News From the Library--February 9, 2008

(please press play)

The Old Fashioned Mystery by Carolyn Keene
A Book Review by Olive and Oakleigh

In the Library this week....

Kindergarten--This week we followed the further adventures of Walter and William in Tedd Arnold's No More Water in the Tub. As well as being a fun tale, this story gives students lots of time to make predictions and to recognize rhyme. They also enjoyed coming up with further adventures for Walter and William.

First Grade--We started our annual California Young Reader Medal program this week with a reading of The Perfect Nest, written by Catherine Friend and illustrated by John Manders. This delightful book is the story of Jack, the cat, who has a fondness for omelets. He constructs the perfect nest in hopes of attracting a chicken to lay an egg. He gets the chicken (who speaks Spanish) and a duck (who speaks French) and a goose (who speaks...well...Texan) and between their fights over the nest and the hatching of the eggs, Jack ends up with three little friends instead of his omelet. We have four more books to read before students will vote for their favorite but this one is a favorite already.

Second Grade--Second graders in Mrs. Seeple's class heard California Young Reader Medal nominee, Uncle Peter's Amazing Chinese Wedding by Lenore Look and illustrated by Yumi Heo. This is a lovely story that combines the interesting customs of Chinese weddings and a little girls sadness at "losing" her favorite uncle. In the end, however she discovers she has gained an aunt. Mrs. Campbell's class heard Hilda Must Be Dancing by Karma Wilson and illustrated by Suzanne Watts. This delighful rhyming story shows how Hilda the Hippos dancing causes great trouble in the jungle until she finds water ballet.

Third Grade--Stanley the dog is back! After his party (Stanley's Party), he's been relegated to the back yard and in Stanley's Wild Ride by Linda Bailey and illustrated by Bill Slavin, he makes his escape and ends up on a skateboard! Students love this funny story and it also gives us a chance to talk about the literary device point of view as the book is told in Stanley's voice.

Fourth Grade--In honor of Black History Month, we read This Is the Dream by Diane Z. Shore and James Ransome. This amazing book is a brief history of the civil rights movement told in poetry and illustrated by Jessica Alexander with drawings and collages of real images. It gives students just the right amount of history and the illustrations are a springboard to discussion and questions. It was especially meaningful to read this book this year after our recent election.

Fifth Grade--Fifth graders worked with me on the first part of their web site evaluation project. Together we looked at two websites about the solar system and checked them for authority, accuracy, and currency. Next week they will evaluate two websites on their own.

Sixth Grade-Sixth graders really enjoyed finding the problems in some of the websites they evaulated this week. Using our Skills Blog lesson "When in Doubt, Doubt!", they looked at two different websites and followed our protocol for evaluation. They discovered websites that were appropriate to use for information and some that, well.....were just plain silly!

News From The Library--January 16, 2009

Happy Bookworms!

Book Clubs Have Started in the Library!

This week our ever popular Library Book Clubs have started and already we have some enthusiastic members! Grades 1-4 have special clubs and grades 5 and 6 will have the chance to do blog reviews this year.

The most important rule for all the clubs is to have fun reading! Books are chosen at a student’s independent reading level so that reading for the Book Clubs is a pleasurable and relaxing experience. This also builds confidence and fluency as the children have the opportunity to practice the reading skills they have learned in the classroom.

Each grade level has a club and the “rules for membership” vary. Personalized bookmarks are given to members after they have read and reported on their first book. Following is a brief summary of the clubs. If you have any questions, please feel free to stop by the Library or email me. We’re off to a great start!

Grades 1 and 2 are the Bookworm Club. Members read books from our Easy and Beginning Reader section. After taking the book home, or keeping it in their desk at school, and reading the entire book, members make an appointment with Mrs. Pedersen to read their favorite page either before school, at any recess, after school, or during their library time. This year I’ll record their reading in a podcast format if they’d like so we can track their fluency improvement. Each time a book is finished it is entered on their “official” log and a sticker is awarded. After each 6 books are read, members can choose a special prize.

Grade 3 is the Red Dot Book Club, so named for the red dots on the spines of many books in our collection that are especially chosen for readers who are ready to read chapter books. After reading a “red dot book,” members write a book report or a do a multimedia project using their laptop and submit it to Mrs. Pedersen. After completing a book report or a project, members can choose a special prize.

Grade 4 is the Mystery Book Club and members choose from the wide array of mysteries in our Library. Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys books are among the all time favorites for this club. To report on their books, members have several options. One is to write a book report or do a multimedia project on their laptop and turn it in to Mrs. Pedersen. One option (and one we are very excited about!) is to record a video report to be posted on our blog, Voices From the Inglenook. Students will use our stuffed animal dolphin as their avatar—named Dectective McDolphin for the club—or they can dress in one of our two Detective McDolphin costumes and perform their report. After completing a project, members can choose a special prize.

Grades 5 and 6 has an individualized book club in which students can read a particular genre or author and do a video review for our blog. Also, many of our 5th and 6th graders are participating in Battle of the Books.

Book Clubs are one of my favorite parts of being a librarian at Cold Spring! It’s such a joy to see students excited about reading.

Fifth and Sixth Grade--This week we began our unit on Website Evaluation entitled "When in Doubt, Doubt!" After viewing a Keynote, we had a discussion about what to look for in a good website including its authority, currency, purpose, and objectivity. In the next few weeks student will have a change to evalute actual website.