Good habit rewarded

During the month of February, most K-2 classes earned recognition for promptly returning their library books!

Each kindergarten class filled another chart with one hundred stickers.  (Each sticker represents the return of a library book.)  Each student received a reward of a bookmark and sticker. 

In first grade, Mrs. Brennan’s class filled its third chart and Mrs. Bemis’ class filled its fourth!  Both classes received a congratulatory letter from I.Q. Mouse along with stickers and bookmarks.

All three second grade classes earned the Golden Shelf Elf Award from Skoob the Shelf Elf.  The students received bookmarks and small prizes, too.

Chickadee tales for the week of February 23rd

The kindergarten students enjoyed the humorous desriptions of a little girl’s family members in the Chickadee Award nominee My Dog is as Smelly as Dirty Socks and Other Funny Family Portraitsby Hanoch Piven.  Each person (and the pet dog!) is described using similes and his/her portrait is done in collage.  As a follow-up, the children wrote similes describing themselves.  They used pre-made pictures (which included their teachers) or drew their own to complete their sentences.  Here are some examples:  “I am as fast as a cheetah.”,  “I am as pretty as a princess.”, and  ”I am as nice as Mrs. Adams.”                                                                                                                                                                                                        

It was the first graders’ turn to experience A Day in the Salt Marsh by Kevin Kurtz.  After the story, the students used pictures of the ten animals featured in the book to make Bingo boards.  They enjoyed playing a few rounds of the game at the end of the session.

The second graders listened to the story Hiromi’s Hands, written and illustrated by Lynne Barasch.  The story is actually a biography of Hirmoni, a Japanese-American girl, who grew up to be one of the world’s first female sushi chefs.  Following the story, the students were invited to have a taste of Japanese life for themselves.  First Mrs. M. introduced some items that her brother-in-law, a Japanese resident, sent her family.  There was a newspaper written back to front, toe socks and sandals worn inside, training chopsticks, a calligraphy set, a fan, and a toy.  Next the students had an opportunity to taste-test four flavors of Japanese Kit-Kats: apple, watermelon, brown tea, and molasses.  (Watermelon seemed to be the favorite.!) Then the students were able to touch and see a variety of Japanese artifacts ranging from toys to menus to decorations.  They could even try on the toe socks!  This lesson allowed the students to be transported to another culture without ever leaving school.

Exploring color

Mrs. McCall is always looking for ways to reinforce her students skills so we are currently incorporating color recognition into her class’ weekly library visits.  Last time, the students listened to Bob and Otto by Robert O. Bruel, the story of a caterpillar and a worm.  After the story, the children made caterpillars by gluing colored circles in the shape of the letter “C.”  Each student had a turn to pick a color for everyone had to find and add it to his/her caterpillar.  This week the students helped to read the big book version of I Went Walking by Sue Williams.  The story features an assortment of colorful farm animals.  After the story, the children played a color memory game.  They also made color bingo boards for future use.

Butterflies are cool!

First grader Velma Gratch, the youngest of three sisters, yearns for recognition at school in the Chickadee Award nominee Velma Gratch and the Way Cool Butterfly, written by Alan Madison and illustrated by Maine’s Kevin Hawkes.  CJLfirst graders and Miss Mallon and Mrs. Sturtevant’s second graders enjoyed this humorous story that tells how Velma finally earns fame for becoming a butterfly expert.  After reading the story, the first graders explored some of its delicious vocabulary (words such as metamorphosis, conservatory, and migration).  A word was presented and the students repeated it, tapped out its syllables, and sorted the word by its number of parts.  Both the first and second graders had fun illustrating the life cycle of a butterfly with pasta  They labeled the four stages on a life cycle graphic organizer and glued different shaped pasta to represent the egg, caterpillar, chrysalis, and butterfly stages (Acini de Pepe, rotini, shells, and bow tie pasta, respectively).  Everyone agrees that butterflies are cool!

Jan Brett author study

Miss Kimball’s second graders explored books by Jan Brett in January and February.  During that time,  their weekly library visits were extended to include a Jan Brett book and related activity. The children learned about Jan Brett’s career as an author/illustrator by hearing her first and most recent books and creating a timeline of her work.  The students participated in extension activities for The First Dog, Berlioz the Bear, and Comet’s Nine Lives.  After reading The First Dog, the children learned about anagrams and re-arranged the letters of ten words to create a list of animals.  Berlioz the Bear  is about a band of musicians.  Following that story, the students explored instrument families and the sounds individual instruments make at the San Francisco Symphony website for kids http://www.sfskids.org.  Nantucket is the setting of Comet’s Nine Lives so the follow-up activity had a nautical theme.  The students attention was drawn to the maritime flags in the borders on some pages.  Jan Brett used the flags to secretly spell words.  The children joined in the fun by decoding ten story-related words written in the maritime flag alphabet.  You can find the activity at http://www.janbrett.com/piggybacks/flags.htm .  Jan Brett’s website (http://www.janbrett.com) offers a plethora of other fun activities.  It is well worth a peek!