Stories from the Library: December 14-18

Happy Holidays from the SPS Library! 

We enjoyed a number of holiday books in the library this week: Christmas Trolls by Jan Brett, Hershel and the Hanukkah Goblins by Eric Kimmel, Merry Christmas, Curious George by Cathy Hapka, A Visit from Saint Nicholas by Clement C. Moore, A Wish for Wings that Worked by Berkeley Breathed, and Mooseltoe by Margie Palatini. It's been a fun and festive week that included the elementary holiday show (featuring the Seven Peaks penguins-- all week I heard our music teachers instructing children to "keep waddling!"), many classroom celebrations, staff Secret Santas, and an office kitchen brimming with treats. 

Have a wonderful holiday break-- there are many more books and stories to come in the new year!

Stories from the Library: December 7-11

Kindergarteners impressed me with their inference skills while reading Eric Carle's Dream Snow this week. Before reading the story, we looked at some of the pictures and guessed what kind of animals were in the farmer's barn windows. We charted our animal predictions and had fun turning the pages to see if our guesses were correct (most were!). At the end of the story, we had a mini-debate about whether the man pictured on the cover of the book is Santa Claus or not. He is simply identified as "the farmer" in the story, and we had children making cases for both sides. This book was a fun treat at the end of a long, busy week.

Preschool: I shared one of my favorite childhood Christmas books with the Preschoolers this week, Merry Christmas Mom and Dad by Mercer Mayer. While Little Critter has good intentions to help his parents wrap gifts, decorate the tree and pick out presents for his little sister, he encounters a number of setbacks. I think the picture of Little Critter wrapped in too-sticky tape was enough to make me giggle many years ago, and the Preschoolers shared my sentiments. We also enjoyed If You Take a Mouse to the Movies, the Holiday companion to If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, by Laura Numeroff.


Junior Kindergarten: The sight of Santa Claus on the cover of Hurry Santa by Julie Sykes was enough to enthrall the Junior Kindergarten class. Colorful cartoon-ish illustrations accompany this fun and simple story about Santa Claus running late on Christmas Eve. At the end of the story, Santa Claus finds one last gift at the bottom of his bag-- a new alarm clock from his animal friends.


2nd Grade: Maria's family Christmas is almost ruined when she thinks she has lost her mother's wedding ring while kneading the cornmeal dough for tamales in Too Many Tamales by Gary Soto. Before diving into the story, we looked at step-by-step pictures of how tamales are made. This book is a fun look at how holidays are celebrated among other culture groups, but the gentle lessons about honesty and truth-telling are universal. 


Quite a few classes missed their regular library time this week due to the book fair and holiday show rehearsals. 'Tis a busy (but fun) season! 

Stories from the Library: November 30-December 4

The Scholastic Book Fair is in full swing this week! Our first day was this past Friday the 4th and the students are so excited to see our Library turned into a Scholastic "store" for a few days. Some of the children were jumping up and down when they saw the Scholastic delivery truck driving toward the school last week!
Because of the Book Fair, only a few classes were able to have regular library times this past week:

Preschool: When one of the twins loses a red mitten in Florence Slobodkin's Too Many Mittens, the whole town sends red mittens their way. As you can imagine, their home is soon overflowing with lost red mittens! First published in 1958, this delightful story is still fun more than 50 years later. 
Junior Kindergarten: Junior Kindergarteners enjoyed The Dream Jar by Lindan Lee Johnson. New to our library, this charming book tells the story of a little girl who learns how to transform bad dreams into "dreamy dreams" with the help of her big sister and a seemingly magical jar of good thoughts.
1st Grade: 1st Graders laughed at all the silly animals in Jan Brett's The Mitten: A Ukranian Folktale. Jan Brett is beloved by students for her colorful, detailed illustrations and fun stories. In The Mitten, a bevy of forest animals find shelter from the snow in Nicky's lost mitten-- that is, until the bear sneezes! 
4th Grade: We finished up our unit on Chris Van Allsburg with the holiday classic The Polar Express. In our closing comments about Van Allsburg we decided that "dreamlike," "mysterious," and "muted" were appropriate words to describe his stories and illustrations. One student astutely noted that as an author, Van Allsburg does not like to tell his readers what to think about a certain character or situation. Rather, he gives us clues that will lead each reader to infer his or her own conclusion. This mysterious quality draws me--and the students-- into Van Allsburg's dreamlike worlds.
5th Grade: After watching a commercial highlighting books in the Scholastic Book Fair, 5th Graders listened to part of a Beverly Cleary Christmas story: "Ramona, The Sheep Suit, and the Three Wise Persons" from A Newberry Christmas, a book of Christmas short stories from fourteen Newberry Award-winning authors.

