One School, One Book is designed to create a shared reading experience within an elementary school community. A chapter book is chosen, every family in the elementary school receives a copy, and every family reads that book at home over the course of 4 weeks. Activities at school coordinate, promote, and enrich the shared reading experience. The purpose of One School, One Book is to create a culture of literacy in every home. Research shows that reading aloud to children will help them become better readers.
This is our 2nd year promoting One School, One Book. It was a huge success our first year, so we were super excited to provide this reading event again. Thankfully, we were able to purchase copies of the book that was chosen this year called Life According to Og the Frog by Betty G. Birney for our 250 families, along with teachers and staff, through donations received from the Big Rock Lions Club, the Hinckley Lions Club, Slingerland & Clark Law Firm in Sycamore, and the Walk-A-Thon fundraiser. We want to extend our sincere gratitude for your support for this school-wide reading event.
Hinckley-Big Rock Elementary School’s families, teachers, and staff started our reading book club on Jan. 31, 2021. The book club will run through Feb. 24th. Each night, families, along with teachers and staff, have been reading one chapter of Life According to Og the Frog by Betty G. Birney. Staff members have also been taking turns recording chapters for the website for families and students to listen to the chapters if they choose to instead of reading the chapters aloud. This is helpful especially on those busy nights. Visit ONE BOOK, ONE SCHOOL | Hinckley-Big Rock Elementary School (hbr429.org) to see the completed recordings and questions for the chapters.
In addition, each morning, students are given Trivia Questions to see if they can answer. There are also questions on the website that students can answer together with their families. The students and families who submit the online questions have their names entered in a weekly raffle for prizes.
We have also purchased 3 African Dwarf Frog Biospheres that travel to different classrooms each day for the students to observe real frogs. It has been fun to watch them jump, dive, and swim in their environment. While the frogs are visiting the classrooms, teachers are reading frog books and many students are using their Chromebooks to learn different frog facts. After observing and learning more about frogs, each classroom submits one fact to be shared on the announcements each morning. The facts are displayed on a bulletin board for all to see.
At the end of our book club, we will be holding a special reading event with activities to culminate the reading of Life According to Og the Frog by Betty G. Birney, Stay tuned for more details….
Mrs. Madden and Miss. Hughes
