February is Library Lovers' Month

Our students say "I love my library because...

I get to check out cool books and get to learn a lot.

It makes me into reading.

It has a lot of things that you can learn or see and do.  I also like it when there are series so when it said to be continued it really means to be continued.  That’s why I love it.

It has funny books and comic books.

I can get borrow books for free and it is so quiet, so I can focus on reading my book in peace!

Very fun – all of the awesome books!

They have the best books and teachers and have computers.

I love my library teacher.

I get to check out cool books and get to learn a lot.

It has great books.  I can order some in a website.

I can check out any books I want.  I love reading so I can get any book I want and read for hours and get lost in the book.

Everybody is so nice and very helpful.  I also use library books to do my reading log.

I get to meet my favorite teacher.  You can do fun things like go on MyOn.  You can get any book you want.  She can read books to us sometimes.  You can go on the computers.  You can do assignments on the book she reads to us.

Library’s perfect for me!  It is perfect for silent time to read and meet lovely characters in beautiful books.

Without it I can’t do my reading log which is a grade if I don’t do it my grades go down.

I can find the books I love to read.  And we get to learn cool and fun activities.

The library has sooo many cool books!

It gives me all kinds of books.  And books make you smarter and it gives you a wild imagination.  I love books!

It is so fun I get to get books I like and get to learn a lot of stuff.

I get to read whatever books I want for free and plus books can have many fun stories that I can’t wait to read about.

You get good books, the teachers are great, we get computers, and I love this library!

There is always a good book for me to read.

There are so many good books to choose from, and they are organized extremely well.

You get to learn from books!  Also you can read anything!

It helps me read perfect.

You can read books you never read before.

It is so peaceful and quiet and I can get and read books and we have a lovely teacher.

We have lots of fun playing games and reading and it is the best library.

My teacher is super duper nice and I love the books that they have and I love everything in the library.

It has all of my favorite books such as “Because of Mr. Terupt,” and “Mr. Terupt Fails Again,” and “Saving Mr. Terupt.”  I love this library.

I love my library because it has so many great books to read and they’re so wonderful.

It’s fun and we do fun activities.

There are so many books to choose from so I always have a book to read.

They have cool dog books and other books.

I can learn how to read.  It also has great books to read.

They have great books and great stories.

It has lots of books and we get to get 2 books and it is really fun!  I love my library.

It is a lot of fun.

There are funny books that are egecastionl.

They have so many books such as Flash.

Ms. Rowe is teaching me.  I get to read cool books.  Ms. Rowe has funny expressions so I can imagine.  I learn new information.

It has so many books!!!.

It’s fun to read and it as computers.

They allow me to borrow books which inform and entertain me.

I get to read and relax my head.

It is important and educational.

There are new books that really interest me.

We get to choose good books.

It provides great books for children around the world to learn.

My librarians are so helpful and so nice.  I love all the wonderful books I read. I love that my library makes me smile every time I walk inside.

They take good care of their students and have a good selection of books to choose from!!

It fills me with joy.

It is a fun and interesting environment (peaceful).

It’s big and nice.

It gives me so many book options and I’ve learned how to find information using databases!

They take great care of their books.

I LOVE the books here.

It has a lot of books that I love.

It has all the updated books, the librarian’s friendly, they provide us with great technology and we always have fun.

I love my library because it has all books.

It is fun – great technology – great books – interesting books – the teachers are very helpful.

I get to check out books and I get to see my library teacher and she is super fun.

It’s fun and they have a lot of good books.

It gives a opportunity to learn something.

There’s all my favorite books like Captain Underpants, Now You See Me, Drop It Rocket."

Some classes also collaborated on  I Love My Library Padlets One and Two.

Bluestem Nominee: Fortunately the Milk

I try every year to read at least one of the chapter book Bluestem nominees to my fourth and fifth grade classes even though it takes a bit of time. There's so much that can be done with a chapter book.  This year we read the fabulous and strange Fortunately the Milk by Neil Gaiman and it has been so much fun.

