October 19-23, 2009 RABs

Kindergarten: Amos' Sweater by Janet Lunn.

Grade 2: Something from Nothing by Phoebe Gilman.

Grade 3: Bagels from Benny by Aubrey Davis.

Grade 5: In Jesse's Shoes by Beverly Lewis. A bit long but good.

October 12-16, 2009 RABs

Kindergarten: Tiny goes to the Library by Cari Meister.
A great starting point for a discussion about fantasy vs. realistic fiction.

Grade 1: I took my frog to the Library by Eric A. Kimmel.
A funny depiction of a girl who keeps bringing her pets to the Library with disastrous results.

Library Day by Joy Cowley. This is a book in the series called "Sunshine Books" which are usually found as part of the classroom home reading collection. We happen to have a few of them in our Library collection so I shared this story with the Grade Ones. They absolutely loved it!

This was a short week; some classes just came for a quick book exchange.
(Thanksgiving Holiday Monday.)

Thinking out loud

If we (Library Staff) read a different book to each grade level (K-5 would be 6 levels) for 33 weeks, it works out to 198 book titles that we select.

That's looking at about the Top 200 books.

We look for books that have:
-a good read aloud quality
-age appropriateness
-interesting, engaging topics
-moral to the story, illuminates an issue or resonates with the students in some way
-timeliness (fits in with the season) or timelessness (books that endure through the generations)
-shows a particular style in text or in illustrations

The list of favourite read alouds is continually being refined and may change due to availability and the supercession of previously used titles by new book aquisitions.

October 5-9, 2009 RABs

Kindergarten: Emma at the Fair by Margriet Ruurs www.margrietruurs.com

Grade 1: Thanksgiving at the Tappletons' by Eileen Spinelli

Grade 2: The Can-do Thanksgiving by Marion Hess Pomeranc

Grade 3: A Turkey for Thanksgiving by Eve Bunting

Grade 4: It's Thanksgiving by Jack Prelutsky

Grade 5: A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving by Charles M. Schultz

September in the Library

First week of school: Library times are used to sign out texts; Textbook Orientations

Second week of school: First Library Orientation: ANL Ratings explained (Allowable Noise Level); the Library is the Quiet Zone of the school. Students make suggestions for why it is important to be quiet in the Library (many reasons) and if they answer correctly, they can pick up their Library card (game Grades 2-5). Different areas of the Library are outlined. One book is signed out per student K-5. Picture books and fiction books only.

Third week of school: Expanding discussions about ways that students are Library Assistants. Keeping the Library tidy and behaving in a safe manner; emergency procedures in Library are discussed. K-1 Picture books only, 2-5 Picture or chapter book plus a non-fiction book.

Fourth week of school: Book Care

Fifth week of school: K-1 First story time; Picture books and non-fiction books.
Grades 2-5: Explaination of different forms to fill out for books (save a book, request a book someone else has out and suggest a book that the Library doesn't have yet), guidelines for use of forms and also cover computer searching tips to find books that students want. Fiction, non-fiction and magazines loaned out.

Helpful Links for October and November:

October

International School Library Month
http://www.iasl-online.org/events/islm/islm-logos.htm
http://www.iasl-online.org/events/islm/

Canada Book Month
http://www.cla.ca/clm09/

Children's Book Week
http://www.bookaid.org/cms.cgi/site/news/releases/_childrens_book_week.htm

November

Canadian Children's Book Week
http://www.bookcentre.ca/news/call_applications_authors_and_illustrators_interested_touring_td_canadian_childrens_book_week
Every November, in celebration of TD Canadian Children's Book Week, the Canadian Children's Book Centre (CCBC) sends authors, illustrators and storytellers on a cross-Canada tour to give readings, workshops and presentations to children in schools, libraries, community centres and bookstores. This year the Book Week tour will run from Saturday, November 14 to Saturday, November 21, 2009.

