Welcome to the

St. Agnes Library

Librarian: Mrs. Erin Flint

The year is winding down! There will be no more checking out books for the rest of the school year. It is time for me to begin collecting all books to assess which books we need to mark as lost and which books we need to re-order. Thank you for checking all the nooks and crannies at your house for any St. Agnes Library books that need to be returned.

May 10, 11, 12

Preschool thru 4th grade - We read the book Marley and the Kittens by John Grogan (author of Marley and Me) to prepare for his visit Wednesday, May 12th.
5th thru 6th - We discussed which books are still checked out, paired up to shelf read, and straighten shelves. We also took time to free read.

May 4, 5

Preschool - We listened to the story A Bad Case of Stripes on the website www.storylineonline.net.
Kindergarten thru 1st Grade - We listened to the story Enemy Pie on www.storylineonline.net
2nd - 5th grade - We listened to Al Roker's Book Club interview Jeff Kinney, author of the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series.
6th Grade - We watched the movie Ralph and the Motorcycle by Beverly Cleary
Print Media - We are finalizing our RamPage stories!
Book Club - Please read pages 150 - 174 and be ready to discuss the book

April 26, 27, 28

Preschool and PreK - We read A Visitor for Bear and discussed alphabetical order. We lined up in alphabetical order and learned that it is how we organize the books in the library!
1st thru 3rd - We practiced locating books on the shelves, especially related to A.R. books
4th thru 6th - We practiced reshelving books. It is always good to brush up on these skills! We worked on all the clues we use to know where in the library books should be placed.
Print Media - We are editing our stories for our May issue of the RamPage
Book Club - We read pages 135 - 150 and discussed

April 19, 20, 21

Preschool and PreK - we read the book Rosie's Walk by Pat Hutchins. It describes a walk that the hen takes around the farm. We made our own short story after a walk we did around the school grounds.
1st Grade 2nd Grade - we read a few chapters from some popular first chapter book series to gain some interest in some mysteries. We read Oggie Cooder by Sarah Weeks and Cam Jansen by David Adler.
3rd - 6th Grade - We did Atlas Scavenger Hunts. Each group had a different atlas from the library and we worked together to find pieces of information in them.
Print Media - We are still working on our last issue of the RamPage.
Book Club - We read p. 110 - 135 and discussed the progress of the book. It has brought up many interesting discussions about Hitler and World War II.

April 12, 13, 14

This week Preschool through 1st graders did a quick and fun project about the life cycle of a butterfly. We read the book, Waiting for Wings by Lois Ehlert. We made sure we could remember the steps of the life cycle and then glued different shaped pasta on a page that listed each step. Each pasta resembled the shape of the real thing!
For 2nd - 6th grade we did a fun lesson with a thesaurus. It was called Nursery Rhyme Remix! We took common nursery rhymes and used a thesaurus to find synonyms for some of the words in the rhyme.

For example:

Peter, Peter Pumpkin Eater, had a wife and couldn't keep her. He put her in a pumpkin shell, and there he kept her very well.

Became...

Peter, Peter Pumpkin Consumer, had a mate and couldn't maintain her.

He deposited her in a pumpkin case, and there he preserved her absolutely adequately.

We had SO much fun with this activity. Some students chose to read it as if it was a rap.
Print Media - we are researching and gathering information for an end of the year issue of the RamPage.
Book Club - we read 80-110 and looked up some German terms to help us better understand what is happening in the story.

April 5, 6, 7

April is National Poetry Month. I read each class some of my favorite Shel Silverstein poems. Each table read from different poetry books I had pre-selected. Each group chose two to three poems to read aloud to the class. We discussed techniques for reading poetry aloud.
Print Media - This is group picture week. Time Stamp Media came Friday to take CYO sports, student activities, and classroom photos. It was a crazy time, but we managed to get some great pictures for the yearbook!
Book Club - we took a quiz over the information from pages 40-80 in the book The Boy Who Dared.

March 29, 30, 31

Preschool thru Kindergarten - we read First the Egg by Laura Seeger and The Berenstain Bears Real Easter Eggs.
1st thru 6th grade - we discussed the fun new trend of using speech bubbles and comic book formats in children's literature. We read some examples and then made some of our own comic book panels using speech bubbles. We also visited a website called "Comic Creator" to make our own digital comics.
Print Media - we finished up collage pages and took some last minute photos to help fill in
Book Club - We discussed the first 40 pages of The Boy Who Dared.

