Our Library Christmas Tree

Thanks to the kids who decorated our tree this year. It looks beautiful!

Library Helpers

I wanted to be sure to send a great big thank you to all the 4th and 5th graders who gave up one lunch recess a week in order to volunteer in the library. You all did a great job and helped make our library an even better place. Thanks for all your hard work:

Lindsey B. Natalie N. AnaKaren R.
Cooper H. Mason C. Tammy B.
Jenna C. Sara O. Jacob B.
Brianna G. Leonella C. Jeremy V.
Eddie E.

Happy Holidays

It has been a fun December as we've geared up for the holidays and celebrated snow, toys, holidays and a very naughty, fat cat named Chester (ask your kids!). I hope all the Walker families have a wonderful, relaxing winter break and that you spend some time with those you love. I am grateful to get to work at such an amazing school with such an incredible student body and supportive coworkers. Enjoy your time off school, read lots of books and we'll see you all in the new year!

This week's hold shelf

A snapshot of what's hot at the library right now.

Thanksgiving

We will be celebrating being thankful this week and next in the library. All of the kids will hear Thanksgiving at the Tappletons' by Eileen Spinelli. This book is a great reminder that Thanksgiving is not really about food and fancy dinners but about family and friends. The Kinders also helped me read I Know an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Pie by Alison Jackson. Ask them what the woman stuffed herself with and what happened to her at the end of the story. We had a lot of fun with this one!

Next week the older kids will be hearing 'Twas the Night Before Thanksgiving by Dav Pilkey, the author of the Captain Underpants series. This is a very short, very silly book and will be a fun book for our short week at school. 3rd graders will hear Thank You, Sarah by Laurie Halse Anderson, a true story about the woman who fought to make Thanksgiving a Federal holiday. The younger kids will hear A Turkey for Thanksgiving by Eve Bunting, This is the Turkey by Abby Levine and Gracias*Thanks by Pat Mora.

I hope you all have a restful and fun filled break. I am thankful for the opportunity to get to know each of your children. Happy Thanksgiving!

Elections and Veterans

We kicked off November talking about elections and the importance of voting. Upper grades heard either Elizabeth Leads the Way by Tanya Lee Stone or I Could Do That by Linda Arms White. Both of these books are about the fight for women to get the right to vote. K-2 got to vote on what they wanted to read so some classes heard Duck for President by Doreen Cronin while others heard President Pennybaker by Kate Feiffer. I hope all of you went out and had your voices heard on Election Day.

We moved on to celebrating our nation's veterans by reading America's White Table by Margot Theis Raven. This is a powerful book and the 4th and 5th graders who heard it were very thoughtful about the service of our troops. The younger grades heard Quackenstein Hatches a Family by Sudipta Bardhan-Quallen. This is a great book that led to a wonderful discussion about what makes a family. Ask your child how Quackenstein ended up with the family he wanted. The Kinders also heard The Perfect Nest by Catherine Friend. This is one of my favorite books to read aloud and is also a great example of how families are different.

Monsters!

Last week in the library was devoted to monsters! In celebration of Halloween (for those who participate) and monsters (for those who don't) I read all of the classes I Need My Monster by Amanda Noll. This was a book I had on my wish list at the book fair and I was lucky enough to have 2 different families donate a copy. Thanks to the Brightenfields and the Browns for giving us a great read! Ms. Kasen and Ms. Bechman's class had already heard this story, because their teachers have excellent taste in books, so they heard Boris and Bella by Carolyn Crimi.

The Kinders also got to do a monster dance in the library this week. We practiced our best monster moves to If You're a Monster and You Know It. Ask your child to show you what monsters do! We finished up our Kinder program with the book Happy Halloween, Stinkyface by Lisa McCourt.

Hope everyone had a fun and safe Halloween!

JK Rowling story outline

This is the actual spreadsheet that JK Rowling used to plot Order of the Phoenix. Pretty cool to see her low tech way of outlining one of the greatest stories ever told! To see a bigger picture, click here . Thanks to 100 Scope Notes for the link.

Unpublished handwritten manuscript from Dr. Seuss

This is pretty cool. Click here to see a newly discovered manuscript written, in part, by Dr. Seuss. Its a pretty cool look at his creative process. The blog, Booktryst, gives some great insight into exactly what you're seeing.

Welcome Back!!

We had a busy couple of weeks in the library before fall break but now we're back and ready to go and I found some time to update our blog.



