Pirate Treasure!

When you read aloud a book that you love, magic happens. The listeners are drawn in and become part of the story. That's what happened when Mr. Monaco shared one of his favorite Melinda Long/David Shannon books, How I Became a Pirate, with two of our PreK II classes in the library this week. Mr. Monaco must have some pirate ancestry because he really can create the look and sound of the mateys. What a treasure in our own backyard!

Jan Brett at the DMA

Jan Brett is just amazing! Mrs. Roberts and I were so fortunate to have the opportunity to take four of our first grade girls to see her at the Dallas Museum of Art on Sunday afternoon. Jan talked about her life, her new book, The Easter Egg, and she described how she came upon the idea for the book. She even gave an art lesson on how to draw a rabbit. We were all mesmerized! Jan Brett books are always in children's hands. We now have a new title to add to our collection. Thanks to those first grade parents who purchased this event at our Gala!

"One Read"

Our third annual "Hillcrest Reads One Book" is underway! This year's title is 7 X 9 = Trouble! by Claudia Mills. All first and second graders are invited to join the fun. We'll meet from 3:15 - 4:30 on Wednesday, April 28. Last year's book club had over 70 students and 25 faculty. I'm hoping that we're even bigger this year! We'll snack, meet in small groups to talk about the book, and celebrate our community of readers. The library will have several copies of our book, but they are also available for purchase at Barnes and Noble. Sign up in the library, and happy reading!

A Learning Buzz

I love the buzz as second graders collaborate and explore specific websites in their search for interesting facts to include in their solar system information cards. It is so exciting to watch the growing independence and learning that is happening in our library!

Weeding Help

Non-fiction books have a sneaky way of becoming outdated. New discoveries and new inventions change our understanding of the world, so it's important that our books relay accurate information. Our non-fiction collection was examined with a critical eye by one of our Parish eighth grade students who generously volunteered hours of his knowledge and time to the betterment of our library. Makes me proud! Thank you!

And the winner is....

I am so proud to announce that 196 readers voted in our Panther Paw 2010 contest. That means that almost 200 people read at least ten of the books on this year's list. Every single title on the list received votes and was someone's favorite. The winner?...

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Everyone who read all twenty of the books on the list was eligible to put a PAW in the jar for a chance to win a complete set of the books for their classroom. We had a record-breaking 140 paws in the jar. The winning paw belonged to a book lover in Mrs. Jenning's and Mrs. Ketch's kindergarten class. CONGRATULATIONS to ALL of the readers who read or listened to reading of all of these fantastic books!

Matt Glover Inspires!

The voices in our library this Saturday were the energized voices of teachers as they talked with, listened to, and squeezed every ounce of learning about nurturing young writers from our fantastic guest, Matt Glover. Matt has written and co-written several books about writing workshop with our youngest writers. Matt filled the day with examples of picture books from different genre that could serve as mentors for children as they make their own books in the classroom. Many of the books that he mentioned are ones that we already have in the library and are favorites of the children. Several others are titles that will be on our next book order. We were so lucky to have had the opportunity to learn from Matt, and we all left with new excitement about the possibilities and opportunities for our young Parish writers.

Skyping Yertle

Today in the library, our second grade Grizzlies met Ms.Hennesey's fantastic second grade class from Sylvania, Ohio via Skype to celebrate LitWorld's Read Aloud Day. What a fun experience for our very first class to class collaboration! The two classes took turns reading pages from Yertle the Turtle by Dr. Seuss (Happy Birthday!) They each shared a little bit of information about home cities. We agreed that we'd love to get together again soon.