'Tis the Season

This last week before our Christmas break, students have been busy writing labels, greetings, sentences, and paragraphs. Much of the work had to do with Christmas traditions and holiday greetings. Fourth and fifth graders drew (or stamped!) a picture in TuxPaint, took a screen shot of their artwork, and inserted it into a GoogleDoc, which they then shared electronically with a chosen member of the staff. Third and second graders constructed a short paragraph about a family tradition, then illustrated it using TuxPaint. Our youngest students, still learning about the painting program, drew a Christmas object, then used the Fill option to color it in. A quick label finished the project.

TuxPaint is a versatile, robust program which is free for most operating systems. To download it to your computer at home, click here. And don't forget to download the stamps!

2011 Ladybug Award Winner

And the winner is...

Memoirs of a Goldfish!

This book got 4,892 votes from kids in New Hampshire. Interrupting Chicken came in second with 4,880 votes. How many more votes did Goldfish get than Chicken?? Leave your answer in the comment section!

Thanksgiving Haiku

As we were reviewing some of the Ladybug Award books in anticipation of next week's big vote, Mrs. Jackson's class made a haiku much like those in the book Guyku - but their haiku was about Thanksgiving. And here it is!

turkey with stuffing

potatoes mashed with gravy 

Happy Thanksgiving!

Ladybug Book #9: Interrupting Chicken

The author of Interrupting Chicken is David Ezra Stein. The little red chicken interrupts his Papa when he reads to him at bedtime. He promises he will not to do it again, but he does! The illustrator uses tea over the paint in the illustrations to make them look old, and it does! It is a very funny story! 

written by Miss Bocko's Class

Ladybug Book #7: Guyku

At school today, Mrs. Wilson's class was the first to hear this Ladybug Award nominee, Guyku by Bob Raczka and Peter Reynolds. Guyku is a collection of seasonal haiku poems written to appeal to boys (and girls too)! We learned that haikus are short, structured poems with a pattern: line 1 has 5 syllables, line 2 has 7 syllables, and line 3 has five syllables. We counted syllables as we read some of the funny haikus in the book!

Suddenly the fire alarm rang! We filed out of the building and waited for the all-clear from Mrs. Cook. When we got back to ICT, we wrote this haiku about our experience!

Fire alarm beeps loud

Makes you jump and hurts your ears

We line up and leave!

Ladybug Book #6: Rubia and the Three Osos

We listened to this book. Miss Bocko's class thinks the story was special because it had Spanish words like osos (bears), Rubia (girl with blond hair), sillas (chairs), and las tres camas (three beds). Can you guess the name of the story in English? That's right! Golidlocks and the Three Bears!

But Rubia and the Three Osos by Susan Middleton Elya is different from other Goldilocks stories we've heard. In this version, Rubia ate Bebé's sopa, not his porridge. After she ran away from the osos, Rubia did a good deed and made soup at home which she delivered to the bears to replace the soup she'd eaten. She glued the chair and she apologized to the family.

We noticed a Welcome mat in on one page said Bienvenido - and we even figured out what that meant!

All About Me

Third grade has been using Kidspiration to make a graphic about themselves. Kidspiration is an organizational software with many visual and writing features. Students learned three ways to find images to use with this software, and made choices based on their specialties, their likes, and their families. Captions were added, then reflections so the work can be saved to each digital portfolio as a snapshot representing third grade life.

Hopes & Dreams

For the past several weeks, each fourth grader has worked on a slide presentation of his or her individual hopes, goals, and dreams for this school year. Most goals are academic and involve reading, math, spelling, science, writing, or NWEA testing. Some goals involve music and recorder skills or art technique. Students formed and typed their goals into LibreOffice, then chose appropriate copyright-free pictures or clip art to complement their work. When Reflection slides are finished, these presentations will be filed in each child's digital portfolio. Nice job, 4Mc and good luck with those goals!

Ladybug Book #5: One

Many classes have already heard this Ladybug Award nominated book One, a picture book by Kathryn Otoshie. One is filled with colors and numbers but that's not really what the book is about. When Miss Bocko's first graders heard the story of One, this is what they thought of it:
      It was about bullying.

