Math- A- Thon

Our school is excited to participate in the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital® St. Jude Math‑A‑Thon® program this year. St. Jude Math-A-Thon is an educational program that teaches kids the importance of math while helping children with cancer and other deadly diseases. This year’s St. Jude Math‑A‑Thon program kicked off on November 26th-28th. Students have started working on their math facts and raising money.

Don't forget to turn in donations by December 16th!

December 3rd-7th

This week students in all grades started to learn about Holidays from around the World. We started with a large holiday from the United States, Christmas.

Kindergarten

Kindergartners learned about the Elf on the Shelf Tradition. Many students were familiar with his story, but excited to find out he was traveling to school now. This week he has changed positions throughout the library and has misbehaved a few times. The students are quick to spot him! After the story each class had the chance to use math skills and hold a class vote. Each class voted on a name of their choosing for the elf. Names are as follows:

Mrs. Finn AM- Spike
Mr. Pitassi AM- Flower
Mrs. Riadi- Lightening McQueen
Mr. Pitassi PM- Jolly
Mrs. Finn PM- Yoda

Elf decorating our reading buddies Skippyjon Jones with stickers.

1st Grade

First graders used previous knowledge about the cat Splat to predict what may occur in the story Merry Christmas, Splat by Rob Scotton. The end of the story leaves all of the students in suspense as Splat's Christmas gift is not shown. After creating a Splat Cat of their own the first graders infer what Splat got as a gift and made a drawing of his gift. The Splats and gifts are displayed in the library!

Second Grade

Second graders heard the story Olive, the other Reindeer by J. Otto Seibold and Vivian Walsh. The story was presented to them on Tumblebooks and online book reading program that animates the illustrations and read the story aloud with sound effects. Afterwards students sang and listened to the song Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer. This song was played on the radio in the story. Olive the dog believed the words "All of the other reindeer" was actually "Olive, the other reindeer." After hearing this Olive travels to the North Pole to help Santa. Students then made a comparison chart to compare and contrast Olive the dog and Rudolph the reindeer. After book checkout students had the chance to write their own story on what they think will happen next year to Olive. Then they shared with the class.

November 13th-16th

Kindergarten
Kindergarten students enjoyed the story of Clifford's Thanksgiving Visit by Norman Bridwell. The students made text to self connections after reading the story. They shared ways they celebrate Thanksgiving that are the same as Clifford and Emily. Afterwards students continued to work on their skills of locating a book of interest to them with appropriate assistance in the library.

First Grade
The first grade students were introduced to Big Brown Bear typing. They begin learning to type the "home row" keys and using proper posture while at a computer. This is skill we will continue to work on and develop throughout the year. Once they passed level 1 on Big Brown Bear they were given time to play "Keyboard Zoo" or "Rocket Launch Jr." Both of these games reinforced the skill of finding the appropriate letters keys on the computer.

Screen Shot of Big Brown Bear

Second Grade
Second graders heard the story Goldilocks and the Three Dinosaurs by Mo Willems. This spin on the classic tale of Goldilocks brought many of the children to laughter as Goldilocks realizes she is in the wrong story and the dinosaurs are setting up a trap for her. Afterwards they used their knowledge of dinosaurs to play "Real of Make-Believe." In this interactive game students decided if facts about dinosaurs (based on popular library books about dinosaurs) were real or make believe.

Picture from Mo Willems Doodles Blogspot
http://mowillemsdoodles.blogspot.com/2012/08/pw-loves-goldilocks-3-dinosaurs.html

Votes are in!

The students of Ide voted...

Barack Obama to be reelected as President! 

Spooktacular Stories!

Kindergarten

This week we read the story Where’s My Mummy? By Carolyn Crimi, an Illinois author. Little Baby Mummy wants to play one more game of "hide- and- shriek" before going to bed. While searching for his Mama Mummy he encounters creatures of the night. When a scritchy- scratchy sound scares baby Mummy, Mama Mummy comes to the rescue. After the story we made a text to self connection by discussing what our moms do when we are scared. Students were able to checkout other stories written by the author during checkout time.

First Grade

First grade students were introduced to a story read online. The students were engaged in the book Stellaluna by Jannell Cannon and read by Pamela Reed. Before reading we discussed how people feel about bats and the difference between books online and movies. Afterwards some us changed our opinions on bats. Before the story we thought they were all scary and mean, but after reading we learned that there are over 800 different kinds of bats and only 3 of those are the scary "vampire" bats we hear about in scary stories. We also learned that the online book used pictures from the actual story, but made them come to life. In the story Stellaluna immitates birds so we made a connection by playing charades and acting out animals for our friends to guess.

Second Grade

Second graders listened to our book this week on a CD. We heard the book Tell Me Another Scary Story but not too scary written and read by Carl Reiner. Afterwards we used our listening skills to play a game of Halloween bingo. We had to listen carefully to a picture description and find the matching picture on our game board. Then we decoded a secret message from the teacher!

Who will you vote for?

This week we started looking at the election process and the two presidential candidates. Elizabeth Ide will be holding their own school election on November 2nd. Every student will get the chance to vote for the person of their choice, but first we had to learn about them!

Kindergarten

We looked at pictures of the two presidential candidates and learned their names. We discussed how on election day we will be voting for our favorite person. We cast our vote by circle the persons picture on our ballot. Then we read the story If I were President by Thomas Kingsley Troupe. In the library we were able to checkout books on our current President as well as past Presidents.

First Grade

First graders learned about the election process and the two presidential candidates. Then they listened to the story My Teacher for President by Kay Winters. After reading we discussed the different ways our teacher (specific to each classroom) would make a great president. Then we did some self to text connections by writing a few sentences about what it would be like if we were President. All of the class had the honor of being displayed this month in the hallway and hanging in the library for all to read and see.

