Tuesday, December 15, 2009

43 Cemetary Road; Dying to meet you


Book One, 43 Old Cemetary  Road; Dying to meet you (2009)
by Kate Klise, illus. by M. Sarah Klise

The sister team of Kate and M. Sarah Klise created a charming ghost story through letters written back and forth between a cast of characters.  The story line is fun and the cast of characters have names that will make children giggle.  There is the writer, Ignatius B. Grumply (I.B.), who is trying to write a book after a 20 year absence in the publishing world.  Anita Sale is the real estate agent who helps Grumply find a writing haven-at 43 Old Cemetary Road, of course.  Grumply's lawyer is E. Gadds and his publisher is Paige Turner.  The broken down house at 43 Old Cemetary Road belongs to Professors Les and Diane Hope, who have fled the country to study paranormal activity on the European Continent, leaving their young son, Seymour Hope, behind at the house.  This pun-filled cast is rounded out with the resident ghost, Olive C. Spence, and a private investigator, Frank N. Beans!!  This book is only about 150 pages long, quick read and I think students will love it. 
While not a scary ghost story I like the message of family is who ever makes you feel safe and Seymour feels safer with a ghost than with his own parents.  This theme is cherished by many students who don't live in typical mom/dad family situations.  Seymour takes care of himself, even mows the yards for neighbors but he likes to have Olive and Ignatius around.  This would make a wonderfully, quick read-aloud as well as an intro into letter-writing as well.  The second book, 43 Old Cemetary Road; Over my dead body is out as well.
Find a copy of other well-written books by this duo right here.
Here at Highland we have "Shall I knit you a hat; a Christmas Yarn", a wonderful tale of sharing and giving for this time of year.
Find the book here.
Highly Recommended-Elementary Fiction
4/5 Stars

Saying Goodbye to McKinstry Elementary


Monday, November 9, 2009

New Books

Last week the book fair was a success-thank you McKinstry staff and parents for all the support.  We did get many books out into the classroom and the library from the book fair, which is great!!

We also recieved three boxes from Titlewave and I have one box unpacked and ready to be checked out!

Here is a partial list:

Turtle's Penguin Day by Valeri Gorbachev
Goldilocks and the three bears by Lauren Child
Wiggens learns his manners at the Four Seasons Restaurant by Leslie McGuirk
A story for bear by Dennis Haseley
Planet Earth; Amazing animals of the Rainforest
Red Truck by Kersten Hamilton
Are you quite polite? silly dilly manners songs by Alan Katz and David Catrow

Christmas Cookies; bite-sized holiday lessons by Amy Krouse Rosenthal
and
Martha doesn't say sorry! by Samantha Berger

Click on each title to see a description or make your way to the library and take a look!

Tuesday, November 3, 2009

Scholastic Book Fair is here!!

The Book fair is beautiful and filled with wonderful books-do take time to come check it out.  Think about new books for your classroom and think about Christmas just around the corner for children, grandchildren, nieces and nephews!! 


Several teachers have asked me if I have any exciting incentives available for the book fair...It makes me happy to know some are joyously thinking of buying books at the fair!   The book fair helps our school purchase more books for the library and that is always a bonus. 

So here is this year's incentive:  If you buy $25.00 worth of books from the book fair you will get your choice of another paperback for $1.99. 

Click here to see Skippyjon Jones website!  Skippyjon Jones, Wimpy Kid, Fancy Nancy and lots of amazing nonfiction are available at the Book Fair!

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Friday, October 2, 2009

Target Grant


At the end of last year the McKinstry Library was awarded a special grant from Target Corp. The grant gave us $1000.00 to spend at firstbook.org. We bought a bunch of books and I have been working on processing them all this week. Many of them will be circulating this week with your students but take time to come and see them yourself when you have a chance.
Titles:
Non-fiction:
Chatter, Sing, Roar, buzz; poems about the Rain Forest
Mumbo Jumbo; the creepy abc
DK eye know about Time-with cool fold-out pages
DK eye know about Light
DK eye know about Weather
The Amazon River
stacks of picture books as well:
I'm so mad! by Robie H. Harris
Love you when you whine by Emily Jenkins
The new girl...by Jacqui Robbins
and a few Spanish/English titles like The Cat in the Hat and Are you my Mother?
Come in and have a look!!!

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

New DVD's








The library has many new DVDs to match with curriculum or reading goals.
I would love for you to come and take a look at the new titles but since we are terrible busy I thought I would list a few for you here.

There was an old lady who swallowed a fly
The Backyardigans; It's great to be a ghost
Puss in Boots
Signs at the Zoo; learn to sign your fav. animals (American Sign Language)
Animal life; All about bugs
Corduroy w/ 7 other stories
Eloise's; Rawther unusual Halloween
Happily Never After (mixed up fairy tales)
Franklin and the Turtle Lake Treasure
Animated Tales of the world; Taiwan: Aunt Tiger
Countries around the world; Guatemala
Countries around the world; Kenya
Peace Kids; The China Trip
Follow Jade; Learn Chinese, Let's go to market in China
Little Einsteins; The legend of the golden pyramid
The Spiderwick Chronicles
The Incredibles
Hoot (Carl Hiassen)
Holes (Louis Sachar)
Weather for children; all about the climate and seasons
Nim's Island (Wendy Orr)
As well as a 3-part series-Creative Writing with Roald Dahl (Sept. is Roald Dahl month)
a. Characters, metaphors and similies
b. Humor, Horror, Thrills and Chills
c. Plot Twists and turn


Come in or email me to check out one of these great new DVD's for your students today!!!








