Showing posts with label Golden Archer. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Golden Archer. Show all posts

Tuesday, March 24, 2015

Golden Archer 2015 winners!



And the 2015 Golden Archer Award winners are...

Primary:
Drew Daywalt   @DrewDaywalt

Intermediate:
R.J. Palacio   @RJPalacio


Middle/Junior High: 
John Green   @JohnGreen
Find out more about the Golden Archer Awards by visiting WEMTA's website

Friday, February 20, 2015

Golden Archer Award 2015 - The Day the Crayons Quit by Drew Daywalt

What a fabulous last book for the Golden Archer Awards! 

Our last title and activity was for Drew Daywalt's The Day the Crayons Quit

A major thing that helped me with the success of reading this book, as I was finding it was going over the heads of my first few classes, was to discuss what it means to quit before reading the book. Then as we read, I paused every few crayons and asked why did that crayon want to quit? As students summarized why that color wanted to quit, students were really connecting to the crayons and wanting Duncan to fix the problems. I highly suggest this method for reading this book! 

When we finished reading, students were asked to write a letter back to one crayon "explaining" why they did not want that crayon to quit. I used this freebie from Peace, Love, & Learning.

This student first drew this...

Then he had extra time left so I asked him to add more detail. Look how awesome his picture looks now! 

And yes, we did have the classic mis-spelling happen. I had to take this pic! 

We vote next week! I have a feeling I know which book my kids will like best but I can't wait to see for sure! 

Thursday, February 12, 2015

Golden Archer Awards 2015 - That is Not a Good Idea by Mo Willems

Week four of the Golden Archer Awards! This week was SO much fun! Although, perhaps the shortest book I have ever used as a read aloud, the look on students' faces at the end of the book was priceless! 
We read Mo Willem's That is Not a Good Idea

After reading the book, we talked about all of the surprise elements and about the chicks who continue to scream, "That is not a good idea!" Students then got to do their own activity of making their own unique chick! 



The activity for That is Not a Good Idea was really a great way to let kids' creativity flow!

Thursday, February 5, 2015

Golden Archer Awards 2015 - Pete the Cat and his Magic Sunglasses by James Dean

It's week three of the Golden Archer Awards! 

We read the much anticipated book Pete the Cat and his Magic Sunglasses by Kimberly and James Dean this week. Students are very familiar with Pete the Cat so they couldn't wait to hear this story. My perception was that they were not as impressed as they thought they would be but they did still like the story. 

After reading this one, we made our own magic sunglasses! I used this fabulous template from Picklebums.

Check out these cool cats! 


On to book four! 

Friday, January 30, 2015

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! 

Wednesday, January 21, 2015

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! 



Wednesday, February 13, 2013

WI Golden Archer Awards - Week Five - Happy Pig Day!

I saved the book Happy Pig Day! by Mo Willems for the last book in our Golden Archer program.  I did this because I knew the kids were excited to hear it and I wanted to keep that excitement going until the very end.  Dangling the carrot perhaps?


This is another Elephant and Piggie book in which Gerald, the elephant, feels as though he has done something wrong.  He receives a big surprise though and all is well in the end.  This book is written through dialogue and the students really enjoyed it. 

For our activity, I took two pages from the Happy Pig Day! Event Kit published by Pigeon Presents for Children.  Students were able to help Gerald get dressed for the big event or create a Pig mask of their own to wear.  The pig mask was more popular by far but Gerald had a few fans as well. 



Next week is voting!  I can't wait to find out how my kids vote, as this year all of the books are very good in my eyes!  Are you participating?  Please share in the comments what you are doing that works well for you! 

Tuesday, February 5, 2013

WI Golden Archer Awards - Week Four - A Ball for Daisy

Week four of the WI Golden Archer Awards program brings my groups to A Ball for Daisy by Chris Raschka.  This book was the 2012 Caldecott Medal winner.  I chose to do this book next so that we could practice our new skill of reading wordless books.  Students remembered right away to not cheat by looking ahead at the pictures to come on the page.  This is especially important for the climax of this story. 


As a follow up activity for A Ball for Daisy, I chose to have students divide their paper into four parts and draw a wordless story of their own.  In most classes, the telling of the story took 20 minutes so they weren't left with a lot of time to draw but many of them had good beginnings.  Here are some of my hard workers:



This story features a cat named Rosie.  In the second frame, her owner is taking her for a walk.  I am having a bad memory right now but this student had an entire story already going with just these two frames.  She was very excited to take her paper with her so she could finish the story at her next opportunity.  Perhaps she will bring it back to share next week? 