We had a great time the week before book fair learning about a genre called metafiction. Ask your child about metafiction and why those books can be so much fun. We read a book called Chester by Melanie Watt (and Chester). The kids loved this book and are eagerly awaiting the arrival of the sequel. The Kinders also heard Mr. Pusskins by Sam Lloyd. This was a book the school fell in love with last year so I wanted them to get a chance to hear it.



The following week was the book fair which many of you came and participated in. Instead of our normal routine during library time, we took each class through the book fair to allow them time to check out the selection. All the classes did a great job adjusting to our space constraints and helped to have another successful book fair. A special thanks to all the moms and dads who came and lent a hand during the book fair. And thanks to the Brightenfields, Browns and Lewis' for their generous donation of new books for the library!



Hope everyone is rested up and ready to go this week!

International Peace and Dancing - all in one week!

It was a very interesting week in the library. The other kids had an opportunity to do some reflection and the younger kids got to let loose and DANCE!

The Kinders and 1st graders all heard Giraffes Can't Dance by Gils Andreae and Guy Parker-Rees. Then we danced to Jim Gill's List of Dances. We got to do the tall and the small and the hide and a bunch of other fun dances. We had such a good time, we did it twice in some classes. The kiddos did a great job of letting loose and having a little fun and then getting down to business when it was time for checking out books and quiet reading. Look for more dancing in the future!

The 2nd and 3rd graders read and discussed Zen Shorts by Jon J. Muth. This story includes three shorter stories that teach different lessons about happiness. The kids had to do some thinking and deciphering to figure out what the author was telling us and they did an amazing job with some challenging material. Ask your child what lessons we learned from Mr. Muth's book!

In celebration of the United Nations International Day of Peace, the 4th and 5th graders heard Feathers and Fools by Mem Fox. This is an amazing book with a powerful message and we read through it very slowly and discussed it all the way through. We had a lot of thoughtful conversation after the book in which we pondered questions like, "Is it possible to work for peace and prepare for war at the same time?" We also questioned what world peace would look like and if it brought it's own dangers. I'm always amazed at the depth of the kids' thoughts and I really enjoyed these discussions.

Next week we'll be talking about metafiction and the book fair which is coming up the first week in October.

Library Skills, Rattlesnakes & Floating Princesses

For the last few weeks the Kinders have been learning about shelf markers, manners and book care and they finally were able to check out books and take them home. We read What Happened to Marion's Book by Brooke Berg and talked about how we would take care of our books once we got them home. Ask your child about my "No, No, Never" bag and remind them where the best place to keep their book is (their backpack). Please find out what day your child has library and make sure their book comes to school on that day so they can get a new book each week. Kinders also heard Dewey: There's a Cat in the Library by Vicki Myron and helped me read a fun story called The Prince Won't Go to Bed by Dayle Ann Dodds. Ask your child what the Prince said over and over.

The other grades all learned some library skills this month. 1st and 2nd graders had a lesson on ways that fiction and non-fiction books differ. To illustrate this point, we read The Gum Chewing Rattler by Joe Hayes and a non-fiction book about rattlesnakes. 3rd graders had a lesson on searching for books in the library using OPAC, our cataloging system, while 4th and 5th graders got their first look at our library wiki.

Kinder through 3rd grade heard Princess Hyacinth: The Surprising Tale of a Girl Who Floated by Florence Parry Heide. We had a lot of fun with this story and many of the kids shared where they would like to go if they could float (Vegas was a common answer?!). 1st -3rd graders also got to listen to Judy Schachner, the creator of Skippyjon Jones, read her latest book Lost in Spice. It was a nice break from me reading all the time and the kids seemed to enjoy the accents and the music that went along with the story.

Finally, the 4th and 5th graders practiced and performed in the second annual Library Fiction Relay race. It was noisy and busy and we had a great time with it! Results will be posted in this space soon.

And we're off...

The library has been open for two weeks and I'm stunned at how quickly it has gone by. I'm very pleased with the classes this year and it's nice to be a returning librarian instead of the new kid on the block. It was a lot of fun seeing all the familiar faces this year and getting to know the new ones.

We spent last week getting reoriented in the library and going over the nuts and bolts and rules and regulations. The 1st graders got to hear The Shelf Elf by Jackie Mims Hopkins to remind them of library procedures while 2nd -5th had a shortened orientation before checking out books. The Kinders heard Splat the Cat by Rob Scotton, Manners at the Library by Carrie Finn and The New Bear at School by Carrie Weston. We also talked about the way to have good manners in the library and we sang a song called The People in the School. Ask your child if they can sing it for you (hint: it's the same tune as The Wheels on the Bus).