Friday, September 4, 2009

Friendship


I picked this one from our Scholastic Book Fair last year because it looked like an interesting historical fiction choice for 4-5th graders. Now it is one of this year's picks for the Iowa Children's choice Award. McKissack's main character, Rosemary is smart yet struggles with the issues of the day like is it okay for her to let her best friend, J.J. (a boy!) beat her in a race just because the other boys are watching.
Her parents are not much help as they argue about a woman's independence over dinner. Both her parents want Rosemary to remember that she's as good as anybody but also not better. Brown vs. Board of Education has just passed and Rosemary's colored school is closing and she will be transferred to Robertson Elementary, integrated into a previously white school. Right before the beginning of school, J.J., her best friend contracts polio and is hospitalized. Now Rosemary will be the only integrated student in her 6th grade classroom. It's very difficult being the only one but with the help of some hard-earned friends, a progressive principal and a very positive teacher Rosemary makes it through the year. This is an easy read and one that will really help 3-5th graders understand this very important era of change in our history. Reading the author's note at the end it is made clear why this story is such a believable one as Ms. McKissack experience this same 6th grade year right outside St. Louis, MO!

Friday, August 28, 2009

First full week finished

What a great first week it has been. A bit like a wild roller coaster ride for some students and staff but we've weathered the worst and will continue to make improvements! I've welcomed most classes to the library and we've discussed our expectations (theirs and mine) for library time. In helping students this week I discovered two new books hiding in the shelves.


Cesar takes a break by Susan Collins Thoms (2008) is about a helpful class iguana. The iguana journals for us his adventures while the students are on Spring Break! Who knew class pets had so many fun while we are out of the building! This story is pure fun, great writing and would help students think about writing themselves, after all it is Cesar's journal we are reading!




Dog and Bear; Two friends-three stories by Laura Vaccaro Seeger is a great tale of the simpliest form. Dog wants attention and bear wants to read=they work it out. Dog wants to change his name and comes up with many alternative, typical dog names. Each little vignette has friends working together. Try this one as a read-aloud in your classroom. It focuses on dialogue between the two characters; there is no narrator.

Thursday, August 20, 2009

New Picture Books

Available for check out and appropriate for all grade levels!

Patricia von Pleasantsquirrel by James Proimos.

A curious young girl wanna-be princess sets out on an adventure like Max in Where the wild things are by M. Sendak. Included is a long list of rules she is supposed to follow from the hippos who have made her their princess! The rules are too difficult to keep up with and she heads back home, where everything is simpler. Patricia even has her own writing blog which would be great fun for students to see!!


One of those days by Amy Krouse Rosenthal.

Amy has several fantastic books in our library now-come check them out! This one describes how some days can be not great days but always those days turn into a night and bada bing-morning!! This would be fun to use for a writing lesson-what kind of ho hum days can your class think of together! Amy's examples are "running late day", "nobody's listening to you day", "fun thing cancelled day" and "can't afford it day". I've definetely had ho-hum days, maybe like "way to crazy in the library" days!!





Corduroy turned 40 in 2008 and a new book was published commemorating this wonderful story and its author, Don Freeman. This new Corduroy is unique because the last four pages of the book discuss the editing process Mr. Freeman and his NY editor went through to achieve such a timeless classic! The process is shown with envelopes and reproductions of letters between author and editor! Read this one with your students so they can see even adults like Don Freeman have to redo, rewrite and rethink!!

Monday, May 11, 2009

New Listening Library CD's



Take a look at new CD's with books on the wheel in the back room of the library. I am making copies of them so little by little new ones will be there. Today I added these titles:

The blues of flats brown by Walter Dean Myers
The Friend by Sarah Stewart (hist. fiction)

and two math matters titles:
Carrie Measures by Linda Aber
Clean Sweep Campers by Lucille Penner

Come and check them out for your student's listening time!!

Wednesday, May 6, 2009

More new choices


More new titles to enjoy:

Z is for Zeus; a Greek Mythology by Helen L. Wilbur
Lily and the Paper Man by Rebecca Upjohn ( a young girl's look at homelessness)
How I learned geography by Uri Shulevitz (a map shows a young boy how far he could travel and gives him hope)
Friend on Freedom River by Gloria Whelan (Wonderful historical fiction about slavery and knowing what is right even when no one else is looking)
One hen (how one small loan made a big difference) by Katie Milway ( a story of Ghana, a boy and a big gift)

One Hen is the inspiring story Kojo, a young boy from Ghana, Africa. Kojo and his widowed mother collect firewood to sell. They live:

in a mud-walled house with an open fire for cooking. Beside it is a garden where they grow their own food. They never have much money or much to eat.

The elves and the shoemaker-a beautifully illustrated retold version of the classic tale.

Double Cheeseburgers, Quiche and Vegetarian Burritos; American cooking from the 1920's through today by Loretta Frances Ichord.

Come take a look at all our new titles by visiting the Library!!!

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

New books



New books are making their way into classrooms via your students. Find a time in your busy day to stop and browse also! I am working on finishing the last 5 boxes of books from the last Titlewave order so please take a moment before new boxes arrive. I have added lots of non-fiction; bright and beautiful non-fiction such as these titles:

Monday, April 20, 2009

Mo Willems new book













Naked Mole Rat gets dressed
is Mo Willems' new offering and it is very cute. If you are looking for something light-hearted to read to your students this would be a great choice!! We also have all of his new elephant and piggie series such as Are you ready to play outside? and I love my new toy! Mo also has a great website and blog!

Sunday, April 19, 2009

check out this great butterfly video

http://www.teachertube.com/viewVideo.php?video_id=94414&title=Butterfly_Life_Cycle


Welcome!

Presenting McKinstry Library's new blog about all things reading and all things techno-related. Find here links to use with your students. Feel free to comment on posts.

Mrs. Holt