Bookends

MISSING MIDDLE: For the first time since we started this blog, I missed blogging the entire middle of the week, and we weren't even out of town or ill or anything. We were just very, very busy.

The kids and I have been helping host a reading fun week. It was five days of special events and activities from kids pre-k through eighth grade.

Monday's theme was a fun, pirate-themed day called "Bookaneers." Kids could find out their pirate name by checking out a poster CJ and Annabelle made. You would take the first letter of your first name and the last letter of your last name to find your pirate name. Then we had "Hello, my name is ..." tags they could write their names on. It made for some fun around the school that day.

Annabelle helped give the poster a little color.

People could also write their own pirate adventures in a Mad-Libs type activity we printed out.

At lunchtime, Christian donned his pirate duds and we dyed his beard blue (with Colormist food coloring spray). He appeared as Bluebeard and read the book "How I Became a Pirate." Kids snacked on Pirate Booty and got gold doubloons (chocolate coins covered in gold foil) as treats.

Tuesday, the theme was 'Dig into Reading." Students had a chance to plant seeds for future school garden starts, and we encouraged people to bring in vegetables, which were combined to make about 15 gallons (!) of 'stone soup.'

At noontime, we screened a version of the folk tale.


Afterward, a local author whom I'd contacted came in to share his book "Our School Garden" with the group.

Rick Swann is a retired school librarian and teacher, and has been instrumental in helping a number of schools get their gardens started.

One of the things we learned from Mr. Swann is that back during World War I, school gardens were a really big deal! He shared some great vintage posters from the Library of Congress about school gardens. Check out this poster by artist Edward Penfield. It was published in 1918!

And how about this gem from 1919?

Wednesday, the theme for the day was "One World, Many Stories." CJ and Annabelle identified six folk tales from six continents (sorry, Antarctica). We printed them out poster sized, posted them around the school, Kids could pick up a passport we made and then when they read a story, they would get a stamp. When they filled up their passports, they got a prize (a 'scratch art' bookmark). Below are a couple ones that Annabelle created. (You scratch off the black to reveal the rainbow background beneath.)

Thursday it was Book Bonanza! The day started with a (four hour!) pancake feed.

With a number of awesome volunteers, we made so many pancakes. They were a big hit with the crowd, and we had Gusfater Yellowgold music playing on the cafeteria's big screen.

At lunchtime, local author and illustrator Jessixa Bagley came and read her touching, award-winning picture book "Boats for Papa," as well as her soon-to-be-released book "Laundry." (Happy faced student's identity blurred out as I don't like putting other people's kids at private events on our blog.)

Jessixa was simply wonderful with the students (and parents)! She even gifted the school a signed print. How sweet is that?!

Thursday afternoon and Friday morning was a book swap/sale. There were several tables covered with dozens upon dozens of books.

Friday's theme was "Reading Gives You Super Powers." People were encouraged to dress up as their favorite story or comic book hero. CJ dressed as Greg Kinney from "Diary of a Wimpy Kid." Annabelle dressed as a Hogwarts' student (from Harry Potter). They were part of a costume parade down the hallway and up onto the stage where they introduced their characters.

The lunchtime attraction was real live heroes! Four fire fighters from Fire Station 9 (in Fremont) came to our school on their big red truck!

 The kids all got to climb into, over and around the truck!

 Afterward, we gathered in the school and one of the fire fighters read the super cute (and informative) fire safety picture book "No Dragons for Tea" to the group.

 The firefighters also gave an interesting equipment demonstration.

 Below is a camera that images heat, which can be helpful to find people in smoky situations.

The firefighters were just winding down with their presentation when they got a call. So their departure was hasty and dramatic - lights blazing and siren blaring. 

All in all, it was a super busy, hard, and fun week. 

BTW, the "Book Buddy" graphic at the top was created by Annabelle. The artwork was for badges kids could choose to wear to indicate they were willing to read a book to another student.