      It was about working together.

     At the end, the bully was smarter and nicer.

     He wanted to join the others so he could have fun, too.

Click on this link to hear author Kathryn Otoshi read her story aloud while elementary students act it out. It's a good message for us all. 

10 Not-So-Scary Movies for Halloween

If you're looking for a spooky family movie this Halloween weekend, check out this list of 10 Not-So-Scary Movies at Common Sense Media. Happy Halloween!

Ladybug Book #4: Ugly Pie

Primary grade students have heard a story about an ugly pie and Ol' Bear's quest to gather the ingredients. The author, Lisa Wheeler, wrote Ugly Pie in a regional dialect. Words like Ol', hankerin', and taste-bud-temptin' made for some interesting discussion about the purpose of apostrophes in words along with a quick review of contractions. The illustrator, Heather Solomon, used interesting art techniques like drawing Ol' Bear five times on the same page to show that he's traveling down a path in the woods.

At the end of the story came the recipe for Ugly Pie! Most children knew what it was just from looking at the formatting of the text! A quick email to Lisa Wheeler gave us permission to reproduce the (copyrighted) recipe here in case you want to try it at home with your children. If you make it, leave a comment to let us know how it was! By the way, the author reports "The pie is yummy. Tastes kind of like carmel apple."

If you've been itchin' for some Ugly Pie, today is your lucky day! 

Here's Ol' Bear's recipe, handed down from bear to bear for generations. 

Recipe for Ugly Pie  

Ugly Crust 

2 1/2 cups flour
1 cup lard (or shortening)
1/2 teaspoon salt
6 to 8 tablespoons icy cold water (brrrrr) 

First, mix together the flour and salt. Then, using a fork, cut little chunks of that ugly lard into your flour until you get what looks like itty-bitty pea-sized balls. Set aside half this mixture in another bowl for later. Next, sprinkle 1 tablespoon of icy cold water over those pea-sized balls. Gently toss it with a fork. Repeat until your flour mixture forms an ugly ball of dough 

Spread a little bit of flour on a flat surface (like your kitchen counter). Pat that ball of ugly dough down like you mean business. Then roll it with a rolling pin until it becomes a flat, ugly crust. It doesn't matter if it looks nice and round and pretty. This is Ugly Pie! Place in a 9" deep-dish pie plate. 

Ugly Filling 

6 cups peeled, sliced Granny Smith apples
1/4 cup molasses
1 teaspoon lemon juice 

In a large bowl, toss apple slices with lemon juice. Then mix in molasses until apples are completely coated with ugly brown goo. Set aside. 

5 tablespoons flour
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 cup white sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar 

In a medium-sized bowl, mix the dry ingredients listed above. Add to the ugly apple mixture until everything is nice 'n' moist. 

3/4 cup red raisins or cran-raisins
1/4 walnuts chopped fine 

Toss raisins and walnuts into apple mixture. Make sure all ingredients are well coated. Place into pie crust. Your pie should look fairly ugly by now. 

Ugly Topping 

Take the crumbly flour mixture you set aside earlier. Sprinkle over the top of the pie. 

Cover the pie with an aluminum foil tent to prevent overbrowning. Bake at 400° for 40 minutes. Remove foil and bake another 20 minutes. 

When your pie is done, you will have the most delicious, most beautiful UGLY PIE you ever saw!

reprinted with permission from Ugly Pie by Lisa Wheeler, illustrated by Heather Solomon.  Thanks for showing kids an example of copyright in action!

Ladybug Book #3: Memoirs of a Goldfish

This week's picture book was Memoirs of a Goldfish by Devin Scillian. It's the tale of a lonely goldfish who ends up with more companionship than he can handle! The illustrator of this book is Tim Bowers. We visited his website and noticed that all the illustrations in his gallery were copyrighted. Copyright shows that the work belongs to the person who created it, so when second graders drew self-portraits using TuxPaint, they made sure to copyright their own work!

