Bluebonnet VIP Breakfast

Yesterday was the highly anticipated Bluebonnet VIP Breakfast!  3rd graders who read 10+ Bluebonnet nominees, and 4th & 5th graders who read 15+ books were all invited to a special breakfast in the library.  For historical purposes, we usually have about 15 kids attend this event.  As you can see below, this year, we blew that out of the water when 45 kids qualified for the VIP Breakfast!

Students were served by Mrs. Vetter. Mr. Stewart, Ms. Velasquez & myself - we wore aprons and put pencils behind our ears to really play up the server role.  They dined on breakfast tacos (potato or bacon!), bananas, muffins, orange juice and milk.  Congratulations to these amazing readers, and we look forward to seeing 13 of them compete next week in the Battle of the Bluebonnets!

Some of the most motivated, focused readers at Forest North!

Your lovely servers- Ms. Velasquez already left at this point to go teach her wonderful 4th graders!

Get ready to watch these kids show off their knowledge in the Battle of the Bluebonnets on 2/18 - here they are pictured with their favorite 15-16 Texas Bluebonnet Award nominee!

142 Bluebonnet Books Already Read!

I am astounded daily by our amazing students and the incredible teachers that support them.  We only put the Bluebonnet quizzes up live on the network last Thursday, and already our students have passed 142 quizzes!  Our first reader to qualify for the voting party on 1/29 is Gabriel in 3rd grade.  Great work, Gabriel!  

Bluebonnet Award Program Starts This Week!

Nearby classrooms heard multiple cheers today as 3rd-5th grade classes celebrated with me in the library - "It's Bluebonnet Day, it's Bluebonnet Day!"  I was singing that even as I brushed my teeth this morning.

I'm so excited to kick off another awesome school year of the Texas Bluebonnet Award here at Forest North!  We go big here at Forest North when it comes to TBA - we always have almost 100% participation.  Our readers astound me every year!  Get more information about this awesome award below, in our parent tip sheet (click for full-size view), or on the TBA website.  Get more information about how we do TBA at Forest North by clicking on the embedded Prezis below for the appropriate grade level.

VIP Bluebonnet Breakfast

We had 30 students attend the VIP Bluebonnet Breakfast this morning before school.  This was for 3rd graders who read 10 or more Bluebonnet nominees, and 4th & 5th graders who read 15 or more Bluebonnet nominees.  We made smoothies, enjoyed homemade muffins (Thanks Mrs. Vetter!), a granola bar & string cheese. It was delicious- special thanks to Mr. & Mrs. Conboy, and two Ms. Sandlers (Ryan's mom & grandmother!) for helping out.  Those fresh from the blender smoothies were delicious!

Congratulations. readers! Hope you had as much fun as I did at Cafe Bluebonnet.  Those of you who are in 3rd or 4th grade, I hope we have many more VIP Bluebonnet Breakfasts together! I will also miss those who had their third and final breakfast with me this year- can't believe how fast time flies.

Texas Bluebonnet Award

The Forest North Library is excited to announce that the 2012-2013 Bluebonnet program has officially started! All 3rd-5th classes had orientations to the program last week, and every single book has already been checked out. Many quizzes have already been passed to boot! Students are motivated to earn their Bluebonnet dog tags, qualify to attend the voting Wii party, VIP Bluebonnet Breakfast, or the coveted position of Battle of the Bluebonnets competitor! Students only need to read 5 books to qualify to vote for their favorite. To come to the Wii party, 3rd graders read 5, 4th graders read 8, and 5th graders read 10. Some highly dedicated students who read all 20 get to wear crowns to the Bluebonnet voting party- check out the photo to see last year's champions! Classroom teachers are allowed to read one of the books allowed to their classes. Parents, mentors, family friends, etc., are allowed to read an unlimited amount of books aloud to their student. Students are NOT required to read the books independently, so feel free to help your student achieve their reading goals.  The library and FNE community work really hard to raise extra funds for additional titles of these books, but because of extremely high circulation rates, students may feel free to check out  Bluebonnet books from the public library, borrow one from a friend, or buy one at their local bookstore. Information about the nominated titles this year and recommended resources for each title are available on the TBA Website.

See you at the Wii party, Eagles, and keep reading!

Forest North Bluebonnet party- Guest Blogger, Mrs. Lajaunie

The Forest North Library was bursting at the seams at the Bluebonnet Wii party last month. 118 students read enough Bluebonnet books to be eligible to vote for the 2011-2012 Bluebonnet Book Award winner. Students who attended the party enjoyed snacks, played the Wii, and were able to choose a free book and poster! Fun times were had by all. Ms. Moore and Mrs. Rataj won top honors for having their WHOLE class eligible to vote and attend the party. That is a lot of hard work and encouragement! Honorable mentions go to Mrs. McCollum, Mr. Helmlinger and Mrs. Albin for having 15 or more of their students attend the party. They, along with Ms. Moore and Mrs. Rataj earned a free lunch from Mrs. Fournier for their accomplishment. The top voted book at Forest North was Out Of My Mind, followed by Hallelujah Flight. Congratulations to The Strange Case of the Origami Yoda for being voted the winner of the 2011-2012 Bluebonnet Book Award.

Some students went beyond the required reading in order to reach other goals. For example, students who read 15 or more books are invited to the Bluebonnet VIP Breakfast and will recieve a $5 gift card to the Forest North Spring book fair. Students who read all 20 Bluebonnet books are invited to the VIP Breakfast, will recieve a $10 gift card to the book fair AND they get to participate in the campus-wide Battle of the Bluebonnets. The top five students from the Forest North battle on February 23rd will get to represent Forest North in the district battle next month! Fingers crossed that we bring home the RRISD Traveling Trophy.

Thanks to all of the 3rd-5th grade teachers and students for making this year's Bluebonnet season a HUGE success. Next year's list of Bluebonnet books is now available online, and Mrs. Fournier plans on offering 2 sessions of Camp Bluebonnet again this summer for students interested in a head start. Get reading, Eagles!