Book Awards

Don't you love to read? I am working so hard to help my students discover many genres and varieties of books. I literally could sit and read ALL day to them if they'd listen all eight hours.

Our morning news show is streamed online and watched daily on our SmartBoard. Before the news show begins the librarian will often put a popular book or magazine on display for the audience to see. One that kept reappearing was The Hatchet by Gary Paulsen. I grew up in Florida and vividly remember this book being a part of the Sunshine State Readers Initiative. One morning one of my little students asked me what that book was about and if it was any good. Ha! If you have read this book you can understand my reaction because it really is an AMAZING book. I decided then and there that I would read aloud all 192 pages of The Hatchet.

At first I paraphrased a lot of paragraphs. But I soon realized I didn't need to. The kids were hooked! I was so excited for them to ask to read this book. It's kind of meaty in parts and can be a bit challenging to understand for an eight year old, but they did wonderfully.

When we completed reading the book I decided that we absolutely had to write book reviews. We have learned a lot about fact and opinion so this was a perfect springboard to spiral back and review opinions. I created the document below in the format for each student to give the book an award. They really got into this writing assignment and it helped me to see their thinking in various parts of the book. The best part is that I am going to send our letters through the mail system to a few of the fourth and fifth grade classes. How cool is it that second graders are suggesting a book to fifth graders? The kids were super stoked.

The final piece of this project is that our book awards are going to be read on the morning news show. I think it is a great way to promote literacy and will be the first of that type of project done on the news show. I have selected four students to read aloud on the news show. It was a hard choice, but everyone is excited to have our class showcase something so neat for the entire school.

Clip art courtesy of DJ Inkers.

 I'll leave you with a few photos of my kids responding. So cute! :)

This student is the one who asked about the Hatchet.

This was a new student. She only got to hear the last few chapters but she still did a good job. The end is the most exciting part. ;)

This is one of my best readers but he still has his word wall out to help him with tricky words! Love it.