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!

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.

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.

'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!

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!

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?

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!

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!

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!

The Winner!

The winner of the 2010 Ladybug Award is Princess Hyacinth, the surprising story of a girl who floated. It's a bird, it's a plane, it's Princess Hyacinth!

Princess Hyacinth is a girl with a strange problem. She floats. So she doesn't float in the air, she has a heavy crown. She has heavy clothes. These weight her down so she doesn't float away. One day, she takes off all the heavy clothes and off she floats in her Royal Underwear.

This book has wonderful pictures by Lane Smith. Author Florence Parry Heide tells a very funny and unique story. When she writes, she uses a writing technique called voice. It sounds like the author is talking directly to you, the reader. Here's an example: "Well, you're saying, everyone has a problem. But this was an unusual problem."

Even disappointed kids who voted for other books believe that Princess Hyacinth was a good choice for this year's Ladybug Award. If you want to see the voting results for the rest of the nominated books, just click here.

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!

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!

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 #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!