Stories from the Library: November 2-6

3rd Graders encountered The Boy Who Loved Words by Roni Schotter this week, a luscious ramble through the adventures of a voracious word collector. Though his chums call Selig an oddball, the word lover eventually finds a way to direct his passion for language. Before entering the library, each student received a sticker featuring a word from the story and its definition. Words like aflutter, djinn and emporium tantalized our tongues. (All italicized words are featured in the book.)


Preschool: Preschoolers met the famous bear Corduroy by Don Freeman this week. In this sweet story, Corduroy lives his life in a department store, ventures off to find his lost button, and eventually goes home to live with his new owner. 


Kindergarten: To supplement their learning about Native Americans this week, Kindergarteners listened to a Ute Tale called Coyote Steals the Blanket, retold and illustrated by Janet Stevens. In this rollicking tale set in Arches National Park, proud Coyote decides not to heed the advice of Hummingbird, who warns him against taking things that don't belong to him. Kindergarteners enjoyed watching the silly coyote get into trouble, and we agreed that the silliest part of all was that he didn't learn from his mistakes! 


1st Grade: 1st Graders worked on comparing and contrasting this week with There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly by Simms Taback and the Halloween version There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Bat by Lucille Colandro. These classic folk poems are also wonderful tools for teaching rhythm and story patterns. By the third page or so, students are chanting along with the words. 


2nd Grade: A River Ran Wild by Lynne Cherry tells the environmental history of the Nashua River in Massachusetts. The story follows the river through times of plenty, pollution and eventual restoration. We talked about the book in connection with our Core Virtue for the month, Stewardship, and 2nd Graders pointed out examples of good and bad stewardship throughout the story. 


3rd Grade: See opening post.



4th Grade: 4th Graders became Nonfiction tour guides this week, guiding their classmates through the sections of the Dewey Decimal System. Each pair presented their section number and name, talked about what kinds of books could be found there, and highlighted three specific books to recommend from their section.


5th Grade: This week 5th Graders learned about the Battle of the Books and we discussed strategies for finding "just right" books. We discussed how reading books that are too difficult can make the reader frustrated, bored, or confused. Check here and here for some strategies and an article on student book choices from a 4th Grade teacher.

Stories from the Library: October 26-30

  

What would you do if you heard a news report saying aliens were invading earth? In 1938, a radio play of Orson Welles' version of War of the Worlds set off a mass panic throughout the United States. 4th Graders learned about this bizarre historical event through Meghan McCarthy's book Aliens are Coming! The True Account of the 1938 War of the Worlds Radio Broadcast. The book features 1930s style comic book art and a section at the back explaining more about the 1938 event. After reading the story, we listened to a YouTube clip of the original broadcast. We all agreed that the crackly radio noise make the news report about aliens even more creepy. Happy Halloween!

Preschool: Preschoolers choose their check-out books so quickly these days, we decided it was a two book day. We started with Go Away Big Green Monster by Ed Emberley, a fun book with movable parts in which each turn of the page adds another element to the big green monster. Preschoolers also listened to Mouse's First Halloween by Lauren Thompson and had fun guessing what those scary noises could be. Rustle Rustle Rustle, Drop Drop Drop, and Grin Grin Grin may seem frightening, but each turn of the page reveals that rustling leaves, falling apples and glowing jack-o-lanterns aren't so scary after all!


Junior Kindgergarten: Junior Kindgergarteners learned the value of cooperation in Big Pumpkin by Erica Silverman. After Witch struggles to yank her ripe pumpkin from the vine, a series of spooky characters try to help. The big pumpkin doesn't budge until one particularly clever (but very small) creature appears to offer some advice.  


Kindergarten and 2nd Grade were partying away at the Costume Carnival during their regular library time.


1st Grade: In Bone Soup by Cambria Evans, Finnigan the Eater arrives in a new town tired, lonely and very hungry. Unfortunately, his reputation precedes him and everyone in town has already decided not to give him a thing to eat. In this spooky twist on the classic Stone Soup, Finnigan cleverly acquires all the bat wings, snake eyeballs, and friends he needs to make Bone Soup. 


