Piles of books before break!

There's a break coming... so you know what that means!  Reading challenge!

Upham students have been challenged to read 51,040 minutes over break and I know they can do it!  If they are successful, we'll have a school-wide pajama day!  Additionally, classes with the highest minutes read and highest participation will earn extra recess time.

Reading logs will be coming home this week-- please remind your student to log his or her minutes (please help younger students) and return to school after break.

Yesterday, 4O students brought home piles of books! (4th and 5th grade are allowed to check out as many books as they need)

Celebrating Balloons over Broadway!

On the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, both fifth grade classes celebrated the book Balloons over Broadway by Melissa Sweet.  It's a beautifully illustrated biography about Tony Sarg and how he invented the balloons for the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.  After listening to the story, students were asked to create their own balloon based on any book at Upham Library.  They were given a balloon, tissue paper, sharpies and glue (so.... so much glue...!).

After an hour, we had a library filled these awesome creations (and so much glue!!!):

It's hour of code week!

Did you know it's hour of code week?!  Students from around the world try to spend at least an hour coding -- Upham is also participating!  Learn more at hourofcode.com.

Want to do it from home?  Check this site for activities or see the Upham Library's hour of code page.

PebbleGo database

In anticipation of a second grade classroom project, students from 2M and 2C reviewed the PebbleGo database in library.  PebbleGo is a kid-friendly database we are able to use through Wellesley Free Library.  You can access it at home using your own library card number-- just visit the database A-Z page and select "PebbleGo".

Students read through biography articles and determined why that person was important to history.

Massachusetts Children's Book Award

Our fifth graders have been busy reading books nominated for a Massachusetts Children's Book Award (MCBA).  The cool thing about this award is that it's not decided by teachers, librarians or any grown ups -- students around Massachusetts vote on the award winner.  The only stipulation is that voters have read at least five titles.  Upham fifth graders are required to read at least five (and one student has already read all 25 titles)!  There's plenty of time-- voting isn't until March.

For more information and to see which titles are nominated, check the MCBA blog.

Book covers are on display around the library.  After reading a title, students fill out a review form that we hang under each book cover.  Any student can flip through reviews to help decide what to read next.

Students in 5D and 5E are also having a friendly competition to see which class can read the most titles!  The winning class will receive a "free library" class with games and time to independently read.

How we celebrated Dot Day

Do you remember Dot Day from last year and what it means?  All library classes on Tuesday, September 18th, read the book and celebrated in different ways.

photo credit: http://www.thedotclub.org/dotday/

2C- again this year second grade students designed their own dots and we used a little iPad augmented reality (Quiver app) to view them:

Students enjoyed watching their creations pop up in 3D and start spinning!

4G- The Dot is a book about trying something new and not getting discouraged when it doesn't go as planned at first.  Fourth grade students wrote out suggestions for classmates to try something new-- on the reverse side of the index card, students designed their own dot.  We put them in a basket and pulled them out.  Would we try the new thing our classmate had suggested?  Why or why not?

A sampling of suggestions from 4G:

• get a dog
• eat a red hot chili pepper
• swim with dolphins
• get a dirt bike
• trying going snorkeling
• read Harry Potter
• eat 15 hamburgers in an hour
• try loving school

3W: Students again this year designed a dot inspired by a book that made a "mark" on them or had some kind of an impact:

When does your child have library?!

Curious when your child has library?  Our schedule is now posted to our library website: https://sites.google.com/a/wellesleyps.org/upham-library/about

Time to get caught reading!

Have you emailed me your "caught reading" photo yet?

Please email Ms. Cote a photo of yourself reading in a unique or unusual spot!  We will post your photo on our back to school bulletin board (NOT on the blog or social media).  Email photos to cotek@wellesleyps.org  I can't wait to see all your unusual reading spots!

Here's mine-- again this year, I took mine on Little Sebago Lake in Maine (with my daughter, Hannah):

Hannah wanted me to include hers too (reading, upside down, while swinging indoors):

Boston Monument Project in third grade.....

For weeks.... (8 weeks for 3GH and 9 weeks for 3W) third grade has been working on their Boston Monument Projects.  It is an ambitious research project that requires a lot of focus from our third graders.

What does it involve?  Every third grader is assigned a Boston monument or landmark.  Students research his or her monument and take notes.  Students are then assigned a partner who has a different monument.  They write a script in which they teach their partner all about their monument. After rehearsing, I film them in front of the green screen (their monument is plopped behind the student).  It is A LOT of work and this past week, right down to the wire, third graders finished up.  We celebrated in class with our "World Premier Boston Monument Film Festival".  Students snacked on popcorn and watched everyone's videos.

It's the end of the road for Axis 360....

This mostly affects students in grades 3-5.  I wanted to let you know the state has decided to end its pilot with Axis 360 for e-books and e-audiobooks.  Access will stop as of June 30. Wellesley Free Library does have Axis 360, so if your child wants to continue using it at home you can use your public library card.

