Edible Book Festival

That's right I said Edible Book Festival and no we didn't eat books.  I am on the Board of the Friends of North East Libraries group and for our spring membership meeting we wanted to do something different.  Our board ran through a number of ideas until one member remembered seeing something about an Edible Book Festival so we looked it up and decided that was the perfect event for the spring.

What is an Edible Book Festival?  You can read about it here  but basically t's a celebration of books and reading.  Participants create an "edible" book that depicts a title of a book, characters from a book, or a play on words of a title.

The planning of this event was a bit crazy because we really had no idea what to expect and the concept is difficult to understand.  But we ploughed ahead planning a two hour event on a Sunday afternoon.  Entries were judged on Best in Show, Best Children's,  Funniest/Punniest, and People's Choice.  While local chef celebrities judged the creations, we had a crepe making demonstration by a chef at the Culinary Art Institute.

Leading up to the week of the event, we had 11 entries register which we thought was great for our first go-round.  By Friday afternoon, 26 registered and the day of the event we had 37 show up!!

We had some pretty creative entries and were thrilled with the event.  We are looking forward to making it bigger and better next year.  Here are just a few pictures from the event.

Creepy Carrots 

Adult Entry

Funniest/Punniest Winner

Not all were cakes - Cookie Dough

Warriors

Best Children's Entry

People's Choice Award

The "Hangry" Games

Best in Show Winners: The Nest made from Rice Krispy Treats, Honeycomb Toffee, Rice Paper and Fondandt

Crepe Demonstration

The Amazing Jeff Mack

WOW!! What a day!

Today we welcomed Jeff Mack, author and illustrator of many, many books.

He had 5th grade completely engaged and quieter than I have ever seen them for an ENTIRE hour!

He showed them in a real video (sped up) how his illustrations come about from taping the paper down to his drawing board to taking a thumb drive of the illustrations to the copy shop so he can see how the "book" will turn out.  He also discussed how illustrators have to be sure to match the style of the drawing to the characters. The students brought notebooks and pencils and he showed them how to draw Clueless McGee.  We are not sure if this Clueless McGee is ready for Halloween or in some kind of show...

Since 4th graders in Texas have to take a state writing test, his presentaiton to them was more about the writing process and his steps for writing.  He was sure to draw with them also... a Steph-Curry-loving-hippo.

With K,1st, 2nd and 3rd, he talked about practicing and not giving up when you don;t get it right the first time.  Then he read a book with each group. You can definitely tell that these drawing came from the lower grades... only random thought came from a 3rd grader who wanted bear to hold a "cup of hot chocolate that smells like broccoli"?  I know... I'm sure there is a reason for that, but we didn't go there.

                  

All in all, it was a great day.  Students and teachers enjoyed his visit.  I highly recommend Jeff if you are looking for an author to visit your school.

                   

Live Video Feed with Jarrett Krosoczka

Another fabulous opportunity for my students discovered on Twitter...

Last night I noticed a tweet about a live opportunity Jarrett Krosoczka was offering for students today.

 I immediately emailed my teachers about it.  As usual, most were skeptical, but my two go-getter, willing to try anything, 4th grade teachers jumped at the 11:00 opportunity.   They even asked questions during the feed and Jarrett answered them!  

Wanting to get more teachers on board, I asked these two to reply to my email about how cool it was (sneaky, I know, but hey, it worked!)  and I brought it up with them in the teacher's lounge at lunch since he was doing another one at 1:00 our time.  

Once they heard how easy and fabulous it was, the rest of the teachers were all on board.  During the feed, Jarrett introduces his Platypus Police Squad books and how he draws the characters.  Some of my kinder students were even drawing along!  

 

He also showed how he changes characters facial expressions by drawing different lines around the eyes.  Here is a 2nd grader practicing.

What a super way to connect with kids and get kids excited about reading.  With summer coming up, I know what books my students are going to be looking for at the library.  

 

Here are some actual quotes from some 5th graders about the experience.  

"We are learning about his books online without him actually being here"

"We loved that it was interactive"

"Not only did he talk about his books, but he showed us how he illustrated them too"

"He gave us a sneak peak of his next book"

"We got to look at a live screen at a famous author that students across the country were able to see at the same time"

Thanks Mr. Krosoczka for a fabulous 20 min that our students will remember!  

Book Fair

I have a love/hate relationship with book fair.

I love to see the kids excitement when they see the carts in the hallways and their "oohs" and "aaahs" as we are unpacking the fair.  I hate unpacking the fair, 

I love that the students want to buy a lot of books.  I hate when they come to the counter with 6 hardback books and $2.

I love seeing families come to the book fair together to buy books.  I hate the looks on the parent's faces when the children say, "can I get the hand pointer?"

I love that the book fair is a way for me to raise money to bring authors to my school.  I hate that a good chunk of the money is made off the "junk" instead of the books.  

I love seeing students that know how to count and handle their money.  I hate seeing baggies full of change and wadded up bills.  

