This Week In The Library: May 9 -12

With testing beginning this week for 5th grade, the library is a busy place.  Especially since it serves as a test center.  Here's what we did during library classes this week.  There was no school on Friday due to an inservice day. If your class was on Friday, turn your books in next week.

Kindergarten: We sorted our drawing from last week.  Students came up with at least two different ways to sort our pet drawings.  Some of the ideas students had was (land, air, water), (2 legs, 4 legs, 6 legs, 8 legs, and 0 legs).

Grade 1 & 2: We read "Officer Buckle and Gloria" by Peggy Rathman.  Next week we will create "safety stars."  Students need to come up with a safety tip to write on their star.

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

Grade 3 (Pawling): Heard "Ugly Pie" by Lisa Wheeler.  We looked at the foreshadowing in the illustrations and we also noted that this book has end matter (a recipe for ugly pie!)

Grade 4/5 (Thursday Classes only):  We began a short digital citizenship unit called "picture perfect." We are looking at how images are photo shopped, especially for advertising, and how that affects one's self-image.  We watched a video from Dove Soap that shows the transition.  VIDEO LINK

Grade 6 (Combined & Bogert): We began an assignment on reading transportation schedules using a train schedule.

ESD Foundation Breakfast

Professional: Helped with the coordination of the state SBA testing at Sherwood.  I attended the Foundation for Edmonds School District breakfast at Lynnwood HS.  Conducted the Sherwood Battle of the Best Books (our top 2 teams - Book Squirrels & Four Bookiniers advanced to districts).  Attended the staff meeting during the inservice time focusing on Common Core standards and scheduling for the next school year.  I also continued to work on processing the donated books and reviewed some books for PSC.

Two Teams Advance to District Batte

Congratulations to the Book Squirrels and the Four Bookiniers.  They were the top two teams at the Sherwood Battle of the Books and will represent us at the District Competition.  The competition was close (results below) and all of the teams should be congratulation for their reading.  The District Battle will be on Friday, May 20 in the Brier Elementary Gym.  Good Luck!

Place	Score	Team Name
1	36	Four Bookineirs
2	34	Book Squirrels
3	33	3.14159265358979323
4	25	Seahawk Kids
5	18	4 Book Boys

Sherwood Battle of the Best Books is This Week

Bring your team (Grades 4-6) of up to 4 people to the library on Thursday, May 12 at 12:15 for the Sherwood Battle of the Best Books.  If you don't have a team, come anyway!  We will put people together to make a team.  Bring your lunch as we will work through lunch time.

The top two teams will represent Sherwood at the district competition on May 20!  Good luck to all!

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.

This Week in the Library: April 25 - 29

I Can't believe that April is coming to a close.  It has been a busy month and a busy week.  Here's what we did in the library this week:

Kindergarten: We read "A Dragon in a Wagon" by Jane Moncure.  Then students drew small pictures of a mode of transportation.  Then we sorted the pictures into land, water, and air (each topic had a hula hoop to place them in).  Students also figured out what to do if a picture fell into 2 categories.  We made a Venn Diagram.

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

Grade 1 (Hirst): Alphabetized the words from "And To Think I Saw It On Mulberry Street" by Dr. Seuss as a class.

Grade 2: Mr. Sonnen demonstrated how to use the library search station.  This can be accessed on any computer anywhere in the world with an internet connection (find Sherwood and select library).  We learned how to do a basic search, look at results, and write the call number and title on scratch paper.  This will help us find books in the library!

Grade 3: Worked in pairs using the library catalog.  Students practiced finding books using title, author, and subject.

Grade 4: We looked at a news article and found the information we would need to create an citation for this type of source.

Grade 5: We continued our digital citizenship learning regarding talking online.  We looked at a list of things one should consider with their parents/guardians before using social sites online. We will wrap up this unit next week.

Grade 6: Worked on our Book Spine Poems.  We talked about how the background of a slide might distract from the creator's message.

