This Week in the Library: January 23-26

This was a quick week with Thursday being a half day and Friday being an inservice day.  If you missed library class this week, your books are due next week!  Here's what we did in classes this week.

Kindergarten (Widener): We heard "What the Dinosaurs Did Last Night" by Refe and Susan Tuma.  This book was created using plastic dinosaurs and taking photographs.  It is on our Washington Children's Choice Picture Book Award nominee list. Vocabulary: slobber, Picasso, messy. AUTHOR INTERVIEW

Kindergarten (Cook & Morehouse): We listened to "Hippos are Huge!" by Jonathan London.  We learned about the most dangerous animal in Africa.  Vocabulary: monstrous, chomp, nostrils, tidbits.  VIDEO  African Cam

Grade 1 (Hirst): We heard "What the Dinosaurs Did Last Night" by Refe and Susan Tuma.  This book was created using plastic dinosaurs and taking photographs.  It is on our Washington Children's Choice Picture Book Award nominee list. Vocabulary: slobber, Picasso, messy. AUTHOR INTERVIEW

Grade 1 (Gordon): We listened to "Hippos are Huge!" by Jonathan London.  We learned about the most dangerous animal in Africa.  Vocabulary: monstrous, chomp, nostrils, tidbits. VIDEO  African Cam

Grade 2 (except Holt): We listened to "Hippos are Huge!" by Jonathan London.  We learned about the most dangerous animal in Africa.  Vocabulary: monstrous, chomp, nostrils, tidbits. VIDEO  African Cam

Grade 3 (Keating): We took an online coding pre-assessment to prepare for our upcoming coding unit.

Grade 3 (Pawling): We listened to "Hippos are Huge!" by Jonathan London.  We learned about the most dangerous animal in Africa.  Vocabulary: monstrous, chomp, nostrils, tidbits. VIDEO  African Cam

Grade 4-6: We continued to work on our best book exploration project.

Professional: Attended mu library collaborative group meeting at Chase Lake Elem. on Thursday afternoon.  Re-shelved the biography and everybody A-H on the new shelves we obtained from surplus.  The new sections look great!  Helped organize and work with Mrs. Keating's 3rd graders on using their new chromebooks.  Students paired up with 5th graders from Mr. Wildenhaus's class to learn how to log in, bookmark important pages, and use some applications.  I also found and checked out ancient Egypt books for the 6th grade and reader's night books for kindergarten.  I worked with Edith Farrar from Edmonds Public Library to set a date for our 3rd grade reading challenge - school level contest.

3rd Grade Reading Challenge - In School Competition

The Sno-Isle 3rd Grade Reading Challenge In-School Competition was held in the library on Tuesday, March 8.  Miss Edith from the Edmonds Public Library conducted the challenge and Miss Becky from Sherwood served as judge and scorekeeper.  5 teams competed from Sherwood's 3rd grade classes.  The winning team was Lightning Brains!

They will compete in the Lynnwood area semi-final on Tuesday, March 22 in the Lynnwood HS Gym at 6:30pm against teams from Brier, Maplewood, Edmonds, James Monroe, Forest View, and Silver Firs.  Come cheer our team on!

Here are the results from our school contest:

Lightning Brains     110
Kangaroos          105
Speed Readers          100
Rad Readers          85
Super Readers          85

Congratulations to all of the students who participated this year.  You did an amazing job!

Parents, please remember to turn in the Post Challenge Parent Survey by Friday, March 18.  

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.

This Week in the Library: November 30 - December 4

Wow! Our first full week in the library in a long time!  We're getting back to normal routines as we head toward Winter Break.  Here's what we did in classes:

Primary Classes (K-3):  We read "Big Bad Bubble" by Adam Rubin from our Washington Children's Choice Picture Book Award nominee list.  This funny book looks at the monsters of La La Land as they learn that their fear of bubble is unfounded.  We discussed why they were afraid and how they might overcome other fears in the future.  The author presented the simple lesson of "don't believe everything you hear."  Vocabulary words: disappear, reappear, feeding frenzy.  Related Links:   Book Trailer (YouTube - may be blocked @ school)  Homemade Bubble Mixture

Grade 4: We did a pre-assessment for an upcoming unit on digital citizenship.  I'll use the data to adjust lessons to maximize our library class time.

Grades 5 & 6:  We completed a reading interest survey to determine our reading superhero personas.  Next time we'll look at the personas and decide if they match us or not.  These will also be used as I introduce our 2016 Best Books.

Professional:  A busy week: troubleshooting technology in classrooms and the library, preparing data for the upcoming Chromebook deployment, preparing books earned from the book fair to enter our library catalog.  Pulled gingerbread books for the first grade and found books for new ELL students.  I also distributed the team copies of 3rd grade reading challenge books to teachers and collected survey forms to return to Sno-Isle Libraries.  Handed out WCCPBA packets to primary teachers so they can begin reading 2016 nominees with their students.  Completed reading "Irrepressible Reformer: A Biography of Melvil Dewey" by Wayne Wiegand.

3rd Grade Reading Challenge - School Contest

Sno-Isle's 3rd Grade Reading Challenge rolled into Sherwood, Tuesday (3/10) morning.  Three teams competed for the opportunity to represent Sherwood at the Semi-finals.  The teams did an awesome job.  Our top team,  Fangaroos, had a perfect score!  The other teams only missed one and two questions.  Jane Lopez-Santillana of Sno-Isle Regional Libraries was the presenter and Edith Farrar from Edmonds Public Library served as judge and scorekeeper.  Special thanks to Mrs. Pawling, Mr. Cooper, and Ms. Becky for working with all of the students who participated.  Good luck to Fangaroos!

The Semi-Final Challenge information is below.  The public is invited to attend and cheer on our team!

Semi-Final Reading Challenge Information

Location: Lynnwood HS Gym
Address: 18218 North Rd., Bothell, WA 98012
Date: Tuesday, March 17
Time: 6:30 PM (participants should arrive early)
Participating school in this semi-final: Cedar Way, Frank Wagner, Hilltop, and Sherwood.