I love that students I don't think will bring money to buy books, do.  I hate that not every child can buy a book and some feel they have to steal to get one.  

I hate when book fair is over.  I love when book fair is over and the kids are already asking when the next one is.     

March Madness Book Brackets

We just crowned the winner of our March Madness book bracket title after a 4 week voting process!  I originally saw this idea through my PLN on Twitter.  Lots of schools have been doing this and I jumped on the bandwagon a little late this year.  I ran a report through our management system of the 16 books that had the most checkouts so far this year and was pleasantly surprised there was a mixture of Fiction, Graphic Novel and Picture books.  I paired them up and made a large bracket on the library wall.

Then I made a bracket using word and saved it as an image and a PDF.    

I then put the image on my library webpage along with a link to a google form for students to submit their predictions and the PDF in case they wanted to turn in a paper copy of the bracket.  I gave them a week to submit their brackets and this is the part that I would like to start earlier next year.  We started the week we came back from spring break and next year, I think I want them to submit over the week of spring break. 

The next week, I unlinked the prediction google form and linked up a voting form  where students could vote on the book they wanted to advance to the Elite 8.  We reminded the students to vote everyday on the announcements.  

The next Monday, we put up the pictures of the Elite 8 books and a new google form and let them have the whole week to vote again.  This last week, I let them vote on the Final 4 from Monday-Wednesday and then the Final book Thursday and Friday.  

Today on the announcements I announced that Creepy Carrots by Aaron Reynolds was the winner. We had Aaron visit last year and I love that they still enjoy his books.  

I don;t know if you can see on the picture, but it came down to Dead City by James Ponti and Creepy Carrots.  

Using google forms for the voting made it very easy to see who won from each pairing.  There is a "view summary" button that puts the information into a pie chart.  

This was a really fun way to promote books in our library.  Even though they were already the most popular books, I still had kids coming in to check out "the books we can vote on".  I had also told the students that the person who had the highest point total in their prediction brackets would get a $25 gift certificate to our May book fair.  I get to announce that on Wednesday!

Read Around the School

Yesterday, we had our first "Read Around the School" of the year.  This is a fun whole-school reading activity that is a bit chaotic, but the kids and teachers really enjoy it.  At my school, the classes are paired up with reading buddies that they visit with once a month so that is how we do the pairings for Read Around the School (or RATS for short).  Buddy teachers get together and choose a book for the event.  One of the teachers will be the reader and one the traffic controller on the day of the event. They have to let me know what book they choose and which room they would like to read in.  Sometimes we have a theme, like Winter Wonderland (books with winter or snow settings) or Dog Days of Summer (books about Dogs) or sometimes it is just teacher's choice.  

Three days before the event, I send out a map of the school with the titles listed in the rooms they will be read and a schedule.  I try to keep the room where the teachers ask, but sometimes I have to change the location because of traffic flow.  

Two days before the event the teachers hang a poster advertising the book outside the classroom where it will be read.  

 

I love seeing the creativity that comes out in these posters.  Some teachers love to make it themselves and some teachers have students work on it.

The day before the event the buddy classes get together to take a "Poster Walk" around the school.  Some teachers give the older buddies the map and the buddies highlight the books they are interested in listening to.

 

The Day of the Event, I come on the announcements at the specified time and tell the buddies it is time to meet.  The teachers walk the kids to the buddy meeting classroom.  I give them about 5 min to do that.  Then I come back on the announcements and tell them buddies to walk to their first story.  This is where it gets a little chaotic.  Picture 900 kids all loose in the school traveling to different locations.  The traffic controllers and any extra personnel stand in the halls and remind kids to walk and help direct them to rooms.  This take about 5 min.  I come back on announcements and say they should be in a room and for the readers to start reading.

 

 

Some teachers show the book on the document camera.  Some use the projector to display things related to the books.  Some just hold the book in front of the class.  Some teachers dress up or have props. It really can be however they want.

We let them read for 10 min and then come back on the announcements and repeat.  Two or three rotations is usually plenty.  Then the big buddies walk the little buddies back to their class and it is over!

Sample Schedule
1:45 travel to meeting location
1:50 big buddies and little buddies travel to first story
1:55 Start reading
2:05 Stop reading travel to second story
2:10 Start reading
2:20 Stop reading and travel to third story
2:25 Start reading
2:35 Stop reading and take little buddy back to class

I love that this is a whole school activity centered around reading and that the big kids enjoy it as much as the little kids.

Literacy Pumpkin Patch

Our annual pumpkin patch is here!

 I just love seeing how creative our families can be.  Take a look at some of these. 

Now I wouldn't exactly call a Minion a "literary character" but there are Despicable Me books and he is REaDing so you gotta love it!

Amelia Bedelia

The Lorax

Splat the Cat

Dr Seuss... Isn't the shape of this pumpkin perfect!

Pigeon and Duckling (and Little Critter photo bombing)

Which is your favorite?