March 22-24

This week all classes focused on Folktales and Fairy Tales. For all classes we read each type of tale and discussed the similarities and differences. Some tales we focused on were The Three Sillies, Jack and the Beanstalk, Cinderella, and Three Wishes.
Print Media: Yearbook Collage Pages and picture taking
Book Club: This quarter we are reading The Boy Who Dared by Susan Bartoletti. Read the first 40 pages by next week.

March 15-19

~HAPPY SPRING BREAK!~

March 8, 9, 10

This week we had a reward week for classes that had excellent behavior. We watched some stories on video (Sylvester and the Magic Pebble, Sam's Lucky Money) and enjoyed some tasty treats.
Print Media: Yearbook Collage Pages
Book Club: Book Talk Presentations

March 1, 2, 3

This week we celebrate Dr. Seuss's Birthday. After reading a short biography about his life, we read The Cat in the Hat.
Print Media: Yearbook Collage pages
Book Club: Finish up books. Book Talks due next Wednesday, March 10th.

February 23, 24

Since February is Black History Month, in all grades we read Henry's Freedom Box by Ellen Levine. It is a true story about young man who "mailed" himself to freedom. Students took turns getting inside a box to see what that would have been like. We had excellent grade level discussions about life during the times of slavery.
Print Media: We are putting yearbook collage pages together!
Book Club: Book Talks due Wednesday, March 10th.

February 16, 17

PS: They are reviewing the letters L-P, so we read Town Mouse, Country Mouse by Jan Brett. We discussed the differences and similarities between life in the city and in the country.
K: We practiced finding Fiction Books in the Everyone section.
1st - 6th Grade: We did Fiction Scavenger Hunts this week to help brush up on our book finding skills!

February 8,9,10

PS and PK: We read Arthur's Valentine and did a Valentine activity page
K: It was the 100th Day of School on Library day this week. We read a book called 100th Day Worries to help celebrate this special day.
1st-2nd Grade: We read a little bit from the book Junie B. Jones Valentine Book and did some Valentine activity pages.
3rd Grade: We read Horrible Harry's Kickball Wedding to celebrate Valentine's Day. We also did some Valentine activity pages as we finished up checking out our books.
4th-6th Grade: We had fun working on some Valentine trivia pages.
Print Media: We took pictures of the Body Venture set up and run through to be posted in the yearbook.
Book Club: We got caught up on each other's book chapters. Next week we receive our assignments for our end of the quarter book talk report

January 25, 26, 27

PS and PK: They are studying the letter N this week. We read a story called Nobody about a girl who develops an imaginary friend named, Nobody.
K: We discussed how sometimes a story can have a sequel. We read Mo Willems two books about Knuffle Bunny as an example of how sometimes an author will continue a story so you get to learn more about a character.
1st - 6th Grade: We finished up our Naked Mole Rat pictures and began our descriptions of the ourfit we chose for Wilbur. They will all be displayed in class books.
Print Media: Still working on our newsletter stories.
Book Club: Discussed the first couple chapters of each of our books we are reading.

January 19, 20

PS - 6th Grade: We read the story Naked Mole Rat Gets Dressed by Mo Willems. They colored in a picture of Wilbur (the main character who likes to get dressed even though he is supposed to be a naked mole rat) dressed in the outfit they would choose for him. We got some pretty creative ideas!
Print Media: While we are waiting for our new cameras and pictures to begin organizing, we decided to put out a Catholic Schools Week newsletter. We began planning and writing our stories.
Book Club: We introduced our book titles, authors and main characters to the group and made predictions about our books.

January 11, 12, 13

PS - 6th Grade: In preparation for Martin Luther King's birthday at the end of the week, we read Coretta Scott by Ntozake Shange. It is a beautifully illustrated book and poem about MLK's wife. We wrote acrostic poems about Martin Luther King.
Print Media: We made posters to remind students and parents about pre-ordering the yearbook. They are $13 if purchased before January 29th. They are $15 after that. We also wrote up a proposal for PTO to purchase some cameras for us to use.
Book Club: After much deliberation, we have decided to have a free choice book this time around. We will meet each week and discuss with the group what book we are reading!

January 4,5,6

PS - 1st Grade: We read The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats and acted out the scenes from the story. It was quite a sight to see 20 children in the library making snow angels on the floor!
2nd - 3rd Grade: We read The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats up to the part where the boy goes back into the house. Then we made up our own predictions and ending to the story. After they were finished writing, I read the ending to them aloud.
4th - 6th Grade: I read aloud to them the riddle book Spot the Plot. It has riddles about famous and well known stories. After reading each riddle, they guessed which story the riddle was about.
Print Media: We looked through old yearbooks and began our plans for this year's yearbook.
Book Club: No Book Club this week because of the snow day!

