News From The Library--October 16

Introducing......our resident book reviewer.....Olive, The Library Cat!

Starting soon, we will have book reviews from students and they will be posted with the "help" of our library mascot, Olive, The Library Cat. A little history about Olive....I was scouting around some garage/estate sales in Montecito one Saturday morning and at one house perched up high on an old bookshelf was this amazing stuffed animal. It looked so real I almost thought it was a pet cat. As it turned out it was for sale (for a great price, I might add!) and I knew she had to be mine. When I brought her home, I thought she'd be fun to keep in the Library and she could reside on the little wicker couch in the Inglenook. I made the mistake of temporarily setting her down on the floor in my living room and soon after heard growling and hissing sounds. My own cat, Katy, (a.k.a queen of the house) did not like her presence one little bit! So Olive had to sit in my car for the rest of the weekend until she came home to the Library. The Kindergarten students named her after one of our favorite books, That Olive! by Alice Schertle. Now she sits in the Inglenook and all the children enjoy her very much.

For safety reasons I felt it would be a good idea not to publish student's names on the blog for now as I am still pretty new to blogging myself. So from time to time students will submit blog reviews to me and I will post them using Olive as their pseudonym. I'll be sure to let each student know when their review will be posted. So keep an eye out for Olive's first review!

This week in the Library:

Kindergarten--We're warming up for those pumpkin patch visits and reading By the Light of the Halloween Moon by Caroline Stutson and illustrated by Kevin Hawkes. This delightful poem is a lilting cumulutative tale in which a series of Halloween creatures try to nibble on a little girl's toe. We also read A Pumpkin Story by Mariko Shinju (which thankfully made it back to the Library just in time after a prolonged absence!) This lovely story is about a man who makes an entire community with the pumpkins he has grown from a few seeds. The engaging illustrations delighted the children and sparked their imaginations about what they might do with pumpkins. We also did some virtual pumpkin carving which the students agreed was fun but not as messily fun as the real thing.

First Grade--Remember that great song, There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly? We have a Halloween book version called There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed a Bat by Lucille Colandro and first graders loved comparing the two and chanting along with the parade of Halloween creatures.

Second Grade--One of our favorite silly stories for this time of year is Piggie Pie by Margie Palatini. Gritch, the Witch, wants piggie pie but she doesn't bargain for the clever pigs at Old MacDonald's Farm. The illustrations by Howard Fine are large and a little outrageous which only adds to the fun. The ending required a little knowledge of fairy tales and it was fun to see the "light bulb go on" for the children.

Third Grade--Third graders worked with encyclopedias this week and after drawing topics from our favorite hat, they found the correct encyclopedia, read a short article about their topic, and then wrote 3 sentences (complete sentences, that is) about their topic. They also learned the importance of returning the encyclopedias in correct order for the next person who came to use them.

Fourth Grade--As last Monday was Columbus Day, fourth graders listened to an interesting alternative version of the Columbus story. Encounter, by acclaimed author Jane Yolen, is written from the point of view of a Taino Indian boy and gives students an idea of what it must have been like for the native people living on the islands Columbus claimed. Evocative illustrations were done by one of our favorite illustrators, David Shannon. An interesting discussion followed about point of view and being able to look at historical events from more than one angle.

Fifth Grade--In preparation for blogging book reviews, fifth graders had a presentation on blogs. With a Keynote presentation as our starting point we discussed how blogs were different from websites, the safety and ethical issues related to posting or commenting on blog, and then saw our Library Blog. Together we followed a blog review template and did a mock review so they could have practice before doing their own blog reviews. I'm looking forward to receiving their submissions. They were happy to have Olive, our Library Cat, as their pseudonym, and yes....they now really know what the word pseudonym means!

Sixth Grade--I missed the sixth grade this week as they were happily off to camp!

I have compiled a list of fun online sites for Halloween and they are available on paper in the Library or at the following links:

Virtual Pumpkin Carving
Cyberhaunt
The Pumpkin Farm
Starfall pumpkin

Costume Game
Ghostina

Hangman Game
Halloween Hangman

Unitl next week.......