3rd Grade: 3rd Graders listened to poems from Frankenstein Makes a Sandwich (and other stories you're sure to like, because they're all about monsters, and some of them are also about food, you like food, don't you? Well, alright then) by Adam Rex. The poems are about as silly as the book's subtitle and include poems like "The Phantom of the Opera who gets It's a Small World Stuck in his Head" and "The Invisible Man Gets a Haircut."


4th Grade: See opening post.


5th Grade: To wrap our unit on Poe, one of our 5th Grade parents read the author's chilling narrative poem "The Raven." The poem's lyrical quality makes it the perfect read-aloud, and our reader shared stories about reading "The Tell-Tale Heart by candlelight during power outages in New York as a child.

Stories from the Library: October 19-23

5th Graders loved hearing an abridged version of Edgar Allan Poe's short story "The Masque of Red Death" this week. In the story, a wealthy prince locks himself and a number of guests in a castle to escape the Red Death, a sickness that has been plauging the countryside. While the people outside are sick and dying, those inside the castle decide to have a masquerade ball. During the ball a mysterious figure dressed like a corpse affected by the Red Death appears and reaks havoc on the entire party. 5th Graders love Poe's storytelling and are amazed that a story written in 1842 can still rival many modern horror tales.
Preschool: Who Took the Cookies from the Cookie Jar? is the repeated question in the picture book by Bonnie Lass and Philemon Sturges. Preschoolers listened and watched as Mr. Skunk makes the rounds with all his animal friends in the desert to figure out who took those cookies!
Junior Kindergarten: Jr. K enjoyed Delicious! by Helen Cooper, another Pumpkin Soup Story about Duck, Cat and Squirrel. When the three roommates run out of ripe pumpkins, they have to improvise and please Duck, a very picky eater.
Kindergarten: In Leonardo the Terrible Monster by Mo Willems, Leonardo is really a terrible monster; he can't seem to scare anyone! He eventually finds the perfect candidate: a particularly jumpy little boy. Kindergarteners love Willems' fun, minimalist illustrations, his wacky sense of humor and the idea of "scaring the tuna salad out of someone"!
1st Grade: To finish up our unit on Fables, we read Tony Ross's Foxy Fables, a picture book with short chapters featuring some of the more cunning Fable characters. Ross's colorful, cartoonish illustrations and witty interpretations make classic Fables more accessible (and fun) to young readers. 
2nd Grade: 2nd Graders started a unit on Fractured Fairy Tales, a fairly recent genre in which classic fairy tales are twisted up a bit for comedic effect. We started with reading The Three Little Wolves and the Big Bad Pig by Eugenios Trivizas, a twist on the classic Three Little Pigs story.
3rd Grade:  We revisited our friend Gritch the Witch this week in Broom Mates by Margie Palatini. 3rd Graders learned about puns and found them throughout this very "punny" book about Gritch's interactions with her sister Mag, who comes to help prepare for the annual "howliday" party.
4th Grade: 4th Graders learned about the Dewey Decimal System, the numbered classification system we use to categorize our nonfiction (and some fiction!) books. To help us remember the ten categories better, we looked at the story of Dewey and the Alien on a website designed by a group of students and librarians from Nettleson Intermediate Center in Arkansas.
5th Grade: See opening post.

Stories from the Library: October 12-16

This week, 3rd Graders bravely tackled a lesson in allusions using Margie Palatini's fun book Piggie Pie. I introduced allusions (a literary tactic in which a writer uses characters or moments from a well-known story to enhance his or her own story) and challenged the class to become "Allusion Detectives" as we read through Piggie Pie, a story about Gritch the Witch, a comical witch who tries to satisfy her craving for Piggie Pie. 3rd Graders rose to the challenge and loved pointing out how the author used Old MacDonald's farm, the Big Bad Wolf and visual allusions from The Wizard of Oz. I gave out badges reading "I'm an Allusion Detective" to our very clever 3rd Grade class.

Junior Kindergarten: Junior Kindergarteners listened to Pumpkin Soup, written and illustrated by Helen Cooper, a lively tale about friendship, sharing and delicious soup. The Junior Kindergarteners had fun remembering what kinds of soup they've eaten before and were intrigued by the pumpkin soup recipe at the end of the book.


