Season’s Readings

I looked through my blog archive yesterday and was reminded that a few years ago I gave suggestions for great books to give for holiday gifts. It seems a good time to do that again! 

 Books are great gifts and/or stocking stuffers and these Stonehedge favorites are sure to make your student smile.

Mo Willems is still one of our most popular authors. All of our kids love the “Pigeon” books as well as the “Elephant and Piggie” series. “Pete the Cat” books are also still very popular.

 This year author/illustrator Troy Cummings came to Stonehedge for PARP month and now I cannot keep his “Notebook of Doom” books on my shelves…I have lots of copies but everybody wants them! Another great choice for early readers is the “Owl Diaries” series from Rebecca Elliott.

                                             

                                                                

                                                            

 “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” by Jeff Kinney and “Captain Underpants” and “Dog Man” by Dav Pilkey are fan favorites every year. The newest Dog Man, Fetch 22  just came out this week!

The dragon adventure series “Wings of Fire” by Tui T. Sutherland is also in high demand right now. These books are available in chapter book and graphic novel formats

                          

           

            

Speaking of graphic novels…anything by Raina Telgemeier is a win.“The Babysitters Club” series  by Ann M. Martin has been reimagined in graphic novel form and are all the rage with our older students as are the “Real Friend” series books by Shannon Hale.

                    

                    

                                      

                    

But that’s not all!!! Other fabulous series include “I Survived” by Lauren Tarshis, “Percy Jackson and the Olympians” and “The Heroes of Olympus” by Rick Riordan, “A Series of Unfortunate Events” by Lemony Snicket and “The Last Kids on Earth” by Max Brallier.     

No matter what your family celebrates this season, make good books and time to read them part of your seasonal tradition.

Happy Holidays,

Don't forget to Read4Fun!

Mrs. Abbott  

                       

 What a great October!!! We had such an awesome PARP month here at Stonehedge. Everywhere you looked there was reading going on. The Scholastic Book Fair got us off to a roaring start. We also had two Open Library Nights and many families joined us for book browsing and quiet reading….”AT NIGHT”. Lots of extra books went home with kids to share with their reading partners.

Last Friday, author-illustrator Troy Cummings was here for the day. Mr. Cummings writes “The Notebook of Doom” series as well as Can I Be Your Dog?  and other popular picture books. He spoke to all of our students about how he comes up with his ideas for stories and how he designs his monsters and other characters. (Ask your student about Troy’s “one-letter” method of making a doodle look evil…)

Stella helped Troy Cummings design a new monster!

  He also did a great exercise with 4^th and 5^th grades about “voice” in stories that required quite a bit of audience participation. All of his “volunteers” were great sports and the rest of the audience loved it.

Mrs. Harrison channeled her inner teenager to demonstrate "voice".

A big thanks to our amazing PTA for bringing Mr. Cummings to our school. His books are super popular here at Stonehedge and it really is an amazing treat to see our favorite authors and illustrators in person and talk about how the magic happens. 

Author of the Notebook of Doom meets the Library's Backpack of Doom!

Who knows which of our Stonehedge students may be inspired to be the next Troy Cummings?

Until next time,

Mrs. Abbott

Happy Autumn Everyone!

What a great start to the school year we’ve had. All classes are right back into the swing of things and even our newest Kindergarten friends are coming to library class and borrowing books like pros. We’ve done all of our “Backpack of Doom” lessons and everyone knows to treat their books “like a baby”. (Ask your student about our book in a diaper.)

October is “Pick a Reading Partner” (PARP) month. The PTA has set up so many fun activities to encourage everyone to read a little bit more this month. On Friday October 25^th the PTA is bringing author/illustrator Troy Cummings to Stonehedge! He’s the creator of the wildly popular “Notebook of Doom” series as well as numerous picture books. He’ll talk to our students about the importance of reading as well as his artistic process.

In honor of PARP we will have two Open Library Nights this month: Monday October 7^th and Thursday October 24^th. The library will be open for browsing, quiet reading and book check out from 6:30-7:30. It’s a great opportunity to promote that extra reading time. We hope to see you there!!!

Don’t forget to

READ4FUN!

Mrs. Abbott

Hi Everyone! The previously scheduled Open Library for August 20th has been canceled. (Mrs. Abbott and Mrs. Graser can not be there.) So...tomorrow will be the last Open Library. Come see us from 10am -noon. Book Worms still meet tomorrow and the 20th, so books can be returned on those days.

We are looking forward to our first “Open Library Morning” tomorrow from 10-noon. The Gold Lobby is under construction, so please enter the building from the Blue side.

Happy June Everyone!!!

It seems like it was just yesterday we were helping the new Kindergarteners off the bus and to their classrooms and yet here we are planning the last few days of school.

Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve been talking with the kids about the importance of reading during the summer. I also gave information about programs at the public libraries and that the Stonehedge Library will be open from 10am-noon on Tuesdays starting July 9^th. 

