January 2011

Happy New Year!!! My family had a peaceful, healthy and relaxing break and I hope you did as well. At this point in the year I slip into my annual panic mode because I cannot believe that the first semester is over and there is still so much that I want to cover! There is just never enough time to read all the great books that are out there.

In January, our focus for kindergarten and first grade will be winter and how animals survive in the frigid temperatures of the Arctic and Antarctic. We will learn many facts about the polar bears, penguins and the arctic fox. And I have some great fiction stories to compliment our

non-fiction books too.

In second through fourth grades we are beginning to think about our Young Author books. They have not begun work yet, but in the library I'm trying to plant the seeds of creativity. We're looking at different crafts that authors and illustrators use when they create books. We'll tap into the internet to watch video interviews with them to see where they get their ideas, then how they implement them.

In addition, third grade is gearing up for the biography project in February. We have read quite a few biographies as well Of Thee I Sing by Barack Obama and illustrated by Madeira's own Loren Long. That book really put them on the right track for the kind of people that they choose for their project.

Fourth graders are learning about my favorite writing tool...the thesaurus! We read Norton Juster's The Odious Ogre last week and saw firsthand how useful a thesaurus is while writing.

Remember, there's nothing better on a cold day, than to curl up with a good book!

December 2010

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

We had another wildly successful Scholastic Bookfair in November.

Your overwhelming support is always appreciated. We tried what I would like to think will be our first of many Community Bookfairs. Authors Missy Griffin, Michelle Houts, Linda Sanders-Wells and Brandon Marie Miller all joined us to sign autographs, Lexi our reading therapy dog and fun activities of decorating bookmarks and book bags made our day much fun. And we had some stiff competition...the Amazons were conquering in the State championship game that very same day. Congratulations Amazons!!! If you weren't able to join us this year, hopefully you can next year. It was a fun family event.

We've spent our first week of December learning about Hanukkah by reading some fantastic non-fiction and following up with many tales of goblins, latkes and dreidels. Next week we will switch gears and jump into some Christmas favorites as well as some new stories that are sure to become favorites.

As we get ready for our winter break, your child may bring home extra library books. We want to make sure that they have plenty of reading material during their time away. Please encourage them to take time to read everyday!

Thank you for all of your support to help your child love to read. Have a safe and happy holiday!!

November 2010

Wow!! Where did that first quarter go?!! I blinked and it was gone!



HOLIDAY SHOPPING OPPORTUNITY

November is our Scholastic Book Fair month and the kids are all geared up. It is such a great opportunity to get quality reading materials for the students at very reasonable prices. Don't forget that this year we will have a Community Book Fair/Meet the Author Day on Saturday, November 13 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Authors Missy Griffin, Michelle Houts, Brandon Marie Miller and Linda Sanders-Wells will be available to sell and autograph their books from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.






But it's not all fun and games. Kindergarten is going to be focusing on non-fiction books. We will also be reading plenty of Thanksgiving books in the lower grade levels and upper grade levels will continue with some biographies and research books as well. Fourth grade will be working with one of my favorite writing tools, the thesaurus.

October 2010

We're blogging again!

In kindergarten and 1st grade we will begin October with a review of fire safety. And then it's on to scarecrows, spiders, bats, witches and ghosts in fiction and non-fiction genres.

In second grade we will read five books and then each student will vote for their favorite for the Buckeye Children's Book Award. We will also read some Halloween favorites this month.

Third graders will be introduced to biographies and we will revisit favorite authors ChrisVan Allsburg, Audrey Wood and Patricia Polacco.

And fourth graders will review biographies, and we will begin our study of research books with the atlas this month.

All grade levels will be introduced to the books of Missy Griffin, Linda Sanders-Wells and Brandon Marie Miller in anticipation of their visit at our Community Book Fair and Authors Visit on November 13.

Don't bug me. I'm reading!

On Monday, May 10th we kick off Right to Read week at Madeira Elementary School. So many great activities are planned for the students. Our school has become infested with insects as we've caught the reading bug! We will have an assembly on Monday morning to get things started and then some of the highlights for the week include a book swap, an author/illustrator visit by David Biedrzycki, Young Author night and a parade to wrap it all up on Friday. BIG FUN!!!

