Reading Rocks!

The faculty and students at RES would like to tell Mrs. Amanda Henley how much they appreciated listening to her read some of her favorite stories.

Mrs. Henley read…

• One Halloween Night by Mark Teague
• The Salmon Princess: An Alaska Cinderella Story by Mindy Dwyer
• and Toot and Puddle: You Are My Sunshine by Holly Hobbie.

Thank you for spending time with us, Mrs. Henley!

The next scheduled Special Guest Reader will be Sandy Kasch, the GCPS Literacy Specialist.  She will be visiting RES from 8:30 to 9:15 AM on Friday, October 16th.

Dr. Linda Underwood, Superintendent of Goochland County Public Schools, stopped by RES on Friday, October 2nd to read to the students as the Special Guest Reader of the week.

Dr. Underwood read…

• The Little Red Ant and the Great Big Crumb: A Mexican Fable by Shirley Climo
• Cinderella Skeleton by Robert D. San Souci
• The Brave Little Seamstress by Mary Pope Osborne
• and select poems from Behold the Umbrellaphant by Jack Prelutsky.

The next Special Guest Reader will be Amanda Henley, the GCPS elementary Instructional Technology Resource Teacher on Friday, October 9th.

The second Special Guest Reader of the year, Brad Franklin, came to RES on September 25th.  He read Smokey by Bill Peet to 12 classes!  The students and staff would like to say THANK YOU to him for a job well done!

The next scheduled Special Guest Reader is GCPS Superintendent, Dr. Linda Underwood.  She will be reading some of her favorite children’s stories at RES on Friday, October 2nd.

The students and staff at Randolph Elementary School would like to say THANK YOU to Tom DeWeerd for being our very first Special Guest Reader of the year!

Mr. DeWeerd read the following stories to our students:

• The Stranger by Chris Van Allsburg
• Hello Hokie Bird by Aimee Sutter Aryal
• and the poems “Music Lesson” and “The Robot” from the book Falling Up by Shel Silverstein

The next scheduled Special Guest Reader will be Brad Franklin, the GCPS Research and Information Services Analyst.  He will be visiting RES on Friday, September 25th.

Welcome back, Roadrunners!  The 2009-2010 school year is going to be filled with fun (and educational) activities for our students.

Special Guest Readers are back!  If you are interested in volunteering your time to read to our students for just one hour, we would love to hear from you.  Special Guest Readers should contact Beth Ferguson via email at eferguson@glnd.k12.va.us or stop by Room 116 after school!

Book Character Day has been cancelled for this year.

The fall book fair is scheduled from November 11th through November 20th.  Please plan on stopping by the Library-Media Center during one of our special book fair events – including Parent-Teacher Conference Day on November 12th and Spaghetti Dinner Night on November 13th.  More information coming soon!

Students will also get the opportunity to participate in the RES Spelling Bee in December, Dr. Seuss Day and Reading Month in March, and Poetry Month in April.

Book Character Day is nearly here!  

On Friday, October 31st, students, teachers & staff (parents, too!) are encouraged to dress up as a favorite book character.  Click on the image to view information about Book Character Day.  For more information & specific requirements for each classroom, please visit the teacher blogs.

There will be a Language Arts Committee meeting on Thursday, October 2nd @ 3:10 PM in the Library-Media Center.  We will discuss the upcoming events for October and November including:

• BOOK It!
• Book Character Day (October 31)
• Book Fair Safari (November 11-25)
• SOL Safari/Committee Night (November 18)

What is BOOK IT!?

BOOK IT! motivates children to read by rewarding their reading accomplishments with praise, recognition and pizza.  BOOK IT! is simple for the teacher to use, flexible because goals match reading ability, and fun because achieving a goal is a great reason to celebrate. 

A literacy activity that parents can participate in, BOOK IT! was created in 1985 and has since grown to 22 million students strong.

How does BOOK IT! work?

BOOK IT! runs every school year from October through March.  The teacher sets a reading goal for each child in the class.  A tracking chart and reproducibles are included to make it that much easier.  As soon as a child meets the monthly reading goal, the teacher gives him or her a Reading Award Certificate. 

taken from: the BOOK IT! website

Did you know that BOOK IT! has a ton of really great reproducibles on the website?  

Just click on the “Teachers” page and you will find…

• Introductory Letters to Parents
• Reading Tracking Sheets
• Coloring Calendars
• Reading Contracts
• Book Reviews
• Graphic Organizers
• Awards & Certificates
• Election Puzzles & Word Games

All of these reproducibles are available in English and Spanish!  

There are also Goal Setting Guides to help you make sure the differentiated needs of your students are being met.  

Did you hear about the contest?

Each teacher packet contains a “What Do the BOOK IT! Kids Say?” poster.  If you send the completed poster to the BOOK IT Kids Say Sweepstakes address (available on the website) by April 1, 2009, you could win a new book and bag full of BOOK IT! items for every student in your classroom!

Be sure to come to the RES Back to School Night on Tuesday, September 16th!  Festivities begin at 6:15 PM in the Cafeteria with the Committee Fair.  Parents & students will have the opportunity to learn more about the various committees that support our schools events throughout the year.  

Committees include:

• Language Arts Committee (L.A. Nights, Book Character Day, Spelling Bee…)
• Math Committee (Math Nights, 100th Day of School)
• History Committee (Famous American Day, History Day, Election Day)
• Science Committee (Science Fair, Spring Clean-Up Day)
• Safety Committee
• Parent Teacher Association (PTA)