Fabulous Fall Festival Fun!

Like many, I look forward to the fall festival season.  This time of year brings to mind hot apple cider, haunted hay rides, and strolls through a pumpkin patch.  As fun as all those things are, however, my all-time favorite is the one and only Rhode Island Festival of Children's Books and Authors at the Lincoln School in Providence.  It always takes place the Saturday after Columbus Day, and it's the one fall event that I look forward to all year!

I found one of my students in the auditorium listening to an author presentation.  She was happy to show off some of the books she discovered!

As always, there was a line-up of extremely talented authors and illustrators who gave very entertaining and informative presentations.  Throughout the day there was also opportunities to meet these special guests to get your own copies of their books signed.  (You can read an excellent overview of the festival and all it had to offer, including a link to many remarkable photographs, by clicking here!) 

I stood in line with another one of my students while we waited for our turn to meet the remarkably talented author and illustrator Meghan McCarthy!







For me, a highlight of the festival was the hilarious Chris Grabenstein, author of the 2015 Rhode Island Children's Book Award for Escape From Mr. Lemoncello's Library.  Honestly, I could have listened to him talk all day.  Not only was he a charismatic speaker but his storytelling ability had his audience's full attention.  (To my first graders who keep hearing me belt out in a deep tone of voice, "That's awesoooooooooome!", I totally picked that up from him!)  With his permission, I recorded some segments of his presentation to share with you here.  It was difficult to pick just a few to feature, but it was so much fun watching all of my footage again while trying to make my selections! 

Like all authors, Chris was asked, "Where do you get all of your ideas?" 

Another common theme in author presentations is the message to keep trying.  I think it's important for students to know that success is something one needs to work hard for.  Here is Chris's take on persistence:

As a fan of alliteration (see this blog title for an example!) I was happy to hear Chris's comments about the topic:

Many people have compared Escape From Mr. Lemoncello's Library to Roald Dahl's classic Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.  While similarities certainly do exist, Chris explains where the inspiration for his story really came from:

Well, I've saved the best for last!

Chris reads aloud the beginning of his upcoming sequel to Escape From Mr. Lemoncello's Library!  It won't be released until next year, but here's a sneak peek of Mr. Lemoncello's Library Olympics!!!  

(Yes, he's reading it from his iPhone!)

A heart-felt and enormous thank you goes out to Meagan Lenihan, Colleen Zeitz, and Kate Lentz of Lincoln School for organizing this event.  It was an amazing day and I know I'm not alone when I say that it was a truly remarkable celebration!  :D

I Scream, You Scream, We All Scream for...

ICE CREAM! 
(And books, of course. LOTS and LOTS of BOOKS!!!)

Thursday night was Ashaway School's annual Book Fair and Ice Cream Social.  Once again our PTO put together a fabulous evening of fun and fund raising!  Lots of families stopped by to enjoy a FREE ice cream sundae, design a book mark, do some coloring, and shop for new books.  Some of the money brought in from the book fair will be donated to the library to buy books for all of the Ashaway students to enjoy.  YAY!!

These kids really got into the theme of a "Monster Book Fair"!

This 4th grader found some "Rooster books"!

Check out this cool "monster" book mark!!

Adding to the Monster Mural Masterpiece!

So many awesome books to explore!

Aww!  A moment sweeter than ice cream!

Family fun!

Ashaway School staff members were on hand to do the scooping and dole out the toppings!

The ice cream came from Mel's Downtown Creamery in Pawcatuck.  They donated one tub of ice cream and provided two additional tubs at a discount.  Thank you!!! 

To see more pictures from this event,  

click here to view the Ashaway School online photo album! 

 

A Wonderful Kind of Wishing!

Today all of our students had the opportunity to browse the offerings at our Scholastic Book Fair and create a "wish list" of books they want.  Tomorrow students in kindergarten through second grade will be able to do some shopping, and on Wednesday the third and fourth grades will get a turn.  Parents can also stop in to shop on Tuesday and Wednesday from 9am-10am.

