Golden Archer Awards 2015 - The Dark by Lemony Snicket

Reading the Golden Archer Awards books to my students is so much fun! 

This week we read The Dark by Lemony Snicket. As a first soiree into picture books, he did a fabulous job. I mean, how could you go wrong with Jon Klassen as your illustrator?! 

After reading the book, students were asked to draw something they were afraid of. We then added the dark to it by putting a black piece of construction paper over the drawing. Then we got brave like Laszlo and took out our flashlights, i.e. cut a triangle shaped hold into our dark. Things are never as scary when you can see them! 

This student was afraid of Bigfoot. I love the perspective he drew his picture from! 

Add your light and it's not nearly as scary as it was in the dark!

 I had to include this amazing shark picture for you to see as well! 

The kids really liked sharing their fears and making them not so scary! 

Golden Archer Awards 2015 - Oh No! by Candace Fleming

Hello! It is time for the 2015 Golden Archer Awards! 

Kindergarten through second grade students are taking part in this statewide program that awards one exemplary picture book this award. The award is specific to Wisconsin and the book that wins it is selected by students around the state. We will read the five nominated titles during the coming weeks. Each student will cast a vote for their favorite book and those votes will be sent on to the committee. The Golden Archer Award is sponsored by the Wisconsin Educational Media and Technology Association. The Award winner will be announced at the annual WEMTA conference in late March. 

The primary level nominees are: 

This first week, I read Oh, No! by Candace Fleming and Eric Rohmann to my classes. (Side note: Did you know they are married? My kids loved hearing that. :) ) 

We read the story first. I had students participate by saying the animal sounds and the "Oh, no!"s. Then we re-enacted the story using animal masks. The kids had a ton of fun with this! They can't wait until next week for story number 2! 

Books worth melting for

My versions of an Olaf bulletin board I saw on Pinterest...

You'll find him at Lincoln...

And him at Parkview!

Sunday Scoop time!

It's been awhile since I've done a Sunday Scoop with Teaching Trio so here we go! 

Have to do...
It's Golden Archer Award time in Wisconsin! I begin my six week unit on it this Friday with the first group so I have to decide which of the five nominated titles I am going to read first and then what activity I am going to do. This is probably my most favorite time of the year in the library! 
WEMTA is our state library and technology association and registration just opened for the annual Spring conference. The sooner you register the cheaper it is! You should check it out - it is definitely worth attending!! 

Hope to do...
I recently created a research organizer for second grade space research and I hope to get it posted to TPT ASAP! 
Also, the littlest is changing sizes yet again so I need to get the too small out and the next size in! 

Happy to do...
I'm trying to read a bunch of the historical fiction that is on our 4th grade list as the unit is fast approaching. Our Only May Amelia by Jennifer L. Holm is my current read and I am almost done. It's pretty good but I feel that the fourth graders will miss a bunch of things in the text. However, because they are more the character's age, I also believe that they will really enjoy it and hopefully it gets them a bit emotional as it is a very emotionally charged book! 

I hope you have a great week! 

Book Club Beauties - The One and Only

Hello! The Book Club Beauties recently completed our second book club book, The One and Only by Emily Griffin. Here are my thoughts:

A few notes...
I loved Neil because he is the quintessential husband - tries to leave the room, responds only when directly spoken to, etc. His character really made me smile to see such a "normal" secondary character.

I really enjoyed this book up until about 3/4 of the way through. Then the unsettling feeling of a young girl falling in love with someone who is basically her father took over. I couldn't make that right in my mind. Perhaps if that is what Griffin was going for, then this book is a success for her. For me, though, it is not.

I love being a part of Book Club Beauties with Cardigans and Caffeine! Head over to her blog if you are interested in joining us!