Thank-you, Pizza World...

93 students celebrated meeting their first landmark on the way to earning the trip to see the Springfield Cardinals and KY3 Weather School with a pizza party. All of the pizza was generously donated by Pizza World. 

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Children's author visits Kirbyville...

Children's author, Sondra Gray, visited both Kirbyville Middle School and Kirbyville Elementary School on Friday, September 3 to share excerpts of her two books, According to Punkin and According to Phoenix. She also discussed what it was like to be an author and where her ideas came from for her books. Students had the opportunity to purchase autographed copies and copies of the books were presented to each library. To read more about her books visit: http://accordingtopunkin.com/

At the middle school, Gray met with fourth and fifth grade students. Parents were invited to attend, as well. Students enjoyed listening to segments of the books and asked many questions about the books and the writing process. The writing process is an important component of the curriculum in fourth and fifth grades. Hearing about the process from a real author motivates students to take the time and effort required to transform an idea into a piece of literature for a specific audience.

At the elementary school her visit served as the kick-off assembly for the at-home reading program, AIR: All Individuals Reading. In the AIR program, kindergarten and first grade students are challenged to read at least 100 books during the school year. Second and third grade students are challenged to read at least 2000 minutes. A special event will be planned in May for all students who meet the reading goal. Along the way intermediate goals will be celebrated and rewarded to encourage families to complete the program consistently throughout the year.

Families are highly encouraged to participate in the at-home reading process. At kindergarten and first grade levels, children typically need assistance with the reading process. Parents, grandparents or older siblings can help by reading aloud, sharing the reading process or assisting the more independent reader with decoding phonetically-regular words, supplying unknown words, or coaching the child to use reading strategies, such as using picture cues or context clues. At all grade levels, parents can help by explaining unfamiliar vocabulary, asking their child to retell the stories in their own words and asking questions that promote students making personal connections or connections between the current book and previous books or the world in general.

WILD About Reading

What do singing beetles, storytelling, a Chinese praying mantis, free books, snakes, reading, snapping turtles, Ben and Jerry's and Predator World have in common?

Give up? They are all related to our new WILD About Reading at-home reading program!

Students received new green folders to keep track of their reading progress about a week ago along with a free book from last year's Target Store Grant and a letter explaining the rules and procedures of the program. Hopefully all of our students have started reading to meet the program goal for kindergarten and first grade of reading 100 books by April 23 or to reach the second and third grade program goal of reading 2000 minutes by April 23. Students who meet the reading goal will be invited to attend a special field trip to Predator World in Branson West and a trip to the Landing for ice cream donated by Ben and Jerry's. Last year we had two classrooms with 100% participation. Wouldn't it be something if we had 100% participation schoolwide?

What about the singing beetles, Chinese praying mantis, snakes and snapping turtles? Watch this quick Smilebox show of our WILD About Reading kickoff assembly featuring guest speaker, Randy Dietz and a few of his WILD friends.

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KES receives $3000 Target Store Grant

Kirbyville Elementary School is currently providing several successful efforts to encourage family reading. Last year's Target Store Grant allowed us to expand these services by giving books to students to build their own personal libraries as they participate in our current programs. The books were both incentives to increase participation and resources for the students to have appropriate reading materials at home with their families.

Thanks to the new Target Store Grant, the expanded number of books provided to students will continue into the 2008-09 school year. Students will earn one new book of their choice each time they attend "STAR" or "Stay Today and Read", and will earn a free book of their choice at four benchmarks along the way during the “BLAST Books/Literacy: A Super Time” at-home reading program. Additional Scholastic books will be provided to students for summer reading packets as well for our "Splash Into Summer Reading" program. This continuation of the program improvements made through our previous Target Store Grant will provide an additional incentive for students to participate, but more importantly, will help to remove the barrier of lack of reading materials at home for low-income students. The lack of reading materials at home has been an ongoing concern for many families and is a cause for non-participation in at-home reading programs for some students. Also, at the lower grades, finding books that students can read themselves available in retail outlets is a challenge. The school, through educational materials outlets, will find books at beginning reading levels for the students who need them.

The more you read, the better you read. The better you read, the more you read. Thank-you, Target for supporting our efforts to build better readers.

TumbleBook Library

The KES Library is pleased to feature a new subscription to TumbleBook Library. TumbleBook bills itself as "E-books for e-kids..." but in reality it is so much more than that! The TumbleBook Library has picture books with options such as having the book read aloud, reading independently and getting help with unknown words at the click of a mouse. Books range from picture books to chapter books and from newly published titles to familiar classics. You can take a quiz about the story that you read or write a book report. Finally there are related games and puzzles for many of the selections. Simply go to Kirbyville Elementary's Virtual Library at http://kirbyville.k12.mo.us/library/virtual_library3.htm and click on the TumbleBook Library icon to access KES's subscription! Happy reading!!!

The more you read, the better you read; the better you read, the more you read...

Kirbyville Elementary is pleased to present “BLAST: Books/Literacy = A Super Time”, which is a program to encourage regular at-home reading practice. The program begins September 15 and concludes on April 24, 2009. Students will have plastic envelopes in which to put reading material and a “BLAST folder” to keep track of their progress. All students who meet the “BLAST: Books/Literacy = A Super Time” goal for their grade level will be invited to attend a special field trip in May. The goal for kindergarten and first grade students is to read 100 books. The goal for second and third grade students is reading a total of 2000 minutes. Parent signatures are required for the books/minutes to count.

Jillian Hodge from the Discovery Center in Springfield was on hand Thursday to help us kick off the program at a special assembly combining outer space learning with children's literature.

We are striving for 100% student participation! 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1...BLAST-off to reading success!