June 8 to 12, 2009 RABs

Kindergarten: Atomic Ace : He's Just My Dad by Jeff Weigel.
Grade 1-3: Monster Beach by Betty Paraskevas.
Grade 4: The Empty Pot by Demi.
Grade 5: Part 2 Continued... Boy in Motion Rick Hansen's Story by Ainslie Manson.

June 1 to 5, 2009 RABs

Kindergarten: The Turn Around Upside Down Alphabet Book by Lisa Campbell Ernst.
Grade 1: Micky McGuffin's Ear by John Hall.
Grade 2: Arthur's Tractor by Pippa Goodhart.
Grade 3: Gilbert de la Frogponde : A Swamp Story by Jennifer Rae.
Grade 4: Because Brian Hugged His Mother by David L. Rice.
Grade 5: Part 2 Boy in Motion Rick Hansen's Story by Ainslie Manson.

May 25 to May 29, 2009 RABs

Kindergarten: Kitten's First Full Moon by Kevin Henkes. The pages are the colour of milk. Tongue in cheek with a satisfying ending.
Grade 1-2: Lily's Purple Plastic Purse by Kevin Henkes. When I was a little girl, my mom let me choose a purse from the store. It was a purple purse, of course!
Grade 3: Because Brian Hugged His Mother by David L. Rice. I love this heartwarming book about how a simple act created a chain of kindness through a community in one day.
Grade 4: There Once was a Man name Michael Finnigan adapted by Mary Ann Hoberman. Silly and sweet.
Grade 5: Part 1 Boy in Motion Rick Hansen's Story by Ainslie Manson.

May 18 to May 12, 2009 RABs

Kindergarten: Pete's a Pizza by William Steig. This is one of my all time favourite books in the world. I turned my own son into a pizza this way recently and it was so fun!
Grade 1-3: The Most Amazing Dinosaur by James Stevenson. A destitute rat helps to save the day for his new friends that had taken him in at their museum.
and Miss Fanny's Hat by Jan Karon. A hat becomes something altogether different in this thought provoking and inspiring story of sharing and selflessness.
Grade 4: --
Grade 5: Part 2 of The Seven Chinese Brothers by Margaret Mahy and The Legend of the Indian Paintbrush by Tomie De Paola.

May 11 to May 13, 2009 RABs

Kindergarten- Grade 3: April Rabbits by David Cleveland. A hilarious sequential story, with the day of the month revealing how many rabbits will show up. Notice that the pictures are only line drawings but that enhances the story rather than detracting from it.
Grade 4: My Rotten Red-headed Older Brother by Patricia Polacco.
Grade 5: Seven Chinese Brothers by Margaret Mahy.

May 4 to May 8, 2009 RABs

Kindergarten: The Little Engine That Could by Watty Piper
Grade 1: Fluffy Goes to School and Fluffy's Spring Vacation by Kate McMullan
Grade 2: Just Like Mama by Beverly Lewis
Grade 3-5 : Stanley's Beauty Contest by Linda Bailey

April 20 to May 1, 2009 RABs

Kindergarten: Ducks Don't Wear Socks by David Nedwidek
Grade 1: The Golden Goose by Barbara Reid
Grade 2: Python's Party by Brian Wildsmith
Students clapped after this story!
Grade 3: Python's Party by Brian Wildsmith
Grade 4: Big Jim and the White-legged Moose by Jim Arnosky
Grade 5: Out of the Deeps by Anne Carter

April 20 to April 24, 2009 RABs

Kindergarten: Book! Book! Book! by Deborah Bruss
Grade 1: The Baby Bee Bee Bird by Diane R. Massie
Somebody and the Three Blairs by Marilyn Tolhurst
Grade 2: The Little Wood Duck by Brian Wildsmith
Grade 3: The Little Wood Duck by Brian Wildsmith
Grade 4: The Littlest Sled Dog by Michael Kusugak.
This was a very enjoyable book!
Grade 5: Throw Your Tooth on the Roof by Selby Beeler

