Giddy Up!

Posted on March 13, 2014 by Lana

The wonderful The Tale of a Dark Horse is about to gallop into our library ridden by the one and only Sarah Brennan!

We managed to secure Sarah during her flying visit to Shanghai for the Shanghai International Literary Festival which ends on March 21st. Sarah will be presenting to our Elementary Students on Wednesday March 19th and I’m especially excited about her session with fourth grade on Nailing the Narrative Curve.

“Writing Workshops: Grades 4 to 6- I also provide colourful and interactive workshops for upper primary children on How to Write A Riveting Story, Nailing the Narrative Curve, An Introduction to Poetry, Books are a Brain’s Best Friend, How to Become a Great Writer and Publishing a Picture Book from Brilliant Idea to Final Product.”

The Tale of A Dark Horse is available for sale, as are all of Sarah’s other books, for 80 rmb starting Monday in the ES Library.

Kenn really killed them…

Posted on March 11, 2014 by Lana

… is an example of figurative speech..
Here are some examples of the students’ feedback for Kenn…

“I wish Kenn Nesbitt was my Dad” by Milo Steltzer in 3TS.

Many students are coming to me telling me about the poems they’ve been writing inspired by Kenn’s visit, and here is a letter Kenn received from 5MR student Kenneth.

“Hello, today you came to our school (Shanghai American School) And you are hilarious. Students from all over the world would LOVE for you to come. I sent this website to my cousins and they love it. Please keep doing what you do. -Kenneth”

Finally here is a poster from 1CN‘s Sadie, and she hadn’t even MET Kenn in person when she created this!

Now Kenn has moved on and is presenting in Seoul. Good Luck Kenn, you certainly made some friends here in Shanghai.

Eat your words…aka Let them eat cake!

Posted on February 25, 2014 by Lana

Books to Eat 2014 will be postponed until after Spring Break so that we can promote this event further.

Our original plan was to start our Books To Eat next week, on April 3rd but as we have very busy with our visiting poets, we felt that there was NOT enough time to properly advertise this event between now and then. So these are the FINAL dates for Books to Eat 2014…I promise. (Check out this amazing Kenn Nesbitt tribute below)

Entry forms will be available in the library from Monday March 10th and you will need:

-your name

-your class

-the name of your book

We began this event in 2013, to celebrate two of our favourite things; books and food! This year, there will be just a couple of changes with each group bringing in their creations on Mondays instead of Fridays; this is a direct result of feedback from entrants last year who would have liked to organise their offerings on a weekend rather than a school night.

Our first group will be PreK, K and 1st grade students, teachers and parents on Monday April 14th.

Our second group will be 2nd and 3rd grade students, teachers and parents on Monday April 21st.

Our third and final group will be 4th and 5th grade students, teachers and parents on Monday April 28th.

Check out our entrants from last year in this great slideshow made by Mrs. Hossack (her son Blake made one of our favourite creations by the way)

http://videonew.saschina.org/player/pak_player/pakplayer.swf?config=http%3A%2F%2Fvideonew.saschina.org%2Fplayer%2Fpak_player%2Fembed_player.php%3Fvid%3D6914%26json%3Dtrue%26autoplay%3Dno

Start thinking about book titles and how you can combine them with anything edible… We’ll have certificates for People’s Choice, Students’ Favorite, Most Amazing, Incredibly Edible and much much more. But the biggest prize of all will be eating ALL that CAKE!!!

Connecting with Kenn

Posted on February 23, 2014 by Lana

What a cool few days we’ve had here in the ‘Power House’. Welcoming our poets has been a whole lot of fun with Kenn arriving first on Thursday night and Sara, Michael and Anis on Saturday. It’s been great fun talking creativity, poetry and inspiration with these lovely folk, and Hannah and Mimi got a kick out of having dinner with the Children’s Poet Laureate on Friday night. I also think Kenn got a kick out of being driven around a few backstreets, visiting temples and wet markets and taking in some of the sights of ‘real China’.

The CJ750 outside the temple

Poets and Library Team

Tonight we all got together to discuss the week ahead and had some terrific conversations about poetry, publishing, digital days and more. I am lucky to work with such a great team who are always thinking of the best ways to enhance the literate lives of our students. Thanks Barbara and Tim for taking me under your wing.

Here are some poems I’ve written about Kenn, using his great blog as a guide to remind me how to compose a variety of poems. If you can’t write a poem after exploring this page… then you can’t write a poem!

