News From The Library--Feb 1, 2010

Clementine's Letter by Sara Pennypacker

A Book Review by Gabriela & Olive

Also in the Library this week...

Kindergarten---A cat building a nest? How can that be? In The Perfect Nest by Catherine Friend, Jack the Cat has a hankering for omelettes. To lure a chicken to the barn he builds a delightful nest complete with pillows, a welcome mat, and colored lights. He gets his chicken all right but also a French speaking duck and a goose from the South! They all lay eggs and they all fight for the nest until he suggests they move to the next farm. What's left? Three lovely eggs. Three lovely omelettes, Jack thinks. But when the eggs hatch instead he finds himself the surrogate mother to three baby birds and he decides it was the perfect nest after all. Kindergarteners love the wonderful illustrations by John Manders making this the perfect read aloud for this age group.

First Grade--Owen wants to send a hug to his granny through the mail. Not a drawing of a hug but a real hug. The Giant Hug by Sandra Horning is a delightful story that also shows all the steps involved in mailing something from one side of the country to the other. And Owen's granny is so happy with her hug she sends a kiss back! Students love to imagine the story happening all over again in the opposite direction.

Second Grade--As part of our participation in the ADL program "No Place for Hate" I've purchased some new books for our collection. This week second graders heard Bullies Never Win by Margery Cuyler. This was the perfect book for this age group as they followed the story of how a little girl finally stood up for herself. I was amazed at how absolutely silent they were while I read the story. This was, I could tell, a subject they could all relate to. The message in the book was simple and really stressed how to handle a bully without "sinking" to their level. A great addition to our collection.

Third Grade--Teaching safe practices on the internet is so very important today and I feel we need to start as early as possible. Third graders discussed how to be safe when using the internet and then watched an excellent DVD called Faux Paws, Adventures on the Internet. This appealing video really stressed in simple terms how important it is not to reveal personal information on the internet and how to seek help from adults when encountering something that doesn't seem right. It's a lesson that will be repeated many times in our curriculum and this was a great start.

Fourth Grade, Fifth, and Sixth Grade--This coming Wednesday, Feb 3, will be our first official Battle of the Books lunchtime practice session. Students in grades 4-6 were reminded again how to join our Battle Team and watched a presentation about the Battle of the Book which will be held at the Santa Barbara County Schools Auditorium on April 15.

Sixth Graders also learned how to use Wonder Wheel on google. This is a great way to focus your searches on google. After you type in your subject and get your first results, you can click on the link that says "Show Options." Then click on Wonder Wheel and you get a graphic organization of many sub topics under your main topic. Students were also shown how to limit their searches to specific domains, especially .org, .gov, or .edu. This helps them narrow down results to websites that most likely will contain accurate information and be free of bias. To do this, type in your subject, then site:(domain you want). An example of this type of search would be: dolphins site:edu

News From the Library--February 2, 2009

(Please Press Play)

Stonewords by Pamela J. Conrad
A Book Review by Detective McDolphin (aka Junia)

Also in the Library this week...

Kindergarten-Walter loves jumping on his bed but his father has said "for the millionth time"No Jumping on the Bed! Tedd Arnold's book of the same name never fails to delight kindergarteners. Is it the idea that Walter misbehaves or the hilarious results as he falls through floor after floor, or is it the possibility that it was all a dream??? In any event, this book is always a hit and students are looking forward to next week's sequel, No More Water in the Tub!

First Grade--First graders got to hear the book Butterfly Beach by Polly Caldwell Bokwaltert hat I also read to second graders last week. It's the story of our very own Butterfly Beach and how the butterflies stopped coming to winter there after houses and a hotel were built. But little by little they are comng back thanks to the efforts of all to re-create the enviorment they loved.

Second Grade--After reading Jacqueline Griggs Martin's excellent biography about Snowflake Bentley, second graders got the chance to see some of his photographs of snowflakes and also some beautiful current photgraphs of snowflakes. We all marveled at the wonderful and mysterious way they never repeat themselves.