Then, on Thursday, the doors will be open 5:30pm-7:30pm for the Scholastic Book Fair and Ice Cream Social.  Families are welcome to come in for a FREE ice cream sundae and shop the book fair!

The Book Fair is also open online for purchases now thru Oct. 13th: http://bookfairs.scholastic.com/homepage/ashawayelementaryschool

A great, big, ENORMOUS "THANK YOU!!" to the PTO for making our Scholastic Book Fair happen!  The library receives money from this event to buy new books for our students to borrow.  It truly is a win-win!  

"And that one and this one and one of these and one of those and ..."

 

We're on a Plicker Kick!

Before school started the teachers had the opportunity to attend a variety of professional development workshops.  One of my favorites, led by PE teacher Catherine Moffitt, was all about using "Plickers" with our students as a way of checking for understanding.  Many of the teachers at Ashaway School are now using them, and the kids love it!

A sample Plicker card

Each student is given a "Plicker card" that's printed with a blocky black square.  No two squares are exactly alike, and each is numbered and assigned to a student.  When given a multiple choice question, the students give their answers by holding up their cards.  Each side of the block is labeled with a letter, and they hold their cards so that the letter on top indicates their answer.

"Cards up!"

Now for the really cool part!  The teacher records the students' answers by scanning them with a smart phone or iPad!  (There is an app that teachers need to download to their devices, but the app and the Plicker website are completely free to use!)  Using my iPhone's built-in camera, I just sweep across the room and the app automatically records the students' answers.  When each student's answer is recorded, the student's name appears on the screen in green (for a correct answer) or in red (for a wrong answer).  All the information is stored in my online Plickers account for me to refer to as needed.  Everything is password protected, but only the students' first names are used to ensure privacy.

The students' names appear on top of their Plicker card so I know that they've been scanned.  If the name is in a green bubble I know they got the answer right!  (Great job, fourth graders!)

The questions can be displayed on the SmartBoard, and I can reveal a chart of which answers were selected.  This is terrific for quickly identifying any misunderstandings of the topic while keeping each individual student's answer private.

The students are really enjoying this new method of interaction, and the teachers love the immediate feedback.  You can learn more about Plickers by visiting the website https://plickers.com/!

The MAGIC of Summer Reading!

This summer marked the sixth consecutive year of the Hopkinton Recreation Summer Read Aloud Program!  The program invites Chariho staff members to volunteer an hour of their time to read aloud to the camp's participants.  (The reading program also took place in Charlestown!)  The students are so excited each week when they know one of the teachers who has shown up to read to them.  They never know from session to session who will be the day's "special guest stars"!

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!  

This year's chapter book selections from the list of RICBA nominees!

We had three groups who were each reading a chapter book selected from a list of books nominated for the Rhode Island Children’s Book Award (RICBA).  During the school year, 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 called the Rooster Games based these nominees.  By selecting books from this list, the children participating in HopRec will already have one of these books completed by the end of the summer!

Click to enlarge!

Mrs. Potter, a fifth grade teacher at Chariho Middle School, came every week to read Little Green Men at the Mercury Inn.  She told me that the kids would beg her to keep reading, so I'm sure that book is going to be really popular this coming school year!  (It's both suspenseful and unpredictable!)


I also signed up to take the same group every week, and we really enjoyed RICBA nominee The Vanishing Coin by Kate Egan and Mike Lane.  This story is about a fourth grader named Mike who is always in trouble because it's hard for him to sit still and focus while in class.  Worse, there's a bully who likes to make Mike miserable.  And to top it all off, Mike has to spend every day after school with a classmate who's not only a brilliant student but also a girl.  However, things start looking up when Mike discovers a local magic shop.  Not only does he discover a new hobby, but he also finds his own way to shine!

