Author KATHRYN OTOSHI is visiting Alisal on 3/15

Hello Alisal Bears!  It's been awhile since I've posted anything on our blog.  (I've been busy running the Battle of the Books for the 4th and 5th grades.  More on that in another post.)  Today I want to talk to you about an exciting event happening at Alisal next week.  Picture book author Kathryn Otoshi will be visiting Alisal on Tuesday, 3/15 to speak to our students.  She is the author of One, Two, Zero and Beautiful Hands. 

These books, deceptively simple, play on the themes of tolerance, acceptance and the power of one voice.  All the classes I've read them to have loved the books - both the art and the message.  We can all learn something about being better people from Kathryn Otoshi's books.  She'll be speaking to the students about her message and the writing process. 


All students were (or will be) given a flyer to take home so they can buy Kathryn's beautiful books.  I encourage you to buy one - these are beautiful books that can be enjoyed and talked about by the whole family.  If you haven't read the books before, I'd recommend Beautiful Hands for grades TK-1st and the others for all ages.  Orders are due Friday, March 11th.  If you need a flyer, stop by the library and pick up an extra one!


Here is a wonderful interview with Kathryn talking about her book, One.

5th grade Battle of the Books room assignments for 2/23

Hello Alisal families!  Last Tuesday we had an information meeting for all 5th grade BOB participants.  Most of the kids came and are super excited about the upcoming battle!  We went over the rules and drew names to see which teams will compete against who.  Below is the bracket that is posted in the library.  If you were not at the meeting on Tuesday, please see the bracket to learn what classroom your team's battle will take place in.  Also, please scroll down this website to find the official rules.  They were passed out at the meeting.  It's important you know them!

Parents of 5th grade battlers, if you would like to come watch your child, please come to Alisal at 11:50am and sign in at the office before going to your child's battle location.  Please make sure not to enter the room before noon; these are classrooms with classes and teachers inside!  :)  I'm looking forward to our first battle on Tuesday, 2/23.

4th Grade Battle of the Books BRACKET ASSIGNMENTS

Hello 4th grade parents!  Please see the picture below to see where your child will be "battling" on Tuesday, 2/2.  As you can see, two teams will compete against each other in the first round, and the winning team will advance to the semi-finals round on Wednesday 2/3.  Room TBD.  Each battle will have a Questioner and a Scorekeeper/Timer who will run the battle.  If you would like to come and watch your child, please sign in at the office at 12 noon and report to the room where your child will be.  DO NOT enter the classroom until after the students come out at noon for recess.  These are active classrooms with classes learning in them.  Thank you for respecting the teachers and students.

Before Tuesday, please go over the rules with your student and make sure they understand the consequences for breaking a rule during the competition.  Because this is a competition, the rules will be closely observed.  This keeps things fair for everyone!  Every student who attended the meeting today received a copy of the rules.

Battle of the Books rules

• Teams may not bring anything with them when they compete.

• All students who participate, either as a competing team or audience member, must maintain proper behavior.  There will be no communication between audience members and team members in any form, including signs, hand signals, verbal cries, or mouthing of answers.  Any team member who is deemed to be cheating will be disqualified from the competition.

• Each team will choose one member as the spokesperson for their team.  Only the spokesperson may respond to the question.  If any other person responds, the team gets no points for the question.  

• Team members may only talk with one another when it is their turn to respond, and only after the question has been read.  If a team member speaks when it is not his or her team’s turn, or prior to the end of the reading of the question, the team will be penalized 2 points.

• Teams may huddle while deciding upon the answer.

• A correct response must contain the full title of the book.  No partial answer will be accepted.

• Once the spokesperson begins to respond with a title, only that title will be accepted as the team’s answer.  If the spokesperson attempts to change the team’s answer after beginning, the answer will be judged incorrect and no points will be awarded.

• Questions will be read only once for each team.

• A team has 30 seconds after the question is read to respond.  If there is no response, time is called and the team has 10 seconds to give an answer.

• If a correct answer is given the team is awarded 5 points.  If an incorrect response or no response is given, no points are awarded.

