Best of Barcelona

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Last week I had the amazing opportunity to attend the Microsoft in Education Global Forum held in Barcelona, Spain. The forum is a professional development event that gathers together educators and school leaders from around the world  sharing how we link everyday subjects like reading, science and math with  technology to make learning fun, engaging and memorable. In other words, I went to school for a week. The school it just happened to be in a really wonderful city, far, far away from here.

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I flew into Barcelona before the forum began to do some sightseeing with some of the other teachers from Team USA. We stayed at a hotel along a street called Las Ramblas. This street is really a long pedestrian walkway lined with people day and night.

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The first place we visited was Park Guell (Catalans pronounce it “gway”) and saw Barcelona’s famous dragon and colorful tilework by the artist Antoni Gaudi.

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The next day a group of teachers spent the day sightseeing. We first visited Sagrada Familia (Holy Family Church) which is a large, modern style church that began in 1883, and  is still under construction.  It’s a very modern, colorful structure, designed by the same person who did the tile work at Park Guell.

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At the top of many of the towers are colorful spheres that look a lot like candy, yet they are all made with tiles. I’ve never seen anything like these tower toppers!

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To get to the top of the towers, you take an elevator, but you must walk down the spiral staircase. You can’t got too fast, or you get dizzy!

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After we saw the cathedral, we walked to the Arc de Triomphe, which is a smaller version of a similar structure in Paris, France. There is a large walk area where street performers entertain the tourists, venders sell balloons, and teachers can get a little crazy.

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I also had the chance to visit a bookstore in the mall. I loved seeing Dork Diaries, Captain Underpants and Diary of a Wimpy Kid in Spanish. I came home with some books too. Stop by the library to see what I brought home for you to read.

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 On Tuesday, the conference began. The organizers welcomed everyone and then it was time for the teachers to set up  the teacher booths. Each teacher had a booth to use for showcasing their work. We hung posters and decorated our spaces so people who walked by could get a quick idea of each project. Our booths were arranged in alphabetical order by country. When you look at the top, you can see the name of the project and then the country of origin. We also were evaluated by a judge who met with us individually.

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Each project was given two judging times over the course of two days. A judge would come to your booth for 15 minutes and we had to present our “digital story” and then answer any questions the judge had. One of my judges was from India, and the other one was from France. I gave them the thank you cards the Books to Africa group made for them.

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It was a very busy time. When we weren’t being judged, most of us tried to go visit other booths to connect with other teachers and hear about different ideas. I met another teacher from South Africa who would like to be part of our Books to Africa project and a friend of Mr. Malakane in Lesotho, who is one of our partner teachers.

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When we weren’t being judged, we were listening to presentations or in classes about technology. Everyone had received a Surface RT, so it was fun the learn about some of the great apps we can use with it.

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We had a welcome reception that evening. Each country wore something to indicate their team. It was a lot like going to the opening ceremony of the Olympics. Some people had team jackets, others had hats, or scarves. We all had our special name tags that we had to wear everywhere we went. Team USA had red, white and blue shirts with USA across the front and our name on the back.

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In addition to the project judging was a learn-a-thon. Teams of teachers had about eight hours to create a student project using technology to solve a real-world problem . I was partnered with teachers from Belgium, Israel and Japan. We created a project called Trees Please, drawing attention to the problem of deforestation in China because 11 million acres of trees are cut down each year to make disposable wooden chopsticks. In the photo below you can see us hard at work.

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The next morning we took turns presenting our project to a panel of judges, including a student judge from the United Kingdom.

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After that we had some free time for sightseeing.  Mrs. Arnett, my teacher friend in Colorado, and I went to the beach and picked up seaglass and shells to bring home to our students. The Barcelona beaches are beautiful!

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The closing keynote, or assembly, had many inspirational speakers, including Felipe de Borbón y Grecia, Prince of Asturias.  Many of the teachers in Team USA, including me, sat right behind him. There is no question – we had some great seats!

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Whenever I travel I like to bring something back that reminds me of my experience. This time I returned with some sea glass, some shells, a few souvenirs and a signed copy of The Dot. Whenever I could, I asked fellow teachers in Barcelona to sign my copy. I wish I had everyone’s signature, but I just wasn’t possible. The message of The Dot is to make a mark and see where it takes you.

