Exercise Your Body, Exercise Your Mind!

"Look, ma!  No commercials!"

It's almost "No Time for TV Week" at Ashaway School!  All of the details about how the program works can be found by clicking on the links below.  Each student will receive a copy at school but you are welcome to print another copy if you need it:

Contract page 1

Contract page 2

Click here to see a sample contract all filled out!

I'm going over the guidelines with every class this week.  After explaining how the form works and what they need to do to earn a prize, I spend some time answering questions.  Most of the questions, as always, start with the words "What if...?" or "What about...?"  To read my answers to these frequently asked questions, please click here.

I've never had a student who participated in No Time for TV Week who wished that they hadn't, but I always have lots of students who didn't participate who wished that they had!  There are lots of cool prizes to be earned; please encourage your child to join in the fun!

During the week, try playing No Time for TV Bingo!

Click on the links below to print!

Bingo board #1

Bingo board #2 

Bingo board #3

Inside the Author's Studio with Kate DiCamillo!

Margie O'Brien Reed, Rhode Island PBS host and producer, interviewed Newbery Medal winner Kate DiCamillo, the 2014-15 National Ambassador for Young People's Literature.

I was so excited to be part of the live studio audience for the taping of Inside the Author's Studio on Friday night at the Rhode Island PBS studios.  Kate DiCamillo is the author of Flora & Ulysses: The Illuminated Adventures (the 2015 Kids Reading Across Rhode Island selection) as well as other well-loved favorites including Because of Winn-Dixie, The Tale of Despereaux, and The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane.  (And so many others!  Visit www.katedicamillo.com for more!)

Behind the scenes!

It was a delightful evening, and the charming DiCamillo had us laughing and nodding along throughout.  We were told that the interview, which ran for about 45 minutes, would be edited down to about 20 minutes and then aired in June.  There's no way to know what will be included in the final presentation, but I'll share some of the details that stayed with me!



* She sets her alarm to write at 5:30am every morning. (If she doesn't do it first thing she'll talk herself out of it throughout the day.) She pours herself a cup of coffee and then sits at a desk that faces a blank wall.

* She only writes two pages a day! (She said that limiting herself to only two pages a day makes writing the next day even easier.  Wow.)

* The idea for using a vacuum cleaner in Flora and Ulysses came from a big, old Electrolux she inherited from her mother.

* She was inspired by an injured squirrel she found out her porch. She wasn't able to help him, so she "saved" the squirrel by creating the character of Ulysses.

* The inspiration for Edward Tulane was a toy rabbit she was given by a friend. It sat on her couch, and then one night she had a dream where she saw that rabbit resting on the bottom of the ocean.  The story grew from there.

* She had the idea for her Mercy Watson series for a long time before the story was ready to be written. The turning point, she said, was the day she was driving a friend to the airport. The car was brand-new, and her friend insisted on eating buttered toast along the way. When Kate protested, the friend proceeded to extol the virtues of buttered toast, emphasizing that it needed LOTS of butter and that it must be applied from edge to edge and so on and so forth. (With this I strongly agree, by the way.) By the time she got to the airport, Kate knew that her newest character was going to have an extreme adoration of toast with "a great deal of butter on it".

* She attributes her love of reading and writing to her mother, who always read aloud to her.  She believes that reading aloud creates a bond between those people.  (With this I also strongly agree!) 

After the taping we were able to meet Kate and get our books inscribed.  The price of admission included a copy of Flora and Ulysses, and I'm excited to display our newly-signed copy in the library this week!  (I know it won't stay there for long!)  To my sheer delight, Kate agreed to record a little video in honor of our second graders, who have been listening to The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane in their classrooms.  I am thrilled to be able to share it here:

My sincerest thanks go out to the lovely and talented Kate DiCamillo, as well as to all the folks who worked to make this wonderful event happen.  It was a joy to be a part of something so special!
  

Thanks also to my amazing friends and colleagues: Mrs. Barton, Mrs. Reiser-Jones, Mrs. Gaskill, Miss DeVito, Miss Anderson and "Miss Hurley"!  Your support, patience, and encouragement have always been and will continue to be deeply appreciated!  

Local Authors Visit During Reading Week!

As always, we had lots of fabulous activities going on during Reading Week, but this year we enjoyed something truly new and special.  Members of the Association of Rhode Island Authors came into the school throughout the week to read from their books and talk to our students about writing.  Each class received a personal visit from one of the authors!