• A missed question is then read for the second team, which has 15 seconds to respond.  If they respond correctly the team is awarded 3 points.  If an incorrect response or no response is given no points are awarded.  The Questioner then gives the correct answer.

• A round will consist of 16 questions, 8 for each team.  At the end of a round if the score is tied, there will be a tiebreaker round.  

• During a tiebreaker,  both teams will be given a piece paper on which to write.  The Questioner will read the question aloud and both teams will have 30 seconds to write their answer down on their piece of paper.  After the 30 seconds, the answer sheets will be checked.  If any team has an incorrect answer, they are eliminated unless no one has a correct answer.  The winner of the tiebreaker round is the first team to answer correctly a question that the other team has missed.

HAVE FUN and GOOD LUCK!!!

PRACTICE questions for 4th grade Battle of the Books competition

Below are some practice questions that you can use to help prepare yourself for next week's competition.  I will post the answers on Monday, 2/1.  In the meantime, have a parent or friend ask you these questions.  See if you know the answers!  Remember, the choices are:

The Case of the Case of Mistaken Identity
No Talking
Liberty Porter, First Daughter
Dragonrider
The Year of Miss Agnes

1. In which book is there a character named Steve?
2. In which book does the story take place in 1948?  
3. In which book is the main character’s secret code name “Ruffles”?
4. In which book does a character take a flute lesson?  
5. In which book does the character read a detective manual?  
6. In which book does the mail come in on a plane?
7. In which book does the main character make a glittery card for their dad?  
8. In which book does a rat make a map?
9. In which book is there a contest of girls against boys?
10. In which book are there pictures of American quilting symbols?  
11. In which book does the main character have a dog named Franklin?  
12. In which book is there an orphan named Ben?  
13. In which book does the main character live in Ocean City?
14. In which book does the character have a room with bunk beds?  
15. In which school do the characters attend Laketon Elementary School?
16. In which book is there a deaf character?
17. In which book does the main character meet a sugar glider?
18. In which book do the characters have to find the Rim of Heaven?  
19. In which book does the principal apologize to the 5th grade?  
20. In which book is the setting Alaska?  
21. In which book do the characters go on a long journey half way around the world?

Author Chris Grabenstein Coming to Pleasanton 1/26/16

Library Olympics with Chris Grabenstein!

Attention to all who love the book Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library! Author Chris Grabenstein will be here at Towne Center Books to celebrate his latest and greatest! His new book is called Mr. Lemoncello's Library Olympics, and is a delightful sequel to a hilarious and rollicking read. Come to Towne Center Books to hear him speak and sign your books.

Watch the book trailer for Mr. Lemoncello's Library Olympics here:

Chris Grabenstein has written some very popular books with readers in 4th grade and up. You might know some of his titles:

Mr. Lemoncello's Library Olympics

Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library

The Island of Dr. Libris

Co-Written with James Patterson:

I Funny

I Even Funnier

Treasure Hunters

House of Robots

Tuesday, January 26

4:00 PM after school!

Towne Center Books, 555 Main St.

Last Stop on Market Street by Matt de la Peña, illustrated by Christian ...

Finding Winnie: The True Story of the World's Most Famous Bear

The 2016 Caldecott medal has been awarded to the book Finding Winnie: The True Story of the World's Most Famous Bear by Lindsay Mattick and illustrated by Sophie Blackall.  Here is a beautiful book trailer about the book:

Scranimals by Jack Prelutsky

I read the book Scranimals by Jack Prelutsky with Mrs. Carreon's class today.

 It is a poetry book where the author takes two things, like a mango and gorilla, for example, and combines them into one weird animal: a MANGORILLA.  So each page features a poem about a scranimal and where it lives, what it eats, etc.  They were pretty silly!  I think the students' favorites were the BANANACONDA and the POTATOAD...judging by the laughter on those pages!

Let's make our own scranimal island in the library!  If you want to add a scranimal to my map, all you need to do is create your own scranimal and draw a picture of it with a label of its name underneath.  Bring it in to the library and I'll add it to our Library Island!

