Summer Sun, Books & Fun!

This summer marked the ninth 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 and Richmond!)  The students get so excited when they know one of the people who has shown up to read to them!

In my group we read "The Trail" which was one of my RICBA favs!

Mrs. Allen, teacher at CMS

Mrs. Medina, teacher at CMS

Mrs. Potter, teacher at CMS

The two chapter books selected by the students going into grades 5 and younger, The Trail and The Wizard's Dog, 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!  We also had Scar Island available to the older students; this book is from the Rhode Island Middle School Book Award list for grades 6-8.  These students got a start on qualifying for the middle school Book Battle!

This summer's featured book nominees!

In addition to our "chapter book" groups, there is also a bin of picture books for the younger kids. Miss Chloe, one of the HopRec counselors, enthusiastically jumped into presenting these and I'm grateful to her for extending the fun to them!

picture book time!

A fun game of Duck, Duck, Goose went with that week's theme of "geese"!

Guest reader Mrs. Bliven from Ashaway School brought along her daughters.  They are playing with a moose hat.  Can you guess what that week's theme was?!

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! 

Poetry Out Loud Celebration

On Monday students from all four elementary schools gathered to participate in the 5th annual Poetry Out Loud celebration (formerly "Poetry Slam").  This remarkable event, coordinated by Hope Valley principal Mr. Gencarelli, invites students to stand before an audience to read aloud an original work of poetry.  Each presentation was a treat, and it was wonderful to watch the students enjoy a moment to shine on stage!

It was a beautiful, sunny day so we gathered in the high school courtyard.  Please enjoy these happy memories of an lovely June evening!

Mermaids in the Sea

By Joandrie, Grade 2

Swimming up

Swimming down

They swim all around

Whales and dolphins are their friends

To them the fun never ends

Shiny shells and leftover things

Is what they call their treasures

Don’t get too close or they’ll steal

Your heart forever.

Skiing

By Paige, Grade 4

Sliding down the slope pushing with my poles,

Riding up the chairlift, flying over jumps.

 Learning more and more,

Falling over and over,
Skiing with my family, skiing with my friends, skiing all together,

Because friendship never ends.

         Down a black diamond, right over a jump, plop on my back, Back up again.

         Going to a race, I’m gonna win first place, passing my opponents, I just won the race.

Super duper tired, snoozing in my bed, super duper tired, I think I might be dead.

         Back up on the slopes, warm up in the green, back up on the diamonds, flying down with speed.  Again another race, again I won first place, again back in my bed, again I think I’m dead. Now my trip is over, we’re packing up the car, putting on my headphones, listening to some tunes.  No I’m back home, laying in my bed, lot of memories in my head.

Spring is Coming, Spring is Coming!

By Harper, Grade 1

Spring is coming, spring is coming!

Spring is in the air

Bears are growling

Birds are singing

Coyotes are howling

Spring is in the air!

Trees are budding

Flowers are blooming

Bees are everywhere

Lots of rain, no more snow

Spring is in the air

Spring is ending

Summer vacation is near

Swimming, playing, running, camping

It’s my favorite time of year!

My Magnificent Mother

By Alisa, Grade 3

Sweet,

nice,

confident mother

I love her.

With all my heart.

She’s the best.

I will never let her go.

Help me?

I’ll help you.

Sweet, sweet mother,

I love you.

Brushes

By Jordan, Grade 4

There's all different brushes

Any brush is useful

There's dog brushes and cat brushes

There are toothbrushes and hair brushes

All hygienic in a way

And there’s even working brushes

Like paintbrushes

Different sizes and shapes

You choose which one you'd like to use

I'm so proud of all the students who not only wrote their own poetry but also confidently stood up on stage to share their writing with us.  Awesome job, everyone!!

Rooster Games 2018

On Thursday our fourth graders participated in the 10th 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 all of the 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 18 of the RICBA nominees that I bought for Ashaway School.  I started off the games by awarding Champion Reader medals to these students!

Three 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, they answer multiple choice and short answer questions in the Question Round, and they identify which book is being represented in the Object Round.

In the pictures above you can see the students pointing to a piece of paper.  I give each team two "pointing pages" (letters for Multiple Choice and a list of the book titles for Illustrations and Objects) so they can point to their answers rather than saying them out loud.  The kids are always so excited when they know an answer that they usually blurt it out -- loudly enough that neighboring teams can hear!  It takes some practice, though; their enthusiasm usually wins out at first!  

For the "table top" round, the teams are matching the titles of each book to the very first line in the story.  

A really popular round is Charades.  Students take turns acting out a word for the rest of the team to guess.  If the team guesses the word they earn a point, and if they can then identify which book the word represents they earn a bonus point!  As always, I was really impressed by the creativity on display!

This year my "Mystery Round" became expanded!  In the past I've come up with a game inspired by a book on that year's RICBA nominee list.  We've done the Homophone Hustle for Rain

Our luckiest student!

Reign, an assortment of balloon relays inspired by A Whole New Ballgame, and a "minute to win it" game based on Neighborhood Sharks.  This year I was drawn to Fortune Falls, which was not only the first book I read on the list but also one of my favorites.  The setting of this story is a town where superstitions are all REAL: step on a crack and your mother is going to the hospital with a broken back!  The idea of being "lucky" or "unlucky" is of extreme importance, and that inspired this year's game, Luckiest Student of the Day!  Well, really it was a series of games.  Students tried out their luck on a variety of games of chance in order to earn stamps on their papers.  The student with the most stamps at the end of the Rooster Games is the winner!  (As it turned out we had a four-way tie, so I drew one of the four papers out of a bag to identify who was truly the luckiest!)  