Ladybug Book #2: In The Wild

In The Wild by New Hampshire author David Elliott is a collection of short poems about wild animals. Primary grade students listened to these poems, then visited the author's website to hear some of the poems read aloud. We noticed that the online version of the poems had music and animal noises in the background to enhance the setting of the poem. Take a listen for yourself!

This book is nominated for the NH Ladybug Award. The illustrations are done with woodcuts and watercolor paint.

Kindergartners also visited Bembo's Zoo, where letters make animal sounds and turn into wild creatures!

2011 NH Ladybug Awards

Every fall, kindergarten, first, and second graders have the opportunity to see and hear the picture books that are nominated for our state's award, the Ladybug Award, in preparation for voting for their favorite in November. Oddly enough, two of this year's nominees were already in our library so many of the children have heard City Dog, Country Frog and Interrupting Chicken.

NHCS loves cookies!

This week's Ladybug-nominated book was The Cow Loves Cookies by Karma Wilson. It's a funny rhyming story about a cow who is always eating cookies. After we read the book, we visited the author's website, then made a Wordle showing our favorite cookies. Here's a combination of two classes responses  - can you tell by the size which is our favorite kind of cookie?

Off to a Great Start!

We've just finished our third full week of ICT classes and we're settling into a routine. New accounts are working well and, for the most part, students remember and are adept at using the strong passwords they've made! As older children were setting up their accounts, they had a lesson on captcha, those  funny squiggly words you have to type sometimes to prove you're a human! Everyone's had a review of library procedures and we're learning the new ones associated with our Library Management System. No more sign-out cards for us! More about that soon! Finally, we've had a chance to look at some of the new books and materials in our Library Media Center and many of them are now out on loan. It's been a great September!

The Strange Case of Origami Yoda by Tom Angleberger

The Strange Case of Origami Yoda is a great book about a kid named Dwight with a skill of making origami. One day he decides to make an origami Yoda.

Origami Yoda gives advice to the kids in school. This book is filled with different stories from different kids and their experiences with Origami Yoda. This is a great book to read because it has humor and lots of spirit. I would recommend this book to anyone who likes a good laugh.

And if you ever need advice, Yoda is your guy.

Submitted by JW, who also made the origami Yoda, shown.

Happy New Year!

Just like a kid, I am always so excited to be back in school! It's wonderful to see the children again, to see how they've grown and changed and to hear about their summer adventures - and their summer reading!

It was a short week but a busy one in our first ICT classes. Grades 2-5 have been creating strong passwords for their new accounts, that is, passwords that are easy to remember yet difficult to figure out. Ask your student how he or she will remember the new password they're creating.

When you come to Open House on Thursday night, swing by the Library Media Center to see some of the new materials we have. And don't forget to visit the Scholastic Book Fair - click here for a preview!

Summertime ICT!

Happy Summer! I hope you spend lots of time outside in the sunshine. I hope you read lots of books! And, if you want a little computer time, I hope you like the Tizmos page I made for you to use at home - and that Seed Ball game we played is on it!) Click right here to find it!

There's an Owl in the Shower by Jean Craighead George

I read There's an Owl in the Shower by Jean Craighead George. It was really good because it had a lot of true facts about owls. This sweet story is about a boy who sets out to shoot an owl family so his logger father can get back to work. But when an owlet falls from the nest and is identified as being an endangered species, the boy and his family decide to raise it. It was pretty funny because the spotted owl would take showers and watch TV with the father! You should try this book! It’s great!

submitted by Bailey

Busy, busy, busy!

Ask any teacher their busiest time of the year and, chances are, they'll say May and June. End of the year responsibilities at school clash with the beginning (or end!) of sports seasons, with yard clean-up and getting the garden in, and with spending time outside in the warm weather. There's so much to be done! Children have been busy in ICT, too, working on research projects, videos, web searching, and reflecting on what they've learned. Watch this space as the year ends for samples of this student work!

Thank You!

The Buy-One Get-One Free Book Fair held last week was a huge success! We exceeded our total sales over last year's Spring fair by $500 and we earned $150 in free books for the Library Media Center. But the most important aspect of the Book Fair sales is this: you put purchased and free books in the hands of your children for their summer reading pleasure. Good for you!!

