Every year, the library does an introduction to the Golden Sowers (the books that are our state award nominees). I personally like to make this into some sort of a game for the kids, because straight up lecturing and just summarizing the books isn't always my jam. In the past I have done games that are similar to "Apples to Apples" and "Memory." This year, I created a board game that had elements of pictionary, apples to apples, and charades. 

Before we played the game, I gave all the kids handouts with the cover of the book, a summary, and the AR information for each title. We went through these briefly and the students were able to use these during the game. 

​Here are the directions I had at the front of the room: 

Each team had the following materials: 
Game Board
Set of Cards
2 Dice
2 Game Pieces
Individual White Boards
​Dry Erase Marker

Sample playing cards and a copy of the game board. 

The kids REALLY enjoyed this game. If I did it again, I *might* take our or change the Playlist option, only because this one was really difficult for some of them. We were also able to do with our distance learners. For that, we had two teachers/hosts in the Zoom meeting for the day and put the kids into teams. One teacher rolled the dice and moved the game pieces, while the other teacher sent individual messages to the student who was up, letting them know which title they had. All kids on the Zoom were engaged, especially since they had the chance to steal the point. 

Every year the 6th grade students come in to learn about the Golden Sowers (our state award books). For these days/activities, I always want to find something besides book-talking that I can do to showcase the books and have students become familiar with the general summaries of the books and the AR information, if applicable. In our building, we have students in grades 6-8, so I have 20 books total to feature. The Chapter Book list is geared towards 4-6 and the Novels list is geared towards 6-8.

Last year I created a slideshow in Google Slides linking book trailers I found on YouTube for all of the Chapter Books. Each slide also had the genre, the AR info, and a picture of the cover. Students were in groups of 2-3 and watched the videos together. The Novel Books each had a handout with my review, the AR info, and a picture of the cover. The students viewed these as a gallery walk.

This year, I wanted to find a way to showcase the books that did not involve YouTube since it is blocked at our building. In order for students to view the videos, I had to override the filter multiple times. To combat that, I created a ThingLink image for both book lists. These images have links to my Goodreads review of each book, along with a video if applicable. For the Novels list, in addition to the ThingLink, I also created a matching game where students have to match the summary of each book with a picture of the cover. This was actually pretty easy to do since I already had summaries written for each book. I used Google Draw to put the cards together. The hardest part was getting them to print LINED UP front to back. My amazingly awesome building secretary helped me with that part. 

On the day of the activity, students will be divided into two groups-one starting with the computers and the ThingLink for the Chapter Books, and the other at the tables with the matching game. The first group will go through the images and links for each Chapter Book and fill out the handout to put in their Reading folder. The second group will have a couple of minutes to scan the Golden Sower page on this website (found HERE) before beginning the matching game. 

I have included the Google Folder I made that has all of my handouts for this activity in case anyone is interested. 

It has been a LONG time since I posted one of these, but thought that this would be a good week to get back in the swing of things. 

One of the big things we had going on this week was the ice cream party/voting for our State Book Award, the Golden Sowers. Students who had read at least 4 of the titles were able to come in with their lunches, grab ice cream, vote, and watch a movie in the library. We sent our votes in to be counted with the rest of the state and can't wait to see who the winners are!

We also did staff development with all staff members on using their teacher iPad and utilizing the iPad cart. The staff had lots of good questions about iPad functionality and our tech coordinator was also able to explain the process for requesting and adding specific apps. More to come on the iPads as we begin the tech cohort for next year.

We also had Band students come in to do research in preparation for the upcoming 5th grade tours. The band teacher is changing up the format for the 5th grade tours and wanted the current students to give presentations/demonstrations on their instruments along with background information. The research went well and it was fun to work with a teacher who has never utilized the library before. 

Finally, I've been doing some reading and with the snow forecast (yes, SNOW) for the weekend, I have some books stacked up. Hoping to get to these this weekend:

My 6th grade teachers requested book talks for the different Golden Sower books. They wanted the kids to know about the titles, have the AR information for each book, and also get information about the voting process/Root Beer Float party in the spring. We decided to have each class (groups of 22-26) come to the library for a class period.

While they were here, I had two separate areas for the activity. One side of the library was set up with the books from the "Novels" list and the other side had the books from the "Chapters" list. The Novels books were displayed with a handout I had made for each book that detailed the author, title, genre, 2-sentence summary, and "Ms. Tasich's Take." For the Chapters books, I created a google slideshow that I embedded into the Golden Sowers page with the same information except for a book trailer YouTube video instead of Ms. Tasich's Take. (full disclosure: I haven't read all of those books yet, so I needed some outside assistance!)

The students REALLY seemed to like the book trailers and the teachers were able to get a good sense of most of the 20 books available from the Golden Sowers this year. We also have had a HUGE increase in circulation for these titles this week, so the kids must have been paying attention! :)