The Princess and Her Panther

We loved The Princess and Her Panther a story of imagination and creativity.  Students made lots of connections as we read this book.  Here are some of our favorite parts!

Here Comes the Garbage Barge

This week for our 15 Books Student Choice Award, grades K-6 read Here Comes the Garbage Barge by Jonah Winter. We all thought that this book was a lot of fun. I enjoyed trying the accents that Winter created in his text. The pictures created by Red Nose Studio are different from a lot of other books.  Students and teachers enjoyed seeing how they were created (see video below).

This humorously written story tells of a serious garbage problem that happened in 1987.  For more information on the real garbage barge and the news surrounding it:
http://www.jconoverjr.com/gbmagazinestory.htm
http://www.jconoverjr.com/g-barge.htm

Before reading, we discussed fiction based on true stories.  Students were amazed at the images of the real garbage barge.  Here are some of our thoughts on Here Comes the Garbage Barge:



The Making of the Illustrations:


For More Resources on Here Comes the Garbage Barge see 15 Books Wiki Space

The Beckoning Cat

This week in grades k-2 we read The Beckoning Cat: Based on a Japanese Folktale by Koko Nishizuka for the 15 Books Student Choice Award.  We learned about folktales as a genre.  Then learned the word "beckoning." Students helped during the read-a-loud by beckoning and mewing like a cat when the cat in the story did.

We enjoyed finding out why we frequently see beckoning cats in Asian restaurants--especially Japanese ones.  Here are our favorite parts:

Happy 2012!

Back at school. It was hard to get my groove on this morning especially when two year old O. asked me to stay home and snuggle.  If I had to leave the kiddos behind today--it was great to be coming back to the library.

This week we are keeping busy by:

• Learning about the Dewey Decimal System.  After our lesson students laughed along with the Dewey Rap

• 5th graders learned the basics of making a Professional Powerpoint for their research projects.  We learned about appropriate transitions, font size, images, slide content, and overall look of a presentation.  Then we practiced inserting images and grouping them together.  Not a small feat!
• Grades K-2 learned about folktales as a genre before we read The Beckoning Cat which we read for 15 Books 

I have made some reading goals for 2012 and hope that you can enjoy some good books this coming year.

Chalk

Chalk--Bill Thomson

If you haven't read Chalk, please do.  Now.  This wordless picture book is one of our 15 Books for the student choice award.  Students loved the story told through illustrations.  They loved the beginning, the middle, and especially the ending.  We all had a great time visualizing a story as we read.  Here are some of the things we loved about Chalk:

Biblioburro

This week we are reading Biblioburro for the 15 Books Competition. We learned about Non-Fiction, and non-fiction call numbers.  We talked about where we can find non-ficiton in our library.  Many students checked out non-fiction this week. We watched a video clip and a book trailer about the real Bibiloburro.

Here is what we thought of the book:

Rain School

This past week kindergartners through 2nd grade read Rain School by James Rumford.  We learned how schools around the world are the same and different.  Students discussed that school is a place to learn--but that many schools look different.  The kindergarten classes were excited to see the students in Chad were learning the letter 'A' when it was it was their 'A' week.

More Bears!

This week we are reading More Bears! by Kenn Nesbitt for the 15 Books Student Choice Picture Book Award.  This fun story used our vocabulary word author as children try to tell him to add "More Bears!" to his story.  My students loved seeing how to change the volume of their voice in a speech bubble.  I don't know if I will ever get tired of hearing the kids yell, "More Bears!" as they interact with the story.

Here are a few of their favorite parts:

15 Books!

This week my kindergarten through 2nd graders started a student choice picture book award--15 Books!  We will share 15 picture books and vote for our favorite in March. (sign up on the 15 Books Website to have your students vote).  This week we read Oscar and the Very Hungry Dragon.  Students loved the ending (as well as the beginning and middle)  Here is what they had to say about their favorite parts.



...and here is a look at the 15 books