12 LIVE Author Read-Alouds In May From Our Friends At Storyvoice!

 

I love the live author events that our friends at Storyvoice.  

Today, they shared twelve new ones coming up in May. WOW...They are going to be awesome! 

You can join all of these with students and teachers FREE at this link. Make sure you share these with others in your school community too. 

Let's StickTogether For May the 4th With Two Virtual Stickerboards!

 

It's almost May 4th and such a fun day to celebrate all kinds of Star Wars and space things. 

Our kids will be exploring books, games and the Star Wars Day Choice Board this week at school, and they will also be working together to create...

....one of the May the 4th Be With You Virtual Stickerboards from our friends at StickTogether. 

Everyone can find these two in the Virtual Stickerboard Gallery here on their site in the May 2023 Gallery. 

I also created one for all of us to work on together for May the 4th. 

You can join in on the fun here. 

Have a fun week, friends and may the 4th be with you! 

Let's Celebrate May the 4th...Star Wars Day With This Choice Board For Creating, Exploring, Learning, Coding, & Fun!

                 

It's almost time for one of our favorite days coming up on May the 4th....Star Wars Day! 

On this day, there are lots of exciting, educational, creative and fun ways to celebrate.  We tie in lots of STEAM, art, coding, reading and learning online to this day and throughout the week. 

To kick off our celebration, I created this choice board, Let's Celebrate Star Wars Day With This Choice Board. You will find the link to share with students here.   

If you would like to make a copy to edit, you can get a copy here. 

I also made a version that includes space and planets articles from... 

...PebbleGo and PebbleGo Next so our students can research and learn about these topics for Star Wars Day. 

With the information they learn from PebbleGo and PebbleGo Next, students can then go to PebbleGo Create/Buncee to create their very own May the 4th Be With You PebbleGo Create/Buncee story or poster.  

There are tons of space related stickers, animations and backgrounds to choose from in PebbleGo Create/ Buncee by Capstone. I uploaded a few I found online to use and they can even turn themselves into an astronaut like Buncee Man. 

You will find this version with PebbleGo and Pebble Go Create/Buncee to share with students here.  You can make edits to this choice board here.  If you have PebbleGo and PebbleGo Next, you will want to add links to those articles. 

In addition to the choice boards, we are going to set up different stations and activities for our students.  Here are some of the resources we are going to use.  

The Anthony Herrera Designs site has amazing Star Wars Snowflakes. 

You can download the snowflake patterns so students can create their own.  You will find the site here.

The Star Wars Day May The 4th Be With You site has lots of special resources and information too. You can visit it here. 

I love the cooking and...

...craft activities.  

And this Star Wars Day Activity Kit is packed full of games, recipes and more!  You will find it here.

I hope you have fun planning a Star Wars Day Celebration for your community.  I can't wait to see what you and your students have planned. 

Our BOOKHUB Takeout and Virtual BOOKHUB For May! Our Monthly eBook Reading Promotion Using Capstone Connect For All Readers!

 

One of our favorite reading promotions at Van Meter School is our...

...BOOKHUB Takeout Stations!  This is a place where our teachers can pick up books to read aloud and share with their students each month. 

We select these books and put together the BOOKHUB Menu in Canva, which shows the books that are available at the BOOKHUB Takeout Stations each month.  

I print off the BOOKHUB Menu posters for each classroom. The students and teachers like looking at the menu to pick the books they want to read. They also cross them off as they go as a way to keep track of what they are reading too. 

It is so much fun.  You can read all about our BOOKHUB Takeout Stations here in this post.

Here is our new BOOKHUB Menu for May. There are lots of new books and books that tie into monthly themes and events like Teacher Appreciate Week, gardens and planting, end of the school year, school vacation, families, friends, and more. 

You can find this in Canva here to make a copy if you'd like to use BOOKHUB too. 

Along with the BOOKHUB Takeout Stations with the physical books, I also want to support all readers with eBooks each month. This will give our students eBooks to read as they learn about different events and celebrations throughout the year.  It also gives them choice in what they want to read since I put them together in the Virtual BOOKHUB choice boards. 

To create the Virtual BOOKHUB choice boards, I use Capstone Connect. This is an amazing new platform from our friends at Capstone that connects PebbleGo, PebbleGo Next, Capstone Interactive eBooks and teachers resources in one place with links to use that connect to each resource.

Let me show you how I created the Virtual BOOKHUB choice board. 

I logged into Capstone Connect. I searched Summer using the Title Search in Capstone Connect. 

When I searched Summer, it gave me the results eBooks and PebbleGo articles.

For the choice board I created, I needed the book cover and link to the eBook.  

To view the eBook, I clicked on Summer at Oak Tree Cottage and it...

...opened up in Capstone Interactive.  This let me view the eBook and also grab the cover image. 

I then clicked on Copy Link and took it to the choice board. 

I then went back to the Our May Virtual BOOKHUB choice board I created in Google Slides.  I added the screen shot of the book cover, clicked on the image, and added the link I copied to the image. 