Limerick

There once was a fellow named Kenn
Who wrote poetry now and again
His poems were funny
And some made him money
He sure had a way with the pen

Haiku

Welcome Kenn Nesbitt
We know you’ll love SAS
Thank you for coming

Diamante

Kenn
Witty, Thoughtful
Observing, Noticing, Planning
Author, Creator, Writer, Artist
Counting, Rhyming, Revising
Entertaining, Clever
Poet

Acrostic

K-Kind-hearted
E-Energetic
N-Notoriously Funny
N-Never Dull

N-Naughty
E-Entertaining
S-Silly
B-Blogger
I-Interesting
T- Techy
T-Terrific

Get ready for a terrific week of poetry SAS

What is a Children’s Poet Lolly-Pop anyway?

Posted on February 21, 2014 by Lana

Is what a second grader asked me yesterday… moments after her classmate asked if Kenn Nesbitt is bothered by the paparazzi… (how do 7 year olds know about Paparazzi? Lady Gaga is educating the world)

I met Kenn last night, and even for a lolly pop, he’s pretty sweet.

http://www.poetryfoundation.org/children/poet-laureate is the place to succinctly explain to your students what a poet laureate actually is.

What is a Children’s Poet Laureate?
Awarded by the Poetry Foundation for a two-year tenure, the children’s poet laureate aims to raise awareness that children have a natural receptivity to poetry and are its most appreciative audience, especially when poems are written specifically for them.

We’re really excited about the week to come, with not one, but four great poets on our campus. Welcome to not only Kenn, but Sara Holbrook and Michael Salinger and Anis Mojgani as our poet for High School.

Stay tuned for World Read Aloud Day (March 5th) and our Annual Books to Eat Competition coming up right after our poets leave.

http://videonew.saschina.org/player/pak_player/pakplayer.swf?config=http%3A%2F%2Fvideonew.saschina.org%2Fplayer%2Fpak_player%2Fembed_player.php%3Fvid%3D6879%26json%3Dtrue%26autoplay%3Dno

Free Pizza

Posted on February 13, 2014 by Lana

Do you like pizza?

Do you like books?

Do you like meeting famous, wonderful, clever authors?

YES? Then return any overdue books as soon as possible and if YOUR class has ALL of their overdue items returned FIRST YOUR WHOLE CLASS will get to have a FREE pizza lunch with our visiting author Kenn Nesbitt during his visit; 24th-28th of February.

Your time… starts… NOW!

Ten More Sleeps

Posted on February 10, 2014 by Lana

In just ten days from now, our visiting author, Children’s Poet Laureate Kenn Nesbitt, will be hopping on a plane, and making his way to Shanghai….

Why you ask?

To see US??? YES-YOU! We are going to be in for a treat having Kenn ALL TO OURSELVES in the Elementary School for five glorious days. It is a wonderful opportunity for our students, especially considering all of the poetry the students have been creating over the past weeks. Students are still creating lovely pieces, exciting poems and musing lyrically in their classes as we speak… and many have co-ordinated their poetry units around Kenn’s visit.

I really enjoyed looking through the many blogs our teachers work hard on, and browsing through the poetry of our students. Thanks to teachers like Ed Hagen for posting photos of your students at the poetry slam, as well as actual copies of his students’ poetry. Meanwhile across the hall, here are some of Emmy David’s parents and students celebrating the success of 2ED.

Considering the fireworks we’ve all just experienced, I really enjoyed 1EV student Sisi’s poem.

Fireworks

By Sisi

Pop! Like

Some

Popcorn so

Many

Colors

Bursting in the sky

Like a sparkling star

Disappearing in the dark, black

Sky

Little bees falling

From the sky

I must also compliment my daughter Mimi from 1CN for writing about love…

Love by Mimi

Love is special

Love is everywhere

Love is in your heart

and in the air

Love is forever

And the Winners are…

Posted on January 28, 2014 by Lana

Kid in a candy store…

That was me last night as I surfed the net from site to site getting ready, getting my ‘ducks in a row’ to watch the ALA Youth Media Awards. The big awards are always left ‘til last of course; they were the two I was really interested in, however I learned a lot in the 50 minutes preceding those announcements and was able to boost our orders for next year; adding some wonderful titles from awards such as Belpre, Geisel, Coretta Scott King and the Silbert.

