One of the times of year that I look forward to most is World Read Aloud Day. It has turned into an exhausting week, but the fun we have more than makes up for that! This year we celebrated with 31 Skypes: 3 authors and 28 classes from around the United States. Part of the fun is meeting all these new friends and connecting with old ones! Many thanks to LitWorld for sponsoring this amazing event!
Both of my schools had activities going on to celebrate Dr. Seuss's birthday throughout the week, starting off with Brewster's "Wheel of Seuss" on Friday which I had the honor of emceeing. Korn classes had many different guest readers coming in to share favorite books. Tuesday afternoon brought guest readers to Brewster School for Brewster Loves to Read. I love to see all of the different ways we show that we are communities of readers!
Bonus this year - no snow days! Happily we were able to fill in for schools who did have some winter weather to contend with!
Both of my schools had activities going on to celebrate Dr. Seuss's birthday throughout the week, starting off with Brewster's "Wheel of Seuss" on Friday which I had the honor of emceeing. Korn classes had many different guest readers coming in to share favorite books. Tuesday afternoon brought guest readers to Brewster School for Brewster Loves to Read. I love to see all of the different ways we show that we are communities of readers!
Bonus this year - no snow days! Happily we were able to fill in for schools who did have some winter weather to contend with!
Monday, March 3
 Author Bob Shea What an amazing way to begin our week! If you get a chance, Skype with this author/illustrator. We had so much fun laughing with him as he read Don't Play with Your Food to Miss Zauner's 1st graders. A big thanks for answering all kinds of interesting questions from these kids. They were so inspired to draw after meeting him and I now have several drawings to send off to him. Best part - he lives only 1 town away. He wrote one of his books at our public library since his in-laws live in our town.  Another new connection was with Okle Miller and her students from Valrico, Florida. My class was Mrs. Reeves' kindergarteners so Mrs. Miller's class read us a new book called Ralph Tells a Story. It was a good one! The kindergartner's had practiced reading a poem called Spider Web and shared it with the older students!  Our last Skype of the day was an in-state connection with a school in Branford and Mrs. Caramanello's 1st graders. Mrs. Duffy and I took turns reading Precious and the Boo Hag by Patricia McKissack. |  Our next Skype was with Jennifer Lewis's class from Canton, Georgia reading One Cool Friend with Mrs. Ghoreyeb's 2nd Grade class. This book always brings a lot of giggles. We had a great time and I hope to connect with her again!  Author Ame Dyckman connected with Mr. Bernabeo's 2nd grade and Andy Plemmons' class from Athens, Georgia. It is always so much fun to Skype with Andy and his students, but adding Ame to the mix was awesome! Ame read Tea Party Rules to us and we asked questions and shared favorite books (Ame always has lots of great ones!) |
Tuesday, March 4
 It was a snowy day in much of the mid-Atlantic region, so we were thrilled to connect Sherry Gick and Gretchen Welk's students from Indiana with Mrs. Loffredo's 1st graders. We read Elephant & Piggie together! What could be more fun?  Ms. Stewart's class had to be quick and check out library books because we had one more Skype for them with Sarah Staudt's class from Mason City, Iowa. We read The Day the Crayons Quit by Drew Daywalt. I think we might have read the peach crayon page twice! Lots of laughs all around.  Students in Jennifer Reed's class in Newton, MA were Mrs. Brand's 2nd Skype and we took turns reading Mary Ann Hoberman's You Read to Me, I'll Read to You: Very Short Stories. I love trying new things with Mrs. Reed!  Mrs. Protz's kindergarteners had so much fun reading Bunny Days with Mrs. D'Elia and surprise guest Mr. Callahan and their students in Burlington, MA! For this Skype we used the terrific resource We Give Books. They have so many wonderful books that you can read online for FREE! |  Our next Skype was a special one because Ms. Stewart's 2nd grade connected with my daughter's 1/2 class from across town! Mrs. Sibiskie's class has been studying Asia this year and when Meghan Nels suggested we read Take Me Out to the Yakyu by Aaron Meshon later in the week, I decided that would be the perfect one for this Skype too. I love that it has a little boy going to a baseball game with his grandfathers, one in America and one in Japan. Great for talking about perspective.  Mrs. Brand's kindergarteners also had 2 Skypes! First, a quick snow day makeup with Mrs. Keith's students on Cape Cod. We read Elephant & Piggie's There is a Bird on my Head! I love that the kindergartners can read a lot of the book with us!  Miss Mashel's 1st graders were in for a special treat when we met with Nancy Edwards and her students at St. Matthew School in Seattle, WA. They had been studying the Iditarod and read a story to us and showed us some artifacts from the race! My students were fascinated and I quickly had to find our books on the Iditarod to share with them! |
Wednesday, March 5