When our students and teachers click on the book covers, it will take them straight to the ebooks within Capstone Interactive.  

We don't even have to login because by using Capstone Connect it takes us directly to the eBooks and PebbleGo resources every time.  

We love our BOOKHUB program and can't wait to celebrate reading in one more way with our students as we share these wonderful groups of books and eBooks every month! 

I made this template for you to create your own May Virtual BOOKHUB.  If you have Capstone Interactive eBooks, you can find the link and add them to the book covers I have included above or take this template and fill in your own eBooks and choices for May. 

You will find the May Virtual BOOKHUB template without eBook covers here.

Happy Reading, friends. 

Join The Special LIVE Interview With Kwame Alexander On May 10th To Celebrate His Novel-Turned TV Series, Crossover!

 

I am so excited for this special author event coming up on May 10 at 11:00am CST with Kwame Alexander. Our friends at Follett have teamed up with Kwame to celebrate his novel-turned TV series, The Crossover. 

As shared on the Follett site, 

Join us at 11am CT on Wednesday, May 10, to celebrate Kwame Alexander’s best-selling novel, "The Crossover", being turned into a TV series! Follett and Kwame Alexander are giving students from around the country the opportunity to ask Kwame questions about the book and TV series: how they were developed, what it’s like working with an entertainment giant, what it takes to adapt a novel for the screen, and more!

If your students are interested in submitting questions for Kwame, collect and share them on Instagram or Twitter using #ReadStrong by Sunday, May 7, or submit them during registration. Kwame will choose 15 questions to answer live. Register today and watch it from your classroom or library and find out whose questions were chosen!

Plus, we’ll choose one lucky registrant to receive a grade-level collection of Kwame Alexander Bookfest, which includes six copies of five age-appropriate titles curated by Kwame himself for a unique book club experience!

Register today to secure your spot and enter the giveaway! If you can’t attend live, register anyway so you can be entered into the giveaway and can receive a link of the recording after the event to show it to your students at a later date.

You can register here. What an awesome event this will be!

Don't Miss The 2023 Reading Con! The Premier Literacy Event From Our Friends At Follett Returns On June 22, 2023 With An All-Star Lineup and More!

 

Friends, there is an amazing literacy event coming up on June 22, 2023 that you won't want to miss!  Especially if are in the Chicagoland area, make sure to check it out. It's right before the ALA Annual Conference in Chicago too. 

ReadingCon from our friends at Follett is back!  

This very special event pairs together today's most popular authors with educators to bring us live presentations, breakout sessions, discussions and more-all on hot topics in Grades K-12 literacy. 

As shared online, 

Follett is bringing educators together to discuss trending topics in today's K-12 schools. This premier event will focus on literacy and diversity and how we can make a difference in the students we serve. This inspiring professional development event will feature meaningful sessions that address key topics facilitated by teachers and librarians in education alongside high-profile authors to promote discussion.

• Breakout sessions on education topics
• A full day of professional development
• Dynamic author keynote speakers and author signings
• Bookstore with available featured author titles for on-site purchases
• Publisher marketplace to browse the latest titles from key publishers
• Continental breakfast and lunch buffet provided

Seating is limited so you can register today for 2023 ReadingCon here. 

BIG News! 30 New Articles Added To PebbleGo This Week!

 

I LOVE it when our friends at Capstone announce when new articles are added to PebbleGo.  Our learners and teachers do too! 

This week, 30 NEW articles have been added to PebbleGo! 

As shared by Capstone, 

We are excited to announce that on April 28th, we will be adding 30 new articles to PebbleGo! Each of these articles will be coming to PebbleGo in both English and Spanish. Below is the complete list of the newly added articles including a description of the various biographies being added. 

I explored lots of the new PebbleGo articles this week.  

We now have Blobfish, 

Billie Eilish, 

John Legend, 

Insect Metamorphosis, and...

...the Amazon River, just to name a few. 

You will find the list for the new PebbleGo Biographies, 

Animals, Health, Science, and...

...Social Studies articles that were added to PebbleGo here.

You can learn more about PebbleGo, and PebbleGo Next, here on the Capstone site.

The May Virtual Stickerboard Calendar Is Here and Filled With So Many New Stickerboards!

 

The May Virtual Stickerboard Calendar from our friends at StickTogether is here and filled with so many new Virtual Stickerboards! 

Every month, StickTogether creates a wonderful calendar that shows special events throughout the month. And the BEST part...they have created a monthly Virtual StickTogether Sticker Board Gallery to go along with these special events and celebrations!  

You will find the May Virtual Stickerboard Calendar here.

You will find out more about Virtual Stickerboards and how to use them with your students here.

Once you click on Create a Virtual Stickerboard, 

you will find the May 2023 Gallery.  

This gallery has all of the Virtual Stickerboards that correspond with the days on the new StickTogether Virtual Stickerboard Calendar. 

Check out a few of them...

The Virtual Stickerboards are FREE for everyone to use.  

Have fun using the May Virtual Stickerboards with your students and community too.