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The highlight of the last day of the Global Forum was a reception and dinner in the convention center, followed by an awards ceremony. I have never been to the Olympics, but I think this event closely matched what it must be like at the awards ceremony. As teachers from different nations proudly wore their flags and came to the stage for their awards, the rest of the room clapped and screamed in support. When they announced our team was the 1st runner up for the sustainability learn-a-thon, I was completely in shock. Someone wrapped the American flag around my shoulders and I headed down to the stage to accept the award with my team-mates. It was a moment I will never forget. Each of us is now looking forward to putting our project into action.

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The day after the forum ended, I got up early and went on a tour to a medieval village in the Pyrannes Mountains with Mr. Bergman and Mr. Wettrick, two other teachers from Team USA. Most of the day we hiked up through trails in the countryside and had a chance to step back in time and see a different side to Catalonia. I brought The Dot with me on the hike. This book helped begin our Books to Africa journey, and it needed to be with me at the end too!

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Now I am home, recovering from some serious jet-lag and thankful for the experience. I was reminded that sometimes life takes you down a path you never expect. If you are willing to join the journey, there is so much that can be learned. I spent a week with some of the most energized, innovative teachers from around the world and their stories have changed my life. Still, I couldn’t trade places with any of them because as Dorothy said in the Wizard of Oz, “there’s just no place like home.” 

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Lastly, I know this isn’t directly student- related, but if you are a teacher reading this post, I urge you to join the Partners in Learning Network. It’s free to teachers and schools. You have access to all of the global forum teacher projects, free tools, professional development, and information about 21st century learning design. I hope you will join the network and apply for the 2015 Expert Educator program. I have had the opportunity to attend two Global Forums now, and I can whole-heartedly say the experience will change your teaching life. I am so grateful to Microsoft and humbled by the support of all the global educators I met. So long, Global Forum Barcelona! It was a great ride!

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Where in the World?

Where is Mrs. Hembree this week?

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On November 7th, I learned that I was one of the 250 educators chosen to participate in the 2014 Microsoft Expert educator program. One of the opportunities I have with this program is to attend the Microsoft in Education Global Forum in Barcelona, Spain from March 11-14, 2014.

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I will be presenting our Books to Africa program and the various activities the students completed last year, as well as the progress we have been making with out global outreach program this year. This is my second opportunity to participate in the Global Forum. In November 2012, I traveled to Prague, Czech Republic and presented our 4th grade book trailer project.

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To be selected, I had to go through a rigorous application process – I had to fill out an online application, create a learning activity, prepare a 2-3 minute video that describes my project and how it uses technology and innovative teaching practices to impact student outcomes. The winners were selected by a worldwide group of judges who used a broad set of criteria to assess the educators’ evidence of learning, collaboration, knowledge construction, and critical thinking. In Barcelona, each of the 250 educators will go through another judging process. We had to prepare a 3 digtal story outlining our project and then we will explain this to different judges who will assess our project again based the 21st century learning criteria. The Microsoft photos below show the judging room and conference center at the forum in Prague.

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It’s not all judging in Barcelona. I will also have the chance to learn about different Microsoft products, participate in a team project and meet teachers from all across the globe. I will be in Barcelona on March 9th and I am going to spend the day sightseeing as much as possible.

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My first stop is going to  see La Sagrada Familia.  This is a giant basilica (church) that began construction in 1882 and it’s still not complete! The architect Antonio Gaudi designed the structure and the building is not expected to be completed for another 30+ years. After that a group of us are going to Park Guell, where the photo at the top of this post was taken. Gaudi also designed this park and it features a beautiful view of the city of Barcelona and brightly colored mosaic tile seats. I will post photos   as much as I can.

I will also be using a translator program. I can speak some basic German because I lived there many years ago. However,  I don’t know many words in Spanish. Did you know different languages are spoken in Spain? Yes, the people speak Spanish. However, in Barcelona, many people prefer to speak Catalan. You all know I love dogs. The Spanish word for dog is perro. Can you investigate and find the Catalan word for dog? Leave me a comment and let me know!

