Amanda Gorman, Our PebbleGo Featured Writer, Kicks Off Day 1 Of Read Across America! Look How You Can Too!

As we get ready to kick off Read Across America Week, we are getting ready to celebrate our Reading Is For Everyone Event at Van Meter.  

In fact, a lot of you are going to be joining in on this fun.  You can find all of the details here, friends. 

To go along with each day, I am putting together a choice board featuring each days...

 eBook board....

...and all of the writers featured in PebbleGo Biographies.  

The students will be able to click on the image of the PebbleGo Writers to read about any of them and we will also have a daily Featured PebbleGo Writer each day. 

On Monday, we are kicking off Read Across America with our featured PebbleGo Writer for Day 1, the amazing Amanda Gorman.  

In fact, she is the most recently added PebbleGo Biographies and we couldn't be more excited to learn more about Amanda. 

In her article, students can read about her Early Years, Becoming a Poet, Contributions and more. 

And my favorite tab, The Hill We Climb where readers can learn more about the beautiful poem she wrote and read for President Biden's Inauguration. 

There is also a video, 

timeline, 

...and Share What You Know sheet for teachers, librarians and families to use as a place for students to draw and write what they have learned about Amanda Gorman. 

If you already have PebbleGo, you will be able to grab the link, as shown in the image above, and add it to the...

...Let's Celebrate Day 1 (Amanda Gorman) choice board here. 

And guess what?  

For Women's History Month, our friends at Capstone have made all of the biographies for women in PebbleGo FREE for EVERYONE to use through March 30, 2021.  You can sign up here. 

And then everyone will have access to all PebbleGo Biographies about women, including Amanda Gorman.  You can find the link after you get the login information for this special offer.  

I will be sharing a new Featured PebbleGo Writer each day this week....all women too.  :) 

I also added it to the two new Reading Is For Everyone choice boards. 

Here is the one with dress up days and Amanda Gorman and...

...here is the one without dress up days and Amanda Gorman.  

Just remember, you will have to add the link to the Amanda Gorman article with the directions above. 

Our March You've Been Book'd Reading Program Is Filled With Diverse and Special Books and Conversations

It's time for our March Van Meter Readers You've Been Book'd!  

Every month, I have so much fun pulling together at least 24 new books to share in our You've Been Book'd program.  I think about the special events and celebrations that are taking place that month.  This helps me as I select the perfect books for the bags that will travel classroom to classroom to be read to our students. 

In March, we have Women's History Month, Read Across America, National Crayon Day, the first day of spring and so much more.  

I also pull from new and diverse books from a variety of publishers like these for March which include Selfie, Maxine and the Greatest Garden and Laxmi's Mooch. 

After I select the books, I put them together in a collage and add it to the You've Been Book'd poster. This is then put on each classroom door and we start passing the books.  They are read and shared within each classroom, marked off on the poster and passed to another classroom. 

I am so excited to get our You've Been Book'd bags all packed up with 24 new picture book to share with our classrooms Monday.  I will be bringing around the posters (as shown below) and the bags.  This is such a fun day! The students and teachers are always very excited to get these deliveries. 

Our students in preschool through fifth grade participate.  They love this program and get so excited to hear lots of new books each month.  And this is great for teachers too as they see and read lots of new books that will be put into our library. 

If you are interested in knowing more about our You've Been Book'd program, here is the original post from The Library Post.  Please let me know if you have any questions or would like the templates for the posters I create each time I make a new You've Been Book'd list. 

Happy Reading, friends.  I can't wait to hear if you try this too. This program is one of the best ways to share special books and cultivate a love of reading with our students and teachers. 

Here is the original post...

Saturday, May 11, 2019

You've Been Book'd! A New Picture Book Program At Van Meter!

During Teacher Appreciation Week, we started something new from the library with a little help from our families at Van Meter in the VMEPC.  

I saw this adorable idea during Read Across America Week from Weaver Elementary on Twitter called You've Been Book'd! 

I love this!  What a special way to get more books into classrooms and the hands of teachers and students.  

For our You've Been Book'd program at Van Meter, we wanted to put a bit of a different spin on it for our elementary. 

With our You've Been Book'd program,  there will be six You've Been Book'd bags.  These are little cloth bags with fuzzy, felt like letters that stick onto the bags. 

One bag will start out in each of the grade levels kindergarten through fifth grade with a...

...different picture book in each.  These books will be new to our library collections and ones that haven't been shared in the library with our readers yet.  This will make them super special and new for teachers to share and read aloud. 

I had so much fun picking out the first six...even though it sure was hard to narrow down the list. 

I went around on Thursday and passed them out explaining that after they read the book, they could pass it onto another classroom who hadn't read it yet, with a reminder to not forget to put it back in the bag for its journey around the school.  

To keep track of who has Been Book'd, I created these posters for each door so our readers can mark off which ones they have read in their classroom. 

When every classroom has read all six books, they will be returned to the library in their bags.  

These new books will then be cataloged and circulated within our library collection and six new books will be selected to make their round in the bags and book us!  With each set of books, a new poster will be created and hung on the doors too. 

We are super excited about this new program because it will be a way to not only introduce wonderful new picture books to our students and teachers, it will be a way to continue to build our library collection with a diverse selection of engaging, amazing and very special new books.  

This will also give ownership of the collection to all of our readers, as we remember and cherish the books that we read from the You've Been Book'd bags for years to come.  

Thank you to our VMEPC for helping us kick this off!  You are the best and we appreciate everything you do to make our school awesome and give our students the best experiences every day.  

You will find this file in Canva here.  Please feel free to make a copy of this template for yourself and your You've Been Book'd program. 