Professional: Finished reading "Mindful Tech: How to Bring Balance to Our Digital Lives" by David M. Levy.  An interesting read about how overwhelming tech can be in our lives.  Began reading "Reading in the Wild" by Donalyn Miller.  It is a follow-up to "The Book Whisperer" that I read earlier this year.  I also read some book that I'll review for Puget Sound Book Review Council.  I prepared and presented the district's SBA Proctor Training to the Sherwood staff to prepare for the upcoming testing in grades 3-6.  I served on a panel for a discussion with prospective Edmonds librarians at the ESC on Tuesday evening. I had my final evaluation observation of the year on Tuesday and met with my evaluator before and after the observation.  I also organized and scheduled Edith Farrar's visit to Sherwood in June.  She will be sharing Sno-Isle Libraries Summer Reading Program with students in Grades K-3.  I did some tech trouble shooting which included: classroom sound systems, document camera/display units, laptops, and some connectivity issues.

Battle of the Best Books is Coming Soon!

Dates for the Battle of the Best Books:

School Battle - Thursday, May 12.  Sherwood Library. 12:15 - 12:50 (we might go into lunch time depending on number of teams participating, if so, we'll break to get lunches and then finish while eating!)

District Battle - Friday, May 20, Brier Elementary Gym. 10 am (top 2 Sherwood teams attend)

This Week In The Library: April 18-22

Another bee-sy week in the library (Gr/1-2 did their "Going Buggy" musical on Thursday hence the insect joke).  Here's what we did in library classes:

Kindergartener. reads one of the
transportation books to his class.

Kindergarten: We looked at the definition of "transportation" and then we looked at 4 short books on different forms of transportation (both fiction & informative).  We shared examples of modes of transportation.

Grade 1 (Gordon/Bonnell): We alphabetized the words we brainstormed from "And To Think I Saw It On Mulberry Street." We had to look to the second or even the third letter to alphabetize some of the words.

Grade 1 (Hirst): We listened to "And To Think I Saw If On Mulberry Street" by Dr. Seuss.  We learned that this was Dr. Seuss's first children's book, written in 1937 (we calculated it was published 79 years ago!).  Then we created word card from the nouns (people, places, things) in the book.  We will use these card next week to work on alphabetizing

Grade 2: We created a poster for the Biography Section which is now hanging up in the library.  We learned where the biography section is, what kind of books it contains, how the books are arranged, and some good 2nd grade level biographies students might like to read.

Grade 3 (Keating/Pawling): We had hands-on practice time for some techniques in using the search stations that we learned last week.  Students worked in partners on the computers.

Grade 3 (Liker):  We heard "The Cat, The Dog, Little Red, The Exploding Eggs, The Wolf, and Grandma" by Diane and Christyan Fox. A book focused on dialogue.

Grade 4: We continued our digital citizenship learning.  We looked at the things one would need to find to complete a citation for an online resource.

Grade 5: We continued out digital citizenship learning.  We discussed how someone might feel if they are asked personal questions by an online friend.

Grade 6 (Combined Group/Bogert: We began creating book spine poems for National Poetry Month.  Student would in small groups to find books, use their Chromebooks to take a photo, and then place the image in a Google slide show.

Grade 6 (Hanson):  We had extended book selection and reading time.  (Mr. Sonnen was at an appointment and we had a problem with Google Classroom)

Professional: Attended a "Teacher Librarians and NGSS (Next Generation Science Standards): A Natural Phenomenon" workshop on Saturday 4/17.  I learned about the new standards and how the library can support students and staff with these new standards.  Subscribed to "Horn Book" magazine.  This is a publication that reviews children's books and materials.  I used personal funds to subscribe.  Attended the reception for the 3rd grade poster contest winners at the Edmonds Public Library and helped hand out certificates, then we heard author Trudi Trueit speak.  I also completed at lesson for a book on next year's WCCPBA  that will be added to the state wiki.