If I was President I would give you 20 minutes
of recess and let you spend time at gym and give you some extra supplies and I'll be nice.

Second Grade

In second grade we focused on details of the Presidential candidates and the responsibilities of a citizen to vote. We learned that we vote for a president every four years and we must be 18 to vote in the official election, however we still get to vote in the Ide election. Then we played a jeopardy game on Obama and Romney as well as election vocabulary. We had a terrific time working as teams to compete and try to win the game!

Come back on November 2nd to see who Elizabeth Ide students voted as President!

Fall is here!

Fall has arrived in the Ide library! Ms. Maier and Mrs. Schlagbaum (Miss Shawen) have been pulling all of the fall and Halloween stories for the children to enjoy! They can be found displayed throughout the library.

Kindergarten

Kindergarten students this week listened to the story The Apple Pie Tree by Zoe Hall. The students connected their prior knowledge of apples, pies, and trees to predict what the story would be about. Students knew that pies do not grow on trees, however apples do. This delightful story follows an apple tree throughout the seasons of growing. Soon the apples are ready to be picked and apple pie is to be made!

First Grade

First grade students listened to two stories this week. The first story The Little Orange House was acted out by Mrs. Schlagbaum. As the story was read a piece of paper was cut by the main character, a witch, into a house. The witch was searching for a house, when luck should have it a piece of paper fell at her feet. She folded the paper in half and cut a roof out of it. Then she made a crooked door (to fit her hat), a window (to let in light), and a small door for the ghost friend she makes at the end. When you open to see the inside of the house the children were delighted to find a surprise of a jack-o-lantern face!

The second story the first graders listened to reinforced sequencing skills. The story There was an Old Lady who Swallowed a Bat by Lucille Colandro had the same pattern as the books with similar titles (There was an Old Lady who Swallowed a Fly). The students were asked to sequence the items in order at the end of the story and then to read the sentences they created with these objects. For example: The lady ate a goblin.

At centers first graders were able to retell the story of the witch and create their own pumpkins as well as play a sequencing game related to the Old lady story.

Second Grade

Second graders heard the story The Biggest Pumpkin Ever by Steven Kroll. This adorable story was about two mice who fell in love with the same pumpkin. The mice, unknowingly, work as a team to grow the biggest pumpkin in the town. The first mouse, Clayton, would like to enter the pumpkin into a contest. The second mouse, Desmond, would like to carve the best jack-o-lantern ever! Once the mice find out they have been working together to grow the biggest pumpkin they make a deal to help each others dream come true. After the story the students worked on a storyboard. The storyboard helped the students lay out the order of the book in beginning, middle, and end. The students had to organize their thoughts through a simple layout of four boxes. The parts of the book were discussed as a whole group before the students went to the tables to complete their own storyboards. This is a technique they can use when writing their own creative writing story as well as a self checking technique to make sure they have at least three parts of a good story!

Below are samples of the student's work.

September 24th-28th

Kindergarten

Kindergarten students heard the story The Color Box by Dayle Ann Dodds. We focused on predicting what we thought Alexander the monkey would find in the box next based on the cutout clue on each page previewing the color. Students also shared their favorite colors!

First Grade

In first grade this week we discussed fiction vs. non fiction books. Then we read a fiction story Thump, Quack, Moo a wacky adventure by Doreen Cronin. This sill story was a jump start to fall as Farmer Brown created a statue of library corn maze. In the library centers first graders worked on putting picture flashcards in ABC order based on the words first letter. This reinforced the skill of finding a book in the library in alphabetical order.

Second Grade

Second graders had the opportunity to create a title page for their own book. We practiced together creating a sample title page with all the necessary items before they went to the tables and created their own. There was quite a lot of giggling over their silly titles!

Week of September 10-14th

This week in the library students have continued to learn how the library is organized.

Kindergarten
Students in kindergarten continued to practice the skills of noting details and predicting what would happen in the story next. After the story the students were able to pick out a new book from the shelves.

First Grade
First grade students continued practicing finding a book in the fiction section of the library. Books are arranged by the first three letters of the authors last name. They heard the story Chrysanthemum by Kevin Henkes and then practiced finding the shelves of the fiction section that start with the same letter as their last name. Students wrote their last name initial on a flower cutout to reference while searching for a book.

Second Grade

The second grade classes practiced finding books in alphabetical order to the third letter. They heard the story Tops and Bottoms by Janet Stevens. Then we looked for an additional copy of the book using the letters STE. Afterwards the students moved to the tables to create a book spine of their own. They pretended to be an author in the future and had to search the library for the location of their book.

Summer Reading

The lists are in! Congratulations to all of the students who read this summer with their public library. Indian Prairie, Darien, and Woodridge Public libraries shared their lists with us and we are very proud of everyone who read this summer! A certificate of honor will be coming home from Mrs. Hansen.

Welcome

Welcome to the Elizabeth Ide Library blog! On here you can find out what we have been up to in the library each week. When we receive new books in the library I will be updating the blog with these new titles. I hope this will be a great resource for students, parents, and teachers to use when picking out a new title for your own libraries!

I loved meeting everyone who stopped by the library during open house. I enjoyed meeting the new students and parents as well as visiting with the familiar faces. I look forward to the new school year and am excited to share my love of reading with all who come through the library! To get us started in the school year we have a Hollywood and movies theme because we are all Star Students at school!

The first few weeks of school the students will learn about library safety, book care, and circulation. Each student will get to check out books the first week. Kindergarten students are allowed one book at each checkout time and 1st and 2nd graders are allowed to checkout two books at a time. If you have any questions don't hesitate to contact me. Miss Maier and I are eager to get the students reading!

Happy Reading!

Ms. Shawen and Miss Maier