Category Archives: Caldecott

Tally Ho

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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.

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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…

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

 

 

Counting the Votes…Barefoot Style

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Wow… What a FUN job I have before me!

With over 130 votes coming in from our Elementary Students this week, I have my work cut out for me adding up who voted for what. I actually don’t need to do any of this… I really just need to wait until tomorrow night to see who the ALA chooses for the Newbery and Caldecott Medal books, then see which of our students chose the same, and go from there. BUT, it is so interesting seeing who the kids voted for, remembering the lesson that their teacher or I read them that book, the discussions we had, and realizing that the book resonated with them.

I started a tally on a small piece of paper for the Caldecott’s, and soon realized I needed a bigger piece of paper to write down all of the different titles. It really is a great year for picture books, and I am thrilled that so many of our students have been exposed to the LATEST and GREATEST the industry has to offer.

Caldecott Book Tally as voted by the K,1,2,3rd grade students; the number in brackets AFTER the book title, is how many votes it earned from the 4th and 5th graders.

1 vote went to Bunnies on Ice, If you want to see a whale, the Matchbox Diary, A Splash of Red, I’m the Scariest Thing in the Jungle, and Water in the Park (love this one). Of course, the cool thing is, ANY of these books could be the actual Caldecott Medal or Honor Winner.

2 votes went to On a Beam of Light, The Snatchabook(4), Nelson Mandela, The Tortoise and the Hare, and Odd Duck.

3 votes went to Papa’s Mechanical Fish, The Day the Crayons Quit(6), Steam Train Dream Train and also to Journey(3), so of course I think one of those voters must be onto something, with Aaron Becker’s Journey being such a favorite this year around the blogosphere.

4 votes went to Mr Wuffles (1)

6 votes went to Night Light (1), the children really loved guessing what will be on the next page and Mr Tiger Goes Wild, (4) another popular favorite this year.

9 votes went to Tap the Magic Tree, Building our House, Unicorn Thinks he’s Pretty Great (3), Secret Pizza Party (2), Bluebird (6) and Flora the Flamingo proving that you don’t need words to produce a brilliant story kids love.

Doug Unplugged (3) has been really popular with the second and third graders and scored high with them when it came time to vote with 15 votes.

However, it was the teaming of Lemony Snickett and Jon Klassen with The Dark (12) that scored the highest with the K-3rd graders who gave it 21 votes, proving it to be the most popular of the picture books they’ve been introduced to these past three weeks. I certainly hope it gets an honor at least, the silence and air of suspense as I read it, time and time again, was palpable.

So, points of interest between the Caldecott books the lower ES voted for compared to the upper ES…

*Patricia Polacco’s Bully didn’t get a nod from the younger ones, but 3 upper ES voted for it.
*Locomotive got 1 vote from the older kids
*All of the books listed above that only got one vote from the younger kids, were overlooked by the older ones.
*Dark was the clear favourite overall, with 33 votes…
Right…. now on to the Newbery AND Caldecott Votes from the 4th and 5th graders… It will be interesting to see how they chose their picture books compared to the younger students. To win the ‘grand prize’ kiss from me, they need to get the Newbery AND Caldecott winner correct…. tough call.

7 days to go, 7 days ’til we know…

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In a way, I can’t wait ’til this time next week, when I can start sharing with the students who won the 2014 Newbery and Caldecott Medals, but another part of me really enjoys the energy and enthusiasm the countdown produces.
Right now, the classes are buzzing, arguing, debating and defending their choices with vigour… once the decision is made, I suppose there will be a new kind of buzz; again, more arguments as to why they think the decision made was right or wrong… But as for now, they OWN their choices, and they are shouting them loud and proud.

As for me, I am reading through those books like crazy… but none have jumped out at me the same way Applegate’s Ivan did this time last year. I am however, loving MANY of the picture books I’m reading (so much faster!) and can’t wait to see who takes that. Some of my favourites are:

The Dark by Lemony Snickett
I’m a sucker for Klassen’s illustrations, and I think the story is really well done, so suspenseful.

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Journey by Aaron Becker
Wordless books are aplenty this year with Flora the Flamingo, Mr. Wuffles (practically wordless) and the heart-wrenching Bluebird by Bob Staake, however it is Journey that gets my vote; what an amazing creation. The early pages took me back to one of last year’s favorites, Hello Hello by Matthew Cordell.

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Doug Unplugged by Dan Yaccarino
Again,I’m reminded of Hello Hello; “Dan Yaccarino’s funny story of robot rebellion is a great reminder that sometimes the best way to learn about the world is to go out and be in it.”

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Now, check out Ms Lau’s students reading the Caldecott’s this morning, and see what they voted for this morning…

Ethan H: Blue Bird
Maddie: Blue Bird
Lizzie: Nelson Mandela
Daniel: Blue Bird
Han Rei: Blue Bird
William: Blue Bird
Jerry: Journey
Charlotte: Blue Bird
Oliver: Night Light
Malu: Blue Bird
Yolanda: Blue Bird

Here is a great list from the Horn Book blog with many of the books listed that we are lucky enough to have been reading this week.

list of caldecott maybe