Queen Anne and McDonald will join together for one super Scholastic Book Fair all next week. The fair will take place in the library, Mon-Fri 9:30-12:30. Parents are invited to come on Monday for a special sneak preview - come browse the books and enjoy morning treats and coffee. This will be a great time to see the books that your child(s) will be checking out as well. Coming home today or tomorrow is a book fair newspaper that highlights many of the books offered. The link below take you to our Book Fair Page. The goal is to sell 250 books!
http://bookfairs.scholastic.com/bookfairs/cptoolkit/publish/qae
While many parents love the ease of looking at the On-Line Scholastic Book catalog and paying with credit card, some of you REALLY miss browsing the colorful, thin, multipage Scholastic catalog - like in the good old days! Here's a couple of solutions: A small selection of hard copied catalogs will be delivered each month. Please let me know if you'd like a copy and have your child stop by and pick up in the library. The catalogs can be browsed on line, in flyer form. Click View Cataglog from the left side navaigation bar.
Ms. Leland's amazing students created, wrote and produced these six famous short stories. Students from all grades were invited to enjoy this theater masterpiece and I was privileged to record and edit! This is my first iMovie experiement; there's no better way to learn when it's actually tied to an authentic end product. Thank you in advance to movie makers reading this blog for sharing suggestions (or even a 30 minute session!) on how I can improve my skills as a movie maker. Students will definitely be learning iMovie to create, share creative talents and new learning. This collections is truly "bringing literature alive"! Enjoy - Please leave a specific comment below that will shared and enjoyed. Your comments, questions, suggestions and compliments are the power of any blog or audience.
Today celebrates two special events, the birth of Theodor Seuss Geisel and Read Across America. Dr. Seuss, without a doubt, is the major reason for Read Across America. As a father of a three year old, who always dreamed of reading to his child, I now have proof that Dr. Seuss creates interest, totally FUN to read and begins to foster a love of reading/listening. There is nothing like reading aloud stories written in rhyme with nonsense words that are catalyst for conversation and wonder.
Read Across America, an nation wide event created by NEA, that showcases "reading". Teachers on this day do activities around reading, bring in guest speakers to read aloud and give students more time to read! I enjoy this day, but sometimes I question whether or not some students may believe this is the ONLY day they have to read. At QAE, our students are reading everyday and more!
This week the library has focused on the author, Mem Fox. It's not often I get to say "I know this author", but I do! I met Mem a decade ago. I sat behind her at a conference and heard her say to a friend that her neck was stiff - Yes, I reached over and gave her a quick neck massage. While this is not something I normally would do, I just knew I may never have this chance to touch my favorite author with a reason!
Below are Mem Fox's Ten Commandments for Reading Aloud (More research is not needed on why reading a loud is absolutely critical for our kids, WE KNOW IT). The 10 Commandments are guidelines for all of us to focus and insure our commitment to kids.
Mem Fox’s Ten Read Aloud Commandments
1. Spend at least ten wildly happy minutes every single dayreading aloud.
2. Read at least three stories a day: it may be the same story three times. Children need to hear a thousand stories before they can begin to learn to read.
3. Read aloud with animation. Listen to your own voice and don’t be dull, or flat, or boring. Hang loose and be loud, have fun and laugh a lot.
4. Read with joy and enjoyment: real enjoyment for yourself and great joy for the listeners.
5. Read the stories that the kids love, over and over and over again, and always read in the same ‘tune’ for each book: i.e. with the same intonations on each page, each time.
6. Let children hear lots of language by talking to them constantly about the pictures, or anything else connected to the book; or sing any old song that you can remember; or say nursery rhymes in a bouncy way; or be noisy together doing clapping games.
7. Look for rhyme, rhythm or repetition in books for young children, and make sure the books are really short.
8. Play games with the things that you and the child can see on the page, such as letting kids finish rhymes, and finding the letters that start the child’s name and yours, remembering that it’s never work, it’s always a fabulous game.
9. Never ever teach reading, or get tense around books.
10. Please read aloud every day, mums and dads, because you just love being with your child, not because it’s the right thing to do.
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