Celebrate: Five Star Things About the Week

Time to celebrate the week.  More celebrations at Ruth Ayres Writes.

ONE

Monday! Our second day with Susan Blackaby, author.  She spent the day teaching students how to write a five-line poem.

      

This was a group poem from Kindergarten.  And she will be back next Thursday for a final writing day.

TWO

A sign of spring.  I spied these on my way into school this week.

THREE

The dad who volunteered to help the school play with the sound system.  The biggest problem with the school play is the sound system.  No one can ever hear us very well as we have limited mics for all the speakers.

FOUR

Working with kinders to write their own five-line poem.  I modeled the poem and then they wrote their own. It’s so exciting to see the ranges of writers; those who struggle with letters to those who get it!

  

FIVE

Our first five-day week since the beginning of January.  Plus my asthma has subsided and I finally worked out this morning.

Five.Five

And I started the SOLSC 2014 challenge to write every day in March at Deowriter.

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Celebrate: Five Star Things About the Week

First morning of winter break. Grand girl is still asleep as is my husband and the two dogs. Before I make the sugar cookie dough, time to celebrate the week.

1. Read Week. Third through fifth grade students choose tables and peruse the book boxes, find a couple of books, and read for library time. It’s a time to sample something they might not try. They have the option of taking it with them. One boy was disgruntled with the choices so I handed him Greg Pincus’ The 14 Fibs of Greg K. He loved it and took it with him.

2. Fifth grade Colonial Trades Project. Each fifth grade researches a Colonial trade. They write about the trade and create a model. The library becomes a museum of sorts to display them for other classes.

3. Meeting with a group of Russian and Ukrainian parents plus the ELL teacher. They are a group called Natural Leaders which is an outreach to engage parent involvement. They have chosen the library as a focus as many of the Russian language books are too difficult. They wrote a grant to the PTA for books and it was approved!

4. Speaking of grant approvals…I received a grant to beef up my series collection and a grant to bring author, Susan Blackaby to Silver Star for three days in February.

5. Christmas break is here. My tree is finally up. Yesterday, a first grader brought me a gift to “Mrs. Library.” I didn’t want open the package because I loved the label. Santa dropped off a gift card so I am going to purchase a couple books for the library.

Head over to Ruth Ayres for more celebrations.

Celebrate: Five Star Things About the Week

1. The week did not start well. My friend and former colleague died of brain cancer. But the response from the online community of writers with poems made the list especially this ONE.

2. Preschool Read and Play continues to grow and we have consistency with families who attend. We now have bells and shakers for music. This week the local public librarian presented the program.

3. My friend, Barbara, came to spend the day with me. We student taught together. I had no license so she was my driver to school. She stepped in to read when I had to help a student.

4. Our School Showcase on Tuesday evening. We gave away over 500 pieces of pizza! Some many families came to hear the band, orchestra, choir, and to see what was happening in the classrooms.
5. The annual present exchange at my friend, Carol’s home. Carol is a retired teacher librarian. We have known each other for over 28 years. She gathers the people from all parts of her life for an evening. There’s food, drinks, and holiday adornments which we all must wear. This year we shared stories from Christmas past. My favorite was the woman who was raised in Hong Kong and what she would do in Christmas Day with her Catholic dad. How they would go to service, then out to the villages to see friends, and finally to a bakery. Her mother, a Buddhist, stayed home.

My friend, Carol.

My adornments.

More celebrations can be found at Ruth Ayres. What are you celebrating?

Five Star Things About the Week

Five Star Things About the Week

1. Growing professionally. This week I began meeting with PreK children and their families for story time. This has been a program in our building for the last ten years. The funding was cut last spring. I share the duties with the Family and Community Resource Room Facilitator. We had four families attend on Wednesday for a story and crafts/play time.

2. Shelving project. Our EVERBODY section is in need of an update. Since the school opened in 1972, the Everybody books have had a spine label of ‘E’ for Everybody and the first letter of the author’s last name. This is a shelving nightmare. I have a fabulous volunteer/former librarian colleague who comes in about once a week. So this is one of her projects.

3. Chance and Lisa. Every Tuesday, Chance and Lisa come to the school. Students come down for an opportunity to read to them. Everyone loves Chance, he’s so mellow and Lisa is so encouraging with the readers.

4. Reading during check out. Not everyone returns their library book on library day. So I have bins of books for students to pick out a book and read while others are selecting their new books. When they finish, they can read as well. Students can choose to read with someone or read to self.

5. This explanation from a first grader as to what ‘plan’ and ‘hatch’ mean: “You can hatch a plan in your brain (child is pointing to brain) like a bird hatches from an egg.”

Have a great week.
Happy reading.

MsMac

Five Star Things About The Week

Thank you Colby of Sharpread for writing a reflection post each week. I love this idea. In fact, I share 7 kicks with the kickers at 7 Impossible Things Before Breakfast each Sunday. In a time where education is intense, full of demands, and at time exhausting, reflecting on the good is important.

We are Silver Star so here are five star things about the week beginning October 7, 2013.

1.A very successful first Family Library Night. Once a month the library is open to families at night. We offer pizza and water at a low cost and have an activity. This Tuesday we had over 25 families attend.

2. Kids in the library during recess. I love have students in the ‘family room of the school’ as I refer to the library.. These students were so engaged in some quiet games I couldn’t resist this pic.

3.Helping another fifth grader through her realization that she’s never finished a book and she’s reading basically at third grade. She’s smart, plays hockey, and I was able to provide her with some book choices at her level. She will get there! I know it.

4.Hosting Mortimer yesterday here at Check It Out and sharing a poem by Kelly Fineman.

5.Spending the day with other teacher librarian colleagues. Yesterday was teacher in-service day. What a joy to gather with job alike colleagues. Had a great conversations about vocabulary, give students time to read, and the changing nature of our jobs.

Happy Reading
MsMac