Free Rice

Fifth graders spent some time this week practicing vocabulary at the Free Rice website. For each correct answer to a vocabulary question, grains of rice are donated to United Nations World Food Program. By our calculations, in the few minutes they worked at the website, fifth graders donated 18,770 grains of rice. It's a nice example of people helping people via the internet.

Fourth Grade Hopes & Dreams

This term, fourth graders have worked on defining their hopes and dreams for the school year. In the process, we explored themes of copyright and fair use of images and learned to create a presentation using Google Docs for Education.

Ladybug Book #6 : Blackout

This picture book tells the story of a city family who experiences a loss of electrical power on a hot summer night. Many of the details of the story were taken from the experiences of New Yorkers the night of the Northeast blackout of 2003, as shown in this book trailer.

When asked what they would do to entertain themselves if the power went out, first graders responded:

Use the iPad.
Play a board game.
Play with a friend.
Color a picture. 
Dress up. 
Swim in your pool if it was summer. 
Use a headlamp. 
Play with a remote control vehicle if the batteries work. 
Play with your toys. 
Jump rope.
Sit in a circle and tell spooky stories with a flashlight.
Read at books and learn from it.
Go bike riding by the headlights of your car.

The beautiful illustrations from this book have already won a 2012 Caldecott Award! Maybe it will win the Ladybug Award, too!

Ladybug Nominee #5: Stars

Stars is a beautifully illustrated book by Mary Lyn Ray, a popular children's author who lives in New Hampshire, in Danbury! Some children remembered that she was a visitor to our school just last year. The illustrator is Marla Frazee, who has won several awards for her artwork in children's books.

After reading about Stars, first and second graders looked at Starfall, a website for young readers. We read an online book there called Pumpkin, Pumpkin and observed in the photos that pumpkin blossoms do look like stars, just as Mary Lyn Ray wrote in her book!

Many of us hope that Stars wins the Ladybug Award because Mary Lyn Ray would not have to travel very far to pick up her trophy!

Ladybug Nominnee #4: Neville

Poor Neville. His family moves to a new house in a new neighborhood and he has lost all his friends. Ask your student to explain the creative way Neville solves this problem and makes many new friends in a very short period of time! In several classes, there was great debate about whether Neville was being honest!

At one point, Neville "walks around the block" in his new neighborhood. We turned to GoogleMaps and annotated an image of Bristol to better understand this concept - because New Hampton doesn't have many neighborhood blocks!  Do you see the streets that Neville could have walked around? Students found lots of reasons why that would be called a "block"!

One student suggested that the fleet of yellow school busses looked like sticks of butter! We equated this view of town to what a bird must see as he flies over!

Hopes & Dreams

Both fourth and fifth graders are composing hopes and dreams for this new school year. Students are word-processing these statements in GoogleDocs (now GoogleDrive), making corrections and revisions as they type. Fourth graders will make a small Google Presentation slide show featuring their hopes and dreams, while fifth graders will use a password-protected educational edition of Glogster and will compose their hopes and dreams on a digital poster of sorts. These projects will be stored in the child's digital portfolio here at school.

Ladybug Nominee #3: Calvin Can't Fly

Calvin Can't Fly is a story about a starling who would rather read books than learn to fly. When the time comes for his flock to migrate, Calvin needs the help of his family to follow along. But Calvin's knowledge ends up saving the flock from  a great disaster. Children loved the ending of this Ladybug nominated book!

See the flock of starlings on the cover of the book? Here's a video showing how starlings like Calvin and his family swarm and swoop as a group. How do they do that?

Ladybug Nominee #2: Cloudette

Cloudette, by Tom Lichtenheld, is the story of a tiny cloud who likes being small but sometimes wishes to be big and powerful like the other clouds in the sky. Cloudette is the second book primary grade students have heard that is nominated for the 2012 NH Ladybug Award.

In this book, children encounter an asterisk in the text, next to an over sized RIBBIT from a frog. The reader needs to look to to the bottom of the page and find a second asterisk to see that the frog is actually saying "thank you" to Cloudette! An asterisk is one of the elements of print students will see as they read more difficult texts, especially non-fiction. We talked about how the "aster" part of the word means "star" - like in astronomy and astronaut!

