A Skype Call with Author Tom Angleberger

Origami Yoda cake pops, courtesy of our amazing librarian

My students are huge fans of the Origami Yoda series and when I taught in The Bahamas, we did an amazing Skype call with him. I figured he was too busy and famous now to talk to us, but I was wrong. Every Thursday, he has Skype calls with schools, and it is obvious, because he is a master at getting kids excited.

Tom asked the kids for their book recommendations and gave a few of his own, showed us how to fold our own Origami Yodas, and gave us a sneak preview of the new book,  Princess Labelmaker to the Rescue. The students were screaming with excitement and were so grateful after the call. 

If you want to generate excitement, Tom Angleberger is a generous author who can hype the kids up!

A Literary Halloween

In 2013, middle school teachers dressed as The Walking Read (zombie literary characters).

Reading In The Wild

Students and teachers were issued a challenge over October break: take a photo of yourself dropping everything and reading while on vacation. Categories included Most Creative, Funniest, Greatest Distance From School, and more.

Our Principal's photos are from New York.

                             

                             

Teacher "Currently Reading" Lists

One way we are creating a culture of literacy is by having teachers post what they are reading in their classrooms.

Our science teacher has set the goal of reading 100 YA books this year!

Our Science Teacher's Banned Books Display

We love teaching in a school where a display for Banned Books Week is prominently featured in a science classroom.

A Literary Halloween

In 2012, the middle school teachers dressed as Capitol Citizens from The Hunger Games series.

Making Reading Visible

In Megan's sixth grade classes, students make a "book chain" of all the books they've read. When they finish reading a book, they make a link and add it to the chain. Students delight in keeping track of how many books they've read so far, as well as setting goals for the future.

Students celebrate completing the first loop around the classroom.

By the end of the 2012-2013 year, the students had read 1,370 books.

We celebrated by stretching the chain as far as we could, then eating doughnuts.

This year's students have set the goal of reading 1,500 books.

Teachers Celebrating Reading

Middle School teachers at CNG made this video to celebrate our school's Drop Everything And Read program. It was unveiled at an assembly and students were begging for the link to watch it again.