April is National Poetry Month

In library this week, I have been teaching my 1st and 2nd grade classes about the poet extraordinaire, Shel Silverstein. Many of the students have seen his famous books, Where the Sidewalk Ends, The Giving Tree and A Light in the Attic. His poems are so funny and timeless. The students thoroughly enjoyed "Sarah Cynthia Sylvia Stout Would Not Take the Garbage Out" and the poem "Dreadful" about someone eating a baby. Yeah, the kids could not stop laughing at that one.

Doug Florian is another author whose poems are enjoyable, but I did not have any of his books in the media center. Must work on getting some.

Read Across America Spirit Week at Spring Valley February 29-March 4, 2016

Read Across America Spirit Week was a lot of fun at Spring Valley. March 2 is the actual Read Across America Day, Dr. Seuss's birthday, and I put on my Cat in the Hat Costume to celebrate. Anything for the kids, right! Our themes for each day were:

Monday-I AM Not Going to Get Up Today-dress in pajamas
Tuesday-Green Eggs and Ham-dress in green
Wednesday-Dr. Seuss's Birthday-dress as your favorite book/book character
Thursday-Fox in Socks-wear your tackiest socks/wackiest clothes
Friday-Oh, the Places You'll Go-dress as the career you want to be when you grow up

February Focus at Spring Valley Media Center

For the month of February with grades 3-5 I will be focusing on presidents. Presidents Day is in February and many students do not know much about Presidents of the United States. We will learn about the various biographies on presidents in the library and watch a video on President Abraham Lincoln. Students will then do mini research on NCWISE OWL on a president of their choice.

I have two favorite biographies on President Lincoln. Lincoln: A Photobiography by Russell Freedman and Abe's Honest Words: The Life of Abraham Lincoln by Doreen Rappaport. Students thoroughly enjoy learning about President Lincoln, especially during Black History Month. They can clearly see the connections with African-Americans.

Anansi the Spider Stories

I admit it. I love Anansi the Spider stories. Every month for Black History, I always say I am going to do something different, but I always come back to the Anansi stories. Why? Because they are so good!

Every time I read them to my students, they gobble them and always, ALWAYS want to check them out. The versions by Eric Carle are the best, in my honest opinion.

The lessons in these folktales are numerous. They teach students about honesty, consequences of choices, being on our best behaviors, and the importance of being nice to people.

A Story, A Story by Gail E. Haley is a good version, too.

Caldecott and Newbery Award Winners for 2016

For the month of January, I have been sharing with all grade levels the Caldecott and Newbery Award books. In grades K-2, we have read Kitten's First Full Moon by Kevin Henkes (Caldecott winner in 2005), The Adventures of Beekle: The Unimaginary Friend by Dan Santat (Caldecott Winner in 2015) and This is Not My Hat by Jon Klassen (Caldecott winner in 2013). So far students have really enjoyed listening to these titles and afterwards, they go searching for the Caldecott books in the media center to check out.

For grades 3-5, I have been sharing Newbery Award books with these students. I have many Newbery  favorites, but my favorite Newbery award book is Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred Taylor. I was so excited that the cover was redone by children's book illustrator Kadir Nelson for the 40th anniversary edition. I haven't read it in a while, but I think I will so I can share this awesome book with my students.

I was so surprised that the picture book, Last Stop on Market Street, was selected to win the 2016 Newbery Award. Usually picture books aren't selected for this prestigious award. I purchased the book at my fall Scholastic Book Fair because of it being one of books nominated for the North Carolina Children's Book Award. I was so excited that I purchased a book before it won. I never have done that before. Finding Winnie by Lindsay Maltick, illustrated by Sophie Blackall won the 2016 Caldecott Award. 

Happenings in Spring Valley Media Center for the week of October 12-16

This is going to be a busy week this week. First of all the Fall Scholastic Book Fair will open up on Thursday night, October 15 for Hispanic Heritage Night. The book fair will be open to all families from 5:00-7:00 pm.  The book fair will run from Friday, October 16-Friday, October 23.

As far as student learning goes, I will be focusing on genres with grades 3-5. Last time, students in these grades were learning about Destiny online catalog. This time around I want to do some book talking with these grades levels and the Information and Technology Essential Standards (ITES) specifically wants students to learn about genres, so doing book talks along with genre studies is a great way to tie both topics together. The books that I am going to book talk are How to Steal a Dog by Barbara O'Connor and Ungifted by Gordon Korman.

For first and second grade, we will do some computer work. I am going to introduce them to the Capstone ebook library. With kindergarten, we did an author study on the great author and illustrator Tomie dePaola. Now we are going to focus on Peter Brown, another wonderful author and illustrator. Just like Tomie dePaola, Peter Brown has several terrific books to choose from. The one I know the kindergarteners will love is Creepy Carrots by Aaron Reynolds. Peter Brown did the illustrations on this book and it was a Caldecott Honor winner.

Elementary Battle of the Books

We are getting started on the Elementary Battle of the Books here at Spring Valley.

Here is a link to the EBOB list for the 2015-2016 School Year.

I have 10 wonderful students participating this year at Spring Valley. From what I understand, this is the first year that Spring Valley has participated at the district level for Battle of the Books. It is going to be a blast!