Ashely Richer shared her book Chasing the Moon, the first in her "Tyler's Tall Tales" series, with Mrs. Lee's kindergarten class.

Seth Coombs shared his story Old Salty Dog, complete with his own full-sized illustrations, with Mrs. Breault's first grade class.

Kristen Calenda introduced Mrs. Vocatura's third grade class to her book Nubiana, the true story of a cat in need of a home.

Dawn Porter brought along a presentation complete with lots of interesting facts about the Ocean State, which was a perfect companion to her book Searching for Rhode Island. Our fourth graders study their home state, so Mrs. Ornburn's class was all ears!

   
It was with great pleasure that we welcomed back our own "Miss Terry"!  Theresa Schimmel was a teacher right here at Ashaway School back in the day!  It was wonderful to see her in the classroom again as she shared her book, David's War/David's Peace, with Mrs. Young's fourth grade.  



As a culmination of the week's events, our wonderful PTO once again sponsored a "Pop and Swap" event on Friday.  (All the students who "popped" in got to select some books from the many donations we received and were able to enjoy a free snack: some popcorn and a Popsicle!)  This year we added a "Meet and Greet" to the festivities: all of the local authors who visited throughout the week were also in attendance!  Families were not only able to buy their own copies of the books but they were able to get them signed as well.  As you can tell by these smiles, the students really enjoyed this extra opportunity to interact with our guests!  

The authors not only donated their time, but they also very generously gave a portion of their book sale proceeds to the Ashaway School PTO.  (Thank you!)

For more information about our special guests and their books, please visit the websites listed below.

 

Theresa Schimmel

David's War/David's Peace

http://www.tamstales.net

Seth Coombs

Old Salty Dog

http://www.artofsethmccombs.com/

Ashley Richer

Chasing the Moon

www.facebook.com/tylerstalltales

http://www.bigrhody.com/tylers_tall_tales/

Dawn Porter

Searching for Rhode Island

http://www.StillwaterPress.com

Kristen Calenda

Nubiana

http://kristencalenda.com

And the winner is...

 "Escape From 
Mr. Lemoncello's Library"

by Chris Grabenstein

is the winner of the 2015 Rhode Island

Children's Book Award! 

Just a few of the students who awarded this book a "gold star"!

I'm sure I'm not the only librarian who was ecstatic to learn that an adventure story set in a public library was selected to win the 2015 RICBA award!  While the nominee list is selected by adults, the recipient of the award is selected by students!  In fact, every Ashaway School student who has read this book has told me that they loved it.  Woohoo!

All students in grades 3-6 in Rhode Island are eligible to vote for the winner.  Our fourth graders filled out their ballots back in February.  (To learn more about the award and to see the complete voting results, please visit http://www.ri.net/RIEMA/bookaward.html.)

The students earn a star for each book they read, which goes up on a poster in the library.  All of our fourth graders are encouraged to read at least 5 of the books on the nominee list. When they do, they get to sign the poster that reads, "We're Going to the Rooster Games!"  (If you don't know about the Games, click here!)  So far, 20 fourth graders have signed it.  Keep reading, fourth graders!

Checking the poster for stars earned

"A Person's a Person No Matter How Small!"

This year we celebrated Dr. Seuss's 

birthday with the theme, 

"A Person's a Person No Matter How Small!"  

Of course, this phrase is from Horton Hears a Who.  Every class enjoyed the story in the morning, and then Mrs. Bartkiewicz invited the students to write about a good deed they have done.  After she collected all of the strips of paper she created this wonderful bulletin board to share them!

And of course, Dr. Seuss's birthday always provides a terrific opportunity to dress up for the occasion!  Students and staff were asked to wear pink, red, or something "Seussical" to add to the fun of the day.  As always, we had a wonderful time celebrating books and reading!

For some online fun, check out www.seussville.com!

Finding a Book is as Easy as "Uno - Dos - Tres"!

"Mrs. Mann, I found the book!"

Last week I posted about my third graders learning how to find a book on the shelf in the library.  This activity continues, but with a twist!  Mrs. Franklin, our World Language teacher, has become a special guest star in the library!