Kindergarten: In honor of the Kindergarten's field trip to the pumpkin patch on Thursday, we read Arthur's Field Trip by Leslie Tryon. In this picture book, Arthur the goose's class takes a field trip to the apple farm, where they get to pick apples, press apple cider, sample apple pie and learn about apples.


1st Grade: Continuing in our unit on fables, 1st Graders read an adaptation of the Indian fable, the Blind Man and the Elephant called Seven Blind Mice by Ed Young. The moral, "Knowing in part may make a fine tale, but wisdom comes from seeing the whole" led into a good discussion about how we look at people-- do we judge people by just knowing a little bit about them or do we wait until we know the whole person to make a judgement?


2nd Grade: We learned more about how fiction and nonfiction books are arranged on the shelf, and 2nd Graders became experts in identifying fiction and nonfiction spine labels. 


3rd Grade: See opening post.



4th Grade: 4th Graders heard about Oregon Battle of the Books this week. Team sign-ups start now in the library!      


5th Grade: We started a unit on Edgar Allan Poe, the father of the modern horror story, in 5th Grade this week. I presented a PowerPoint about Poe's life and highlighted some of his famous stories. The 5th Graders decided we wanted to read "The Masque of Red Death" and "The Tell-Tale Heart" as a class and many of them were excited to check out Poe's book and read his works for themselves.

Stories from the Library: October 5-9

When learning about history or current events, it's easy to gloss over numbers and facts without stopping to think about the individual lives those numbers represent. This week the 5th Graders listened to The Librarian of Basra by Jeanette Winter, which tells the true story of Alia Muhammad, a librarian in Basra, Iraq, who saved thousands of books from her library during the war in 2003. We talked about why it's important to hear stories like Alia's--oftentimes we can mistakenly look at certain people and make judgments about the whole group without knowing its individual parts. Winter's wonderful book gently delves into wartime realities, providing an opportunity for discussions about how we view our world and the people in it.  

Preschool: After a freak snowstorm this past Sunday, we're back to "regular" fall weather, which serves as a great backdrop for seasonal stories. Preschoolers enjoyed Apples and Pumpkins by Anne Rockwell, a picture book about visiting a farm. We also peeked out the library window to observe the changing leaves.   


Junior Kindergarten: To celebrate the changing seasons, we read Mouse's First Fall by Lauren Thompson. This fun picture book introduces many colorful words as Mouse and Minka run, kick, skip and swish through the leaves. 


1st Grade: Continuing our unit of Fables, we read Tony Ross's The Boy Who Cried Wolf, a modern twist on the classic story. Though the ending is just a bit goofier, the message of "crying wolf" is still loud and clear.  

4th Grade: To help us understand why we need to learn things like reading a spine label and how to use our online catalog, 4th Graders listened to Our Librarian Won't Tell Us Anything by Toni Buzzeo. As the book points out, a librarian's job is not simply to find books, but to give students the tools needed to be "a Library Success Story." After the story 4th Graders watched a presentation on how to use OPAC, our online search catalog. 


5th Grade: See opening post.


Kindergarten, 2nd and 3rd Grade missed Library time this week due to conferences.

Stories from the Library: September 28-October 2

2nd Graders focused on fleshing out the differences between fiction and nonfiction this week. To illustrate this point further, we enjoyed a new book in our nonfiction section called How Many Ways Can you Catch a Fly? by Steve Jenkins and Robin Page. The book is divided up into sections that ask questions like How Many Ways Can you Snare a Fish and How Many Ways Can you Hatch an Egg. Students loved hearing fun facts about different animals. Did you know that the ichneumon wasp lays its eggs inside a caterpillar? When the eggs hatch, the larvae eat their way out of the caterpillar's body.  

Preschool: Preschoolers enjoyed Margaret Wise Brown's Big Red Barn this week. They loved pointing out the different farm animals and imitating their sounds. We observed how the pictures get darker and darker as the sun sets on the farm. 

Junior Kindergarten: In Pigsty by Mark Teague, Wendell prefers dirtiness to cleanliness...even when the pigs move in. But after finding hoof marks on his comic books and bite marks on his baseball cards, he begins to change his mind...and his pigsty habits. 


Kindergarten: Kindergartners listened to But Excuse Me That is My Book, a Charlie and Lola story by Lauren Child. Child's colorful collage-style illustrations and fun characters help teach the lesson that library books belong to all children. The book led naturally into a discussion about what to do if someone else checks out your favorite book (which can often be a cause for distress in the Kindergarten world). 


