May Events

One May event that was just completed was the 2nd Annual Rooster Chick Games for selected 4th graders. The 23 students who participated in the games had read at least 5 of the 20 nominated books for the 2009 Rhode Island Children's Book Award (otherwise known as the Rooster books). Students vote for a favorite book in February and we culminate the year with these games. The photo on the left shows the Red Team hard at work!

I began the Rooster Chick Games last year as a transition to the Rooster Games done at Chariho Middle School. We do a scaled-down version with several literacy activities and small prizes at the end. This year we had an enthusiastic, involved group of students and it was a lot of fun for all of us. Ashaway School used our program as a prototype for their pilot year - maybe this will spread!


Another popular program, Exercise Your Body,/Exercise Your Mind, was completed last week when students proudly brought back their forms. This year we had 91 students who made at least 100 points - an increase over last year! Each student received a certificate and a sticker. They were also entered in grade-level drawings for a $10 gift card to a bookstore. The winners of the gift cards were:
Kindergarten: Abby Duckworth - Ms. Iacoi's class
1st Grade: Emma Hughes - Mrs. Koukas' class
2nd Grade: Delaney Smail - Mrs. Pearce's class
3rd Grade: Saydee Wheeler - Mrs. Rathbone's class
4th Grade: Renee' Sherman - Mrs. Fee's class

Congratulations to all the winners - each student (and their families) who worked at changing some habits to gain healthier activities. This was the 6th year for this collaborative program between Library (me) and Physical Education/Health (Mrs. Fiske) and it's been rewarding to see the interest in meeting the challenge.

Keep Reading!
Mrs. Reiser-Jones

Exercise!

Are you keeping track of your points? We're in the middle of Exercise Your Body, Exercise Your Mind so if you decided to meet the challenge, you are probably trying for that extra activity to get closer to the 100 points you need. Of course, the 10 bonus points you get for each day of No Screen Time makes it easier to reach your goal. So far, I have 22 points and 6 days to go.

If you get at least 100 points, then get the signatures on your form and return it next week. All successful participants receive a certificate and a sticker to show they made the challenge. Also, their name will be put into a grade-level drawing for a $10 gift card to a bookstore. Good luck!

CHS Comes to Read!

Wow! Did we have an exciting day today! Through the help of Chariho High School Principal Robert Mitchell and Athletic Director Todd Grimes, we had a bus pull up with 22 athletes from Chariho High School. Even the mascot, the Chariho Charger came! All these CHS students volunteered to be guest readers during our final day of Reading Week. The CHS students were assigned to our classrooms and some were able to visit their former teachers. The picture above shows Kristen Donovan with Ms. Miceli (Grade 4 teacher) who taught Kristen back in 1st grade. The other picture shows the athletes and the Chariho Charger arriving at our school.

The high school athletes did a great job reading to the elementary students and gladly answered their questions. We have a big thank you to Mr. Mitchell, Mr. Grimes, and the following CHS students: Carissa Ancona, Chelsea Anderson, Sarah Andrew, Bradley Borway, Timothy Calcagni, Amanda Dolan, Kristen Donavan, Nicholas Dubee, Zachary Evans, Jacob LaBelle, Stacy Le Herissier, Kelsea Loffredo, Katelyn Nooney, David Northup, Carly Papa, Hannah Schneidenback, Lotte Sherman, Julie Smith, Michael Thweatt, Mary Toth, Krist Trenholm, Tyler Zegarzewski, and the Charger mascot. Here are some photos from our special day:


Chariho High School athlete Stacy Le Herissier reads to Mrs. Pearce's 2nd grade class. The students listen as Stacy shares, Martha Speaks. What would happen if a dog (Martha) ate alphabet soup and could suddenly talk?

Stacy plays volleyball for CHS and was happy to answer questions about playing sports. The second graders had plenty of questions as they enjoyed the attention of three athletes who came to read in the library.

Zach Evans (CHS Volleyball) reads Max Cleans Up to the eager 2nd grade students.

Nicholas Dubee (CHS soccer/Track & Field) reads How Do Dinosaurs Say Goodnight? during Mrs. Pearce's library class. The accomplished athletes were also great at read-alouds!

A big thank you to everyone who made this day possible - GO READ! GO READ! GO READ!

Fool the School!

Cody and Arianna are two 2nd graders who liked this poster from Mrs. Pearce's class.

What do you get when you combine Reading Week and April Fools' Day?

Fool the School!

With a focus on nonfiction books, students and teachers brainstormed statements that might be FACT or FICTION. The posters were in the hallways and all day we saw students eagerly reading the statements and putting their tally mark under FACT or FICTION.

Students were so excited - I heard the word "awesome" many times yesterday as they went through the hallway reading the posters. Teachers were thrilled as students carefully read the sentences and then recorded their answers. Here are two more pictures taken of students enjoying Fool the School!

Three Cheers for Reading - GO READ!

Y

Rhody Ram Visits Our School!

It's Reading Week and the Rhody Ram stopped by the Library while visiting Charlestown School. Rhody was lucky enough to come while Ms. Iacoi's afternoon class was having their library class. He got to see the students as they were ready to leave with their library books.

The students also joined with the Charlestown Cheerleaders to give a big cheer for reading -

RAH, RAH, RAH!

READ at HOME!


We have lots of fun activities planned for Reading Week and I hope to keep up with posting some photos to this blog.
Below you will see Rhody with some big fans -
the "Charlestown Cheerleaders"and Mrs. Fischer, teaching assistant.

Three cheers for Reading!

GO READ!

Sorry for the lapse since the last blog - time flies! Today is the first day of spring and a good time to catch up and think ahead. Reading Week is coming! I've been working with the reading teachers and classroom teachers as we plan for March 30-April 3.

Our Reading Week theme this year is GO READ!!! We'll have some cheers and fun to celebrate the joys of reading. A flyer will go home listing each day's activities. You can help the school-home connection by remembering this cheer, created by Ms. Miceli -

RAH, RAH, RAH!
READ AT HOME!

So keep in mind the R, the A, and the H and see how much you can
READ AT HOME!

Verizon Donates Books

Books from Verizon
The Chariho district elementary libraries were fortunate to receive free books from Verizon. Each elementary school was able to purchase $250 of paperbacks from the Scholastic catalog. The books arrived and have been cataloged and processed for the library. There are several new Geronimo Stilton, new Goosebumps and copies of other favorite titles. I was also able to buy some chunky board books that are sometimes needed by teachers.

The donation from Verizon was very generous. Here's a big public "thank-you" to Verizon for adding to our school library.

Library Classes
Here's a brief overview at library lessons in January:
Kindergarten - some classes have been enjoying Katy No-Pocket and others are learning about selecting books from the library.
Grade 1 - I have been sharing more Caldecott books to prepare for the announcement of the new winner on January 26th. All classes heard Strega Nona last week and will be extending their enjoying during an art project with Mrs. Rich.
Grade 2 - Students are learning about how some of our library books are organized. Ask if they know what a call number is and what the letters on the spine label mean!
Grade 3 - We've begun a unit on Internet safety, using the I-SAFE curriculum. Students are well aware of being careful on the Internet so we cover strategies they can use, especially thinking and making good choices.
Grade 4 - As a collaboration with classroom teachers, each student will prepare a short PowerPoint slide show about the state they are researching. Since many students have not used PowerPoint, they're all excited to get started!