I let Mrs. Carreon's class check out the book because they were so excited about scranimals and wanted to spend more time looking at them.  But eventually I will have it rotate to the other classes.

I just thought of one myself!  A FRUMPKIN!  (A frog and a pumpkin!)  Now I have to draw one! :)

Life of Zarf -- have you read it???

Lots of kids out there love Diary of a Wimpy Kid and Dork Diaries....right?  Well, if you like those two book series, or if you like funny books at all, you should check out Life of Zarf, Trouble With Weasels by Rob Harrell.  It's about a troll named Zarf  and his life at Cotswin Middle School with his best friends Kevin (a pig) and Chester (a jester).  They have to rescue the king and deal with nasty, unlikeable Prince Roquefort.   I read this aloud to my own kids last spring and it was FUNNY!  Here's a little trailer to show you what I mean:

We have the first book already, and the second book should be in the library right around Thanksgiving.  I already know two kids who are dying to read it....the question is...will YOU be reading it?

Learn more about the Life of Zarf books at the website:

Life of Zarf

October 100% Class Book Returns

We had a lot of classes with 100% returns in October! This means THE WHOLE CLASS had NO overdue books! What an accomplishment! The classes that had 100% days in October are:

• Salcido (THREE TIMES!) 
• Breazeale 
• Willis/Gabbani 
• Digirolamo (FOUR TIMES!) 
• Crawford 
• Fitz (TWICE!) 
• Mackin 
• Letona 

 Awesome job, teachers and students! I'm so happy with our new system of turning books in a day beforehand. It's really helping, I think. So, the winners of the free book for October are:

CRAWFORD 
LETONA 
DIGIROLAMO

Magic Treehouse Tote Bag Giveaway

Raise your hand if you're a fan of the Magic Treehouse book series!  Would you like to win a free Magic Treehouse tote bag?  It would be perfect for bringing to the Pleasanton Library and carrying all your library books in.  If you are interested in winning this cool tote bag, just fill out the Google Form below by Nov. 18th.  All Alisal students who correctly answer the questions will be entered into a raffle to win the tote bag.

Win a free Captain Underpants book!!!!

Hello all you Captain Underpants fans!  Fill out the form below and you could win a free Dav Pilkey book.  All Alisal students who submit this form by November 3rd will be entered into a drawing to win a book.

Alisal Book Fair -- Nov. 2-6, 2015

It's everyone's favorite time of year -- that's right, the Alisal Scholastic Book Fair! 

I can't wait to see what books are for sale this fall!  As usual, it will be held in the library.  What is different about the book fair this year is that it will not be open during lunch recess.  Instead, classes will come to the library at their normal class time, and they will be allowed to buy during that time.  This will make the lines shorter and much less chaotic!  Don't forget to bring your money on the day you come to the library with your class.

Here is a link to the book fair preview videos:
http://www.scholastic.com/bookfairs/fall-2015-elementary-school-videos

Dewey Decimal Rap

This video is a fun way to understand the Dewey Decimal System.  Enjoy!

Alisal Library Fundraiser

Starting 9/24 and ending on October 23rd, we're having an online Titlewish library fundraiser. 100% of the money we raise will go directly to purchasing new materials for our Alisal school library!

We're asking you to participate and help us raise $1,000. We're going to use this money to purchase NONFICTION SPORTS BOOKS for our school. The few sports books we have in the library are old and outdated.  Students come in every week and ask for books about martial arts, dance, hockey, baseball, swimming, gymnastics, horseback riding, football, BMX biking, basketball, etc, etc. We need new, up to date, exciting books about the sports that students are playing and watching! These new books will help build excitement about reading. Your donation goes directly to buying new library books for Alisal.

To help us meet our goal, please visit   http://www.titlewish.com/107887  and click the Donate button.

As of today, we are already at 69% of our goal!!!  Amazing!  Thank you, generous Alisal families!  I'd love to raise more than $1,000 for sports books - it would mean more books for the kids!

