Rainy Day Dismissal

What happens during a rainy day dismissal? The car riders have some additional waiting time in the auditorium. I'm so thrilled that the wait isn't in vain for a lot of our kids! Julien is reading about a fellow law enthusiast, Selase is reading the H.I.V.E. series and hopefully not learning how to be a good villain, Kendra is discovering how electricity works, and Enyonam has gotten entangled in a Nancy Drew mystery! And Sydney, not pictured, is reading Among the Imposters and discussing (with me) who can really be trusted in a dystopian future.

Hopefully parents waiting in their cars were reading something good, too! 

Davis Magnet Reading Fair

The 1st phase of the Mississippi Department of Education Reading Fair was recently held in our school auditorium. There were so many wonderful projects! The judges of the Reading Fair all said they were impressed with the quality of the projects they saw and that they had very difficult choices to make in each category!

It was fun to see such wonderful books displayed and to see the enthusiasm in the children as they talked about their favorite character or their favorite part of their story. The students showed pride in showing off their hard work and were quick to tell what part of the project they enjoyed working on most. Seeing the student art work on the backboard is always wonderful. It's great to see their talent and effort displayed! I am so proud of all of them!

Characters Come to Life!

Students at Davis dressed as characters from some of their favorite books to present their reading fair projects to their classes this past week. I met some new characters and saw some old familiar ones like The Little Prince and Pinkalicious. There was even a mouse there from the book The Witches by Roald Dahl. Have a look at the pictures and see what characters you recognize!

Our Davis students are outstanding! I love to see their creativity and enthusiasm! Check back next week to see pictures of students and their reading fair projects! There are so many great ones, I'll probably have to do several posts!

Davis Magnet Reading Fair 2013

I hope that everyone has begun getting ready for the upcoming Reading Fair at Davis! The students have been talking to me about books they are reading and what they want to do projects on and it's getting me excited about seeing some excellent work. Our IB learners at Davis are such exceptional students!

I thought I would share some exemplar projects from some different reading fairs that I've attended in the past. The important information about what's expected to be on the board, though, is in your reading fair packet. Be sure there are no spelling or grammatical errors. Be thorough in your writing. Be creative. Have fun! Remember that our classroom reading fairs will be October 23.

I love the interesting material choice for the title!

This was a neat non-fiction project.
Remember non-fiction projects have different guidelines!

Here's the graphic organizer they used for their non-fiction project.

Jacey's project completely followed the theme.
She placed 1st at school and at district level.

Adayah and McKinley did a great group project
and placed 1st at school and district.

I love that they used sticks for the title!

I like the paper plate pig and the syrup dripping on the board.

Definitely haunted! Even ghosts hanging across the front! 

They used (fake) money to make the title! How cool!

Graham made popsicle rafts to go along with his story,
The Raft. How cool!

This whole board looks like a kitchen because it's about making soup!

I hope you enjoy the process! If you have any questions, feel free to contact me. Here's the link to the Davis web page that holds the Reading Fair Information: http://davis.jpsms.org/parents-and-families

Summer Reading Celebration

Students in JPS who read and wrote about 20 books or more over the summer were invited to the Summer Reading Celebration held at the MS Children's Museum on September 19th. We had 52 students from Davis who were eligible for this wonderful event! Because our school had such a high number of summer readers, our school was recognized with a special plaque! Only 4 schools in the district received this honor so we are very thankful to all of our students, parents, and staff who read and wrote about the books they read this summer. I'm so proud that our IB students show commitment and enthusiasm about reading!

Research shows that students who read during the summer can prevent falling behind (the "summer slide") and I believe that all the reading that was done has truly helped us to be off to a great start this school year.

Enjoy the pictures from our fun night out at the MS Children's Museum!

AR Home Connect

Students in grades 2-5 (soon to be grades 1-5) take Accelerated Reading (AR) quizzes on the books they have read from our library or from books they may have read from their own personal collection or the public library. Students are first tested with a STAR reading test and that test assigns them a reading level. Each nine weeks, students take AR quizzes to earn points and meet their own goals based on their reading level and also based on the assumption that they are reading the required 20 minutes per day that our teachers have requested.
Parents, we'd love for you to help keep track of your child's progress and encourage your child to continue to work toward meeting his/her goals. Please ask your child to tell you his/her username and password and enter that information into the correct fields at the following link to see their progress. You can also sign up to receive an email when your child completes a test. I signed up for this with my child and I love getting an email and knowing what she did on a quiz before I even get home!
Here's the link: AR Home Connect (This link is also on our Library Links section to the right so you'll always be able to access it easily!)