I Scream, You Scream, We All Scream For Summer Reading

I really enjoy hosting a series of parent workshops throughout the year. Not only does it give me a chance to meet the parents, but it gives the opportunities to collaborate with other professionals and sneak in my own professional development.

Our most popular workshop by far is the Summer Reading Workshop with our librarian and our music teacher (who is completing her degree in library science). Here is why it's the best:

1) The parents get lots of goodies.

Read about all the free goodies to encourage summer reading at Mrs. Svarda's Blog!

2) There is always coffee.

2) We get to show off our favorite books.

We hang out at Barnes and Noble a lot, so this is fun way to show off our "finds." Here are some of my favorites:

I love so much about this book. I love the message it sends:  you can be anything you want to be, so be original. I also love the illustrations (Martha Graham makes an appearance in this one.)

This one makes history a lot of fun.

A must have for ever classroom teacher.

How fun is this cover!

4) We cater it to each child, which the parents love. It's a very personal experience. This year they included each child's Lexil  score and a resource for the parents to use this number to find books that directly match their child's reading level.

http://www.lexile.com/fab/

4) There are rewards! This year we had an ice cream theme for the workshop. Mrs. Svarda and Mrs. Shepherd made these cute ice cream cones to track summer reading by putting a book title on each scoop to show just how many books they read this summer. Students who complete their ice cream scoops will get invited to an ice cream party.

We created the ice cream scoops for each student. For each book they read the child can fill in the title on their scoop.

Mike and Ike "popsicles." 

A donation from a local store. Reeves Sain a

5) We share about local programs which will help spread the word that we support our community. For example, we shared the summer program from our local library, Hastings (a local book store)  and Barnes and Noble.

Our list of local and school summer reading program.

6) We have excuses to get on Pinterest: https://pinterest.com/sarahsvarda/summer-reading/
https://www.pinterest.com/eshepherd78/summer-reading/

7) We are starting something new. Our school started the Flat Stouie project, which we hope will go nationwide. How fun that we can say we started this project and now he's off to Japan. Follow his blog.

8) It's fun! We have a blast. It's a really relaxed enviornment. We sit, talk, and share. I love the relaxed enviornment because we really get to share good titles, good ideas, and good books.

Our amazing librarian and one of my best friends. Here is her blog: http://libraryeverything.blogspot.com/

Browsing for good books.

Everyone has their full attention on the speaker =)

Our principals even joined us. 

One of our parents sharing her good books. She had a blast using the smartboard. 

Here are a few sites we shared:
www.guysread.com/books/- for all the boys.
www.readkiddoread.com- also on Facebook
Slyvan's Book Adventure- has quizzes on the books you are reading so the kids can earn points and earn prizes.
www.goodreads.com- A social media website to connect you and your friends through books. For young adults and adults only (due to the lack of privacy setting.)
Books in my library: http://www.cityschools.net/discovery/filtness/Site/Blue_Ribbon_Books.html

Last but not least, speaking of summer look at this summer photo shoot I did with Brooklyn. I just had to share.