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!