Baker Library

Thank you to the Baker parents, BPO, Book Fair Chairs and everyone who supported the book fair for all the cool new books we have in the library!  All week kids have been looking them, waiting with anticipation for the day when they could check the books out!  That day started today, and kids were thrilled.  (Check out Mrs. O’Brien’s blog for a video of the kids checking out their library books!)

There’s something here for everyone!

Kindergarten — Dewey: There’s a Cat in the Library by Vicki Myron  and looked at the new books!  Voted for Monarch Awards.

1st Grades — Dewey: There’s a Cat in the Library by Vicki Myron and looked at the new books!  Voted for Monarch Awards.

2nd Grades — Mrs. O’Brien’s class I Lost My Tooth in Africa by Penda Diakite (Monarch Award Nominee) and Ms. Fiamingo’s class:  Once I ate a pie by Patricia MacLachlan.  Voted for Monarch Awards.

3rd Grade — Voted for Monarch Awards and looked at the new books!

4th Grade — Jackie’s Wile Seattle by Will Hobbs; Voted for Caudill Awards and looked at the new books!

5th Grade — The Willoughbys by Lois Lowry — ONLY THE EPILOGUE IS LEFT!  Voted for Caudill Awards and looked at the new books!

This week the 4th and 5th grades played their game, and it was very

exciting!  Eleven teams – 40 children -- read 10 books, 2238 pages and

answered 25 questions in a fun trivia question game.  The game was so

close amongst the teams that it was anybody’s game going into the final

round.  Here are the standings:

1st place – The Chocolate Ponies (Elise Buchanan, Allison Grimsted, Mikey

Sato, Rachel Sato) AND The Speed Readers (Ben Ballmer, Michael Lazenby,

Jack Nadler, Jesse Shufro-Zletz)

2nd Place – Book Blasters (Harper Bischoff, Leah Jablo, Zinnia Schawartz,

Sophia Zanussi) AND Fighting Fish (Owen Baker, Henry Balk, Jack Glassman,

Joseph Mossbridge) AND Nice Lollipop-Loving Llamas (Louisa Carman, Natalie

Lovinger, Lia Nelson, Lizabeth Raffel)

3rd Place – Readers in Style (Catie LaBranche, Sophie Levine, Katherine

Millar) AND DaBomb (Haddie Broughton-DeLong, Nina Kaushikkar, Remi

Schreder) AND Blazing Book Bombs (Kate Grossman, Sophia Haight, Zoe

Makagon, Katherine Mann)

4th Place – Book Brawlers (Kurt Bruggeman, Ben Drape, Noah Roth) AND The

Book Eaters (Miles Allen, Chester Beck, Ben Gershuny) AND No Name Yet (Eva

Darow, Ceridwyn Quaintance, Christopher Rohner, Tyler Young)

I am so proud of the students and faculty at Baker!  In the last week we

have played three games and had a ton of fun.  I was impressed by the good

sportsmanship, grace and dignity that everyone possessed while we were

playing the games. Of course the best part of the games was that kids were

reading books that they normally wouldn’t have picked up (according to

them), and they were surprised at how much they loved them. Putting voice

to what many kids said after the games was Nina Kaushikkar when she told

me, “These are my favorite books, now.”  That is music to this librarian’s

heart!

I’d like to make a special note about the faculty who got so excited about

the Battle of the Books that they, too, wanted to play.  It always says

something when teachers are so vested in their students that they want to

have fun with them.  I think if you ask those teachers who played, they

will tell you that our lives were enriched by reading the books our

students love – and it gave it us something new and wonderful to talk

about with the kids.

Here is what I hope came out of the Battle of the Books -- that this

experience was a good one for families as well as the children.  I hope

parents read along with their kids and had discussions about the books

(perhaps this was for the first time since their kids starting reading on

their own).  I hope some of the books gave our students a multi-cultural

experience that was enriching and informative.  I hope the kids will

continue to pick up books that they wouldn't have read prior to the

experience and enjoy reading them.  I hope there was a learning experience

in forming/joining teams and having to work together to accomplish a goal.

Lastly, I hope that your children were happy that they participated!

The long anticipated Middle School Battle of the Books proved to be as exciting as everyone thought it would be!  The games were fun and everyone loved the books they read for the game!  The Middle School BOB teams read a 12 books, for a total of 3533 pages!

At the end of the game the standings:

1^st place — Grams of Teddy (John Baker, Ari Ben-Zeev, John Kinne, Noah Taborda)

2^nd place — People (Caleb Broughton-DeLong, Alex Potakis, Bea Tabbacchi, Tucker Walsh)

3^rd place — The Churning Butter (Chris McAuley, Jonas Lindholm-Uzzi, Rafe Sengupta)

4^th place — The 6-7 Split (Leah Cooke, Rena Newman, Valerie Kelley)

There were five faculty teams — 20 teachers — competing in the first Baker Demonstration School Battle of the Books. They read 12 books, and answered questions about the books that were written by students. It was a close game going into the final round, where the teams had to determine the point worth of the last question. There was a tie between The Bookies and The Slam for first place — and after the answers were revealed, The Bookies were victorious!

