Halloween Favorites

Some students love spooky stories. Others don't. I wanted to list some of my favorites that maybe you would like to choose to share with your children. (I personally like the funny Halloween stories that we can laugh at as a group.)

My all time favorite story I read every year to second grade and above is titled The Widow's Broom, by Chris Van Allsburg.

My other favorites include:

Froggy's halloween by Jonathan London
Hallo-weiner by Dav Pilkey
My monster momma loves me so by Laura Leuck
Big pumpkin by Erica Silverman
The trip by Ezra Jack Keats
The Viper by Lisa Thiesing
Velcome by Kevin O'Malley
Dragon's Halloween by Dav Pilkey
Boo to you by Lois Ehlert
Shake dem Halloween bones by Lisa Nikola
Scary, scary Halloween by Eve Bunting
Harriet's Halloween candy by Nancy Carlson
Sam's first Halloween by Mary Labatt
Trick or treet, smell my feet by Diane De Groat
The ugly pumpkin by Dave Horowitz
Ghost's hour, spook's hour by Eve Bunting
Henry and Mudge Under the Yellow Moon by Cynthia Rylant
Nate the Great and the Halloween hunt by Marjorie Sharmat
The best Halloween ever by Barbara Robinson

The Bookfair is Coming!

Discover new trails! Camp out with a great book!

The Scholastic Bookfair will arrive November 2 - 5th for Tracks 2 and 4. On Thursday Night (November 5) all tracks are invited to come out at 6:30 to Highcroft Drive Cafeteria for a special program to kick off our Family Night at the Bookfair. A park ranger with special guest will be there to share with students the joys of nature. S'more refreshments will be served so don't be left at home. Dress up in your "happy camper" attire and join the Highcroft families in supporting our biggest bookfair ever!

Tracks 1 and 3 will preview and purchase the week of November 9th.

The profit will go to purchase books and a few technology tools for our media center to help promote our 21st Century literacy program for students.

Since our bookfair is so close to the holidays, now is the time for you to stock up on stuffers, gifts, and reading material for the family.

Remember: Books are presents you can open again and again!

Fall into research!

Books about fall, fall holidays, pumpkins, bats, apples, and scarecrows have been dressing up the media center. Students have been swiping books off the shelves for independent reading.

Fifth graders began using a lotus diagram to organize data about themselves. They should be able to apply this graphic organizer when they begin their biography report for their wax museum.

Fourth graders have been involved in a Box Research Project about Roald Dahl. Many questions about his life were generated and we were off to answer those questions using worldbookonline.

Third graders began their exploration of tall tale characters through the introduction of Johnny Appleseed.

Second graders are wrapping their unit up about Patricia Polacco with a video of Rashenka's Eggs. An interview with Patricia and her "how to" explanation of making pysanky eggs (a Ukraine tradition passed on to Patricia by her Babushka).

First graders learned facts about lizards through nonfiction books. We discussed the text features in Komodo Dragons and discussed the mythological "dragon."

Kindergarteners enjoyed the book Library Lion. We discussed the sequence of the story; what happened in the beginning, what happened next, then what happened, and of course...finally the story ended...how???? Never a dull moment with the kinders.

Labor Day Week Storytime

Our storytime area in the picture book section is surrounded by wild animals...because we are "wild about reading!" The kindergarteners read a House for Hermit Crab written by Eric Carle. We paired a nonfiction title which explained how to take care of hermit crabs. We also discussed that Hermit Crab must have treated his friends so nicely since they never wanted to leave his shell. He also treated others nicely which was shown at the end of the story when he allowed another smaller hermit crab to move into his shell which had become much smaller over the past year.

First graders have also learned about Komodo Dragons through reading a nonfiction text. We compared the nonfiction text with a fiction story titled, Raising Dragons. Once both books were enjoyed we discussed the differences and how dragons really never existed...except in books! We played a game at the end of our library special where I tried to trick them in a true and false game about dragons...Those first graders learn fast!

Second grade continued their read aloud time enjoying another title by Patricia Polacco. We enjoyed listening to Appelemondo's Dream. We discussed daydreaming, dreaming at night, and of course how Appelemondo dreamed. Have your children retell the story to you. As a follow up we will enjoy a viewing of Appelemondo's Dream and compare the story with the book.

Third and Fourth graders were introduced to the term "research." The word "search" is in the word and sometimes looking for specific information can take more that just looking at text. We continued our discussion about Roald Dahl, read a biographical sketch about him on World Book Online, and are completing questions about his life through specific sites I have chosen. We also have been introduced to citing sources to give others credit when we use their work for research. Roald Dahl's birthday is today (September 13) and many places are celebrating his life through various activities.