Two QR Posters For The "Celebrate Reading Is For Everyone" eBooks Choice Boards!

 

With Read Across America Week coming up next week, we are getting ready for a fun celebration with our students at school and those learning remotely.  

I do a lot of posters with QR codes for our learners using iPads and other devices.  This makes it easy for them to use anywhere they want to access the resources such as our Destiny Discover, PebbleGo, eBooks in Capstone Interactive and of course, lots of choice boards. 

I put together a poster this morning for youngest learners to use with their iPads when they access our Celebrate Reading Is For Everyone choice board.  You can read about and get the links for this special choice board filled with Capstone Interactive eBooks for everyone to use through March 6, 2021 here. 

You will find the QR poster here. This one includes the dress up days.

And if you would like it without the dress up days, you will find that QR poster here. 

I hope you find these helpful to use with your learners and families too. 

The Webinar Recording and Resources Are Here....News Literacy With Tom Bober and Michelle Luhtala

Today, I had the honor of being part of an amazing conversation around news literacy for the Future Ready Librarian February webinar, News Literacy: Identifying Fact From Fiction. 

Two very special guests and friends, Tom Bober and Michelle Luhtala,  joined me for the webinar. 

You will find more about the webinar and the recording here. 

And you will find the Google Slide presentation here.  The resources are linked in the slides. 

I know you will find this webinar super helpful and inspiring too.

Two Versions Of The "Celebrate Reading Is For Everyone" Choice Boards!

A lot of you have asked for a different version of the Celebrate Reading Is For Everyone choice board that we will use to celebrate Read Across America on March 1-5. 

In this blog post, I shared this very special choice board that is filled with 50 eBooks for everyone to use through March 6, 2021.  It included dress up days and some of you will not do dress up days or have planned different ones.  So, I have made two versions to share.  

You will find Version 1, without dress up days included, here to share with students.  If you would like to make edits, here is that link too. 

You will find Version 2, with dress up days included, here to share with students.  If you would like to make edits, here is that link too. 

I hope these two versions are helpful, friends.  Please let me know if there is anything else you need. 

Read Across America BreakoutEDU For Everyone To Use and Share!

This week we are getting ready for Read Across America at Van Meter.  

Not only do we have places our students, teachers and families can go to find books to read and celebrate their lives as readers, there are also sites and programs that are offering special activities and projects to...

...celebrate this special event too. 

I am so excited that BreakoutEDU has created a special digital game....

...for Read Across America for all of us to use and share with our students at school and at home. 

They will love working through this digital BreakoutEDU that celebrates Read Across America through...

...cleaver and creative puzzles and clues. 

You will find the Read Across America BreakoutEDU here. 

You will also find the Read Across America BreakoutEDU under Technology Fun on the March Choice Board here.

A Book Birthday For It's So Quiet, A Sweet New Book by Sherri Duskey Rinker and Illustrated by Tony Fucile

I am very excited to share a NEW book that comes out today!  It is called It's So Quiet by Sherri Duskey Rinker, illustrated by Tony Fucile. 

As shared online, 

A silly, noisy bedtime book that will have readers squealing, croaking, and laughing along before settling down for a quiet night's sleep! 

It's time for bed, but one little mouse just can't get to sleep—it's TOO QUIET! However, the night is actually full of sounds, from the croak of the bullfrog to the howl of a coyote on a distant hill. As the rhythmic symphony of nighttime noises build in this rollicking read-aloud, the mouse starts to wonder whether he wouldn't like a little MORE quiet. 

This sweet new book will capture the hearts of our young readers as we share it in our libraries, classrooms and homes. 

This "Not-Quite-Going-To-Bed Book" is going to be a favorite for all young readers with its sweet characters, chalk like illustrations and this wonderful story that will help children become more aware of the sounds around them. 

You will find It's So Quiet on the Chronicle Books site here so you can add it to your library collection too.

Celebrate Reading Is For Everyone For 5 Days With 50 FREE Capstone eBooks & Activities During Read Across America Week!

During the week of March 1-5, we will celebrate Reading Is For Everyone with reading, books and our life as readers. 

To celebrate this week, I have put together 5 themed days to celebrate reading.  Each day includes a special activity and 10 FREE Capstone eBooks around each theme.  

Take a look at each day....

Monday: Let's celebrate that reading is amazing...and so are you. 

Activity: Dress in your favorite outfit...What makes you YOU! 

Tuesday: Let's celebrate that reading is for sharing. 

Activity: Bring a book to read to a friend. You can even dress as the character in your favorite book. 

Wednesday: Let's celebrate that reading is relaxing. 

Activity: Dress is your jammies to get cozy when you read today. 

Thursday: Let's celebrate that reading is active. 

Activity: Dress up to celebrate how you like to be active. 

Friday: Let's celebrate that reading gives us superpowers. 

Activity: Dress up as a superhero!  Show off your superpowers! 

I have made two versions to share.  

You will find Version 1, without dress up days included, here to share with students.  If you would like to make edits, here is that link too. 

You will find Version 2, with dress up days included, here to share with students.  If you would like to make edits, here is that link too. 

The 50 Capstone eBooks will be available from February 22 to March 6, 2021. 

I am going to send home a poster this week with all students so they can plan for the dress up days the week of March 1-5.  

On the poster, I have added a QR code and bit.ly (bit.ly/readingeveryone) that will take them to the eBooks choice board.  

All students will be able to read and listen to the eBooks anywhere...at school, at home and on the go. 

You will find the Google Slides with different choices for sharing this to your students here. 

Read Across America is one of our favorite weeks each year.  And this year, it will be extra special as we celebrate Reading Is For Everyone!  We hope you can join us for this celebration too, friends.