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Tuesday, February 6, 2018

HFSM Reading Olympics!

HFSM Students started their Reading Olympics challenge today!

For the challenge, students will read 5 book from 5 categories!


As students complete each challenge, they will get to put their name in the rings to track their progress!

Students will be competing for "medals".

The awards go as follows:
1-2 categories completed = Bronze
3-4 categories completed = Silver
5 categories completed = Gold

Gold medalists will also go into a drawing for a new book!

The kids also get to track their progress on charts.


Kindergarten and first grade will read from the following categories:

  • Easy Reader (independently, if possible)
  • Easy Chapter Book (Co-reading, if possible)
  • Picture Book
  • Bible Story
  • Sports or Animal Nonfiction
These kids will get a slash when they check out a book from each category and an X when they've read the book and returned it!



2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade students will read from the following categories:

  • Biography or Sports
  • Religious/Bible Story
  • Award Winner or Classic
  • Fiction (a new to me author)
  • Folktale
These students will fill out a Google Form (found here).  Once the form is recieved, the students' progress is tracked on the chart.

The kids are super excited about this challenge!

Thank you parents for encouraging them along the way!


Friday, December 1, 2017

1st Grade Self-Portraits

As the year movies rapidly on, all of our students are using technology more in classrooms and in the library!

In this smartphone and tablet world, children are already very tech savvy.  However, it quickly became apparent that some of our younger students are so accoustomed to touch screens that using a mouse on our desktop computers was a bit perplexing!

So this week, we decided to have a little fun!  The students practiced their mouse skills while creating a self-portrait using Paint!

It was a very fun activity for the students and the students are getting much more confident in their computer skills.


Friday, November 10, 2017

Kindergarten Readers!

Our Kindergarteners continued learning about Caldecott awards last week!  



Specifically, the Kindergarteners looked at Caldecott award winning wordless books!



They did an amazing job taking turns telling the stories the pictures told in the books!



The kids took turns reading The Strawberry Snatcher, The Grey Lady and the Strawberry Snatcher, A Ball for Daisy, and The Red Book.

It's a little hard to hear (the kids were loving this activity) but you can see their excitement and love of these wordless books!


Thursday, November 9, 2017

Caldecott Activity: You be the Illustrator!

Our first and second graders are continuing their study of Caldecott award winners.

Today, Mrs. Lents read the 1957 Caldecott winner, A Tree is Nice by Janice Udry.  However, the kids heard the story without seeing any of the pictures!  Next, they were asked to illustrate their favorite part of the text!  Check out the slide show to see a few examples of their work!


After they finished, the kids shared their work with one another, then we looked through the book again, so they could compare their illustrations with the ones from the book.  And, of course, they were awarded their own Caldecott sticker for their fabulous work!

See the Youtube video below if you'd like to hear the story too!


Thursday, November 2, 2017

Caldecott Medal Winners

Today our Kindergarteners, 1st Graders, and 2nd Graders talked about Caldecott Books.

The Caldecott Medal is named after famed 19th Century English illustrator, Randolph Caldecott.

Each year, one book, chosen by a committee from the American Library Association, pick one Cadelcott Medal winner (and runners up the Caldecott Honor) for outstanding illustrations in a picture book.


We started by reading one of Mrs. Lents' favorites, Click, Clack Moo, Cows that Type by Doreen Cronin.

Click, Clack, Moo: Cows That Type

Then, students looks through the rest of the Caldecott books in our library (and there were a lot!) and looked for similarities between the books.


Students noticed:
-life-like drawings
-bright colors
-funny pictures
-pictures that told the story
-lots of detail in the pictures

We are look forward to exploring more Caldecott books next week!

Can 5th Graders Check Out Picture Books?

Last week, one of our 5th graders asked if it was ok to still check out picture books.

The answer was a resounding, "yes!"

Today we discussed the value of picture books from award winners like Jumanji by Chris Van Allsburg to the popular folktale, The Rough-Faced Girl by Rafe Martin which are intended for older students.

Then we read the one-word book, Moo by David LaRochelle.  

Moo!

Why would a one-word book be good for 5th grade?  After reading the story, the students rewrote the text imagining what the words might have said.



The students had a blast rewriting the story!