STEP INTO SEPTEMBER.....

Students in grade 1 were introduced to Amelia Bedelia and learned all about her books and how they have been written.
They also read the introduction of The Shelf Elf by Jackie Mims Hopkins to learn how the easy books are shelved.

In grade 2 students read the sequel entitled The Shelf Elf Helps Out by Jackie Mims Hopkins to learn all about the Dewey Decimal System. They found related pictures in each of the sections of the Dewey Decimal system and had fun along the way watching the Shelf Elf and his companion Bookerpillow.
Since the second grade curriculum includes studying all the continents and since September 21 is the International Day of  Peace the students also learned how to say peace in 10 different languages by reading Can You Say Peace? by Karen Katz.

In honor of Tomie de Paola's September 15 birthday, the students in Alpha heard the famous Caldecott Honor tale entitled Strega Nona. When Strega Nona leaves Big Anthony alone with her magic pasta pot, he is determined to show the townspeople how it works. Unfortunately, this decision and the fact that he is not a good listener has disastrous results.

Jr. K students celebrated Robert McCloskey's September 15 birthday by listening to his  Caldecott Honor book entitled Blueberries for Sal. In this story the bear family and the human family have a mix up involving pails, blueberries and a little girl. The students learned the vocabulary words author and hibernation as well as making predictions of what would happen in the book.

To celebrate Tomie de Paola's September birthday in K, students shared a feast with Strega Nona by reading Strega Nona's Harvest. After helping Strega Nona plant her vegetable garden just so, Big Anthony takes some extra seeds and sows another garden willy-nilly, then must find a way to deal with the consequences. Students learned about the value of using manure and rotating crops and pretended to be corn stalks themselves.

Students in grade 3 were very excited to see the slide show and book trailers for the Sunshine State Young Reader's Award. Students in grades 3-5 are invited to participate in this state reading contest. To vote in April, one needs to have read at least 3 of the 15 books on this year's list. Each student in grade 3 & 4 received a list of the books and there is a poster in the library for all to see. 
Happy reading and I invite all to participate. 
Go to this link for book trailers of this year's entries
http://www.booktrailersforreaders.com/SSYRA+Nomination+Award+Book+Trailers+YouTube

Volunteers, volunteers, volunteers.....we have seen so many wonderful volunteers since school started. Thanks to the hard work and very flexible schedule that Andi Mullins has provided for training. She is such an important part of our program and very much appreciated. Pirate hats off to all of our valuable volunteers !! Thank you all so much for making a commitment to help out this year.