Celebrating World Read Aloud Day is a joy and a thrill each and every year! No matter how many times my students and I connect with authors and classes from around the country, I am constantly reminded about just how special these connections are. Spending the week skyping and reading terrific books brings together what I love best about the library: inspiring readers. 

Tuesday, 3/3:
Ms. Stewart's 2nd graders shared Interrupting Chicken with Ms. Lindeman's 3rd graders from Babylon, NY. This was a new connection for us, and we had a lot of fun! Reading Interrupting Chicken is hilarious! 

Next, Mrs. Brand's kindergarteners read My New Friend is So Fun by Mo Willems with Ms. Hendrix's class from Asheville, NC. This was a great one because there are 2 extra characters and a surprise ending! 

WRAD would not be complete without a connection with the amazing Mr. Winner and his kindergarteners from Elkridge, Maryland. There was much laughter and fun as we read Mo Willem's Waiting is Not Easy! 

Of course we had to draw some Pigeon pics! Who can resist?!? The tremendous Mo Willems was the keynote at MSLA and I learned that drawing is simply about shapes. I'll stick to reading thank you, but these kids were amazing!

Our day wrapped up with another new connection - Ms. Uribe and her students from Austin, Texas skyped with Mrs. Loffredo's 1st graders. Elephant and Piggie starred again as we read We Are in a Book. 

Wednesday:
Mrs. Canning's kindergarteners came to library for a very special connection: Author Erin Dealey! She connected with us all the way from California! She had to get up pretty early AND the moment we were connecting, her power went out! Unbelievable. But after a couple minutes everything got back on track and we were treated to a very special skype. Ms. Dealey shared her passion for reading with my students and even taught them a little song! I had brought two of her books to Mrs. Canning to share with the kids before the skype so they were familiar with her work and she read Little Bo Peep Can't Get to Sleep to us. There is something so special about an author reading their work aloud. We were even treated to a bonus book, Deck the Walls: A Wacky Christmas Carol. What a pleasure it was to meet this special author!

It was a long time coming, but Nancy Jo Lambert and I finally connected! She and her students from Frisco, Texas read The Book with No Pictures with Mrs. Lundt's 2nd graders. It was the first time either class had heard the book and my first time reading it aloud. It was fabulous! We laughed and laughed. 

Mrs. Reed's students from Newton, MA also connected with Mrs. Lundt's 2nd graders. It was a busy day! We decided to read The Adventures of Beekle. No matter how many times you read this book, there is always something new to notice and talk about. There is a reason it was this year's Caldecott Award winner. What a special book to read together for World Read Aloud Day.

Friday
So thrilled to connect again with Ms. Uribe's class! This time we read The Day the Crayons Quit with Mrs. Francis's 3rd & 4th graders. It is such fun to read aloud!

Mrs. MacDonald's 4th graders connected with Mrs. Greco's 3/4s and together we read Wolfie the Bunny by Ame Dyckman. This was new to all the kids and the surprised looks on their faces and giggles was wonderful! 

Crankee Doodle by Tom Angleberger with all of its laugh-out-loud humor was a hit with Ms. Lambert's 5th graders and Mrs. Sorensen's 3/4 class! 

To end our week, Mrs. Kozlik's 3/4 class shared Interrupting Chicken with Mrs. Nels and her students. Another classic read aloud!

Mrs. Novak's class was thrilled to be able to connect with Mrs. Scrimgeour and her students from Essex, Vermont!

Then we had two very special guest readers joining us on our WRAD 2015 make up day.

Mrs. Sibiskie's 1/2 class had the great pleasure of connecting with the amazing Deborah Freedman. Deborah Freedman lives right here in Connecticut and is the author/illustrator of Blue Chicken and The Story of Fish and Snail, as well as the soon to be published By Mouse and Frog (ok, since it has taken me forever to write this post it is now published!) We were so excited because Ms. Freedman read us By Mouse and Frog! It was a super special sneak peek of this fun book! 

One of my favorite things about Ms. Freedman's work are the pictures. There are so many things happening on the page that are important to notice as they help tell the story. This book really captured the students. Following the story, the kids had a chance to ask lots and lots of questions. I love it when an author or illustrator is up for answering questions, because it is not always easy. Sometimes questions are asked more than once - 1st and 2nd graders are so full of curiosity and wonder. There is a wide variety of questions too - from specific ones about being an author or illustrator to others about their family, pets, and more. Deborah Freedman was so gracious and passionate about her work - we were indeed very fortunate to have the opportunity to talk with her. Thank you again for taking time to read with my students!