We are hoping to have another option for e-book reading in the fall-- stay tuned!

Summer Reading Suggestions!

I am so excited about summer reading!  The Wellesley elementary librarians all worked together to come  up with some really great suggestions.  Our online version is here.  Students will also go home with hardcopy packets.

If you lose any of the summer reading paperwork, fear not-- you can reprint everything on the library website.

What's in the packet?  All kinds of great stuff in very bright colors (!!!)!

• Upham reading log
• For students entering grades 1-3, a reading Bingo sheet opposite the log
• For students entering grades 4-5, a reading "Mission" sheet opposite the log
• New this year- the optional "Book Buzz" sheet- if your student would prefer to write about favorite books instead of keeping a log, he or she can give this a try
• All students receive a bookmark with summer reading links

Summer reading is meant to be fun and enjoyable- nothing is required.  I hope your student is excited to read this summer (I am!  I am!) and these are just suggestions.

And lastly, don't forget to help your student "get caught" reading.  Take a photo of your student reading somewhere unusual and fun-- I can't wait to see what Upham students come up with!  We'll hang these photos on our September back to school bulletin board.  I'll post my own photo later in the summer (here's mine from last year!).

Storybook character day!

Upham students celebrated their April break reading challenge win by dressing up as storybook characters.  Kids were asked to borrow or create their costumes-- so it was fun to see the different ideas they came up with!

Some of our Upham kids:

A.J. (My Weird School) and Garfield

Ada (The War that Saved My Life) and Ginny (Harry Potter)

Crenshaw

Gerald (Elephant and Piggie books by Mo Willems) -- his costume trumpeted like an elephant!

Greg (Diary of a Wimpy Kid) and Garfield again!

Can anyone figure out who I am?!  Add your guess in the comments below!

(Hint: my book was written by a Newbery medal winning author, published in 2002)

Imagineering planning

Last week in library, grades 2-5 started to brainstorm and map out their plans for the day of Imagineering at Upham (May 23).  We started by reading Papa's Mechanical Fish by Candace Fleming:

It's a wonderful story about an inventor who never gave up-- it perfectly matched our imagineering mindset of looking at failures as a learning opportunities (there are no failures!).

Following our story, students mapped out their ideas by brainstorming and drawing what their model might look like:

Upham students are excited to try out these ideas on our actual day of Imagineering!

April reading challenge results!

I forgot to write a blog post about the April reading challenge results!  If you haven't heard the news yet, Upham Students DID it (again!).

Over break, students read for 47,960 minutes!  They surpassed our goal by almost 3000 minutes-- this was after I upped the minutes when they blew away the February reading goal!

Students have all earned storybook character day!  It will be this Friday, May 18.  Students may dress up like a character from a children's book.  I'm asking students to recycle/borrow/reuse/create costume pieces instead of purchasing costumes.

I also want to recognize our classroom with the highest participation.  By far, the highest participation was 4G with 100% of students turning in logs, again!  They earned extra recess time.  Coming in second was 5D at 85%.  Great job to 4G and 5D!

I also want to point out the classes with the most number of minutes read:
#1- 4O (again)
#2- 2C
#3- 3GH

And finally, I want to recognize our top readers in the challenge:
#1- (again!) Kayla from 4O-- 3017 minutes
#2- Karishma from 4O-- 3017 minutes
#3- Riley from 2C-- 2526
#4- Ellery from 4O-- 1790 minutes
#5 (a tie!):
Lila W. from 3GH-- 1190 minutes and Lily H. from 4O with 1190 minutes

Great job to everyone who read over break and turned in a log!

Read Across America Day....

I wanted to share our wonderful day of celebrating reading -- Read Across America day.  At Upham, we celebrated on Wednesday, March 7.

Our top two readers from the February reading challenge, Kayla and Lily H. (both from 4O) helped me with the Read Across America assembly.  To kick off our day, we announced the February break reading challenge results.

Next up-- reader's theater!  Upham teachers and staff performed our rendition of The Day the Crayons quit by Drew Daywalt.  Students had been asked to dress in their favorite color to tie in with our crayon book.

Thank you to the fourteen teachers and staff who participated or helped with the set!

Following our reader's theater, I showed a slideshow I had created featuring Upham students and staff reading.  This year I made sure *every* Upham student was featured in the slideshow!

Mr. Ito, principal from the Wellesley Middle School, graciously continued his tradition of visiting the fifth grade.  He spent time answering students' questions about middle school (and there were A LOT of them!) followed by a read-aloud of the Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore by William Joyce.

Classrooms also participated in a school-wide DEAR (drop everything and read!).  Additionally, I provided each classroom teacher with 1-2 picture books to read aloud to their class.

It was another successful Read Across America day at Upham!