This week I introduced 3rd-5th graders to our "More Perfect Union" Bookshelf and we read Tico and the Golden Wings by Leo Lionni. The 4th and 5th graders had some time to discuss what a "perfect union" might look like and some of the 5th graders wrote down their thoughts so we could record them on the library Wiki.

The 2nd graders heard The Shelf Elf Helps Out by Jackie Mims Hopkins to familiarize themselves with all the different areas of the library. Ask your child what their favorite "neighborhood" is in the library. The 1st graders heard The New Bear at School and Goldisocks and the Three Libearians by Jackie Mims Hopkins. We talked about selecting books that are "just right" for them. Hopefully your kiddos can explain the Five Finger Rule to you!

Kinders got their first lesson in using shelf markers in preparation for checking out books. I was amazed at how well they caught on and how quickly they learned the different parts of a book. We sang the shelf marker song over and over again so ask them to teach it to you!

Welcome Back!

Welcome back, Walker Wolves! School started yesterday and it is so nice to have the school full of kids again. I officially start seeing classes in the library on Monday the 16th and I am putting the finishing touches on the library.

We have a lot of fun things planned for this year so watch this space to find out what's happening in the library. I can't wait!

It's coming!

The new Diary of a Wimpy Kid book "The Ugly Truth" is coming out November 9th!

Congratulations!!

Last Friday we had our party to celebrate those 1st-5th graders who reached their 3rd goal in the Bookman's reading challenge! We had ice cream and played on the playground for about an hour. The kids seemed shocked that I knew how to play football and they taught me how to play Three Flags Up. Less surprising was the fact that I no longer know how to hula hoop and that I can be beat by a 1st grader in a foot race! It was so much fun and we ended our afternoon by raffling off two bicycles generously donated by the Masons. Congratulations on your new bikes to Madison M. from Mrs. V/F's class and Nicko H. from Mrs. Martinez's class! Thanks to all the staff members who helped make the party a success and, of course, to Mr. Lansa for letting us have some fun on the last Friday of the school year.

And the winner is....

Walker students picked their favorite book of the 2009-2010 school year and the winner was......

Mr. Pusskins by Sam Lloyd.

A very close 2nd choice was The Secret Science Project that Almost Ate the School by Judy Sierra. Below is the list of winners:

1.Mr. Pusskins by Sam Lloyd
2.The Secret Science Project that Almost Ate the School by Judy Sierra
3. Pinkalicious by Victoria and Elizabeth Kann
4. Shivers in the Fridge by Fran Manushkin
5. Too Many Toys by David Shannon
6. Library Mouse by Daniel Kirk
7. Toughest Cowby by John Frank
8. Fiona's Luck by Teresa Bateman
9. Grace for President by Kelly DiPucchio

Summer Reading

The Pima County Public Library program runs from May 27th - July 24th. The theme this year is "Make a Splash - Read!" The program is absolutely free. All you have to do is stop by the library anytime after May 27th and pick up a reading log for your child. They log the time they spend reading and earn prizes for their efforts. While your at the library - this would be a great time to get your child a library card if they don't already have one! For more information on this program, check out the library link: http://www.library.pima.gov/about/news/?id=2481.

Barnes and Noble also has a reading program this summer. Their kickoff is on May 29th at the Foothills Mall location. Kids can pick up their reading logs and track the books they read. Once they read 8 books, Barnes and Noble will give them a free book! For details, see their link:
http://store-locator.barnesandnoble.com/event/3042231



Please help your kids take advantage of these great opportunities to get rewarded for reading. My hope for each of them is that they start off next year reading even better than they do at the end of this school year. The only way to accomplish that is to read, read, read!

Finishing Up the Year

The last two weeks in the library were a little less structured than usual (OK - a lot less structured!). The 1st week of May, the Kinder through 3rd graders all heard the story Who's Afraid of the Big, Bad Book by Lauren Child. This book was generously donated by Mrs. Roberts, one of Walker's wonderful substitute teachers. This was the story of a boy who fell into a book. We got to see what might happen if a boy wandered through a book of fairy tales. It seems the boy hadn't treated his book particularly well and he was not very well received by the characters in the book. Ask your child how the boy got his revenge on Goldilocks.