When I asked students what they liked most about author Barbara Mariconda's visit, 2 answers came to them immediately. Her journals and the family mysteries. Students and staff at Korn School had the wonderful opportunity to visit with Ms. Mariconda in June. Like many authors, Barbara began by telling them a little about herself and how she began writing. It is always fun to see pictures of an author when they are a child and it is really true that they began writing when they were little! It means a lot to the students when they can see that this published author started out just like them.

Barbara talked about all the things that she uses as an author to get ideas and to do her writing, including her little dog! A big point to students: write EVERY DAY! 

A unique part of Barbara is her traveling and her journals. What works of art! One that I walked around with was from a trip to Egypt. The journal was filled with pictures, tickets, writing, colorful sketches, cut-out sections to highlight a particular item and more. Many of us (myself included) were inspired to create a journal of our own about our summer adventures.  

Throughout her presentation, Barbara spoke about questions she has asked, family mysteries, and interesting stories that she learned about during her travels. Students were fascinated by these stories and loved seeing how she made them come alive in her books. Barbara shared an old family photo album which provided writing ideas. As she spoke about the Lucy P. Simmons trilogy, students could see how her trip to Ireland led her to include the legend of the Grey Man. 

At the end of her presentation, in addition to some questions from students, Barbara also did some writing with them (once a teacher, always a teacher). The focus was on helping to create an image through writing. I love how Barbara explained that when you write, you want everyone to get the same picture in their head - so if you are writing about a pirate, describe the pirate you are seeing. What kind of hat, hair, expression on the face, clothing, etc will your pirate have? Students excitedly offered ideas to include in this shared writing experience. Teachers came away wishing we could have Ms. Mariconda visit for a whole day!

For the rest of the day students were clamoring to see if we had copies of the Lucy P. Simmons books and one of the teachers came down and took the copy Barbara left us for her last read aloud of the year. What a wonderful way to end a year of celebrating reading at Korn School!

If you would like to contact Barbara Mariconda or learn more, visit her website:
 http://www.barbaramariconda.com/

Living right between New York and Boston, baseball is a big deal here in central Connecticut. When I saw on Twitter that Ballpark Mystery author David Kelly was doing skypes this May, I emailed him right away and was thrilled when he was able to connect with us! Miss Montepara's 3rd graders at Korn School were a perfect fit since they love reading AND baseball! They read one of his books together in class and came ready to learn and ask questions.

David got started by telling a little about himself and how he got into writing books for kids. My students are always curious about the author's life - how many kids they have, pets, etc. He talked about his first books and shared about Miracle Mud, a really neat book about the mud that is used to make baseballs not so "new" before they are used. We loved how Mr. Kelly shared about how he got his ideas and how he did his research. I love the picture of the mud below! He shared next about his series, the Ballpark Mysteries. These books take place in various baseball stadiums around the United States and star cousins Kate and Mike. There is always some kind of mystery that goes on that they have to solve. Once again, David shared his writing process and how he researches the facts and information that he adds to the story. We had time for lots of questions at the end. 

The students were very excited and left the visit wanting to read ALL of these mysteries. I ordered Miracle Mud for them to read as well. 

I was so pleased to connect with David Kelly and bring his passion for reading, writing, and baseball to the students of our school! I can't wait to share his books with more readers this fall!

A GIANT thank you to the Coginchaug Valley Education Foundation! I applied for a grant this spring and tonight was thrilled to be one of ten amazing grant recipients. My grant was titled Follow Your Passion and Make It! Through this grant, elementary students will be learning, growing, and creating in a Makerspace. We will be making cardboard come alive with Makedo and littleBits. MakeyMakey and Throwies allow students to tinker with circuits. All of these resources give students the ability to design, create, tinker, fail, and try again. In addition, we will be adding books that involve making or crafting to inspire kids! For a great example of a library Makerspace, take a look at the Westport Public Library. 

Come back to read more about what we are doing in the Makerspace next school year. We also will be having a mini-Makerfaire to show all the amazing things!

Inspiring students and teachers all day long, Jarrett J. Krosoczka spent Monday, April 28 with us at Korn and Brewster Elementary Schools. The students were psyched! I haven't seen a Lunch Lady book in either school in months. The waiting lists are long. We couldn't wait!