Third Grade--Third graders watched the videos about internet safety--Faux Paws Adventures on the Internet and Faux Paws Meets the First Lady. These were an excellent springboard to our discussion of how to keep safe when online. For more tips and information for parents go to ikeepsafe.org This is a great website for both students and parents alike and very helpful when dealing with this very important subject.

Fourth Grade--Fourth graders worked in the atlases this week and found out some great facts about our state.

Fifth Grade--Fifth graders also worked in the atlases this week and compared California to two other states of their choosing. They looked at population, date of statehood, ranking in land area and population, and total land area.

Sixth Grade--Our internet was down on Monday so we turned it to our advantage and read and discussed the interesting picture book, Mrs. Marlowe's Mice by Frank Asch. As with the fifth grade last week, we had a great discussion about the historical metaphor in this book and the question of ambiguity.

Battle of the Books Meetings begin this week for grades 4-6!

News From The Library--November 5, 2007

Web Drill!!!

We are fortunate to have wonderful web filtering software at our school but what happens when our students are elsewhere? And what if they accessed inappropriate material by accident? This week sixth graders practiced again our WebDrill! and they could choose one of four options to get out of a website that contained material that wasn't good for them. After we discussed the four options--closing the laptop, using control+Q, using control+W, or the back arrow---they had fun using the Halloween websites I had posted on our Skills Blog. (It was Halloween day, by the way.....) Once they were engrossed in the sites (which were all appropriate for them) I shout out "Web Drill!" and they have to quickly get out of the site they are using. Although our "drill" is a little humorous, they understand the seriousness of the matter and the reason we practice this in the same way we practice for a fire or an earthquake.
This drill is also a chance to discuss being digital citizens and using the internet in an ethical manner. And yes, having a little bit of Halloween fun at the same time....

Also in the Library this week....

Kindergarten--Mariko Shinju's charming book A Pumpkin Story was heard by the Kindergarten this week. Starting with a little pumpkin seed a man uses pumpkins for cooking pans, furniture, houses, and finally a hotel complete with a pumpkin swimming pool! This book never fails to delight young children with its clever message about using common things for extraordinary purposes.

First Grade--An 800 year-old-man wants a pumpkin pie but when he goes to get this pumpkin he finds it gone. In Tomie de Paola's The Vanishing Pumpkin the old man and his 700 year-old-wife enlist the help of many critters to finally find that elusive pumpkin. Repetition in the story make this a favorite of first graders.

Second Grade--By the time second graders came to the Library this week, Halloween was over, and so as much as we liked all those Halloween stories, it was kind of nice to go back to something (somewhat) normal. Tired from trick-or-treating the night before, they happily settled in for Mary Pope Osborne's Kate and the Beanstalk. A variation on the traditional story, the giant is still there doing his "fee, fie, fo, fum...." but the protagantist is plucky Kate out of avenge her father's death at the hand of the giant. Giselle Potter's interesting and quirky illustrations are a wonderful enhancement to the story.

Third Grade--Mrs. Villa's class heard One Halloween Night by Mark Teague and they loved how Wendall, Floyd, and Mona outsmarted those teasing witches who were chasing them. Miss Fargas' class came after Halloween and heard Berkeley Breathed's Edward Fudwupper Fibbed Big. With its rhyming story and almost surrealistic illustrations this book is lots of fun for me to read aloud and for the students to hear.

Fourth Grade--Fourth graders brought their laptops to the library this week and as it was Halloween, we had a short lesson on how to get to the Library Skills blog, and how to bookmark in the toolbar, and then they had a chance to explore the fun Halloween websites that were posted on the blog. Working in an elementary school on Halloween Day is always an interesting experience......

Fifth Grade--Fifth graders graciously hosted some guests this week who were here to observe how we work with our laptops in the library. They did research using World Book Online and took notes that we will use in a couple of weeks to write a short essay on their topic. Again, my thanks to them for being able to focus so well on Halloween!

Sixth Grade--see opening post

See you next week!