First Grade Caldecott Club

First grade students have the opportunity to take part in the Caldecott Club, a reading enrichment program that is based upon Caldecott award-winning books. All the books have been set aside in the school Media Center and in the Oradell Public Library.

Each child has a chance to contribute gold stars to our First Grade Caldecott Club. In order to earn stars students must select a Caldecott book and read it or have it read to them. The children will then illustrate their favorite part of the story, using any medium they choose -- crayons, paints, markers, collage, puppets, clay, etc. The picture should have a caption with the title of the book and should be signed with name and grade. The children should then fill out a Caldecott Club form, which is available in the Media Center. A parent or guardian must sign the form and the children should hand in their art work and the form to me in the library. For each book completed, we will add a star to the large cut-out Caldecott Club letters in the IMC. We hope, with lots of effort, we will completely fill in the letters with stars by the end of the school year.

This program is intended to introduce first graders to a wide variety of fine children's literature, as well as to help them sharpen their language arts skills. Since the reading level -- but not the listening level -- of many Caldecott books is beyond most first graders, I hope you will take the opportunity to read the books to your youngster and discuss the art work with them. The children will be encouraged to select two books from the school library to take home each week, one Caldecott and one book that they might try to read on their own.

I hope that you will encourage your child to participate in the program. One of the greatest gifts you can give to your first grader is time together reading aloud.