This Week...
Kindergarten classes worked on nursery rhymes. A letter went home explaining our assignment for the next 2 weeks. We will be learning 16 new rhymes. Mrs. Christner, our music teacher and I collaborated to bring together these rhymes. I introduce them to the students and Mrs. Christner includes some of them into their spring music program.
I often have parents ask me why I teach classic nursery rhymes? My simplest answer is that they are fun. Nursery rhymes introduce young listeners to story structure in its most basic form. There's an orientation- Peter Pumpkin Eater has a wife. There's a problem- He's having trouble keeping her - and, there's a resolution- He puts her in a pumpkin shell and there he keeps her very well.
Nursery rhymes also introduce children to a cast of characters who are likely to reappear throughout their school lives. Nursery rhymes also greatly enrich young children's developing vocabularies.
Please make sure to practice the rhyme your child selected to recite to the class.
1st grade classes continued to work on fairy tales. We read and discussed several fairy tales we read Rumplestiltskin by Jonathon Langley and Hansel and Gretal by Cynthia Rylant. We also, continued to discuss, retell and compare Jack and the Beanstalk by Stephen Kellogg. We made a check list to confirm that it met with our fairy tale criteria (what makes a fairy tale a fairy tale). It's a great time to share your favorite fairy tale with your child.
Book It Forward
We have been plugging along with our book it forward program. We have booked forward over 125 book thus far. We have another week to go, I am hoping to double it. If you are just tuning in you can see the video depicting The Kid President who has established this program and who we are trying to help reach his goal of 10,000 books forwarded.
It really has been exciting for the kiddos. I'm really impressed at how some of our kiddos are coming out of their comfort zone and walking up to another student/students and giving them a book. It really is something to see. I love it. Please continue to book it forward, we will continue until Friday, January30th.
Creating a Book Club....
I am working on putting together an after school book club for K-1 kiddos (this may not come to pass till next year). I am struggling a bit in planning and designing. I am working with several other librarians who actively have afterschool book clubs but none of them are strictly primary level. Please message me if you have feed back about this project, I would love to hear from you. tshamhart@abileneschools.org
Book Reviews and Book Club Party
This past weekend we had our book club and shared and reviewed our first book choice.
I was excited to read this book because I really enjoyed Before I Fall which I read over a year ago.
The Rooms by Lauren Oliver: This book lured me in slowly, weaving its spiderwebs around me until I realized I was completely caught up. There's this lovely balance of delicacy and subtlety and harshness and for all of its ghostly elegance a certain humanity in Oliver's writing style, which meant that even the least likable characters felt closely studied and authentic. The true mastery of her writing, though, is how the story's deeper implications slyly creep up on you and then consume you. I love that through the many narrative threads, there's also this layer of the book-within-the-book woven through out and insisting on its own place and power within the characters', and reader's, minds. I wouldn't call this book "tragic" or even "sad," and yet it does painstakingly examine loneliness of many different kinds, and had me in tears throughout parts of the second half. For a ghost story it was so much more. We as a group will highly recommend it.
We also had our version of a new years book party, setting off our 1st meeting of 2015. Here are some photos of the awesome book club party.
Our hostess Janet had our next selection which she won from Reading Group Choices (check it out). We also had a book swap bag and book mark waiting for us. It was a wonderful time with good friends, good books and good food. What a wonderful way to celebrate 2015.
During our party/ meeting and introduction of our newest book... Landline by Rainbow Rowell we decided to have our February meeting be All My Favorite Things Party. I can't wait to share all our favorite things right here. Each of us compiles a basket or bag of some of our favorite things. We made a $50 limit. Each item will get a number and each of us will pull a number and that is the basket/bag we receive. A great way to share and introduce some of our favorite things and to try some new items out. Looking forward to it.
Superbowl
This weekend we will be enjoying the Super Bowl with all the controversy (which thus far has overshadowed much of the anticipation), the commercials ( I love them), the snacks (which I will try to not over indulge) and wonderful company. Each year we have a super bowl party because my hubby is football crazy. None the less it is always a good time with lots of fun. I am cheering on the Seahawks again this year.