Special thanks to Miss Holloran, Mr. Peringer, and Mrs. Meegan for helping set-up the Fair on Tuesday afternoon. Thanks also to Mrs. Simard who helped out during the Cinco de Mayo dinner Thursday night and who got the Fair started on Friday morning, as well as to Mrs. Blier who ran the final sales period when I was not in the building.

I've just finished packing everything up and was pleased to look at receipts and see some of the book choices that your children made. Lots of good reading will be happening in these next months thanks to your support in making this Book Fair a success.

Buy One - Get One FREE Book Fair

May 4-6 in the Multipurpose Room

Wednesday: Preview Day - no sales

Thursday: Book Fair open for sales - 8am-3pm and 5:30pm-7:30pm

Friday: Final sales - morning only

Flyers will be coming home with students on Monday, May 2nd! 

See you at the Book Fair!

Earth Day Week

In honor of Earth Day this week, we read a final Mary Lyn Ray picture book called Welcome, Brown Bird. It's the story of a wood thrush who travels between the homes of two boys - one who lives in hemlock woods in the north and another who lives in the tropical rain forest of the south. Both families protect the habitat of the migrating thrush because they so enjoy listening to its song. Many children said they've heard it here in New Hampton - have you?

A Special Visit

Last Friday, NH author Mary Lyn Ray visited classrooms and listened to students read their writing. She answered some questions that had been raised when we read this book, All Aboard, in ICT classes - and she also autographed the book for us! Thanks, Mary Lyn Ray!

Making Art Digital

Fourth graders recently completed a piece of artwork with Mrs. Plante-Renault. Then they photographed it to make it digital. Here's Jake's excellent depiction of Fenway Park. Can you guess what will happen to it next?

Free Math Apps

Beginning today and for four days only, Everyday Mathematics® is offering free math game apps for your iPhone, an iTouch, or iPad. These games are the same as the Everyday Math online games students play on comptuers and they're electronic versions of the games each grade level plays in class. These games reinforce major concepts presented in our math program. To find the games, go to the iTunes App Store, then search for Everyday Mathematics. After April 16th, the games will go back to their original price - so get them while you can!

Fun with Pattern Blocks

Pattern blocks are a math manipulative that students use in class to explore math concepts. Kidspiration, a graphic program that we have on the computers, has a virtual pattern block component. This week, first graders were "building" with them, using many of the same techniques used in more sophisticated paint and drawing programs - with a little word processing for practice.

Research!

Fifth graders have started a research project, with each student choosing their own topic of interest. As we work on this from week to week, we'll be reviewing all that we know about searching the internet, identifying credible resources and obeying copyright law. Watch this place for some examples of finished products!

Field Trip Follow-Up

Recently, kindergarten traveled to a New Hampton sugar house to see how sap is turned into maple syrup. In ICT classes, they used their blossoming TuxPaint skills to draw and write about the experience.

Reach For The Stars!

The Reach for the Stars reading challenge is on!! Get ready for it by signing up some relatives or friends to sponsor your reading. In the next two weeks, read or be read to for 300 minutes. Log your reading time on the journal page you got at school. On April 3rd, the last day of the challenge, fill out your paperwork and collect your sponsor's donations to bring into school the next day.

Don't forget to choose free books here - worth 50% of whatever you collect for pledges!

Brand New Books!

The newest book in the NHCS Library Media Center is Tucker's Countryside, the sequel to A Cricket in Times Square! What's a sequel, you say? It's a book that continues the story of another book by the same author. And this book continues the story of Chester Cricket, the spring after he gets back to Connecticut. Tucker is in this book, of course - and so is Harry Cat. Is that Tucker on the cover? It looks like he's in some kind of trouble!

Here's part of the blurb from the back cover of the book:

Chester Cricket needs help. That's the message that John Robin carries to the Times Square subway station where Harry Cat and Tucker Mouse live. Quickly, Chester's good friends set off on the long, hard journey to the Old Meadow, where all is not well. 

