World Read Aloud Day

We celebrated World Read Aloud Day today! This day celebrates the power of words...especially those shared from one person to another. One of our talented sixth grade students Skyped from the Midway library to ours to read from Grace Lin's Year of the Dog with a first grade class. It was the perfect introduction to one of our visiting author's books, and it was a great way to celebrate our community of readers across the miles.

Kindergarten Skype

Mrs. Lee's kindergarten class met up with a kindergarten class in North Carolina via Skype today. Mr. Monaco joined us in the library as we visited with some of his old friends from Ravenscroft. The kinders shared some of the books that they had created in writing workshop. Both classes had written "All About" books and learned about illustrators' craft this year, so they had much in common. They practiced reading with their loud and clear "Skype voices" and listening to new friends hundreds of miles away. We saved some time for a few tricky and fun riddles, too!

Surprise Skype Reader

Our surprise reader was REALLY a surprise for one of our Pre-K friends. Her older sister, a student on our Midway campus, joined us in the library via Skype. The third grade sister had a spellbound audience as she told Mo Willems's story of Leonardo, the Terrible Monster. It was so much fun! I hope that we'll see many more of our Midway friends with us at story time back in the Hillcrest Library!

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.

Mary Amato Visits Parish!

Our Skype visit with Mary Amato was a fantastic treat for the second grade. She told us a little bit about her new book, Take the Mummy and Run. It's on our next book order, and there's already a waiting list to check it out. She described how her own childhood with her sisters provided the background for The Chicken of the Family, and she gave some wonderful and encouraging words about writing. The second graders surprised Mary with our own version of Please Write in This Book that was inspired by her original story. This was our first adventure using Skype, and we can't wait to explore other ways to open up the walls of our library!

Skype an Author

I have been reading a lot about Skype an Author, a network of authors who are willing to meet and visit with students for ten to fifteen minutes at no charge via Skype. We are so lucky to be meeting Mary Amato on October 28 on the SmartBoard in the library. We loved her book, Chicken of the Family, which was on our Panther Paw list last year. Please Write in This Book is another of her books that is sure to be enjoyed by second graders who like to read funny books. It's about a teacher who leaves a blank book in the writing corner and invites the students to write to each other in it. It is fun to get to know the students by reading their entries in the book. We'll be working on making a list of questions to ask Mary Amato. I can't wait to meet her!