1st Grade: 1st Graders started a unit on Fables this week. We discussed this type of story and read the classic tale The Ant and the Grasshopper. After the story we talked about the moral, there's a time for play and a time for work or you have to work hard to play hard. Students took turns sharing stories of how they apply this principle in their own lives. 

2nd Grade: See opening post.


3rd Grade: 3rd Graders learned all about spine labels this week. Spine labels are like a book's address, and understanding how they work will help you navigate through the library. After figuring out how to differentiate fiction from nonfiction labels, students practiced writing spine labels on their whiteboards. 


4th and 5th Grade: 4th and 5th graders missed library this week because of testing. More to come next week!

Stories from the Library: September 21-25

Junior Kindergarteners giggled through The House on East 88th Street by Bernard Waber this week. This charming book from 1962 tells the story of the Primm family, who, when moving into their new home, find a crocodile in their bathtub! Lyle Crocodile soon becomes part of the family and entertains with his circus antics and lovable ways. While some of the language in the book is a bit advanced for the four-year-old crowd, the little ones loved the pictures of Lyle performing tricks and leading the parade downtown.

Preschool: We read Will You Be My Friend? by Nancy Tafuri, a simple yet powerful story about Bird and Bunny, who become friends after a storm ruins bird's home.

Junior Kindergarten: See opening post.

Kindergarten: In What Happened to Marion's Book by Brooke Berg, Marion the hedgehog accidentally spills raspberry jam on her library book. After learning that toothpaste, bubble bath and a spin in the washing machine are not good ways to clean a book, Marion finally takes responsibility and tells her librarian what happened. The story led into a good conversation about book care and what it means to be responsible.

1st Grade: We took a crazy journey through Judy Sierra's Wild About Books, a rhyming book about a librarian who accidentally drives the bookmobile to the zoo. 1st Graders loved pointing out the different animals in Marc Brown's colorful illustrations.

2nd Grade: 2nd Graders took a Library Tour, where we located Fiction and Nonfiction sections, the Book Drop, Library Cart and other important places in the library. We also paused to figure out how a Fiction spine label works. 

3rd Grade: 3rd Graders crawled through the Lava Tubes this week and missed their library time.

4th and 5th Grade: 4th and 5th Graders went on separate Library Scavenger Hunts, finding important places and facts about the library: Fiction, Nonfiction, Easy Reader and Picture Book sections, the difference between Fiction and Nonfiction, and the librarian's name!

Stories from the Library: September 14-18

We've had a great first week of library classes! I met each class at the door wearing my backpacking backpack and travel get-up, ready for a journey in the library this year. As we talked about what kinds of things we might need for our library journey, I pulled various items from my pack-- a "roadmap" to library success, a few good books, and my library mouse. We talked about how opening a book is much like journeying to another world.


The students have been eager to check out books and have had many questions and suggestions for new books they would like to see in our library. If their enthusiasm during the first week is any indication of the coming year, we're heading in the right direction! 


-m.e.g.

What's New in the Library

Birthday Books: We're starting a new program in the library this year in which parents can donate a book to our school library in honor of a child's birthday. Click here to learn more about the program. It's a fun way to celebrate a birthday and foster a love of books.

Battle of the Books: Battle of the Books is a statewide program that puts teams of students to "battle" with quiz-style questions about book content. Teams of four students read the selected titles (there are separate lists for grades 3-5 and grades 6-8) in preparation for the battles beginning in January. Stop by the library to pick up a book list and get started on that reading!

Book Clubs: Coming soon! We're working on developing a book club and reading incentive program for grades 1-5. Students will collect points for reading books, write book reviews (some that will be featured on this blog!) and earn gift certificates to our Scholastic Book Fair.

We're Going on a Journey

Welcome to the Seven Peaks School Library Blog! This is a space to share what we're reading and learning in our little corner of the world. Books are amazing tools-- they open up new worlds, spark conversation, teach through stories, and inspire us to think, dream and play. Libraries, however, can be daunting places if you don't know your way around the stacks. Throughout the year we'll be learning how to navigate our way around the library, searching for information, exploring new books and revisiting old favorites. 

Each week the blog will be updated with the previous week's library class activities, random musings, and, eventually book reviews from our students. We're looking forward to a wonderful year filled with good books and great storytellers.    

Come journey with us. 

-m.e.g.