Book Fair

So, instead of going in a logical (or semi-logical) sequence, I'm going to jump to the end of that list and talk about our upcoming book fair.  Because - I am SO excited!!  We run our book fair through Scholastic and they have so many awesome aspects to their fairs.  I have a phenomenal team of PTA Book Fair coordinators and we simply wouldn't be able to run such a fabulous fair without them and their expertise.  I attended a workshop to learn more about the fair and how everything runs as well as to preview some of the selections in order to introduce those selections to students.  Fifth graders watched Book Trailers as part of a project to vote for the Best Book Trailers for K-6 students as compiled by School Library Journal Magazine.  But that will be another post.  But...one of the preview books was one that students had gotten really excited about while watching and voting for their favorite book trailers - "Closed for the Season" by Mary Downing Hahn.

Closed for the Season from SLJ Trailee Nominees on Vimeo.

Also, this fair will be one of the first that follows the release of the new Diary of a Wimpy Kid book, so we've been collecting pre-orders for the new book.  Kids are SO excited about this release.  Any time kids get excited about books, you know that great things are happening.

In order to raise the level of excitement, for the first time our school participated in a reading incentive that got the principal (or assistant principal in this case) involved in a wacky stunt.  The "What Would You Do For Reading" video prompted our school's assistant principal to propose that if kids "Read 100,000" minutes, she would dress as Captain Underpants.  I will say that it is a huge understatement to say that the kids were excited.  Many decided that they would read 100 minutes that day!  I'll blog about the program and our ups and downs with it in another post, so as to stay focused.

The theme for this year's fair is "Here's to our Heroes" which encompasses Superheroes and Everyday Heroes alike.  To celebrate this theme, students are doing different hero-based projects at each grade level and writing letters to be mailed around the holidays to military serving overseas or away from home.  We also invited military, firefighters, police officers, and other everyday heroes to come to our school to pose for pictures with students at our fair evening event.  I'm hoping this will be a fun opportunity for all those involved.

I have so much more that I could write, but...I'll be back!