The following week is our annual Got Art? week. One of the many events will be the Frisch Marionettes performing the Jungle Book for us. With these two big weeks coming up, I have spent the last several weeks doing some pre-teaching for our activities during Right to Read and Got Art? weeks. We have become familiar with David Biedrzycki's works and have done a Jungle Book study throughout all grade levels.

What a fantastic year we have had in the MES media center! Mrs. Cunningham and I have enjoyed every single day that you have shared your children with us. Our goal is to teach our students to love to read. I cannot tell you how exciting it is to see a child transition from a reluctant reader to a voracious reader. We've seen that this year and it is great! Thank you too for your support from home. Our new Love Our Library program was wildly successful with 175 participants and the Scholastic Book Fair was so successful that we were able to purchase a SMARTboard for the media center.

Please visit the public library often and keep your children reading throughout the summer!

March

My first inclination is to say, "March already?!!" But then there's also a strong feeling of, "Is February finally over?!!" The answer to both questions is YES! And March is a short month for us because of spring break that last week.



So here is the plan: We started this week by celebrating Dr. Seuss' birthday in each grade. Dr. Seuss is so important because his books are some of the first that our children can finally read by themselves. Sure maybe it's because they've memorized them, but soon they will be matching up those words in the book with what they're reciting. And they learn about rhyming words too. All grades heard an age appropriate biography of Theodor Geisel and then we read a few different favorites. The Lorax amazes me as it was published in 1971 and had such insight on environmental issues. It's a great lesson in going GREEN written 40 years ago. We've also done some fun Seussical word searches and puzzles.



Next week we will enjoy some St. Patrick stories. Those leprechauns always bring laughter into the library. And then Spring will be knocking on our door. YEA!!! While the younger grades will be reading Spring books, our second, third and fourth graders are going to have lessons to teach them some resources that are available to them to help with their Young Author Books. They will be introduced to one of my favorite writing tools: The thesaurus!



We'll wrap up the month with some Easter books for kindergarten, first and second grade. I have one final biography for third grade along with a video introduction to author Patricia Polacco and fourth grade will still be plugging away with the thesaurus.

February

WOW!! So much to cover in a short month!

Groundhog Day, Valentine's Day, President's Day, Black History month, Dental month, the list goes on and on!

In Kindergarten and 1st grade we will cover Groundhog Day, Valentine's Day and how important it is to take care of our teeth. We'll revisit some of our favorite characters like Arthur, Franklin and Henry and Mudge.

Second graders will hit on all of the previous subjects and President's Day too. We will highlight Minnie and Moo, Cam Jansen and the Pee Wee Scouts for these topics.

As the last third graders finish up their biography reports, we will end our biography study in the library too this week...although in the springtime we will have one more. We have had a great time learning about the lives of Snowflake Bentley, Frank L. Baum, Snowshoe Thompson, Sacagewea and Duke Ellington. In February we will focus on President's Day and Black History month.

And our fourth graders will be busy as always. This week they are learning about what it takes to be the President of the United States. After that we will spend two weeks reading Patricia Polacco's newest book called January's Sparrow, which will be a perfect segue into President's Day and Black History month.

And behind the scenes we are processing hundreds of new books for our library that will be hitting the shelves soon!

Week of January 19, 2010

At Madeira Elementary School we have been very fortunate to have one of our teachers, Mrs. Fran Wilson, on the Orbis Pictus committee for the past three years. This committee is responsible for choosing the best non-fiction children's books that were published the previous year. M.E.S. Library has been reaping the benefits during Mrs. Wilson's term, as she has donated all of the books that she has reviewed. We have just received well over 300 new books from all of her hard work this year!!



It is important to familiarize myself with each book as it is processed so that I'm more knowledgeable and helpful to students and teachers with their research. This is a very time consuming task. And so, I'm going to have to take a step back from the blog for a while. While I love blogging to keep parents informed, it too is very time consuming and to prioritize, it's more important to get these new books into the hands of the students of Madeira Elementary School.



So, thanks for following the M.E.S. Media Center blog. We'll still be blogging, but just not as often.



And special thanks to Mrs. Fran Wilson for the wonderful additions to our library!!