Fire up with Reading!

We have been very busy here at Twin Ridge for the past few weeks. We've kicked off our new reading program, Fire Up with Reading! In an effort to increase school-wide independent reading, we've used Toni Buzzeo's incentive program. Students read and record their minutes on their log. Every Monday is "Scaley Monday," where students get to put one scale on their class dragon for every 30 minutes that they've read and parents have initialed. We've just had our first "Scaley Monday" and we can already tell that we're going to have to expand some of those dragons! Our students are superstars- some reading 1 hour, 2 hours, 3 hours, or more in a single day! Staff members are participating too and our dragon is filling up quickly as well. In March, we will have a dragon parade to celebrate all of the reading and the top reader from each grade will get to be part of the dragon for the parade!

Ms. Allwardt and I had a great time introducing the program to students. Here's me in my Mrs. Skorupski outfit- fire engine tights and all! Okily dokily!

Art and Max

All the buzz in the kidlit community this month is about the release of David Wiesner's new book Art & Max.

Wiesner is the three-time Caldecott Award winner for his phenomenal illustrations. Many are predicting that he will receive a fourth for his newest title, and rightly so. The two lizards, Art and Max, converse through dialogue, but the story is really told through the illustrations. Art lovers will relish in the details of the characters and thoroughly enjoy the different mediums that Wiesner uses throughout the book. On the surface Art & Max can be read as a purely entertaining story, but a second or third read can reveal many life lessons about friendship, expressing yourself, taking risks, and the thrill of doing something you love.  While watching the antics between Art and Max unfold, you may find yourself asking who (or what) is Art?

Author List

We had a great event last night at school: Partners in Print. We had an overwhelming amount of families attend and so much enthusiasm all around! During the second session about Good Books and New Books we ran out of the cards with a list of "go-to" children's authors. As promised, here is the list for anyone who wasn't able to get a card:

Asch, Frank
Bernstain, Frank
Brown, Marc
Brett, Jan
Carle, Eric
Clifford Books
DePaola, Tomie
Fox, Mem
Henkes, Kevin
Hutchins, Pat
Kellogg, Steven
Lionni, Leo
Lobel, Arnold
Martin, Bill
Munsch, Robert
Numeroff, Laura
Beatrice Potter’s Peter Rabbit
Scarry, Richard
Sendak, Maurice
Dr. Seuss
Wells, Rosemary
Zolotow, Charlotte

Raising a Reader

Check out this great blog post about a kindergartner reading chapter books, and how raising a reader has worked for one family.

National Book Festival

For years, I have been trying to go to the National Book Festival. But, I always have an event to go to or rain pours all day long! I'm very excited to finally have a clear schedule and see a clear forecast for this Saturday, September 25. Held on the national mall in D.C., nearly 100 authors come together to present sessions, participate in interactive events, and sign books.

Are you planning on attending? Leave a comment and tell me about it! Visit different pavilions for events relating to Poetry & Prose, History & Biography, Fiction & Mystery, Contemporary Life, Teens, and Children. Also, check out this page for information specific to events and authors for kids.

Welcome!

Welcome to the new Library Media Center blog of Twin Ridge Elementary! This page is still under construction, but stay tuned for information about the library media center, book reviews, information about new technologies, tips for reading, and more. My goal is to update this blog weekly and I hope that you'll follow along with me!