Fins a la propera vegada…

Mrs. Hembree

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A Fruity Story

What kind of fruit do you like to eat? 

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Photo Credit: Faith Goble via Compfight


That was the question my second grade reading group had to ask themselves recently. We read the book The Day the Crayons Quit by Drew Daywalt and Oliver Jeffers. In this book, the crayon colors write a series of letters to Duncan, complaining about his use or non-use of them. The red crayon starts by saying,

“Hey Duncan,

It’s me, RED crayon. WE NEED to talk. You make me work harder than any of your other crayons.”…..

After reading the book and laughing about the misery of these crayons, we decided to write our own version. The students brainstormed different topics and then voted to have FRUIT be the topic of our book.

Each student wrote  their letter and then typed them in word. They learned how to change the font, point size and color of  the letters in their final draft. Then they used oil pastels to create their illustrations. 

Here is: THE DAY THE FRUIT QUIT

The Day the Fruit Quit

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What is your favorite page?

If you could write a similar book, what topic would you choose?

Leave us a comment and let us know!

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And the Winner Is….

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On Thursday, the Cuddly Koalas and Dark Fires teams met to face off for the final round of the Battle of the Books competition. In the last battle, the teams answered 20 questions. It was stiff competition. The teams matched each other point for point and were tied until question 20. I don’t think I have ever seen such a close completion. The very last question broke the tie, and we had a building winner – DARK FIRES, with their second building win! Dark Fires won last year as well and moved forward to the district round in 2013.

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With every win, is another team that has to face the difficulty of accepting loss. Cuddly Koalas put up a fierce fight and deserve the honors as runners-up. I equate these results to gold and silver medalists, just like in the Olympics. Both are winners and have everything to be proud of. More than that, this competition is about creating life-long readers. When 53 students read 12 assigned books on their own time, I can only feel happiness! I am so proud of every student who put reading first and participated in this competition!

The Dark Fires will compete again after vacation at the district level using our Lync meeting set up. The winning teams from participating schools battle it against each other until we have a district champion. Let’s all cheer for the Dark Fires!

Team members are holding their favorite Battle of the Books novels. The books are no longer reserved for battle participants, so stop by and check one out today!

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Awards, BookFair and Battle

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Are you surprised? Happy? Excited?

 

The Newbery and Caldecott awards were announced this morning at the American Library Association mid-winter conference in Philadephia, Pennsylvania. We have two copies of Flora and Ulysses already, but I will need to purchase a copy of Locomotive to add to our library collection.  The complete  list of awards including the honor books and other awards, can be found on this link.

Flora and Ulysses is also available at our Scholastic Bookfair running all week in the library.

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We are open for sales after school daily, and during the middle recess on Wednesday. We hope families will stop by before or after their teacher conference and see what we have to offer. Students will have a chance to preview the books during their library classes this week. The book Minecraft is not on display, due to printing issues, but is available for purchase by request. Students interested in the book can purchase it and as soon as it’s shipped to me, I will deliver it personally to the student’s classroom.
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New this year is our Buy a Book, Pick a Prize program. I got this idea from another librarian, who posted it on Pinterest and I decided to adopt it. I don’t know who originally had this idea, but it’s working well for us. While supplies last, for every book purchase, students will be able to pick a FREE prize from the prize box. It’s a BOOK + PRIZE win for everyone!

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Our teachers love the bookfair too because it’s a great opportunity to add to their classroom libraries. Most teachers have set aside a few books that they wish they could add to their rooms. You have to power to make a wish come true !

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All of our earnings from the Scholastic Book Fair go to our library to purchase new books for our school. I hope you will stop by and see what we have to offer. We accept cash, checks, debit and credit cards for payment.

Next week our Battle of the Books “BATTLES” begin during the intermediate middle recesses. Teams should be ready by Monday to battle it out and answer the questions to find our building champion. Battles will take place Monday- Friday at 12:40 in the library.

Happy Reading!

Mrs. Hembree

 

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Voting Open for 2013 Edublog Awards!