December 14, 15, 16

PS - 6th Grade: We enjoyed listening to Lou Diamond Philips read aloud The Polar Express on www.storyline.com. For younger classes, we drew a picture of what we would have asked for from Santa in the story. For older students, we used this opportunity to practice writing a thank you note. We wrote a thank you note to Santa thanking him for the bell from his sleigh (part of the story). We tried to include all elements of a thank you letter. It was great practice for all the thank you's we will be sending after the holidays!
Print Media: We published our Holiday Issue and had a celebration for our last class!
Book Club: We finished The Graveyard Book and had a celebration and discussion in class.

December 7, 8, 9

PS - 2nd Grade: We read the story Kitten's First Full Moon by Kevin Henkes. After reading it, students found an open space so they could act like the kitten as I read the story again. They enjoyed pretending to leap, run, climb and drink milk like the kitten in the story. Afterwards, we drew our favorite scene from the story using a cup to trace our own perfectly round full moon. We only used pencils since the illustrations in the book are only in black and white since it is at night.
3rd - 6th: We worked with Almanacs this week. After exploring and defining what an Almanac is, each group was given a topic to explore. On a page that said, "Did You Know?" they filled in 3-5 facts about their topic. They were surprised at the wide range of subjects you can find in an almanac!
Print Media: Our December issue is due out next week!
Book Club: We discussed Chapter 5-7 today. We are all enjoying the book The Graveyard! We will discuss the last chapter (Chapter 8) next week and do an epitaph for each student in Book Club.

November 30, December 1.2

PS and PreK: The letter of the week was J, so we read a story called Jessica by Kevin Henkes. It is about a girl named Ruth who has an imaginary friend named Jessica. Students enjoyed the story. After the story we drew what we thought the imaginary friend would look like OR our own imaginary friends that we made into puppets.
Kindergarten: We read Sally Jean, Bicycle Queen and had a great discussion about using what we have and appreciating what our parents can afford for us. The kindergarteners are doing a nice job checking out and returning books!
1st - 6th Grade: We read the story The Mitten by Jan Brett. Groups of students could then choose an animal from the story to research using an encyclopedia.
Print Media: We are working on our December issue!
Book Club: Finish up Chapter 6 and start on Chapter 7 of The Graveyard. Remember you can listen to Neil Gaiman read to you online!

November 23,24,25

PS-Kindergarten: We read the Night Before Thanksgiving and filled in a page that had a blank table. We decorated, filled the table with food and added our dinner guests.
1st-5th Grade: We read the story about the Littlest Pilgrim and then put on a short class play. Everyone was involved and we had tons of fun!
Print Media: Our November issue of the Rampage was sent out before Thanksgiving break.
Book Club: Finish up Chapter 5 and begin Chapter 6 of The Graveyard.

November 9, 10, 11

In PS through Kindergarten this week, we read the story The Hello, Goodbye Window by Norton Jester. It is a Caldecott Medal winner. We decorate our own Hello, Goodbye window from our house and talked about all the things we see out of those windows. Kindergarteners checked out a Caldecott Medal winner or honor book this week. They all love waving to me through my very own Hello, Goodbye window here in the library!
1st through 3rd graders continued our study of the Dewey Decimal System this week. We learned about the 700 section. We did a sorting activity to discover what types of books we find in the 700s. Art, Music, Sports and Games!
4th through 6th graders played a game to brush up on their Dewey Decimal System. They are getting very fast and efficient!
Print Media students are hard at work on their next issue of the RamPage. Look for some great stories about our Bingo Night, The H1N1 virus and vaccine, and the Bungalow Youth Group leader.
Book Club - We are still reading The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman. We have read up to Chapter 3. Students need to read Chapter 4 for next week and be ready to discuss. Anyone who wants to listen to Neil Gaiman read can click videotour. From there you can click on Chapter 4.

October 26, 27, 28th

In Preschool and PreK we continued practicing the difference between Fiction and Non-Fiction. We played a game to become experts. We also read the fairy tale "Hansel and Gretel" and discussed similarities in all fairy tales. There letter of the week was G, so it was the perfect story!
In Kindergarten and 1st grade: We read two paragraphs about Bats - one from a non-fiction book and one from a fiction book (Stellaluna). We discussed the differences between the two. We focused on the Dewey Decimal 500 series and discussed what books would be found there. We played a game to help recognize some categories of the 500 books (dinosaurs, space and wild animals). This was their first week to check out!
2nd -6th grade: We watched a power point presentation about the Dewey Decimal Series and practiced finding books from each number series in the library. We filled out a check list each time they found a book.
Print Media: We finalized our stories and they will be published in our second issue of the RamPage this week!
Book Club: We finished Son of the Mob by Gordon Korman and are starting our new book, The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman. It is the 2009 Newberry Award Winner! We are excited to get started! They should be ready to discuss Chapters 1 and 2 for next week.

