This week’s contest involved calendar skills. Students were asked the dates of four particular days in the month of February. For example, name the date of the second Friday in February. Papers with the four questions answered correctly were sorted by grade and entered in a drawing. The following calendar experts win a string of authentic Mardi Gras beads from New Orleans: First grader Ethan, second grader Eric, third grader Lauren, fourth grader Emma, fifth grader Dylan, and sixth grader Marlon. Don’t forget to wear your beads next Tuesday (March 4th) for Mardi Gras!
Calendar contest
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Chickadee Award Program update
This week the kindergartners enjoyed the Chickadee Award nominee Randy Riley’s Really Big Hit by Maine author/illustrator Chris Van Dusen. After hearing the story about the boy who built a giant robot to save his town from a fireball, the children used squares of colored paper to make their own two-dimensional robots. They enjoyed both the book and the project!
The first graders heard the Chickadee Award nominee Lost and Found by Bill Harley. In this funny story, Justin has lost his hat and must gather enough courage to ask the grouchy custodian to search the lost and found. In the process of discovering his hat, Justin discovers that looks are deceiving–the custodian is really a very nice man!
The second graders explored the concept of infinity with the Chickadee Award nominee Infinity and Me by Kate Hosford.
Because its last library day was a snow day, Mrs. Margoles’ class listened to two Chickadee books this week, Too Tall Houses by Gianna Marino and Step Gently Out by Helen Frost.
Fun with the Little Red Hen
Mrs. McCall’s class is doing a service learning project based on the folktale The Little Red Hen. When they visited the library, they helped to re-tell the story. Then 
they listened to a funny city version of the folktale, The Little Red Hen Makes a Pizza by Philemon Sturges.
Book returns rewarded
Two groups of kindergartners filled their book return charts this week! The Blue Room filled its second chart and the Red and Orange Rooms (they visit the library together) filled their chart for the third time. Each of the 100 stickers on the chart was earned when a library book was returned. The children in each group received a small prize for filling their charts.
Big6 news
Here’s what was happening with the Big6 (Stage 4: Use of Information) this week!
Mrs. Abell and Mrs. Bemis’ first graders gathered information about capybaras in PebbleGo’s Aniamals database. They practiced 
recording facts about world’s largest rodent on a graphic organizer. Then each students picked one fact to use in a sentence on a worksheet that featured a picture of capybaras.
Mrs. Parnham’s third graders will soon be researching countries in Social Studies. During their Big6 lesson, the students reviewed nonfiction text features (tables, graphs, captions, etc.) using a sample country book (Iraq)
from the series they will be using. Then they practiced taking notes using the “Trash ‘n Treasure” method. They read the section on sports in Iraq one sentence at a time and selected only the relevant keywords in each sentence to record.
Mrs. LaPointe’s fourth graders are creating lapbooks about Maine in the classroom. In their Big6 lesson, the students were introduced to a handy resource for Maine animals: Critters of Maine Pocket Guide. They 
practiced taking notes about spring peepers (those noisy little frogs we hear at dusk in the spring). Together, the children identified key words and recorded the facts about the frog’s appearance, habitat, food and predators on a graphic organizer. The students also learned about the importance of identifying their sources. They were introduced to the format of a citation: author, title, city of publication, publisher, and copyright date.
Mr. Harmon’s sixth graders have started investigating the Age of Exploration in Social Studies. In their Big6 lesson, they students reviewed the importance of taking notes in order to avoid plagiarism. How to cite sources was introduced. Then the students used an article about the Viking explorer Leif Eriksson from Encyclopedia Britannica online (available through MARVEL). They took notes about the explorer’s voyage on the graphic organizer provided by Mr. Harmon. That’s one explorer done and seven more to go!