Thank you for helping us provide Alisal students with the best education possible!

Battle of the Books

It's finally here!!!!  Alisal's Battle of the Books is underway!  The 4th and 5th graders are now assigned to teams and beginning to read their books.   The next meeting is Tuesday, October 27th at noon.  Please make sure your child has finished the book and attends the meeting with their book so they can exchange it with teammates.

The 4th graders are reading these 5 books:
Liberty Porter, First Daughter
Dragonrider 
No Talking
The Year of Miss Agnes
The Case of the Case of Mistaken Identity 

The 5th graders are reading these 5 books:
Swindle
Regarding the Fountain
Silverwing
Among the Hidden
Inside Out and Back Again

The teams are as follows:

4th Grade:

Red Sasha Diana Kira Victor Alan D Abigal D	Orange Daniel C Joshua D Brian G Nick G Jenna Devlyn
Green Arash Olivia A Kyle Amy Sriveda Dana	Blue Ein Neale Lisa Erin Olivia M Sophie P
Yellow Elijah AJ S. Tony Raymond Danielle Marycarmen	Black Hayley Ellie Jevonne Adrian Nicolas Jayden
Purple Jalen Darcy Cameron Arthur Nitya Ria	Pink Molly Emma W Alyssa A Jia V Lynn

5th Grade:

Red Wu Andrew X Sophia M Emma F Tanvi Aditi K	Orange Amina Sarah Aaron Liam Brian Andrew
Green Joey Ryan S Jackson Tavleen Nandini Sahana	Blue Michael H Tony W Richard Esha Avi Taylor
Yellow Dylan Issac C Celeste Maggie Emma B	Black Eva Anish Harshu Alina F Lilli
Purple Evan D Gael Isaac L Melissa April	Pink Alena Zoey Isabelle Stella Sydney S
Silver Harshu Anish Alina Lilli Eva

Screen-Free Week is May 4th-11th, 2015

Hello Alisal Bears!  Next week, May 4th-11th, is National Screen-Free Week across the US.  I love this week because there are so many wonderful things to do in the world when you're not sitting behind a screen.  (A-HEM.... like READING!)  Here is a short video that shows just how much we Americans watch screens:

This video is probably best for 4th and 5th graders...younger kids may have a hard time digesting the information as it is given pretty quickly.

But here's another video that everyone should enjoy:

This video features several children's book authors discussing what their childhoods were like and how they spent the majority of their time "unplugged".... shows kids some great things they can do if they are not watching screens.

Teachers and parents, I will be reading different picture books to the kids that have to do with the idea of taking a break from electronics.  If you have time to show these videos to your classes tomorrow (before Screen-Free Week starts), that would be a great beginning for ME...when I see them in the library next week, when I ask them if they know what week it is, someone might say, "Yes!  It's Screen-Free Week!"

I know the idea of keeping kids off all screens for a whole week seems daunting.  You could always start out small.  That's what we're going to do!  :)

READ!  PRETEND!  DRAW!  BUILD!  CLIMB A TREE!  FLY A KITE!

It's POEM IN YOUR POCKET DAY!!!

Watch this video on Thursday, April 30th for a special message from Mrs. Shackelford!

Author and Illustrator videos

Hello out there!  I've been discovering a lot of cool author interviews online lately.  I'm going to "store" them here so I can show them classes without having to search for them!  Feel free to watch them!

Erin Steadtalking about how she illustrates A Sick Day for Amos McGee

Ivy and Bean trailer

How Beekle got his name

Jennifer and Matthew Holm talk about Babymouse

Mo Willems and Goldilocks and the Three Dinosaurs

California Young Reader Medal...The Votes Are In!

Happy Spring Break!  School's out, and the relaxing begins!  However, before I can relax, I have an important job to do: tallying the 1st and 2nd graders' California Young Reader Medal votes.  Then I have to submit our votes online to the CYRM website.  We'll find out which book wins the award in May.  Here is how Alisal voted.  A pretty big landslide, I'd say.  Now we just have to see how the rest of the kids across California felt about the books!