Please note: Next week the library will close until November 2. We will have a week to pack and a week after the break to unpack. We will open our new library with all of the books from the Buda campus and NK elementary section then!
Grades PreK3-PreK
Three short Halloween stories to fit with the theme of pumpkins, and one story was an alphabet book, too, so we can practice our letters!
Pumpkin Eye, by Denise Fleming
This rhyming story evokes the mysteries of Halloween night: the sounds, smells, and scary costumes on their way for trick-or-treating fun. A unique illustration style of cotton fiber paints poured through stencils create bold close-up views of the Halloween fun.
Patty's Pumpkin Patch, by Teri Sloat
An alphabet book that tells all about the creatures Patty finds in her pumpkin patch. Will you choose a pumpkin to decorate your doorstep this year? Think about the critters that lived amongst the one you chose.
Froggy's Halloween, by Jonathon LondonPoor Froggy is so excited about Halloween, he can't concentrate in school! He's worrying about his costume and tries out so many different ideas. Finally, he settles on just the right one, and his reward at the end of the night is every frog's dream dessert: chocolate-covered flies!
Guiding Question: How does knowing the alphabet help us guess new words?
This week classes enjoyed alphabet books that taught new words: action words, animal words, words related to city structures, and more. We are learning our alphabet inside and out!
Grade K & Grade 1
This fun lift-the-flap book tells the name and gives a picture of an object that starts with a letter (in alphabetical order of course!) and when the flap is lifted, the whole letter is revealed underneath and we see that part of it was used to make the object's picture. Clever!
This deceptively simple ABC book shows common words starting with the various letters of the alphabet. Upon a closer look, however, we see other objects on the page that start with the same letter, and we see hints of what's coming up on the next page. A fun story to share.
Grade 2
Alphabet City, by Stephen JohnsonThis Caldecott Honor book has no words, only photographs showing structures and scenes in a city that look like letters of the alphabet. We talked about the different names of the structures (fire escape, steel girders, saw horses...) and helped each other find the letters in the photograph.
Super close-up photographs of common and not-so-common animals asks students to guess which animal is pictured. Some unfamiliar ones included ape, sting-ray, flamingo, kudu, ox, yellow jacket, newt, and urchin.
Grade 3
This was a great way to learn some new action words! Each letter had something (usually horrible) happen to it, and we had to guess what it was based on its picture. Favorites included: O was Overgrown, W was Warped, U was Uprooted, Q was Quartered, and E was Evaporating.
Grades 4 & 5
Guiding Question: What is a series? We learned that there are several factors that make a set of books a series such as a common genre, character, and setting. We also talked about vocabulary related to series books, such as sequel, prequel, volume, and series title. Students chose a series book and then used their library skills to find its companion on the shelf.
Have a favorite series? Check here to see how many titles there are and what order they come in. Remember, some series are chronological (read them in order) and some are topical (and you can read them in any order). Here is a list of some series books in our library.