When we have these conversations, I always have a few kids who tell me how much they love to read over the summer. I also always have kids tell me that they “won’t have time to read” because of all the summer plans they have. (This year I even had an elementary student use the phrase “I am overscheduled”) Please remind your child that summer reading is important. There are so many opportunities to squeeze reading into your child’s summer fun. Research has shown it only takes 20 minutes of reading a day to keep your child on track over the summer and even short chunks of reading time add up for the benefit.

Along with the summer reading information, I usually send home book recommendations from the American Library Association. This year, I decided to ask our own students to recommend books for the summer (who knows what a Stonehedge kid might like better than another Stonehedge kid?) As a result, I am attaching booklists made by our own students (credited where possible). Take a look at any of the grade levels to get ideas of new titles and series to try.

5th-grade booklist

4th-grade booklist

3rd-grade booklist

2nd-grade booklist

1st-grade booklist

Kindergarten booklist

Have a great summer everyone!

And don’t forget to READ4FUN!!!

Mrs. Abbott

Mrs. Graser

Mrs. Eichhorn

The school year is winding down, but the Stonehedge Library has been as busy as ever…

On April 25^th, we held our 4^th Poetrypalooza in the Gold cafeteria. We had over 30 readers share their poems. The audience was fabulous and a great time was had by all.

Spring also brings the “Read Like a Rock Star” challenge! Our 2^nd graders have been trying out chapter books (some for the first time) to test and build their constantly developing reading skills. When they finish a book, they fill out a “Golden Ticket” with a short summary of what they’ve read.  We are keeping track of the number of books read on a graph in the 2nd-grade hallway. At last count, our Rock Stars have read over 275 books since Spring Break!

It’s also the time of year where we are looking to get all our library books back to the library. Please check with your child to see if they have all of their library books returned. 

We do have some exciting new news to share…this summer, the library will be open for book check out on Tuesdays from 10am-noon. Open Library Hours will begin on Tuesday, July 9^th and go until August 20^th. Details will be sent home with your student. We hope to see many of you over the summer.

As always, I want to remind everyone of all the awesome things happening at the public libraries over the summer. I will be sending home a flyer with lots of information, so be on the lookout.

Don’t forget to

READ4FUN

Mrs. Abbott

Happy Spring Stonehedge!

April is National Poetry month and at Stonehedge the means three things: fun with poems in the library, Poem in Your Pocket Day and Poetrypalooza. Poem in Your Pocket Day falls during the break this year, so Stonehedge will celebrate it on Thursday, April 25^th. All students and staff are encouraged to carry a poem in their pocket and share it with as many people as possible during the day.

Later on the 25^th, the Gold cafeteria will be transformed into a funky poetry café with a stage, sound system and real, live audience as we bring back Poetrypalooza after a one-year absence. We’ll start reading poems at 6:30 and go until everyone who wants to, has a chance to share. Staff, students,

and family members are welcome to participate. If you do not want to read, you can be part of the audience, but I’ll have poem books on hand if you change your mind and decide to “dare to share”!

I’m sure to have lots of pictures to share for the next blog. Until then, take a look at what we’ve been doing in library…

Third graders had a chance to get to know a poem and share it with the class.

The following week, they got to use the titles of some of our picture books to create “Book Spine Poetry”. It was so fun and we got some really awesome results!

Have a great Spring Break and don't forget to...
Read4Fun!!!

Mrs. Abbott

Hi All,

January was "Research Month" at Stonehedge. (And boy, did it go fast!)  All of our kids were involved in finding answers to things they wonder. 5^th graders broke into groups to investigate different aspects of Puerto Rico in order to examine the question “Should Puerto Rico Become a State?”.

4th  graders also have been working in groups, but they are investigating New York State.

 3^rd graders enjoyed folktales and fables in January and are now doing internet research on the Iditarod dog sled race. Our youngest students in K-2 worked in class on their Winter Wonderland research projects, so in library we reviewed great sources of information and research techniques to make their exploration easy and fun.  In February, K-1 have been enjoying Caldecott Award-winning picture books and 2nd graders have been exploring encyclopedias and dictionaries.

You know that feeling when you’ve read a great book and you can’t wait to tell someone (anyone) about it? That’s how the kids in our 4th-grade book club feel. We started last month and had 22 students at our first meeting. We had a blast! Our book club is really a “Book Talk” club; 4^th graders read whatever they want and meet to tell the group about their book. This format gives kids a chance to promote their favorite reads and hear about great new books they may want to try out. It’s never too late to join. You must be in 4^th grade. We meet every other Friday from 8-9 am in the library. Our next meeting is on March 1 from 8-9am in the library.

Winter Break is one of my favorite "hunker down with lots of good books" vacations and I was able to read quite a bit.  I'd like to share a great article from "Real Simple" magazine.

8 science-based benefits of reading real books

That's all for now,

Don't forget to Read4Fun!

Mrs. Abbott