News From the Library--Feb. 22, 2010

We've moved!

Sorry to say that due to ongoing video problems at blogger.com, Voices From the Inglenook has moved to Word Press as of February 22, 2010. This blog will remain but all new posts will be found at our new address.

Our new address is:

csslibrary.wordpress.com

See you there!!

News From the Library--Feb. 15, 2010

Sorry to say that blogger.com is having huge problems with their videos. I have contacted them (along with lots of others) and hope they are working to fix this. You may get a message saying this video is not available. If so please try later. I will try to re-load the videos each morning if I can.

Bad Day for Ballet by Carolyn Keene

A Video Book Review by Josie & Olive

Happy President's Day! This was a short week for us due to the holiday on Friday.

Kindergarten--no library this week

First Grade--My Life as a Chicken by Ellen Kelley was our CYRM nominee this week. Pauline Poulet doesn't want to be the farmer's dinner so she takes off on a rollicking adventure. Her cry of "Pauline, Prevail!" delighted first graders (and we learned was prevail means, too). And prevail she did as she lands in a lovely petting zoo instead of ending up in a chicken pot pie. This delightful book was especially fun for us to read as Ellen Kelley is a local Santa Barbara author and her husband, John, is the architect who designed our fantastic library!

Second Grade--no library this week

Third Grade--Mrs. Campbell's class heard Do Unto Otters: A book about manners by Laurie Keller. This adorable book combines humor with some great lessons on how to be a friend. The students loved the illustrations. Mrs. Lewis' class heard Velma Gratch and the Way Cool Butterfly by Alan Madison and Kevin Hawkes. This is the charming story of a little girl who had previously lived in the shadow of her two older sisters until she finally gets a chance to stand out with her knowledge of butterflies and an especially exciting encounter with a monarch.

Fourth Grade-As part of Black History Month, fourth graders heard Diane Shore's wonderful book This Is The Dream. This book gives a perfect overview of the civil rights movement for fourth graders and it elicited a lively discussion afterward.

Fifth Grade--Also for Black History Month, fifth graders hear the poignant book Freedom Summer by Deborah Wiles. This is the story of two boys, one black and one white, who dream of being able to do things together, especially swimming. When the city pool becomes integrated after the passing of the Civil Rights Act in 1964, they think they finally will have that chance. But on the day the pool is to open a truck pulls up and fills the pool with asphalt. We had an interesting discussion about why this happened and how different things are today. The story does end on an upbeat note and brings forth the idea that change didn't take place overnight but in small steady steps. This is a book I highly recommend for older students.

Sixth Grade--To get in the mood for Valentine's Day, sixth graders heard the myth of Cupid and Psyche retold by Charlotte Craft. This is a visually beautiful book and students loved hearing the story and seeing all the "threads" that have been woven into fairy tales and literature.

News From the Library--Feb 8, 2010

Mercy Watson Crime Fighter by Kate DiCamillo

A Video Book Review by Maddi and Olive

Also in the Library this week...

Kindergarten--Kindergarten missed library this week but for a very good reason--our Annual Cold Spring Talent Show. Congratulations to the kindergarteners who participated!

First, Second, and Third Grade--This week we started one of our favorite events in the Library-- The California Young Reader Medal competition. Each year 5 books are nominated by children and librarians throughout California and students in these grades get the chance to vote for their favorite. Think of it as the Academy Awards for children's literature in California. In the Primary Catagory we have great nominees this year, including one that was written by a Santa Barbara author and the wife of the architect who designed our beautiful library! Beginning this week students in these three grades will hear the nominees, one each week. The choices this year are:

My Life As A Chicken by (our local author) Ellen Kelley and illustrated by Michael Slack
A Frog Thing by Eric Drachman
Do Unto Otters: A Book About Manners by Laurie Keller
Velma Gratch and the Way cool Butterfly by Alan Madison and illustrated by Keven Henkes
Millie Waits for the Mail by Alexander Steffenmeier

Fourth Grade-We concluded our Tall Tales unit by reading Sally Ann Thunder Ann Crockett by Steven Kellogg. Once again Mr. Kellogg had provided fantastic illustrations to accompany his story of the larger than life woman who was the legendary Davy Crockett's wife. Fourth graders enjoyed finding all the characteristics of tall tales in this great story.

Fifth Grade and Sixth Grade--To review Library terms and skills we played several great rounds of Library Jeopardy this week. In a stunning reversal, the 6th gradeboys' team bet all their cards on a daily double to catch up with the girls, forcing a tie breaker. Congrats to the girls for coming up with the correct "question" for: a unit of a video picture. Do you know the answer?
(What is a pixel)

Bookworms are really "crawling" in the Library as first and second graders are reading up a storm and keep watching for those video book reviews from our Red Dot Club.

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--January 25, 2010

Shoeshine Girl
By Clyde Robert Bulla

A Book Review by Devan and Olive

Congratulations to Red Dot Book Club member Devan for being our first video book reviewer this year!

(This was a short week in the Library due to the Martin Luther King Holiday....)


Kindergarten--Kindergarten just had checkout this week due to the wonderful Dancing Drums assembly.

