It's Wednesday! What's happening in the Sommer Library?

Welcome back from Spring Break, Stallions!

Ms Margocs got a bit crafty over Spring Break.  Thanks to a generous donation of figurines from the Rogers family, we now have new "signage" for our Harry Potter section of the library!

Read-alouds this week:

Kindergarten is enjoying silly laughs with Giant Pants.  After listening, we review the story elements of characters, problem, and resolution.  Now if only Belbum would stop losing his pants...

First grade is looking for patterns, learning the "Big Idea" of ecosystems, and connecting to their classroom learning about food chains with Once Upon a Jungle.

Second graders are so excited that we FINALLY get to share Triangle, by Mac Barnett!  We explore the ethics of Triangle and Square's behavior, and use text evidence to discuss the characters' friendship.

Lessons this week:

Third graders are looking up text features in nonfiction books about food chains and ecosystems, then sharing them with their tablemates.

The first round of fourth graders are hearing all about our KSTAR Broadcast program from Mrs. Jackson and Ms Margocs, then filling out applications if they are interested.  Parent permission slips that are distributed this week are due back by April 5th.  The second round of students will get to apply next week during their library lesson time and will get their permission slips then.  The second round of permission slips will be due by April 12th.

Fifth graders are having some talk time with Ms Margocs to discuss the impact of the new-this-year four-book checkout policy for their grade level.  So far, the students are rooting for the new limit to continue, with great suggestions to encourage wider reading and rewards for good behavior and clear accounts.

We have another author visiting tomorrow!

Liz Garton Scanlon will be visiting with first graders in the library tomorrow afternoon.  We are looking forward to hosting her and hearing about her books and her writing journey!

Hope to see you in the stacks soon, Stallions!

It's Monday! What are you reading?

We have been lucky to host not one, but two authors so far this month--with one more to visit this week!

Connor Hoover, a.k.a. PJ Hoover, visited with our second and third graders and talked about her new choose-your-story-path style books.  Before she left, she slipped me an ARC of The Hidden Code, due out in September.

The description on the back is spot on; three chapters in, and I am getting "Tomb Raider" vibes.  A fan of Lara Croft and Indiana Jones here, so I'll definitely keep reading to find out if Hannah, the main character, discovers the true fate of her missing parents.  Luckily, she's got good friends to help her out--and a strong curious nature to keep her going.  This book is a pick for middle grade-on-up lovers of adventure, mystery, and a touch of the fantastic.

Dan Gemeinhart came to visit our campus just before Spring Break, and I couldn't resist getting a signed book.  I'm now five chapters into The Remarkable Journey of Coyote Sunrise, and enchanted by the characters.

Coyote and her dad, Rodeo, are driving around the country in a remodeled school bus.  They've been doing so since Coyote's mom and sisters were killed in a car accident.  Hannah starts telling the story just before her thirteenth birthday, the loneliness of life on the road beginning to catch up with her.  The plot of the book is about to thicken as she discovers that her box of memories, buried in a park near her home, may be destroyed soon in the destruction of the park for development.  Problem is, she and her dad are on the other side of the country...I'll just have to keep reading to find out what happens.

It's Monday, and I've got too many books going on at once, again!  When will I ever learn?  Do you read more than one book at a time?

It's Wednesday! What's happening in the Sommer Library?

Our team had a great time at the RRISD Battle of the Bluebonnets!

Congratulations to Oveya, Surya, and Varun!

Thanks for your dedication to reading our Bluebonnet Award Nominees!

Tomorrow, we are hosting Dan Gemeinhart, author of Some Kind of Courage from the 17-18 Bluebonnet Nominee list; he'll be presenting to our fifth grade classes.  Pics to follow soon!

This week, all classes are check-out only due to Kindergarten Roundup today, and our school-wide Field Day on Friday.  Students with overdues and bills will not be allowed to check out books for Spring Break until their accounts are cleared.

A sight that brought Ms Margocs a chuckle this week:

It seems our third grade students suddenly "discovered" the large dictionary that's been hiding in plain sight this whole time.  They spent several minutes thumbing through the pages and exclaiming over the number of entries it holds.  Let's hope they revisit it often!

