The cake is ordered. Two to be exact, since we are having so many kids at our viewing party. The link has been tweeted and sent home with parents. Mother Nature is going to cooperate. Finally. Mock Results are in (sort of) and Consensus Club came up with a, well, consensus.
Caldecott
The snow day and delays really threw us off with Mrs. Roe's Caldecott class. The highlight, though, was Skyping with Mike Curato, illustrator of All the Way to Havana, yesterday morning after he walked the adorable Princess Leia. The second graders stumped him as they fired off "What's your favorite...?" questions but he held his own quite well, especially for 9:00 am! We will all be rooting for him on Monday. 
Because we ran out of time, Mrs. Roe will be conducting the vote first thing Monday morning. On a side note: I do like the MST event--it gives us time to work out glitches, do a few things and not mess with specials in 4th and 5th grade. Thank you ALSC and Denver.
Geisel
We didn't run a classic Mock Geisel this year with Mrs. Kosinski's first graders. A "Read It-Make It-Take It" project morphed into a Geisel project as we ended up creating activities around all the Geisel contenders. We did 13 projects and read 17 books! And that doesn't include Jasmine Toguchi Mochi Queen, one of our first projects. No surprise that Ninja in the Kitchen was the favorite since making the pizza from scratch was pretty fun! My favorite? Charlie and Mouse and Grumpy by Laurel Snyder. When I read that book aloud to them yesterday, I got a big ole frog in my throat.
My personal Geisel 2018 Analogy:
Jonathan Fenske is to laughing as Laurel Snyder is to crying.
Sibert
No standout winner here except for ALL our fourth graders! WOW! They were amazing! We read a lot of books. They chose their favorite and alone or with a partner(s), they created a 3-D project (some included food--cookies are cool but check out the grape barbells!), shared ten facts and wrote a persuasive paragraph on why their books should win the 2018 Sibert award. We know not all of our books can and will win but we have a feeling one or two (or three) just might. How to be an Elephant maybe? Dazzle Ships (for sure?) Grand Canyon, maybe? What about Nic Bishop's Penguin Day? And to hear the kids exclaim how much they love The Youngest Marcher is the coolest ever.
(Agh...I just spent a whole hour trying to figure out how to put Google Photos into a photo album. Please look at all of these if you can--I am so proud of our fourth graders!)https://photos.app.goo.gl/b5P2lP5uvJINkm7E2
Newbery
What can I say about Newbery? I'm speechless. I look back in my book journal (yes, I do not use Goodreads) and have been reading, listening, discussing and scoring these books for the past 13 months. The final moment will come at around 10:50 EST. This is my sixth time doing this project and over the years we have experienced all different emotions from ecstatic, elated, happy, sad, disappointed, surprised, angry (yes, one year the kids boo'ed--we had a lesson on sportsmanship after that!) but always accepting. It has taken me some time to realize that the decision comes down to fifteen librarians who may or may not have the same opinions, feelings, background as my students and I do and that's ok. But it is a let down for me. I still think about my "Kwame Kids" (2015) and last year screaming and leaping with Ashlynn in her footy PJs and even my first year with Ivan and the boys exclaiming, "Our book won!" I love Newbery so much and wish we could be this intense about reading ALL year long. You in, Mr. Reischer?We did have our Consensus Club meeting yesterday after school. It was one for the books, literally! The winner (but it was close!) was Orphan Island! Honors went to: Beyond the Bright Sea, The Ethan I Was Before, Refugee and Chasing Augustus.
I must say that whatever books win on Monday, we are truly all winners for becoming critical, passionate and I hope, lifelong readers. CHEERS.
No comments:
Post a Comment