Celebration of Reading! A whole day of FUN!

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend!

Today I want to tell you all about the Celebration of Reading that my school's fabulous PTA sponsors every year. It really is the best day of the whole year! Plus it celebrates what we teach every. single. day. and helps to teach the kids that READING IS FUN! What could be better?

{I originally posted the pic above on Instagram. Click here to follow me!}

One of my favorite parts is that almost all of the teachers and staff dress up as their favorite book characters! The kids love figuring out who everyone is. :) 

I went as Jack, from the  Magic Tree House series, of course. 

(Click here to read my post on our Magic Tree House projects.)

I made a tree for my door, and Henry, the pteranodon even came by for a visit. 

 

Our secretary dressed as Pinocchio and even had her puppet strings attached to the ceiling above her desk. Needless to say, she's awesome! 

I'm sure you can figure out who this Kindergarten teacher is dressed as. Love it! :) 

Our amazing PTA president is famous for her costumes. Last year she was an Oompa Loompa. This year she topped that with her The Tortoise and the Hare ensemble! She and her team of awesome parents are in charge of the entire day! Teachers don't have to plan a thing. Can you see why it's the best day ever?!

The amazing parent below was also in charge of Teacher Appreciation Week. That may need it's own post, it was so wonderful. She took a week's vacation to be at school all day every day for the entire week, coordinating food and little gifts for the staff! To top it off, she won Nurse of the Year from one of our hospitals in the same week! 

Ok, so the way the Celebration of Reading works is that every month, all students K-5 have the opportunity to earn up to three "Book Bucks" by reading a certain number of books or pages (depending on grade level) at home and recording them on a sheet like this: 

It runs from September to April, so they can earn a maximum of 24 Book Bucks. Those students who have earned all 24 are considered "Super Readers" and are given VIP status, can dress as a book character, and get a free book! 

For First Grade, our Celebration of Reading day began in the gym (every grade level has a different schedule), where all of the kids could spend their Book Bucks on games, inflatables, snow cones, face painting, and more! It's a real-life carnival in our gym! But it's even better because we can just let them loose to choose their own activities. There is a TON of supervision, but the kids don't feel like we're hovering over them. 

My kids had a blast! 

I caught these two enjoying their sodas (because what seven year old wouldn't love soda at 8:30 in the morning?!) and deciding what to do next. You can see the Book Bucks in the hand of the boy on the left, and their yellow bracelets indicate that they are "Super Readers!" The bags are for any loot they acquire during the event. 

Next I spotted some STARS at the face painting stations. Spray on hair color was also a choice. :) 

Did I mention there were nachos? Seriously this day is a kid's dream come true!

We even had some community members come dressed as characters! How awesome is that?! And people, it was HOT in our gym that day. This was a sweaty couple of characters, but the kids loved having them there!

Finally, I caught up with some STARS playing games. The games were all run by students from the middle school our kids will attend. So. Much. Fun!

When we left the gym, we headed back to our room to settle down for a few minutes with a little Read to Self and Read to Someone before my "Super Readers" headed down to the Book Fair in the library to choose their free books!

After lunch, our next stop was to see the Mad Science demonstration.

This was so cute…see the boy in the front row directly in front of the Mad Scientist? He and several other little guys were holding their eyes open with their fingers because the scientist said, "don't blink, or you'll miss it." Seriously, how adorable!

Then my kids got to attend a Trix Stix demonstration. I didn't take any pictures, though, because homeroom teachers got to have our plan period while our kids were there!
I'm telling you, Celebration of Reading rocks!

Plus, I needed a few minutes to frantically put together put the finishing touches on my kids' Mother's Day gifts. Nothing like waiting till the last minute! But they turned out SO cute!

I picked my STARS up just in time to wrap up our gifts and get ready for dismissal!
What a fabulous day!

I can't thank our amazing PTA enough for this wonderful annual event.

And now the countdown is on!
I can't believe we only have nine days of school left!

One of My Favorite Projects

I love the fourth grading period of first grade. It's the time of year when everything comes together. It's also the time when I break the monotony of my usual weekly reading fluency and comprehension homework and start assigning projects!

The first project of the grading period is the Magic Tree House Book Bag Report. My STARS are obsessed with the Magic Tree House series, so this is one homework assignment that they are excited to do!

*Now, this is in no way my idea. If your kids love Magic Tree House, and you haven't visited the Teacher section of their website, you are MISSING OUT! There are some fabulous resources on their site for FREE!*

I start by sending home the explanation sheet I created, a blank "My Magic Tree House Book Bag Report" sheet (can be found here), and a paper lunch bag. Here is the explanation I send home:

I send home weekly homework in a homework folder on Mondays, and it's due back on Fridays. For most of the school year, I send home a leveled reader or reading passage with comprehension questions for the kids to complete. This Book Bag project takes the place of three weeks of the leveled reading homework. Since there are always kids who can finish a book in a few nights, I offer an extra credit project for those "early finishers." 

For the past three weeks, my STARS have been reading, drawing, and rehearsing, and today was the big day!! This was our first big opportunity to show off our Speaking and Listening skills, not to mention comprehension!! I absolutely love watching these presentations. I emphasized rehearsing, and they ALL listened and did SO WELL! I was one proud teacher today! 

Here are a few of the completed bags: 

For this project, they are supposed to draw four pictures of events from the story that will help them retell the plot. Then they add objects to the inside of the bag that relate to the story and will also aid in their retelling. I had a few STARS who wanted to tell us every. last. detail. of their book, bless their hearts, but most of them stuck to a few details from the beginning, middle, and end and did a wonderful job incorporating their pictures and objects. 

Here is an example of a completed "My Magic Tree House Book Bag Report" and the rubric I created using RubiStar:

Here is an example of an extension project for extra credit: 

He made a diorama of the tsunami from his book heading straight for the main characters, Jack and Annie. So awesome! 

One thing I will change for next year is to assign presentations on two different days. I forgot how long they take! Book Bag presentations took almost 2 1/2 hours today. Of course we didn't do them all at once, but even with them spread throughout the day, I still had several who were struggling to be good audience members. Overall, though, it was a great day! 

Next up on the project list is a Career Day speech! Look for that post next week! I'm even MORE excited for that one! 

I hope you all have a blessed Easter weekend! :)