This story is of a man who goes on the hunt for a shark.  It takes him a long time but eventually he finds one. Again, the amount of detail the student was telling me while explaining the photo was amazing.  Students are amazing! 



I found that my second grade classes were the best at telling this story because they were really able to put themselves in the place of Daisy and think about her feelings throughout the story.  All of the levels understood the story but second grade showed the most empathy for Daisy. 

Stay tuned - two more books to go! 

Monday, February 4, 2013

WI Golden Archer Awards - Week Three - Polo and the Dragon

It is week three of our Golden Archer Awards program and we are reading Polo and the Dragon by Regis Faller.  This is a wordless book in which a little dog has some trouble with his boat and enters a jungle only to meet a fearsome dragon!  Nah, the dragon turns out the be nice and helps the dog with his boat trouble.  


Many of my classes had not read a wordless book before so to introduce the process, I showed one page from another nominee and 2012 Caldecott winner, A Ball for Daisy by Chris Raschka.  Students learned how to navigate a wordless page by starting to read from the upper left corner, just like if there were text there.  We examined an entire two page set before moving on to read Polo and the Dragon.

When reading the story, students were awesome at coming up with text to accompany the pictures.  In almost every class it took the entire 30 minute period to tell the story.  Students were engaged with bright eyes and sharp minds.  They especially loved when I screamed because there was a dragon behind Polo in the book!  (Again, maybe you had to be there...)

This book won over several students who I thought it wouldn't.  Yes, it's that good.  I really am starting to wonder who is going to get the most votes here at my schools for the Golden Archer Award.  Only two more books to go and then we will find out! 

Monday, January 28, 2013

WI Golden Archer Awards - Week Two - I Want My Hat Back

We are in the second week of our Golden Archer program which means it's time for our second read aloud! This week I chose to go with I Want My Hat Back by Jon Klassen.  Jon Klassen just won the 2013 Caldecott Medal for his follow-up book to this, This is Not My Hat.  Congratulations! 

This book is so sweet!  (But caution, it involves the eating of a very cute animal!) 



As a follow up to reading the book, students created miniature hats just like Bear's.  I found the hat template here on Scribd.  

A few action shots of students being creative:



They love their mini hats! 

This book was loved by many.  The simple illustrations made it easy to see what was happening in the story.  The dialogue-only text made it fun to read to students and they enjoyed hearing all of the different voices I could project.  They especially loved my squirrel voice! (Had to be there...) 

Stay tuned for week three of our Golden Archer reads! 

The Golden Archer Awards are sponsored by WEMTA, the WI state library association.  The award is completely student chosen, from nomination to final award.  The 2013 nominees are: 
1.   A Ball for Daisy by Raschka, Christopher (2011)
2.   Blackout by Rocco, John (2011)
3.   Happy Pig Day by Willems, Mo (2011)
4.   I Want My Hat Back by Klassen, Jon (2011)
5.   Polo and the Dragon by Faller, Regis (2009)

Tuesday, January 22, 2013

WI Golden Archer Awards - Week One - Blackout

The time of year has arrived for the WI Golden Archer Awards program to begin in my libraries!  This is a student-chosen award given out to one book in each of three levels: primary, intermediate, and middle/junior high school.  The award is run by and sponsored by the state library association, WEMTA. In my schools, I do this with all of the kindergarten and first grade classrooms.  I also have one school in which the second grade is also participating. 

The five nominated titles for 2013 in the primary category are: 
1.   A Ball for Daisy by Raschka, Christopher (2011)

2.   Blackout by Rocco, John (2011)
3.   Happy Pig Day by Willems, Mo (2011)
4.   I Want My Hat Back by Klassen, Jon (2011)
5.   Polo and the Dragon by Faller, Regis (2009)


This week was our first week of the program and we started by reading Blackout by John Rocco.  This book is a Caldecott honor book.  I wonder if it will be a Golden Archer Award winner as well? 

Blackout_cover

As an activity for this book, I choose to adapt an idea from It's All Good Books.  The students were given a piece of night (black paper).  They were to light up the night by choosing pre-cut die cut shapes and writing one sentence on each.  They completed these three sentences: 

The dark is _____. 
I feel ______. 
I wish ________. 

Here are a few student workers: 


I wasn't sure how kids would feel about this book but it turns out they absolutely loved it!  This one might be hard to beat! 

Stay tuned for the next four weeks!