This book isn't a Newbery Honor Book like A Cricket in Times Square. But it's a New York Times Book of the Year - and that's good! Check out Tucker's Countryside next time you come to the Library Media Center!

Also new to the library are Chester Cricket's New Home and Chester Cricket's Pigeon Ride. Come on into the Library Media Center to borrow either of these books. I'd love to have a guest blogger post reviews of one or both of these books!

Josh's Slideshow

During Winter Activities last month, Josh was in the Photography group that met weekly with Mr. Peringer and me. After he learned to use the camera, Josh ventured out around school and took many pictures, some of which were used on the school website! At his last photography session, Josh created this "Mystery Slide Show." He shows a close up of an unidentified item, then shows the same item photographed from a distance. See how many pictures you can identify. Way to go, Josh!

Seuss Quiz!

Dr. Seuss is everywhere this week with Read Across America events happening! How much do you know about Dr. Seuss? Take this quiz to find out!

Iditarod 2011

image: CC-BY Frank Kovalchek

Tomorrow is the ceremonial start of the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, the annual race from Anchorage to Nome, Alaska. The official start will come on Sunday. Before vacation, Mrs. Sawicki met with third, fourth, and fifth graders to show students the official web site for the Iditarod, to give them some background information and history about the race, and to have them choose a musher to follow. It's easy to get caught up in the race - it's full of sportsmanship, extreme weather, adverse conditions, long lonely distances between checkpoints, and lots and lots of dogs! During the ten or so days that the race traditionally runs, Mrs. Sawicki posts daily information about standings and locations on a central bulletin board in the main hallway of the school. Students can use the website to read about daily events, calculate distances, prizes, and monetary costs to the mushers, and watch interviews by mushers as they stop at checkpoints along the trail. If you'd like to keep up with the race at home, the official website is iditarod.com. It makes for great dinnertime conversation since so much happens over the course of 24 hours!

A sidenote: for the last four years, the Iditarod has been won by a Lance Mackey, a consumate musher and cancer survivor from Alaska. He's the man to beat this year - and that should make the 2011 Iditarod all the more interesting!

For the kids, here's the 2011 Iditarod's youngest musher, Cain Carter, talking about his hopes for the race.

A Cricket in Times Square: The End

So by now you have finished reading A Cricket in Times Square. Didn't the story have a satisfying ending? Wasn't it interesting how, even though the end was a little sad, really, it was all right for everyone, including us the reader? That's the mark of a Really Good Book!

The story begins to end when Chester feels a little "Septemberish." I don't think that's a real word, do you? But when I read it, I knew right away what "Septemberish" feels like - when the daytime air changes from hot to cool, when I have to wear shoes instead of bare feet, when the leaves in my yard start to get tinged with red and orange - those are all things I notice when I start to feel Septemberish. What about you - how do you feel "Septemberish"?

It was so thoughtful of Chester to play Papa Bellini's favorite musical piece for his final performance in the Times Square subway station. It's the most famous piece from the Italian opera Lucia di Lammermoor. This piece is a sextet, which is a song written for six singers. That's why Harry Cat said, "Too bad there aren't five more crickets like Chester!" You can listen to the sextet here - can you hear six different voices?

What did you think about Mario's reaction to Chester's leaving? Why wasn't he more sad? I mean, he lost his pet. Why was Mario so understanding? 

We say goodbye to Chester as he sets out traveling north on a train, headed back to his home in Connecticut. Doesn't it feel like there could be another story here or maybe a whole other book? I wonder if there is...?

Graphs & Charts

By polling their classmates, fourth grade students collected a small amount of data about a question of interest.  They entered the data in a simple spreadsheet, then used the application's Chart Wizard to generate different ways to visually represent it. Here's one student's data showing the least favorite video game of the kids in Mr. McCann's class.

Presidents' Day

In honor of Presidents' Day, here's a link to a short BrainPopJr. movie about George Washington, intended for primary grade students. Happy Presidents' Day!

Cyber Smart!

Guest Bloggers today are Mrs. Jackson's Second Graders! Here's what they have to say!

In ICT, we have been learning how to be "Cyber-Smart". Do you want to know how, too? Here's what we know:

Don't send pictures to anyone without checking with a parent or guardian.