The 4th and 5th graders had a review of the sections in the library and the different call numbers in each section. Then they did a team building exercise to test their understanding of how non-fiction books are ordered on the shelves. This was in preparation for the Library Relay we did the following week. Each class was divided into teams of 4 and each team had a list of 10 questions they had to answer. This required them to find materials in each section of the library and to use the computer for assistance. It was so much fun to sit back and watch the different ways each team accomplished their goal. I was very pleased to see how much they had learned this year about finding their own books and I think they gained a little confidence in getting around the library. The kids had a blast and several classes said it was the most fun they had in the library all year! It was a great way to end the year.


The rest of the grades heard a variety of stories including Everybody Needs a Rock by Byrd Baylor, A Couple of Boys Have the Best Week Ever by Marla Frazee, Small Brown Dog with a Wet Pink Nose by Stephanie Stuve-Bodeen, Green as a Bean by Karla Kuskin and Hey Little Ant by Phillip M. Hoose. Our time together was a little noisier and we had a lot more time for discussion than usual and fit in with the end of the year mood that is upon us.


Next week we'll be watching a movie and saying our goodbyes for the year. I can't believe it's over so soon!

TV Turnoff Week & AYRA

The last two weeks of April were busy ones in the library. We celebrated TV Turnoff Week and were thrilled to have so much participation. The kids were challenged to turn off their TV for as many days as they could during the week. Each day that they stayed away from TV they filled in a form, had their parents sign it and exchanged it for a prize at school the next day. Ask your children about our Big Blue Wall and how big it grew!

In the library this week we read many different stories to different grades. The younger kids heard Penny Lee and her TV by Glenn McCoy and The Day the TV Blew Up by Dan West. Some of them heard Library Lil by Suzanne Williams. This is a great tall tale about a woman who is determined to turn the people of her town into readers.

The older kids heard The Wretched Stone by Chris Van Allsburg. This is one of my favorite stories because the kids have to work to figure out the whole story. Mr. Van Allsburg never shows them this "wretched stone" so they must use their imagination and their personal experience to decide what the stone is. Ask your kids what they thought the stone was and how it compared to what I thought.

We also spent a little time in each class talking about things we could do besides watching tv. It was great to hear so many creative ways that children spend time unplugged.

The last week in April was our final week to check out books this year. We used the time to catch up on our Arizona Young Reader Award nominees so we could make sure all the classes had heard all the stories before voting next week. Some classes heard The Dark and Mud Puddle by one of my favorite authors, Robert Munsch. We also read Superdog by Caralyn Buehner and There's Nothing to Do on Mars by Chris Gall. Chris Gall is a new author/illustrator who produces some really visually interesting books. I think we'll hear a lot more from him in the future.

Next month we'll choose our favorite AYRA book, do our 2nd library relay and talk about summer reading!

Bookman's Reading Challenge Results

Our school did an amazing job participating in the Bookman's Reading Challenge. While we did not win, we should still be incredibly proud of the effort of our students. Over a 3 month period they read 23,382 books! That is an average of 39 books per child!

Our top readers in each grade were:

Kinder - Matt from Mrs. Bermudez
1st - Valeria from Mrs. Llamas
2nd - Marco from Mrs. Kurlander
3rd - Tammy from Mrs. Kurlander
4th - Kaylani from Mr. Moore
5th - Fedra from Mrs. Smith

The top classes in each grade were:

Kinder - Bermudez
1st - Martinez
2nd - Kasen
2/3 - Kurlander
3rd - Brousseau
4th - Wick
5th - Smith

The top classes schoolwide were:

1. Bermudez
2. Smith
3. Kurlander
4. Powers
5. Martinez

Congratulations to everyone who participated! We hope you enjoyed your prizes and privileges and we are looking forward to our party later this year.

National Library Week and Poetry Month

Last week in the library we celebrated National Library Week. Some of the classes heard The Library by Sarah Stewart and we discussed how fortunate we are to have libraries in our schools and public libraries where we can check out books without needing money. I encourage all parents to take the kids over to Nanini, or any other public library, to get a library card and borrow books. They have great storytimes and other free activities to keep our kids engaged and reading over the summer and all year long.



We also began our celebration of National Poetry Month in April. Different classes are hearing different poems including Hungry Mungry from Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein and Casey at the Bat adapted and illustrated by Christopher Bing. We also read a rhyming book called If I Built a Car by Chris Van Dusen. This book tied together poetry, imagination and creativity. We spent some time discussing what our cars would have or do if we were able to create our very own car. Ask your child what they would build if they could.



