Learning in the Library

During their weekly visit, Mrs. Cousens’ class explored two more books with wolves as main characters.  First they heard Wolf! by Becky Bloom. It’s a humorous story about a hungry wolf that learns to read in order to hang out with some very educated farm animals.  The second story was another humorous tale entitled The Wolf’s Chicken Stew by Keiko Kasza. In that book, a hungry wolf cooks up some treats to fatten up a nearby hen.  He thinks he is tricking the hen, but, in the end, it is he that is tricked! The children decided that the wolf in each book intended to be a villain, but ended up being a hero.

This was our third week of wolf stories.  For a culminating activity, the students sorted the books into two categories:  those portraying the wolf as a villain and those portraying the wolf as good.  They had to recall each story in order to decide where it belonged. This activity prompted much discussion about the wolves and their stories!

The second graders are learning about life cycles in class.  Each classroom is raising Painted Lady butterflies and observing the changes the insects go through in their lifetime.  During their weekly library visits, Mrs. Gillis, Miss Mallon, and Mrs. Sullivan’s students read and discussed the informational ebook  Life Cycles by Michael Elsohn Ross.  The book introduces the concept that all living things have a life cycle.  It illustrates the concept by describing the life cycle of three different living things:  sunflowers, mushrooms, and grasshoppers.

On Thursday, April 7th, the Chickadee Award Committee announced the winner of the Maine Children’s Choice Picture Book Project. The Chickadee Award nominee receiving the most votes among Maine children in grades K-4 is  Elizabeth, Queen of the Seas by Lynne Cox!  This year 21,109 students from 143 schools and libraries across Maine voted in for this year’s Chickadee Award.

The children at Carl J. Lamb School cast their votes for their favorite book over the past two weeks. Dragon’s Extraordinary Egg by Debi Gliori received the most votes here, 94 of the 261 votes cast. Our second place winner is Ivan: the Remarkable True Story of the Shopping Mall Gorilla by Katherine Applegate, and Elizabeth, Queen of the Seas placed third. The graph below illustrates our voting results. Hooray for the Chickadee Award program!

Welcome to the Carl J. Lamb Elementary School Library blog!  Our K-6 school is part of the Sanford School District, located in southern Maine.  The posts below highlight the learning that is happening in our library.  Please feel free to tell us what you think by leaving a comment.  Happy reading!