When a website wants private information, ask an adult before you enter it in a form.

To keep your computer safe from viruses, don't download anything without permission.

If you hear from someone you don't know, tell a parent. Don't delete the message. A parent will know what to do.

Follow your family's computer and internet rules.

Lastly, keep private information private - like

    your first or last name

    your username,

    your password,

    your address,

    your school address,

    the name of your school

    where your parents work

    your phone number

    your email address  

Here's the rule we learned: Always ask your parent or teacher if its okay to give out private information. And if something happens online that makes you uncomfortable, get an adult to help.

Be Cyber-Smart!

Music!!

There sure was a lot of music happening in this week's chapters of A Cricket in Times Square! From time to time, I'd realize I was humming or whistling one of the songs the story mentioned!

Remember the song that Harry Cat heard on the radio and sang at the dinner party? It's a real song and it comes from an old movie. Click here for the short part where that song is sung! And as long as you're in a musical mood, here's the Blue Danube Waltz that Chester joined the radio in playing and played perfectly!



What a shame the party was ruined by the fire. As I read, I wished Chester had sounded the alarm (clock!) sooner. After the fire was out and the Bellinis came to investigate the damage, Mama Bellini said that Chester was a jinx. What is a jinx? Do you think Chester was one? Why or why not? Put your opinion in the comment space, below.

"He chirps opera?!" exclaimed Papa. Then the author describes Papa as being so surprised that his eyes looked as big and startled as two hard boiled eggs. And I got a great picture in my head of Mr. Bellini looking that way - and I laughed out loud!

Chester played lots of different piece of music! Mrs. Bird would have loved this cricket! Here's one last piece, the hymn he played that so surprised Mr. Smedley!

Keyboarding

This winter, third grade has begun the Type to Learn 4 program for keyboarding skills. Here's the post from last fall with online keyboard games and programs in case any of you want to practice at home. Just please remember to keep your fingers in place, thumbs on the space bar, and reach to tap keys! Train your brain!

image by Cy21.WP:CC-BY-SA

Heart Day!

In honor of Valentine's Day, some students watched BrainPop or BrainpopJr movies about the heart. Did you know the heart is a muscle that needs exercising, just like your other muscles? The heart is about the size of your fist and takes only a minute to pump blood to all areas of your body. That's fast!

First graders used TuxPaint to illustrate and write about something they love. Here are a few examples!

Lots of Food!

There certainly was lots of eating going on in this week's chapters! Poor Chester! He dreamed he was eating a willow leaf but he woke up to find he had eaten something very different! And what sorts of problems did that cause for Chester's friends and for Mario and his family? Chester must have felt terrible!

In Chapter 7, you heard a little more about the cricket cage and how it looked like a pagoda. Click this link to see some pictures of real pagodas!

Sai Fong told Mario to feed Chester the leaves of a mulberry tree. Visit this site to see what one looks like. Look carefully at the leaves. Do you notice anything unusual about them?

When I read about the Chinese Dinner, I had a text-to-self connection. Remember after dinner how everyone sat around quietly and listened to Chester play his music? That reminded me of Thanksgiving at my house - when the meal is finished and the company is gone and the dishes are done, we sit quietly in the candle-lit living room and listen to music. After an important holiday and a big meal, it's so relaxing! It sounds like it was the same for Sai Fong and the old Chinese gentleman, doesn't it?

Did you find any connections? If so, post them in the comment box, below!

One More Adventure

A boy in New York City made a movie of his subway ride to Times Square. If you want to see it again, click here.

Times Square Adventures

In Chapter 4 of A Cricket in Times Square, Tucker and Harry take Chester up to the street to see Times Square. If you want to see what Chester saw, this link will take you to a live webcam located high on a building looking down on Times Square so you can see what's happening there right this moment! Can you imagine what it must have looked like to Chester looking up from the sidewalk? I'm surprised he could even see his Connecticut star with all those city lights!

A pet cricket and his container made of a gourd.
Watercolor by Qi Baishi(1864–1957).

