Volunteer Appreciation

In Kindergarten, I read Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day by Judith Viorst.

In First Grade, I read Alexander, Who Used to Be Rich Last Sunday by Judith Viorst.

For Second Grade, I read When Charlie McButton Lost Power by Suzanne Collins.

I was unable to see either Pre-K class, so I was unable to read Rowdy Rooster by Janine Scott.

Grades 3 – 5 continued to work on their digital citizenship research.  I am hoping that next week, we will be able to put together their presentations.

Today we helped celebrate our wonderful school volunteers by hosting a breakfast for them. We had a great turnout and the Culture Club did an amazing job of decorating! Our volunteers are the backbone of our school and so much would not be accomplished without them.  We are truly their “biggest fans”!

National Poetry Month & Culture Fest

April is National Poetry Month, so I read poetry books to Pre-K thru 2^nd grade.  For Pre-K, I read Me I Am! By Jack Prelutsky.  Kindergarten students got A Sock is a Pocket for Your Toes by Elizabeth Scanlon.  In First Grade, I read Dirt on My Shirt by Jeff Foxworthy and in Second Grade, I read Tie Your Socks and Clap Your Feet by Lenny Hort.

In grades 3 – 5, each group got started on their digital citizenship research.  They were looking for a definition of their topic and 3 – 5 important facts.  They will continue their research next week as well.

Last night was our annual Culture Fest and we had a wonderful turnout.  The staff worked tirelessly to make sure everything ran smoothly, but we couldn’t have done it without the help of all the families that contributed to make it such a success.  This is by far one of the biggest events that we hold each year.  We had a performance by Fourth Grade, families could experience the Taste of Christie and travel around the world with their passports to a variety of countries represented at Christie.  The exhibit table were phenomenal!  I heard so many positive comments and how they were looking forward to participating again next year.  Thank you again to all that helped to make this such an amazing experience for our students.

National Library Week

Last week, I was surprised by a beautiful orchid plant, Barnes & Noble gift card and card from the PTA and office staff for National School Librarian Day.  This week I was showered with lovely cards and posters made by the students and another Barnes & Noble gift card.  They were all so sweet!  I was definitely feeling the love.  I do want to thank everyone for all of your kind words.  They really meant a lot and I love working with each and every one of you.

This week the stories for Pre-K, Kindergarten, First and Second grades were all from Tumblebooks and had a library theme to them.  In Pre-K we listened to Lola at the Library. Kindergarteners enjoyed ABC Letters in the Library. First grade heard Read Anything Good Lately? and Second grade liked How Do You Read to a Rabbit?

In grades 3-5, each group selected their digital citizenship topic for research.  We also finally finished our Battle of the Books with Harry Potter being the overwhelming winner.  Hopefully, this long weekend will be enough to recharge everyone’s batteries so that we can finish strong until the end of the year.

Plagiarism and Digital Citizenship Research

This week Pre-K learned about bugs, so I read Bean Thirteen by Matthew McElligott.  It was about a couple of bugs picking beans for dinner and trying to figure out how they could equally share thirteen beans.

In Kindergarten, First and Second grades, we discussed plagiarism and copyright.  This was an important topic to talk about due to the fact that they are conducting animal research right now.  I read Elephants by Kate Riggs to Kindergarten, Sharks by Kate Riggs to First Grade and Spider Monkeys by Mary R. Dunn to Second Grade.

I tried to stress the importance of putting the information they read into their own words.  We even did a little practicing.

We are getting ready to start our Digital Citizenship Research Project in grades 3-5, so this week we talked about what digital citizenship means and what all it covers.  This will be the topics they will choose to do their research on. They will include internet safety, personal privacy, cyberbullying, appropriate online behavior, copyright, plagiarism, password protection, and digital footprint.  Each class was tasked with creating groups of 3 or 4 by class time next week.  Next week they will choose their topic and begin researching it using print and online materials.