Throughout the book, the authors include directions on how to recreate the magic tricks featured in the story.  Each week I brought along the needed materials so the kids could try them out for themselves.  We had a lot of fun, and they were eager to try the tricks out on the other campers.  (Don't forget, you guys: a magician never reveals the secret!)  The very first "trick" we attempted was the challenge given to Mike by the owner of the magic shop: can you cut a piece of paper so that there's a hole big enough to fit your whole body through?  (If you want to learn how to do it, get your hands on a copy of The Vanishing Coin!)

That's a big hole, but I still can't fit through it!

Trying out a different strategy...

This 2nd grader fit through the hole she cut and was pretty excited by her success.  Then I told her that a grownup should be able to pass through without any trouble!  Oh, well...back to the drawing board!

Sweet success!!

In addition to our three "chapter book" groups, I also brought along a bin of picture books with a different theme each week.  (Some favorites were wolves, snakes, flies and dogs!)  To start off each session, I hid a puppet of that week's animal in a big, red bag and the kids had to guess what was inside.  Camper assistants Emma and Kiley did an awesome job sharing these with the younger listeners!

Emma's group poses with the books during "snake week"!

No matter which group a child joined, every one of them spent an hour each week interacting with some excellent books.  It truly is a wonderful program, and I'm very proud to be a part of it.  My sincerest thanks go out to the fabulous staff at the camp who were so accommodating in order to make it all possible and to the teachers who volunteered to participate! 

Rooster Games 2015!

Team Yellow is ready for action!

On Monday our fourth graders participated in the 7th Annual Ashaway School Rooster Games!  All of the students who read at least five of the books on the list of nominees for the Rhode Island Children's Book Award were invited to participate.  The five teams (each a mix of boys and girls from both fourth grade classrooms) competed in a variety of games that were based on books from the list.

Champion Readers!

We start by awarding Champion Reader medals to those who read all of the RICBA nominees that I bought for Ashaway School.  Out of the list of 20, this year I bought 18.  Not only did these two reach that goal, but they both did it relatively early in the school year.  Awesome job, you two!!

Team Blue is all smiles!

 

Team Red works together to match the titles with the last line of each book.

Team Green matching each book title to its setting from the story.

Illustration Round

Three of the games are set up on PowerPoint and the students use marker boards to display their answers. Students match pictures from each book to their titles in the Illustration Round.  They answer multiple choice and short answer questions in the Question Round, and they identify which story a particular item represents in the Object Round.

Question Round

Collaborating on the Creativity Round

In between rounds, each team works together to create something original to represent one of the books on stage.  Their performance might be a skit, poem, commercial, song, or whatever other idea they come up with.  The Creativity Round is the last event in the Rooster Games!

Team Red performs!

Team Orange takes a turn!

This year it was a tie between Team Orange and Team Green, but there's no prize for winning the Rooster Games.  At the end of the day all of the students who qualified to participate in the games gets to enjoy a pizza party sponsored by our P.T.O., so they truly are all winners!

It was a really fun event, and it couldn't have happened without the support of our fourth grade teachers, our parent volunteers, and our Ashaway School P.T.O.  My sincerest thanks go out to them all!

Kids at Ashaway School Pick Their Noses!!

This week I had the pleasure of watching a whole lot of Ashaway School students pick their noses.  Well, some picked a nose.  Others picked a bookmark, a pencil, or one of the other fun "No Time for TV Week" prizes that I have on hand!  (But I think the nose-shaped pencil sharpeners are the best!)

Thanks to the support of the Ashaway School PTO, there are lots of things in my prize basket to motivate the students to take a break from all of their screens.  (You can read more about the program by clicking here.)  As an added incentive, we do a special prize drawing on the day that the participation forms are due.  Ten lucky students also win a $10 certificate to spend on Scholastic books!

Ten students who are looking forward to doing some book shopping!

Thanks again to the 

Ashaway School PTO for their support!