April 13 to April 17, 2009 RABs

Kindergarten: The Sweetest Thing by Jean Little
Grade 1: The Great Alphabet Fight by Joni Earickson Tada
Grade 2: Class Two at the Zoo by Julia Jarman
Grade 3: The Baseball Card by Jack Siemeniatycki
Grade 4: Class Two at the Zoo by Julia Jarman
Grade 5: Rain player by David Wisniewski

April 6 to April 10, 2009 RABs

Kindergarten: No Roses for Harry by Gene Zion
Grade 1: Crocodiles Play by Robert Heidbreder;
Easter Egg Haunt by Mike Thaler
Grade 2: Wind Says Goodnight by Katy Rydell
Grade 3: Easter Egg Haunt by Mike Thaler
Grade 4 – 5: Library Monopoly

March 30-April 3, 2009 RABS

Kindergarten: Harry the Dirty Dog by Gene Zion
Grade 1: The King has Goat Ears by Katarina Jovanovic
Grade 2: Horace and Morris Join the Chorus, (But What About Dolores?) by James Howe
Grade 3: Library Monopoly
Grade 4: Non-Fiction Library Bingo by 100s
Grade 5: Non-Fiction Library Bingo by 100s

Lemon the Duck link

Here is the link I forgot to post last time:

http://www.lemontheduck.com/

Enjoy!

March 9-13, 2009 RABs

Kindergarten: Too Many Toys by David Shannon. This author really knows true life! It was as if he had written an episode of my life with my son and his toys... that spill into the living room... his latest obsession being a box which he has decorated as a car that you can watch movies in!

Grade 1: The Boy Who Loved Bananas by George Elliot. A real crowd pleaser with lots of repetition and a humorous twist at the end.

Grade 2: Lemon Duck by Laura Backman. Lemon is not like the other hatchlings... a tender story with a good ending.

Grade 3: Jim and the Beanstalk by Raymond Briggs. This is what I call an "oldie but goodie" (copyright 1970)! A funny story about what happens when Jim climbs up the beanstalk to find that Jack's giant has aged. The old giant is in need of glasses, dentures and a wig. A sweet ending.

Grade 4: Christopher, Please Clean Up Your Room! by Itah Sadu. Christopher's pet fish team up with the cockroaches next door. They go to extremes to try and get Christopher to clean up his room and eventually the stinky fish tank.

Grade 5: Camilla Camelion by Colleen Sydor. Camilla is born with some amazing abilities which make her popular with her classmates AND her teachers!

March 2-6, 2009 RABs

Kindergarten: Piggybook by Anthony Browne.

My son is in one of the Kindergarten classes that I read this book to. You won't believe this but in Church on Sunday, he'd begun looking through my bag and I whispered, "What are you looking for?" He asked me for some food because he was hungry and I told him, "Sorry I didn't bring a snack today but I do have a drinking box." And he retorts, "Okay, I'll just scrounge around for some scraps." So, if you've read the story, you know exactly the body position he took on the pew.... I was perplexed by this and it took me a few seconds to catch on ... (Ohhhhh! In the story, the kids "root" around for scraps against the wall when they run out of groceries.) I'm still shaking my head and laughing....

Grade 1: Dr. Drabble's Spectacular Shrinker-Enlarger; Dr. Drabble and the Dynamic Duplicator by Sigmund Brouwer and Wayne Davidson. (See also: http://www.coolreading.com/)

Grade 2: Goose's story by Cari Best. If you liked the movie: Fly Away Home, you'll also enjoy this book about a goose who arrives at the pond one spring with a mysterious broken leg. (See also: http://us.macmillan.com/author/caribest and http://biography.jrank.org/pages/219/Best-Cari-1951-Sidelights.html)

Grade 3: The Boy Who Ate the World (and the girl who saved it) by Don Gillmor and Pierre Pratt. Students were tickled by this hysterical tall tale.(See also:
http://www.mbwriter.mb.ca/mapindex/g_profiles/gillmor_d.html)

Grade 4: Victory at Paradise Hill by William Roy Brownridge. Brownridge at his captivating best.