Wishing all of our Sommer Stallions a safe and happy Spring Break next week!

It's Monday! What are you reading?

I've been mentioning this read-aloud in our Wednesday library update posts, but thought I'd write a bit more about the discussions I'm having with my K-2 students while reading it.  The book is A Hungry Lion, or a Dwindling Assortment of Animals by Lucy Ruth Cummins.

Our wonderful district Armadillo Readers' Choice Award Program committee chose this book for our use this year.  It is a great story to practice inference and text evidence, as well as to incorporate the Depth and Complexity "Unanswered Questions" icon.

A Hungry Lion, or a Dwindling Assortment of Animals opens with a list of a large group of animals--a group that dwindles just a few pages in, until all that is left is the hungry lion.  I begin the story by telling students that many times during this story, they will want to tell me what they think is going on...but they can only respond to what we're reading with questions, not statements.  We are able to practice both inference skills and text/ picture evidence this way.  Only a few of our questions are answered in the middle of the story, and try as we might to answer the many questions that follow, we can never be quite sure of the answers without conclusive picture and text clues.  Reading this aloud and asking students to respond only in the form of questions got everyone talking in my Book Nook, as it removed the pressure to have the right answers--and made it okay to be left with questions at the end.

Some of the students' questions:

Where are the animals going?

Did the lion eat the animals?

Why do the animals keep moving?

Is the turtle still in its shell?

Why is the lion less hungry?

Did the lion eat some of the cake?

Are the animals hiding behind the cake?

Did the animals run away?

Where did the T. rex come from?

Did the T. rex eat the lion?

Where did the T. rex go?

Did the turtle eat the T. rex?

How did the turtle slice the cake?

If you are a fan of books that leave you hanging (or in need of a good inference lesson),  A Hungry Lion, or a Dwindling Assortment of Animals will fit the bill.

It's Wednesday! What's happening in the Sommer Library?

Local author PJ Hoover visited us this Monday!

Ms Hoover spoke to our third graders about her family--including tortoises and dogs--her journey to becoming an author, and her new choose-your-own-adventure style books.  Second graders also answered some fiction/ nonfiction facts about writing books and becoming ninjas--Ms Hoover has a black belt in kung fu!

We had our campus Battle of the Bluebonnets quiz last week, and Sommer has a team ready to compete in the district Battle on March 12th.  Congratulations to Oveya, Varun, Surya, and Tristan!  

Our read-alouds this week:
Kindergarten is listening for patterns and learning the Big Idea of ecosystems in Once Upon a Jungle.

First grade encounters some Unanswered Questions in A Hungry Lion, or a Dwindling Assortment of Animals.

Second grade is finishing up their round of La Princesa and the Pea, a Peruvian take on the classic fairy tale.

Lessons this week:

Third grade is getting some creative appy time, exploring apps for student projects.

Fourth and fifth grades are practicing email etiquette by emailing their teachers using proper letter format.

Remember, all overdues and bills are due before March 15th if you want to check out books for Spring Break!

Hope to see you in the library soon!

It's Monday! What are you reading?

Every once in awhile, when I'm in the mood to read something other than a children's book and I don't have time to devote to an adult novel, I splurge on magazines.  Since it's my birthday week, I did just that today at the grocery store checkout counter.

The Texas Monthly caught my eye with its cover story on Buc-ee's, one of my favorite rest stops (who doesn't love a clean bathroom and all the snacks you could want to eat?).  Family Circle is one of my go-to magazines for homecare and recipe inspiration; the Better Homes and Garden and Martha Stewart's Living were packaged with it for a nice price.   I'm interested in new recipes for my Instant Pot, and always trying to figure out how to declutter and organize at home and work--two more magazines went in the pile.  HEB's My Texas Life was a freebie.

This stash will take me through my downtime through Spring Break.  By then, I'm hoping to have time to devote to a full-length book once again.

It's Monday; what are your favorite quick-read magazines?