Jarrett arrived early and was ready to meet our kindergarteners! I loved how he played music as the students were coming in and they settled right down. He shared with them about becoming a writer - how he had been writing since he was a little boy. They loved learning about his newly released Peanut Butter and Jellyfish and were thrilled when he read it to them. They also LOVED when Jarrett did some drawing with them! It was so much fun to have sea creatures have different emotions!

From Brewster, we traveled over to Korn School where Jarrett shared about his author journey with the 3rd and 4th graders. They were very attentive as he talked with them about becoming a published author (it took a while!) and the inspiration for the Lunch Lady series. They asked question after question of him too! They were very disappointed to find out that the Lunch Lady series is finished for the time being. Excitement grew when he talked about the upcoming book, Comics Squad Recess! written with some of the best graphic novelists in the business and showed them the book trailer! We can't wait til July!

Back to Brewster for lunch and then presentations to the 1st and 2nd graders. They loved seeing how Baghead came to be too! It was wonderful to hear from teachers about how much they really enjoyed his presentations and thought that he did an excellent job talking to the students. Jarrett's message about writing and drawing every day was perfect for our Young Author's Day!

After each presentation, Jarrett was able to sign books for students who had purchased them, providing them with a special momento from a very special day.  

Visit Jarrett J. Krosoczka at: studiojjk.com

Want a great way to catch 3rd graders attention in May? Start with a picture and a mystery. Get a suitcase and take out one item at a time and have them try to figure out what Jim Arnosky does for an occupation. A photograph, a date, a notebook, paint and paintbrush, a videotape of an animal safari, an award and finally a book. Amazingly enough, every year it takes them until the very end to figure it out, even though we are in the library! From the book Nonfiction Author Studies in the Elementary Classroom by Jenkins and White, this begins a series of lessons that incorporate exploration of this amazing author/illustrator with a myriad of language arts standards. Inferencing, skimming, noticing, looking for patterns are just a few of the things students will be doing. 

Arnosky is a prolific writer with topics like fish, lions, frogs, birds of prey, dolphins and more. These topics are intriguing to kids and over and over I heard, "Cool!" and "Awesome!" and "Look at this!" Students went through a book speed-dating process, looking at books from their pile for 1 minute and then choosing another one. It is chaotic and so much fun! While looking through these books, students have been asked, "What do they notice?" and "What patterns do you see?" They take 3 minutes or so at the end to record their thoughts. 

At this point, they are so curious about Jim Arnosky's life and have lots of questions. We will be using our next library class to learn more about his life and connect it to his writing. 

My favorite part? "Mrs. Lussier, can I take this book home?" I love when they are hooked!

On December 4 & 5, Mrs. Martin was a special guest at our library! She came to help us get excited for this year's Science Fair which will be taking place on Thursday, February 27, 2014. Mrs. Martin talked to us about the difference between a demonstration, where we watch something interesting happen, and an experiment, where a question is asked and a hypothesis tested. We are hoping that all students will be presenting an experiment.

For more information and the permission slip, please go to the Science Fair page.

Following some great discussions about our reading habits, I showed my third and fourth graders how I keep track of my books: Goodreads. I love almost everything about this site and have a great time reading recommendations and seeing what my friends are up to in their reading lives. I am continually inspired. My students thought it was pretty neat too! They were so thrilled when a friend on Goodreads had read and reviewed a book that we had just read too!

So I decided that I really needed to get Biblionasium going with my kids. Biblionasium is an online bookshelf for kids. I love how kids can keep track of what they are reading, recommend books to one another, find ideas, and so much more. I have been thinking about using it for over a year, but wanted to be sure it was safe. Another reason I decided to go for it was being able to hang out with its founder at AASL in Hartford. She was amazingly passionate and wanted to know what kinds of things we would want to use Biblionasium for and what would make it better.

So when I returned from AASL, I got busy putting the classes in - and boy was that easy to do. Just have the information in an Excel spreadsheet and it just goes right in. I also love that multiple teachers can be added to each class. That way myself, classroom teachers, reading teachers, special education teachers, the principal - can all be involved with creating that culture of reading and sharing books.

The kids LOVE it! They had so much fun choosing an avatar, adding books, and then recommending them to each other and their teachers. It has been one of those weeks that is so much fun because they were so into it. Many of them went home and spent time doing more.

I can't wait to log in and check out some of the great book ideas they have sent me.

It's only October 30 and I am thrilled to have connected my students with 3 fabulous authors! What a way to say to students and families that yes, reading is so important to all of us.