Thank you, FEN!!

Thanks very much to FEN, who generously donated two dozen books to the library from the book fair. This past Friday, I put out six of them (I need time to catalog and cover them) ... not only were they all scooped up, but they all have multiple holds! The full list includes (by call number):

source: national
geographic.com

031 MOR-Scholastic 2013 book of world records

031 NAT-National Geographic Kids almanac 2013.

552 SYM-Rocks & minerals (Eyewitness Books)

940.5 CRI-World War II : fighting for freedom : the story of the conflict that changed the world, 1939-1945

BD S-Abe Lincoln at last! (Magic Tree House)

source: scholastic.com

E W-The duckling gets a cookie!?

FIC LUB-Attack of the vampire weenies and other warped and creepy tales

FIC MLY-If the shoe fits (Whatever After)

S AN-Puppy Place 6-pack

S BN pb-Big Nate flips out

S BONE-Quest for the spark. Book three

S GS-The way of the samurai. (Geronimo Stilton)

source: harpercollins.com

S GS-The quest for paradise : the return to the Kingdom of Fantasy

S RR pb-The lost hero

S RR-The son of Neptune

S WK-Diary of a wimpy kid: cabin fever

S WK-Diary of a wimpy kid : dog days

S WK pb-Diary of a Wimpy Kid The Third Wheel

Under the Umbrella with DLP

It's spring, which means lots of showers! After reading The Rain Came Down by David Shannon, DLP students took turns putting together a digital jigsaw puzzle on the SMART Board.

 
You can try your hand at that and many other puzzles at first-school.ws.

We also colored in our own umbrellas. Here are a couple of printables for you to try at home:

Umbrella U

ABC Dot-to-Dot

Learn a Language with Mango

Fourth graders used the World Almanac for Kids to look up some basic facts about their countries, such as land size and population (we learned that some of the smaller countries have more people than bigger ones ... Japan, for example, has three times as many people as Argentina, even though it's only about 1/7 the size). They also made a note of the languages spoken.

This is where we had a lot of fun. I logged into Mango, a FREE resource for all Rhode Island residents. All you need is a public library card and an email address to set up an account. Then you can choose from more than three dozen languages to learn!

Room 10 learned basic greetings in Portuguese, while Room 11 went for Italian. Try it yourself at home. Ciao!

ABC Order - Grade 1

The first graders have been selecting picture books from the shelves for a couple of months now; I want to make sure they understand how the shelving works, so we have been reviewing alphabetization. Kids took turns coming up to the SMART Board to play two games. You can try them at home:

Learning Planet ABC Order

Earobics Paw Park 2 (seen below)

School Libraries & Student Achievement

Happy Belated Birthday, Dr. Seuss!

Read Across America, celebrated in Rhode Island on March 2, honors Dr. Seuss and his contributions to children's literature. In library the week leading up to that day, first- and second-graders had fun completing a variety of paper puzzles related to Dr. Seuss (thanks to volunteer extraordinaire Kristina Paetow for finding them online). You can try them at home! Just visit Seuessville.com.

Break the Lorax Code!

The Lorax Maze

The Cat's Word Find

Another Word Search

Tic-tac-toe!

 

Tour the World with CultureGrams

After using the atlas last month to locate countries on a world map, fourth-graders are learning more about the history and culture of their countries. For example:

- Kids in Morocco usually walk home for lunch and then return to school for the afternoon.
- Chinese television is controlled by the government.
- Iceland was the last European country to be settled.
- Brazil has won the World Cup five times, more than any other country.
- Japan gets more than 1,000 earthquakes each year.
- Chess was invented in India.
- More than 7,000 islands make up the Phillipines.

How did they find this information? By using CultureGrams! This online resource is written and reviewed by natives and updated every year to ensure that it reflects the most accurate information. It includes slideshows, interviews, national anthems, and all kinds of charts and tools like currency converters.

To use CultureGrams at home, you can follow the link under "Reference/Resources" on the Garden City RICAT page, or just click here.

See Ms. Moore for the user name and password if you forgot it.

Have fun exploring the world! If you find out something especially fascinating, feel free to share in the comments below.

Colorful Chameleons - PM K

In kindergarten, we read The Mixed-Up Chameleon by Eric Carle and talked about how chameleons can change color. Here is one in action:

Then the students colored their own chameleons.

No One Told the Aardvark - Room 4

First graders listened to the book No One Told the Aardvark by Deborah Eaton and Susan Halter. In it, a boy imagines what it would be like to be able to do everyday things like brushing his teeth and eating his food the way a variety of animals do similar things.

Using a worksheet developed by my colleague Beth Grabbert, students shared what animal they wished they could be and why:

 

 

 

No One Told the Aardvark - Room 1

First graders listened to the book No One Told the Aardvark by Deborah Eaton and Susan Halter. In it, a boy imagines what it would be like to be able to do everyday things like brushing his teeth and eating his food the way a variety of animals do similar things.

Using a worksheet developed by my colleague Beth Grabbert, students shared what animal they wished they could be and why:

Guess what animal these two would like to be?

Grade 5 Advertising Agency

After reading Balloons Over Broadway, Grade 5 students took a look at balloons then and now. They realized that today's Macy's Parade balloons are used as giant advertisements. And that our familiarity with product mascots means we've all seen a LOT of ads.

We then learned about three advertising tactics to be aware of: exaggeration, generalization, and scare tactics.

The students created their own ads using at least one of these tactics. Here they are at work: