Opposites! Opposites! - Grade 1

After we read Earth, Sky, Wet Dry: A Book of Nature Opposites by Durga Bernhard and Yummy Yucky by Leslie Patricelli, Grade 1 students worked together to develop lists of opposites. They got some inspiration from this Sesame Street video, and had a stack of books to help with ideas as well.

Can your family fill in the table below with the missing words? Can you come up with more examples?

up
	cold
fast
	quiet
inside
	sad

Here are some of the kids hard at work:

Friday Morning Crosswords

I LOVE CROSSWORD PUZZLES. Through them, I've picked up a ton of vocabulary and trivia. They stretch your mind with puns, double meanings, and synonyms: a fantastic way to support the Common Core Anchor Standards for Language:

• CCSS.ELA-Literacy.CCRA.L.4 Determine or clarify the meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning words and phrases by using context clues, analyzing meaningful word parts, and consulting general and specialized reference materials, as appropriate.
• CCSS.ELA-Literacy.CCRA.L.5 Demonstrate understanding of figurative language, word relationships, and nuances in word meanings.

On checkout days, I offer word and logic puzzles as an activity; students have one week to return them to me complete and correct. If they do, then they get a free book from the prize box. I was thrilled by how many kids worked together yesterday, using the dictionary, encyclopedia, and almanac to look up answers such as "October birthstone" (which is opal).

Here they are in action:

This group all finished before the end of class!
I think I'll be giving them a two-star difficulty puzzle next time.

Choosing from the prize box.

PreK Jack O' Lanterns

It's almost Halloween! The PreK class listened to Pumpkin Eye by Denise Fleming and practiced counting and identifying colors. Next, we talked about shapes, and they used different colored squares, triangles, and circles to create jack o'lantern faces. Finally, we watched a video of A Dark, Dark Tale by Ruth Brown.

Here are some of the jack o'lanterns:

M. liked A Dark, Dark Tale so much, he drew the cat and mouse
on the front of his jack o'lantern and the dark, dark hallway
on the back. "To make it spooky!"

Grade 4 Dewey Investigation

The Dewey Decimal system is a way of sorting nonfiction books. I don't expect my students to memorize specific numbers; that's what the online catalog is for. I do, however, want them to understand how certain topics go together. At least according to how Mr. Dewey thought they did.

Each table of fourth graders got a stack of books from a "hundreds." They had to work together to figure out how the subjects could be classified under one major label. For example:

Here are the students in action:

Grade 1 Teeth on the Loose!

So many first graders have been telling me about their loose and missing teeth, I decided to make a lesson out of the topic.

First we read one fiction and one nonfiction book about loose teeth. Then students wrote down one fact they learned. Here are some of them:

• Kids have 20 teeth. When you are a grownup, you have 32 teeth.
• The pointy teeth are called canines
• Roots hold your teeth in your mouth.
• The top of your tooth is called the crown.

Finally, the kids each placed a tooth on a chart showing how many teeth they've lost so far. Can you use it to answer the questions below?

• How many kids haven't lost any teeth yet?
• What is the most common number of lost teeth?
• Have more kids lost a total of 1 tooth or a total or 6 teeth?

Video: Evolution of Music

As part of our music research kickoff, 6th graders watched this Pentatonix video and noted which songs they recognized. I am happy to report that students were familiar with Aretha Franklin, the Jackson Five, and more from before they were born. How many can you identify?

How to Log In to Your Library Account

It’s the night before library class. You can’t remember which books you have checked out. And you're worried that the book you want to get next might not be available. No problem ... so long as you have internet access at home, your can check your account online via RICAT.

Log in

1. Go to http://ricat.net.
   
   
2. Under “Elementary Schools,” scroll down to the Garden City link. The school library page will open.
   
   
3. Click the “Login” button in the top right.


4. Enter your User Name: CGN#####
   (fill in your lunch/shelf card number)
   
   
5. Enter your Password: MMDDYY
   (fill in your six-digit birthdate; for example, May 5, 2003 would be typed in as 050503)
   
   
6. You should now see your name in the top right corner of the screen.

Check your account

Click on the “My Info” tab to see what books you have checked out.

Place a Hold

1. Click the "Catalog" tab.
   
   
2. Before searching for your title or subject, choose “RICAT (all members)” from the Location drop-down. This will search all schools, so if Garden City doesn’t have what you’re looking for, you can still request your item. 
   
   
   
3. When find the item you want, click on the book’s title to go to the Details page.
   
   
4. Then click the “Hold It!” button on the right

E is for Everyone Books - Room 1

First graders are learning about call numbers, which work like addresses for books. Although they're called "numbers," most only have letters ... kind of confusing. We're starting with the E (for Everyone) section. Every picture book call number has "E" as the first line, and then the first letter of the author's last name as the second line.

For example, if I wrote a book, the call number would be

E
M

What would YOUR call number be? Students figured out theirs and created an E book they "wrote."

Here are some of their book covers:

E is for Everyone Books - Room 4

First graders created covers for picture books they "wrote," including the correct call number on the spine:

Reading Recommendation: The Last Apprentice Series

I have read the jacket copy for the first two books in The Last Apprentice/Spook series -which I LOVE - to several classes, with no takers. I just found out a movie version is coming out in January. Is this trailer enough to convince anyone to check out the books??? They are SO GOOD! And scary! Garden City kids love scary! Do it for Halloween!

Charting the Decades - Grade 2

Second graders learned about two new concepts this week:

• publication/copyright dates
• assigning a decade to a year

Students chose a book, located its copyright date, and then decorated a tiny book with that information. Their next task was to figure out their book's decade and glue it in the correct column of their class' chart. Finally, we analyzed the data.

Here are some close-ups of tiny book art: