Welcome September

 Welcome September...

Where did summer go?

Gerry Brooks:

Many of you have seen Gerry Brooks on social media. His school oriented videos bring to light some of the many things, teachers and school staff deal with, in a school setting. He is just funny. Over the weekend my friend and I went to see him on his Hall Pass Tour.

My Friend Susan McConnell and Gerry Brooks

My purchase at the show.

Kind People are my kind of people.

In the library

All students will be checking out books this first week of September.
Letters were sent home with students to remind parents of check out days. Monday and Wednesday for our 1st graders and Monday and Thursday for our Kindergarten classes.

Mrs. Berns first graders

 on their first check out day of the school year. 

Mrs. Brunner's Kindergarten class
on their first check out day of the school year.

 Mrs. Willey's Kindergarten Class

complete with crowns from our story

 Where The Wild Things Are

By Maurice Sendak

We also have had the first opportunity to go to our Golden Ticket Store. The Golden Ticket Store is an incentive program we use in our school and in our grade schools. Students earn golden tickets for good behavior. Once a week or once every other week students will come to the library to spend their tickets on prizes. Things offered at the store are snacks, books, bookmarks, pencils, pencil top erasers, pencil grippers, gel pens, small notebooks, puzzles, crayons, color books, water bottles, crayon boxes and pencil bags.

Mrs. Berven's First Grade Class

with their purchases from the 

Golden Ticket Store

Read Aloud Reviews

I enjoy lending my view on books in general. I hope one of these books make it into your hands and enables you to share it with a kiddo you love. Trust me they won't be disappointed. 

Toys Go Out This is the first book in a trilogy about a group of toys and their adventures in and out of a girl’s bedroom. The three main toys are Lumphy the buffalo, StingRay, and Plastic, a bouncy ball.  Author Emily Jenkins has a wonderful knack for transferring their emotions, anxieties and joys of childhood experiences and discoveries onto the toys. There is a lot of humor in the book, too, as the toys engage in gentle absurdities, such as when Lumphy intentionally dips himself in peanut butter so he can visit his friend the Washer in the basement, or when Plastic tries to discover just exactly what she is. Readers with a joy and wonder of the incredible (such as myself) will especially enjoy Jenkins’ writing.

  My Father's Dragon Yes, this trilogy of books is on the top of my book list to recommend. I include it here because, frankly, it always takes me by surprise that I still meet people who have never heard of My Father’s Dragon.  Not everyone has had equal exposure to children’s books ( like myself). This is my number one recommendation for a very first chapter read aloud. I am not exaggerating when I say we have read all three books several times. The story follows Elmer, who runs aways with a knapsack full of assorted items like rubber bands and lollipops. He is on a mission to rescue a baby dragon, but he can only do so if he is clever enough to get past a bunch of rather self-absorbed wild animals. It is that good.



  8 Class Pets + 1 Squirrel + 1Dog =Chaos This summer,  I read this read aloud to a group of 1st-3rd graders and the kids laughed so hard during the reading of  this story. The book begins when a dog chases a squirrel into a nearby elementary school. The squirrel runs from classroom to classroom leaving chaos in its wake. Each chapter is narrated in the first person by the various class pets that inhabit the classrooms. The pets range from hamsters to snakes to fish to birds and getting their different perspectives on the ruckus and life in a school is extremely entertaining to say the least.



  The Story of Diva and Flea is a delightfully charming new early chapter book by Mo Willems and illustrated by Tony DiTerlizzi. I recently added this book to our collection in the library because first of all who doesn't love Mo Willems and honestly the story is amazing tale of adventure and friendship. In Paris, the adventurous Flea convinces the intimidated Diva to take a trip around the city to explore the wonder of life outside on the streets. Then Diva assures Flea that inside an apartment isn’t so scary and the two friends embrace how much greater their world is now, for knowing each other.

Happy Reading,
Mrs. Shamhart