March 2016
Hampden Meadows Library
What We've Been Doing This Month
Feathers: Not Just For Flying
National Geographic Kids: Dolphins
No Monkeys, No Chocolate
What Fourth Graders Can Tell About Melissa Stewart By Reading Her Books
- It's nonfiction but she weaves fun stuff into it so you don't get bored
- She likes animals - she writes a lot about them and their features
- She puts books in a kids' perspective and doesn't use big words we don't understand
- She tells facts in a kid-friendly way
- She converts animal facts (feather book) into something a human would do
- She has a sense of humor - little worms in the Monkey book
- She really wants you to learn something
- You can tell she really likes to learn about animals
- She's very detailed
- There's always a bit of fun - jokes in the Dolphin book
- She makes it good for girls and boys
- Her books are short but there's a LOT of information
- She does a lot of research
- She really cares about nature
- She's scientific
- She made me learn something new which is awesome
- She puts surprising things in with her facts
Exploring Melissa Stewart's website
Generating questions for Melissa Stewart
Immersing themselves in Melissa Stewart's books
Bugged: How Insects Changed History
Why'd They Wear That? Fashion as the Mirror of History
Poop Happened! A History of the World From the Bottom Up
What Fifth Graders Can Tell About Sarah Albee by Reading Her Books
- She's interested in bathroom humor- she must have a sense of humor
- She cares about stuff that a lot of people don't even think about
- She's one-of-a-kind - who else writes a book about poop?
- She likes history
- She uses a conversational tone - "I" and "you might be disgusted"
- She gives a topic and then expands it really well
- It seems like she enjoys the research
- She's really good at writing
- She's very funny and she makes history very fun
- She likes writing about interesting and gross topics
- Her books make you want to read more
- She likes learning about and teaching you things most history books won't teach you
- She finds facts most historians would avoid
- She picks a weird, small topic and and learns as much as she can to write a 150 page book on it
- When you look at the sources you see she does a ton of research
- She chooses disgusting topics and some people like it so they read on
- She's very thorough
- She gives information without being boring
- Sometimes informational text isn't interesting to me but her style of writing makes me want to read more
- She likes to find facts from thousands of years ago and compare them to what we have now
- She's hilarious
- She's very "punny" - "The #1 Book on #2"
- She talks to us like we're adults but in a kid-friendly way
Generating questions for Sarah Albee
Immersing themselves in Sarah Albee's books
Marveling at the facts found in Sarah Albee's books
Preparing for Our Author Visits
Informational Text Features
Informational Text Features - help readers make sense of what they are reading
Headings and Subheadings - help you to focus in on what the next section will be about
Keywords - When a word is bold, in italics, or underlined, it is an important word for you to know
Illustrations/photos - help you to know exactly what something looks like
Captions - help you better understand the picture or photo
Diagrams and Labels - help you identify a picture or photo and its parts
Text box - separate from the rest of the text which draws your eye to this short and sweet bit of information
Map - helps you understand where places are in the world
Glossary - found at the end of a book; helps you define words that are in the book
Index - an alphabetical list of ideas that are in the book; it tells you what page the idea is on
Bibliography - a list of sources used by the author to write the book
2016 Rhode Island Children's Book Award Voting
Our top five picks were:
1. El Deafo by Cece Bell - 115 votes
2. Loot by Jude Watson - 40 votes
3. Death by Toilet Paper by Donna Gephardt - 26 votes
4. The Swift Boys and Me by Kody Keplinger - 15 votes
5. Absolutely Almost by Lisa Graff - 11 votes
Our top choice was mirrored by the state. The 2016 Rhode Island Children's Book Award went to El Deafo by Cece Bell.
Nathan Hale's New Book
Maybe a Fox by Kathy Appelt and Alison McGhee
Recently Added Titles
Comics Squad Lunch!
Out from Boneville Tribute Edition
Comics Squad Recess!
Stinky Cecil in Terrarium Terror
Who is Jeff Kinney?
Poptropica: Mystery of the Map
Pokémon adventures : Emerald. Volume twenty-seven
Hamster Princess: Harriet the Invincible
Pokémon adventures. Black & White. Volume six
New Graphic Novels Reading List
Grace Lin's TED talk
Grade 5 Battle of the Books on Display in book and audio format
Library Statistics
Total Circulations: 4,265
Total Holds: 322
Top Ten Titles:
1. The Fantastic Secret of Owen Jester - O'Connor - realistic fiction - 43
2. Amazing Animals of the World - encyclopedias - informational - 24
3. Greetings From Nowhere - O'Connor - realistic fiction - 24
4. Amulet. Book Seven, Firelight - Kibuishi - graphic novel - 18
5. Amulet. Book One, The Stonekeeper - Kibuishi - graphic novel - 15
6. Sidekicks - Santat - graphic novel - 14
7. Smile - Telgemeier - graphic novel - 14
8. Guinness World Records, 2014 - editor in chief, Glenday - informational - 13
9. The Romeo and Juliet Code - Stone - historical fiction - 13
10. Umbrella Summer - Graff - realistic fiction - 13
Top Circulations By Homeroom:
1. Waring - 242
2. Cabral - 229
3. Carroll - 220
4. Wilson - 211
5. Cassarino - 205
6. Cunningham - 203
7. Myszak - 198
8. Hunt - 191
9. Safran - 180
10. Ginalski - 171
11. Whittaker - 166
12. Testa - 157
13. Bailey - 151
14. Reynolds - 133
15. Tibbetts - 132
16. Mitchell - 132
17. Clegg - 132
18. Farley - 126
19. DeLory - 105
20. Burke - 101
21. Couto - 97
22. Tedino - 88
Looking Ahead
Reading Week - April 11-15 "Hit a Grand Slam! Be a Reader!"
Monday, April 11 - Dress as Your Favorite Book Character
Tuesday, April 12 - Decorate Your Classroom Door as Your Favorite Class Book
Tuesday, April 12 - Melissa Stewart author visit for grade 4
Wednesday, April 13- Melissa Stewart author visit for grade 4
Thursday, April 14 - Sarah Albee author visit for grade 5
Friday, April 15- Sarah Albee author visit for grade 5
- Each morning there will be a book trivia question. 12 lucky winners will be drawn per day to eat lunch in the library with an author the next day!
- The fourth grade class and fifth grade class to win the classroom door contest will win an extra recess with book related physical fun outside after vacation!
RI Library Day and Fine Forgiveness - Saturday, April 16
Saturday, April 16 at 9 AM - 5 PM
10:30 am---Storytime with crafts and a film for all ages.
All Day---Fine forgiveness for all materials returned on Saturday, April 16.