Sunday, April 30, 2017

Teacher Appreciation Week

Next week is Teacher Appreciation Week and our PTO put together a very sweet thank you note writing station in the library.  Each class has had time to write thank you notes to their teachers and any other teachers and staff in the building.  They are all excited to write notes and even more excited to mail them in this adorable mailbox a fourth grade friend built!



Friday, April 28, 2017

Sharing


A second grade friend reads a piece he wrote about his dad, who is a fire fighter, and all the things fire fighters do. The class was very attentive and impressed.

Tuesday, April 25, 2017

Winning Books

Spring is here and we are all hoping these April showers bring May flowers!

In the library we finished reading the Red Clover books and voted for our favorite.  Here at DBS The Blue Whale was the winner.  Voting closed around the state today, so we should know pretty soon which book won for the whole state.

The older kids completed their Dorothy Canfield Fisher books and voted as well.  At DBS we had a tie between The Terrible Two and The Seventh Most Important Thing!  State-wide voting for this also closed today and we are eagerly awaiting those results!

The lists for next year have been announced.  These would be a great start for your summer reading!  Next year's fourth and fifth graders can count the Dorothy Canfield Fisher books they read over the summer as part of their voting goal for next school year!


In other award news, our very own Harper Robinson won the Dorothy Canfield Fisher 60th anniversary poster contest!



Harper's artwork will appear on Dorothy Canfield Fisher media and publications celebrating their 60th anniversary.  Harper will receive autographed copies of the 2016/17 winning book and special recognition at the award ceremony.  Congratulations Harper!


Wednesday, April 12, 2017

Research in Enrichment

Enrichment group this session is all about research and presentation. The first week we talked about finding information in the library, the second week we talked about finding information online, and this week they spent the class finding information! Each student (or group) got to choose a topic of their choice and they were tasked with finding 3-5 different sources and at least 5 facts about their topic. Next week we will discuss different ways to present the information to an audience and the students will get to choose how they want to present their topic.

In this photo students are researching dogs, chimpanzees, dolphins, and ancient Egypt.  I love how excited they all are and how eager they are to share their information with others.
   

Sunday, April 9, 2017

Next year's Dorothy Canfield Fisher Book list!

 The 2017/18 Dorothy Canfield Fisher Book Award nominees list is out!  I bought all 30 for the library, and extra copies of some of them!  Hopefully we'll have less of a backlog than we had this school year.

Check out the list here: Dorothy Canfield Fisher Children’s Book Award Master List 2017–2018

It's my goal to read all 30 of them this summer!  You are welcome to get a head start too, if you want to.  :)

Thursday, April 6, 2017

Honk!


Tonight was the big DBS musical and, once again, it was fantastic!!  Have I mentioned that I love this school?!  These 4th and 5th graders worked so hard for months memorizing their lines, rehearsing the songs, and perfecting their stage presence.  The drama club teachers worked equally hard to ensure an amazing performance!  I watched the dress rehearsal with the 3rd graders today (the whole student body was in attendance but I was sitting with the 3rd graders) and they were enthralled!  They were pointing out the actors they know and saying how excited they were that next year would be their turn!  I left with a smile from ear to year and by the end of the evening show my cheeks were sore from smiling and laughing.  I feel so incredibly lucky to be a part of this amazing school community.

Sunday, April 2, 2017

National Poetry Month

April is National Poetry Month and, although a busy one in the library with book award voting, I wanted to try to get some poetry in as well.  I thought a bulletin board would be a good first step! I included poems from poets like Robert Louis Stevenson and Maya Angelou, but also Shel Silverstein, Jack Prelutsky, and Jeff Foxworthy!  Poetry comes in all flavors and hopefully the each student will find something that appeals to them.