Texas Bluebonnet Award 2017 Voting Party

It is a unique privilege in my life to observe our students as they discover their love of reading. Our amazing students read 1,716 Texas Bluebonnet Award nominated books - that's an average of 11 books per student! 

Thank you so much to everyone who helped support our students in this endeavor, from spending your lunch reading a book to student/s, braving the chocolate fountain and/or the party in general, touching base with students, celebrating their successes, and bottom-line, making sure every student who wants to succeed does! For many students, this is one of their first experiences setting and meeting long-term goals, and modeling this process is so helpful to them! The students were so excited and proud to be there Friday. 

Our marvelous 5th grade classes were wonderful role models for the younger grades, and they were truly safe, respectful and responsible. Props also to 3rd & 4th grade teams for making sure every single one of their students qualified for the party- even ones who started after winter break!

I'm so proud to be a Forest North Eagle, and so lucky to have all of you support our students.

Texas Bluebonnet Award Voting Party 2016

Huge kudos to FNE students and teachers for our achievements with the 2015-2016 Texas Bluebonnet Award program! Check out these numbers, and think about the dedication & skill-building they represent. Think about the teamwork with so many staff & volunteers that made it happen! Thanks for helping our kids read in new genres, get exposed to awesome works of high-quality contemporary literature, and most importantly, feel like successful readers!​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​ 

1,732 books read (That's 10 quizzes per 3rd-5th FNE student. This number is HUGE compared to other schools around RRISD and the state, even though we're small and Title I!) 

157 students voting for their favorite book at the party last Friday (& taking home a new book to keep, trying the chocolate fountain, getting a manicure, playing video games, and watching the drone - video below!)

45 students qualifying for the VIP Breakfast (that's 10+ books for 3rd, 15+ books for 4th & 5th) - this is a HUGE increase above any other year.

13 students qualifying for the Forest North Battle of the Bluebonnets (reading all 20) - also a new all-time high! 

8 teachers who supported 15+ kids as they qualified to vote, who get a free lunch on me! 

1 grade level who had 100% participation- a new record, even with new students coming in the days leading up to the party. Way to go, 4th grade! 

 Super special thanks to teachers, paraprofessionals, former students, former staff & parent volunteers who were on hand during the party - 157 kids had a blast and they loved spending time with you! Thanks for keeping them safe while they had fun- I literally couldn't do it without you! 

 We'll find out the state winner soon, but here were our top books! 36 votes - Misadventures of Salem Hyde 26 votes - Skyjumpers 17 votes - Mountain Dog 

Check out this drone video Mr. Fournier took during the party:

Drone at Bluebonnet Voting Party 1/29!

"Are you coming to the Bluebonnet party?  My drone is!"

Texas Bluebonnet Award Update

The Texas Bluebonnet Award program goes on at Forest North for about 20 weeks each fall semester.  Right now, we are on week 9.  Many students are working hard on reading books and getting ready for our Bluebonnet party on 1/29/16! We already have 94 voters, and 63 people that have qualified for the Bluebonnet Party!  We also have 13 people who have already qualified for the VIP Bluebonnet Breakfast.  I can't wait to see who will be the first person to qualify for the Battle of the Bluebonnets, and to see which book wins at Forest North!

Need more information about the Texas Bluebonnet Award program at Forest North?  Check out the document below for more information!

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.

Texas Bluebonnet Award KickOff This Week!

I can't wait for another great year of the Texas Bluebonnet Program at Forest North!  It's my favorite time of year!

Library News!

Hello Eagles.  I hope your fall semester was wonderful!  I had a great fall- Mrs. Vetter joined Team Library in September, and then we had our Reading Oasis Book Fair.  We had record breaking profits, and earned almost $1,400!  It was a big week for me- I was about ready to have a baby (you can probably tell that from the photo!)

Sure enough, shortly after, Harper Belle was born! I had a wonderful time at home with her and was so happy to know my library was in good hands with Mrs. Vetter.  It's not easy to go to work every day without her, but I love my job, and coming back to the students and staff I missed so much made it much easier.

I am now back in the library and hit the ground running.  Already we have finished our Texas Bluebonnet Award voting, and had a fun voting party on January 31st for 125 3rd-5th graders.  That's almost every student in the 3rd, 4th and 5th grades participating! At our school, the winner was Wonder by RJ Palacio.  The statewide winner will be announced next Wednesday!

Earlier this week, 50 lucky Forest North readers, chosen from a random drawing, got to go to the brand new Round Rock Sports Center to hear R.J. Palacio, the author of Wonder, speak to us. What fun to have a library sponsored field trip & a great culmination of our yearlong initiative for this amazing book. It was a wonderful experience that reminded us all why we need to "choose kind," as the book teaches, and a great start to "Choose Kind" week here at FNE.

To kick off our Kindness Week, everyone on campus started this week by wearing blue - just like our special book Wonder.  Yesterday, we wore our pajamas as we dreamed of friendship, and today, everyone is wearing the same outfit as a friend for Twin Day!  I am dressed to match Mrs. Lajaunie!

