Game Day!

Forty six 1st and 2nd grade boys gathered in the library this week for lunch and to celebrate and discuss the book, Game Day by Tiki and Ronde Barber. The book emphasized team work and sportsmanship. Mr. Dewell joined us and told a little bit about his dad, Bill Dewell, who was an amazing SMU athlete and Chicago Cardinals player. After some book talk, a film clip of a Ronde Barber interception, and lunch, we even had a few minutes to pass around the football outside. It was fantastic to have such an enthusiastic group of guys gathered together by a book!

Little Red Riding Hood

First grade is diving into their annual fairy tale study in the classroom. This month they will read tons of fairy tales and write their own. We are loving fairy tales in the library, too. Second graders have great memories of this, so it wasn't hard to find volunteers to read from Mary Ann Hoberman's You Read to Me, I'll Read to You Very Short Fairy Tales for a video to present to the first grade classes. It was the perfect lead-in to our two week look at some different versions of Little Red Riding Hood. This week we looked at several traditional versions. We read the Caldecott Honor winning book by Trina Schart Hyman.



Coming up next week... Little Red: A Fizzingly Good Yarn by Lynn Roberts and Carmine: A Little More Red by Melissa Sweet.

Panther Paw Activities

The Panther Paw books are flying from one reader to the next! I love hearing the book talk! Here are some activities that you might enjoy exploring.

Panther Paw Activities

Panther Paw 2012

It’s the ninth annual Panther Paw Book Contest! This year’s book list may be the best ever! See the Animoto slideshow here for a look at the 2012 titles. The Panther Paw contest is for all Parish students in kindergarten through second grade. Parents are welcome (and encouraged) to take part, too. The goal is to explore some of the best of the recently published children’s books from different genres. As in years past...any student, parent or teacher who reads or listens to at least ten books can vote for his/her favorite. Anyone who reads or listens to all twenty books will be eligible to enter a drawing for a chance to win a complete set of the Panther Paw books for his/her classroom. Parents may check out one Panther Paw book at a time for overnight or a weekend. It’s fun to see students and parents huddled up and reading together in the library, too! Be sure to take a look at the activities that your family might enjoy at home. We'll vote in March, and the winning book will be celebrated. Until then...happy reading!

Destiny Practice

I love to watch the second graders working to use the online catalog to find books more independently. This is especially great when they come to the library to read and I'm busy teaching a class. We decided that it would be fun to practice using Destiny this week. A challenge was given to see how many books they could find in the time allowed (about 15 minutes.) Each class was divided into teams of two or three. Team members drew a card that had a picture of the cover of a book with the author's name hidden. They searched Destiny for the book title, wrote down the call number and the author's last name, found the book on the shelf, held its place with a marker, found the title page and illustrator's name, and replaced the book. They had heaps of fun, learned more about the library and catalog, and grew as collaborators and team players. It was definitely an unquiet library. All agree...we will do it again!

Ivy & Bean Day

Ivy and Bean are best friends. The two young characters in the fun series by Annie Barrows didn't plan on being such good friends, but they discovered that their differences didn't get in the way of enjoying each other, having fun, and getting in trouble together. Twenty nine of our second grade readers celebrated Ivy & Bean Day with a book club lunch in the library. We found out that most of these girls think that their personalities are more like Bean's, but unlike Bean, many of these girls like to shop. (See the Wordle of favorite stores.) Gummyworm cupcakes were dessert (a reference to book one where real worms landed on Bean's sister.) Some of the girls have already read all seven of the books and are excited about the eighth, No News is Good News, which is brand new and will be here in the library soon.

Be Creative Every Day!

Being creative is more than just using your imagination and having clever ideas. It requires action...making something. It is the way we learn and the way we maintain excitement about learning. In the library this week, first and second graders reminded each other of all of the different ways that we are creative...art, crafts, music, building construction, sports, science, invention, writing...and more. We enjoyed two new books written by Herve Tullet - PRESS HERE and THE BOOK WITH A HOLE. We also reread a favorite by Natalie Portis, NOT A BOX. The clever Draw a Stickman adventure website was the perfect partner for these inspiring books with its "Be creative every day!" message. We have a place in the library for creators to share their work, and we already have exhibitors! Be sure to check out the creations of our Parish readers. Be creative every day!