Here are the team standings:

1st The Bookies (Kate Anderson, Karrie Fisher, Jackie Haug, Denise Logan)

2nd Tommy’s Angels (Tom Beck, Anne Patrick, Juli Ross, Kerah Sandler)

3rd The Champions (Patrick Dunafin, Lauren Fiamingo, Mike Gnutek, Dana O’Brien)

4th The Slam (Stacy Buehler, Leslie Finn, Addie Goodman, Melissa Makagon)

4th The Red Demons (Becky Crawford, Deirdre Harrison, Emily Spallone, Lindsay Zellicow)

All the teams read voraciously, answered accurately, and had fun!

Now we’re onto the student Battle of the Books!

Middle School game — January 27th 1:00 – 2:15 p.m. in Carlson

TIM (4th and 5th grade) game — February 2nd 9:00 – 10:15 a.m. in Cafeteria

ALL ARE WELCOME TO ATTEND to watch these exciting literary games!

The following is the list of books nominated for the Monarch Award.  Our Kindergarten – 3rd grade students will having voting rights this year, and will be placing their votes in February.  The winner will be announced in March 2010!  LAST YEAR’S WINNER: Once Upon A Motorcycle Dude by Kevin O’Malley.

Recess at 20 Below by Cindy Lou Aillaud  (Read in library class)

Max’s Word by Kate Banks

Nic Bishop Spiders by Nic Bishop

I Lost My Tooth in Africa by Penda Diakite

The Gingerbread Girl by Lisa Campbell Ernest

Glass Slipper, Gold Sandal: A Worldwide Cinderella by Paul Fleischman

The Perfect Nest by Catherine Friend (Read in library class)

Andy Shane and the Very Bossy Delores Starbuckle by Jennifer Richard Jacobson

What to Do About Alice? by Barbara Kerley

Ruby Lu, Empress of Everything by Lenore Look

Velma Gratch and the Way Cool Butterfly by Alan Madison (Read in library class)

Once I ate Pie by Patrica MacLaughlin

On the Road by Lucy Nolan

The Cheese by Margie Palatini

The Little Red Hen by Jerry Pinkey

My Dog is As Smelly as Dirty Socks by Hanoch Piven (Read in library class)

Chicks and Salsa by Aaron Reynolds (Read in library class)

A Day with No Crayons by Elizabeth Rusch (Read in library class)

Scaredy Squirrel by Melanie Watt (Read in library class)

Baa-Choo! by Sarah Weeks

The following is the list of books nominated for the Rebecca Caudill Award.  Our 4th – 8th grade students will having voting rights this year, and will be placing their votes in February.  The winner will be announced in March 2010!  LAST YEAR’S WINNER: The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan.

Naked Mole-Rate Letters by Mary Amato

Home of the Brave by Katherine Applegate

Shark Girl by Kelly L. Bingham

Shooting the Moon by Fraces O’Roark Dowell

Freedom Walkers: the story of the Montgomery Bus Boycott by Russell Freedman

Dragon Slippers by Jessica Day George

The Thing About Georgie by Lisa Graff

All the Lovely Bad Ones by Mary Downing Hahn

Crossing the Wire by Will Hobbs

Kimchi & Calamari by Rose Kent

Jeremy Fink and the Meaning of Life by Wendy Mass

The Mozart Question by Michael Morpurgo

A Small White Scar by K.A. Nuzum

The Wednesday Wars by Gary D. Schmidt

Elephant Run by Roland Smith

The White Giraffe by Lauren St. John

First Light by Rebecca Stead

Emma-Jean Lazarus Fell Out of a Tree by Lauren Tarshis

A Crooked Kind of Perfect by Linda Urban

Someone Named Eva by Joan M. Wolf

Note: These books were nominated and chosen by a panel of students, teachers, and librarians.

Cafe Biblioteca was a huge success with over 70 parents and children attending!  Parents shared delicious food and books with their children.  Thank you to all the families who brought a bounty of food!

Middle schoolers were busy in the library this week.

Sixth graders were learning about the life of Melvil Dewey and the remarkable system he designed that has now become known as the Dewey Decimal System.

Seventh and eighth graders are beginning a unit on researching their birth names.  This is a 6 week research project, and each week will open with a story about someone’s name.  The project will conclude with each student writing and performing a digital story about their name.

Middle School Elective class students are reading a book for pleasure with the intent to write a book review.  They will be learning the skills necessary to write an interesting, thought-provoking and inticing book review.  Their reviews will be published on our blog titled: Reading Rants.  We will likely podcast their reviews as well if time allows.