It’s an exciting time in the Bulldog Reader Library!

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The Edublog Awards are open for voting!

We are one of the finalists for the Best Library/librarian Blog.

Voting this year with through the website list.ly and you will be able to see real time votes. You will have to register to vote and you can vote daily. Here is a photo from Mrs. Watanabe’s blog showing how this works:

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Our blog is not showing up with our regular photo, so here’s a direct link to the BulldogReaderBlog voting tab:

 

Encourage your family and friends to vote for our blogging friends too in other categories. You can find our nominations in this post. See full list on Listly

Voting closes on Wednesday, December 18th at 8:59 PST (11:59 EST)

Thank you for support our blog!

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Nominations for the Eddies

Can you believe it’s been ten years since the Edublog Awards began?

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The purpose of the Edublog Awards, also known as the Eddies, is promote and celebrate the educational values of social media.

Here are my nominations for 2013:

Best individual blog –  Tracy Watanabe – http://wwwatanabe.blogspot.com

 

Best group blog – The Nerdy Book Club –  http://nerdybookclub.wordpress.com/

 

Best new blog – Mr. Salsich – http://salsich5.edublogs.org/

 

Best class blog – Mrs. Yollis – Mrs. Yollis Classroom blog

 

Best student blog – Mallory Fundora – http://www.projectyesu.org/category/blog/

 

Best ed tech / resource sharing blog  – Edutopia-  http://www.edutopia.org/

 

Best teacher blog  – Pauline Roberts – http://notjustateacher-pr05bps.blogspot.com/

 

Best library/librarian blog   Shannon McClintock Miller – http://vanmeterlibraryvoice.blogspot.com/

 

Best individual tweeter – @JoAnnJacobs68

 

Best free web tool – Goodreads – http://www.goodreads.com/

 

Best educational use of audio / video/visual/podcast –  Shawn Avery & Math Movie Network – http://www.mathmovienetwork.com

 

Lifetime achievement – Jerry Blumengarten – @cybraryman1

 

One of the benefits of educational blogging is to give students an authentic audience for their ideas, writing and projects. Blogging gives them the opportunity to become educated global learners, connected and ready for the 21st century world. I urge you to participate in celebrating those educators and students you respect in the social media world. Share your nominations with the world! Nominations are open until December 1, 2013.

 

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Hello Barcelona, Spain!

Have you ever been to Barcelona?

470_jeanette_edu_1384563055Recently I found out that I will be going to Barcelona, Spain because I was accepted into the Microsoft Partners in Learning Expert Educator program. This is what I received in an email:

Dear Expert Educator,
Congratulations!  You have been selected by Microsoft to be a part of the very first class of Expert Educators! This process was very competitive – you were chosen from over 23,000 educators in over 150 countries from around the world. Your application, learning activity, and video were outstanding. We are proud to have you as a part of this incredible group of educators.

 

The project I submitted was our Books to Africa project where our students in grades 1-5 made various multi-media presentations about Africa to align with our literacy outreach program. Details about the project can be found on the Books to Africa blog.

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In March I will be flying from Seattle,to Barcelona to participate in the Microsoft in Education Global Forum. The forum is a four day series of learning workshops as well as a showcase of learning activities. Each educator brings an example of the project he or she submitted and shares it with the other people there. It’s an unbelievable learning experience that I wish every teacher will have the opportunity to experience during their career.  When I attended the global forum last year in Prague, I left with a suitcase of memories and teaching ideas, many of which I adapted and applied to our Books to Africa project.

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This year’s event is expected to attract more than 1,100 top education leaders, school leaders, educators, press, government officials, partners and sponsors from more than 80 countries. We will celebrate how technology advances students into the 21st century giving them the skills they need to actively participate in the workforce and build strong economies.  The 2014 Global Forum experience includes:

  • Collaboration and networking
  • Awards, competition and recognition for the most innovative educators and school leaders
  • Keynotes and panel discussions with world renown education experts, innovators, and partners
  • Innovative uses of cutting edge technologies for learning
  • Inspiring professional development

One of the teachers Jeanette Delgado from Puerto Rico made an infographic of all the Expert Educators from around the globe. She used https://infogr.am/ to illustrate the data. It’s fun and free!