Bigger clouds called Cloudette nicknames like "pipsqueak", "small-fry" and "shortcake". We took a few minutes to talk about name-calling and how some names can make us feel happy and loved, while others can make us feel badly. Students shared pet names that parents and grandparents called them, like "sweetie", "peanut" and "pumpkin"! We like those names!

Fall Book Fair!

Click here for the link to the Scholastic Book Fair website for NHCS! Come and visit the Fair at school on Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday this week (check hours on the page) or shop online for the next two weeks to get great books and to support our school! Thank you!!

Book Review: Emily's Fortune

After Emily is orphaned, she is supposed to go with her closest blood relative, mean Uncle Victor. But she really wants to live with her nice, kind Aunt Hilda instead, so Emily sets out to find her. On her way to Redbud, Emily meets a friend who tries to protect her from Uncle Victor, who is now after her. Their strange adventures are entertaining to the reader and the end of the story is a satisfying one where they live happily ever after. You should totally read Emily's Fortune. It's one of the best books I have ever read.

by Bailey

Taking Care of Books

Kids borrow books from our Library to take home and read and to share with their families. First graders made a list of points to remember when borrowing books -

Have clean hands when you read books.
Handle the pages easily and carefully and turn them lightly. 

Don’t bend the book back or break the binding.

Keep it off the ground and the floor to keep it clean.
Don't have food near your book. 

Keep it in a special place (like your book bag) so it won’t get lost. 

Keep your book away from your baby and your pets.
Never treat a book like a toy. It's not to play with, it's to read!
Don't forget to bring it back to the library so other people can read it, too!

Pete the Cat

Here's Pete the Cat, star of two picture books recently read to younger students. When school began, we read Pete the Cat, Rocking In My School Shoes. This week, we read Pete the Cat, I Love My White Shoes, our first Ladybug Award nominee. Pete's a cool cat who sings in all his books. Students visited Pete the Cat's website to hear his stories and to sing along with his catchy songs. The site also has activities, games, and videos for your student to visit at home. Check it out! As Pete the Cat says, it's all good!

2012 NH Ladybug Award

This fall, NHCS students in kindergarten, first, second, and third grade will be introduced to the ten picture books nominated for the 2012 NH Ladybug Award. In November, they will join students across the state in selecting this year's winner. Watch this blog for details about each book - and ask your student about them as we have fun reading them all!

Zeke Meeks

TJ and Gabe began to read books in a new series about a boy named Zeek Meeks. Here's what they had to say about the books they read.

It was a good book because it was very funny. Zeke Meeks is the kind of guy who doesn't like girls including his own sister. I would recommend this book because it was unpredictable and parts of it were so unexpected!  - Gabe
It's a good book for boys because it tells stuff that boys would think are funny - like Zeke made quicksand for a science project and he kept putting things in it. He lost his mom's bracelet that way. You should see how he got it back! I would recommend this book to other kids - girls would like it, too. - TJ

How to Raise a Reader

Common Sense Media is an online resource I use a lot. It posts timely reviews of new books and movies. It describes new apps and games. It posts links to technology-related research. It helps me keep up with what's going on with kids and technology.

Their back-to-school issue featured a short article called How to Raise a Reader. In it are are good tips for nurturing a love of books and reading in your child. Reading the article reminded me that kids of all ages like to be read to, even after they are able to read by themselves. I'm hoping to hook some readers myself this year by reading very short snippets of books at the start or end of ICT classes!

Backpack Books

As third graders, we can take our library books home with us! If we keep our book in our backpack, it will never get lost. It will not get ruined by rain or mud or bird poop. It will be safe from pets and little children and from other things that could destroy it. If your book is in your backpack it will be with you all the time and you will be able to enjoy reading anywhere - at home, in the classroom, in the after school program, in the car or on the bus. You will always have a good book with you that you can read!

written by NHCS Third Graders

Back to School!

It's the night before school starts and I know I won't be able to go to sleep! Did you know teachers get excited about the first day of school, too?

There are big changes in the Library Media Center! First of all, we have new books - a lot of them! We have new series books, like Dragonbreath and the Kylie Jean sets. There are new graphic novels, including a set about dinosaurs, another book called Zita the Space Girl, - and guess who's running for President? Babymouse! We have lots of picture books, including all the nominees for this year's New Hampshire Ladybug Award. One picture book that looks good already is Duckling Gets a Cookie, written by Mo Willems, who wrote Don't Let the Pigeon Drive The Bus! We have fiction I've been anxious to read myself - like Wildwood and Emily's Fortune. And we have the third Origami Yoda book, The Secret of the Fortune Wookiee! It was just published two weeks ago!

