This year, our ELL teacher presented at a faculty meeting on the Mock EJK Awards. She was looking for teachers to participate in these mock awards with their classes. My first thought was “no, I do not need more work,” but then she shared photos and videos of last year’s classes who participated. The students were so engaged and enthusiastic, I decided to join in and sign up online. *I would like to add a disclaimer that I am in no way associated with EJK foundation. I am just a first grade teacher, who wants to help spread awareness about the program and make it easy for other teachers to participate.
Once, I signed up, I was emailed a list of books and other other helpful info from the EJK foundation. They sent me a list of over 30 book nominees. Our ELL teacher and I decided to only preview 10 books and have the students vote between those. I give our amazing ELL teacher all the credit, she went through the list of over 30 books, previewed them, decided which ten to pick, and grabbed all the books for us from local libraries. I have linked the books we read below.
If you are reading 10 books, you will need 11 school days to participate. One day for each book and one day for voting. Here is what a typical lesson looks like:
I created reading response sheets for the books we read to make it easier for my first graders to respond to the literature. I also created pages for the final voting day, where students would nominated their favorite books. I have shared these all for FREE with you HERE. I also included blank templates because I know you and your class may be reading different nominee books.
After you read all the books, have the students vote on their favorites, who they would give the gold EJK award to.
I wish I could show you a video of my students cheering for the winner. It was adorable!! Our second and third place winners were Late Again (my favorite) and Don’t Trust Fish (so funny). I plan on purchasing all three for the classroom.
At the end of the program the EJK foundation will email you a form to fill out. Here is what you would need to do:
I hope this blog post inspired you to participate in the Mock EJK awards, too! Don’t forget to sign up HERE.
