Armadillo Readers Choice Voting Results for Forest North!

The votes are in for the 2014-2015 Armadillo Readers Choice Award at Forest North Elementary.  We had a great time at our voting iPad parties, voting electronically and playing a fun trivia game called Battle of the Armadillos. Here are the winners, so far.  Ms. Johnson's class is the last to play this week, but submitted their votes last week before the deadline.

So, without further adieu, I give you the winners at Forest North.  They have been submitted, and will be tallied with every other elementary school in RRISD to find our true winner! 

With 27 votes, our 3rd place winner was The Day the Crayons Quit!  With 28 votes (so close!), our 2nd place winner was Carnivores!  And with a whopping 54 votes, the winning Armadillo book at the campus level is Mustache Baby by Bridget Heos!  

3rd Grade Book Club Wrap Up

Our 3rd grade book club read Quinny & Hopper this spring and loved it.  To celebrate this upcoming 2015-2016 Texas Bluebonnet Award nominee about friendship, we had a final fun activity where we made friendship bracelets!  Mrs. Peyton worked with some of our readers to make shoestring necklaces, while Sami & Chasity taught us how to make those popular loom bracelets with little rubber bands just using our fingers, while Kieron and I tried to make sense of the loom version.  Long story short - Sami & Chasity were totally right.  Check out our adventures!  Mrs. Peyton & I had a blast working with this group, who did a great job being responsible and staying up with their reading. 

Mrs. Peyton giving them the news about our bracelet projects!

Kieron & me tried figuring out the loom with Ethan, but we just couldn't do it!

Sami teaches us the hand technique.  Totally easier!

Boys working on the loom.

Chasity's beautiful shoestring necklace

Partners in Education Foundation Board Members Visit Forest North

Last week I posted about our animal research projects in 1st grade.  We practiced doing research on animals with books and digital resources, and also had a lesson on presentation skills.  We invited the RRISD Partners in Education Foundation Board members to come watch us present what we learned on Friday, 5/15/15.  We were thrilled to receive both Vice President Ruth Ann Dickensheets and Board Member Lisa Cauble. They were so generous with their time to stop by and learn about animals with us.  Check out this video of our presentations and our time we spent with the Board members.

Thanks so much to Mrs. James & Mrs. San Miguel and their classes for opening their rooms to the PIE Foundation Board members and to me so that the library could show how the grant money was put to good use!  Our $1000 bought us many new animal books that the students used for their research projects this year, and provided a great springboard for showing how good research can be a blend between print and digital resources.

Finishing 5th Grade Book Club

I caught Madison reading in the edges yesterday while waiting to go home and had to snap a photo.  She's reading The Raft by S.A. Bodeen, which is our very final title for our 5th Grade Book Club.  We call it the Danielle Book Club after our friend who moved away earlier this year.

Madison is one of 13 fifth graders who vote with me on which book we're reading next.  We always have so many on the ballot, it's hard to choose a favorite, but this is our next one!

I realized yesterday that this is probably the last book I'll enjoy with this group of kids, after six years of reading together.  That's a big deal.  I'm going to miss them bunches when they move on to Deerpark Middle School next fall.  Keep reading, you super stars!

Forest North Faculty Book Club

Did you know teachers read too?  It's true!  Every month, I organize a book club for all the grown ups at Forest North.  Everyone is invited.  We each bring a snack to share, meet at someone's house, and talk about the book.  We always keep lists of what books we are interested in reading, and vote for what to read next.  It's so fun!  

This year, which is our 3rd or 4th year doing it, we made a commitment to read more books faster!  We've been meeting once a month.  Check out these books we've read this since 2014 started!

Are you in a book club with a pal?  Are you in a book club with Mrs. Fournier?  What have you read lately that you'd recommend?

Presenting Research

Earlier in the school year, you may remember that I was a lucky recipient of a RRISD PIE Foundation Grant where I won $1000 to buy new animal books for the library.  It's really paying off now as 1st and 2nd grade are working on their animal research projects!  We used these new books to learn facts about new animals, and 1st grade is putting them into a poster or book to present to their classmates and other audience.

We have invited the PIE Foundation Board Members to attend these presentations next week and are waiting for a response, fingers crossed! Check out this lesson we've been working on this week with our 1st graders to teach presentation skills.

Summer Reading!

Summer is almost here!  What will you read this summer?  Here are some tips to make sure you beat the dreaded summer slide!  Keep your reading mountain going higher and higher so you start next year at the same spot you left!

1.  Visit the Austin Public Library!  The Spicewood Branch is only a few miles from Forest North.  Get unlimited free checkouts with a library card.  Check out the amazing programs they're having this summer, too!  

2. Come visit Forest North during Summer Library Hours.  Our library will be open during the summer on these Tuesdays from 4:30-6:00 pm.  Come check out some books, play games with teachers, and see your friends!

• Tuesday, June 16th
• Tuesday, June 30th
• Tuesday, July 14th
• Tuesday, August 11th

3.  We'll also have our 2nd annual LIBRARY LOCK IN on Wednesday, July 29th, so save the date now!  More information on that to come!

4. Ways for librarians, teachers and parents to prevent summer slide!  Just a few ways listed in this article include turning on closed captioning on TV, cooking with a recipe, looking things up on the internet, having quiet time during each day to unplug from devices, read on the go, and limiting screen time.  It's all about increasing the number of words read, in any way!

5. Read something fun!  Find something that's interesting for you.  Here are some ideas:

• Next year's Texas Bluebonnet Award books for kids in 3rd-6th grades.
• Next year's Lone Star Reading List for middle school readers
• Adults should read too!  Check out this year's Lariat Reading List!
• Next year's 2x2 Reading List for readers 2 years - 2nd grade.
• The New York Times Best Seller List for middle grade fiction
• Horn Book Magazine's recommendations for newly independent readers ( entering1st-2nd)
• Horn Book Magazine's recommendations for intermediate readers (entering 4th-6th)
• Horn Book Magazine's recommendations for picture books (fiction & nonfiction)
• Most of all, read what YOU like.  Anything and everything counts as reading!
• Think you're too busy to read?  You're not!  Read on your way to your grandma's, while you wait at the doctor, while you're at your sister's swim practice.  Read in the edges and you'll always be in the middle of a book!

6. Make a list!  Remember we talked about this during our Thanksgiving Bookathon?  Always keep a list ready of books you want to read next so you're never stuck between books.  Good readers are never done with their "to be read" list.  Keep track of your list on goodreads or write it down!

7. Take a photo!  Make your title match your setting and save that snapshot for our annual Special Reading Spot Photo Contest!