Welcome Back to 2010-2011

It is so hard to believe that school has already started again. After a three day summer vacation we are back into the swing of things around here. Our theme this year is to "uphold the laws of book care" and become a member of the P.E.T. Patrol; Protect Every Title. I ordered this theme through Highsmith and it goes perfectly, or should I say purrrfectly, with our pets in the media center. (Both stuffed animals and real pets)

This blog is to give parents, and others, an overview of the happenings in the media center. I have vowed to blog weekly, but it doesn't always happen. I do try to have a life outside the school.

Our first week was dedicated to bookcare, policies, procedures, rules and the other "stuff", highlighted with interesting read alouds to intrigue our students, highlighted with our annual Shelf of Shame!

Read alouds included:

5th grade: Guys Write for Guys Read, Brothers (by Jon Scieszka)
4th and 3rd grade: Mind your manners B. B. Wolf, by Judy Sierra
2nd grade: Thank you, Mr. Falker, by Patricia Polacco
1st grade: Back to school for Rotten Ralph, by Jack Gantos
Kindergarten: Off to school Baby Duck, by Amy Hest

Happy Reading!

Mrs. Wetherell

And the winners are...

On Monday, January 18th at the American Library Association MidWinter conference in Boston, the Caldecott, Newbery, Coretta Scott King, and Printz Book Awards were announced. They are as follows:

Caldecott Award: Lion and the Mouse by Jerry Pinkney

Newbery Award: When you reach me by Rebecca Stead

More Fairy Tales

This week in grades K-3 we compared several of The Three Little Pigs classic fairy tales with many of the fractured fairy tales. We began with the retelling of the Three Little Pigs using puppets. Afterwards K-3 students enjoyed reading, The Three Little Wolves and the Big Bad Pig, written by Eugene Trivizas. Talk about role reversal. We also did a picture walk through David Wiesner's, Three Little Pigs, which one a Caldecott Medal. Not only do the three little pigs take the pages of the story and turn them into a paper airplane...they fly into another story make up of nursery rhymes. It was hilarious! While introducing some fairy tales through playing the game "Name that Fairy Tale" a couple of classes became intrigued with the clues of Rumplestiltskin. So we read the story of Rumplestiltskin, written by Paul O. Zelinsky.

Fourth graders completed the story of Polar, the Titanic Bear and will be using computers next week to find facts about the Spedden Family and the Titanic. We will also go to the research site to learn more about artifacts of the Queen Anne's Revenge, the flagship of Blackbeard which sank off the coast of North Carolina.

Fifth Grade students who are studying the American Revolution viewed a segment on Ben Franklin. They were amazed that he had only two years of schooling, however was an amazing inventor, patriot, scientist, firefighter, founder of our first lending library...and also one of the country's founding fathers who signed the Declaration of Independence. Students were amazed at how he learned about "grounding" buildings and houses to avoid fires in regard to lightning strikes with so little education.

Displayed work in the Media Center

Mrs. Gregory's AG students displayed their projects after researching those who were not so famous, but did in fact sign the Constitution.

Snow Dudes

Ms. Ebels class wanted to make their own "snow dudes" after we read the book by Daniel Kirk. We compared Snow Dude to The Gingerbread Man. Many students had made a connection to Frosty the Snowman as well. Good job, Huskies!

It's "snow" cold outside...

The display cases in the foyer of our media center are full of books about winter, snow, penguins, and arctic animals. Students may select any of these books for checkout or choose among the other 17,000 books from our collection.

Our Highcroft display also showcases books that have to do with January's dates such as Martin Luther King, Jr. books, A. A. Milne books, as well as Caldecott and Newbery selections to remind students the newest award winners will be announced on Monday, January 18th. I can't wait!