Golden Archer Award - Wisconsin's Student Choice Award

Golden Archer Award

The 2016 winning Golden Archer Award winners are:

Primary: The Book With No Pictures by B.J. Novak
Intermediate: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Long Haul by Jeff Kinney
Middle/Jr. High School: Sisters by Raina Telgemeier

I am excited to have the elementary students (grades K-5) in our district participate in nominating, reading, and voting for the Golden Archer Award.  With this, let's work together to encourage students to nominate their favorite picture books for the Primary level and chapter books for the Intermediate level.  As explained on the WEMTA Golden Archer Awards website there are three learning level categories, specific criteria for students to consider to nominate books and nominating procedures as indicated below.  I would like to see each of the elementary schools nominate five (5) books.  Students will share their favorite titles with the media assistant in your building by Friday, April 29, 2016 so I can send in the nominations over the weekend.  Please contact me via email if you have any questions.

CATEGORIES
Primary: Students in kindergarten and early grades
Intermediate: Students in upper elementary grades
Middle/Junior High: Students in upper grades, middle school, or junior high school

CRITERIA
Books must be...

• recognized as noteworthy and of special interest to students. 
• now in print and readily available.
• published within the last five (5) years.
• individual book titles, not series names.

NOMINATING PROCEDURES
The library media specialist and/or classroom teacher solicit nominations from their students. Nominated titles are sent to the Golden Archer Committee via the online Nomination Ballot.
Each participating school may nominate a maximum of five (5) books for each category (primary, intermediate, middle/junior high) that is represented in that school.  All nominated titles should have a copyright year within the last five (5) years. 
All nominations should include the number of students nominating each title.
Book nominations for 2017 are due by May 1st. 

I Love Authors!

I Love Authors!

Meeting two nationally known, award winning authors in the same week!  Wow!  It doesn't get much better than this other than attending the ALA Conference.  

On Tuesday the keynote speaker at the WEMTA conference was one of my favorite author/illustrators,  Kevin Henkes, author of 47 books!  I still love Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse, Owen, Julius the Baby of the World, A Weekend with Wendell, and many more including this year's Caldecott Honor and Theodor Seuss Geisel honor - Waiting.

Today, Paula and I met and heard Kwame Alexander speak about his Newbery winning book Crossover, his picture book titled Surf's Up, and his newly released title Booked.  Kwame shares, "I wanted to write a book about a boy who loves soccer, hates reading, likes a girl named April, unfortunately is being bullied, and his whole life changes when he meets a librarian." I hope to one day be "that librarian" that makes a difference in a student's life.

If you haven't read Crossover, this magnificent story written in novel verse will kidnap you into reading it and not wanting to put it down until you've finished.  April is poetry month, as I posted earlier this month.  If your students like sports, realistic fiction, or poetry, and even if they don't, encourage them to read this award winning story! It is a great read aloud too!

 

WEMTA Conference and Earth Day

WEMTA (Wisconsin Educational Media & Technology Association) Conference

Arriving at WEMTA today as a first time attendee couldn't have started better!  The first session I attended was Cool, Loud, and Everywhere - Being a Book Advocate presented by John Schu (aka John Schumacher).  He shared many books and many ideas for being a book advocate, but the one book that I have read and still love that he spoke about was the One and Only Ivan.  This 2013 Newbery Winning story tugs at hearts to advocate for the treatment of animals especially those kept in captivity.  The amazing thing is Ivan was a real gorilla.  Glenn Close made a documentary about his life titled The Urban Gorilla.  John Schu had the opportunity to meet Ivan prior to his death, and Ivan autographed his book!

If you haven't read this story, check out the One and Only Ivan book trailer to begin the journey of this amazing story.  

Next week I will post more about the WEMTA Conference!

Earth Day - April 22

The inauguration of Earth Day was April 22, 1970.  Forty-six years later, we continue to celebrate Earth Day, and raise awareness of environmentalism and caring for the magnificent resources of our planet.  Here is a list of book titles to review and consider promoting to students (this list covers book titles from elementary to adult reading interest). Booklist: Books to Celebrate Earth Day and the Environmentalist in All of Us  Here are some activities and ideas for celebrating Earth Day: 

Celebrate Earth Day - Scholastic - lots of great ideas!
Green Schools Initiative: Earth Day Ideas and Activities - This includes 5-minute films related to Earth Day
NEA - Earth Day Curriculum Resources for Grades K-5