Greetings from the Washington Library!
As we begin 2014, here’s a snapshot of some of the activities that have been
happening in the library this school yearKindergarten- We’ve been doing a lot of reading and discussing books (parts of a
book and characters/story). Students have been checking out books since the
beginning of the school year, and have been looking for books independently, and
practicing reading words and/or looking at the pictures to help understand the
story. We’ve completed our first K-LEAP unit – Laundry, and will begin Construction
soon, stay tuned!
1st Grade- When you’re in first grade at Washington, you get to check out a book
and take it home! We hope you’ve enjoyed reading some of the books your child
has brought home this year. As a whole class, we’ve been reading books from the
Monarch book award list, and in March, students will vote for their favorite book
from the list. We’ll send our votes in to the state committee who will count all the
votes from participating schools to decide the winner of the Monarch book award.
2nd Grade-We’ve also been reading books from the Monarch list, but have been
reading books that are a bit more challenging. One of the books we’ve read, was
Balloons Over Broadway, by Melissa Sweet. This is a biography based on Tony Sark,
the person responsible for the giant puppet balloons in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day
Parade in New York City. Each second grade student drew their own balloon design
that they would like to see in the parade. Be on the lookout for their drawings soon
in the hallways of Washington. Second grade students are now checking out two
books per visit to the library!
Third Grade-Our focus in third grade has been on book awards; why books win
awards, what type of awards, and what group of authors/illustrators would be
included in a particular book award. We have read books from the Pura Belpre
Award list. This award is given to outstanding Latino/Latina writers and
illustrators of children’s and young adult books. One of the titles we read is called;
The Storyteller’s Candle, by Lucia Gonzalez. The story is based on the life of Pura
Belpre who was a Puerto Rican immigrant that became the first Spanish speaking
librarian at the New York Public Library in 1921. We’ve previewing books from the
Bluestem list, which is also a state award book list.
Fourth Grade- I tell these students that this is their year for becoming the house
“experts” on using the electronic library catalog, Follett Destiny. If you have internet
access (anywhere) you can check to see what books we have on the shelf in our
library. All fourth grade students have been working on writing and posting book
reviews for books we have in our library. Have your 4th grader share the catalog
with you, and pick out some books you’d like to read together! Many of our fourth
and fifth grade students are participating Desafío de los libros, or Battle of the
Books, and reading from the list of books in those programs.
Fifth Grade – In the library we are focusing attention on reference materials (books,
almanacs, encyclopedias, dictionaries, thesaurus, and atlases). Students have been
introduced to all of these through the years, but this is the year we are working to
put them all together for more involved research. We discuss book versus online
resources, Google versus using a database, etc. We have important discussions
about using time effectively while making sure we are using reliable and accurate
resources. District 65 has a wealth of online subscriptions for databases, ask your
student to show you what is available to help with homework, and inquire about a
wealth of topics!
Please feel free to contact me by phone or email (preferred), if you have any
questions or concerns.
Ms. Connolly
connollyp@district65.net
847-905-4905