IT'S BEEN A BUSY START TO THE SCHOOL YEAR IN THE MEDIA CENTER!!

Welcome back! This year has been a busy one in the P.S. 87 Media Center so far. We began by honoring the 54 children who participated in the Summer Reading Program. They each received a Certificate of Participation and a brand new book, as well as, had some great snacks and made a craft. Great job everyone!!!
The Book Fair was next. It was a big success with our sales reaching over $4,000. I hope you all are enjoying the wonderful books you bought. I am thinking of starting a book club for all of the children who bought SCHOOL OF FEAR. Anyone interested should blog back and let me know.
Our new book order for the 2010-2011 school year has arrived early this year. We were able to order over 300 new books, both fiction and nonfiction. Most of you have had the chance to preview the books and even got to check them out of the library. It is so wonderful to see everyone so excited to "get their hands on" the new books.
IT IS BATTLE TIME AGAIN!!!! Teams have already been chosen for this year's Battle of the Books. We have almost 100% participation in all of the fourth and fifth classes this year. We are just waiting for more of the books to arrive so everyone can begin reading. In the mean time, please start logging your minutes on the log sheets you received from me. You need to read 600 minutes by the middle of February to receive a special prize for your participation. NO LOG= NO SPECIAL PRIZE !!!!!!! It only takes reading for 10 minutes each day until February to reach the total 600 minutes. Please have your parents initial your paper each time you log in.
Please feel free to blog back and respond to any of the things that have been posted. The more people who blog, the more interesting it will be.

SUMMER READING CELEBRATION

This year's Summer Reading Celebration will be held at the Edenwald Library on Thursday, August 26th at 3pm. If you have been reading over the summer and logging your books, either online or in the booklet, you are invited to attend the party. Call the library (718) 798-3355 and let them know you are coming. Have fun and don't forget to blog all about it.

DON'T FORGET TO GET YOUR FREE BOOK!!!!!!!!!!

Hope you all have been reading!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Just a reminder that Barnes and Noble and Borders are offering free books to children who have been reading over the summer. Just bring a list of 8 books that you have completed to the stores and they will let you choose from a select group of books. TD Bank is also offering to deposit $10 into an account in your name for reading 10 books. These are such nice little perks for reading, but the best rewards are the good things that are happening in your brains while you are reading. So keep it up. Enjoy the rest of the summer!!

I SAW IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I took my family to see The Last Airbender-Avatar. I wasn't sure what to expect, but I was pleasantly surprised. The movie was really well done and followed the books closely. The movie only covered some of the series, so we can look forward to many sequels. Now would be a good time to catch up on the other books if you haven't read them yet.

ARE THERE ANY BEVERLY CLEARY FANS OUT THERE????

I am so glad that movie writers are looking at popular children's books for inspiration for new movies for kids. It is Beverly Cleary's turn now. Ramona and Beezus will be out in the theaters soon. So, now would be a great time to read any of the Ramona books. Why not check out: Ramona, age 8; Ramona the Pest; Ramona and her Mother; Ramona and her Father; Ramona the Brave and Ramona's World. They are fun to read. As usual, let me know what you guys are reading and your thoughts on what you read or see at the movies.

AVATAR

COMING SOON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The Last Air Bender- the Avatar movie !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Anyone going to see it?? Let me know which you thought was better, the book series or the movie.

SUMMER READING 2010

I can't believe it is this time of the year again, time to talk about summer reading. Don't all moan and groan at the same time. Reading can be fun. It CAN be enjoyable. Every year our school links with the NYC Public Library System Summer Reading Program. All of you are already signed up. The way to start is to just begin to read. You can record the books you have completed right in the logs you all received from me or you can go to the website at summerreading.org and record them online.
Throughtout the summer, The Edenwald Library, located at 1255 East 233rd Street, will be hosting events for everyone who has been reading and recording books in their logs. One June 22nd and 29th, @ 4:00, there will be story time for children of all ages. On June 24th and 28th there will be arts and crafts @ 4:00 for children ages 5-12. On June 30th, @2:00, there will be Wii games for children 5+. Check back in a few days to find out what is going on during the month of July.
For those of you who do not have new books to read over the summer, may I suggest visiting any public library, swapping books with a neighbor, going to garage sales, purchasing new ones at book stores or getting them at a discount online.
There is so much more to say, check back in the next few days and read more about what other great things are being offered to all of the children participating in the Summer Reading Program.

AND THE WINNERS ARE......

The final round of the Battle of the Books was held on June 3, 2010. And, the winners were ,The Reading Knockouts. Congratulations to Ileri, Idongesit, Davo, Tahrieq, and Rayshawn. I am so proud of all of the teams!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I would like to send a special thanks to Miss Davis, Mr. Delgado and Mrs. Vallone for their particiaption. I really enjoyed conducting this year long event with so many of you and am looking forward to next year's competition.

CALLING ALL BABYMOUSE FANS!!!!!!!

Since there are so many lovers of Babymouse, I thought I would put up a separate section for you to discuss why you like it so much. Describe what the books are about. Maybe, you could get others interested by sharing some of your favorite parts.

WELCOME SCARY BOOK FANS

I am so glad that so many of you are chatting back and forth with each other about books. I noticed that many of you are interested in scary books. Have any of you checked out the American Chillers series? Also, this year I bought a few books by Mary Downing Hahn. She is a ghost story writer. Let us all know if you have read any of these.

CONGRATULATIONS TO THE WINNERS OF THE FIRST ROUND OF THE BATTLE OF THE BOOKS!!!

The first rounds of the Battle of the Books were held on May 11th and May 12th. Eighteen 4th grade teams and twelve 5th grade teams competed to see who knew the most about the 25 books they have been reading since November. The totals have been calculated and the winning teams are: The Awesome Readers, The Reading Knockouts, The Golden Girls, The Reading Warriors, The Book Dreamers, Girl Survivors and The Apple Blossoms. These teams will now move on to the final round, which will be held the first week in June. Good luck to all of the teams!!! I am so proud of all of the players for their hard work over the past five months. Please post your comments about the competition!!! I would love to read how you think it went. I was so happy to see so many children excited about reading. Watching you work together in your teams was wonderful. I know many of you are disappointed that you are not moving on to the final round. You should be glad that you got to read some really good books and experienced being part of a competition.

The Battle of the Books is in full swing. By now, you and your team members should have read at least 15 of the books in order to be ready to compete. Don't worry if you haven't though, there is still time to catch up over the vacation. The first round is set for the middle of May. If your teammates split the remaining books between the six of you, one of you should know the answers to all of the 25 questions.

I'd love to hear what you think about the books you have read so far. If you would like to share your comments, click on comment below and fill out the required information. No posts will be accepted if your name and class are not listed. I am looking forward to hearing from you.

KEEP ON READING!!!!!!!

WELCOME TO ALL OF THE NEW BLOGGERS

Welcome back to our Media Center 87 Blog. I am excited about sharing this blog with you and hope that there are many more bloggers this spring and summer than last year. Feel free to make comments about the books you are reading or share your thoughts about what someone else has blogged.