Monday, December 28, 2009
Week of January 11, 2010
Week of January 4, 2010
The time has come to start the third grade biography projects! This week Mrs. Schenck and Mrs.Wilson's students will peruse the biographies in our library and choose a famous person that they would like to learn more about. Our remaining third grade classes will not choose their biographies until the week of February 1st, therefore we will read together the biography of Snowflake Bentley, the beautifully illustrated Caldecott Medal winner about the first man who was able to photograph snowflakes. We will also get to view his snowflake photographs in Mr. Bentley's non-fiction book Snow Crystals.
We've got some housekeeping items to take care of in fourth grade this week. Our first item of business will be to make sure everyone has completed and taken their blue dot test on their December book of the month. We are then going to have some review time about how our library is set up, looking up books by title, author or subject in our Alexandria computer cataloging system, and where to locate our book. Alexandria is the same system that is used at Madeira Middle School too, so by the time these students hit that library, they'll be old pros! Finally, the students will be encouraged to choose their January book of the month.
Thursday, December 3, 2009
Week of December 14, 2009
While it hurts my feelings, it is very exciting for the students when they get to watch a book on video rather than have me read to them. These poor deprived kindergartners have not had that treat yet! And so, this week they will get to watch Morris's Disappearing Bag and Max's Christmas by Rosemary Wells.
Friday, November 27, 2009
Week of December 8, 2009
Week of November 30, 2009
Kindergartners are going to be exploring the alphabet in the library for a while. We’ll start off with the fun and interactive book Amazing Alphabet! With Fantastic Flaps written by Richard Edwards and illustrated by Susan Hendra. Students always have enjoy this ABC lesson! And we have lots of wonderful alphabet books that your child can choose from to check out of the library.
Bears, bears, bears! It’s almost wintertime and our bear friends should be bedding down. First grade classes will read some hibernation non-fiction and then Sleep, Big Bear, Sleep! by Maureen Wright and illustrated by Will Hillenbrand and also Bear Snores On written by Karma Wilson with pictures by Jane Chapman.
Dewey: There’s a Cat in the Library! co-authored by Vicki Myron and Bret Witter is irresistible even to a dog lover like me and I think the second graders are going to love it too! This is based on the non-fiction version of the adult book Dewey. Author Bret Witter tells me that soon we should be seeing a teen version of this book on the shelves too. And for the record, I’m an animal lover, but terribly allergic to cats!
We will hear one last Native American story in third grade. Reading Rainbow featured The Gift of the Sacred Dog by Paul Goble so we’ll get to watch that on video and then it is followed by a real pow-wow that the students will see. I know that they have learned so much in this unit from their studies in the classroom, the speaker that came to visit and the field trip that they went on last week.
One Fine Trade retold by Bobbi Miller and illustrated by Will Hillenbrand is the story that fourth graders will hear this week. We will be paying close attention to the illustrations in this book and how Mr. Hillenbrand portrays actions, thoughts, size and conversation in this hilarious tale.
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
November 18, 2009 - November 24, 2009
Friday, November 6, 2009
Week of November 9, 2009
Monday, October 26, 2009
Week of November 2, 2009
Sunday, October 25, 2009
Week of October 26, 2009
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Week of October 19, 2009
- In kindergarten this week we read two non-fiction books entitled Scarecrows by authors Lola Schaefer and Calvin Harris. We also read a story called The Shy Scarecrow by Mary Packard. There are no kindergartners that have a scarecrow at their house...and neither does Mrs. Welt.
- First grade read one of my favorites Humbug Witch by Lorna Balian. We also featured author Cynthia Rylant by reading chapter 2 of Henry and Mudge Under the Yellow Moon and Moonlight the Halloween Cat. Cynthia Rylant is also the author of the Poppleton, Mr. Putter and Tabby and High-Rise Private Eyes series. Older readers will enjoy her Newberry Medal winning Missing May.
- The second grade classes are taking their field trip to U.D.F. Step 1 in making ice cream is the cow! This week in library we read Cow written by Malachy Doyle with beautiful illustrations by Angelo Rinaldi. It tells of a day in the life of a dairy cow. Our lesson then took a fun turn with The Cow Who Clucked by Denise Fleming and a video of the Caldecott Honor book Click, Clack, Moo Cows That Type by Doreen Cronin.
- For the Love of Autumn was thoroughly enjoyed by the third grade this week. This was their first introduction to author and illustrator Patricia Polacco. We will be reading Patricia Polacco's biography and reading many more of her books in the springtime. Many stories that she shares with us are written from her childhood memories. Her books and illustrations have become favorites with me.
- Wow! The fourth graders have really impressed me with their map skills. We began our work with the Children's World Atlas in September during our study of 9/11 by locating New York City, Washington D.C. and Pennsylvania. This week they had some really tough questions that they had to answer. No sweat!! Ask your child to tell you about the Antarctic Treaty, or what is the smallest country in Europe, or maybe locate the Great Barrier Reef. If they can't tell you, just give them an atlas and they will be able to look it up for you!