Lowell LLC News
March 2014
Author's Fair
Author's Fair starts April 10th
This year we are lucky to not only have our own writing displayed during our author's fair, but we will also get to talk with two authors! Thank you to the Lowell PTA for making this possible.
On Thursday, April 10th all 3rd-5th graders will have the opportunity to Skype with Dan Gutman. He has written many great books including My Weird School series, Honus and Me (and other baseball adventures), and The Genius Files.
On Thursday, April 17th every student at Lowell will have a chance to meet author Aaron Reynolds! He will be at Lowell all day and will talk about how ideas become books and the parts of a good mystery. Order forms for his books were due back today, but if you have a question or concern, please email me!
Grade Level Updates
Kindergarten has started reading fairy tales and folktales. These stories are so much fun to retell! We will read The Three Little Pigs, Little Red Ridinghood, Little Red Hen and "fractured" versions of each.
First Grade worked on two projects this month. They practiced putting books in call number order (using their alphabetizing skills) and they researched a country or culture. I can't wait to see all of the projects at Culture Fair!
Second Grade practiced their dictionary skills and learned about all the parts a dictionary entry contained. They even made an entry for their teacher's name! Next month we will be reading many books with "trickster" characters from various cultures.
Third Grade created amazing book suggestion cards like those you see at a book store. It was so much fun thinking about our favorite books and why other readers would like them, too!
Fourth Grade has been learning about how to give credit to the resources they use. We will be starting a new research project after break focusing on the Civil War.
Fifth Grade has started a research project about Egypt and will use the video creation website powtoon.com to share their information. This project will continue through the month of April.
Monarch and Bluestem Awards
March was a busy month for us here in the LLC! We voted for our favorite Monarchs and Bluestems.
All students in grades K-2 voted for the Monarch they liked the best.
First place at Lowell: 11 Experiments that Failed by Jenny Offill
Second place at Lowell: One by Kathryn Otoshi
Third place at Lowell: Gingerbread Man Loose in the School by Laura Murray
We added our votes to those of other students in Illinois and the overall winner for the Monarch award was Gingerbread Man Loose in the School!
Forty-nine 3-5th graders read at least four Bluestems and were able to vote!
First place at Lowell: Wonder by R.J. Palacio
Second place at Lowell: Waiting for the Magic by Patricia MacLachlan
Third place at Lowell: Lemonade War by Jacqueline Davies
Across the state of Illinois, Wonder was the Bluestem winner!