Another big change - we have more tables now! To make them fit, I had to make rows, and I had no place for the blue rug. It looks very different but I think you may like it - everyone faces the screen now!

The library bookcases are moved around, and we have cool red lines on the floor! Big changes! But one thing that's the same is me - and I can't wait until tomorrow to see you!

A Great Week for Technology

You know I think technology is amazing! In just the first two days of this week, I've noticed two uses of technology that I can't stop marveling at!

The first deals with an athlete, Oscar Pistorius from South Africa, who was running in the 400 meter race at the London 2012 Olympics on prosthetic legs made of metal. This man has had artificial legs since he was a child, yet grew up playing rugby, tennis and water polo. He wanted to be a runner and an Olympic athlete so he worked and trained hard to make that happen. It was so inspiring to watch him run and to finish the race!

The second technological wonder this week is NASA's Curiosity, which has landed on the surface of Mars and has begun to explore it. Just think: scientists will actually be able to closely study a distant planet using this robotic technology. Here's one of the first pictures the Mars Rover has sent back to Earth. If you'd like to see other images from Curiosity, click for the NASA Image Gallery.

Have you found any amazing technology this summer? Tell us about it in the comment section, below!

Memiors of a Goldfish: The Play

Look! The theater company in Meredith is performing a musical version of the 2012 Ladybug Award winning book Memoirs of a Goldfish on August 10th and 11th. Here's the link for more information!

Summer Vacation!

Even though summer doesn't officially begin until the summer solstice on June 20 (at 7:09pm!), it's here for NHCS kids NOW! I hope you are already having fun times!

When the weather is warm, sunny, and beautiful, being inside at a computer or a TV is a terrible idea. But there may be times when you'd like a little time on the internet. As promised, here's the "ICT Summer Tizmos Page" of links for you to use. There are online magazines, links to free videos, typing games, and the amazing Seed Ball game we all love! As I find more interesting websites this summer, I will add them. Have fun!

Don't forget to read! The beach, the campground, on road trips, at summer school, in the yard under trees - you can take books anywhere! Leave me a comment (with your first name only!) and let me know what you're reading!

Have a safe and happy, fun-filled summer!

BOGO Book Fair

Our Spring Book Fair was a success! We came very close to our goal of surpassing last Spring's sales and students went home with many, many free books! In addition, the library received about twenty-five new titles - free! All in all, a great book event!

Stay tuned! Our Back-to-School Book Fair is already booked for September!

How to Choose A "Just Right" Book

First graders listened to the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears. We linked Goldilock's "just right" experience to the choosing of books to read for pleasure. We made lists of ways to find a "just right" book, then each student wrote one "Goldilocks Rule" on a Google Presentation slide. Next students posed for a photo of themselves acting out their "rule".  Students learned to resize and position their photos so that they fit on the slide. Then the slides were compiled into a helpful slide show that can be shown to young readers for years to come!

The Book Fair Is Coming!

Our Spring Book Fair will be arriving at our school very soon! It will be set up in the Multipurpose Room from May 9th to May 11th. On that first day, the Book Fair will be open after school and again for the PTO "Breakfast for Dinner" event in the evening. Thursday and Friday there will also be time to buy books. 


I'm saving the best news for last: this is a Buy-One-Get-One-Free Book Fair. Buy two items, pay for the most expensive one and get the other for free! Think of all the books you could buy to read this summer!


Here's the link to the Official Book Fair homepage: http://bookfairs.scholastic.com/homepage/newhampton

Castle in the Attic - The End!

How did you like the end of the book? I almost cheered out loud when Calendar turned Alastor into lead! I was so happy I could make a movie in my mind and see "the twisted, gray form of the wizard" and then watch him - poof!!! - disappear! Remember when William found the lead wizard in  Mrs. Phillip's bedroom - and William reached out to touch him? That was SO close!!

NHCS's own Silver Knight!

What did you think about Mrs. Phillip's plan for the lead wizard and the token? Why was she planning that - and was it a good idea? What would you have done with these items - and why? 

