The list of 2013-2014 Iowa Goldfinch Book Award nominees is one phenomenal list! Each year during the month of February, the following year's Iowa Goldfinch Book Award nominee list is announced! Students are more than welcome and highly encouraged to read these amazing books over the summer and into the following school year! They are fully aware that I will begin an "official" unit in January that lasts until the last week in March, right before the voting deadline.
I have now taught two "official" units of the Iowa Goldfinch Book Award. And, I LOVE how each year gets better and better! I've seen the 2014-2015 Iowa Goldfinch Book Award nominees, and while I have enjoyed last year's list and this year's list, I am beyond giddy over next year's list!
In my two years of reading aloud Iowa Goldfinch Book Award nominees, it always seems "do-able" to read aloud the approximately 20-25 books from January to March. Unfortunately, there isn't enough time to read aloud the entire list. Late starts, snow days, and days I am gone due to various reasons (sick children, I'm sick, professional development meetings, etc.), are some of the challenges I have faced each year. This year was particularly challenging with more snow days/cold days than usual!
While there are opportunities for students to check-out (both public library and school library) and read the books on their own time, I think students prefer to hear the more "theatrical" or "dramatic" version from me!
The deadline to enter votes for the favorite 2013-2014 Iowa Goldfinch Book Award is March 31, 2014. And, now we are down to the final wire! Due to our school's cycle schedule, this cycle (March 21-March 28) is the final cycle to read aloud and vote!
Starting, Friday, March 21, students and I are enjoying our final read alouds of the 2013-2014 Iowa Goldfinch Book Award nominees, during IC Skills! Prior to Friday, when I looked over the books we have not read yet, I had a hard time selecting the final two books I would read aloud before our final vote! Oh my gosh, I am so happy I chose to read aloud Press Here by Herve Tullett and Memoirs of a Goldfish by Devin Scillian! There is humor, laughter, and delight wrapped up into these fun books!
Here are some pictures from Friday's read aloud of Press Here.
Mrs. Lauffer's Kindergarten Class
Here are some pictures of Friday's read aloud of Press Here with 1st graders from Mrs. Hobart's and Mrs. Kyle's class.
I had activities planned for Press Here and Memoirs of a Goldfish, but due to time and one of my main goals to expose the students to as many 2013-14 Iowa Goldfinch nominees as possible, I did not get to complete the activities. A huge shout-out THANK YOU to my teacher-librarian friends Sandi Ellis and Melissa White for helping co-plan these activities!
For Press Here, you can click on this link for ideas and activities to support the book. Of course, I think these activities would also be PERFECT for International Dot Day (held on September 15ish).
The perfect technology tool to support Press Here is Press Here: The App !
For Memoirs of a Goldfish, you can click on this link to find the activity to support this fun book! Of course, there is always a way convert it into a technological activity!
There is an app for Memoirs of a Goldfish. School Library Journal wrote about it in an article on September 19, 2011. You can find that article by clicking here. At the time of this blog post, I searched for the app and iTunes store indicates it is currently not available in the US. For what it is worth, I thought I would mention it since I tried searching for an app to support such a fun book!
While I would have loved to have students complete the activities to support the read alouds, due to the time deadline to vote, I figured it was better to read aloud the two books than to complete the activities. Of course, I plan on saving these activities to use either at the end of the school year or even for next school year!
While the two books, Press Here and Memoirs of a Goldfish, wrap up our final 2013-2014 Iowa Goldfinch Book Award nominees read alouds during IC Skills, I plan on reading other books from the list in the next few weeks and integrate into our upcoming new library skills units in grades K-2.
These are the following books I definitely want to read and integrate into upcoming new units in grades K-2. By the way, they are shared and will be read in no particular order.
Stay tuned for more pictures from other classes while they enjoy Press Here and Memoirs of a Goldfish!
Stay tuned for how students voted for the 2013-2014 Iowa Goldfinch Award!
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