MARCH BIOGRAPHIES


March 2 - Sam Houston - One of the leaders of the fight for Texas independence.
March 3 - Alexander Graham Bell - Inventor of the telephone
March 6 - Michelangelo - Renaissance artist, perhaps most famous for his painting
of the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel
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March 14 - Albert Einstein - Theoretical physicist who developed the theory of
relativity
March 16 - James Madison - 4th President of the U.S.
March 18 - Bonnie Blair - Olympic gold medalist in speed skating
March 19 - Wyatt Earp - Western lawman famous for his role in the gunfight at
the OK Corral
March 24 - Harry Houdini - Magician and escape artist, famous for his ability to
escape from locked restraints.
March 31 - Cesar Chavez - Labor leader of migrant farm workers.

Dear Parents,

The Lower School administration uses Online Community to communicate with our families. Dr. Bianco and Mrs. Weinman's letters and Lower Division reminders are posted on a Lower Division blog. This is the school administration's main form of communication, so EVERYONE should subscribe. In order to have access, you will need to subscribe to the Lower Division blog.

Directions:
First log into the Online Community. After logging into the Online Community, go to Community > Groups > Lower Division Group from the green menu bar. First, click on the icon "Join Group." Next, scroll down the page and click on the Subscribe button. This will send you e-mail alerts whenever I write a new blog post.

Celebrate National Library Week - April 11-17 -This year's theme, Communities Thrive @ your library, reminds patrons that the library is the place where people of all backgrounds grow together.

Students in Grade 2 are now studying Asia so they read Explore Asia by Bobbie Kalman & Rebecca Sjonger. They saw pictures of Maldives (the smallest county in Asia), stupas in Myanmar, which are special Buddhist buildings, China's Yangtze River( one of the longest rivers in the world), the Taj Mahal (the tomb of Mumatz Mahal built in the mid 1600s by Emperor Shah Jahan), the Great Wall of China (1,500 miles long with some walls over 2,00 years old), Mount Fuji (one of the most famous volcanoes on Earth located in Japan), and Tokyo where over 12 million people live.
They also saw a display of library books about Asia and several series were introduced. They included "Look What Cam From..", "Children of the World", "Count Your Way",
and "A Ticket to". They have lots of great book choices to learn about this huge continent.


Students in Grade 1 told the story of a wordless book using their own words. The book's title was Rainstorm by Barbara Lehman and they were very creative and used their imaginations to retell an adventurous story by seeing this wordless picture book.


Students in Grades 3-6 will be voting for their favorite Sunshine State Book from this year's list in April. Voting will take place in the media center from April 12-14. All students who have read 3 or more books are eligible to participate in this state reading contest.

In Alpha the children enjoyed Who Made This Cake? by Chihiro Nakagawa. The author and illustrator used their imaginations to show how a cake was made using earth moving machinery for a little boy's birthday.

CALDECOTT MEDAL BOOKS were the theme for K classes this week. Children were shown the chart of the gold medal winners and walked to the bookshelf in the media center where all those gold medal and silver medal honor books are shelved. We then read this year's winner The Lion and the Mouse by Jerry Pinkney and enjoyed the illustrations as well as the story. Size does not matter and no matter how small one is they are important and can be helful to others. Others books read during the class were Red Sings from Treetops-a year in colors by Joyce Sidman and All the World by Liz Garton Scanlon.

Jr. K students laughed as they enjoyed Anna Dewdney's Llama Llama Mad at Mama. They also saw pictures of real llamas so they could relate more to the story as well as two other books entitled Llama Llama Red Pajama, and Llama Llama Misses Mama by the same author.

HAPPY APRIL FOOL'S DAY!!!!

MARCH BIRTHDAYS

March 2 - Theodore Geisel, Dr. Seuss
March 5 - Mem Fox
March 8 - Robert Sabuda
March 10 - Jack Kent
March 11 - Ezra Jack Keats
Wanda Gag
March 12 - Virginia Hamilton
March 14 - Marguerite de Angeli
March 16 - Sid Fleischman
March 20 - Lois Lowry
March 22 - Randolph Caldecott
March 25 - Linda Sue Park
Kate DiCamillo
March 26 - Jerry Pallota
Robert Frost
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Students in Grade 2 study the continents of the world so in our library lesson we traveled to Australia and New Zealand. Using a map to locate the southern island of New Zealand they read the true story of Shrek:the Famous Hermit Sheep of Tarras written by the Tarros School Students. While visiting there this winter break I found out about this famous hermit merino sheep who ran away from Bendigo Station in Tarras, Central Otago, New Zealand and was not found until April 15, 2004 6 years later. During that time he was blinded by his great woolen coat and his heavy coat was preventing him from moving. There were times he could not even get up without a struggle. Shrek was carrying 25kg of fine merino wool and gave up 22kg for a charity to help Cure Kids. He was blade shorn in front of a world TV audience by Peter Casserly on April 28, 2004.

Students in Grade 1 learned about American symbols and their meanings of our nation through a series of books in our library. The set includes the following topics:
The Alamo, The American Flag, The Bald Eagle ,The Confederate Flag,The Constitution, The Declaration of Independence, Ellis Island, Independence Hall ,The Jefferson Memorial, The Liberty Bell, The Lincoln Memorial, Mount Rushmore, The National Anthem, The Pledge of Allegiance, The Statue of Liberty, Uncle Sam, The Vietnam Veterans Memorial, The Washington Monument, and The White House

While studying the Statue of Liberty students also learned about Roman Numerals. Stop by our media center to check out one or more books in this series.

How do you read a book without words? Just ask any student in Grade 3. This week they told their class the story of The Silver Pony by Lynd Ward - a wordless book. It was so interesting to see how each class told this beautiful tale. They sure had a chance to not only use their imaginations, but also to practice their oral presentation skills.

Leprechauns were the big discussion in Alpha and in one Jr. K class this week. Using props we discussed what the they looked like, four leaf clovers, pots of gold and St. Patrick's Day. They also listened to the story entitled Lucky O'Leprechaun written and illustrated by Jana Dillon. In fact after hearing this story some of the children told me they were going to look for leprechauns over their spring break. I wish them lots of Irish luck, too.

Students in K and in one Jr. K heard the story Listen to the Wind by Greg Mortenson so they could vote in the Florida Reading Association Children's Book Award program. It is a picture book based on the adult New York Times Bestseller, Three Cups of Tea and one of the 8 books in this year's contest.


Whatever you do and however you spend it....have a wonderful, safe, and enjoyable spring break!