Kindergarten Can't Wait to Share Library Books

We got this awesome email from Mrs. Albin, one of our Kindergarten teachers today:

"When we came back in the room after specials this afternoon, we usually do a dance song before the dismissal bell rings, but today they all sat down and pulled out their library books.  They were all busy looking and sharing them with one another.  It was an impromptu and student-led buddy read!"

Library Checkout with Mr. Martir's Class

Forest North was recently featured by RRISD and we had a photographer come take photos of our kids in action.  Check out these beautiful shots of Mr. Martir's class checking out books in the library.  

 

Combating Summer Reading Slide!

Our "Combat The Summer Reading Slide" book giveaway to selected students resulted in 52 students receiving 177 appropriate reading-leveled books and 52 high-interest comic books. 

The new and gently used books were donated by Kristen Fournier (through her membership on the Texas Bluebonnet Voting Committee), Titan Moon Comics, and by the community.  Happy Summer Reading!

Polly Holyoke releases sequel to Neptune Project!

Polly Holyoke, author of 2014-2015 Texas Bluebonnet Award nominee Neptune Project, visited us back in January.  

The sequel, The Neptune Challenge, has just been released!  She will be signing copies at the Book Spot, near RRHS, on 6/13, from 12:00-1:00PM.   

The address at the Book Spot is 1205 Round Rock Avenue, Round Rock TX.  I can't wait to get this new book!

Get more information about Polly and her publicity tour at her website.

Gaston: Making Poodles with FCC

Have you read Gaston by Kelly DiPucchio and illustrated by Christian Robinson? It's the story of a puppy named Gaston who gets lots of training from his mom to be a proper poodle.  His sisters are named Fi-Fi, Foo-Foo, Ooh-La-La, and Antoinette. What happens when they meet a group of rough and tumble puppies at the park?

In the library, we read the book, then made our own craft poodles with cotton balls and elmer's glue.  Very sophisticated, no?  Oui!

Audrey and Stephanie teach!

Audrey Bibb and Stephanie Ro are future teachers! They wrote a few summaries of Junie B. Jones books. Mrs. Fournier noticed that the kids in Ms. Moran's first grade class were really loving Junie B. Jones books, and had an idea. She asked Audrey and Stephanie to continue writing summaries, and to make them super exciting to get Ms. Moran's class interested in reading lots of books. Audrey and Stephanie got to work! They wrote and typed all their summaries, then emailed them to Mrs. Fournier. Ms. Moran was happy to host Audrey and Stephanie. Here they are showing the excited first graders all about their favorite protagonist- Junie B. Jones! Way to go, girls. We love your hard work and your love of reading. Thanks for sharing it with younger Forest North Eagles!

Book Fair is Happening!

The Book Fair is going swimmingly! Check out these Book Fair Heroes dressed up for Super Hero Day! These superheroes, disgused day-to-day as mild-mannered teachers, assistant principals and librarians, are letting their true colors shine through today!


Be sure to come check out the Book Fair this week! Profits go directly back to the Forest North Library to buy new books for our school and students!

Book Fair is next week!

Our Book Fair is coming next week! Check out our Book Fair homepage for more details!

Library Nights

Attention Eagles! We have had 5 Bluebonnet Book Award Library nights throughout the summer! Many kids have a huge head start on reading 5 Bluebonnet Book Award nominees. All 3rd-5th graders who read 5 or more books are eligible to vote in the voting party. Last year's voting party had 37 kids come and play "Just Dance" on a Nintendo Wii, Bluebonnet Book Bingo, and received a free book and poster courtesy of Scholastic. We have all Bluebonnet Books available for checkout here at the Forest North Library, but they are also available at any branch of the Austin Public Library or for purchase at any local bookseller with children's literature. For a list of the Bluebonnet Book Award nominees this year, click here.

Top 10 Books Read at Forest North 2009-2010

Here is a Wordle of the Top 10 Books read at Forest North in the 2009-2010 school year. How many of them did you read? Click the image to see a bigger version of it. The bigger the font of a title, the more people that checked it out this year. The top book at Forest North this year was Frogs by Nic Bishop, and so that's why it's the biggest in the Wordle. Make your own Wordle here!

