Friday, April 27, 2012

First Lines... before and after

Before:

After:

Thank you to all who participated in adding to the Favorite First Lines board! ...Even Ms. Sarah, Ms. Patrice, and Mr. Michael added wonderful first sentences from book that they've enjoyed. 

I really enjoyed seeing the books and sentences chosen by everyone... so many wonderful first lines that I never noticed / thought of!

I like this display so much... I plan to leave it up for a while longer!

Thursday, April 26, 2012

Stocking up on READING for the long weekend...

Last night I started reading our new book,
I'm Not Her, by Janet Gurtler (a Canadian author)...


...And I've just stocked my 'grandma-basket-bag' with a bunch of books to read over the long weekend! I doubt I'll get to them all but am looking forward to having good choices when deciding what to read next (I love that!). These books have been on my to-read list for a while now...

This book and its follow-up book,
Demonglass, are popular ones in our library.
The cover alone makes me want to read it!

Tom in 7th grade has gotten many boys into this book and, based on how excited he is to read the next one from the HS, I'm looking forward to reading this book! I expect it to be
action-packed with adventure, drama, and suspense!

This book looks cute and has been a popular one with the girls this year.

Gotta love this book just by its title!

This has been a popular one...
(And the second one: The Ghoul Next Door.)
This is the same author that writes the Clique novels.

Both Ms. Patrice and Mr. Arunski read this book with their 7th graders. Linda Sue Park lives where I am from in New York! I have heard of this book but never read it... so it's about time...

Cheeky, eh?! haha

The 20 Coolest Bookstores in the World!

A friend of mine sent me a link... 
to photos of the 20 coolest bookstores in the world... 


Which one is your favorite?

Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Ms. Kathleen's READ posters

Ms. Kathleen and I made READ posters with each of her 6th grade English classes. I really like the way they turned out! Some of the students got creative and made the theme of their picture match the book they chose.  :)



They look great posted on the outside windows of her classroom.

Some students got creative with theirs!...





Happy BOOK WEEK!   :)

Book Week happenings

Wondering what's up for Book Week??


The sign above is hanging up outside the library in the main lobby if you want to see the various activities going on this week for BOOK WEEK.   :)

Let Ms. Stacia know if you have any questions!

...There have already been some wonderful submissions for both the Bookmark Contest and Favorite First Lines board! ...Keep 'em comin'!

Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Teachers' READ Posters

I hope you continue to enjoy BOOK WEEK!

...Maybe you've started noticing the new postings around school this afternoon 

...the teachers' READ posters!


















Monday, April 23, 2012

Hospital Visit to Nga

The middle school’s Student Council has been giving back to the community in various ways this school year.
One major outreach activity we have been involved with is Grace's Cookies... a non-for-profit that a woman from the United States began a few years ago. She has been living in Ho Chi Minh City while her husband works here and wanted to be able to do something to keep herself busy and give back to the local community. She decided to do something that she knew how to do... bake cookies... sell them (and have others sell them for her -- such as us!)... and then donate the money raised to a large organization which collects money to pay for life-saving heart surgeries needed by Vietnamese children whose families cannot afford it.

We have had a few Grace's Cookies fundraiser days at the middle school and recently raised enough money to sponsor a child's heart surgery!

Last week a group of us were able to go to the hospital to meet the 4-year old boy who received the heart surgery with our money. Not only was it amazing to meet this little boy but it was also wonderful to see exactly where our fundraising money went to in real life.


Nguyen Van Nga is a 4-year old from the Mekong Delta and has Ventricular Septal Defect. His father is a fisherman and his mother stays at home to take care of him and his sister. Nga's grandparents live with the family as well... so there are 6 family members who depend on the father's income alone. Nga has needed this heart surgery for some time but the family could not afford it. Last week, Nga and his mother traveled to HCMC for the heart surgery and were able to return home about a week later (the day after our visit).

We brought Nga a bunch of toys, books, etcetera with us on the visit. He was quite shy at first but reached right for the stuffed teddy bear that Teena brought!

He did begin to play with the new toys and soon, he opened up and had a huge grin on his face. We laughed, played, ...and none of us want to leave. He was a little chatterbox by the end of our visit.   :)

Not only has the AIS middle school quite literally saved a child's life... but this child is incredibly sweet and deserving to be saved (isn't every child, though?!).

Nga has never held a crayon, marker, or any kind of writing utensil before. He loved the crayons, markers, and coloring pad that we brought.




He also loved the stickers!!








Teena, Tony, and Annie made a beautiful card to bring with us as well. The man from Heartbeat Vietnam explained the card to Nga's mother, since she cannot read.

The front of the card says, More than 1,000 cookies. 200 students. 1 heart.

Our middle school students at AIS are amazing!

The experience of visiting Nga in the hospital will stay with us forever. How true it is… what a difference a few cookies can make.


Miss Sarah's Creature Alliteration Poem


Miss Stacian
Please meet Miss Stacian
Miss Stacian sometimes settles on sunny, sandy statues in Southern Spain.
Miss Stacian scarcely sucks satsumas, sherbet or sliced sausages, so she stays slim.
Miss Stacian surely has a soft spot for sport, subjunctive Spanish, starry skies and scandalous Scandinavians. Strict Miss Stacian strives to support students structuring stanzas.
Miss Stacian sculptures scarlet socks and stitches silk shirts. She sincerely sings single sentences to her subordinates.
Miss Stacian simplifies schooling by supporting story systems in Saigon


Miss Sarah has been doing a poetry unit with her ESL students and the poem above was one that she wrote... there is some kind of outline for how it works... and I just love it.  :)

Sunday, April 22, 2012

mystery donator

I came in to the library on Sunday to get some work done and found this box AND a bag full of Vietnamese books!

Thank you, THANK YOU, to whoever this mystery donator is!

"Ms Steisha" will very happily take these wonderful books and donate them to the orphanage!

So kind. Thanks so much :)