Share the materials and programs you've created to support Book Award Curriculum in your School

Red Clover PowerPoint Game

Here is this year's Red Clover PowerPoint Game which I use in class to review all 10 books before kids vote.  The questions reflect the discussions I had with my classes about each book, but you can easily change them to reflect the focus in your own classes. 

The second slide has all ten covers; click on any one to link to that book's questions, click for the questions in progressive order, then click the lefthand arrow at the bottom of the page to return to the second slide and choose another.  The arrow at the bottom right of the pages will take you to the final slide, so save that for LAST.  I let the 3/4s choose books as we go and a student (or 2 if competing with teams) keeps the score on a Red Clover ballot so I know when we have finished all 10 books.  With the K-2s, I might just go thru all 10 books in order (just clicking, NOT on the covers), just to keep the focus moving along...

Feel free to try it out and edit it to your own taste.  Kids at my school look forward the it at the end of the unit each year.

Red Clover challenge 2009.ppt

Sue Irish

Suzanne.Irish (at) CESU.K12.VT.US

Red Clover Speed Dating

I do a little "speed dating" with all ten Red Clover books. We discuss all the ways we can look at a book to determine whether we're interested in reading them or not. Then I set the students up into small groups and give them 3 minutes to look over each book. Each group needs to agree on the number of stars to assign each book, we usually do a 5 star rating scheme. Then we tally up the stars for the whole class, and possibly even figure out the average number of stars each book won (math skills!).

Once we've read the books, it's fun to go back and see if their opinions have changed.

Here's a word document I use for each group to record their stars: red clover speed dating.doc

Pam Burke pam (at) marlboro.edu

Red Clover Ballot

With the younger students, I like to use a simple paper ballot for them to mark their choices on.

Here's my ballot for 2009.red clover ballot 2009.pdf

 Pam Burke

DCF & Red Clover Word Searches

I posted some word searched & cross word puzzles I create for DCF & Red Clover books on my blog here: http://lib.surruralist.net/2008/08/11/games-for-idle-hands/

Pam Burke

DCF Voting Tip

This year I'm using www.surveymonkey.com to collect votes for my DCF books - what a time saver! I recommend it. Creating a ballot takes just a minute and is free.

 Pam Burke

To add to Pam's post: We've used Google Forms the past couple years to tally the DCF votes statewide.  Very easy to do, and you can tailor it for your school as well.

Steve Madden

Red Clover Programs -- what do you do?

Original query:

Some of my colleagues wanted to know how other schools "do Red Clover" as they think the way we are doing it takes away too much instructional time.  A little history: for the past nine years we have been doing a whole-school week-long event where every book is adopted by a pair of classroom teachers and they develop an activity to go along with their book.  Then we put the students into ten mixed-aged groups (K-5) and have them rotate throughout the school for one hour each day of the week to hear the books and do the activities. The next week we vote during their library time with me. 

I am open to suggestions; if you can let me know what you do to promote Red Clover books in your school I would appreciate hearing from you.  FYI: I am hoping to keep it the way we have always done it as many of the teachers and all of the students really love it.

Thanks!
--
Kathy Neil
Librarian
Edmunds Elementary School
299 Main Street
Burlington, VT  05401

Responses:

What you do sounds great!  We read Red Clover books along with activities in the library over the course of the school year from October to April.  At the same time, I have a second set that spends several weeks in each classroom so that teachers can read them to students as well.  We finish the program with voting in the library!

Emily DiGiulio

I have  210+ primary students and 260+ middle school - 3 of every grade.

We have changed things around a number of times, but this seems to work the best for us.  The teachers love to read the Red Clover books and share the titles with their students.

I send out an email letting everyone  know we are ready to read the Red Clover books and need to think about scheduling  a time in the media center with me. Each grade chooses a full month when they would like to read the Red Clover titles.

Gr 3 - Nov, Gr 4  - Dec and so on.

I present the program in 1 or 2 sessions depending on the grade. I give an overview, highlight some special things to look for in each title, which includes looking at the art work in every book and talking about the author and other titles that we have by the authors/ illus.  We talk about the jobs of the author and illustrator and what defines a picture book. I have 2 copies of each title. Each teacher get a copy of the activity sheets, and a voting ballot along with a certificate and a  book mark that I put together.

The first set goes to the first teacher who signs up from that grade and the 2nd set goes to the last teacher who signs up. The books stay in the classrooms and are read by the classroom teacher. The books stay in that grade for the entire month so kids can go back to them and reread them.

At the end of the month the students vote, and teachers tally the votes on a shared spread sheet. The books come back to me and we start the process all over again.

Hope that helps. 

Georgeanne E. Bonifanti
http://memsmediaworks.wordpress.com
manchesterschools.org
www.northshirelibraries.com

Each classroom signs up for a month they'd like to have a set of the Red Clover books and a teacher's manual. My assistant makes sure the books are circulated each month. Teachers have students vote in the classroom and give me the final tallies. I'm always impressed with some of the cool ideas teachers have come up with for supporting the program. Our 3rd grade team works together and has adult guest readers help read the books. Kids love to guess who the reader of the day is. One of our first grade teachers tells her students to vote carefully because she will be purchasing the books for the top 3 votes.

Corinna Stanley
School Librarian
Hinesburg Community School
Hinesburg, Vermont

I think your plan is lovely!  I have done it several ways.

 Some years we just read and discuss the books and vote in the library. When we vote I have an object that is a symbol of the story set up near each book to stimulate memory of the book. My second set of books visits classrooms for a couple of weeks in each room.

Some years I have planned an activity for most of the books, read and discuss one week and do the activity the next (very consuming of my year). For example: we did Chinese brush painting for Zen Shorts.

Some years I have an afternoon-long all school event, with a station for each book, mixed ages in groups rotate through the ten stations, with about 12 minutes at each.  For example: for Uncle Peter's Amazing Chinese Wedding, they folded butterflies out of printed origami paper, attached them to wires, and stuck the wire into styrofoam lining a  box I had painted to look like the one in the illustrations. I plan the activities and gather the materials, and a parent volunteer runs the station.  A teacher accompanies each group.  The fifth and sixth graders read the books over a couple of library times and participate.  This event is highly popular with everyone.

Lynne Woodard

Teacher Librarian at Rumney School in Middlesex, VT
                                         & Doty School in Worcester, VT
                                       Washington Central Supervisory Union

   For the first few years after the Red Clover Program started I read all 10 books to every class and then they voted. 

   Then our school went to this model:   A staff member that is not a classroom teacher (Art, Music, P.E., Enrichment, Principal, Nurse, Guidance Counselor, Librarian, etc.) read one book to all classes throughout the year and we voted in April.  This had its advantages and disadvantages.  The children were excited to have other adults read to them and it was more of a whole school activity.  Unfortunately, all the books were not read to every class by the end of March.  Many classroom teachers and the librarian were scrambling to read books at the end so we could send the votes in on time.  Also, since this was done throughout the year some students forgot the books they had heard in September.

    This year we are trying a new approach:  A trio of adults (people who do not usually work together) will be assigned to read a particular book and do an activity corresponding to that book.   For 10 morning, spread out over a month, we will rotate groups of students through the 10 books.  The groups will be comprised of students from different classrooms so they will have an opportunity to spend time with other children in the school.  Our plan is to do this durning morning meeting time during the month of February.  This activity will include every student and all adults that work with our students.  We will start with an opening assembly and end with a voting day.    

Denise Wentz

Allen Brook School

Williston, VT