Kindergarten: We have finished our author study of Laura Numeroff and circle stories in general. Ask your student which circle story was their favorite! The students are now learning how to use shelf markers to find an Everybody book to check out that looks great to them. Kindergarteners can check out 3 books - an Everybody book, an Easy Reader, and a Nonfiction book.

In the lab we have started using KidPix 3D. We have explored shapes and stamps so far. The students love creating with KidPix!

First Grade: The first graders have continued reading Goldfinch books and deciding whether each book was realistic fiction or fantasy fiction. The students especially enjoyed Missy's Super Duper Royal Deluxe Picture Day by Susan Nees. We are now starting a unit on organization of the library and ABC order of call numbers on the bookshelves. We have discovered that ABC order can be tricky.

Second Grade: The second graders finished the unit on realistic fiction and fantasy fiction by listening to Ling and Ting Not Exactly the Same by Grace Lin - it was a realistic fiction book with a fantasy story in one of the chapters! We reviewed library organization and ABC order on the smartboard and by organizing actual books.

Third Grade: The third graders are reviewing each of the genres for Optimist Good Reader. We have read and discussed folklore, historical fiction, realistic fiction, fantasy fiction, biography. They made posters of the three types of fiction books and sorted books on the smartboard and on the tables. The students are gaining a sold understanding of the various genres and finding many new and interesting books to read!

Fourth Grade: The fourth graders are also reviewing genres for OGR. The students played a matching game for folktales and discovered that there are some famous folktales that we have not read. We read the backs of books and decided which fiction genre they would be: fantasy, realistic, or historical. The students' favorite activity was creating their realistic and fantasy selves on http://www.buildyourwildself.com/; there were some pretty wild students!

Fifth Grade: We are discussing plagiarism in the fifth grade; did your student tell you about Francine's Pilfered Paper? The students have gaining a basic understanding of the importance of citing sources. We are now studying how to search the internet using keywords. The fifth graders are very good selecting the proper keywords to find answers to questions using Google.

Sixth grade: Grant Wood AEA provides many online resources for the use of students. The sixth graders have been exploring each of the sites to see how they could be used for future research. The students are starting a unit on reliable sources - why are they important and how can they be found?