Bubbles for Bluebonnet Bash

Every year, the Blue Bonnet Books puts out a list of 20 books for kids in Texas (grades 3 - 6) to read. The elementary school has a party every January/February to award the kids that read at least 10 of the books. These girls all attended the bash today and received bubbles. They also have a bubble expert come and perform many of his tricks. In addition to that, they ate pizza and missed some classes. Sounds like a good deal. 

Wizard Candy

Grandma Margie has returned from Orlando where she took her sister to Universal Studios to experience Harry Potter World. Our entire family (extended family too) is full of Harry Potter fans. Lexi and Jordan dream about going to Orlando too. Of course, Grandma came back with special treats.

School Literacy Night

Last week, I took the kids to their school's literacy night.  Lexi had been looking forward to it for a few weeks because they were learning and song and dance that was going to be taped and put on YouTube.  Jordan wasn't that interested partly because he missed the initial classes when he was ill. Jordan and I stayed in the back of the room.  Lexi got right up in front with a few of her friends.  The video was posted today and I had no problems picking out Lexi.  She is in quite a few spots. She has a black shirt on and a long blonde side ponytail.

Texas Bluebonnet Reading Program

From 3rd to 5th grade, Texas has a Bluebonnet Reading Program. The school kids get the list of 20 books for the program. If they want to attend the school party, they have to read 10 of the books and be ready to discuss what they liked/didn't like about them. Then there is a party during school so they can vote on which one they liked the most. The 3rd graders are invited, but few of them go. Lexi wanted to do it this year. She ended up being 1 of 4 third graders at the party. The pink and purple shaded books above are the ones she read. If you read the last post, you can probably guess which one she voted for.  

Literacy Night

Lexi and Jordan had literacy night at their school this evening. They brought along one of their favorite books. Lexi had Flora & Ulysses. Her favorite part of these evenings is socializing with her friends. Of course, she doesn't refuse the homework pass.

Reading at Bedtime

Reading Trophy 2014

Lexi finished reading the required 20 books for the library summer program.  We went to pick up her awards for 15 books (pencil) and 20 books (trophy).  My kids now have more trophies than I received in my entire childhood.  It is funny how motivated they are by trophies.  I actually wondered if I should come up with some kind of chores program that is rewarded with a trophy at the end of the summer.

Summer Reading Program

The summer reading contest at the local library started last week.  I signed Lexi and Jordan up.  We went to the library today so they could pick up their awards.  They get something for every set of 5 books they read.  Jordan completed the whole contest.  Lexi has read 10 books (half the requirement for the summer) so far.  It isn't fair to compare them though.  Jordan is reading rather simple books and Lexi's book are longer and more advanced.  She'll have her trophy soon.  

Literacy Night

The kids' elementary school held a Literacy Night.  They had a bunch of different stations.  We went to five.  Jordan and Lexi played games on iPads, made bookmarks, wrote stories, made a jersey with the theme of their favorite book, played games, and even played on a smart board.  

Palace Beautiful

This summer, I took the kids to the library and had them read LOTS of books.  It isn't an easy finding lots of books for Lexi.  I struggle with this because I want her to read books that are on her reading level, but not above her emotional level or too mature for her.  Quite a few of the girly books for 5th graders start introducing puberty topics.  I am always trying to find fun books that aren't about all that.

This book is called Palace Beautiful.  It was written by one of my friends that I knew back in high school here in Katy.  Her name is Sarah DeFord Williams.  Lexi happened to notice the book on my shelf and asked if she could read it.  I realized it was the perfect book.  She read it in a few hours and completely loved it.

Today, I had her pose for the picture above.  I thought it would be fun to post it on Sarah's Facebook page.  I know she has lots of fans and that this book is popular, but one more doesn't hurt.

Reading Award #4

We went to the library today to pick up Lexi's trophy for reading 20 books.  She has read a lot more than that this summer, but I only let her count the big chapter books that kids in fourth or fifth grade read.  She is doing very well.   Of course, getting a trophy helped with the motivation.  We're still going to keep this up.  For every 20 books, the kids get their names into a drawing that happens at the end of the summer.  They will be giving away gift certificates to different stores.

Reading Awards 1 & 2

I signed the kids up for the local library summer reading program.  Lexi received the first two awards today.  She had to read 5 books to get the bookmark and another 5 for the certificate.  I have been logging the books into the website.

Reading Up a Storm

Lexi has been reading up a storm lately.  In fact, sometimes I have to tell her to stop because we need to get ready for school.  Other times, I am thrilled like when she is reading to Jordan.  Yesterday after church, I saw her holding the book with her feet.  I had to get a picture.

