Friday, October 22, 2010

Red Week in the Library

The week of October 25th will be library classes for PK-K-1st grades.  In celebration of the approaching Halloween holiday next weekend, we will be doing Halloween-y activities in the library and reading Halloween books as we learn the differences between fiction and nonfiction books.  

PK and PPCD/EE will read Big Pumpkin and make bats as props to use when they share the story with someone at home.  Kindergarten students will read Pumpkin Jack and Pumpkin:  from seed to plant and will complete a worksheet that requires them to recall the details from the story and the life cycle of a pumpkin.  Students will be able to identify the characteristics of nonfiction and fiction books.  

First graders will read Skeleton Hiccups and My Bones and Muscles.  We will compare the two books and discuss the characteristics of nonfiction and fiction books then the children will work in groups to sort a stack of books into fiction and nonfiction piles.  The children will listen to a cassette recording of the book/song Dem Bones while creating their own skeletons with Q-tips following the sequence that the bones as they are mentioned in the song.

My husband, Paul, and I will be attending our very first Halloween costume party on Saturday night.  We are dressing as a Civil War soldier and southern belle, respectively.  Pictures to come!

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Skoob, the Shelf Elf, Visits Moye

One hundred and twenty +- H.R. Moye  second graders squished together today on the carpet of the library to participate in a Skype video conference with Ms. DeArmond’s class of second graders at Binion Elementary, Richland Hills, Texas.  Both groups of children (and adults) enjoyed spending time learning a little about each other’s school, city, and visit with Skoob, the shelf elf.
The students at Binion performed a song with tips  students can use in order to select the right book to read.  The Moye students shared the details of some of Skoob’s activities while he was at our school visiting and gave a few facts about the geography of our desert home.  The second grade teachers at Moye had graciously photographed Skoob’s adventures and I put them into a little PowerPoint presentation that both groups of children watched toward the end of the video conference.Both groups of children were well behaved and enthusiastic about this opportunity to make new long distant friends.  A great time was had by all and I think we we’d love to make this an annual event.

Skoob left El Paso last Monday afternoon on his way to Mullen, Nebraska.  I will be updating a map in the main hall of our school that follows Skoob on his travels across the United States.  You can also follow Skoob's adventures at http://kidblog.org/TravelingSkoob/.