Front Desk #bookaday

Today I finished reading Kelly Yang's Front Desk.  I am amazed at all the wonderful stories I have read in the last few years from the perspective of immigrants.  This is another good one.  Mia and her family have come to America from China.  She becomes best friend to Lupe whose family has immigrated from Mexico.  What I love, though, is what Kelly Yang says in her Author's Note about this book: "this book is about what happens when you include, when, despite all your suffering and your heartache, you still wake up every morning and look out at the world with fresh, curious eyes." 

#bookaday and NC Kids Digital Library

Today I read Shark Lady by Jess Keating and illustrated by Marta Álvarez Miguéns for my #bookaday challenge.  I loved the beautiful illustrations in this book.   I also love my source for this book.   The NC Kids Digital Library is a fantastic source for reading material.   With your public library card, you can check out up to 5 ebooks at a time.   I can send most books to my Kindle app (or to my son's Kindle).  Some picture books, like this one, must be read in a browser.   I also love to download audiobooks from the NC Kids Digital Library for our family to listen to on car trips.  If you haven't used this great FREE resource, check it out!

#BookADay for the summer

This summer, I am challenging myself to join in on Donalyn Miller's Summer #Bookaday challenge.   This challenge is all about using the summer months for "revitalizing our reading lives."   Donalyn Miller's guidelines for this challenge can be found on the post linked in this paragraph.   The following guidelines are my own goals:

• My reading begins today (June 17) because it is the first weekday that I've not been at school.  (Yeah for summer!) and continues through August 19.
• I plan to read a book for every day of the summer.   Per Donalyn's challenge, it may be an average, so some days I may read more than one picture book to balance out the days where I'm reading a book that takes me several days to read.  
• I may not post every day, but I plan to list every book I read.  

So today I read my first book for this challenge:  Cool Crocheting for Kids by Alex Kuskowski.  I found it on Epic!  I chose this book because I really do want to learn how to crochet!   It must be a pretty good book because here is the progress I've made so far!

I'll be honest and admit that this is my second attempt.   My first one started out good, but kept getting smaller and smaller, so I had to try again.   Now I need to figure out how to make one of the projects in the book!   I'll need to do some re-reading for sure!

Dot Day Celebration!

On Wednesday, Stough's students had a great day celebrating Dot Day!  If you don't know, Dot Day is a day to celebrate the "book birthday" of Peter Reynolds' book The Dot.  This book teaches us several lessons, but one of them is that each of us is able to make our mark on the world.  Students came into the library media center and rotated through stations of dot-themed activities. 

Students created dots with markers and crayons and then used the magic of augmented reality and the Quiver app to transform them from ordinary to extraordinary.

Students got active with dots and some Twister games and designed dots for a collaborative art project.   

2nd-5th grade students experimented with making their mark with lights and a camera.

To see more of our amazing Dot creations, check out our Seesaw blog page!

To read The Dot, you can check it out from your favorite library or use Bookflix or Tumblebooks in our reading links.  If you need a password, contact Mrs. Galvan!  

Book of the day

One of my goals this year is to use my blog and Twitter accounts to promote reading.   One or more days each week I will feature a book that I am excited about here on my blog and through Twitter.

Today is our first day back from winter break, but we are all eagerly checking our weather apps because we see predictions of snow for the weekend.   We hope we will not miss any school days for the snow, but we know that sometimes our whole lives are disrupted by a little snow.   Whenever we miss a day (or days) of school for snow or can't go outside for recess because the temperature is too low, I am reminded of one of my favorite nonfiction books in our library, Recess at 20 Below.



This book takes us to a classroom in Alaska where students always go to school when there is snow around and can go out to recess as long as it is no colder than 20 degrees below zero!   I was surprised to learn why these students can't have good snowball fights and why seesaws and swings pose their own problems as the snow piles up during the winter.   When I read Recess at 20 Below by Cindy Lou Aillaud, I gained a new understanding of how life can be different in Alaska.  At the same time, I decided that I really like living in North Carolina where we can look forward to the occasional snow storm.  

Let's Read Around the World!

Every day during the month of February, Stough Stallions are working toward a goal of reading around the world.  Students are to track the amount of time they read this month.  For every 20 minutes they read, they will earn 1 mile toward our goal of 24,902 miles (the distance around the equator).   If  When they reach that goal, Mrs. Stidham, our principal, has agreed to make something awesome happen.  Through this Wednesday, students can submit their ideas about what that "something awesome" can be here on our Padlet wall:

Created with Padlet

We will announce Mrs. Stidham's decision on Friday!  

Each student will receive a packet for tracking their reading progress today.  Students should keep it up to date and bring it to school with them each day.  Mrs. Galvan will be checking in often so we can keep up with our progress.     You can view the student packet here!

Happy 2016!

Third, fourth and fifth graders welcomed in 2016 by reading from Kid President's Guide to Being Awesome.  We read about taking what Kid President calls "brain pictures."  Students then chose to remember the "brain pictures" they hope to keep from 2015 or to plan what they want their brain pictures to be like for 2016.   They had a chance to design posters to illustrate their thoughts.    Some of those posters are pictured above.

We also spent time learning how to log into their new WCPSS Student Google accounts and enroll in Google Classroom.  These Google accounts should be a powerful tool that students can use through the rest of elementary school and then carry into middle and high school.