Whitcomb had their mind's set on Out of My Mind!

Third through fifth grade students at Whitcomb voted for Sharon Draper's Out of My Mind as their choice for the 2012 Texas Bluebonnet Award winner. Although she won for our campus, she placed third in the state. This year's award goes to Tom Angleberger for his book The Strange Case of Origami Yoda. Visit the TXLA website to see more about the winners or watch a video of Tom Angleberger's reaction to the award.

All students who read 5 or more of the books on the Bluebonnet list were eligible to vote! They ate donuts and chose their favorites in the library on January 25th! Next year's Bluebonnet list has been released and can be found on the TXLA website, as well. View it here.

Happy reading!

Big Cozy Book furniture in the Library!

The NEW library furniture has arrived! It provides a nice area for students to read silently when they visit the library. The furniture was bought with book fair and Title I funds.

Come by and check it out...oh, and check out a few books while you're there, too!

Check out the library's Google Site to view our schedule and the latest reading programs happening in the library this month.

Happy Holidays!

October was BUSY!

On October 6th, we wore our PJ's and read the book Llama Llama Red Pajama in order to break the Read for the Record world record. We were successful! Across the world, 2,184,155 people read the book! We did it in our PJ's! Go giraffes! Check out this picture of the the Empire State Building lit up in red in honor of Llama's red pajamas!

The Whitcomb book club is finishing up their first book The Strange Case of Origami Yoda this Friday! They have been reading and meeting since October 14th, and getting to school by 7:30 (that's AM) to do so!! Here's the breakfast spread from our first meeting below. Our next book club will begin in January!

The 2 X 2 Challenge ended on a FUN note! Our voting days were October 31st and November 4th. The book Shark vs. Train was our winner which was decided by our K - 2 classes! We had three stations set-up in the library for the students to celebrate their hard work. One station was after the book Chalk, where the students drew on butcher paper with chalk. Another station was the computers which were running the database PebbleGo Animals. This station was in recognition of the book: Let's Save the Animals. The last and (without a doubt) most loved station was the Wii's Just Dance 3 in recognition of the book Dancing Feet. All the students enjoyed the voting day celebration and they deserved it after all that reading!! See some pictures from the celebration day below.

November's focus is on the Bluebonnet books, Read Tac Toe, and research using the Big6 research method for grades 3 - 5. Science Fair is in January, so it's time to get started on selecting a project. Visit Science Buddies to help you decide on a project by taking their Topic Selection Wizard quiz.

Spook-tacular Activities in October!

We participated in the Read for the Record campaign on October 6 and we will know if we broke a world record in early November! We had a fun day in our pajamas while reading Llama Llama Red Pajama by Anna Dewdney. Did you know that the Empire State Building in New York City was lit up in red  lights in honor of Llama's red pajamas??

The Texas 2 X 2 List Voting day celebrations are approaching! We will divide the voting celebration into two days - October 31st and November 4th! Students will come to the library to vote and do a few FUN activities that celebrate some of the book titles that they read. Classrooms earning a bookworm Giraffe Gem so far: Mrs. Pierce, Mrs. Bhimani, & Mrs. Sunesra. All other classrooms have earned a book Giraffe Gem for reading 5 books! Go K - 2 classes!

October's focus for PK - 2 is learning about book genres, and what we understand about what we've read in a book (meaning and comprehension). For 3 - 5, we are focusing on lessons about book characters which involve books from this year's Bluebonnet list. Grades 3 - 5 have started Read-Tac-Toe! This will be introduced to K - 2 after the 2 X 2 challenge is complete.

The Whitcomb Book Club will begin this Friday, October 14th. We will be reading The Strange Case of Origami Yoda by Tom Angleberger. This is a Bluebonnet title, so this round of the book club focuses on grades 3 - 5. Look for more titles to be read in the book club, as well.

2 X 2 Challenge is Underway!

This year, grades PK - 2 have the opportunity to take part in a book promotion which uses the Texas 2 X 2 list (see poster below). These grade levels will be rewarded if their teacher's read them books from the list by earning Giraffe Gems and the opportunity to attend the "Voting Day Celebration." At this celebration, students will be able to vote on their favorite title and spend time exploring different activities in the library which center on some of the titles from the list. If they read 5, then they can decide and receive a book gem for their necklace. If their teacher reads all 20, they also receive a bookworm gem. This program has the students SUPER excited about reading. In the picture below, you can see the bulletin board which is outside of the library that is tracking all the classrooms that have read the titles from the list. Each time they bring a book back, we write their teacher's name on the board next to the title. They love seeing their teacher's name as the walk by in the hallway! For upper grades (3 - 5), we have the Bluebonnet Book list which will be presented to those students in the next few weeks.

Focus of September - Book Care!

This month, all students file into the library for lessons and check-out! We "remind" our upper grades (3 - 5) about caring for books and library shelves and "teach" our younger grades (PK - 2) about how to care for their library books. We show and teach them about what happens to books when they are mistreated. Below is a picture of the display that's right outside the library which diplays some damaged books from the previous year. The title of our display: The Library Presents: Book Talks. The books are having a detailed discussion about their current conditions. The "sad books" discuss their mistreatment on one side, while the "happy books" discuss their present "shelf life." Ask your student what they know about book care!

Read for the Record!

What are you doing on October 6? How does breaking a world reading record while raising awareness about America’s achievement gap sound? Better yet - let's do all that in our PAJAMAS!

Join Whitcomb Elementary as we participate in Jumpstart’s Read for the Record® presented in partnership with Pearson Foundation. Its a national campaign that mobilizes adults and children to close the early education achievement gap by setting a reading world record.

This annual campaign allows Americans to demand that all children receive the quality early education they deserve. On October 6, 2011, more than 2 million voices will call for an end to America’s early education achievement gap by reading Llama Llama Red Pajama by Anna Dewdney – setting a world record in the process!

Whitcomb will be reading the book throughout the day and students will be allowed to come to school in their PJ's!

Get involved at http://www.readfortherecord.org/ to help Jumpstart close the early education achievement gap:

1. Pledge to Read: Submit your official pledge and help us reach more than 2.1 MILLION children.
2. Spread the Word: Use our simple tools to educate your friends and family about America’s early education achievement gap and invite them to read.

For more information visit http://www.readfortherecord.org/