I am sorry I missed the Silver Knight at NHCS, and the gymnast, and the jousting. It looks like you had great fun after we all finished reading the book!

If you ever want to read parts of it again, we have a copy of The Castle in the Attic in the library. Also, we have the next book, a sequel, called The Battle for the Castle. In it, William uses the token to make himself tiny again. I wonder how he plans on changing back! And, if Alastor is turned to lead and is at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean, who is William battling now??

Just read the book and find out!!

Castle in the Attic: The Wizard's Castle!

In this week's reading, William finally arrives at the castle of the wizard, Alastor, which is guarded by the dragon that was mentioned in the last chapter. The author did such a wonderful job of letting us know how terrified William was to confront the dragon! The part where he was approaching the dragon while playing his recorder was so scary and the images he saw were awful! But after William defeated the dragon, I was relieved and surprised at the way the beast changed so quickly. So far, this has been my favorite part in the book because, in my mind, I could vividly see and hear what was happening in the story, thanks to the great word choice and sentence style of the author.

Sometimes when I read, I find new words - and I must find out what they mean! This week, I had to look in the dictionary to find out what a windlass is. Chapter 14 starts, "William heard the crank of the windlass as the portcullis was raised." The portcullis is that iron gate at the castle door. In your mind, can you see the windlass being turned over and over to wind up the rope that makes the gate go up? Where else would you see a windlass? Leave me an answer in the comment section.

The wizard's castle sounds really creepy with all those lead statues standing around. What do you think of Alastor? I hope William figures out a way to defeat him so he can get out of there and go home!

It's Magic!

Recently, kindergartners have been practicing "coloring inside the lines" using the Magic-Fill tools in TuxPaint. It's sure easier than trying to color back and forth, even with a digital brush! Here are a few of their spring flowers!

Searches

This is the time of year when most grades work on finding factual information from websites. Younger children use online directories like Enchanted Learning or Fact Monster. Older students learn to form simple questions about their inquiries, and to then pinpoint the important terms to use as keywords in their searches. We talk a lot about Google as the search engine of choice for many adults (myself included!) and why it's not a viable option for students. In class we searched for the term kites; using a Google search, we netted about 26,000,000 hits! How's a student to find relevant and readable information with overwhelming results like that?

There are search engines built specifically for kids that index only websites with content suitable for student use. These are the search tools we want children to turn to first. Search engines like Ask Kids, KidsClick, Yahoo! Kids, Quintura Kids, Sweet Search 4 Me - there are more, and they usually suffice. If they don't, perhaps then we turn to Google - with "Safe Search" options turned on and using carefully chosen keywords in our search.

Links to kids' search engines are listed in the sidebar on this blog, right under the weather link. For easy access, tudents also have them bookmarked through their web browser on computers at school.

Castle in the Attic: The Magic Token

In this week's readings, we find out more about the magic of the token the Silver Knight took from Alastor. William uses the token to keep Mrs. Philips from returning to England. Was that clever? Was it mean? What do you think about his actions?

Eventually, William decides to join the Silver Knight and Lady Elinor in the castle. He packs up some supplies: 

one recorder, one bear, one box of candles, one toothbrush, one jar of Marmite, one box of tea bags, four loaves of bread, two bottles of water, one pair of hiking boots, one large box of matches, one pair of binoculars, and a change of clothing. (page 88)

Can you think of anything William may have forgotten? If you were going on William's journey, what would you bring?

I keep thinking about that magic token and what I'd do with it if I had one. I think I'd shrink my car so I could park it in my pocket and I'd always be able to find it and drive away quickly. What would you make smaller, and why?? Leave answers to this question (and maybe others) in the comment section!

Castle in the Attic: The Story Begins!

This week, I hope you and your family have begun to read The Castle in the Attic. What do you think of the character of William? Is he a pretty typical ten-year old boy? I was a little surprised at the method he used to try to make Mrs. Phillips change her mind about leaving - and was very happy he made the situation better by the end of Chapter 1!

Here's a picture of the (real!) town that Mrs. Phillips is from in England. Do you remember the name of the place? William used to say it every chance he got because he liked "to roll that funny name around on his tongue..."!