Choose the Right

Yesterday, I got an e-mail from the Primary President (she oversees the kids programs at church from age 18 months to 12 years old).  She asked the parents to get a picture of our kids when we catch them in the act of Choosing the Right (CTR).  I didn't really know what to take a picture of until this morning.  I wanted to clean the kitchen up.  Lexi grabbed one of her library books and asked Jordan to come sit by her on the couch so she could read to him.  She prefers to read silently, so I know she was doing it to help me.  It was a perfect moment for snapping the picture.  One of these will be in the slide show in our primary program on Oct 21st.    

Kindergarten Celebration

Lexi's kindergarten had a celebration of education this morning.  I dropped Jordan off at the neighbor's house so that I could attend.  Her teacher called each student to the front of the class and gave them a certificate saying they passed kindergarten.  He also explained that this was an exceptionally great group of readers.  He had never had so many get to level 12 in AR.  I think he said 11 from his class, which is about half.  He talked about how good they were at breaking down sentences (nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, noun markers, etc).  He also gave each of us a packet.  

One of the most interesting things in the packet was the reading evaluation that was done for each child last week.  To my surprise, Lexi is reading like a beginning of the year 3rd grader.  Last time he evaluated her, he expected that she would be reading like a second grader at the end of the year, so this was a surprise. We were also given some booklets that were created by each student.  Perhaps, I’ll post pictures of those tomorrow.  

Present to the teacher from one of the moms - so creative!

Reading Evaluation

Lexi's classmates

AR Level 12

Today was tie dye day at Lexi's school, but more important than that she was able to reach a great reading milestone.  Her school uses the Accelerated Reader (AR) program.  In kindergarten, they start the year off with 50 sight words.  To move on to first grade, they have to pass those off - meaning they have 3 seconds to read each word on the list.  Once that has been completed, they move on to an additional 100 sight words.  If those are passed off, they can start the AR program. 

The program reading books (mostly typical library books for this age) and taking a comprehension test on each one.  They get points based on their scores.  There are levels in the program and when they hit the last three levels they get rewards.  For level 10, they get a teddy bear.  For level 11, they get to take a movie to school and watch it in the library with a friend they choose.  Lexi is showing off her level 11 ticket in the above picture.  She has also completed level 12 this week, which means that she gets to go on Destinations (a special field trip) with the librarian.  Where they are going is a big secret.  I guess I'll find out when I sign the permission slip. 

Lexi is very excited about it.  This year, they have had more kids reach level 12 than ever before.  There are 72 kids out of all of the 9 kindergarten classes.  Usually, they are happy to have a few kids from each class. 

100 Sight Words

Today, Lexi passed off her 100 sight words at school. She has now joined the Accelerated Reading (AR) program. That means she gets to bring designated books home. She will read the books twice and then go back to school to take computer tests to judge her comprehension.

Reading Ice Cream Party

Lexi's Ice Cream Party was tonight. I wanted to keep it really low key. We invited our closest friends over and just had ice cream. Sadly, I didn't do a very good job at taking pictures, but I managed to snap a few. Somehow, it looks like I didn't get any of the adults, besides Steve. They were there though.

Finished the Reading Lessons

Yesterday, we finally finished Lexi's 100th reading lesson. Remember back in November when I posted her 55th reading lesson? Well, we got up to 74 and stalled. I had too much work and it was quite grueling to keep her focused and interested. The lessons went out the window. When we got back to Texas, Lexi’s friend, Savannah was close to finishing the 100 lessons. That gave Lexi the motivation she needed to nag me to do them.

I decided the best way to do it would be to start over again. We finished the first 20 lessons in one afternoon. Getting up to the first 50 lessons went quickly. Lexi remembered all of the sounds and sped through them. After that, we rarely did more than one lesson a day, but we kept up with it. We both really wanted to finish before school starts. Also, she has been excited for the ice cream party that I promised her from the beginning.

We are both thrilled to announce that lesson 99 & 100 happened yesterday. This morning, I decided to have her re-read the first part of the lesson so I could post it.

Note & Treat for Santa

Tonight while I was busy giving Jordan a bath, Lexi decided to write a note to Santa. She wanted to leave it by the treat to make sure he'd see it. It is probably tough to figure out because she guessed at how to spell the words and gets bored so skips ahead. It says:

Sana Kloaz (Santa Clause)
W r yoo en n n pole (Where are you in the North Pole?)
I waze o vere nis girl (I was a very nice girl)

She told Grandma that she wanted to make sure that Santa knew that she was good. Just another sign that she could be a lawyer in the future if she wants to. She certainly is great at pleading her case.