"The better the school library the higher the reading scores..."

Thank you Stephen Krashen for saying it loud and clear. The best line is at minute 1:46, but all five minutes are worth a look.

Global Reading Challenge

Dearborn Park's 4th and 5th graders have been participating in the Seattle Public Library's Global Reading Challenge. Students have read and become experts on this year's 10 titles:

• "How Tía Lola Came to Visit Stay" by Julia Alvarez
• "Sylvia & Aki" by Winifred Conkling
• "The Mighty Miss Malone" by Christopher Paul Curtis
• "Chickadee" by Louise Erdrich
• "Haunted Histories: Creepy Castles, Dark Dungeons, and Powerful Palaces" by J.H. Everett
• "The Phantom Tollbooth" by Norton Juster
• "Inside Out & Back Again" by Thanhha Lai
• "Little White Duck: A Childhood in China" by Na Liu
• "The Captain's Dog: My Journey with the Lewis and Clark Tribe" by Roland Smith
• "Home Court" by Amar'e Stoudemire

On Wednesday, February 26 teams of students will participate in a quiz show like competition. The winning team will move on to a regional competition at the Seattle Public Library. 

For more information about The Global Reading Challenge take a look at this link.

Award Winners Coming to Dearborn Park Thanks to a Generous Gift

Today's announcement of the Geisel, Caldecott, Newbery, Coretta Scott King, and Siebert Awards would have been exciting to my inner book nerd but depressing to my librarian self if it weren't for the generous gift from Tom and Stephanie Barden to our school's library. Thanks to their generosity all of these award winners are ordered and are on their way to our library.


The winners for 2014 are....

Geisel Award

for the most distinguished for beginning readers

Geisel Honor Award

Caldecott Award

for the artist of the most distinguished picture book for children

Caldecott Honor Awards

Coretta Scott King Award

for outstanding African American authors and illustrators of books for children that demonstrate an appreciation of African American culture and universal human values

Illustrator Award                      Author Award

Newbery Award 

for the author of the most distinguished contribution to 

 literature for children

Newbery Honor Awards

 

Seibert Award

 for the most distinguished informational book

Seibert Honor Awards

Readers Advisory for Second Grade

Second Graders were introduced to their "Reading Advisers" this week. Five lovely volunteers will be here on the second Tuesday of each month to talk about books with a small group of students. They'll help our students discover new interests, authors, and titles. They will also help students learn to use the library catalog and locate books in our collection!

Mo Willems Rocks and Dances

This week Scholastic News featured an article on the fabulous author Mo Willems. We read several Elephant and Piggie book including Elephants Cannot Dance.  (That doesn't mean they "cannot try".)

Piggie trying to teach Elephant how to dance.

Then we played the Elephant and Piggie Dance Game on MoWillems' Website.

Have some fun checking out all the links on his website.

Easy to read books online!

This is one website I highly recommend exploring:

We give books.

It is the easiest way I’ve seen to read a book – the complete book- over the web.  No passwords needed.  Most titles are picture books, though a handful of nonfiction offerings are available (mostly from DK). 

I was impressed.  Authors who are included on this site include Ezra Jack Keats, Rosemary Wells, Jan Brett, Judy Schachner, Mark Buehner and many others.

The best part?  Each time a book is read from the site, one is donated to a library in need.  It is sponsored by the Penguin Group and the Pearson Foundation.   For more info, check out the F.A.Q. section of the site.

January is Snowy Day Month

Ezra Jack Keats won the Caldecott Medal for The Snowy Day in 1963. The book is still celebrated today. Kindergartners will be learning about Ezra Jack Keats and his many books over the next two weeks in our library.You can watch the book online and play the Snowy Day Game here. I hope you enjoy this wonderful classic.