Primary School Library Diva: November 2013

This week in the library 1st grade friends continued working on their writing.

We started out by setting the purpose for our writing. Tom Turkey has disguised himself as a pigeon to keep from being eaten on Thanksgiving! He needs everyone's help to convince people to eat hot dogs instead of turkey for their holiday meal! Next, my kiddos brainstormed, from the turkey's point of view, good reasons to eat hot dogs on Thanksgiving. See our anchor chart here:

In Kindergarten we shared are Turkey disguises. We hung them all in the hallway. Thanks to Gabby, they were hung up as soon as we finished sharing them. Gabby is Mrs. Dunlap's High School class helper. Kindergarten students were so happy and excited to share their crafts they created. I have had so many people comment on the turkeys and their disguises. Parents, grandparents, visitors, teachers and students have all enjoyed seeing the turkeys in the hall. Way to go Kindergarten!

Our fact of the week was shared by our 1st grade friends, after sharing what we already knew about turkeys and what we learned after reading about turkeys.

This is such a fun mystery. It is a mystery but it isn't scary at all. It is a seies I love to share when we talk about mysteries. It is so funny and when you find out what happened to the jelly donut you laugh out loud. Love this series by Denys Cazet.

Book club is moving right along and I'm finishing up Beth Harbison's latest book. My next book choice is called Angels at the Table by Debbie Macomber This choice will fulfill my holiday reading selection.

Well I have done it once again, I signed up for another swap... This one is through Chaotic Goddess Swaps: Called 12 Days Of Christmas Swaps. http://cgswaps.blogspot.com/2013/11/12-days-of-christmas-swap-signups.html

Fill a package with 12 individually-wrapped gifts that your partner will love. You get to open one gift per day, from December 13th through December 24th! If this is something you might enjoy check it out.

Happy reading,

Mrs.Shamhart

Teddy Bear Week

This week we celebrated Teddy Bear week with Kindergarten in the library. Sharing wonderful stories about Teddy bears and sharing some of our own fun stories as well. We read Corduroy by Don Freeman, Little Teddy Left Behind by Ann Mangan and Teddy Bear by David Mcphail.
We also talked about "Living and Non Living Things"...this is a lesson they have already discussed in their classrooms and I was very pleased to see just how much and how many of them remembered.
See our anchor chart we created:

On Thursday, Kindergarten received a turkey that they took home to disguise. Students will share in the fun, with their family. In an effort to avoid Farmer Mack Nugget in serving their turkey for Thanksgiving dinner. This project isn't due in until Wednesday, November 13th but I have already received a bunch of awesome disguised turkeys. This has been so much fun. See a few I have collected so far:

I can't wait to see what other disquises they choose to use. I will post a wall photo as soon as possible.

In First grade my friends and I are working on a fun Thanksgiving project which will take several visits to the library. First we read the story T'was The Night Before Thanksgiving by Dav Pilkey

we brainstormed about how we might disguise our turkey. We started making connections to other stories and decided to use Mo Willems character "The Pigeon" In doing so, we read the book Pigeon Finds a Hotdog.

We thought, in order to save our turkey maybe we could try to persuade our families to eat hotdogs instead of turkey on Thanksgiving. This writing assignment and turkey/pigeon we will create this coming week. We already have started coming up with some great reasons to eat hotdogs instead of turkey. I think parents and families will be impressed.

My friend Caryss and her family donated pumpkins to our library. A great big thank you to West Country Mart for your donation!

Fact of the week in the library was created by our pumpkin investigation last week.

Ms. S. selected our book of the week. What an appropriate book!!! Kevin Henkes Old Bear is a wonderful story: It's already snowing when Old Bear settles in his cave, ready to hibernate for the winter. He has a dream that it's spring and he's a cub again. His dream continues through summer, autumn, and winter. When he wakes, it really is spring. What a wonderful story to explain the different seasons. Not to mention the fact that many first graders have been working on an author study of Kevin Henkes. They have loved reading and comparing all of his books and learning about his writing style and beginning to recognize his illustrations.

UPDATE: Charlie Hinkle sent me a message this past week and this is what he said:

Today, many Soldiers started receiving care packages from XXXX Primary School in KS. Of the Soldiers that I saw receive them, they were very excited and grateful for the gift. It made their day. I would like to extend a special thanks to Tula Shamhart and the staff for coordinating and organizing the packages. A lot of work and a lot of love went into those packages. Even before I left from work tonight, one of Soldiers was drafting up an email to the teacher and the class that left him a card in his box. Thank you Tula and teachers and students.

On another note....

The reading challenge is going great!

I finished the book TheWitches Daughter by Paula Brackston

The Witch's Daughter is an entertaining and moving story. A book worth reading! I was entranced from the beginning until the end. Paula Brackston did a wonderful job giving her main character a unique and believable voice. She did what a lot of authors sometimes fail to do; she made Bess believable. The reader will find themselves sucked into another world and time. The story spans several decades and uses several historical events as back drops for Bess's story.

This is for the person who likes to be transported away sometimes of a fantastical and wholly unique world. One were witches can be good, some bad and the struggle between the two. This being said you won't be disappointed. For a Halloween week read this was AWESOME!

The book I am currently reading is:

Beth Harbison's newest novel!!!

Beth Harbison is one of my most favorite authors! Most all of her books are laugh out loud funny. I haven't been disappointed in one of her books this far and I am hoping for a fun read with her latest book. I will keep you posted on this latest book next week.

Great news my slant box came in, from my new friend Ashley.