The older kids were also challenged to bring in a poem to share with their class. We had a few kids bring in poems this week and will continue next week. There is a bulletin board in the library where we are posting original poems the children have written so feel free to come in and see the work of our talented kids!

Imagination and Creativity

We've been celebrating imagination and creativity for the last two weeks in the library. I've read a variety of books about imagination to the classes depending on their grade level including Not a Box by Antoinette Portis, The Red Chalk by Iris van der Heide, Orson Blasts Off by Raul Colon and Roxaboxen by Alice MacLerran. We talked about how you can never be bored if you have an imagination and how we can easily do without fancy toys and the newest video games if we learn to create our own worlds in which to play.

The following week we moved on to creativity and read many books including The Dot and Ish by Peter Reynolds, How to Paint the Portrait of a Bird by Jacques Prevert and I Ain't Gonna Paint No More by Karen Beaumont. We talked about the creative process and how there is no "right" process for drawing a picture or writing a poem. We also recognized how the hardest part of being creative is often the first step. The blank page can be frightening and we talked about how to make it less scary. Ask your children what the first step in the creative process is.

Grades 3-5 also got a lesson on using OPAC, which is our cataloging system. It was a first lesson for some and a refresher for others. We will cover this lesson each year so that the kids can go off to Junior High with the ability to be self sufficient in the library.

Have a great week!

Back to School

Welcome back from Spring Break! I'm always excited to get back to school after a long break and I hope the students are ready, too.

This week in the library we will be reviewing library behaviors and expectations. I like to do this each quarter just to make sure everyone knows what my expectations are. After this review we will be reading Adios, Oscar by Peter Elwell. This is a book I got at our most recent book fair. It's a butterfly fable reminding the children that the only limitations on what they can do are those which they place on themselves. Ask your child how Oscar the butterfly was surprised and what he learned in the story.

We are wrapping up the Bookman's challenge this week and I will post final results once I've tallied everything up. The children have done an amazing job and should be extraordinarily proud of themselves!

Next week in the library 3rd-5th graders will get a library skills lesson on using our cataloging system while K-2 will be exploring the many things we can do with our imaginations.

Have a great week!

Happy Spring Break!

I'm sure all the kids are excited about Spring Break (and maybe just a few of the teachers!). We've been busy in the last month leading up to our break with a lot of exciting things.

We started out celebrating President's Week with some classes by reading So You Want to be President? by Judith St. George which gives a lot of interesting facts about all of our previous presidents. Other classes heard Madam President by Lane Smith. This is a silly story of a little girl who walks around performing presidential duties in her daily life. A very tongue-in-cheek look at the presidency but some of the kids really enjoyed the humor.

We celebrated Rodeo Week last month by reading The Toughest Cowboy or How the Wild West was Tamed by John Frank. The 2nd-5th graders really enjoyed this because it was a little gross but very funny with a surprise twist. Ask your kids who tamed Grizz Brickbottom, the toughest cowboy in the west. The Kinders and 1st graders heard Wild West Bananza by Paul Frank. This book is a great cowboy story about how it's o.k. to be different from each other. We took a minute to notice all the neat ways that everyone in the room was different that day. I really love having these kinds of talks with the younger grades!

After Rodeo Days we moved on to St. Patrick's Day. While Fiona's Luck by Teresa Bateman is not really a St. Patrick's Day story, it does take place in Ireland and it features leprechauns at the center of the story. Again, the older kids seemed to like this story as it told of a battle of wits between the leprechaun king and a girl named Fiona in a quest for some good old Irish luck. The kids seemed really satisfied with the ending and seemed to agree with Fiona that brains will beat luck every time.

The Kinders and 1st graders heard Stanley's Wild Ride by Linda Bailey. This is one of my favorite books to read out loud especially because the children can participate. They howl along with Stanley and his dog friends and help make police siren noises. It's a great adventure story and we had a good time reading it.

The last week before Spring Break was the Book Fair which took place in the library. I didn't read to many of the classes because we spent time browsing the fair before checking out library books. It was a wonderful event and we sincerely thank all of our tireless parent volunteers who make it possible.

I'm eager to come back from break well rested and ready for the last quarter of this fantastic year together. Look for the end results of our Bookman's Reading Challenge, Poetry Month, TV Turnoff Week and a lot of library skills games to get our older kids ready for Junior High.

See you soon!

Last month in the library...

