I Can Read With My Eyes Shut!

Well, the April Shelf Challenge is over, phew!  Did I get all the way through my assigned section, the S section? No, no I did not.  Am I still glad I tried? Yes, yes I am!

It was great fun to read through my section and revisit some old favorites like: The Stinky Cheese Man and other fairly stupid tales  by Jon Scieszka & Lane Smith, Where the wild things are  by Maurice Sendak, One fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish, by Dr. Seuss and yes, by Dr. Seuss.


I also discovered some new favorites like: Monkey and Elephant by Carole Lexa Schaefer and Shark and Lobster’s Amazing Undersea Adventure by Viviane Schwarz

 

I must admit one that should have already been an old favorite but I had never actually read was Skippyjon Jones and the big bones by Judy Schachner.

 I have recommended Skippyjon Jones books millions of time but they are always flying off the shelves and I never had the chance to read one myself.  I read it to my daughter after school one day and we laughed and laughed.  Talk about a book you need to practice with first if you really want  to use your best read aloud voices and accents! Thank goodness I had a supportive audience in my 5 year old daughter and not a whole class of kindergartners!

 

Along with some misshelved finds, (Henry and Mudge what are you doing jumping a shelf down into the S’s!) I found some holiday books  by Lola M. Schaefer that should be in nonfiction. While they probably circulated fine in the easy section my younger readers LOVE to go the nonfiction section and this way I can steer them to some that I know they can read.  A win-win for everyone!

 

April was busy with testing…poetry… more testing… formal observation… still more testing…and reading! I didn’t get all the way through my section but I have fun almost making it around the corner of my book case.  Who knows, maybe I’ll keep going into May.  I do know that I will be signing up again next year…maybe a fiction section next time!

 

Happy Reading!

Okle

 

A Poetic Evening

Andy Plemmons in Athens, GA blogged about doing a crowd-sourced poem with his school (you can read his post here).   I thought is was a wonderful idea and decided to create a form and sent it out to all my county librarians , or media specialists as they are called in my school district.  I got back just enough to put together a really nice poem.  I was really excited about sharing it.

Luckily for me, our county association HASLMS was hosting our annual media specialist – principal banquet. There would be librarians, administrators, supervisors and school board members present.  This was the perfect place to share a poem about how great our libraries are, so I asked if I could read my/our poem at the dinner.  I was slightly nervous since I get choked up reading, as mentioned in other posts, but it went over really well, I warned the audience ahead of time and only choked up some at the end. ; )   Several people complemented me and asked for me to post it in school email, which I will, but I wanted to share it with you too!

Here is how it turned out:

 

 

Our Libraries are NOT a quiet place

 

Our libraries are not a quiet place, they are…

full of learning and connecting,

energetic,

rush hour in the traffic of knowledge,

like a crowd of eager book fans behind home base,

a symphony of literacy and learning,

buzzing with energy and creative ideas,

full of learning fun,

learning labs of the future.


In our libraries you can hear…

a blend of great literary noise,

turning pages and readers cheer,

students engaged,

students chatting, books slapping, keyboards tapping, and data charts mapping,

keyboards clicking, scanner beeping, excitement overflowing,

all kinds of reading done.


In our libraries you can see…

smiling faces and excited minds,

fantasy, information, adventure, knowledge and curiosity,

science alive from avocado plants to the mealworm life cycle,

a wild garden of activity,

kids read and talk and play,

the world!


In our libraries you can feel…

safe,

at home,

excitement

wonder, curiosity and a love of learning that’s real,

a love for books each day,

empowered and content, since we are reading for life.


No, our libraries are NOT a quiet place and we are glad!


By HCPS Media Specialists, 2013

 

Happy Reading!

Okle

#ShelfChallenge – Day 3

Well, day two was a bust. After school I worked on finishing up the yearbook and finally left the building at 7:00pm! I was so tired I went to bed at 8:30 without reading the bag of books I brought home. I was excited to see Grandfather’s Journey by Allen Say in my bag. This is definitely a favorite.

So, today with the yearbook done, I took my bag with the same books and went home at a decent hour, well 4:15. Audrey (my daughter) and I went to our favorite pizza place and while we waited for the pizza I read 6 books. Audrey looked at some and 2 of my 6 I read to her. It was fun to be in a restaurant reading a book out loud (but not too loud!)

I still have some to read but wanted to go a head and make my post so I can read in bed. : ) I’m not very good a book reviews, I’m one of those people who love or hate a book and it’s hard for me to articulate why. But I’m trying to get better. I guess one thing I can say is books I love evoke a feeling. I am a very emotional person (ask anyone I know I can cry or get choked up at the drop of a hat). Of the books I read tonight, Grandfather’s Journey was the best. I love all of Allen Say’s work. The pictures are gorgeous  it’s no wonder it won the Caldecott.  But it’s also the prose that gets me.  The economy of the text, the stillness I feel when reading it.  The way his life echoes his grandfather’s, with the yearning for both countries, (good grief I’m literally tearing up typing this!) it is just so beautiful.  Sigh, it is pure bliss to read his books.

Some of the books I read and when I’m done I’m just “meh, that was okay”.  Again, it’s hard to me to say why and I don’t really want to tell you the titles because I feel like it will hurt the book’s feeling!  But two of them just seemed okay, cute enough stories, cute enough pictures.  But then again my easy section is really, really full so maybe they shouldn’t be taking up valuable shelf space.  One Audrey looked at and she said she liked it but when she saw  Farm-Fresh Cats by Scott Santoro she immediately said “ohhh, read that one to me!”  It was funny and fun to read and she totally loved the idea of the green cats.

I’m signing off to finish up my day three reading.  Tomorrow is a day I have no classes and a parent volunteer so I’m hoping to work my way through some during the school day.  I can’t think of anything better for the students to see than me sitting in the easy section engrossed in a book!

 

Happy Reading!

Okle

 

#ShelfChallenge – Day 1

Well the day has finally come, I am supposed to start my #shelfchallenge today.  I didn’t get off to a great start.  I have book fair  for most of the morning and then spent the rest of the school day working on finishing the yearbook.  The yearbook is due today and I need one more day.

That said, I did make a short video to show you my assigned section, the “S” everyone or “easy” section.  I did grab the first few books to take home with me to read tonight.  My father just called to remind me that my Aunt and Uncle are visiting and to report to his house.  It’s like the universe if trying to keep me from reading but I plan to read some if not all of the ones I brought home so I may have another post later tonight.

Soooooo, enjoy my video (one take rule) and I will report in later.  Hope everyone else’s first day of the challenge was more productive than mine!

Books Read: 0

Okle : )