiction section. There you'll find books packed with things to do: crafts, drawing, cooking, science experiments, magic tricks, and secret spy codes just to name a few!

HAVE FUN!!!

BINGO board #1

BINGO board #2

BINGO board #3