First Grade-First Graders were treated this week to Steven Kellogg's version of Jack and the Beanstalk. I can still remember the chills I got when my father used to read the "Fee, fi, fo, fum" part and I had a great time reading it to the students this week. It is so reassuring to see that even our students of today with all their video input and sophistication are still absolutely transfixed by this old fairy tale. Mr. Kellogg's illustrations are fantastic and are a huge part of the appeal of this version.

And congratulations to 19 first graders who are now proud members of the Bookworm Club!

Second Grade--What if you woke up one morning and you were covered with stripes in every color of the rainbow? In David Shannon's A Bad Case of Stripes, Camilla Cream finds herself in this unbelievable dilemma. After enduring several unsuccessful cures, she finds that being true to herself and not worrying about what others think of her is the answer. This book, like all of Mr. Shannon's, wraps its subtle but powerful message is a delightful story enhanced by fantastic illustrations.

Third Grade--In order to learn about the literary concept of plot, third graders heard Tomi de Paola's enchanting book Adelita. Before reading the story I asked the students to summarize the plot of a Cinderella story which they did easily. Then as we read Adelita we compared and contrasted the difference in this Mexican version.

Fourth Grade--We continued our study of American tall tales with Steven Kellogg's rollicking version of Paul Bunyan.

Fifth Grade--Fifth Graders went on a Book Hunt this week and with their partners located different resources in our Library.

News From the Library--January 18, 2010

There are Bookworms in the Library!

This week we started our very popular Library Book Clubs for grades 1-4. In first and second grade, students can be in the Bookworm Club and choose books from our beginning reader section. After reading the entire book, they come in and read their favorite page to me. For each book, they receive a sticker and after every six books a small prize. An official personalized bookmark is given with the first book read. This is one of my favorite parts of the year as I watch those beginning readers blossom.

Third graders move up to more difficult books in the Red Dot Book Club and can do a variety of projects based on their book choice. Book reports, multimedia slide shows, and video book reviews are among the projects. After each project is completed they receive a small prize.

Fourth graders love the Mystery Book club and can read any mystery in our Library. They also have a number of options for book projects and receive a prize for each completed one.

Watch for video book reviews on this blog in the near future!

Fifth and Sixth graders don't have a club but participate in the county-wide Battle of the Books in April.

The goal for all the clubs is to encourage reading for pleasure and fluency and students are guided to books that are at or just slightly above their independent reading level. Above all, we want to make reading fun! That's the number one rule for all the clubs.

Also in the Library this week...

Kindergarten--We can't get enough of Tacky the Penguin and this week we read Tacky Goes to Camp by Helen Lester. In this rollicking story of the penguins at camp, once again Tacky saves the day--this time with his love of 'smores. He is an odd bird, be we all agree, a nice bird to have around.

Fifth and Sixth Graders worked on website evaluation using websites I have chosen as examples of good or bad in relation to whether or not they are reliable sources of information. After seeing a presentation about how to evaluate a website for accurancy, currancy, and objectivity they could choose from several on our Skills Blog and they wrote written evaluations of those sites. If you'd like to look at the lesson on the Skills Blog scroll down to the one entitled "When in doubt, doubt!"


Hope you are enjoying the Martin Luther King holiday this week!

News From the Library--January 11, 2010

Bookworm Says.....

Second graders started the new year with a game of "Bookworm Says..... " After seeing a presentation about the parts of a book, each student chose a book for the game. Then our favorite mascot, Bookworm, said, "Bookworm says, 'Show me the title page.'" The student then found it in his or her book. We went through all the parts of a book in the same way. This is a fun and interactive way for students to learn about the parts of a book.

Also in the Library this week....

Kindergarten--There's something about penguins that we all love and Tacky, the Penguin by Helen Lester is one of our favorite books. Tacky doesn't look like the other rather proper penguins but in the end he saves his friends from the hunters and they all agree he's an odd bird but a very nice bird to have around. In a gentle and subtle way, this book is a good introduction to encouraging students to look beyond appearances when choosing friends.

First Grade--Continuing with our penguin theme, first graders heard Cinderella Penguin by Janet Perlman. I use this book to discuss the concept of plot and after we remember the plot of a Cinderella story, students listen to Cinderella Penguin (with lots of laughter) and then we compare and contrast how this book follows, or doesn't follow, the "regular" plot of a Cinderella story.

Third Grade--Mrs. Lewis' class heard The Quiltmaker's Gift by Jeff Brembeau. This is a lovely story about the power of generosity and the advantages of giving instead of receiving. The illustrations by Gail de Marken are exquisite.

Fourth Grade--We are starting our Tall Tales unit and this week after seeing a presentation about the elements in a tall tale, students watched a great video of Anne Isaacs' wonderful book Swamp Angel. The illustrations in this book won a Caledecott award for illustrator Paul O. Zelinsky and are nothing short of amazing. Made to look as if they had been painted on wood they give so much "flavor" to this story of a Tennessee girl who wrestled a bear called Thundering Tarnation!

Fifth Grade--To start off the new year (and get our brains back in gear) we played a round of Library Jeopardy this week. Students always enjoy this way of learning some of the less exciting things about the library and research.

Sixth Grade--Sixth graders missed library this week due to the Monday teacher in-service day.