Mrs. Franklin and I were chatting after school one day and discovered that we are both working with numbers in our third grade classes.  We decided to collaborate during my "shelf searching" unit, and it's been beneficial to all!  Mrs. Franklin gets more time with the students to help them recall and pronounce their numbers in Spanish, I get another adult in the room who can assist with the lesson, and the students are improving multiple skills!

Mrs. Franklin demonstrates how to read a call number in Spanish!

After I reviewed the shelf searching strategies with the class, Mrs. Franklin went over the numbers
0-9 in Spanish.  As the students searched for the call numbers on their "scavenger hunt" sheets, Mrs. Franklin worked one-on-one with them as they entered the nonfiction section.  She asked them to identify on their papers a nonfiction call number (which is part of my expectation that they can "Crack the Code" and identify their locations).  Then she would have them read the digits of the call number in Spanish! 

As I mentioned in my last blog entry about shelf searching strategies, it's really important for the students to get in the habit of touching the shelf while looking for a book to help them focus on the call numbers.  Before allowing the students to begin, Mrs. Franklin taught them the phrase "Put your hand on the shelf" in Spanish: Toca el estante.  Throughout the lesson I periodically called out Toca el estante!  A routine reminder became a fun rallying cry, and some enthusiastic students called back the responding Toco el estante!  ("I put my hand on the shelf!")   We had a lot of fun while practicing both our library skills and our Spanish!

 Muchas gracias, Mrs. Franklin!!

"Toco el estante!"

"Toco el estante!"

"Toco el estante!"

Finding a Book is as Easy as "One - Two - Three"!

Our third graders have been learning how to find books on the shelves in the library.  This might sound simple, but it's actually a multi-step process that takes practice!  Before I taught them a way of approaching the problem, I would often find students wandering endlessly back and forth in front of the shelves with their limbs dangling at their sides (I call that "spaghetti arms").  Other times they'd insist the book wasn't there and I'd discover they weren't even looking on the correct shelf.  Now I guide the students through a three-step Shelf Searching Strategy, and they are becoming much more efficient at finding books independently!

Step One: Make a smart guess where your book would be and put your hand on a shelf.
To do this, the students need to "Crack the Code" by deciding which section of the library to go to based on the book's call number.  Then they need to make an educated guess as to where in that section the book is likely to be.  (For example, in the nonfiction section we would go toward the beginning for a book in the 200's, in the middle for a book in the 600's, or near the end for a book in the 800's.)  I insist that the students physically place their hands on the shelf they select to help them focus on the task.

Step Two: Look at the first book on that shelf and decide in which direction you need to go.  Keep going until you find the right shelf.
This part is like using the guide words in a dictionary.  Look at the first book on the shelf and decide if the call number you're looking for is higher or lower.  If it's higher, go up a shelf.  If it's lower, go down a shelf.  Then look at the first book on that shelf.  Repeat until you've "gone too far", meaning that the book you want is on the shelf you just came from.

Again, this might seem simple, but this activity requires a degree of spatial reasoning.  (Often the students want to respond that the numbers will get lower as you go "down" a shelf, or that the shelves are read straight across from one section to the next.)  The hardest part is having your hand on the top shelf and figuring out which direction to go in to find the shelf that comes before it.  To give them a way to visualize it, I put an image of an open book on the SmartBoard and we identify where we would start reading [upper left] and how we would read the sentence [left to right].  When we get to the end of each line, we go down and back over to the left.  And, when we get to the bottom of the page, we continue reading at the top left of the next page.  Of course the students see this as pretty obvious, but then I show them that this also applies to the shelves in the library! 

When you reach the bottom of one section, go up to the top of the next section - the same way we read a book!

Step Three: Find your book!

"I found it!"

This is the fun part!  Once the students have determined which shelf the book must be on, they can scan the shelf to find the exact call number they're seeking.  All along the way, I insist that the students touch the shelf and then the spine labels of the books to help them focus on the call numbers they're looking at.

To help the students practice finding books on the shelf, they are participating in a "Call Number Scavenger Hunt".  They are given a list of call numbers to find in the library.  Each student's paper is unique, so two students won't be looking for the same book at the same time.  They enjoy moving all around the library, and I get a good sense of how their book seeking skills are developing!  It's a fun activity that leads to the one they are the most excited about: using the computer to find a book's call number!

These are some of the students who were "caught" touching the shelves while searching for their books.  They each earned a Cougar Claw Card for responsibility!