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! 

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! 

Back to School in the Library

Here we are - Friday! These first two weeks back in school have been all about introducing the library and the computer lab. 

My absolute favorite classes of this week are the Kindergartens! The kids are so excited to come to the library and get to check out a book! (In my schools, Kindergarten checks out 1 book, 1st-3rd grade gets 2 books, and 4th graders may check out 3 items.) "Do you have princess books? LEGO books? shark books? dinosaur books?"... on and on and on! Their enthusiasm is amazing. 

Taking them into the computer lab is fun as well. The biggest challenge for our Kindergarten students is the logging in process. The first step is to press Ctrl+Alt+Delete all at the same time. I teach them to hold up a one with their right hand and a two with their left. Press and hold the two hand down first and then press the one hand on Delete just once. Of all the things I have tried, this seems to be the easiest for them to understand. We use a generic username for elementary students so we don't have the trouble of usernames and passwords thankfully. 

For Kindergarten, we use a freeware program called Sebran to get them started on practicing mousing skills. They love it and you don't have the added steps of getting them out onto the Internet before they can actually do anything. 

I hope you had a fabulous week at school! 

Library Lover's Month

February in Wisconsin is Library Lover's Month!

Many of you have already filled out hearts in the library telling why you love the library so much! That is wonderful! All drawings for the posters will happen in the last week of February. Maybe you will be one of the lucky winners!!!

I bet you can imagine that I, Mrs. Green, LOVE the library! Here are some of my reasons why:

- the books of course!
- the technology (computers, projectors, cameras, etc.)
- it's a great place to let your imagination run free
- there are different people coming in and out all day long
- I love to help the kids and teachers who come to the library
- there are all sorts of different things to do in here!
- Mrs. Kloehn, Mrs. Coenen, Mrs. Cloutier, and Mrs. Dailey
- it is quiet sometimes, and loud other times
- the book fairs!
- the books! (Did I mention that already?)

I like to see all of your smiling faces every time you visit the library. Come in and say hi anytime!