Grade 5: Sydney And Norman by Phil Vischer (See also: http://www.philvischer.com/?page_id=70) A parable with a surprising and arresting twist.

February 23-27, 2009 RABs

Kindergarten: Toot and Puddle : Top of the World by Holly Hobbie, now also a tv show (See also: http://www.nationalgeographic.com/tootandpuddle/)

You might remember Holly Hobbie's more famous series "Holly Hobbie and Friends" (http://www.agkidzone.com/hollyhobbie.action)

When I was a little girl I had my very own Holly Hobbie doll but it looked more like this one http://www.amazon.com/Holly-Hobbie-12-Inch-Ragdoll-Blue/dp/B000CEFP0Y/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=toys-and-games&qid=1213021245&sr=1-1

We do have a sampling of Holly Hobby's books available but not a full collection.

Grade 1: Bad Boys by Margie Palatini (See also: http://www.margiepalatini.com/)

Grade 2: She'll be Comin' Round the Mountain by Philemon Sturges (See also: http://www.harpercollinschildrens.com/HarperChildrens/Kids/AuthorsAndIllustrators/ContributorDetail.aspx?CId=12784) This is a book that is hard to read without singing! The story has a twist with students guessing who "she" is until the very end!

Grade 3: Gordon Loggins and the Three Bears by Linda Bailey. We just can't get enough of Linday Bailey in Grade 3. Students in a grade 3 class performed this story as a reader's theatre presentation in their classroom.

Grade 4: Library Lil by Suzanne Williams. (See also: http://www.suzanne-williams.com/) I love this story about an amazing Librarian who manages to turn a whole town of tv watchers into bookworms!

Grade 5: Sister Anne's Hands by Marybeth Lorbieki (see also: http://www.marybethlorbiecki.com/) I have a sheet that the students use to make their own hand to cut out. Then we laminate the hands and make a beautiful bulletin board out of them! We just received the first batch and sent them to the laminator yesterday.

This was also National Freedom to Read Week (www.freedomtoread.ca) (Book and Periodical council). Their slogan states: "The freedom to read what you want is your right. Protect it."

Well, I want to read Christian books and I want to read the Bible! I share with the students that I believe that the Library we have at our school is very special and a treasure because it has Christian Literature in it that is available to our students. Check out http://www.persecution.org/suffering/country_info.php for information about countries where a Library like this could not exist.

We also have a wonderful variety of books in our library- a luxury! We as staff and students appreciate it!

I also share a ballot form that shows where a student has written in a favourite Christian author's name. I explain that someday, maybe a student will write their name in that space because they are writing Christian Literature for children. I hope this inspires young students to become amazing writers! The writing can begin today!

February 16-20, 2009 RABs

Kindergarten: Alphabet Under Construction by Denise Fleming (Students often ask us for an encore!)




(That's me with Nikki Tate at the BCTLA Conference in Victoria, October 2008.)







Grade 1-5: Grandparents' Day by Nikki Tate

This week we celebrated Grandparents Day on Tuesday. We also had a Christian Book Fair open Monday to Thursday. Lighthouse Books brought in quite an amazing selection of books and products! If you would like to have them bring a Christian Book Fair to your event, email Wendy Janzen at lighthousebooks@shaw.ca!

February 9-13, 2009 RABs

Kindergarten: Franklin's Valentines by Paulette Bourgeois (See also: http://www.franklin.ecsd.net/author_paulette_bourgeois.htm)
Grade 1: also Franklin's Valentines
Grade 2: George and Martha Back in Town by James Marshall
Grade 3-5: This week students filled out a Library Bingo sheet (3 by 3 squares) with titles from the Christian Book Fair Flyer (Get Reading published by Living Books) and I drew titles from a bin (I just photocopy or use an actual flyer and cut out the titles). Winners received a candy!
This is a really fun game which helps us get to know featured authors and titles before the book fair arrives.

