by mrsmiliano
The first day of April is April Fool’s Day. It is a day known for gags and pranks. According to Compton’s Encyclopedia, in which country do people stick cutout paper fish on another’s back or send them anonymously in the mail on April Fool’s Day?
Hint: The answer can be found in MARVEL! Go to http://www.maine.gov/marvel . Clicks on “KIDS” and then click on “Britannica Online School Edition (K-12).” To access Compton’s Encyclopedia, select it from the list on the right-hand column. Enter your search term in the search box and read the encyclopedia article to find the answer.
Library Contests Online Contests
by mrsmiliano
The first graders recently listened to the Probuditi by Chris Van Allsburg. The book is one of the ten books nominated for the Chickadee Award this school year. The unusual title, Probuditi, is a Serbo-Croatian word meaning “awaken.” It suits the book perfectly because the story is about a boy named Calvin who, with his best friend, goes to a performance by Lomax the Magnificent, magician and hypnotist extraordinaire. When they get home, the boys decide to build a homemade hypnotizing machine and they try it out on Calvin’s little sister Trudy! As a follow-up to the funny story, the students made hypnotizing spinning spirals of their own. Families, beware!
Grade 1
by mrsmiliano
The library has acquired many new books! The ones shown here are especially for students who are becoming independent readers.
- We now have Megan McDonald’s entire Judy Moody series and the two books about Judy’s little brother Stink. Judy is a moody third grader whose life is never dull. Younger brother Stink is worried about his height, but he’s not short on imagination!
- We have all three of Annie Barrows books about Ivy + Bean, two girls who never intended to be friends. They develop a great friendship as they help each other get out of a variety of predicaments.
- We purchased the entire Iris and Walter series by Elissa Haden Guest. Iris is sad about having moved to the country–until she meets Walter. The two become friends and work together to solve problems.
- The Mr. and Mrs. Green series by Keith Baker is a hoot! Life is an adventure for the alligator couple and their stories are full of fun and surprises.
- Calling all horse lovers! Betsy Byars has two books about Little Horse that you will want to read. In the first book, the tiny horse is swept away from his home in the Valley of Little Horses into the big world. He has many adventures on his journey downstream. The second book is about Little Horse’s attempt to get home.
We think you will enjoy these new books!
Booktalks
by mrsmiliano
Which American river is dyed green every year for St. Patrick’s Day?
Hint: Visit this site and read the captions to find the answer! http://www.history.com/minisites/stpatricksday/
Online Contests
by mrsmiliano
Mrs. Ferris and Mrs. Gagnon’s third graders have been busy learning about countries around the world. Every student is investigating a different country. Recently, each class visited the library to conduct some research using a resource besides their country books. Following the Big6 steps to research, the students began by identifying their task. They needed to locate a photo of a landmark in their country. Since their country books did not list landmarks in the index, a different resource was needed. The encyclopedia was introduced as a reference material containing information on a wide variety to topics. The students learned that the information is arranged in alphabetical order across many volumes. They practiced using the guide letters on the spines to identify which volume would contain a particular country. How to use guide words was reviewed and then the students found encyclopedia articles about their countries. From the articles, they selected a landmark to include in their country books. They wrote a caption to describe the landmark, too.
On a second visit, the students used encyclopedia again to learn about an animal that lives in their countries. This time the students were introduced to a different set of encyclopedia and had the option of using either set. After locating their animals, the students drew a picture of the animal and wrote three interesting facts about it.
Grade 3