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The Expert Educator program is not just about the global forum. It is a year long commitment of learning about how technology can be used to successfully in the classroom. I know I am about to embark on a journey that will be life-changing and transformative. The best part of the partners in learning program is that it is free to join. Visit http://www.pil-network.com/ and sign up today!  You will have access to thousands of projects submitted by teachers from around the globe, plus, tutorials, discussion boards, hot topics, resources, professional development and it’s all free!

 

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 I will be documenting this experience throughout the year on this blog, so I hope my readers will check back here or on the Books to Africa blog and see what’s happening!

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Have you ever been to Barcelona?

What technology do you want to learn more about?

Have you ever used Photosynth or AutoCollage?

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Real Boy Book Trailer Debut

Have you read The Real Boy yet?

Imagine a story that combines fantasy + fairy tales +cats +adventure + wizards + magic + friendship into one magical  middle grade fantasy novel by Anne Ursu. Like a favorite wool cloak, Real Boy will wrap you inside a wondrous tale of magic and friendship. It is a joyful, amazing story that will surprise you over and over by the author of Breadcrumbs.

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Since early October blogs around the kidlitosphere have been celebrating THE REAL BOY with reviews, giveaways, interviews, and posts from author Anne Ursu, illustrator Erin McGuire and editor Jordan Brown. In this last stop of the blog tour, we debut our book trailer THE REAL BOY.


 
This post is a part of The Real Boy blog tour hosted by Walden Press Books. If you would like to read previous blog posts, check out the itinerary below.
THE REAL BOY BLOG TOUR:

Monday, 9/30 – Maria’s Melange – Maria’s Take on The Real Boy + Giveaway
Tuesday, 10/1 – There’s a Book – Danielle’s Take on The Real Boy + Giveaway
Wednesday, 10/2 – sharpread – Colby Interviews Anne
Thursday, 10/3 – Novel Sounds – Elena’s Take on The Real Boy + Giveaway
Friday, 10/4 – Word Spelunking – Aeicha Interviews Anne
Saturday, 10/5 – The Hiding Spot – Sara’s Take on The Real Boy + Giveaway
Sunday, 10/6 – The Brain Lair – Kathy’s Take on The Real Boy + Giveaway
Monday, 10/7 – Read, Write, Reflect – Anne Talks Oscar with Katherine
Tuesday, 10/8 – Librarian’s Quest – Margie’s Take on The Real Boy + Giveaway
Wednesday, 10/9 – Buried in Books – Heather’s Take on The Real Boy + Giveaway
Thursday, 10/10 – The Book Monsters – Kristen’s Take on The Real Boy + Giveaway
Friday, 10/11 – Cari’s Book Blog – Cari’s Take on The Real Boy + An Interview with Anne
Saturday, 10/12 – Unleashing Readers – Kellee Interviews Illustrator Erin McGuire
Sunday, 10/13 – Satisfaction for Insatiable Readers – Gina’s Take on The Real Boy + Giveaway
Monday, 10/14 – Heise Reads and Recommends – Editor Jordan Brown Interviews Anne
Tuesday, 10/15 – Bulldog Readers Blog – The Bulldog Readers Debut Their Book Trailer
 
And here are all the blogs featuring exclusive artwork from THE REAL BOY.
 
EXCLUSIVE ARTWORK REVEALS
 
You can find THE REAL BOY at your local school,  public library, or your favorite book store today!

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Reading Movie Magic

Where did you read this summer?

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Where  did you read this summer? Was here or there? Near or Far? To keep their reading skills sharp our readers kept reading all summer long. It’s just as important to read in the summer time as it is during the school year. To make it a little more fun, we added a dose of silliness! We got caught reading in super fun or super silly places! We had…..drum roll please…..


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Each one of our participants will receive a special bookmark, a free bag of popcorn and a starring slide in our yearly Super Summer Reading movie! Thank you everyone for participating. A special thanks to all the families who took the photos, sent them and gave permission for them to be included on our blog! You rock!

 

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What was your favorite book from the summer?

Leave me a comment and let me know!

 

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