Miss Mallon and Mrs. Sullivan’s students recently completed the district’s introduction to research unit for second graders. 
Through Jackie Mims Hopkins’ stories about Skoob the Shelf Elf, the children were introduced to the dictionary (both print and online versions) as a resource for learning the pronunciation and definition of an unknown word and the encyclopedia (both print and online) as a resource for learning more about a topic. Each class worked together to take notes about an echidna and then a bison on graphic organizers. This unit serves as an introduction to an assessment the students will complete later in the year.
Second graders learn about research
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Kindergarten storytime
The last kindergarten storytime of 2012 had a holiday theme. The first featured book was Dream Snow 
by Eric Carle. In this picture book, a farmer dreams of snow falling and covering himself and his five animals. White paint on clear plastic pages shows the characters covered in snow and begs the reader to guess what lies beneath. When the plastic page is turned, the character is revealed. The farmer wakes up to find it really has snowed and rushes to decorate an outdoor tree for his animals. The story ends with the push of a button which causes gentle music to fall like snow on the reader.
The second story was Pete the Cat Saves Christmas by Eric Litwin. In this book, Santa is sick 
and calls on Pete the Cat to take his place. Pete accepts the challenge and packs all the presents in his minibus. Reindeer pull him around the world to deliver presents. Although Pete is small, he gives it his all and he manages to save Christmas!
Two activities followed the stories. One activity was to “Roll and Color” Pete the Cat dressed as Santa. The second was an estimation contest. Each class was presented with a different jar of objects (trees, wreaths, or pompoms). The students were asked to guess the number of objects in the jar. The winner, the person with the closest estimate, won a small prize. Only one student guessed the exact amount: Evan in Mrs. Carlisle’s Green Room! The other winners were Bella in Mrs. Dillane’s Yellow Room, Caleb in Mrs. Dupere’s Blue Room, Gwen and McKenna in Mrs. Emery’s Pink Room, Natalia in Miss Smith’s Brown Room, Jean Marie in Mrs. Sylvestre’s Orange Room and Mrs. Smith’s Red Room, and Makenzie in Mrs. Taylor’s Purple Room. Congratulations, friends!
Decorating gingerbread men
Mrs. McCall’s class also enjoyed listening to Eric Litwin’s Pete the Cat Saves Christmas. After the story, the children played a gingerbread man counting game. The object of the game was to “decorate” a paper cookie by covering each dot with a pompom. The children took turns drawing cards that indicated how many pompoms to collect and place on their cookie. The first player to cover all the dots won the game.
Toys, toys, toys!
This week’s contest was an estimation contest. A large container was filled with odds and ends pieces from various games. There were 636 game pieces in the container. Third grader Ariya’s estimate of 601 pieces was the closest. Congratulations, Ariya!
Caldecott Medal unit ends
The kindergartners completed the Caldecott Medal unit last week. In the closing lesson, the children explored two Caldecott Honor Books that are informational rather than stories. First the Egg, by Laura Vaccaro Seeger, is about transformations. The 
author/illustrator uses die-cuts (shapes cut out of the page) to connect the stages of a changing object. For example, an oval cut-out represents an egg. It appears to be a white egg because white from the next page shows through the hole. When you turn the page, you see a large white chicken! “First the egg, then the chicken.”
The second Caldecott Honor Book was presented in ebook format on a large screen. What Do You Do With a Tail Like This? by Steven Jenkins and Robin Page is fun to explore because the reader is challenged to identify sets of five 
animals that have only one part of their bodies (eyes, ears, mouths, tails, or feet) showing. The animals and how they use the featured body part are revealed on the next page.
The library’s informational book section for primary students was introduced during this lesson. Since the books in this section are arranged in a specific number order, the children were shown how used a shelf marker to mark a book’s location while browsing.
At the end of the lesson, each child received the Caldecott Medal he/she created. The children left the library proudly wearing their gold glitter-rimmed awards as necklaces.