Mrs. Phillips' home in England: Stow-on-the-Wold
by Jim from London [CC-BY-2.0 (www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

See all those words in the caption? I had to put them there because it's not my photograph to post. But the photographer, Jim from London, said I could - as long as I put his name and the attribution, which is all those other words. It's sort of like copyright, only it's called Creative Commons, and the creator makes it easier for others to use and to share his work. So thanks, Jim from London!

Two mentions of food in the chapters puzzled me. In Chapter 2, William was eating ketchup on his noodles. Ketchup? If you've ever tried that, leave us a comment and let us know how it tasted! Also, Mrs. Phillips puts something called Marmite on her toast. I've never heard of that before. So I ordered some on the internet. Maybe we can try it!

Fact Monster

Yesterday, in a review of information gathering, fourth graders used Fact Monster to review some key concepts. They wanted a link to it, so here it is.
http://www.factmonster.com/

One Book/One School

Books went home on Friday and, hopefully, you and your family have had a chance to begin reading aloud The Castle in the Attic. We hope it's a book that will appeal to all ages - grown-ups too!

Written answers to the week's trivia questions are due in school on Friday. Questions for each week were sent home in your packet of information. Also, downloadable copies are below if you find you need them.

Week 1: Chapters 1-3
Week 2: Chapters 4-6
Week 3: Chapters 7-9
Week 4: Chapters 10-12
Week 5: Chapters 13-14
Week 6: Chapters 15-17

A short blog post will be coming on Chapters 1-3 midweek. Stay tuned!

Marty Kelly!

Wasn't Marty Kelly's presentation wonderful? I really learned a lot about what it means to be an author and illustrator! My favorite part was when he showed the rough drafts of his writing. He sure is a messy writer at first - but remember, he was just getting ideas down, then revising and revising to get his writing just the way he wants it. What was your favorite part of his show?

Here are the Marty Kelly books we have in our Library Media Center:
Spring Goes Squish!
Summer Stinks
Fall Is Not Easy
The Messiest Desk
Twelve Terrible Things
The Rules

Marty Kelly has a website, here. Check it out! If you want to see his Summer Stinks! video again, it's in the music section!

Thank you, NHCS PTO, for bringing Marty Kelly to our school!

We ❤ Seuss!

This is Read Across America Week! In ICT this week, in addition to their other tasks, most classes had a chance to briefly visit Seussville, the website devoted to all things Dr. Seuss-related. At this extensive site, there are games and activities, links to books and movie trailers, and even a spot where children can create their own accounts so they can save their online creations. My favorite place is the "Mulberry Street Parade", with music and sound and a host of characters from each of Dr. Seuss' books. I promised the children I'd post the link - so if you're looking for a fun and appealing site to use with your children, check out Seussville at http://www.seussville.com/!

My Favorite Book

Second graders used Kidspiration, a graphic organizer program, to outline the elements of their favorite picture books. After each section was filled in, students used the program's picture database to enhance each area. In the process, they learned how to search for appropriate pictures and place them in a  designated spot. After writing a short reflection, they exported their work as a picture file, a jpg, so it could be saved to their digital portfolios.

Cyberbullying

Fifth graders have been learning what to do when they encounter communications online that make them feel uncomfortable or badly. Students discussed what cyberbullying might look or sound like at the start, then brainstormed ways to handle the situation. Here are some of their solutions:

Tell a teacher or parent. 

Put on safety chat.

Don’t respond back.

Report them to the administrator.

Ask them not to do it again.

Come back later.

Tell the principal.

Turn off chat.

Print it.

Finally, the class talked about the positive results that could occur if the situation were dealt with quickly and effectively.

As a way to represent a hypothetical situation-action-result, students used a free online educational comics generator to make a three or four frame comic. Here's one student's work.

Leap Day!

All months of the year have 30 or 31 days, but February always has less than that. In most years, February has 28 days. But every fourth year (mostly), February gets an extra day, so it has 29 days. This year, 2012, is one of those years and is called a leap year. The last leap year was four years ago in 2008; the next leap year will be 2016. See the pattern?

Some people call that extra February day, the 29th, Leap Day. And that day is today! I wish we could be in school to talk about it, but since it's vacation week, this blog post will have to do.

