Summer Reading at Hopkinton Rec!

This summer marked the eighth 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 get so excited when they know one of the people who has shown up to read to them!

We were joined the first week by Mrs. Potter, 5th grade teacher at CMS, and Ms. Sorensen, PE teacher at Ashaway and Hope Valley

 

guest reader Mrs. Allen, 5th grade teacher at CMS

guest reader Mr. Scanapieco, principal at Ashaway School

guest reader Mrs. Pierce, teacher assistant at CMS

guest reader Mrs. Bliven, 3rd grade teacher at Ashaway School

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!

All three came 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 or, at least, will have gotten an extended preview!

In addition to our "chapter book" groups, I also bring along a bin of picture books with related activities for the younger kids. Miss Lindsey, one of the HopRec counselors, did an awesome job presenting these and I'm grateful to her for always being willing to jump right in!

Miss Lindsey leading an extension activity for Caps for Sale

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 staff members who volunteered to participate! 

4th Annual Poetry Slam!

Tuesday night I had the great pleasure of attending Chariho's 4th Annual Elementary Poetry Slam!  This year 79 students from the district participated, and 16 of them were from Ashaway!  I loved listening to the wide variety of poems that the students had prepared.  Some were long and some were short, some were funny and some were unbelievably touching.  It was a wonderful evening of children showcasing their work and taking pride in a job well done. 

When a Day Goes Wrong 

By David, Grade 2

When things go wrong

The day seems long

But I hold my head up

Like a lion I’m strong

I stand with no fear

And with that I must say

There’s always tomorrow

And tomorrow’s a new day

The Crow

By Alyvia, Grade 3

The crow sat on my windowsill,

One night when everything was still,

He just sat there, frozen, still

The crow that was on my windowsill.

 

 Doggy

By Fiona and Julia, Grade 4

Jumping, pouncing, running around

It is so much fun

I am a puppy that came from a pound

I am a number one

I bark every time you come through the door

And you say stop, stop, stop

Even though you say this I know every day you love me more

Every night on my bed I plop

And then I start to sleep

And then I start to have good dreams

And all night through I don’t say a peep

And every morning I wake up to say

“Bark bark” it’s a brand new day!

  

Hip hip hooray

It’s doggy day!

Caribbean

by Paige, Grade 3

Welcome to the Caribbean,

Where the ocean is as blue as the sky.

Where apple kale ice cream is served,

instead of rocky road.

Where beautiful fish rome the crystal clear waters.

Where dolphins glide through the water at sunrise.

Where tarpon dart toward underwater lights at dark.

Where sun sets are are pink, purple, yellow  orange, and gold, like the end of the rainbow.

Where everything is amazingly beautiful,

Welcome to the Caribbean!

Enjoy your time while you have it,

Cause it will fly by fast………….

Welcome back home, back to reality.

  

Summer Activities

By Julianne and Hayleigh, Grade 4

Surfing, body surfing

And paddle boarding

At the beach

Licking, slurping

And dripping

At the ice cream parlor

Skateboarding, rollerblading

And biking

In the park

Softball, soccer

And basketball

At the sports field

Summer is so much fun

When you spend it

Doing activities you love!

 

It was a truly special event and my thanks go out to all who helped to make it happen!!

Rooster Games 2017

On Friday our fourth graders participated in the 9th 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 six 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.

Rooster Games Champion Readers!

I had five students who earned special recognition by reading all 15 of the RICBA nominees that I bought for Ashaway School.  I started off the games by awarding Champion Reader medals to these students!

Two of the games are set up on Google Slides.  They are projected onto the large screen above the stage, and the students collaborate with their teammates to come up with the answers.  Then they use marker boards to display them and earn points.
 


  
Students match pictures from each book to their titles in the Illustration Round, and they answer multiple choice and short answer questions in the Question Round. 

 

For the "table top" rounds, the teams are matching the book titles to characters, settings, objects and the first lines of the books they come from.

Character Round

First Lines Round

Object Round

Settings Round

  

One of the RICBA titles, A Whole New Ballgame, inspired this year's reading relays: A Whole New BALLOON Game!  The first two games involved passing a balloon down the line of team members.  For "Hoops" one student passed the balloon up and down through hoops created by the team's arms, and for "Crabs" all the students passed the balloon down their line using only their elbows!

The last balloon game was the "Frenzy".   All of the students stood in the middle of the gym and the chaperones lined up on one side.  Then the grown-ups started tossing balloons to the kids who had to get the balloons to the opposite side by batting them with their hands.  

