Time to Vote!

The votes for the Ladybug Award are in - at least for New Hampton Community School!! And it's Sleep, Big Bear, Sleep by a nose! After listening to the third graders' Ladybug Award Podcast, here's how K-3 NHCS students voted. These results will be sent to the Center for the Book in Concord and will be combined with the votes of primary grade children from all over New Hampshire. The winner will be announced sometime in December - we'll post those results here as well!

NHCS Ladybug Podcast 2010

Click below to listen to the NHCS Ladybug Podcast 2010, written and recorded by the third graders. Which book will you vote for?

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Thanksgiving!

Think you know a lot about this holiday and the people who inspired it? The folks at NHPTV and Granite State Challenge have a two holiday quizzes for elementary students - test your knowledge about Pilgrims, then try the one about Thanksgiving. If you get a wrong answer, the quiz will tell you the correct one - and that will help you learn! Get a family member and give them both a try!

Ladybug Book #9: Sleep, Big Bear, Sleep

Second grade listened to Sleep, Big Bear, Sleep. It's about a bear who can't hear very well and is really tired because it's time to hibernate. Every time Old Man Winter said to go to sleep, the bear thought he said something that rhymed with it. Instead of going to sleep, he was driving a jeep, sweeping the house, and leaping with a frog!

The illustrations in pencil and pixels are beautiful. It's a silly story but some of us will still vote for it. It's a pretty good book!

Animoto Slideshows

For several weeks, fourth graders have been busy making slideshows with photos taken during Riverday this fall. The slideshows were built on a web 2.0 site called Animoto, where any user can upload pictures to create a free slide show. The accompanying music was chosen from freeplaymusic.com. When slide shows were complete, each fourth grader downloaded a copy of his or her slide show to include in digital portfolios.

Below is a sample of the work done. This slideshow is described by its creator as "a walk through nature at the edge of Profile Falls and the woods and plants on the shore." This student did a wonderful job of capturing the beauty of the environment and the day!

Ladybug Book #8: Princess Hyacinth

Here's another Ladybug book with a subtitle: the surprising tale of a girl who floated!
Princess Hyacinth always floated on the air. She had to be buckled and strapped in and she had to wear a big heavy crown and socks that had diamonds and weights in her dress. Princess Hyacinth wanted to have fun outside and she was bored because she couldn't. She really wanted to float outside the palace.
This story was so funny because it talked about Royal Underwear! The author is Florence Parry Heide and she's 91 years old!

Ladybug Book #7: Otis

Otis is a tractor.
He loves living at the farm.
He makes friends with a little calf.
The problem in the book is that the little calf gets stuck in the mud.
The resolution is that Otis goes round and round and the calf comes out.

Otis the tractor reminds us of Thomas the Tank Engine because they both have steam and they are both have fuel.

Ladybug Book #6: The Hair of Zoe Fleefenbacher Goes To School

This week we have begun to read The Hair of Zoe Fleefenbacher Goes to School by Laurie Halse Anderson. It's the story of a little girl with long, wild red hair. Sometimes in the story, Zoe's hair seems to have a mind of its own!

Second grade made several text-to-text connections to this funny book. One student compared it to Moosetache by Margi Palatini because, in that story, Moose's wild mustache gets in the way of what Moose wants to do. Another comparison was to the fairy tale Rapunzel. Just as Zoe Fleefenbacher used her hair to be handy and helpful, Rapunzel used her hair as a rope ladder for visitors to enter her tower room.

The solar system plays an important part in this book. We looked at an animation of the solar system (it's a drawing that moves!) to help us understand what was going to happen in the story. What Zoe's hair did at the end of the story was really funny!

Ladybug Book #5: The Circus Ship

The Circus Ship is by Chris Van Dusen, an author/illustrator who lives in Maine. Mark has been busy preparing a book talk for a podcast later this fall and, when he emailed the author a question, Mr. Van Dusen wrote back! We love getting information directly from the source!

Here's what Mark has to say about the book:

The Circus Ship is about the mean circus boss, Mr. Paine, and all his circus animals. The story begins on the circus ship, then moves to an island when the animals swim there. The best part of the story is when the animals all hide from Mr. Paine! This book is so funny and I hope it wins the Ladybug Award!