WFL - curbside pickup

Did you see that WFL is offering curbside book pickup? Also, Boston Public Library is still physically open (I hit up the Brighton branch yesterday and stocked up- it was not crowded), but I bet they will close next week. Any MA resident can get a Boston Public library card.

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I have been trying to post 2-3 suggestions per day of things to do with the kids while you're stuck at home- please follow Upham Library on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pg/UphamLibrary/

UpCott! Which one will win?!

You may have heard from your child about our "UpCott" lessons in library -- that's Upham's version of a Caldecott award (more about the Caldecott award here: http://www.ala.org/alsc/awardsgrants/bookmedia/caldecottmedal/caldecottmedal).  For weeks, students from all grades listened to picture books that might win the "real" Caldecott award. 

Here are the nominations I chose (in no particular order):

Saturday by One Mora

The Scarecrow by Beth Ferry and the Fan Brothers

Fly by Mark Teague

Truman by Jean Reidy

Why? by Laura Vaccaro Seeger

A stone sat still by Brendan Wenzel

Every grade voted... aaaaannnnnndddddd the winner is.......  Fly by Mark Teague

Upham's choice got no Caldecott-love, not even an honor.  The Caldecott winner was The Undefeated.  Each class learned about all of the youth media award winners (in addition to the Caldecott).

Related to UpCott, our third graders had the opportunity to design our UpCott medal (that will be affixed to the cover of our UpCott winner).  First grade and fourth grade voted and the winner was Rory's design from 3W:

Congratulations, Rory!

If you're interested in exploring which books won a youth media award, visit:http://www.ala.org/news/press-releases/2020/01/american-library-association-announces-2020-youth-media-award-winners

Bingo over February Break!

We are doing another Bingo reading challenge for February break! 

If we receive at least 150 of the Bingo boards back after break, we will celebrate with a schoolwide “Twisted Tuesday” (crazy mismatched clothes and general silliness). Boards are due Thursday, 2/27. If your student loses his or her Bingo board, you can download a copy on the Upham Library website (https://drive.google.com/…/1TFZ7_n47liUWTd6kdMumJx2V_m…/view). 

Please help your student with their Bingo board and send them back to school after break!

Balloons balloons and more balloons!

Again in fifth grade this year, we celebrated the book Balloons over Broadway, by Melissa Sweet (see last year's blog post).  It's a beautifully illustrated book using collage.  The book is 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 a favorite library book.  They were given a balloon, tissue paper, sharpies and glue (so much glue!).

Taken in 5E:

Fun with STEM!

Last week was STEM week- celebrating Science, Technology, Engineering and Math!  In my Tuesday classes (2M, 3GH and 4G) we were able to focus on STEM during library.

First we read the book Iggy Peck, Architect

In the story, Iggy, a budding second grade architect, has to save his teacher and classmates when they become stranded on an island.  He builds a beautiful Golden-Gate-Bridge-esque suspension bridge and saves the day.

I asked students to channel their inner Iggy Peck and challenged them to build bridges over "streams" using only 10 legos (if they finished the first challenge, their stream got wider!).

Narrow stream challenge:

Wider stream challenge:

Students were also able to try STEM-themed centers during book checkout.  I had additional legos (with challenge cards) and magnatiles (also with challenge cards).

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

Where will you 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 one of mine- I was in London and was able to attend the Red Sox v. Yankees game (I promise I put down my book and watched the game....!).

Librarian of the day!

We had a special guest, Haochen from KBE, as our Librarian of the day.  We put him to work and he helped us so much!

Checking in all the returned books!

Mr. Dees needed to check out a book- Haochen took care of it!

He wrote out the agenda on the white board for all our classes!

Helping me read to 2C

Thank you for all your help, Haochen!

All about UpCott!

I wanted to share our “UpCott” results.  Recently, Upham students continued the tradition of voting for a picture book to win the “UpCott” Medal -- Upham’s version of a mock Caldecott.  The Caldecott Medal is an award given out by the American Library Association to the most distinguished picture book of the year. Over several weeks, Upham students listened to potential Caldecott winning titles, deciding whether the book was worthy of their UpCott vote.

Students chose the title Drawn Together by Minh Le and Dan Santat (Santat was the author/illustrator from last year’s UpCott winner, After the Fall):

Third grade students also worked hard to create an UpCott medal design while first and fourth graders voted for the winner.  The winning design was created by Tyler R. (3W) -- congratulations, Tyler!  His medal design has been affixed to the cover of the winning UpCott title.

To explore which titles won ALA medals, please visit: http://www.ala.org/news/press-releases/2019/01/american-library-association-announces-2019-youth-media-award-winners

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!!!):