Fifth graders are continuing to learn to navigate getting to their blog and posting to various questions I have listed. This is not a social networking site and is used primarily to respond to prompts. We will be using this tool more when we begin our unit on Lewis and Clark.

If you do not have a Wake County library card, please consider signing up so you can take advantage of all the books and programs through West Regional Library.

Happy Reading!

Month of August

Check out my avatar for this month. These past couple of weeks I have been trying to set up a fifth grade blog. I have designed one using blogspot, however the students cannot comment...it is blocked. I have tried several times to have it unblocked without success. So if at first you don't succeed try, try again. I created another blog on edublog. One of the techs from our school system told me these were not blocked. I set it up so my groups of fifth graders could try it out. We (I should say "I")was very slow at walking them through it but we were successful!!!!! In the meantime, I revised my teacher web site but I needed to download a new version of Windows. The techs said I couldn't do that...so I re-created my own version of the old and I added a blog and photo gallery for parents and it is password protected. While I am learning new things each day, it is still not enough to keep up in this tech savvy world of ours. I must have over 9 blogs, websites, and portfolios to manage....whew! Any way, check out my teacher web at: http://www.highcroftes.wcpss.net/ click on the media center link which will show a photo of the doors of our media center. Click to enter and you will be directed to my new teacher web. Choose from the sidebar to direct you to learn about our media center. I will be posting more photos this week so please stop by. Students will be blogging from this site since it is EXTREMELY protected from public viewing. They will get their passwords beginning next week.

As for the other classes...

Fourth and Third graders have been enjoying reads from Roald Dahl. In fourth grade we are reading Danny, the Champion of the World and will continue that for sometime. Third Graders are reading The Giraffe, the Pelly, and Me which is about a little boy who wants to own his own grubber shop....(ask your kids:)

We have accessed the official Roald Dahl website and have read his biography, viewed his photo album and have completed his comparison question game titled "About Roald Dahl." The "treats" link on the website is controlled and blocked by our school system. However I shared with the students they could possibly ask their parents to view and complete the registration together to log in and play some of the games at home. (They are all based on Roald Dahl's books.)

Second graders are continuing their journey through reading books by Patricia Polacco. Her ideas for her stories come from her personal experiences as a child living in Michigan and California with her mother, bubby, grandfather, and rotten redheaded older brother, Richard. I sent home a recipe for Thunder Cake hoping the students might be allowed to try out the recipe with help. Two second grades will be reading Thunder Cake this week.

First graders have been learning the difference between fiction and nonfiction books. We have also discussed title pages and the information you can find on those pages (how we use this information will be discussed much later).
Right now we are on a fact finding journey:) We have also read many of the Rotten Ralph books by Jack Gantos and discussed how Ralph's behavior can really be rotten at times. Students share how Ralph could act differently.

Kindergarteners are continuing to read books written by Eric Carle. Most classes have read the following: Very Busy Spider, Very Lonely Firefly, Very Quiet Cricket, House for Hermit Crab, 10 Little Rubber Ducks (based on a true story), and From Head to Toe. Book care, selection, and return are discussed each class period. Fingerplays and songs are introduced in each class as well and we have also done the Hokey Pokey! Time flies when you have fun!

Kindergarteners and Eric Carle

The kindergarten classes at Highcroft have been introduced to the world of Eric Carle. Students have enjoyed singing, learning fingerplays, and of course listening to stories written by Eric Carle. So far (depending on the track your child(ren) are on) we have read The very busy spider, The very quiet cricket, and The very lonely firefly. We also learned through reading his books that only boy crickets can make the chirping sounds and fireflies are not flies, but soft bellied beetles! Other skills we are working on include choosing books from the shelving area, proper care for books, turning the pages gently and correctly, and remembering to return books on time. Stay tuned for more information about our kindergarten classes.

Have you filled a bucket today?

Each class in grades 1 - 5 has had the opportunity to enjoy the book titled, "Have you filled a bucket today?" by Carol McCloud. Through simple words and illustrations students learn how to be happy, treat others kindly, and to be a bucket filler. By being a bucket filler (showing kindness to others through our comments and actions) we are actually spreading good cheer. However, we can also be bucket dippers...by saying mean words and through teasing and ignoring others which causes us to feel sad and lonely. We discussed in each class how we can all be bucket fillers and how others have filled our buckets through their kind thoughts and deeds. Why not be a bucket filler today by showing kindess and appreciation toward others! (Check out our bulletin board outside the media center)