Students pulled a straw out of a cup; if the tip was colored red they earned a stamp!  (If it was green they earned TWO!)

Students pulled a card out of a deck.  If it was a Queen they earned a stamp.  If it was a Queen of Hearts they earned TWO!

Students pulled a marble out of a bag; if it was red they earned a stamp!  If it was green they earned TWO!

Students rolled two dice; if they rolled a 6 they got a stamp.  If they rolled doubles of any number they earned TWO!

Students pulled a plastic egg out of a bag and opened it; if it contained a cotton ball they earned a stamp!

This year our Rooster Games winner was Team Yellow!  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! 

Guest Post: Miss MacLaughlin, Student Teacher

Hello! This is Mrs. Mann’s student teacher, Miss MacLaughlin. I have been in the library since the end of February and I will be concluding my student teaching this week. I wanted to share some of the things we’ve been working on in library for the past couple of months.

Second and fourth grade have been working on coding using code.org. We collaborated with the second grade teachers on this unit; we did two “unplugged” activities to help students build coding skills without using a computer. The first lesson was a perseverance experiment--build a structure at least 6 inches high that can hold the weight of a notebook for ten seconds. The catch was that they could only use toothpicks, craft sticks, and gumdrops!

Our second unplugged lesson was building paper airplanes using a set of picture instructions. This was to introduce the concept of algorithms, which is following a set of steps in a certain order to complete a process. We got many successful paper airplanes, collaborated with classmates in groups, and had a lot of fun!

 Fourth grade explored algorithms by playing a dice game and recreating the step-by-step instructions in their own words. This was an introduction to looping, which is a difficult concept, but our coding curriculum emphasizes persistence and I was very impressed by their efforts.

First grade has been working on algorithms as well. We read Audrey Wood’s Sweet Dream Pie, then wrote and shared our own step-by-step recipes to reinforce the concept of steps needing to be in the right sequence in order to achieve a goal.

Kindergarten has been working on ways to show friendship and be a good classmate. We read The Adventures of Beekle, the Unimaginary Friend by Dan Santat and wrote about all the kind and fun activities we can do with our own (real or imaginary) friends!

Third grade has been learning about call numbers, Dewey Decimal, and using our Destiny Quest catalog. Soon they’ll be able to search the catalog independently to satisfy their own information needs.

I have had such a wonderful time working with Mrs. Mann and the students of Ashaway Elementary. I’m going to miss you all!

Reading Week 2018: Readers Are Leaders!

Reading Week 2018:

"Readers Are Leaders!"

We enjoyed another amazing week celebrating readers and reading!  Events were planned for every day, and I'm so happy to share some of these incredible memories!!





Kick-Off: Illusionist David Garrity
Students and staff enjoyed a hilarious and eye-popping magic show presented by the vary talented David Garrity.  His pro-reading message was the perfect kick-off to a week of fun and surprises!  (Huge thanks to our PTO for sponsoring this terrific event!)

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Tuesday: Guest Reader Day
Community leaders and special guests visited classrooms and shared a favorite story with our students!

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Wednesday: Pop and Swap
Our PTO sponsored another successful Pop and Swap after school.  Students and their families were invited to pop in to select from an enormous number of donated books and, while there, enjoy a popsicle, a lollipop and some popcorn!  Games and activities were also available, and everything at the event was absolutely FREE!

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Thursday: Reading Buddies
Some wonderful book sharing took place as older students read aloud with younger students!

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Friday: Family Read-In
Families were invited to come in to the school to enjoy some reading time together!

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ALL WEEK: Spuds in Duds
My student teacher, Miss MacLaughlin, got this idea from another librarian and we agreed to bring this fun new activity to Ashaway School!  Students were invited to dress up a potato (yes, a real potato!) so that it resembled a book character of their choice.  The response was incredible, and everyone enjoyed the display throughout the week in the library.  We knew they wouldn't last forever, so I took lots of pictures to preserve the students' creativity and hard work!  Awesome job, kids!!!

Click to enlarge!

Thanks again to everyone who contributed to making this year's Reading Week an enormous success, ! 

It was truly a spectacular celebration!

Did I Ever Tell You How Lucky I Am?

Happy Birthday, Dr. Seuss!

For this year's celebration of Read Across America (planned for March 2nd, Dr. Seuss's birthday), reading specialist Mrs. Vocatura and I decided to highlight the Dr. Seuss book Did I Ever Tell You How Lucky You Are?  Not only did we love its message, but it tied in with the upcoming St. Patrick's Day!  




Every class in the school enjoyed a read-aloud of the story, and students and staff were invited to wear green.  It was a fun switch from the usual red-and-white, and lots of people joined in on the fun!

Just a few of our enthusiastic green-clad participants!

In addition, every student was given a blank shamrock to decorate and to write down something that  shows that they are lucky.  We loved reading all of their contributions!

In hindsight, I wish we had given a shamrock to each staff member to fill out (although we definitely would have needed to take over another bulletin board)!  If I had created one, I'd have written I'm lucky because I have the most wonderful job, work beside an extraordinary team of dedicated people, and enjoy the most remarkable students!  

Thanks for another wonderful celebration, Ashaway School!