Popsicle Parties

Congratulations to all the classes who earned Popsicle parties! We only have three days of school left, and only 11 books outstanding in the whole school! Thanks, Forest North!

Tomorrow is the last day for Popsicle Parties! So far, we have had great success with responsibility at Forest North. Lots of kids are finding lost books or are paying for lost books so that we can buy a replacement.

The classes that have earned Popsicle Parties so far are: Mrs. Craycroft, Mrs. James, Ms. Moran, Mrs. Meyer, Mrs. Koester, Ms. Guerra and Ms. Herold!

Mrs. Rugerio, Mrs. Perkins, Mrs. Rhea, Ms. Johnson, and Mrs. Rataj's classes each have 1 book left. Hopefully their last book will get turned in tomorrow! They are so close!

Mrs. Albin, Mrs. Talley/Ms. Moore, and Ms. Rosenbaum's classes are close- don't count them out either. Cross your fingers that all Forest North Eagles have a Popsicle party!

Popsicle Parties!

Mrs. Fournier would like to give your class a Popsicle Party!

FRIDAY, MAY 21st is the deadline for overdue books and bills. Please make sure all of your books are turned in or bills are paid by that date!

If every student in your class has ALL books turned in and ALL bills paid by Friday, May 21st, Mrs. Fournier will throw your class a Popsicle Party during recess!

Please return books or pay to replace them with cash or check. Checks can be made out to “Forest North Elementary.” Please include your phone and driver’s license numbers. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact Mrs. Fournier at the library circulation desk at 464-6790.

Mrs. James' class loves to write!

Mrs. James class read a special book last week that they checked out from the library called Max's Words. Youngest brother Max doesn't collect stamps or coins like his brothers- he collects words like "slithered" or "pancakes." One word leads to another until he has a whole story to tell!

Mrs. James' class was so inspired by Max's collection of words, they found their own interesting words in magazines, cut them out, and made complete sentences with them. Check out some of their masterpieces!

Mrs. Fournier is attending the Texas Library Association Annual Conference this week in San Antonio. She is learning about new books and new ideas to keep our library rockin' and rollin'!

One panel Mrs. Fournier really liked was on books and censorship. One author who spoke on the panel was Jude Watson of the 39 Clues series! Mrs. Fournier knows we have a bunch of 39 Clues fans here at Forest North, so she asked Jude (her real name is Judy!) for a picture!

See you next week, Eagles- I miss you!

Dr. Seuss' Birthday

March 3rd is Read Across America, a holiday celebrating reading! It also happens to coincide with Theodor Suess Geisel's birthday!

Dr. Seuss is a special favorite of Mrs. Fournier because she is currently serving on the Geisel Book Award Committee, choosing the best book for newly independent readers published in 2010.

To celebrate Dr. Seuss' birthday and Read Across America, we had a Seuss-a-thon here in the library. Readers from our school volunteered to keep Dr. Suess going all day long. Readers included Mrs. Lajaunie from the office, Ms. Barbara the lunch monitor, Principal Jacobs, Assistant Principal Decker, and Ms. Potral from P.E. We had a blast reading to each class.














Mrs. Rhea, Mrs. Fournier and Mrs. Meyer pretended to be Thing #1, the Cat in the Hat and Thing #2.

To make the celebration extra special, we encouraged students and faculty to dress up in their Suessiest gear with stripes, polka dots and any other related items.



Mrs. Fournier and Mrs. Perkins, the star-bellied sneech!














We had a great time reading and loving books together. For more information about Read Aross America, check out http://www.nea.org/readacross.

Bluebonnet Voting Party!

We had a whopping 37 kids read 5 or more Bluebonnet Book Award nominees! Out of these 20 books, if you read 5 or more, you are qualified to vote for the best book of the year. Forest North made an event of it! All qualified voters were invited to a soiree in the library with bingo, free posters, free books, and the Nintendo Wii! They also got a sneak preview for next year's Bluebonnet Book nominees!

Congratulations to all of my 37 voters! After the votes were tallied, it was a tie. Our two winners were Surprises According to Humphrey by Betty G. Birney and The Gollywhopper Games by Jody Feldman.