 Ms. Amolo's class from Grayson, GA connected with 2 of our 3rd grades - Miss P's class and Miss Montepara's class that morning! It sure was busy. Two girls from Miss P's class read Hey, Little Ant by Philip Hoose aloud, followed by a quick switch of classes and then reading Elephant and Piggie together, taking turns with the characters. Third graders still LOVE Mo Willems!  Mrs. Grenier's class had a special surprise at the end of their Skype that morning. They got a visit from their teacher who had taken a new job as a tech specialist mid-year! They were so glad to see one another! We met Mrs. Kroeber and her students from Branford, CT and read some of Mary Ann Hoberman's You Read to Me, I'll Read to You Very Short Stories together. It is always fun to connect with towns nearby!  Matthew Winner of Elkridge, Maryland asked if my 3rd graders could read Baby Penguins Everywhere by Melissa Guion (wegivebooks.org) to his kindergarteners and we had a blast doing so! All the 3rd graders were smiling as we read this book about a penguin who finds a hat full of baby penguins! |  Miss P's class came back during their regular library time to have a little fun with Mrs. Macdonald's students in South Burlington, VT. Drew Daywalt's The Day the Crayons Quit was our read aloud and we had so much fun! Check out their video vine.co/v/MAIqX9tFgFd - don't you love their costumes?  Author Patricia Newman met with a group of fourth grade students who came in during their recess to connect and learn! We were fascinated by her new book Plastic Ahoy! The students had great questions to ask her about the island of trash floating in the Pacific Ocean. As a librarian, it is always amazing to hear about how author's get interested in their topics and then research them. Patricia is always so passionate about writing and sharing with students!  We connected with Kurt Strohs from Michigan and his students. The Day the Crayons Quit was a HUGE hit and Mr. Strohs was thrilled to read the peach crayon page! |
Thursday, March 6
 Our first Skype of the day brought Mrs. Zastawsky's 4th graders together with Ms. Smeltzer's class. We had a great time sharing book titles, including The Power of Poppy Pendle by Natasha Lowe. Ms. Smeltzer's class is from Salem, New Hampshire. We would see them again later on in the day.  When was the last time you read Fox in Socks by Dr. Seuss? Phew! Mrs. Durkin's grade 4's were joined by Janine Johnson's 4th graders from Redding, CT and we took turns reading LOTS of rhymes!  Mrs. Smeltzer's 2nd grade class from Salem, NH listened as 4th graders from all the classes at Korn read aloud Baby Penguins Everywhere by Melissa Guion (wegivebooks.org). Fourth graders did a great job reading aloud! Lots of laughs all around! |  Mrs. Schlicker's 4th graders were excited to connect again with Mr. Plemmons' class from Athens, Georgia. This class has Skyped several times with Mr. Plemmons and it has always been lots of fun! Remember Talk Like a Pirate Day? For WRAD14 we shared Tom Angleberger's Crankee Doodle. Mrs. Lussier was the horse and Mr. Plemmons was the cranky guy. It is such a fun book to read aloud and the 4th graders loved it! We had some time to share book ideas and we are now enjoying Game Over, Pete Watson by Joe Schreiber.  I always love reading Same, Same but Different with students and Mrs. Kilroy's class shared this wonderful story with Mrs. Sikes' class from Forsyth, Georgia. No matter how many times we read it, this book by Jenny Sue Kostecki-Shaw makes us smile. Update: Mrs. Sikes' class made us photo drawings! What a wonderful surprise! I just got these last week! I can't wait to share them with Mrs. Kilroy's class!  Photo drawings from Mrs. Sikes' class in Georgia |
Friday, March 7
 Mrs. Caramanello's 1st graders connected with Mrs. Groden's class from Medfield, MA. We had some fun reading Duck! Rabbit! by Amy Krouse Rosenthal. I love when kids just can't decide which animal it is. It was great to meet Mrs. Groden later that weekend in person too!  Mrs. Canning's kindergarteners were very patient as we tried to connect both Mrs. Reed's class from Newton, MA and Mrs. Flickinger's students from South Burlington, VT. We were not able to do both at the same time (there was a lot of juggling going on), but we still had a lot of fun! With Mrs. Reed's class we read some of Mary Ann Hoberman's You Read to Me, I'll Read to You Short Stories. It is challenging to read these together over Skype, but lots of fun! I did not take very good notes, so I don't remember what we read with Mrs. Flickinger's class, but we were thrilled to connect with her students for World Read Aloud Day! |  Mrs. Lundt's second grade class listened to Take Me Out to the Yakyu by Aaron Meshon along with Mrs. Nels' class from Dedham, MA. They were fascinated by the differences in the way the little boy got to experience baseball games in each country.  Our last Skype of the week was with my good friend Mrs. Macdonald and her students from South Burlington, VT. Mrs. Burns' class read Elephant and Piggie There is a Bird on Your Head with the students from Vermont. There was a lot of giggling and fun happening on Friday afternoon! |
What an amazing week and I am so grateful to all who were able to connect! These celebrations of reading and learning provide our students with the opportunity to communicate and collaborate, important abilities for our students to have as they go forward! But most importantly, it is just so much fun!
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