Our second bookfair is going on this week. Many Red Smith students have toured the fair during their library checkout and some middle school students have heard booktalks from Mrs. Kline. The bookfair will be open daily through Friday and will be open during Parent-Teacher conferences on Thursday night and during the PTO-sponsored Family Movie Night on Friday. All the profits are going to teacher wishlists and the bookrooms this time around.
There are so many great books to choose from! Which bookfair book is your favorite?
This year elementary students have an opportunity to participate in learning centers if they finish checking out their books early. Many students made Dot Day bookmarks in September to celebrate International Dot Day. Students also sat and read with a friend in our “Read to your Neighbor” Center. Some students who are still learning how to tie shoes went to a skills center to practice on some fun shoe cut outs. A favorite center right now is the Reading Buddy Center, where students may snuggle with a stuffed animal while they are reading the books that they checked out. Look out soon for more fun centers in the library!
Last week, we had so much fun making dots for International Dot Day. Students made “dot” bookmarks, “dot” trading cards, and “dot” letters. Here are just a few of the classes that made their marks this year and were able to skype with another class in the library.
Kindergarten= Some students drew the first letter of their names and decorated it with dots using crayons. Then they watercolored over the crayon with water colors to create a wonderful work of art. Mrs. Thiem’s class was able to skype with a 3rd grade class in Maryland, while Mrs. Lusso’s class skyped with a 4th grade class at McAuliffe Elementary.
Mrs. Charlier’s 2nd grade and Mrs. Deviller’s 6th grade classes used their first meeting as buddies to get to know each other. Each partner created half of a dot and then put the dot together to make a whole. Unfortunately we were not able to match up with another school over skype, but plan to do so for a later project.
Mrs. Gauthier’s class created wonderful dots and skyped with an elementary class from Arizona. Our skype friends only had a few minutes to video chat, so we spent some time afterwards exploring their home town in Google Maps Street View. Who knew that making dots would lead to a geography lesson about southwestern Arizona?
7th Grade Language Arts- Mrs. Molaski’s classes created “Dot” trading cards. The back of the card details how each student is planning to make his or her mark this year while the dot on the front symbolizes that goal. The students were able to skype with classes in Indiana and also in Kansas throughout the day, which led to some great appreciations of art and writing, and some interesting comparisons about the new school lunches at each of the schools.
8th grade- Some students in Mr. Jenning’s Language Arts classes volunteered over their lunch hour to create a “Dot Song” inspired by One Direction’s “What Makes You Beautiful”. There was singing, dancing, and students playing a variety of instruments. They were able to have 2 short skype sessions and still get their lunch. This group is potentially planning to enter a contest with this song. Stay tuned…..
Oh yes, we also made the news! NBC26 came and videotaped Mrs. Molaski’s skype session 6th and 7th hours. Red Smith is famous!
