Celebration Book Club!

Highcroft has a Celebration Book Program where you can leave your child's legacy by donating money to cover a book to be placed in the media center. This is a great opportunity to commemorate your child's school experience at Highcroft while also sharing the gift of reading with other students. If you are interested in participating, please go to the PTA website, my school website, or by contacting me at school...9194603527 or twetherell@wcpss.net

Thank you for your support and interest in promoting reading!

Kindergartener's First Week in the Media Center!

This week Tracks 1, 2, and 3 kindergarteners visited the school library for the very first time. All were very respectful, listened attentively and had a great time. We enjoyed the book written by Amy Hest titled, Off to School, Baby Duck! We learned about the rules and policies of the library and how to take care of books. We viewed a few select books that were ruined because of specific accidents such as water bottle spills, eating while looking at your book, leaving books out for pets and babies to ruin, turning the pages roughly, as well as writing in books. Each student was allowed to select a book from the tables to check out. This will allow each class to learn our procedures. Each book was placed in a book bag with a bookmark and a letter to parents. (I am hopeful each family read the letter:) Students were asked to bring back their book so they can select another book. I can't wait to see the kinders again!

Volunteer Registration is NOW taking place!

Hey parents! Are you planning on voluteering in your child's classroom(s)? ...going on a field trip?...helping with center time? Then you need to register in the media center and become a registered volunteer for the 2009-10 school year. Many times parents rush in to sign up to go on a field trip only to find it takes about 2 - 3 weeks to be cleared as a green star volunteer. So don't wait....do it now! You can sign up in the media center from 8:45 - 9:05 each morning. Please bring (or know) your driver's license number, social security number, and addresses for the past seven years. Oh yeah...thanks for volunteering and making a difference for all our students at Highcroft:)

Week of May 29, 2009

This will be my last post of the school year 2008-09. We will be conducting a full inventory and completing a state report about media and technology. Students will continue to come to media special where plans will continue and a special day of gaming will be played in the library. Old fashion board games, skipbo, uno, scrabble, boggle, parcheesi, mancala, checkers, chess, sorry, and mouse trap will be available. Students will have to choose their own groups, read for directions, and work out any issues on their own....imagine that...just like a regular workplace.

See you next year! (That would be July 7th)

Week of May 22, 2009

Each grade will begin a video which corresponds to the the Information Skills Standard Course of Study.
The kindergarten will continue to read books about dogs and view episode one of The Ugly Duckling. This is not the fairy tale. It is about bullying and takes place in a farmyard.
Second Grade will begin The Pagemaster, based on the book about a timid boy who is afraid of everything....until he ends up in a library and explores Adventure, Horror and Fantasy. Through experiencing these three genrea, he becomes brave and overcomes many of his fears. His library card allows him to experience and explore life through the pages of a book...hence the term "pagemaster."
Third grade will be shown the movie based on Louis Sachar's Wayside School is Falling Down. This animated film reinforces the chapters the students find so funny through his play on words and wacky school architecture.
Fourth grade will be watching Pippi Longstocking. This is also a musical about an adventurous girl and the antics she encounters as she is orphaned through a shipwreck. However, this movie has a happy ending.
Fifth grade will watch a biography about Sterling North when he was a boy in the early 1900's. It ties in the states, historical fiction, a biography, and life during the "good ole days." The movie is titled, Rascal. After Sterling's last day of school, his father takes him to the countryside where he encounters a racoon who is left behind by it's mother. Sterling adopts the racoon and learns the responsiblity and heartache of owning a wild animal

A New Week, A New Track

It has been an exciting two weeks! My oldest daughter graduated from UNC-Chapel Hill, my son was playing tennis for UNCW in the NCAA tournament in Georgia, and my youngest daughter was busy preparing for her confirmation....Whew...life is fun! Oh yeah, one more thing....I completed my Master of Library Science Degree (MLS) which took over three years to finish...But of course, lessons must be developed for the students at Highcroft so they can reap the benefits many years from now as well.

Fifth graders on track two completed their Iditarod Power Point Presentation and the other tracks are about a week away from their completion date. Most of the students were delighted when we presented their projects for others to view.

Fourth graders on track one were introduced to the joys of completing a bibliography for their county fair project. The other tracks were exposed to a booktalk in the media center and enjoyed an original version of "How to Eat Fried Worms" by Thomas Rockwell. Another follow up to this video production is the book by Barbara Robinson titled, My brother Louis measures worms.

Third graders on track 4 have completed their research and are in their publishing stage for their biography (famous person) reports. Tracks 1, 2, and 3 have spent the past two weeks comparing life as it was in the 1950's to students of today through previewing The Doughnut Machine and The Cosmic Caper. Both stories can be found in Robert McCloskey's, Homer Price and other stories. Be sure to ask your child if they would have liked to live in the 50's...I think you'll find they are really hooked on their video games, remote controls, and high definition television. Many were amazed that entertainment in the 50's consisted of sitting around a radio listening to, not watching, a baseball game.

Second graders took a break from Bill Peet books to learn a little about folk tales/tall tales through previewing John Henry: Steel driving man and King Midas. We learned about exaggeration and to be careful what you wish for...it may come true!

First grade have enjoyed Arnold Lobel 's Frog and Toad books. We practiced retelling stories and using transition words like...first, next, then, finally...These words really help to move the story along without using the same phrase over and over again....and then, and then, and then, and then....

It's been a doggone good year in kindergarten. There are so many readers! We have enjoyed reading about Harry, the dirty dog. He is so funny, but his family is always there for him. The students have discovered many books on dogs in the library. They are checking out books about Clifford, Biscuit, Sally, Riptide, Mudge, Muldoon, Maxi, and McDuff. If these names aren't familiar to you...ask your child about them...or better yet, visit the public library and check some out for yourself! It's nice to relax with your child and a book :-)

Stay Tuned for More!

What your child learns in the school library...

Books can be good friends. How to choose a book to suit their interests. The difference between stories and informational text. How nonfiction is read differently than fiction. That reading can be exciting and fun! How to read an index and other alphabetical order listings. How to find a book in the library. That libraries are great places to look for answers to life's questions. How books are made by real people (authors and illustrators) and machines (publishing companies). That it is important to be choosy when picking a book or website.