Holiday Makerspace!
This week, we had a very special holiday-themed makerspace in our library. Our students LOVED it! They were so focused on their creations and they made so many amazing things. Some of the activities that we offered included: holiday card making, drawing Santa and Christmas trees, making "Christmas Kindness" fortune tellers, holiday origami, making holiday items out of Legos, puppets, puzzles, and reading by the "fire". Here are a few pictures from the week.
Santa's Sleigh
Battle of the Books
This week, we also kicked off our Battle of the Books programs! This year, we will have three battles: a 3rd grade battle, a 4th & 5th grade battle, and a 6-8th grade battle. Each group came to the library for a kick-off assembly. During the assembly, we introduced the program, showed pictures from previous years, and then gave short book talks for each of the books that will be included this year.
3rd grade
4/5th grade
6-8th grade
Students must read one book before January 15th in order to be placed on a team. The actual battles will be in May. We can't wait!
Book Club
Our after school "Choose Kindness" book club has been meeting every Monday after school. We have been having fun reading the book Wonder. Students have also been finding ways to spread kindness around the school and at home. Our book club will continue in January.
Have a wonderful winter break! Happy Reading!
It's Book Tasting Week!
This week, our students in grades 3-5 visited our Harrison School Book Tasting Cafe! What is a book tasting? During our book tasting, students were provided with piles of books. Each student starts with one book to preview for three minutes. During the three-minute preview time, students read the book's blurb/summary and read the first page or so of the book. Then, they filled out their "menu". In the menu, students write the title and call number of the book, a few notes about the book, and then rated the book 1-5. After the three minutes are up, students traded books and then we began again with a new book. Here is an example of our menu:
In the end, many students found a book that they wanted to check out and now all students have a list of potential books to read!
2nd Grade
Students in Ms. Wilson's class read the book The Trouble With Trolls and then used Flipgrid to record themselves retelling the story. We love how the girl tricks the trolls!
K-1st Grade
We read The Gingerbread Girl. In this version of the gingerbread stories, the girl outfoxes the fox! After reading the story, first graders used a graphic organizer to retell the stories.
Next week is our Battle of the Books kick-off!!
Here we are in December already! The weather is getting colder so it's the perfect time to snuggle in with a good book! We have lots of new books that are almost ready to be checked out!
We have been busy in the library this week. Here's what we've been learning.
5th Grade:
We are learning about using keywords when searching for things on the internet. We learned the importance of using precise words in order to get the best results. Then, we practiced by finding answers to questions about dogs.
3rd & 4th Grade:
Our 3rd and 4th grade students learned about how the nonfiction books are arranged in our library. First, we read the book The Shelf Elf Helps Out. Then, students practiced finding books with different call numbers on our shelves. It can be tricky and they did a great job!
1st & 2nd Grade:
We read the book Boy + Bot. In this story, the boy meets the robot and they begin playing together. While playing, the robot is accidentally turned off and the boy thinks the robot is sick. Later, when the robot is turned back on again, the boy is asleep so the robot thinks that the boy malfunctioned. With the help of another character, both are well and have lots of fun playing together. After reading the book, students practiced retelling the story. Students used Flipgrid to record themselves retelling the story and they did a great job with this first attempt. Here is the link to our videos: https://flipgrid.com/da183a
PK & K:
We read the books Boy + Bot and Beep Beep Go to Sleep. After reading these fun robot books, kindergarten students created their own robots. Here are a few:
Happy Reading!
Family Reading Night "Camp-In"!
We had so much fun at our annual family reading night this week!! Families participated in a camping themed reading night. Each family was provided with materials to make a "tent" and a "campfire". It was so much fun to see everyone's creativity as families worked together to build their "campsite"!
We also heard two books read aloud: Ms. Sturgis read Scaredy Squirrel Goes Camping and Mrs. Huff read A Camping Spree with Mr. Magee.
Each child chose a free book to take home and everyone enjoyed a s'mores snack.
A HUGE thank to you all of the families who attended and to all of the staff members who helped make this event a big success!
In library this week, most classes continued projects from this week or heard Thanksgiving books.
Happy Thanksgiving!!
Here's what we learned in the library this week!
5th Grade
In 5th grade we started learning about the importance of evaluating websites to make sure they are credible, accurate, and useful. There is so much useful information on the Internet, but not everything on the Internet is credible. We evaluated a website together and asked if the author is credible, if the information is accurate, and if the information is up-to-date. Next week, students will work in teams as detectives to evaluate websites on their own.
4th Grade
Students continued to record themselves giving their book talks using Flipgrid. Flipgrid is fun and easy to use! Here is the link to view the videos that are complete:
https://flipgrid.com/f166be
3rd Grade
Students in Ms. Sturgis's class practiced finding books in the library using call numbers. Students in Miss Olson's class watched book trailers for the Bluestem Award books. Next week, the classes will switch activities.
2nd Grade
We finished up the Global Read Aloud project by reading the fun book The Magic Hat by Mem Fox. In this book, the magic hat turns people into different animals. After reading the book, students wrote about what they would like to be turned into if they had a magic hat. Here are their responses:
Kindergarten and 1st Grade
We read the Monarch Award book Sam and Dave Dig a Hole. In this funny book, the main characters are digging a hole in hopes of finding something "spectacular" but they keep missing the treasure! Afterwards, students created their own digging adventure for Sam and Dave. Here are a few of their clever ideas:
PK
We read two books about fall: In the Middle of Fall and Fall Leaves Fall. We also sang a song (with movement activities) for fall.
Here is a summary of our week in the library!
5th Grade
We read the award-winning book Funny Bones: Posada and His Day of the Dead Calaveras. Through this book, we learned about the Mexican artist Jose Guadalupe Posada and the unique Calaveras (skeletons) that he created. We also learned a little about el Dia de Muertos (the Day of the Dead). It's so important to learn about other cultures!
After reading the book, students thought about what Posada's calaveras would have looked like if he was alive today and then created them. Here are a few of them!
4th Grade
We began recording our book talks! We are using the Flipgrid app, which will create a Flipgrid board that can be shared. Stay tuned for our finished videos!
3rd Grade and 1st Grade
These students heard Creepy Pair of Underwear (the sequel to Creepy Carrots that we read last week). After reading this funny story, students thought about what other creepy objects Aaron Reynolds could write about to scare Jasper Rabbit. Here are some of their creepy ideas:
We shared some of these ideas with author Aaron Reynolds on Twitter and he said "Thanks for the inspiration! I'm terrified, in all the right ways." It's so much fun interacting with authors on Twitter!
2nd Grade
We continued Global Read Aloud by reading another book by Mem Fox: Tough Boris. We were surprised by the ending and talked about how even tough pirates have feelings. After reading the story, students in Ms. Wilson's class wrote about something that others would find surprising about them. We shared our thoughts with our connected class in New York through Padlet. Here are the responses of both classes:
There are a lot of adjectives used describe to Tough Boris in the book. Students in Mrs. Hermann's class wrote about adjectives that describe themselves. Here are their words:
In Kindergarten and PreK we read Halloween books.
Happy Reading!
