HAPPY DECEMBER !!!

December Delights

1 - JAN BRETT'S BIRTHDAY
2 - WILLIAM WEGMAN'S "
5 - WALT DISNEY 'S "
9 - JEAN DE BRUNHOFF'S "
19 - EVE BUNTING'S "
22 - JERRY PINKNEY'S "
23 - AVI'S "
25 - ETH CLIFFORD'S "
30 - RUDYARD KIPLING'S "
30 - MERCER MAYER 'S "

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Award-winning author, Michael Patrick O'Neill will be visiting our school on Monday, February 1, 2010. His books are on display in the media center for you to view. The topics are all related to ocean life and since he takes his own photographs while diving, the illustrations are just remarkable. Please feel free to stop by and look at his work. Order forms have been sent home and can be returned to your child's classroom teacher or to Mrs. Smay in the media center.
We are all looking forward to his visit.

Second graders read Carolina's Gift, a story of Peru which described the Sunday market in the colorful village of Pisac in the Andean highlands.This village does not have a supermarket, so the people in Pisac and the surrounding towns depend on the weekly market for all their needs. They found out the descendants of the Inca Indians still keep their ancestor's ancient traditions alive today, including the Sunday market. Quechua is the language spoken at the market. Some of the farmers and artisans also speak Spanish, and some English. In fact, Peru has three national languages: Spanish, Quechua and Aymara. The students also practiced pronouncing 10 vocabulary words that might be spoken in Peru today.

First graders experienced the thrill and history making of the first moon landing. After reading the book Man on the Moon by Anastasia Suen they picked out their parts and performed a reader's theater of the book. They discussed the moon's phases , properties of the moon,
and learned about Buzz Aldrin, Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins, the Eagle, and the Columbia.
"Neil Armstong" even wore an astronaut hat as he said his famous words. Did you know that a word was lost from the transmission when Neil first stepped onto the moon? No one knows why. What we were supposed to hear was: "That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind"

Third graders read the story of John James Audubon this week in the book The Boy Who Drew Birds. They will be doing a reader's theater for their next lesson and now they know who was responsible for the innovative idea of banding a bird in North America.


Students in Alpa, K, and Jr. K. were studying about Jan Brett this week and they enjoyed some of her books including Gingerbread Baby, The Three Snow Bears, The Hat, and Hedgie Blasts Off. She is one of the few authors I know that actually travels to do research throughly before writing and drawing her own books.