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!

Vacation Ideas

I've always been a fan of the I Spy books which combine language art skills with incredible visual images. Kids don't even realize they're learning because they're having so much fun. The rhyming texts were created by Jean Marzollo with Walter Wick responsible for the amazing photos. Walter Wick now makes his own series, Can You See What I See?, which follows a similar style.

Our 2nd grade students and teachers came back from a recent field trip, raving about the exhibit they saw on the creations of Walter Wick. The exhibit is currently in nearby New London, CT.

"Walter Wick: Games, Gizmos and Toys in the Attic"

Lyman Allyn Art Museum

New London, CT.

Exhibit runs until Jan. 26, 2009

The art museum is near the campus of Connecticut College which is across from the Coast Guard Academy - an easy trip from Charlestown. I believe adult admission is $8.00 with kids under 12 for free. What a great family trip this would be for a fun and creative vacation day. I know I plan to go before January 26th when this touring exhibit moves on to another site. If you want more information, go to the museum website at:

www.lymanallyn.org/exhibitions.html

If you cannot make it to the exhibit, your child can check out some of the many I Spy and Can You See What I See? books from our school library!

I hope you have a wonderful vacation and have a chance to share time with family and friends. If you still need gift ideas for your child, remember that giving a book means they can keep opening their present again and again!

Happy Holidays and Good Reading!

Welcome to your Library!

Mrs. Fitts has been giving a great lesson on setting up a blog for our school library. Here's the first blog entry! I hope to create frequent updates on the news from our library. Stay tuned!

Mrs. Reiser-Jones, Library Media Specialist

Breaking News!

At the Holiday Fair, I was selling "nearly new" books that had been collected for worthwhile projects. Many students, families, and teachers got some great deals on books and it was fun to see everyone who stopped to browse or shop. Best of all is that all proceeds are going to our school Gingerbread Express, a helping project for local families. I'm quite happy to say that we have donated $232.50 so far, and there will be a few more dollars coming this week. Mrs. Cafaro and Mrs. Connell are coordinating the Gingerbread Express and they are thrilled with the extra money to help families get through this holiday season.

Thank you to everyone who donated books and/or bought books. What a wonderful way to celebrate our community!

Charlestown Friday Focus - check out the weekly school updates from Mrs. Fitts.

Here's a photo of my dog, Suki, as she looks at a favorite book, How Smart Is Your Dog? This book was written by Caroline Coile and it's available in our library. Check it out!