Battle of the Books

Our 4th and 5th grade Battle of the Books team has been working hard to read the 17 books on our list in preparation for the competition in April. Last week I asked the students to give star ratings to each book they've complete so far. The titles in the Wordle below are all the books that received 5 stars (awesome book!). The titles that appear bigger received the most 5 star ratings. Have you read any of these amazing books?

Check out the full Elementary Battle of the Books list here: http://www.ncslma.org/uploads/8/4/7/0/8470189/eboblist2012-13revised.pdf

Click on the Wordle to see a larger view!

December Book Fair

The December Book Fair raised a significant amount of money for our school! Thanks to your generous support, we raised almost $4,000 to spend on books and materials for the Media Center and classroom libraries :) :) :) The Book Fair would not have been possible without the help of many parent volunteers and the PTA--your time and energy are very much appreciated!

Thank you for supporting our teachers by purchasing books for their classroom libraries!



During the Book Fair I held a contest for students to design a poster advertising a fiction or non-fiction book that we have in our Media Center. For every entry, students could enter their name into a drawing to win a book from the Book Fair. I received almost 100 entries and the colorful, informative, and creative posters are on display inside and outside the Media Center. Below are a few pictures of our winners!

One of our very talented teachers, Ms. Linville, made cake pops to sell at the Book Fair. This was a fundraiser for the Kinderstars Program--a summer camp for incoming kindergarteners at Club who may not have had any previous schooling experience. She raised $125 and many families enjoyed eating a cake pop of their favorite Mo Willems character--the pigeon! :) If you would like to give a donation to support Kinderstars, please see Ms. Linville or myself!

Forest Animals and Reader's Theater with K/1

I've enjoyed working with Mrs. Overby's K/1 students on several projects recently in the Media Center. The first project was forest animal research. Each student selected a forest animal and used PebbleGo to learn information about the animal's habitat, diet, and body. They also selected one fact that was unusual or most interesting about the animal. Students recorded information using both words and pictures. Here are a few fun facts we learned:

• Porcupines can climb trees!
• Male deer use their antlers to fight and defend against other deer.
• Hedgehogs roll into a ball when they are scared.
• Wolves live in groups called packs.

You can view the finished products and learn more about forest animals by reading our work outside Mrs. Overby's classroom!

The second project I'd like to share is the reader's theater group. A small group of students worked with me to read and perform 'The Gingerbread Man.' We learned about the words script, character, and expression during our time together. Students became more fluent and expressive each time we practiced. The most exciting part was that we performed for Mrs. Overby and Mrs. Goff's class at the end of the week. We were nervous but it was fun to perform for our friends. Even a few of our families were able to attend!