Armadillo Readers' Choice Award

 Mrs. Fournier was so excited to kick off the Armadillo Readers' Choice Award at Forest North last week.  The Armadillo Readers' Choice Award is chosen by K-2 students in Round Rock ISD annually since 2005.  Ten to twelve outstanding picture books are nominated by RRISD Librarians, and a committee of Librarians (including yours truly!) designs activities to enrich the reading experience for students. Learn more about this year's nominees at the Armadillo Readers' Choice website!

I started last week with a fun one- I read Mustache Baby by Bridget Heos to all 3 of our Kindergarten classes.  We had a blast!  It's a really funny book with a great ending.  After we read it, we each looked at 4 mustaches, and voted for our favorite ones.  After we voted, we made a graph of the votes, and compared which mustache had the most votes, and which had the least, and everything in the middle.  We talked about what else we noticed with the graph, as well.  Many students noticed that the graph looked a lot like the lunch choice chart they complete daily in their classroom.  

Second graders also had fun with Mustache Baby. They were really able to understand the inferences they were making throughout the book, and became more aware of the process of activating their background knowledge and making predictions based on it. Second graders have already gone through the Armadillo process twice before- Hailey in Ms. Johnson's class was so excited to get started, she wore her special mustache dress for the occasion. I had to document the cuteness- how precious is she?

The committee worked really hard this year to include lots of fun texts for the K-2 students to get excited about, with great connections to curriculum students are already covering in their classrooms.  It's a win win.  I can't wait to share the rest of the list with Forest North, and to kick off the program with 1st and 2nd grades!

In the spring, when we finish reading all 10 books, we come into the library to vote for our favorite, and have a dance party to celebrate!  It's one of my favorite celebrations of the year. I will announce the Top 3 Forest North winners on our morning news show (KEGL Channel 16 News - the top rated News Show at Forest North!) and then will later announce the RRISD Top 3, when those are announced.  We present a special plaque to the author of the winning book. A special thanks to my co-Librarians for helping me to plan these awesome lessons for our students, and for recommending such a great list of books this year. Can't wait to see who wins this year!