Any balloons that hit the floor were "out".  All the ones that made it all the way across were collected, then popped!  Inside every balloon was a slip of paper with a team's name written on it, and each team called earned a bonus point.  (There were 36 balloons so each team had 6 balloons with their names inside.)   There was almost as much excitement when I read the names out loud as there was when they were playing the game!

This year I also added an additional game: Charades!  This was a round that the teams could work on as they finished the table top games.  I had been worried that they'd be watching the other teams to get hints on the answers, but it turned out that they were all laser-focused on their own "actors".  

This year our Rooster Games winners were Team Red, Team Green, and Team Blue!  Yup, a three-way tie!  There's no prize for winning the Rooster Games, but 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! 

Miss Zemske Comes to Ashaway

Me ending my time at Ashaway in the Forbidden Forest during Reading Week

The 8 weeks I've spent student teaching at Ashaway have been some of the shortest weeks of my life. Well, I suppose I should say 7 weeks (never let anybody ever tell you that your immune system is strong enough for elementary school hugs or Pneumonia). In that time, I picked up one grade after another until I had stolen all of the students away from Mrs. Mann. Alas, the time has come for me to return my lil peanuts and attempt to be satisfied with a reflection.

Kindergarten

How to trace pigeon and add details to give him emotions

How many Pigeon books are too many Pigeon books? According to my kindergartners, there is no such thing. Kindergarten was the first grade that I picked up and we jumped right into our Mo Willems author study. We practiced with Knuffle Bunny, my helpers making sure I knew how to wake up Bear and do all the voices.

Then we moved on to Don't Let The Pigeon Drive The Bus. We learned about context clues and how to tell what emotion Pigeon was feeling by picking out details. We also learned how to combine pictures with the text to make guesses.

And it was all down Pigeon from there...

Researching questions about Mo Willems

Making Pigeon finger puppets

First Grade

I picked up the first grade next. We learned about the characteristics of a fairy tale by creating a madlib together and read two different versions of Rumpelstiltskin to compare and contrast them.

Second Grade

With the second grade, I picked up where Mrs. Mann left off teaching the students about the difference between fiction and nonfiction and going over how to take notes. They did this by using nonfiction frog book which culminated in the activity "Fiction Frogs" where the students finished the sentence "You'll never see a frog..." and drew their creation. Another project I did was in collaboration with the Spanish teacher wherein I taught the kids how to find images labelled for reuse that we could use in a green screen activity.

Third Grade

I picked up the third graders last and had very little time to work with them during lessons. That didn't stop some of them from asking me to read Harry Potter to them - during recess no less! Far be it from me to say no to a request like that. Who needs food, anyway?

Fourth Grade

While teaching fourth grade, I think I created my personal best lesson. We learned about password safety - the why's and how's of creating a password that is both strong and memorable. I was so happy with the creation of this lesson that I chose it to be the one evaluated by both my professor and The Rhode Island Department of Education.

Replacing letters with symbols

Evaluating our own work

My parting from Ashaway was bitter sweet and surrounded by screaming goodbyes as the students left to board their busses. My hearing may recover but my heart never will. But who knows - maybe I will try to come back for a visit when they least expect it....

Librarians take reading week events very seriously

We're a Bunch of Happy Campers!

Once again Ashaway School enjoyed a very successful and fun Reading Week!  Every day was special as we celebrated books and reading with a camping theme!






Thanks to our fabulous PTO the week was kicked off by a "Books and Breakfast" event.  Students were invited along with their families to come to school a little early to enjoy a free breakfast and book fair preview.  Teachers were also welcome to join in on the fun, have something yummy to eat, and select books for a classroom "wish list".  

Here are just a few pictures from this fabulous week.  (You can see a LOT more by visiting our school photo gallery!)  Enjoy!

As always, Mrs. Bartkiewicz filled the hallway with balloons to welcome the students as they entered the building!

The bulletin board outside our library!

Students "warm their hands" by our library campfire!  ;)

Students in grades K-2 enjoyed a QR Code Listening Center.  They had six camping-themed books to choose from!

Students in all grades were invited to make their own "Camp Out with a Good Book" book mark!  (Thanks, Miss Zemske!)

On Monday the wonderful Tommy James amazed us all with his reading themed magic show!

Tuesday was a perfect day to set up outside for our Family Read-In!

Wednesday night's Book Fair and Ice Cream Social was a huge hit!

On Thursday students and staff were encouraged to dress as "Happy Campers".  Mr. Scanapieco welcomed everyone to morning meeting with a lot of spirit!

 My sincerest thanks to everyone who contributed to making Reading Week an enormous success!