Bluestem Award Goal Setting: Stumbras

As I finish book talking the Bluestem and Rebecca Caudill Nominees, students have the opportunity to discuss the books.  Ms. Stumbras's class discussed all the nominees with their table groups and then decided which book their group would most like to read.

Preparing for Eric Carle Illustrations

First graders have been exploring Eric Carle's books and learning how he creates his illustrations.  Our final project for this author study will be to create a piece of artwork in the style of Eric Carle using tissue paper as he does.  This week students have been getting their materials ready.  Tissue paper has been such a fun medium to try out!

Stay tuned to find out what this paper will become...

Author Studies: Eric Carle

Now that the Global Read Aloud is over, first graders are getting back into author studies.  Next up is Eric Carle.  We started by watching the slide shows on his website that show how he creates his illustrations.

Then we read the book The Mixed Up Chameleon and students had a great time coming up with their very own mixed up creatures.

Lion Bird Robot

Giraffe Monkey

Eagle Tiger Chicken

Cat Human Chick

Duck Alligator Platypus

Lion Alligator Elephant

Starfish Tiger Penguin

Author Studies: Mo Willems

First graders will be working on author studies throughout the year.  They will explore the different styles of a variety of authors and start to learn the words to use when discussing the work of different authors.   The first author we studied this year was Mo Willems - always a favorite!  We learned that he was a stand up comedian and a writer for Sesame Street and Cartoon Network before he started writing and illustrating books.  We explored his websites:
Go Mo
Pigeon Presents

We also learned how to draw our very own pigeons using his directions.
How to Draw the Pigeon!

Pigeon drawn on the back of an old catalog card.

Bluestem and Rebecca Caudill Hall of Fame!

Wondering who has been reading the Bluestem and Rebecca Caudill Nominees?  Check out the hall of fame posters in the front of the library to see.

Illinois Children's Choice Awards

The Disney library is happy to be providing our students the opportunity to participate in the Illinois Children's Choice Awards.  These awards ask students to read a certain number of books from a list of nominated titles and then vote for their favorites.

The Monarch Award is open to students in Illinois in K-3 who have read at least 5 of the nominated titles.  I will be sharing these books with my second and third grade classes.

The Bluestem Award is open to students in Illinois in grades 3-5 who have read at least 4 of the nominated titles.  I am book talking these titles to my students and they will have the choice to read the books in time for the vote in March.  

   

Bluestem Nominees

Bluestem Nominee Spines

The Rebecca Caudill Award is open to students in Illinois in grades 4-8 who have read at least 3 of the nominated titles.  I have book talked these books to my 6th-8th graders and they will have the choice to read the books in time for the vote in February. 

Rebecca Caudill Nominees

Rebecca Caudill Nominee Spines

We have several copies of the books here in our library and they can be found at the public library as well.

The links to the individual award sites as well as past Disney winners are on our library wiki.

Library Wiki Bluestem, Caudill, Monarch Awards

Happy reading!

New books!

We are so thrilled to have had a shipment of books from Scholastic through funds donated by the PTA.  Thank you!  We are hard at work processing all of the new books and will have them on the shelves for checkout soon!