Students also filled out a ballot form to vote for their favourite Christian Author and enter the draw to win free books from the book fair.

Do you have a favourite Christian Author? If you don't, it's not too late! Do some (more) reading of Christian Literature and find out who your favourite is!

February 2-6, 2009 RABs

Kindergarten: Willy and Hugh by Anthony Browne
(see also: http://www.imagesofdelight.com/client.asp?id=44)
Grade 1: If You Give a Cat a Cupcake by Laura Numeroff (played game with one class where students choose an animal and what it wants to eat, then in 10 steps bring the story round again) (see also: www.lauranumeroff.com)
Grade 2: George and Martha by James Marshall
(see also: http://www.carolhurst.com/newsletters/42enewsletters.html)
Grade 3: Thing Thing by Cary Fagan (The students clapped after this story)
(see also: http://www.caryfagan.com/)
Grade 4: The Final Game by William R. Brownridge
(see also: www.heartofhockey.com)
Grade 5: Bamboo by Paul Yee (see also: www.paulyee.ca)

January 26-30, 2009 RABs

Kindergarten: Russell the Sheep by Rob Scotton
Grade 1: Library Lil by Suzanne Williams
Grade 2: Young Author's Day at Pokeweed Public School by John Bianchi (Grade 2's thought the author in the story looked a lot like Geronimo Stilton... LOL!)
Grade 3: Eliot Jones, Midnight Super Hero by Anne Cottringer
Grade 4:
Grade 5: Stanley at Sea by Linda Bailey

January 19-23, 2009 RABs

Kindergarten Katy and the Big Snow by Virginia Lee Burton
Grade 1 Emma's Cold Day by Margriet Ruurs
Grade 2 Champions of Hockey (Bungalo Boys) by John Bianchi
Grade 3 Stanley at Sea by Linda Bailey
Grade 4 Moccasin Goalie by William Roy Brownridge
Grade 5 Jumanji by Chris Van Allsburg (also introduced the Caldecott Medal and what it is all about)

January 12-16, 2009 RABs

Kindergarten Iris Has a Virus by Arlene Alda
Grade 1 Brady Brady and the Twirlin’ Torpedo by Mary Shaw and Chuck Temple
Grade 2 Snowed in at Pokeweed Public School by John Bianchi
Grade 3 The Farm Team by Linda Bailey
Grade 4-5 The Hockey Card by Jack Siemiatycki (Touches on the famous Maurice “The Rocket” Richard).

January 5-9, 2009 Read Aloud Books (RAB)s

Kindergarten: Mrs. Toggle's Zipper by Robin Pulver. A timely story about a teacher who gets her winter jacket zipper stuck and prepares for a long, hot day at school. Kindergarteners love the names that the author gives the teachers and staff members in this book.

Grade 1: Brady, Brady and the Great Rink by Mary Shaw and Chuck Temple. In this story, the power goes out at the rink and Brady saves the day. It just so happened I read this book aloud on a day when our power was out at school! LOL!

Grade 2: Treasure for Lunch by Shenaaz Nanji. I love this story about a girl who hides her leftover lunch in the snow and is found out when the Chinook winds blow and melt the snow, revealing her hidden treasure.

Grade 3: The Best Figure Skater in the Whole Wide World by Linda Bailey. I continue to marvel at the captivating talents of this author. I don't know why i should be surprised but I am. Her themes seem to really resonate with this age group. The students sat with rapt attention to this book.

Grade 4 and 5: The Hockey Tree by David Ward and Brian Deines. I love this book for the way that the author writes the dialogue. I think he did a very good job or else had an excellent editor. It is a smoothly written and interesting book, great for a read aloud and teaches about something uniquely Canadian. Students in this age group found it fascinating.