February - March 2009
Grandview Library Newsletter!
Back to the Library

SIFTABLES

Tweenbots
Visis the Tweenbots Website to learn more.

KID CARDS
Before you buy your next box of note cards, visit our store and buy Kid Cards instead. You will be supporting Grandview's literacy initiatives and enjoying children's artwork! Artwork created by Mrs. Geertz art classes -- the pieces were scanned and reduced to create these beautiful note cards. Proceeds from sales are managed by the PTA and funds are used to build classroom libraries. This summer, we purchased chapter books for one of our second grade classrooms.

Dear Parents and Friends,

Welcome to the February-March 2009 Grandview Library Newsletter.
I know it's April, but those two months always get away from me!

The students have been working on projects and literacy activities at each grade level. I've included links to our Project Organizers and samples of their work. If you visit Grandview, you will see their work displayed on bulletin boards, on window shades and in hardcopy booklets for all to enjoy.

Enjoy the Siftables and Tweenbots videos. The future is now.

Kindergarten

In Kindergarten we learned about frogs from fiction and nonfiction books. The children are getting to be little experts on our notebook computers. Click the link to visit our Jump Frog Jump Project Organizer. Scroll down to see the frog life cycle section. If you have little guys at home, have them type the words under the pictures -- good practice even if they cannot save their work.


First Grade

Nonfiction is always a child-pleaser. We've completed units on Ladybugs and Cheetahs. We are currently studying Spiders -- which I'll share next month. Click the link to view our Cheetah Project Organizer. The children worked so hard to read and memorize cheetah facts! To enjoy our Cheetah video reports, just
Click here.

 

Second Grade

The 2nd graders learned about a very special dog who lived over a hundred years ago. His name was Owney and he traveled with the US Postal Service. Click here and watch the video!

The students pretended that Owney visited Grandview. They wrote about their adventures with Owney including information about what he saw, tasted, and felt. View a few of those stories in the scroller below. Author Mona Kerby visited our classroom via SKYPE -- we projected her on our SmartBoard. She talked about the book and the students asked her questions. It was so exciting!

Show All

Dear Mrs. Kerby,

Owney saw some of my friends Isaiah, Hakim, and Wayne..Owney smelled chicken nuggets. He tasted hotdogs. Owney heard kids laughing. I gave Owney a box of candy, a hotdog, a bone, and a ball. At recease we did back handsprings. It was fun! Everyone gave Owney a hug. We jumped off the bridge and held on to the monkey bars. Then we played ball. My team won! We went down the slide. Then we went on the swings I jumped off. We had ice pops.
Dylan – 2D

 

Dear Mrs. Kerby,

I love Owney The Mail Pouch Pooch. It is a great and entertaining story, too. Owney is a great dog. Sometimes I wish I knew Owney. I wish he was my dog. If I coulld give your book an award, I would.  When Owney visited Grandview, we played outside with Torre. Owney tasted sweet, sweet freedom. Owney liked Torre's nose.  Owney liked Torre and her smell. Owney got all mudey when we were playing outside. I had to give him a bath. Owney saw Mrs. Danis. He also smelled tuna tocos and pizza. I gave Owney a sticker to take back with him. Owney and I had a great time.

Giselle - 2D

 

Third Grade

The third graders are heading into the most challenging and interesting part of their research projects. They've selected their topics and are learning enough about the topic via books and websites to answer four questions:

  1. What makes this topic interesting?
  2. What will you teach others?
  3. What are your opinions about this topic?
  4. What are you trying to prove?

Click here to view and listen to student work from 2008.
Your children viewed these examples. It is important to show children examples of high-quality writing. They need models against which they can evaluate their own work.

 

Until next month, remember, don't panic, be happy. Enjoy the simple things in life and hug your children.

Warmly,
Mrs. Chauncey