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!

Happy Halloween!

For online Halloween fun, a few websites just for you!

Trick or Treat: Find the shortest routes that will visit all houses and still get you back home before the pumpkin!
Pumpkin carving: Click and drag the mouse to carve the pumpkin.
Make a pumpkin: Click and drag to add features to the pumpkin.
Skeleton Dance: Complete the puzzle to make the skeletons dance!
Halloween with Boowa and Kwala: Puzzles, games, crafts, and singing ghosts!
Online Halloween Games from Ben & Jerry, the ice cream guys!
The Typing of the Ghosts: Ghosts disappear when you type the words on them. Keep your fingers on the home row keys!
Fourth and fifth graders, the link to the page with the Skulduggery Pleasant book trailer is here, at the bottom of the "Book Trailers" list.

Have a safe and happy Halloween!

Ladybug Book #4: Creaky Old House

Kindergarten and first grade listened to the story Creaky Old House, by Linda Ashman. It's an amusing story about a family who tries to fix up the old house that they love living in.

Jacob thought the story started funny when Pa opened the door and the knob fell right off. Max liked when the light landed on Grandpa when he found a new doorknob that he thought was perfect. Caroline's favorite part was when they finally realized that doorknob was too long!

Zoe laughed because the new door the family bought was too wide. Bailey thought their plans for fixing up their house were amazing! Brady liked that the baby in the house fixed the big problem and Keith thought it was pretty funny that the family did all that work for nothing!

The subtitle of this book is A Topsy-Turvy Tale of a Real Fixer-Upper! Just as a subway goes under the ground and a submarine goes under the water, a subtitle goes under the regular title of the book. It really is a topsy-turvy tale and we all agree that this is a very interesting and exciting book! And Michael Chesworth's illustrations are so full of detail they're just fantastic!

NHCS Weather Station

Mrs. Sawicki has set up a weather station for our school!! She got the funding for the weather equipment from the New Hampton Conservation Commission with the help of local resident Pat Schlesinger. Mr. Sawicki from Winnepesauke Electric helped with the wiring and installation. Plymouth State University donated an old computer and the Sawickis supplied the peripherals. Steve Gunn, a weather enthusiast from Bristol, helped with the free software and the link to the Weather Underground, where our collected data will be reported out to the whole world. What an amazing community effort!!

If you're interested in seeing our data, here's the link for our weather station. If it's just the current conditions or the forecast you want, look in the sidebar over here ---> or on the home page of the NHCS website.

Fourth graders will continue to report the morning weather conditions and the daily forecast to all our classrooms - but when they do, they'll be using up-to-the-minute information collected right here at our school. How's that for a real-world application of technology? Thanks to all the people who made that happen!

Ladybug Book #3: Birds

Birds is written by Kevin Henkes and illustrated by Laura Dronzek. Here's what some second graders said about the story:

The pictures really look like birds because of the shape and the vivid colors.

I liked the tree that looked like it said "Surprise!"because it was fun.

The snow picture looked a little like space - the snowflakes looked like stars!

The pictures in this book actually tell the story!

The NHCS Library Media Center purchased this book last year. It's wonderful to have a book in our collection be nominated for the Ladybug Award!