You heard more about Mario keeping Chester as a pet. He even bought a cricket cage from Sai Fong! In ancient China, people really did keep crickets as pets. But they used ceramic jars or hollowed out gourds for cricket houses so the cricket's chirp would sound louder in the hollow space. Would a cardboard matchbox do the same thing? Why or why not?

Mr. Smedley certainly was impressed with Chester and his chirping. Do you think this is important to the story? Can you predict what might happen because Chester and Mr. Smedley met?

Have fun reading Chapters 7-9 for next Friday. Don't forget to do your trivia questions and bring them to school. And before you go...here, have a fortune cookie!

Interesting Characters

The first three chapters of A Cricket in Times Square introduced you to Chester Cricket and to several other characters in the book. With a story set in New York City where there are so many people, I wonder if there will be lots of characters in this book!

I think Papa Bellini will be an interesting character to watch. Even though he's Mario's father and he owns the news stand, I don't think he'll be a major part of the story. But already he sounds like a good person and a caring father. Remember how the author describes him when we first meet him on page 11?  "...He had a kindness that shone about him" and "there always seemed to be something smiling inside Papa."  I also noticed that he was the one to finally say (in a certain quiet tone!) that Mario could keep Chester. That part made me smile because I was really worried that Mario would have to let Chester go!

Which character do you like? What do you like about the character already? What do you think - or hope - might happen to that character as the story continues? In the comment section below, tell us who you like and why! But don't forget to ask an adult before you post private information - like your first name!

One School/One Book Begins!

After tonight's wonderful NHCS Winter Concert, each family received a copy of our One School/One Book read-aloud for this year. A Cricket in Times Square by George Selden is a Newbery Honor Book set in New York City. It tells of the friendship between a cricket, a mouse, a cat, and a boy. The first four chapters will introduce you to those characters and set the tone for the story. 

Much of the action in the book takes place in the Times Square subway station. Check out the video below to see what that place looks like!

Packets of questions were passed out with your books. If you misplace them and want to view or print out a copy at home, click below:

Introduction

Chapters 1-3

Chapters 4-6

Chapters 7-9

Chapters 10-12

I'd love to know how you and your family like the book and if any of you have co

nnections to it! So leave me a comment, below!  Have fun reading - and don't forget to check back to this blog from time-to-time for more postings related to A Cricket in Times Square!

Book Awards

Every January, two important children's literature awards are presented by the American Library Association. Most NHCS students are familiar with the Caldecott Award, given for the best picture book. This year's winner is A Sick Day for Amos McGee illustrated by Erin Stead and written by her husband, Philip. I have ordered the book for the NHCS library and will share it with the children the minute it comes in!

The Newbery Award is given for the best children's novel and this year's winner is Clare Vanderpool for Moon Over Manifest. I have not yet read it but know that its setting is Kansas during the Depression. It has gotten wonderful reviews for this first time author! You can read the Amazon.com reviews here.

I just read on a Seattle news site that Moon Over Manifest was ranked at 49,676 in sales on Amazon.com the morning of the awards ceremony. By the end of the day, it was number 17. Amazing the power of these two awards. 

Internet Safety

In ICT classes this month, internet safety is a focus at each grade level.  As an introduction and review, many classes watched and discussed online movies like this one from BrainPopJr. These movies stress the fact that personal information should be safeguarded and not shared online. They also send the message that adults at home and at school can help if a child sees or reads something online that makes him or her feel uncomfortable. Review this with your child - let them know that you're there to help if the internet gets to be too confusing or too scary for them.

Going Places Safely

First graders went to The New England Aquarium in Boston and to the Bronx Zoo in New York! They heard lots of facts about animals and even saw an octopus move and a whale spout air! And they never even left our Library Media Center! These students are learning that the internet can take them to exciting places! But just as they are supervised when traveling in the real world, they are learning to also bring an adult along when going into cyberspace.

Here are some websites you and your young student can visit together!

The Los Angeles Zoo

The Museum of Modern Art

The New York Philharmonic Kids Zone

If you know of other good "virtual field trip" destinations, leave us a comment and a link, below!