February 21 we had our Virginia Reader’s Choice voting party, with over 70 students attending and voting for their favorite book! To attend, students had to read at least 6 of the 10 books on the Elementary list. We enjoyed a snack and rotated through activities based on the books, for example, playing marbles for Full of Beans, and doing a baseball relay for A Long Pitch Home. Students who read all 10 books will be invited to a half day field trip to Funland, date announced soon!
This week we’ll be celebrating Read Across America, a national event sponsored the NEA. We’ll be sharing Seuss stories, learning about Dr. Seuss, and celebrating reading. The PTA will host a special showing of the new “Grinch” movie Friday night; students can dress as their favorite Seuss character on Friday, March 1.
In K-2, we continued reading our Virginia Reader’s Choice books, with a few breaks. We read a nonfiction book about endangered animals, Animal Ark, by Kwame Alexander and Joel Sartore. In first and second grades, we did some research on an endangered animal and practiced using the World Book Online. In Kindergarten, we read a fiction Valentine’s book and a biography of George Washington for that week. Next we read Tidy, by Emily Gravett, the funny tale of Pete the Badger, who might just take cleaning the forest a bit too far. This week we’ll be taking a break to celebrate Dr. Seuss for Read Across America, which is a nationwide celebration of reading and all things Seuss centered around his birthday, March 2. Since the teachers read so many Seuss stories with their classes this week, in library we usually vote on which book we’ll share.
Third graders shared a fable and myth and learned more about Greek and Roman mythology by researching a god or goddess with a partner using the World Book Online. When they finished, they did some fun Classical Centers like making a mosaic and building an aqueduct! We just finished up some practice with the dictionary, including trying some SOL practice questions. We’ll be sharing the Seuss story of The Lorax and talking about why he wrote that book for Read Across America.
In fourth grade, we are just starting a lesson researching a famous Virginian. We’ll also be using the World Book Online encyclopedia as our main resource. Earlier in the month we practiced doing better online searches by narrowing keywords and learning the difference between search engines, websites, and databases. For Read Across America, we’ll talk about why Dr. Seuss wrote The Sneetches when he did.
Fifth grade did Research Review in February to get ready for their research on a famous figure from the Revolutionary War. We practiced taking notes, making citations, and discussed how you tell if a website is a good source of information. We also practiced using the dictionary. For Read Across America, we’ll discuss the Cold War and The Butter Battle Book.
We're so excited to be starting another year in the CES Library! We love kids and books and look forward to connecting them. The Library is open before school until announcements start and during the day at the teacher's discretion. We see every class weekly. Students checkout book(s) for one week; they can return or renew them the next week if they're not done. We don't charge overdues but do expect students to return books on time. Lost or damaged books need to be paid for. We appreciate your helping your child keep track of their library books and returning them on time. Teachers will let you know what day your child has library. Students checkout according to the following guidelines:
Kindergarten: 1 picture book at a time; checkout starts second week of school.
First: 2 books at a time; one must be from picture books, 1 is free choice. Checkout starts second time they come to library.
Second: 2 books at a time; 1 must be a book they can read, 1 is free choice.
Third: 3 books at a time
Fourth: 4 books at a time
Fifth: 5 books at a time
We're always looking for a few good library volunteers. If you have the time and interest, please contact the librarian, Wendy Lanehart, at firstname.lastname@example.org We gladly take donations of gently used books. If we don't put them in our collection, they'll be put either on our "Book Trade" cart or "Free Book" cart. We offer book clubs for grades 2-3 and 4-5, which will start in October. Book club membership is limited to 20 students. Please feel free to contact the librarian, Wendy Lanehart, if you have any questions.