Week of January 9

On Monday, we kicked off our 3rd & 4th grade recess clubs! Students are allowed to sign up for a week where instead of going to recess, they come to the library to hang out and do some sort of activity. This week, we explored with Snap Circuits and LittleBits Circuits. It was totally fun!

Our preschool students read an Elephant & Piggie book called A Big Guy Took My Ball. As it turns out, this is the first Mo Willems book we've read this year! Who is their librarian, anyway?! I'm sure she will be correcting this ASAP. Our AK students also enjoyed an Elephant & Piggie--Today I Will Fly

Kindergarteners continued with our study of fairy tales by listening to The Three Little Pigs. We talked about how there are many different versions of each fairy tale, and  how fairy tales begin with "once upon a time" and end with "they lived happily ever after." 

After reading the story, the students tried building their own houses out of different materials. Then the big bad wolf (aka, a pink desk fan) came along and tried to blow the houses down. Kids built houses of popsicle sticks, dowels, bundles of plastic straws, cardboard, or Legos. We had tons of fun!

First graders are studying light & sound during science, and this week in library we had fun making circuits that make light after reading a book called Light Helps Me See by Jennifer Boothroyd. I am very thankful that our AEA offers so many great ebooks to check out!  

They had fun using the Little Bits & Snap Circuits to build light switches! With the Little Bits we built dimmer switches. Kids could relate to the regular switches and the dimmers, because so many have them in houses or know someone else who has them. Who knew it was so easy to build them! We are so lucky to have these tools.

Second graders are so close to finishing up our Mock Caldecott unit. We read two more books this week, Maybe Something Beautiful and The Night Gardener. We will read 2 more books next week and vote for our favorite! The ALAYMA awards are announced Monday, January 23. ALA will be broadcasting it via Facebook Live, which is so exciting to me! I wish it was a little later, so the kids could watch too, but it will be over by 9 when kids get to school. 

 

In computer lab, the 2nd graders drew and wrote about something they could do to make their community more beautiful, just like in the two books we read. I love how books encourage empathy and relate to our real lives. Our kids had so many great ideas!

Our 3rd graders started a slideshow for their biography project. They got a title slide and a slide about childhood started. We used books to find facts! Let the learning begin! 

4th graders finished writing their scripts for their book trailer--video creation will start soon!

We're looking forward to another great week!