New Year's Resolutions 2020

Our third graders took some time this week to think about some things that they'd like to change about themselves this year.  Click on the link below to take a look and listen to their videos about their new year's resolutions for 2020.

→CLICK HERE 

Library Musical Chairs

Many of us are creatures of habit and often gravitate to the same books, movies, and tv shows that we've read and seen many times before.  Kids are no different.  How many times can kids read The Book With No Pictures or the same super hero book from last week or the same series that they've checked out a million times before?  You'd be surprised! :)  We changed things up a bit this week and explored many different types of books that are part of our library collection.  How did we do that? We played library musical chairs, of course!

Ice Skating in the Library

In San Antonio, our weather doesn't really allow us much opportunity to participate in outdoor winter activities. That doesn't stop us, though. We improvise! After reading a book or two about activities in the snow, our Preschool and Pre-K kids got to "ice skate" in the library. We had a blast, and some of the kids even had some fancy moves. :) Enjoy!

Book Fair 2019

We all had SNOW MUCH FUN at our Book Fair last week! It was a success, and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. Thank you to everyone who took part in this awesome fundraiser for our library and our classrooms!

Dragons in the Library

This week we are reading a book called Do Not Bring Your Dragon to the Library written by Julie Gassman and illustrated by Andy Elkerton. We even had a dragon visit our library! ;)

Book Character Pumpkins

For the first time ever, our families were invited to paint and decorate a pumpkin to look like a book character.  This was a voluntary project, and we had a great turnout of some very creative pumpkins.  Thank you to everyone who submitted a pumpkin to display in the library!  We may have to make this an annual tradition.

Scary Stories, anyone?!

The younger kids might get some thrills out of books like Creepy Carrots and Creepy Pair of Underwear, but our big kids get to really have some fun with scary stories around Halloween time.  The third, fourth, and fifth graders get to take part in an annual tradition of going into the library closet and sitting in the dark to read scary stories.  They love it and look forward to it every year!  Here is a picture of our fourth graders getting ready to read some of the short stories that could cause goosebumps to break out on their skin and the hair on the back of their necks to stand up.  Spooky!

Creepy Carrots!

As Halloween approaches, we like to really get into the spirit of things and listen to spooky stories, even if we're some of the younger kids at Sunshine Cottage!  Our Kindergarten classes heard a story about a rabbit named Jasper and some of the weird carrots he encounters in a book called Creepy Carrots by Aaron Reynolds and Peter Brown.  After listening to the book, the students were able to create some creepy carrots of their own.  Here they are showing off their finished products.

Book Fair Time!

Each year, the Sunshine Cottage library hosts our annual Scholastic Book Fair.  Students get to preview the book fair using videos and the online book fair website as well as taking home flyers that include some of the most anticipated books.  Here are our third graders showing their surprise to one of the books that really caught their eye.

Ms. Holly and Ms. Alicia's Preschool class had a blast visiting the book fair for the first time ever!

Our book fair was a huge success!  We earned a good amount of Scholastic dollars which will be used to support the library program and to buy some books for the kids to build their own libraries at home.  Thank you to all of our families for the great support!

Library Orientation

The first few weeks of school are the perfect time for the kids to take part in library orientation, and using the interactive trivia game called Kahoot! is a favorite way to review all the information about our Sunshine Cottage library.  Cheers abound when the kids bring their iPads to the library and excitedly ask the question, "Are we playing Kahoot! today?"  It's a great way to get all the kids involved and to have them practice their technology skills while reviewing some information and learning new things.

All About Me

At the beginning of the year, Preschool and Pre-K students learn all about themselves in their "All About Me" unit.  During library time, the students listen to a story, sing some songs, and use the iPads and a mirror to draw themselves.  We display the iPad onto the board using our AppleTV so that the whole class can enjoy the artwork.

Parts of a Book

First and second graders worked in groups to play a fun game while they were reviewing the parts of a book.  They had to take turns and work cooperatively to figure out the title, author, illustrator, and call number of their book while also describing the picture on the front cover.  They learned about some of our new books, reviewed some important book information, and had a little bit of fun, too!
*Click on the video below to view the slideshow.

Blackout Poetry 2018

April is National Poetry Month.  One of our projects to go along with this was to create our own Blackout Poetry.  Third, fourth, and fifth graders viewed different examples of Blackout Poetry online and then chose a book from our Calico Illustrated Classics book collection to create a Blackout Poem of their own.  Some chose to create using a more abstract approach while others used their artistic ability to form a picture around their words.  I'm impressed with how many of these turned out!  Take a look, and be sure to read the poem they created!

Book Character New Year's Resolutions

The beginning of the year brought around a favorite activity that we've done in the past. Since many of the students discuss and set new year's resolutions in their classrooms, it's always fun to see what kinds of resolutions they would set for book characters if those book characters were able to talk. Here are a few for you to enjoy!

**The still picture of the videos looks blurry, but it will clear up once you play the video.**

Iggy Peck, Architect

The fourth graders had a lot of fun with today's lesson!  First, we read the book called Iggy Peck, Architect written by Andrea Beaty and illustrated by David Roberts.  It's about a boy who is crazy about building things, but has some trouble when he gets to second grade.  Don't worry because in the end, he saves the day!  After reading the book, the students got to try their hand at building something by using only toothpicks and marshmallows.  Check out their awesome structures!
*Click on the pictures to enlarge them, and click on the videos to play them.*

Ice Skating and Building Snowmen

The Pre-K classes had a lot of fun participating in some winter activities.  After reading a book or two about having fun in the snow, the students were able to do a little ice skating around the library using wax paper.  We even took turns building snowmen, on the iPad of course. Take a look at our video showcasing a couple of the classes.

The Dewey Decimal Rap

The 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders will be learning all about the Dewey Decimal System this week.  Here is a fun, little rap that I think the kids will enjoy.

Hey, Little Ant

We read the book called Hey, Little Ant by Phillip and Hannah Hoose, a father and daughter team who wrote this first as a song when Hannah was a little girl.  The book is written from the point-of-view of both a little boy and an ant.  It is a great book to show perspective, and the illustrations by Debbie Tilley definitely add to the story.  At the end of the book, the authors left the ending up to the reader.

So, what would you do...squish the ant or save the ant?  Let's see what our students decided.

Click on the link below:

Hey, Little Ant

Gobble Gobble...Call Numbers!

The week before Thanksgiving this year, our kids in grades 2-5 took part in a scavenger hunt of sorts.  The students worked with a group to find books in our library with certain call numbers on the spine.  The call numbers were typed on turkey feathers, and the students had to work together to find books to complete their turkey.  They had so much fun doing this and learned how to find books by their call numbers.  Here are our second graders working together on their turkeys.

Christmas Webquest

Back in December, our students in grades 3-5 completed a Christmas Webquest with the help of their iPads and the kid safe search engine called Kid Rex.  The students looked up information and learned some little known facts about Christmas such as:

1. When was the first greeting card made?
2. What makes holly berries dangerous?
3. What country did poinsettias originate from?

We raced against each other to see who could find the answers the fastest.  The 5th graders were really good at looking through the information and finding the specific answer to the questions.  Here are some pictures of them working through this activity.