April 3rd through the 13th is National Library Week. Our students celebrated the week in the “Room Where It Happens” by enjoying activities and learning about the Caldecott and Newbery Medal Awards for children’s books sponsored by the American Library Association.
Kindergarten through 3rd grades, were read Caldecott Medal Books that included: Kitten’s First Full Moon by Kevin Henkes, The Hello Goodbye Window by Norton Juster, The Little House by Virginia Lee Burton, and The Water Protectors Carole Lindstrom. Since our students learned that the books won the Caldecott for its illustrations, they paid particular attention to the drawings on each page and their smiles exhibited just how much they enjoyed their story. Activities for each story and I love my library coloring pages topped off their time this week in the library.
Fourth Grade students took the challenge of both the Caldecott and Newbery Medals and are looking forward to designing their own book medals next library class. Then they will nominate books they feel should win an award and vote on a winner.
Fifth through eighth grades discussed the criteria for a book to be nominated for the Newbery Medal: “the book must be a contribution to American literature for children; the author must be an American citizen or reside in the United States; the book needs to be published by an American publisher in the United States in English during the preceding year. There are no limitations as to the character of the book considered, except that it be an original work.” Afterwards, each student was given a list of all 102 Newbery winning books to look over and they were asked to place a check or highlight books they have read and circle those they have heard of but not read. As they looked the list over, many students were surprised at the number of Newbery books they had actually read, and the amount of Newbery books that are available in our library.
A fun time was had by all!