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From March 1 through March 11 (extended due to snow days), Pine Glen celebrated Bookapalooza, a school-wide event that allowed us to share our love of reading and to support world literacy. It was a lot of work but even more fun!

First, it was important to promote Bookapalooza to our school community before the big week. I asked the Student Council if they would like to help and they were eager to get on board. These students came up with the name “Bookapalooza,” made posters to hang around the school, and helped me make Dr. Seuss goodie bags.

Students making posters

Stuffing Dr. Seuss Goodie Bags

Bookapalooza poster

“Make a Change With Your Change” poster

We kicked off Bookapalooza by celebrating Read Across America and Dr. Seuss’s 109th birthday on Friday, March 1. Ms. Smith’s first grade classroom made Dr. Seuss posters to hang around the school and Mrs. Visocchi helped to arrange for her Bridges senior volunteers to visit classrooms and read Dr. Seuss books to our students. The lunchroom served green eggs and ham and the Library & Technology Center handed out small goodie bags to all students (you never know when you’re going to need a Dr. Seuss bookmark!) Rumor had it that the Cat in the Hat showed up to do a little reading, too!

Lots of excitement (and silliness!)

First grade posters for Dr. Seuss’s birthday

Goodie Bags

Member of Mrs. Visocchi’s senior Bridges program reading Dr. Seuss

The Cat in the Hat made an appearance in First Grade

Then we turned our focus to world literacy by participating in a week long celebration of World Read Aloud Day, March 6. Our homerooms signed up to be Book Buddies with other homerooms so students could read picture books aloud to each other. It was so great to see older students reading to younger students and vice versa! The LTC had plenty of great read-alouds set aside so students could choose their favorites to read. I love seeing which books students chose especially those who wanted to share a book that they loved when they were younger.

Samantha reading to her Kindergarten Book Buddies

Devin loved reading his favorite childhood book to his Kindergarten Book Buddy

Brennan is enjoying being read to by his big sister Book Buddy, Shea

World Read Aloud Day is a worldwide event hosted by LitWorld.org that brings awareness to world literacy. There are 793,000 people in the world who are not literate.

World Read Aloud Day is about taking action to show the world that the right to read and write belongs to all people. World Read Aloud Day motivates children, teens, and adults worldwide to celebrate the power of words, especially those words that are shared from one person to another, and creates a community of readers advocating for every child’s right to a safe education and access to books and technology.

 

Pine Glen participated in World Read Aloud Day in a handful of ways. First, we Skyped with other classrooms in the United States, sharing a picture book and reading aloud to each other. The majority of the books we shared we read on the WeGiveBooks.org, a database of digital picture books that you can read online while supporting world literacy:

• We read One Cool Friend with Mrs. Lussier’s class in Connecticut,
• We read Bunny Days, Duck! Rabbit! and Mine-O-Saur with Ms. Broderick’s class in Massachusetts,
• We read Mine-O-Saur with Ms. Broderick’s class in Massachusetts AND Mr. Winner’s class in Maryland at the same time! (that was definitely a shining moment
• We read Same, Same but Different with Mr. Plemmons’s class in Georgia,
• We read Pete the Cat and His Four Groovy Buttons with Mrs. Schmidt’s class in Georgia and her students performed Reader’s Theater for us,
• We read Extra Yarn with Mrs. Potter’s class in Maine,
• We read One Cool Friend with Ms. Myles class in North Carolina,
• We read Bunny Days with Mrs. Hundt’s class in Wisconsin, and
• We read Stand Tall, Molly Lou Melon with Mrs. Kaldenbergh’s class in Iowa.

Reading One Cool Friend with ours friends in North Carolina

Skyping and reading with Ms. Broderick in MA and Mr. Winner in MD at the same time!

Reading Same, Same but Different with Mr. Plemmons in GA

Pine Glen also decided to raise money for world literacy. We created the “Make a Change, With Your Change” Fundraiser (thank you, again, Student Council for such a great name!) After a week of collecting change, we raised $400.00! The LTC will donate this money to WeGiveBooks.org who, during the winter season, will give two books to a world literacy campaign for every $5.00 you donate. That means Pine Glen donated 160 books! Great effort to everyone who donated. Pine Glen definitely made a change with our change

Devin adder her change to the bottle

Finally, we ended Bookapalooze with “Dress Up as Your Favorite Book Character” Day. There were many great book characters spotted that day such as Percy Jackson, Pinkalicious, Skippyjon Jones, Harry Potter, Tintin, and Pippi Longstocking.

Pinkalicious

How many Things are there?

Paper Bag Princess

Tintin

Skippyjon Jones

Rendi from Starry River of the Sky

Percy Jackson

Pippi Longstocking

Even the Friday Faculty Breakfast got into the spirit!

Thank you, Pine Glen, for a memorable week of sharing our love for books and reading.

View the whole set of photos from Bookapalooza 2013