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!