The extra day every four years has to do with the amount of time it takes for the Earth to go all the way around the sun once. We know that's one year, and a year is 365 days. But it actually take the Earth just a few hours more than that to orbit the Sun - it's about 365 ¼ days. A quarter of a day is 24 divided by 4 or 6 hours. And 6 extra hours every year for 4 years equals 24 hours - and that's the extra day, the Leap Day.

If there were no Leap Day, the seasons would slowly shift over time and, in about 700 years, we'd have snow in June and beach weather in December! Whoever thought of Leap Day was a really good thinker and problem-solver!

Iditarod

The Iditarod, the famous Alaskan sled dog race, begins at the end of vacation and Miss Bocko's class is learning a little about it. They came to the lab before vacation, looked at the official website, learned about some of the mushers, and chose five to follow throughout the race. As we do this, we'll be learning math and map skills, and reading information in a table. We're hoping we can take some time during the week to watch some video of the race and see the dogs in action!

Private Information

4Mc has been learning about instances where private information is asked for on the web (like on that Read for Our School site!). Fourth graders know the rule: Always ask a trusted adult before giving out information that is private. What's private information? Check out our word cloud!

Read For Our School

NHCS is participating in a wonderful opportunity for students to earn books for our school library. The Pearson Foundation is currently sponsoring a reading initiative called “Read For My School” where participating schools are eligible to earn up to 500 free books for their libraries, just by reading. The program runs from February 14th through March 14th and is open to all students.

Registration is necessary in order to participate in the program. The online form can be found at http://www.wegivebooks.org/pf/rfms/register.php  In order to register, students will need to create a username and a password, and provide an email address, his or her birthday, state, and our school name (there is a New Hampton Elementary School registered which is not our school - look for New Hampton Community School!)  Please assist your child with this registration. Once the registration is completed, students can begin reading the online books.  There are over 150 books to choose from at various reading levels. After the book is read, click “Give a Book” for it to be counted towards our school’s total.

In order for NHCS to be eligible for books, we must cumulatively read 50 or more books.  We hope that you will consider registering your child for this program. Please feel free to call or email with any questions you may have. Have fun reading!

Happy Anniversary, Mulberry Street!

On my drive to school this morning, I heard on the radio that it's the 75th anniversary of the first book ever written by Dr. Seuss. He named the book And To Think That I Saw It On Mulberry Street because there was a street by that name in the town he grew up in. He liked the way the word Mulberry sounded! Do you have words like that, words that just sound good to you? I do - serendipity!

After Dr. Seuss wrote the story, he tried and tried but couldn't find any company that liked his book well enough to publish it. At times, Dr. Seuss became so frustrated, he almost destroyed his story and the illustrations! He was turned down 27 different times before he finally found a publisher! Twenty-seven times!

Dr. Seuss sure was persistent! What would his life have been like if he hadn't been? Would your life be different if he hadn't been so persistent?

Brain Quests!

You know Brain Quest ®, right? Check out the two new Brain Quest widgets posted on our blog! Look - scroll down a bit, over on the right under the Kids' Search Engines. See? There are two new Brain Quest challenge questions every day - one for grades 3 & 4, the other for grades 5 & 6. Can you try them both? Sure! Click below the questions to see if your answers are correct!

Dividing The Keyboard in Two

This month second graders practiced using two hands and two sides of the computer keyboard - left fingers for keys on the left side, right fingers for keys on the right. They drew winter pictures in TuxPaint and used their beginning word processing skills to make captions for their work.

Learning to Type

This month, third grade joins fourth and fifth in working with Type To Learn 4 during their ICT times. To practice at home, try the links posted here, or try one of these games -

Keyboarding games from the Learning Games for Kids website:
http://www.learninggamesforkids.com/keyboarding_games.html

Alpha Munchies
http://www.abcya.com/kids_typing_game.htm
Type the letters above the critters as they fall from the sky - to protect your character's lunch! Letters appear on screen as upper case but do not need to be typed that way. That's good!

Typer Shark

http://kids.aol.com/games/typer-shark/

Type the words and letters on the sharks before they can attack the diver. There are several levels to this fast-paced game. 

Typer Spider

http://funschool.kaboose.com/gamesFiles/flash/kaboose/spidertyper/spidertyper.swf

Type to help the spider escape the hungry chameleons. 

Remember to sit up straight and keep your fingers on the home row keys!