We had such terrific author visits last week from Seth Fishman, author of A Hundred Billion Trillion Stars, and Lisa McMann, of The Unwanteds and the new Unwanteds Quests series (which coincidentally is all about dragons!). Both presenters were fun and interesting and so generous with their time. Their books can be purchased from Pages: A Bookstore (which was very helpful in setting up the visits) or wherever you like to buy books.
The Super Literacy Quiz Bowl is happening this week! This is a fun, optional activity for students in grades 3, 4, and 5. The 3rd-grade classes played this morning, and the winning team was Mrs. Vavao's class! Grades 4 and 5 will play this Thursday, February 15.
For many students the Read-a-thon is the best part of PK's literacy celebration. The reading logs for each of the three upcoming weeks are below. This year fiction and nonfiction minutes are valued the same (nonfiction is not doubled this year). The reading logs are due after the February break. Maybe we should start calling it "reading week" instead of "ski week"! PDFs of the reading log sheets are below my February 5 blog post or here.
Last week voting concluded for grades 3, 4, and 5 on the nominees for the California Young Reader Medal. The winner here at PK by very significant margin was Barbed Wire Baseball, written by Marissa Moss and illustrated by Yuko Shimizu. It won every class in all three grades. Voting this week will be grades TK, K, 1, 2, and the deaf and hard-of-hearing class. The statewide winners will be announced on May 1, 2018. Grades 3, 4, and 5 are hearing pleasant readalouds related to some of the many holidays and cultural events that are in February--Valentines Day, Chinese (lunar) New Year, and Presidents Day.
Back to the topic of winners, the American Library Association Youth Media Awards were announced this morning! The Newbery Medal and Caldecott Medal are the most well known of these, but there are many different awards and "honor" books (runners up) in all categories. The winner of the Newbery Medal was Hello, Universe, by Erin Entrada Kelly (which was a 5th-grade book club selection last year). The Caldecott Medal went to Wolf in the Snow, illustrated and written by Matthew Cordell.
The book club for 5th grade will meet on the Monday after our February break--that is February 26, in the library at lunch recess. Our chosen book is Under the Egg, by Laura Marx Fitzgerald. Copies were reserved for us at the Manhattan Beach Public Library but may be all checked out, so call 310-545-8595.