This Week In The Library: May 2 - 6

May is here and boy is it busy!  Here is what we did in the library this week.  Some classes did not meet this week due to the Talent Show Assembly.  Those classes will have their books due next week.

Kindergarten: We heard "Hoodwinked" by Arthur Howard.  This was a story about a girl looking for a creepy pet.  After the story we drew small pictures of pets.  We will use these pictures next week to create another Venn Diagram.

Grade 1 (Gordon/Bonnell): We heard "Mrs. Muddle's Holidays" by Laura Nielsen.  In small groups we alphabetized the various holidays that Mrs. Muddle celebrated.

Grade 1 (Hirst): Read "Sixteen Cows" by Lisa Wheeler.  In small groups they alphabetized the names of the cows.

Grade 2: Students had time to practice using the library search stations.  They worked on the ideas presented last week.

Grade 3 (Pawling/Liker): Heard "The Tale of Tricky Fox" by Jim Aylesworth.

Grade 4: Completed their lesson on Citing websites.  We looked at a professional site and found the information one would need to create a citation.  We also completed a short assessment on this topic.

Grade 5: Complete our unit on Safely Talking Online.  We reviewed the concepts presented in the unit and completed a short assessment on the topic.

Grade 6 (Bogert/Combined Group): Began looking for information and reading a train schedule.

Professional: Prepared for next week's Smarter Balanced Assessment.  Took the library helpers on a field trip to the Museum of Flight Library and Archives.  I prepared for next week's Sherwood Battle of the Best Books.  Pulled and checked out books to kindergarten and first grade.  Began cataloging books donated from Half Price Books via Mrs. Arnesen.  Attended the May Puget Sound Council for the Review of Children's Books meeting.  Not only did I hear about some great new books and picked up some books to review, we saw a presentation from Janet Qualiotto, Barnes & Noble about the DASH programmable robot.

Donor's Choose Grant Update

Update!  We have had 10 donors give $700 to our grant project.  Thank you donors!

We need $165 more to have our grant funded.  If you know anyone who might want to give, send them the link below.  Any amount of donation can help.  Details about the project and funding can be found by clicking on the link below.

Building a Library STEM Makerspace Can Be a Snap!

This Week in the Library: January 19-22

A short week because there was no school on Monday, Jan. 18 (MLK Day).  Books for Monday classes will be due on Monday, January 25.

Primary Classes (K-3, Except Monday classes & Goodsky):  We read "The Secret Lives of Squirrels" by Nancy Rose from our Washington Children's Choice Picture Book Award nominee poster.  This photo story tells about Mr. Peanuts as he prepares his home for a visit from Cousin Squirrel.  We looked at the end matter in the book where we found information about wildlife photography and a Question and Answer section with the author that describes how she created the scenes and enticed the squirrels to visit. If there was time we watched a couple of short videos showing squirrels figuring out obstacle courses (link below). Vocabulary words: chattering, penmanship, vacuums, scrumptious.

Thursday, January 21 was Squirrel Appreciation Day. Click on the link for more information!  Squirrel Video, Secret Lives Slide Show (YouTube may not be available at school)

Grade 2 (Goodsky):  We reviewed what we learned about magazines last week and then we worked in table groups to explore magazine titles we have at Sherwood.  Students looked for title, audience, topic, and advertisement.

Grade 4: We learned about the Best Book Program and learned about some of the titles on this year's best book list. We'll learn about the rest of the books next week.  Mr. Gibson's class also completed their strong passwords assessment.

Grades 5 & 6:  We continued to learn about the titles on this year's best book list.  We'll finish next week.

Professional:  Laminated book covers, checked in Scholastic News issues, cataloged magazines and a few donated books. Continued looking for donors for our Donor's Choose Grant (we're have less than $200 left to have donated), Made arrangements for the 3rd grade Sno-Isle reading challenge. Created a book list with call numbers from the Book Whisperer appendix.  Attended this week's staff meeting and Foundation for Edmonds SD ambassador meeting.  I also had my annual formal observation and pre-observation meeting.  As usual, I troubleshot several tech issues around the building.

This week in the Library: January 11-15

It's Kindness for All Week at Sherwood.  Here's what we did in library class during the week,.

Primary Classes (K-3, except Mrs. Goodsky):  We read "Lifesize Ocean" by Anita Ganeri from our Washington Children's Choice Picture Book Award nominee poster.   This book shared information about 12 ocean animals and will be shelved in our Classified (non-fiction) Section.  We discussed the table of contents and how it can be used to help with research.  We also looked at the end matter that had even more information about the animals. Vocabulary words: contents, camouflaged, ferocious, venomous.

Grade 2 (Goodsky):  We created a poster about the Magazine section.  We learned that magazines were periodicals, have a specific audience, and a certain topic.  We also discussed how and why some magazines have advertising.  We will explore more about magazines next week.

Grade 4: We continued our unit on digital citizenship.  Mr. Gibson's class shared out their work on creating strong and weak passwords for a famous person (they found details about the person from a biography).  Mrs. Mindt's class took a short assessment on creating strong passwords.

Grades 5 & 6:  The Best Book program was described and a few of this year's titles were shared in book talks.  We will learn about the other titles in the next few weeks.

Professional:  Read "The Book Whisperer" by Donalyn Miller, a great book about independent reading for kids and ideas for teaching reading and sharing books.  Troubleshot technology issues around the school.  Found folks to support our Donor's Choose grant (less than $300 left to find!).  Prepared for my upcoming lesson observation.  Sent date suggestions to the public library for our upcoming 3rd grade reading challenge school contest.

Library project on Donor's Choose

Our grant request to Donor's Choose was approved.  We now wait for people to fund the project.  If you know anyone who can help send them this link.  Also, any donations by Jan. 18 w/ the code LIFTOFF will be doubled by Donor's Choose!

Building a Library STEM Makerspace Can Be a Snap!