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!