October 12, 13, 14th

In preschool and PreK, they are studying the letter E this week. We read a story called The Extraordinary Egg by Leo Lionni and played a guessing game about things we use in the library.
In Kindergarten they are studying the letters I and F. We read the story called The Frog Prince Continued by Jon Scieska. They did a coloring activity to brush up on their library skills. Starting in the 2nd quarter, Kindergarteners will be allowed to check out a book each week!
1st graders ejoyed the story Mercy Watson Thinks Like a Pig by Kate DeCamillo.
2nd and 3rd graders enjoyed the story Stink: The Incredibly Shrinking Kid by Megan McDonald, the author of another popular series Judy Moody. Stink is Judy's younger brother. It is a hilarious series!
4th and 5th graders enjoyed the story The Homework Machine by Dan Gutman. First we watched a short "meet the author" video to become familiar with Dan Gutman and his work. Then I read the story of The Homework Machine to them aloud in class.
In 6th grade we read the story The Naked Mole Rat Letters by Mary Amato.
My print media class has been working very hard on the next issue of the RamPage. They are almost finished gathering all their information and will be writing and editing their stories next week.
In Book Club we are almost finished with Son of the Mob by Gordon Korman. We read chapters 13-15 last week and took a quiz. Book Club Students should be prepared to discuss chapters 16 and 17 for next week!

October 5,6,7th

In PS, they have been reviewing the letters A-D. This week we read "Big Dog" by Lois G. Grambling. It was about a boy who brought home a BIG pet that he thought was a dog. He found out at the end of the book that it was actually a dinosaur! They learned about dinosaurs last week in PS, so after the story we looked at other books that have illustrations of dinosaurs and talked about how they all look different. We made our own books with illustrations of dinosaurs in them.

In PreK, they have also been reviewing the letters A-D. This week we read, "Q is for Duck" by Mary Elting. It is an alphabet mystery book. They have been learning about ducks in PreK, so we looked through lots of books with ducks in them and saw how different they all look. Then we made our own Duck story books with illustrations of ducks.

In Kindergarten we played a guessing game about items you commonly find in the library. We discussed what we use them for and why they are helpful. We also read aloud.

In grades 1 and 2, we practiced our alphabetizing skills since so many elements of the library are based on the alphabet. We put a whole list of author's last names in alphabetical order. The worked in groups to accomplish this and did a fantastic job!

For grades 3-6, we had a library scavenger hunt! We practiced working together to find books and other items in the library using all kinds of resources. Students did a fantastic job! The toughest part was remembering to use our "library voices."

Print Media -

Hopefully everyone saw our first issue of the RamPage! It came out last week. We are already hard at work getting stories put together and ideas for how to make our next issue even better!

Book Club -

We are reading Son of the Mob by Gordon Korman. This week we had a quiz and discussion about Chapters 11 and 12. We finished early and played a game of Cherades guessing some of our favorite book titles.

Please read Chapters 13, 14 and 15 for next week and be ready for a quiz and/or discussion.

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Library Rules and Procedures -

Procedures:

Please always enter the library with a quiet voice.

Sit where Mrs. Flint has asked you to sit.

Check out will be the last half of class.

When you finish checking out, please sit quietly and silent read.

The following is a list of the amount of books you can check out. Remember the library is always open on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays if you need to re-check out a book or turn one in. Please try not to come when I am having class, it is hard for me to help you.

Kindergarten 1 book

1st Grade 2 books

2nd Grade 2 books

3rd and 4th Grade 2 books

5th and 6th Grade 2 books

If you fail to bring back your books you will have to wait to check out until you can return them.

Rules:

1. Be prepared to learn.

Return books in the morning of your library day
Come with any supplies I have asked you to bring

2. Show respect to others and yourself.

No talking when others are talking
Include everyone
Use your manners

3. Show respect for your school.

Treat the library with respect
Use quiet voices
Keep hands and feet to yourself
Don’t play with the library props
Clean up after yourself; put books back on the shelf or carts

4. Practice safety.

Be careful when searching for books that are high on the shelf, ask for help
No running or game playing in the library

5. Follow directions of the adults in charge.

If you have a Kansas State Library Card, you can access it by going to: www.kslc.org