I am currently in the middle of lots of projects, as always! The Armadillo Readers Choice Voting Parties with Kindergarten, 1st grade and 2nd grade are underway, the 2nd grade Rainbow Reading Challenge finale party is on 2/21, and I am starting book clubs with many grade levels. The VIP Bluebonnet breakfast, for students who read 10+ books in 3rd grade, or 15+ books in 14th or 5th grade, is on 2/21. The FNE Battle of the Bluebonnets is 2/25, and our RRISD Battle (where we will hopefully bring the traveling trophy back home!) is 3/20.

Many classes are coming in daily to get lessons - today I've already taught about coins to Kindergarten, homophones to third grade, technology then & now to 2nd grade (I love showing them old phones & computers!) and the Itsy Bitsy Spider to PreK.  Just another day in the library.  Thanks for welcoming me back with open arms, Eagles!  I missed you!

Bluebonnet Fun Night: Play, Louis, Play!

We had our second Bluebonnet Fun Literacy Night at Jollyville Elementary, hosted by their librarian, Mrs. Carter. We celebrated the Bluebonnet Award nominated title Play, Louis, Play! : The True Story of a Boy and His Horn by Muriel Harris Weinstein a Louis Armstrong biography told from the horn's point of view.

Mrs. Carter arranged for a real Jazz horn player to come play for us at Jollyville.  He improvised little riffs during readers' theatre featuring selected excerpts from the book read by Jollyville students. Other students presented biographical information about Louis Armstrong and his legacy.

After the readers' theatre portion of the night ended, our jazz trumpeter entertained us with lots of jazz classics, and showed us the difference between regular versions of songs and jazz versions of songs. The jazz versions were much more joyous and entertaining!

Two very special Forest North students were in attendance for this fun night. Thanks for coming, Jasmyn & Cam, and getting jazzed up over the Texas Bluebonnet Award!

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!

Bluebonnet VIP Breakfast

Twenty five dedicated readers found that hard work really does pay off this morning. Students who read 15 or more Bluebonnet Book Award Nominees were invited to a special VIP Breakfast this morning. They were treated to a smorgasbord of delicious and nutritious breakfast foods. A great time was had by all. They enjoyed their food in the library on a special poster placemat made by Mrs. Lajaunie from dust jackets of the nominated titles this year. They also got to order 1 of 6 selected titles from the Bluebonnet list next year. Orders were already placed and books should arrive soon, so that these Eagles can get a head start for next year, and then share the book with their classmates. Congratulations, readers, and for half of you, good luck on the campus battle on Thursday!

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!

Bluebonnets available on Thursday!

The most popular question in the library since school started is "Where are the Bluebonnet books?" Mrs. Fournier is thrilled about this, and bought more copies than ever to meet our intense demand for the nominated titles. Last year, over 90 kids attended the voting Wii party. 3rd-5th graders are invited to participate again! Here are our Bluebonnet Champions last year, who won 3rd place in our district Battle of the Bluebonnet. Way to represent us, Eagles! Who will represent Forest North this year? You can qualify by reading all 20 books. If there are more than 5 students again who read all 20 nominees, then we will have another campus level battle. The top 5 winners of that Battle will go on to the District battle! As you can see in our video, Ms. Jacobs, our principal, came to support us- everyone is invited to come root for us again! See you there, Eagles.

Camp Bluebonnet!

There are still a few spots left in our June session. Come sign up for Camp Bluebonnet with Mrs. Fournier (and Mrs. Kuperzstoch, the Brushy Creek Elementary Librarian) and be ready for the voting party before school even starts! Go to the website listed to register your incoming 3rd, 4th or 5th grade student. All RRISD 3rd-5th grade students are welcome! We'll be posting entries each day after we do our awesome activities at Camp!

Forest North @ 1st Annual RRISD Battle of the Bluebonnets

2010-2011 Forest North Bluebonnet Voting Results!

Ladies and Gentleman, I am pleased to announce the Forest North Texas Bluebonnet Award winners!

I will post the statewide official winners as soon as I hear!

1st place: 2nd place:
3rd place:

Texas Bluebonnet Book Award Voting Party!

Forest North is proud to announce we had 85 qualified Bluebonnet Voters this year! That's up from 37 last year, and 7 the year before. Let's go Bluebonnet books!

Our 85 kids were treated (by 12 lovely volunteers, both staff and parents) to a Nintendo Wii party! Kids came in, got a free snack, poster and book. They voted for their favorite book of the year (winners to be announced soon!) and all took turns playing a variety of games on nine simultaneous Nintendo Wiis! It was amazing!

Thanks to all of our smart Eagles for working so hard! More later on the winning book and our 10 dedicated students who read all 20 of the Bluebonnet nominees!

Bluebonnet Voting Party 1/21

Bluebonnet Pictograph Bulletin Board

40 Qualified Bluebonnet Voters!

Would you believe that last year we had 37 kids qualify to vote for the Texas Bluebonnet Book Award?

This year, it's only November and we already have 40!

In related news, Mrs. Fournier is looking for six people willing to lend their Nintendo Wii for the Bluebonnet Voting Party! Call or email her ASAP!