I have a confession though.  When I read it on my own last summer I didn't really like it.    It just wasn't for me.  I thought maybe I was wrong about it since it was written by Neil Gaiman.  He wrote Coraline! and The Graveyard Book!  It has to be good! I have now read it six times to six different classes and I have decided this is a book that is absolutely made for reading aloud.

Students have been responding in writing to the book as we've read.  Now as we're finishing up they're doing a little investigating into Neil Gaiman himself using his website www.mousecircus.com.  Then they shared what they learned with one another via Padlet.

Take a look at what they found out.

Ms. Stumbras's class

Monarch: Dreaming Up with Third Graders

Third graders also had the chance to build structures inspired by the book Dreaming Up.  Each group was given a box of recycled materials and had 30 minutes to build their creation.  Many chose to use the books we'd used for research as inspiration, but others came up with their own ideas.  Can you spot the toy store below?

Monarch: Dreaming Up, Second Grade Version

This week's Monarch nominee has been such fun.  Last week we started with our building theme by reading Building Our House and researching famous buildings.  This week we continued with the absolutely delightful Dreaming Up: A Celebration of Building by Christy Hale.  The book consists of concrete poems about buildings.  A concrete poem is written in the shape of its subject.  Paired with each poem is an illustration of kids building in the same style depicted in the poem as well as a photograph of a famous building that resembles both.  The children's art ranges from pillow forts to Legos.

Students in second grade used Legos and blocks to build structures based on buildings they had seen in person or in books.  Each group received a box and then used what was in their box of supplies to inspire their buildings.

What I'm Reading Now

I've finished Shadows of Sherwood which was great fun.  As I shared with the Battle of the Books kids this is really a great mix of dystopian literature and the Robin Hood story - with Robin as teenage girl.  I'm fascinated with how different Kekla Magoon's books seem to be.

I also whizzed right through Goodbye Stranger by Rebecca Stead which was no surprise - I love her books.  I find that her writing is always recognizably hers in a very good way. I seem to be reading a lot of children/YA books about the shifts in female friendships recently and I'm particularly taken with how she addresses this.  It's hard to describe exactly what this book is about, but I've definitely recommended it to several of our middle school students in a vague sort of way.  Some are reading it but not yet finished so I'll have to wait and find out their take.

So.  Two very different authors, one with a recognizable style and one a chameleon.

Melanie Watt's Chester

First grade's current author study is on author and illustrator Mélanie Watt of Chester and Scaredy Squirrel fame.  Last week students watched a video clip of Mélanie Watt talking about the process she uses to create her children's books.  The clip is on one of our favorite online databases Teaching Books.  (If your student cannot remember the login for Teaching Books s/he can ask in the library at school.) 

After reading the book Chester, students had the chance to look at a short "book" I made in the style of Mélanie Watt.  For those who have not had the pleasure of reading Chester, the book is about Chester the cat who desperately wants to have a book written about him instead of an unnamed mouse.  He repeatedly takes over the mouse's story using his red marker.  Hilarity and chaos ensue as he asserts his ideas instead of those of Mélanie Watt.  (There's even a good-natured defacing of Mélanie's photo.)

Check out what the first graders had Chester the cat do when they got hold of a red pencil and a copy of my book about the library.  I'm especially fond of the curl at the end of my mustache.

Monarch Nominee: Building a House

Last week second and third graders read the Monarch nominee Building Our House.  This fictional picture book is based on the true story of the author's parents building his family home.  Students particularly enjoyed looking carefully at the pictures to find out more about the family.

After reading, each student chose a non-fiction book about a type of building or a specific famous building.  They used their book to focus on research skills including note-taking and giving credit to the author of the book.  In primary grades giving credit to the author of the book is the precursor to more formal citations as students get older.

Upon completion of their research students were able to use our laptops to access the PBS Building Big website where they explored different types of building materials and structures.  The best question of the week?  After watching a brick crumble when pulled apart in the "Materials" section of the PBS website, a third grader wanted to know why the Big Bad Wolf wasn't able to blow down the third pig's house if bricks fall apart that easily.  Check out the Materials Lab to see if you can figure out how the third graders answered that question.