We've been busy celebrating a lot of different things in the library. In honor of the science fair, all grades heard Judy Sierra's The Secret Science Project that Almost Ate the School. This was a big hit with all grades and I expect it to be a frontrunner when we vote for our favorite book in May.

The following week the 2nd-5th graders heard Help Me, Mr. Mutt by Janet Stevens and Susan Stevens Crummel. Mr. Mutt is an advice columnist for dogs with people problems and the kids seemed to enjoy the book a great deal. Especially the animosity between Mr. Mutt and The Queen. Ask your children who the queen was and what happened to her at the end of the book!
I talked with the Kinder and 1st graders about self esteem and read either I'm Gonna Like Me by Jamie Lee Curtis or I Like Myself by Karen Beaumont. The kids all shared something they thought they were good at or that they liked about themselves and we talked about how there aren't bad children, only bad choices.

We started out February celebrating black history month. The Kinder-3rd grade classes heard Amazing Grace by Mary Hoffman. Grace is an African-American girl who wants to play Peter Pan in the school play but her friends tell her she can't because she is a girl and she is black. Ask your child how Grace's Nana helped her deal with these comments and how Grace felt by the end of the story. The 4th and 5th graders heard Step, Stomp and Stride byAndrea Davis Pinkney. This is a short biography of Sojourner Truth and the kids seemed impressed by the way she used her freedom to help others.

Last week, in the spirit of Valentine's Day and to kick off Love of Reading Month, all the classes heard Mr. Pusskins by Sam Lloyd. It was a quick read and even the older kids seemed to enjoy the story. It is a love story between a girl and her cat and kicked off a discussion about how lucky we are to have people in our lives to look out for us.

We have a lot coming up in the next month: Presiden't Day, Rodeo, Read Across America, Spring Book Fair just to name a few. I'm looking forward to it all!

Research Week

The 3rd - 5th graders had a lesson last week on reference materials. We talked about 6 different types of reference materials, what each is used for and how they are organized. I showed them some of the reference books we have here in the library and also briefly explored online options they can use for research. The library page on the Walker website has a research link where the kids can check out some of the sites we visited during the presentation. This was a review for some of the kids but I think it was a subject that was worth revisiting.

K-2 heard either The Mitten by Jan Brett or A Stranger in The Woods by Carl R. Sams II & Jean Stoick or, in some cases, both. These were great stories with common themes including winter, animals and mittens. They are also both visually amazing books for different reasons and in different styles. The kids did a great job participating and looking for clues about what was coming up in the pictures. Ask your child who the stranger was and/or what happened to Nikki's mitten.

Bookman's Reading Challenge

Walker Elementary is competing against 27 other schools to see which school can read the most books in 90 days. The winning school will receive $15,000 for their school!! All the kids should have reading challenge forms to record all the books they read from Jan. 6th - March 31st. They have to write down the title, author and the date they read the book and then have a parent or teacher initial their form. 1st - 5th graders have to write one sentence about an interesting part of the book and Kinders can either write a sentence themselves or draw a picture about the book. It's that simple! Any books you read to your child can be recorded as long as they write the sentence or draw the picture themselves and don't forget to record any books they read to their siblings and other people.

The kids have the chances to earn prizes, privileges and parties as they reach each level of their reading goals and they earn a chance to use the claw machine in the library to win some treats for every 4 books they read.

Many of the teachers are incorporating these challenge sheets in their homework but we need children to do their own independent reading to reach our goals. Please encourage your child to keep track of the books they read so they can help their school win the big prize!

If you have any questions about the challenge, please feel free to call, email or stop by the library so I can give you further details.

Thanks for all your efforts and Happy Reading!!

Happy New Year

Welcome back Walker Wolves!

I'm so excited to begin the 2nd half of our school year together! I hope everyone is well rested after winter break and ready to have a great 2nd semester. We have a lot of fun things coming up this year including our Bookman's Reading Challenge, Love of Reading month, TV Turnoff Week and more library skills/reference games. I can't wait to share all these events with the students at Walker.

We spent our first week back recapping the rules and expectations in the library. The kids took the lead and told me what is expected in the library rather than me lecturing to them. They did a great job detailing the rules and procedures and I think the 2nd semester will be even better than the first! We finished up by reading Too Many Toys by David Shannon. This was a fun story that is one of our Amphi Young Reader nominees. Ask your children what turned out to be Spencer's favorite toy.

We're kicking off our Reading Challenge this week and the details are coming home with your child and will follow on this blog. Happy New Year to everyone and thanks for all you do to make Walker a great school!