Family Caldecott Night at CES

Reading The Book of Mistakes together

It is award season at Castleton Elementary and as par for the course, I have been bitten by the Youth Media Award bug pretty badly!  I've got a second grade Mock Caldecott going strong; a fun and unique Mock Geisel project with one first grade class; Sibert Smackdown in fourth and my sixth year Mock Newbery in fifth. Needless to say my days are full and rewarding but I'd be remiss if I didn't say also exhausting.

And yet, here  it is, after 11:00 pm and I am blogging...

But I can't put it off any longer--We had an amazing evening with families last night!  Mrs. Roe's second graders were invited to the library to read our Caldecott contenders, share their Caldecott scoresheets from their special folders and Skype with one of our illustrators. Oh yeah, and get sated, too, as we had plenty of snacks to go around. Along with ice cream and freeze pops, Mrs. Roe baked cupcakes and I made my famous popcorn.

Everyone shared their the books they love the most with their families.  As you can see, it is quite the variety! We have so many!  Can you spot your favorite?

 

Don't you just want to stare at these pictures all day long?  I do!  Happy parents! Happy Siblings! Happy second graders!  All reading together and in their PJs no less!  

About half way through, we got ready for our Skype with Corinna Luyken, author and illustrator of The Book of Mistakes.  Mrs. Roe went around with index cards to gather questions from kids and parents and then everyone got seated in front of the SmartBoard waiting for our guest to "arrive" or shall I say, "appear."

Corinna was great!  She told us about how she came up with the idea for her book, the actual mistakes that are in the book and shared early sketches of that gorgeous tree.  Her big and beautiful studio is in a separate room in her house. She twirled around and gave us a mini-tour. Corinna likes working with ink and showed us her ink bottle and one of the brushes that she uses.

It was especially fun because Corinna has an eight year old daughter, the same age as the kids in Mrs. Roe's class, so she totally knew how to relate to our second graders. I have a feeling, too, that her daughter is "Quinn." Just sayin'. We have a Quinn in the class AND the book is dedicated to "Quinn." Corinna got a little excited when our Quinn asked her a question.  It might have even been the first one!

We talked about favorite books from 2017 and books Corinna loved when she was little.  She mentioned that it was only 4:15 pm at the time, where she lives in Olympia, Washington.  And that turned into a mini-geography lesson.  I was glad my globe was nearby!

I can't say enough how much I appreciate when book creators take their personal time to meet with us.  Thank you, Corinna!  Who knew that when I read her book to all 410 students at our first Monthly Morning Assembly back in September that we would be Skyping four months later? Just goes to show you how unpredictable and delightful life can be.

Geisel Parent Night #2

Mrs. Pryde made this.  Don't you think it is Pinterest worthy?

Parents, do you ever want to be in "the room where it happens? The room where it happens?"  Well, the parents of Mrs. Pryde's first grade Geisel Committee Members were able to be there tonight and it was great!

We started off showing this Animoto of all the pictures I've taken of kids since Geisel began.  Please excuse the few random ones in there that are from Stone Soup day and maybe one or two early morning book exchange photo ops.  Otherwise, they are all from our Geisel meetings.





Check out the crowd we had:

That room was filled!

After a brief introduction of the project and what the kids have been doing so far (Skypes, scoresheets, author letters), we Skyped with Kevin Delecki in Cedar Rapids, Iowa who was the chair of the Geisel Committee in 2015 and on the Caldecott Committee in 2011.  The kids asked questions about his experience being on the Committee, how many books he read (nearly 700!) and what his favorite books were now and when he was little.  Watch out local bookstores! There may be a demand of the Dr. Seuss's  My Book About Me. That was Kevin's favorite book when he was little. When he was six years old, he wrote that he read 10 million books.  We were wondering what that number is up to now!  It was great, too, because even a few parents asked questions!

Thank you, Kevin!

Our Committee Members all had their notebooks to share with parents and some even completed scoresheets together.  The scene below was not unusual tonight! #love

Not only did we enjoy these cupcakes, but a mom brought in a chocolate fountain (Yes! I agreed to have it in the library and all was fine and delicious!) and of course, I made popcorn.

Mrs. Pryde baked and Nana Sober helped make the toppers today!

All in all it was a sweet night filled with excitement for books and reading!

Look at this crowd!

I love when the library is bustling in the evening!