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

Always Leave Them Wanting "Mo"!

The Pigeon has a lot of fans at Ashaway School!

My kindergarteners have been having a blast listening to the books of author/illustrator Mo Willems.  Every single title that I've shared with them has been a hit, and if you haven't gotten a chance to see them yourself I strongly suggest you visit the local public library as soon as you can! 

We finished this unit up with a bang by visiting part of Mo Willems' website, The Pigeon Presents.  Click on the yellow bubble in the top left corner and you'll find the games that we played (first on the SmartBoard as a class and then individually at the computers).  That's all we had time to do this week, so I encourage you to explore the rest of the site with your child.  There are funny descriptions of other Mo Willems characters, videos, and information about...buses.  (Why buses?  Because the Pigeon absolutely loves buses.  Just don't let him drive one!)  Plus there's even more fun to be found at Mo's own website, too.  Enjoy!

Dream It...Do It...READ!

Happy Reading Week!!!

It was a week full of fun here at Ashaway Elementary School!  On Monday Mrs. Bartkiewitz kicked off Reading Week by greeting the students at the front door with helium balloons!  Then at lunch, she and I read aloud and performed the book When I'm Big by Nila Aye and Tim Drury.  In the book, Mo and Joe imagine all the different things they might do when they grow up.  The students then went back to their classrooms and wrote about their own dreams of what they might be someday.  Then the teachers hung up their work in the hallway for all to enjoy!

Click any picture to enlarge!

On Tuesday our fabulous PTO once again sponsored our Pop and Swap.  All the students who "popped" in got to select some books from the many donations we received.  They also received a scratch-and-sniff bookmark (popcorn scented of course), a cup of popcorn and a Popsicle!

Selecting books at the Pop and Swap

On Wednesday we had our Family Read-In featuring a poetry share and singing performances.  Students from each grade recited poetry on the stage, and then grades 1-4 sang songs that they learned in music class with Mrs. Sherman.  I especially liked first grade's song, "Let's Go to the Library"!

On Thursday we were visited by author/illustrator Leslie Tryon. Her books featuring a duck named Albert were a big hit at Ashaway School!

Author/Illustrator Leslie Tryon

On Friday the PTO gave a brand new book to every child in the school.  Students also submitted their own acrostics for our poetry contest.  The winning entries were hung up in the school foyer!

Mrs. Bartkiewitz hands out brand-new books courtesy of our PTO!

Here is a sample acrostic poem written by fourth grader Matt Power:

          Read every page!
          Every book makes you smarter
          Artistic design for people wanting to read more!
          Dream about reading, read, read, read!
          I love Big Nate books
          Never put down a book
          Give a book to a friend, they will love it!

          Who wouldn't read?
          Extra reading makes you even smarter!
          Every book is awesome
          King Kong even reads!

 
It was a truly wonderful week of celebrating books and the joy of reading!  To see LOTS more pictures and examples of student work, please visit our school picture gallery at http://kmman.magix.net/album!

"My favorite book" - Part 2

I can't believe it's almost here...time is just flying by!  This coming Monday is the beginning of Reading Week!  A couple weeks ago I wrote about the display I was planning to make to celebrate our students' favorite books.  Well, here it is!

Each of the small popcorn pieces features the title of a student or staff member's favorite book in our library.  The theme of the bulletin board goes along with our PTO's Pop and Swap event, which will take place on Tuesday, April 10th from 4-6pm.  Kids and adults can "pop in" to swap books they no longer read for different ones!  (You don't have to bring in your own used books to trade, but you are welcome to do so!)  While you're there you can enjoy some popular refreshments and play some popular games!  Plus each student who attends will receive a popcorn-scented bookmark!

I really enjoyed reading what my students wrote about their favorite books.  Here are a few more:

"My favorite book in the library is Baby because it was so touching.  For example when the mother came back for Sophie I cried.  And it was also funny, like when Sophie said a very bad word!"

"My favorite book in the library is Knuffle Bunny because I thought it was funny when Trixie could not talk and her dad was not paying attention and Trixie was making up fake words.  Also, her dad actually finally noticed that Knuffle Bunny was in the wash.  I think Trixie's dad should have listened to Trixie because she was freaking out about Knuffle Bunny."

"My favorite book in this library is Lulu and the Brontosaurus because I think it's funny that the brontosaurus wants her to be his pet and got her to be nice, not throw herself on the floor kicking her heels and screeching until the light bulbs burst, and to say please.  Also, I find it interesting that the author had three endings instead of one."