I was feasting on twitter updates as I bought books, texted other ‘book nerds’ updated facebook and e mailed kids getting them to “return the winners tomorrow… please please please” I was in a multi-tasking frenzy!

Even before the announcements, there was a lot of excitement generated in the school, with students reading the books, talking about the books and reviewing the books… here is one delightful review done by Jasmine Carozza, 2EH, written before she even knew that Flora may be a contender.

So…. Who won?

Caldecott Honors went to three delightful, delicious, incredible books

Journey by Aaron Becker
Flora and the Flamingo by Molly Idle
Mr. Wuffles by David Weisner

The Caldecott Medal went to Brian Floca, so well deserved for the amazing, Locomotive. We really went from one extreme to another with three without words, and one with so so many… There were no in-betweens. Go Wild now ‘Mr. Tiger’… Open your eyes in ‘The Dark’ Unplug ‘Doug’ and sleep sweetly ‘Bluebird’…

Newbery Honors went to
The Year of Billy Miller by Kevin Henkes
Doll Bones by Holly Black
One Came Home by Amy Timberlake
Paperboy by Vince Vawter

The Newbery Medal went to Kate DiCamillo’s Flora and Ulysses

While no one in our Elementary (including me) called the Newbery AND the Caldecott Medal winner, there were several students who chose one of the other so well done to the 5^th graders for choosing Flora and Ulysses

Malin and Anirodh (5KW) Audrey (5MR)

And to Chris (5DW) for choosing Locomotive as the Caldecott Winner (you were the only one in the school to do so)

In the Lower ES, the following students can come and collect a prize for correctly guessing a Caldecott Honor book

KMI Allegra and Sophia

1EV James, Ava, Sisi and Amelia

1BE Natalie and Graziela

1CN Ayden

2CN Emma Z and Augustin

2ED Harrison

3EF Brian

3TS Erin, Sydney and Willow

Congratulations to the many students who ‘threw their hat into the ring’ and attempted a very difficult task. Now remember, as you read new books THIS year, any of them could be the NEXT BIG THING…

For a FULL list of all the winners, to see other favourite books listed that we have read in our library, such as P.S. Be Eleven, Nelson Mandela, Navigating Early, A Splash of Red: The Life and Art of Horace Pippin, Courage Has No Color: The True Story of the Triple Nickles, America’s First Black Paratroopers, Penny and her Marble, Better Nate Than Ever, Creepy Carrots, Matilda, Niño Wrestles the World and Parrots over Puerto Rico… check out the ALA site.

Tally Ho

Posted on January 26, 2014 by Lana

It’s kind of annoying that I didn’t do THIS blog post first, instead of this one… so if you care, read the earlier one first!

I’ve just finished tallying the 4th and 5th grade votes for the Newbery and Caldecott… which was a little challenging, and many ballots were incorrect in one way or another. Let’s just say it’s been a learning curve for me, and the students, and I can’t wait to do it all again next year; a little differently!

I started this year by saying the kids would win if they could correctly guess the Newbery AND Caldecott Medal (not honor) and soon realised this was out of the reach of many students so modified the rules for the lower ES. It would have been better to have some sort of grand prize for anyone who could guess both, some bonus prizes for kids who could guess medals and honours, but overall, I should have just blitzed with the Caldecott’s across the board instead of getting kids to guess both; it’s been pretty tough.

I will be so excited if I actually CAN give away any giant hershey’s kisses, and I have plenty of regular ones too.

So here are the books the 4th and 5th graders thought would win the Newbery.

1 vote for Jinx, The Center of Everything and A Tangle of Knots

2 votes for Penny and her Marble and The True Blue Scouts of Sugar Man Swamp

3 votes for The Water Castle, Rump, P.S. Be Eleven and Flora and Ulysses

4 votes for Zebra Forest (which I loved) Doll Bones, The Real Boy, The Year of Billy Miller (which I didn’t love) and Escape from Mr. Lemoncello’s Library which Mrs Rekate and Mrs Lau loved and I haven’t read yet.

7 votes for Navigating Early which is brilliant, but I wonder if they will give the award to Clare Vanderpool again after winning so recently with Moon over Manifest in 2011.

9 votes for my favourite so far (and I am running out of time!) Counting by 7’s…

Check this post to see how the Upper Elementary cast their Caldecott votes…

the barefoot librarian

Kimbra Power

Category Archives: Authors