A Battle for the Books

What a wonderful morning in the Barn! Our new venue proved just right for the high level of competition showcased on stage. These teams knew their books! At the end of regulation, the teacher,  parent and wildcard teams went into a sudden death to determine the winner.
And the parents prevailed! They are were awesome!
Congratulations to Gretchen Loebel, Cheri Karbon, Jaime Billings and Mike Schloat. This is the first year parents have competed and they set the bar high!

Thank you to all 20 teams who competed in this year's tournament. Loads of fun, and a great way to connect over some terrific books. 

A busy week ahead

This is the final week of our 2019 MCBA program. There has been so much enthusiasm around these books, loads of discussion, stretching of readers, and fun!

Here is what awaits:
Monday, February 25---Battle of the Books School Championship 
8:10 a.m. on stage in the Barn.  Six teams compete for the crown: Grade 4 Champ, Grade 5 Champ, Grade 6 Champ, Teacher Champ, Parent Champ and our Wildcard winners. They are all great so this is going to be a white-knuckle nail-biter of a tournament!

Voting for your Favorite Book---ends at 3:00 p.m.
Vote now!

Thursday, February 28---Stories in Action
3:30-5:30 p.m. in the library for students in grades 4-6 who have read five nominees.
Food, games, and activities all tied to the books. We have 63 students signed up! This is going to be a blast. We will also announce the winning book!

(I want to acknowledge the idea for this party stems from my work with some amazing librarians in the Union 28 Schools- Karin Gravina, Robin Shtulman, Georgie Schmidt, Erin Daly, Betsy Bergantino, Jane Urban, Susan Wells- where we hosted "Books in Action" to readers from four schools. This is my spin-off.)

Friday, March 1---the last day to turn in Participation Points
Be sure check in all of your books and projects by Friday so they can be added to your class total. The winning classroom will be announced on Friday, March 8 during Spring into Reading.

The final winner...

This week's trivia winner is Aaron, who knew that the dads in Ms. Bixby's Last Day and Towers Falling were disabled. Their struggles made these two books all the more poignant.
Aaron earned five points for Mrs. Freda's class. Congratulations!

Wowed by our parents!

This morning, we held our first ever parent Battle of the Books competition. Since so many parents read the books with their children, or share the audiobooks, they are doing plenty of MCBA reading too.  Two teams competed and they were awesome! With very few questions missed, the winner was determined by just one point!

Congratulations to our winning team: Jaime Billings, Cheri Karbon, Mike Schloat and Gretchen Loebel! They will move on to the school championship on Monday morning.

Congratulations to our runners-up, they were terrific! Erin Cherewatti, Emily Rich, Sara Ardrey and Anne Lozier. 

Great team work and collaboration!

Trivia Week 15--the finale

This is it. The last week of  MCBA trivia. I hope you have enjoyed testing your knowledge each week. Voting for your favorite book begins next week, with Battle of the Books continuing, and Stories in Action coming up on February 28. There is still time to fit a book or two in--don't stop reading!

For the finale, the winner this week will earn 5 points for their class. Good luck!

Trivia Week 15

Trivia Week 14

Great job, Abbi! You've earned another point for Ms. Gearhart's class with your correct answer in this week's trivia. It was Toby that covered his house with photographs. Have you read this powerful, historical fiction novel? It's intense and covers some serious topics...it's a story you won't soon forget!

Grade 5 Battlers

The snow delay on Wednesday pushed back our fifth grade Battle of the Book to today. With five teams competing, our readers were ready to go!
Congratulations to the winning team:

Mason, Aaron, Josie, and Kale!There is always the Wildcard round, Team 4!

Grade 6 Battles

Another round of great book trivia, as the sixth graders competed in the Battle of the Books on Thursday. Congratulations to Abbi, Sophie, Maddy, And Kamren who proved victorious and move on to the finals!

Thanks to all of our readers who participated:

Presenting your Grade 4 BOTB Champions!

 We  had an exciting morning in the library on Monday, as the fourth graders battled it out. We had  five teas and 21 participants.

The winning team of Maeve, Brooke, Ethan and Fintan will advance to the school championship.
Congratulations!

Trivia Week 14

This week begins the student rounds of Battle of the Books.
Grade 4 will compete on Monday at 10:00 in the library and grade 5 on Wednesday at 10:00.
Good luck teams!

Trivia Week 14

Week 13 winner

Congratulations to Justice, who earned a point for Mrs. Gage's class this week. He knew that it was Nandu who was raised by the elephant Devi Kali in What Elephants Know.  That was a great book, and fun to see the parallels with the classes The Jungle Book.

Battle of the Books Begins!

Today, while students enjoyed a day off, three teams of teachers battled for the teacher title in the Battle of the Books. I knew this would be a close round--our teachers are motivated, smart, and competitive! They have trained hard, reading many, many books.

The legacy team, always competitive and sharp.

Sporting Bement gear, what a great group of readers!

The winners! The gloves were on and they came ready to battle.

 At the end of regulation,  teams 2 and 3  were tied for the lead. They entered into a sudden death playoff and the winner was...
Team 3! Congratulations to the "Black and White and Red All Over" team of Ms. MacCallum, Ms. Temby, Ms. Conway, Ms. Robertson, and Ms. Wetherby! They move on to the school championship on February 25.
Congratulations to team 2, clinching second place: Ms. Dancer, Ms. Boyden, Ms. O'Brien, and Ms. Wisniewski for an outstanding effort!
Congratulations to team 1, our third place team: Ms. Lent, Mr. Feitlinger, Ms. Gearhart, and Mrs. Currie (also Ms. Ames who was away) the original teacher team who have competed fiercely for many years.

Both team 1 and 2 may enter the wildcard round.

Could this be the year of the teachers? Can they possibly defeat the students? Stay tuned!

Trivia week 13

We have entered our final month of this year's MCBA program. There is still time to qualify, but don't delay! These bitter cold days provide some good chances to escape into a warm book!

Trivia Week 13

Congratulations Maeve D!

Maeve has earned a point for Ms. Conways's class with her correct answer in this week's trivia contest.
It was Red Sox great Pedro Martinez who grew up in the Dominican Republic. Be sure to read his inspirational story from poor island life to baseball glory.